Jonathan Moeller's Blog, page 237

How many DEMONSOULED books?

In today’s mail came a question asking how many total DEMONSOULED books there are.

Right now there are ten DEMONSOULED books in two series, and both series are finished.(So, no waiting for it to be finished!

Does permafree still work?

Occasionally I see writers taking about whether or not “permafree” still works. Permafree is a marketing tactic where a writer with a long series of books makes the first book of the series more or less permanently free. The idea is that readers will read the first book, enjoy it, and then move on to purchase additional books in the series.

Some writers strongly dislike the idea of permafree, since they feel it devalues literature and writing in general. Other writers aren’t opposed to the idea, but doubt that it is effective.

Fortunately, while feelings are subjective, math is not. I recently made CLOAK GAMES: THIEF TRAP, the first book in the CLOAK GAMES series, permafree. Here is the Amazon sales chart of the last thirty days for the second book in the series, CLOAK GAMES: FROST FEVER:

Note that CLOAK GAMES: THIEF TRAP went permafree on November 30th.

Permafree, like any other marketing tactic, has its time and place, but it still can be useful if employed at the proper time and place. Generally, I think permafree works best once a series has 3-5 books, but a writer can’t expect older books to sell well forever. Eventually, you do have to write new ones.

Fortunately, I enjoy doing that.

FROSTBORN: EXCALIBUR progress update

8 chapters down, 16 to go. 1/3 of the way there!

I’m also amused to report that it’s taken 12 FROSTBORN books, but in FROSTBORN: EXCALIBUR we shall finally see the city of Tarlion itself.

ebooks vs paper books

As someone who never got rid of a book ever for any reason for most of my life, I really hate to admit this, but I’ve come to prefer reading on an ereader to a paper book.

It’s the font size. You can dial up the font size as large as you like, and your eyes don’t have to work as hard. Even on a lower-resolution tablet screen, if you make the font big enough, it’s easier than reading smaller print in a paper book.

-JM

 

FROSTBORN: EXCALIBUR progress

4 chapters of FROSTBORN: EXCALIBUR down, 20 to go!


 


The POV characters in this book shall be Ridmark Arban, Calliande, Gavin, Arandar, and Tarrabus Carhaine.

-JM

FROSTBORN: EXCALIBUR progress

3 chapters down, 21 to go.

I think the book will wind up about as long as FROSTBORN: THE DWARVEN PRINCE, somewhere in the 90,000 to 100,000 word range.

-JM

 

CLOAK GAMES: SHATTER STONE now available!

Available at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Canada, Amazon Germany, Amazon Australia, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Kobo, Google Play, and Smashwords.

Click here to read the first chapter of CLOAK GAMES: SHATTER STONE.

Nadia Moran has made a lot of mistakes in her career as a master thief, but thanks to her wit and her magical skills, she’s been able to avoid the consequences.

But now the consequences have caught up to her.

She owes a favor to the powerful Knight of Grayhold, and the time has come to pay up.

And unless Nadia does something clever, repaying that favor is going to get her killed…

FROSTBORN: EXCALIBUR underway

I started writing FROSTBORN: EXCALIBUR this morning. The goal is to have the rough draft done by Christmas!

Here are the first couple of paragraphs.

Six hundred and five days after it began, six hundred and five days after the day in the Year of Our Lord 1478 when blue fire filled the sky from horizon to horizon, Ridmark Arban braced himself for something to go wrong as he walked through the forests of Taliand.

Because something always went wrong when he crossed the River Moradel.

Every single damned time, something went wrong.

-JM

book Goldfinger versus movie Goldfinger

This summer I read the James Bond book GOLDFINGER, and over Thanksgiving I got to watch the 1964 film version of the story with Sean Connery playing Bond.

As much as it pains me to admit this as a writer, I think the film improved on the book in several key respects.

First, the movie version of Goldfinger is a lot smarter than the book version of Goldfinger. Several times during the book, Goldfinger refuses to kill Bond when killing Bond is the smart thing to do, and he even invites Bond along to hear the details of his evil plan. In the movie, Bond has to escape to hear the details of Goldfinger’s operation to steal all the gold in Fort Knox.

In the movie, Goldfinger doesn’t kill Bond because of the risk that Bond’s death with draw unwanted attention to his plans. Movie Goldfinger also kills all the mafia heads when he no longer has any need of them, while in the book Goldfinger lets them live despite the obvious danger of security leaks.

Second, movie Goldfinger’s plan is a lot better than book Goldfinger’s plan. Book Goldfinger plans to steal all the gold in Fort Knox, despite the obvious difficulties of moving 10,000 tons of gold bullion. Movie Goldfinger plans to detonate a dirty bomb inside the vaults of Fort Knox, irradiating the gold and rendering it too dangerous for humans to handle. The resultant worldwide spike price in gold would exponentially increase Goldfinger’s wealth…which is also much less work than transporting ten thousand tons of gold!

Third, the addition of the bomb made the final scenes much more compelling. In the movie, Bond fights a final battle with Goldfinger’s henchman Oddjob in the vaults of Fort Knox while the bomb ticks down next to them. It’s an excellent fight scene, filmed without music, and makes it all the more satisfying when Bond manages to defeat the physically superior Oddjob through cleverness.

That said, I did like book Goldfinger’s motivations better than the motivations of movie Goldfinger. In the movie, Goldfinger just wants to enrich himself. In the book, Goldfinger is actually a Soviet agent, and the entire point of his scheme is to destroy the American economy.

Still, it was interesting how the necessity of adapting a book to a film resulted in improvements to the story.

-JM

paperback books November 2016

Looks like November 2016 was my best month ever for paperback sales. Thanks everyone! Hope they make good Christmas gifts.