Jonathan Moeller's Blog, page 172
January 10, 2019
SEVENFOLD SWORD: MAZE rough draft progress
Now on Chapter 22 of 24 of SEVENFOLD SWORD: MAZE.
Almost to the end! I’ll be able to share the cover image soon.
-JM
Crazy Town from Rogues Blades
Jason M Waltz, who I knew waaaaaaaaay back in the day before the Kindle came along, asked me to mention that his company Rogue Blades Entertainment has come out with a new anthology called Crazy Town, described as “Mike Hammer meets Roger Rabbit in Karl Edward Wagner’s story “Into Whose Hands.””
That does, indeed, sound “crazy town.” 
January 8, 2019
SEVENFOLD SWORD: PART III now in audio!
January 7, 2019
Reader question: ebook, paperback, or audiobook?
Reader Daniel asks:
“I know you do paperback and ebook and now audiobooks. Which do you prefer to do? Which one makes you the most profit?”
Oh, ebooks, definitely. A couple of reasons. They’re the easiest to do, and also the cheapest. You can make an ebook entirely with free software. They’re also the easiest to sell, because I have the fullest control over pricing. I can make the first ebook in a long series (like GHOSTS) free. Can’t do that with paperbacks or ebooks.
Paperbacks are a little harder to prepare, but not that much. I used to have to prepare the interior files by hand, but then I got Vellum for Mac, and that automates the process. I can make the files for a paperback edition in about twenty minutes now. I technically make more per copy with paperbacks than ebooks, but I sell way more ebooks than paperback books. My bestselling paperback book is THE LINUX COMMAND LINE BEGINNER’S GUIDE, and over the last few months, I’ve made more from the paperback version of that book than the ebook, which surprised me. But I think there’s more demand for paperback books in nonfiction than in fiction.
Audiobooks are tricky and difficult because they’re kind of their own thing, separate from ebooks and paperbacks. Don’t think of audiobooks as a “book”, think of them as a “one man or woman radio play adaptation”. (Except for the super-fancy Audible.com productions with a full cast, which really are full-scale radio plays.) The biggest challenge with audiobooks is the large upfront cost to hire a narrator. The reason the upfront cost is large is because reading a book aloud comprehensibly is really hard (I can’t do it – I can barely get a sentence out coherently most days) and because there are other costs associated with preparing the audiobook, like editing and corrections and mastering and so on. (Some narrators do this themselves, others hire it out.)
But! I did make more from audiobooks than from paperbacks in 2018, and I only had self-published audiobooks available for the last two months of 2018. So I have hopes for continued growth in 2019!
Audio rights are the only rights I will even think about selling to a publisher because the upfront cost for audio is substantial. As of right now, there is absolutely no way I would even consider selling ebook or paperback rights to a publisher. I can do it myself 1.) more cheaply, 2.) more efficiently, 3.) faster, and 4.) more profitably.
So, to sum up, ebooks are my favorite, but I definitely want to be in paperbacks and audiobooks as well.
-JM
January 6, 2019
Kobo Author of the Month!
I am very pleased to report that I am the Author of the Month of Kobo’s US, UK, AU, and NZ sites.
If you live in one of those countries, you can buy two of my books and get one free. So if you’ve been wanting to catch up on my books and you’re a Kobo user, this is an excellent time to do it!
-JM
Interesting Links #28: Prophecies of DOOOOOOOOM!
Happy New Year!
For the first Interesting Links of 2019, we’ll look at New Year’s predictions!
The two common threads of New Year’s predictions, of course, are 1.) they’re often filled with gloom and doom, and 2.) they’re usually wrong.
January 5, 2019
reader question: writer’s block?
A reader emailed to ask if I ever suffer from writer’s block.
I do not. I think I used to, a really long time and four or five million words ago, but not any more. After 92 novels, I have a pretty good grasp of story structure, so I have a hard time writing myself into a corner. It’s not impossible, of course, but outlining in advance helps to avoid that.
If you ever find yourself suffering writer’s block, there are two easy ways to get out of it. 1.) Have the characters suffer, or 2.) have the characters experience setbacks on the way to their goals, or 3.) even better, both.
Like, if you’re writing a fantasy novel about a knight seeking a magic sword to slay a dragon, have someone else steal the sword first. Or the dragon secretly swaps the sword with a fake. If you’re writing a detective novel or a thriller, have the hero get thrown off the case, or falsely accused of misconduct. Throwing speed bumps in front of your characters is a great way to get out of writer’s block.
Now, saying “I don’t have writer’s block” sounds boastful, so I will say that while I don’t get writer’s block, I do get tired sometimes. On occasion I know where the story is going and exactly what to write next, but my energy is low, and I’d really rather drink a refreshing beverage and play Mount & Blade or Super Mario Brothers or something.
There are two mental techniques to deal with this. 1.) Perspective. Writing is sitting in a comfortable chair pressing buttons. Objectively, it’s not that hard. It’s not like I’m digging ditches, pouring asphalt, restraining violent drug addicts, or shoveling out horse stalls. 2.) Just power through it. Sloth is one of the seven deadly sins, after all. No matter how much you enjoy something, there are times you’re not going to want to do it, so you’ve just got to buckle down and get on with it.
And you can always reward yourself with Super Mario Brothers later.
January 4, 2019
SEVENFOLD SWORD: MAZE progress update
12 chapters of SEVENFOLD SWORD: MAZE down, 12 to go. Halfway there!
I’m also on Chapter 3 of 10 of MALISON: DRAGON FURY, the sequel to MALISON: DRAGON CURSE. So that means it’s a great time to check out MALISON: DRAGON CURSE.
January 2, 2019
nine FROSTBORN questions from a reader
A reader had some questions for me about the FROSTBORN series, so I thought I would share my answers here.
1.) Are all the Keepers female? If so, why?
Yes. I didn’t decide that until a couple of books in, but I figured that there were two offices in ancient Britain – the Keeper and the Wizard. The Keeper went to Andomhaim, and the Wizard did not.
2.) Does or did the character Merlin exist in this universe?
He did. I haven’t really worked out what he did, so he hasn’t had an impact on the story. The original Merlin was definitely dead when Malahan Pendragon left Old Earth.
3.) What were your reasons for incorporating the Christian religion?
Two reasons. One, I wanted to. Two, it was less work than inventing a new religion for the series. Also, the whole “Crystal Dragon Jesus” trope is kind of tiresome.
Though I did wind up inventing several religions – the Mhorites in FROSTBORN, the xiatami and Xophiramus in SEVENFOLD SWORD, and so forth.
4.) Did Malahan Pendragon flee through the portal right after the last battle of Arthur and Mordred or did some time pass in between. If there was the time for it, could Antenora not have pleaded for forgiveness then?
There was a couple of months after the death of Arthur and the time Malahan went through the gate with his followers. Antenora was comatose from the effects of the curse for some time, so by the time she recovered herself, Malahan and the Keeper were gone.
5.) Are the malophages inspired by the Lovecraftian Horror Genre?
Definitely. They’re sort of evil horrors from an alien planet that eat life force. The dark elves seriously screwed up by summoning them, and then abjectly failed to learn from the experience when they summoned the urdmordar.
6.) What books, video games and movies inspired you to write this series?
I wanted to recreate the feel of a really epic, sweeping RPG campaign, where the characters go from doing petty quests for local farmers and end up deciding the fates of nations and kingdoms. (That’s why in FROSTBORN: THE GRAY KNIGHT the one farmer rants at Ridmark about his missing pigs. If he was in a game, he’d have a giant exclamation point floating over his head.) I’d say computer game influences included Icewind Dale, Planescape: Torment, Baldur’s Gate, Knights of the Old Republic, and Dragon Age (the original, not the sequels). Book influences would include David Gemmell, J.R.R. Tolkien, Timothy Zahn, Raymond Feist, Robert Howard, and Jasper Fforde.
7.) Did you purposely use any stylistic devices typical for certain fantasy genres or did you just write as you thought it was good?
I did use some of archetypal creatures like orcs and dwarves. I’ve noticed that some fantasy writers write about orcs or whatever, but name their orcs “thogmoths” or whatever. But I actually wanted to write about orcs and dwarves and whatnot, so I decided to just use them.
8.) As a self-publisher, are you able to write things that you would not be able to write otherwise?
Oh, definitely. So long as you stay within the TOS of Amazon and the other stores, you can write whatever you want. Barring libel in certain countries, copyright infringement, and certain kinds of erotica, no one really polices what gets self-published.
9.) How are you able to write so fast? (not that I am complaining 
January 1, 2019
2019’s Writing Goals
Happy New Year, everyone!
Now that the New Year is upon us, what are my writing goals for 2019?
1.) Write a million words of new fiction.
That should be doable, since I did about 1.35 million in 2018.
2.) Finish the SEVENFOLD SWORD series.
SEVENFOLD SWORD will have twelve books, and I’m about a third of the way through #10. If all goes well, the series will reach its epic conclusion sometime this summer!
3.) Finish the MALISON series.
MALISON will only have four books, and I want to wrap it up about the same time I finish SEVENFOLD SWORD. I’ll be giving the MALISON books for free to newsletter subscribers, so be sure to subscribe to my newsletter!
4.) Start a new epic fantasy series.
Once I finished SEVENFOLD SWORD, I want to start a new epic fantasy series. It’s currently in the early planning phases, so more details to come!
5.) Write at least two more books of the GHOST NIGHT series.
I want to start GHOST IN THE VAULT sometime this spring, and get at least two new Caina books published in 2019.
6.) Start the new CLOAK MAGE series.
Nadia Moran will return! She has lots to do.
