Jonathan Moeller's Blog, page 335

GHOST IN THE BLOOD – 3,000 copies

Cover image copyright JC_Design | iStockPhoto.com

Hot on the heels of GHOST IN THE FLAMES, I’m pleased to report that GHOST IN THE BLOOD has now passed 3,000 copies.

Thanks, everyone!

Also, GHOST IN THE STONE has had a strong few weeks since it came out. More details on that next week. But a lot of people wrote in to say that they would really like to see a potential love interest for Caina, and they were not kidding.

-JM

THE BURNING CHILD – rough draft done

The rough draft of THE BURNING CHILD, the fifth story in THE THIRD SOUL series, is finally done. It weighed in at about 29,000 words, and I think the final draft will be around 26k or 27k. So a bit longer than the previous stories in the series.

-JM

Reader Question Day #43 – how to get book reviews

A reader who wishes to remain anonymous writes:

I’m an indie writer too, and I have a book that’s selling pretty well – about 500 copies in three months! But no one leaves any reviews. I’m really worried that no one actually likes the book and that it’s really a terrible book. Should I be concerned? 

Well, no. This is no cause for concern, and, in fact, is the natural state of things. It may even be a good sign. Why?

Because 99% of Internet users are “lurkers”, and it takes something unusual to get us lurkers to post.

Most web users are lurkers. The average Internet browser will read hundreds of online articles and blog posts this month, and might leave maybe two or three comments. Or none at all – I read a lot online, but I’ll leave maybe two or three comments a month, not out of maliciousness, but simply due to time limitations. (There are blogs that I have read faithfully for years where I’ve never left a comment.)  Odds are that you are a lurker, too. Think of all the articles, all the Facebook posts, all the tweets, and all the other online material you will read but do not comment upon. Granted, there are people who comment on every single thing they read, but they are in the minority, and apparently have lots of free time.

This state of affairs applies to ebooks.

People are more likely to speak up when they are unhappy then when they are content. This is one of those quirks of human nature that leads to interpersonal strife, meetings with the HR department, and eventual nuclear Armageddon, but it also applies to ebooks as well. The average reader has to get really excited or really annoyed by a book before he’ll leave a review or a comment. A review is an investment of time on the reader’s part, and it usually takes a strong emotional response to trigger that investment of time. In fact, if your book is selling and there are no reviews, that is a good sign – it means your formatting isn’t screwed up or that you accidentally embedded your vacation pictures in the middle of the book. It’s entirely possible for someone to read a book, enjoy it, and feel no need to comment upon it – but if the book annoys them in some way, if it grates on them, a negative review is almost certainly forthcoming.

I see that your books have lots of reviews. How did you get them? Did you ask people to post them?

Time, mostly.

I don’t solicit reviews, because a.) it’s needy, b.) people don’t like to be nagged, and c.) I’m sure someone would respond with “Why yes! Your book sucked! I would be positively DELIGHTED to leave a review.” So the easiest way to get reviews is to wait until enough people have bought the book that someone wants to leave one.

Generally, I’ve found for that every 1000 to 1500 copies of an ebook sold on Amazon, you’ll probably get one review.

It’s also a lot easier to accumulate get reviews on Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and iTunes than it is on Amazon, since Barnes & Noble, Kobo and iTunes allow for anonymous ratings and Amazon does not. People are often reluctant to leave comments or reviews anonymously (there’s this mental barrier against writing something on the Internet WHERE THE ENTIRE WORLD CAN SEE!) – but the hesitation goes way, way up if they have to leave their actual name or username attached to a review.

This leads to another point – never ever, for any reason, respond to a review, especially if the review is negative. It will not end well.

The most famous example is Anne Rice attacking various negative Amazon reviews for the failure to understand her sublime genius, but this is a comparatively tame example. Every few weeks, an example of a writer completely melting down over a bad review will circulate over the Internet. Think about the time investment that goes into something like that. Flame wars are tedious and exhausting, not to mention time-consuming – at some point you’ve got to stop arguing with strangers on the Internet and go to work or stop your kids from putting your iPad in the toaster or whatever. So anyone writing a review will think “do I really want this writer emailing me 400 times in a single day to ask why I didn’t like her book? Is it really worth it?”

(Note that melting down on bad reviews to defer further bad reviews is not a good long-term strategy. Eventually people will conclude, correctly, that you are nuts and ignore your books.)

Finally, its important to remember that people who read your books do not owe you a review. In fact, they don’t owe you anything. If someone wants to leave a favorable review, that’s quite nice of them, but they are not obligated to do it.

Thankfully, this also means that people who dislike your book are not obligated to leave bad reviews.

-JM

a new novella of THE THIRD SOUL – THE BURNING CHILD, coming soon!

Now that GHOST IN THE STONE and THE DRAGON’S SHADOW are finished, it’s time to move on to the next project. Namely, the fifth novella in THE THIRD SOUL series – THE BURNING CHILD.

It will be set in Araspan, a few days after the events of THE HIGH DEMON, and alternate between Rachaelis’s and Corthain’s POV.

If all goes well, it should be out in early November.

And then I will move on to the next project – SOUL OF SKULLS, the sixth novel in the DEMONSOULED series.

-JM

Thursdays of Sword & Sorceress 27: the Steve Chapman interview

This week’s interview is with Steve Chapman.

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1.)  Tell us about yourself.

I’m an engineer by training and a publisher of technical nonfiction by profession. I live with my wife and daughter at the New Jersey shore, and when I’m not commuting in and out of Manhattan I write fiction.

2.) Why do you write?

Because I love stories, and love puzzling out why and how and stories work, and don’t.

3.) Sword & Sorceress is known for sword & sorcery centered around a strong female character. Is there any particular trick to writing strong female characters?

In a traditional pulp story the hero(ine) needs to both drive and resolve the story, irrespective of gender. Keeping that in mind generally yields a strong character. Maybe just because sword and sorcery has traditionally been a male-dominated subgenre, a female lead can lead to fresher takes on familiar tropes.

4.) What would you say makes sword & sorcery different than other kinds of fantasy?

I think of sword & sorcery as being pulpier and more action-oriented than traditional fantasy (Howard and Leiber as opposed to Tolkien, for instance). I think part of the longstanding appeal of Sword & Sorceress lies in expanding the sword & sorcery audience—and mode–beyond its traditional readership of teenage boys.

5.) How do you think ebooks and the Internet will change the way we read & write?

As a writer, I’m excited by the possibilities of bypassing traditional gatekeepers to connect directly with an audience, but as a reader I’m confused by the volume of unprofessional self-published material currently swamping the Kindle store. While I’ve heard it argued that the big trade publishers abdicated their gatekeeper function when they outsourced it to agents, I’m not sure that asking the reader to vet the slush pile is a practical response. It will be interesting to see how this situation resolves itself.

6.) Tell us about your Sword & Sorceress story.

Dead Princesses is the third S&S story about Princess Shada of St. Navarre, a martially adept but headstrong sixteen year old who struggles with the responsibilities of her position. Fortunately, St. Navarre is pretty regularly assaulted by one supernatural menace or another, so Shada is able to put her skills to good use while figuring out the complexities of her family and her station. In this story she faces an undead Shroud Maiden, looking to add Shada to her collection of murdered princesses.

7.) Can you share an excerpt from your Sword & Sorceress story?

The Shroud Maiden Lisle stepped from the shadows, a glittering dress of midnight coiled about her slim frame. Bone white ribbons twisted in her hair, pewter rings encircling her neck, wrists, and ankles. Shada’s skin tingled. The combination of magic and a Court tea party was almost more nightmare than she could handle.

Theo pushed Sienna toward the Maiden.

Lisle’s black-painted lips broke into a smile. A tiny spider, wet with spittle, climbed out of the side of her mouth.

Shada again felt the crawling unease Lisle had conjured in Kings Hall. The silver-dappled darkness was alive with movement, spiders and serpents, worms and maggots.  She fought down the urge to get as far away from the Maiden as possible.

The Shroud Maiden traced Sienna’s lips with a black nail. “You’ll do nicely.”

Sienna’s face was blank, but the tears on her cheek glistened in the moonlight.

“I’m firstborn,” Shada said, her voice not nearly as strong as she’d hoped. “Deal with me.”

“The princess in motley has come to rescue her sister.” Lisle turned, clacking her talons together. “How exciting.”

Cottony furls of cloud passed below the moon, blocking its silver light. Shadows crept across the ruins. Where they touched the princesses’ dresses, colors faded and fabric frayed. In shadow, the girls’ radiant skin turned gray and corrupted, revealing pockets of white bone.

A hard knot of fear formed in Shada’s stomach. Lisle’s princesses were wights, walking corpses that were said to be nearly impossible to kill. She wasn’t facing a single undead monster, but a dozen.

8.) Recommend one other book or short story you have written that we should read.

If you like this story, the previous two Shada entries, Proving Grounds and Nemesis, in Sword and Sorceress 25 and 26 respectively, are worth a look.

9.) Recommend one non-fiction book that you haven’t written.

I’m a big fan of Ursula Le Guin’s Steering the Craft, a book of writing exercises focused on technical craft that is as useful on your own as it is with a class or writing group.

###

Thanks, Steve, for the interview.

Check out our interviews with past S&S contributors – , , , Sword & Sorceress 25, and Sword & Sorceress 26.

And the novel featuring my Sword & Sorceress character, spy and assassin Caina Amalas, is now available for free in all ebook formats: Child of the Ghosts.

-JM

put GHOST IN THE STONE on your iPad Mini

Apple announced its new iPad Mini tablet today, and I think that it’s no coincidence that GHOST IN THE STONE just became available on iTunes.

Click here to get GHOST IN THE STONE for iBooks.

-JM

three short stories: Unbound by Marsheila Rockwell, A Magic Broken by Vox Day, and Something Worse Hereafter by Sarah A. Hoyt

Due to circumstances beyond my control, I had sort of a forced hiatus from writing for the last five days, and I didn’t really have time to read anything of length.

So, instead, I read short stories. Specifically, three of them:

UNMADE, by Marsheila Rockwell, which is another entry in Marcy’s series of Arabian Nights-themed fantasy stories. It’s a direct sequel to BOTH, a previous short story, and both (heh) stories are an interesting take on Frank Stockton’s famous THE LADY AND THE TIGER short story, but with more sorcery and shapechanging. I really hope Marcy turns the world and characters into a full-length novel at some point.

A MAGIC BROKEN, by Vox Day, is essentially a caper novella. A high-ranking elven noblewoman is held captive in a town of corrupt merchants, and both a powerful wizard and a renegade dwarven gladiator undertake to free her for their own purposes. Naturally, mayhem ensues. A MAGIC BROKEN is an entertaining stand-alone read, but an obvious setup for Vox Day’s longer fantasy series, (not that there’s anything wrong with that) which is coming out in a few months.

SOMETHING WORSE HEREAFTER, by Sarah A. Hoyt. In this story, two lost souls struggle to survive in Hell, which one does by killing demons and absorbing their life forces.  Neither soul can remember their previous mortal lives, save for a vague suspicion that they somehow knew each other. However, surviving for that long in hell draws the attention of powerful demons, and the lost souls soon find themselves in a lot of trouble. An entertaining cross between Dante and GHOSTBUSTERS.

The interesting part about all of this is how electronic publishing has made short stories viable again, both for writers and readers. A few years ago, the only places to sell short fiction were three or four professional level magazines, the occasional anthology, and a horde of small presses with names like Lizard’s Arse Publishing that paid $5 a story and invariably went out of business after seven or eight months. Now it’s more economically viable for writers to do novellas and short fiction.

And for readers, it’s great because if you want to read a short story, you can do so without buying the anthology or the magazine or whatever. (Like buying music tracks individually from iTunes without buying the whole album.) I read all three of these on my tablet this weekend, in short blocks of time while I waited to find out what I would have to do next. That certainly would not have been possible three years ago.

-JM

CHILD OF THE GHOSTS book trailer

Reader Vicky K has made a book trailer for CHILD OF THE GHOSTS:

Of course, if this excellent trailer has inspired you to get the book, you can read it right here:

Reader Question Day #42 – how I self-publish

(Note: my weekend schedule is pretty full, so Reader Question Day is going up a day early this week.)

Vicky K asks:

How did you self-publish? Did it cost a lot of money, and/or take a lot of time? Also, do you edit your books yourself, or is there someone who edits them for you?

Okay, so that’s more than one question, but I am a serious aspiring writer, so they’re not just for giggles. 

Short answer: the only money I have spent is for stock photos for book covers, the computers I use, and my Internet connection and hosting fee.

Now here comes the longer answer of the process I use to make an ebook.

When I write a book, I write it in Microsoft Word 2003 because while I know how to use Word 2007/2010, I personally find them aggravating to use. (When my current computer dies, I’ll probably switch to LibreOffice Writer rather than pay for Office 2013.) I also do all the edits in Microsoft Word.

To turn it into an ebook, I use a free program called Sigil. Sigil has a bit of a sharp learning curve, but you can turn out a pretty good epub file with it. You can use programs like Adobe InDesign or Scrivener to turn out good epub files, but Sigil is free, which is hard to beat. Additionally, you can also use Sigil’s code view to see the underlying HTML code of an ebook, which is extremely useful.

Once I’m satisfied with the epub file, I use another free program called Calibre to convert the epub file to a mobi file, which is the format of ebook that Amazon’s Kindle uses.  Calibre is designed primarily as a ebook library manager (sort of an iTunes for your ebook collection), but it’s good for turning epub files into mobi files.

To make the covers, I used to rely on public domain art, but I rapidly ran out of usable public domain pictures. So I’ve been buying suitable stock photos from Dreamstime.com and iStockphoto.com. To format and arrange them, I use both the GIMP and Paint.net.

I edit the books myself, which is not a satisfactory arrangement, but I have yet to find an editor whose judgment I trust, who can work to my timescale, and who I can afford.

Once I have the book done and the cover done, I upload the EPUB file to Barnes & Noble’s PubIt site and Kobo’s Writing Life site, and the MOBI file to Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing. I also prepare a separate Word document to upload to Smashwords, which is something of a pain, but it’s the only way to get books into Apple’s iBookstore, and I’ve sold about 1200 books via iBooks this year, so it’s best not to neglect iBooks users.

And that’s pretty much it. The only money I spent was buying cover art and for my Internet connection and computer (and I would have bought those last two anyway). Writing the books and finding an audience for them is the hard part. Publishing them is pretty easy, and these days only takes a modicum of HTML knowledge and a few free programs to do it properly.

Also, I’ve seen on some posts that you will write novels in the span of three months. How do you combat writer’s block? You as the writer surely know at least the gist of what’s going to happen next, and I sometimes find myself getting bored with a story (because I already know the ending) before I’ve even finished writing it. Do you have any tips and tricks you don’t mind sharing?

For myself, I’ve found that writer’s block is a function of either not knowing what’s going to happen next, or a sign of something wrong with the story. I outline a novel pretty thoroughly before I start writing it – GHOST IN THE STONE had a final draft of 90,000 words, and I think the entire outline and various character notes for the book came to about 3,500 words. That means when I sit down to write, I know *exactly* what I need to do in that writing session.

It also helps that my time is very constrained – I can usually carve out about two hours a day to write, and that’s if I’m diligent and nothing is going haywire anywhere else. So I can’t waste time or “warm up” by reading my RSS feeds or playing Skyrim for fifty minutes first. If I don’t make the absolute maximal use of my writing time, I don’t get it again that day. The old proverb says that a hanging is a marvelous way of focusing the mind, and so does a limited amount of time. 

That said, if I happen to be sick or exhausted, it’s sometimes best to just stop for a day and let the brain recover.

MarvinTheMartianAndroid asks:

Why do you write both fantasy novels and tech books? It seems weird that a writer would write both.

Because the tech books are lucrative and I’m reasonably good at them. My Ubuntu Beginner’s Guide has been, at various times, the #1 Linux book on Amazon.com (and I think it is right now as I’m writing this). Clearly a lot of people have found it helpfully, and I enjoy doing it, so why not do more?

-JM

THE DRAGON’S SHADOW now available!

Image copyright Dvargfoto | Dreamstime.com

I am pleased to report that THE DRAGON’S SHADOW, a stand-alone novella of the DEMONSOULED series, is now available.

Click here to read the first chapter of THE DRAGON’S SHADOW.

You can read the rest of it at Amazon, Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords. (Availability on iBooks should be in a few weeks.)

Lucan Mandragon is the Dragon’s Shadow, the most powerful wizard of the Grim Marches. His brother hates him, his father regards him as a weapon, and the nobles distrust him…but they all fear his magic.

And when Lucan’s lost love Tymaen falls ill, stricken by a deadly poison, there is no one else who can save her.

But to save Tymaen, Lucan will have to plumb the secrets of a master necromancer…and face a trap that even his power cannot overcome.

-JM