Jonathan Moeller's Blog, page 233
February 2, 2017
more FROSTBORN: THE DRAGON KNIGHT progress
I should really map a keyboard macro for the term “Dragon Knight.”
FROSTBORN: THE DRAGON KNIGHT progress update
Now on Chapter 9 of 26 of FROSTBORN: THE DRAGON KNIGHT!
I limited all previous FROSTBORN books to 24 chapters, because one of the dangers when writing a really long epic fantasy is the temptation to meander into endless sideplots. I do think storytelling is like passing semis on the freeway – best to to it as quickly as possible without any dawdling! So keeping the books at 24 chapters helped keep the focus on the essential story and prevent digressions.
That said, I think the most important part of the story is the ending. It’s like the punchline of a joke in that it validates everything that came before, so it’s really important to get the ending right. So the last two books in the FROSTBORN series will be as long as they need to be, however long that happens to be.
I did that for the GHOST EXILE series, and it worked out pretty well. I kept the first 6 books between 22 and 24 chapters each. GHOST IN THE THRONE (#7) jumped up to 26 chapters, GHOST IN THE PACT (#8) did 25 chapters, and the ninth and final book GHOST IN THE WINDS weighed in at 33 chapters. It was also the longest book I had written in three years, but that was okay, because it was the end of the series, and it is extremely important to get the ending right!
-JM
January 31, 2017
CLOAK GAMES: TRUTH CHAIN book description
Coming very soon in February!
Nadia Moran’s luck has run out at last.
The High Queen’s Inquisition is coming for her, led by the Lord Inquisitor himself. Desperate and trapped, Nadia has no choice but to cut a deal.
Nadia is a master thief, and even the Lord Inquisitor needs things stolen.
But the price of Nadia’s freedom might destroy her utterly…
-JM
more on ebook sales 2016, DEMONSOULED
Some more about ebook sales for 2016.
FROSTBORN was my bestselling series at 66% of the total, with THE GHOSTS/GHOST EXILE coming in at 12.2%. In a close third was the DEMONSOULED/MASK OF THE DEMONSOULED series at 11.7% of the total.
DEMONSOULED OMNIBUS ONE was the bestselling book out of the entire series, since it was on sale earlier in the summer.
SOUL OF DRAGONS the bestselling individual book, and MASK OF DRAGONS was the bestselling book of the MASK OF THE DEMONSOULED trilogy.
(I’m detecting a theme. I should write more about dragons!)
It’s been 16 years since I first wrote DEMONSOULED, so it’s very gratifying that it’s still selling after all these years. Thanks everyone!
-JM
January 30, 2017
more on ebook sales 2016, THE GHOSTS
More data from 2016’s ebook sales.
FROSTBORN was my bestselling series at 66% of my sales, but THE GHOSTS and GHOST EXILE came in second with 12.2% of the total.
The bestselling GHOSTS book was GHOST EXILE OMNIBUS ONE, since it was on sale for a while this summer. The bestselling individual GHOSTS book was GHOST IN THE PACT. I did like that it was the bestselling one, since the scene in the middle of book when Caina and Callatas have their argument was one of my favorite ones to write in 2016.
The bestselling book from the original THE GHOSTS series was, oddly enough, GHOST IN THE ASHES. At least, I though it was odd because GHOST IN THE ASHES is Book 7 of 9, right in the middle of the series. Usually it’s the earlier books or the later ones that sell the best.
It’s exciting to review this data as I plan for GHOST IN THE RING later this year.
January 29, 2017
FROSTBORN: THE DRAGON KNIGHT progress
The last writing goal for January – get to 25,000 words of FROSTBORN: THE DRAGON KNIGHT by February!
-JM
January 28, 2017
The James Bond Song
Watching some Sean Connery James Bond movies.
It’s interesting how in the modern James Bond movies, the theme music only plays when Bond does something really dramatic, like defeating one of the villains or engaging in a car chase.
But in the classic movies it sometimes plays when he does something innocuous, like checking his baggage for the plane or walking into the hotel lobby. Films really did have different pacing back then!
FROSTBORN: THE DRAGON KNIGHT underway!
I am pleased to report that I have started on the rough draft for FROSTBORN: THE DRAGON KNIGHT, the fourteenth (and second to last!) FROSTBORN book.
I passed 10,000 words yesterday, and if all goes well the book should be out towards the end of March or so.
-JM
January 27, 2017
more on ebook sales for 2016, the FROSTBORN series.
Here’s some more about my ebook sales in 2016.
My bestselling book far and away was FROSTBORN OMNIBUS ONE. That book alone was just over 20 percent of my ebook sales for 2016. (Which isn’t surprising, since it was the bestselling self-published SF/F book in Canada for 2016.)
In fact, the FROSTBORN series was exactly two-thirds of my total book sales for 2016.
The bestselling FROSTBORN book (not counting FROSTBORN OMNIBUS ONE) was FROSTBORN: THE MASTER THIEF, with FROSTBORN: THE IRON TOWER coming in a close second.
Of the three FROSTBORN books published in 2016, FROSTBORN: THE HIGH LORDS was the bestselling, probably because it was published in February and had the entire year to build up steam. I think there is a good lesson in that for indie writers. Traditional publishing always worried about how a book did on its first month of sales. The first month will probably be the book’s strongest, of course, but indie writers should look at how a book does over its lifetime rather than just its first month. The nice thing about ebooks and POD paperbacks is that they don’t go out of print.
I have to admit that I find this all exceptionally satisfying, since when DEMONSOULED was published for the first time way back in 2005, the book got this lecturing review saying that traditional fantasy with elves and orcs and suchlike was dead and writers ought to focus on more literary and postmodern types of fantasy.
Well, he who laughs last laughs best! Thank you all for reading so many copies of the FROSTBORN series!
-JM
January 26, 2017
behold the power of permafree!
A common argument among indie writers is whether or not “permafree” is still a good tactic. The idea is that once you have a series of books, you make the first book free in hopes that people will read the book, like it, and then move on to read the rest of the books in the series.
As it happens, I was recently able to put the idea to the test. On December 1st, CLOAK GAMES: THIEF TRAP, the first book in my CLOAK GAMES series, went permafree. That provided an excellent testing ground for examining the results of making the first book free.
Let’s see how we did!
The 2nd book, CLOAK GAMES: FROST FEVER, sold 6 times as many copies in December as it did in November.
The 3rd book, CLOAK GAMES: REBEL FIST, sold 6 times as many copies in December as it did in November.
The 4th book, CLOAK GAMES: SHADOW JUMP, sold about two and a half times as many copies in December as it did in November.
The 5th book, CLOAK GAMES: SHATTER STONE, came out on December 1st, so it really wasn’t useful for the test. That said, it did have the strongest opening month of any CLOAK GAMES book to date.
So in the right circumstances, it seems like permafree is still a useful marketing tactic.
-JM
