Jonathan Moeller's Blog, page 354

SOUL OF TYRANTS – 3,000 copies

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I'm very pleased to report that SOUL OF TYRANTS, the second book in the DEMONSOULED series, has passed 3,000 copies sold. (3,002, to be precise.)

I post this not to brag, but to say two things.

First, to thank everyone who bought a copy. I used to joke that if I had a book out, I would have two guaranteed sales. My mom, and some guy who would mistake it for something else, possibly a transmission repair manual for a 2003 Ford Focus. They both bought copies (thanks, Mom!) – and so did 3,000 other people. Thanks, everyone!

Second, to point out how strange this ebook thing is. I wrote SOUL OF TYRANTS almost seven years ago, and gave up hope of trying to get it published something like three years ago. And now here we are, with three thousand copies sold, and two sequels available, as well. There are people who argue that self-published ebooks are bad for authors, bad for publishers, and bad for, well, all of Western Civilization.

Don't believe them. If not for ebooks, SOUL OF TYRANTS would never have seen the light of day. I think ebooks will have as big an impact as the printing press, and we're only just seeing the beginning.

-JM

Reader Question Day #14 – Aragorn vs. Elric

Manwe asks, concerning Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time:

Have they (the Wheel of Time books) ever influenced your own work?

Somewhat, I suppose. I started reading them before I attempted to write seriously, so I suppose some degree of influence is inevitable. I think the main influence is that I want to write a series with a definite end in mind, which is why I want DEMONSOULED to stick to six books. (At least the first DEMONSOULED series – I might start a second after I finish the sixth one. And there's a chance that SOUL OF SORCERY and the sixth book might get long enough to split them into smaller books, but I'm hoping to avoid that.)

Whose writing do you prefer…Robert Jordan, or the man who took over for him, Brandon Sanderson?

They both have their strengths. Jordan's writing has every virtue except that of brevity. Sanderson's a very good writer, but not quite as good as Jordan. (I think life experience might play into that, since Jordan was a Vietnam vet, and it's a disturbing truth that people who go through unpleasant experiences are often better writers.) That said, Sanderson can finish things, which is a big deal. He's also one of the very few modern fantasy writers that can write intelligently about religion. If you want to try his non-WOT work, I'd suggest starting with his MISTBORN trilogy.

Penny919 asks:

When is Ghost in the Storm coming out?

Soon, I hope. I'm writing chapter 10 of 29, so I'm about 1/3 done with the rough draft.

Who would win in a fight, Aragorn or Elric?

Aragorn, unquestionably. Elric is a drug addict wielding the cursed sword Stormbringer that is slowly devouring what little sanity he has left. Aragorn wields Anduril, the Flame of the West, the sword that shines with both the light of the sun and moon. And – more importantly – Aragorn waited for decades to wed his beloved Arwen, while Elric destroyed his homeland and his beloved due to the madness induced by Stormbringer.

The man with self-discipline will almost always defeat the man without it.

siddinavayan asks:

How can I calculate the date of Easter in Linux?

I've got you covered:

http://www.jonathanmoeller.com/screed/?p=3554

-JM

GHOST IN THE BLOOD – 1,000 copies

I am very pleased to report that GHOST IN THE BLOOD, the third book in THE GHOSTS series about spy and assassin Caina Amalas, passed 1,000 copies sold toward the end of February.

Thanks, everyone. This is really very gratifying, especially since I'm a third of the way through the rough draft of the sequel, GHOST IN THE STORM. Caina has more adventures ahead of her.

While we're waiting for GHOST IN THE STORM, if you want to help GHOST IN THE BLOOD get to 2,000 copies, you can go to Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Smashwords, and Amazon.co.uk.

-JM

A Strong! Indepedent! Heroine!

I'm currently reading a fantasy novel that has a Strong Independent Heroine ™, who informs everyone in sight that she is a Strong and Independent woman. Here are some of the things she does in the first 10% of the book to telegraph her strength and independence:

-In her first combat situation, she freezes up and huddles in a corner, weeping.

-Shortly after, she strips for a man to get him to do what she wants.

-Then, to deal with the shame of her earlier breakdown, she has sex with a different man that she absolutely detests.

-Finally, she gets into a slapfight with her mother.

Strength and independence, truly. She's a pillar of iron, that one.

Maybe it's a parody. On the other hand, I suspect some writers use "strong and independent" as a stealth euphemism for "irrational petulance", so there you go.

Anyway, if you want to read a much better example of a actual strong and independent heroine, go read the excellent Shaala, Made Of Stone, by Marsheila Rockwell, which should really be expanded into a full-length book.

-JM

DEMONSOULED linked on SFSignal

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DEMONSOULED got linked on the Free Fiction post for SFSignal today.

DEMONSOULED is the first in a series of sword-and-sorcery novels about the adventures of Mazael Cravenlock, a wandering knight. It was originally published by Gale/Five Star in 2005, and went out of print. In 2011, I received the rights back to the book, and turned it into an ebook.

Currently, there are four books in the series – DEMONSOULED, followed by SOUL OF TYRANTS, SOUL OF SERPENTS, and the newest book, SOUL OF DRAGONS.

I'm planning two more books in the series – SOUL OF SORCERY, which should come out in the second half of 2012, and one final (so far) unnamed volume, which will finish up the story.

If you're curious, you can read DEMONSOULED for free off Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, and Smashwords.

-JM

SOUL OF DRAGONS – the first month

So, SOUL OF DRAGONS, the fourth book in the DEMONSOULED series, has been out since February 2nd. How did it do its first month?

648 copies sold for February. That is astonishing.

Seriously, there are print books that don't sell 648 copies in their first month.

So, thank you. And if you want to help SOUL OF DRAGONS get to the 1,000 copy mark, you can go to Amazon.com, Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.

-JM

ebook sales for February 2012

3,750.

The Lord was good to me, for that was how many ebooks I sold in February of 2012, which is almost 500 more than the 3,261 I sold in January. The post-holiday surge extended for a little longer than I thought.

Also, SOUL OF DRAGONS did very, very well its first month. More on that later.

For historical reference, here's what my numbers have looked like since April, when I started experimenting with ebooks. In under a year, I have been fortunate enough to sell over 15,000 ebooks.

April 2011: 22

May 2011: 105

June 2011: 236

July 2011: 366

August 2011: 489

September 2011: 1335

October 2011: 1607

November 2011: 2142

December 2011: 2340

January 2012: 3261

February 2012: 3750

-JM

a delay for Reader Question Day

I have this massive project here in the Real World I have to tackle, and it's going to take several days. So no Reader Question Day this weekend.

But we'll return next week with all kinds of interesting things to discuss.

-JM

Ghost in the Storm – progress report #1

Quite a lot of people have asked about GHOST IN THE STORM, the fourth book in THE GHOSTS series, so I thought I'd post an update on how the rough draft is coming along.

I hit 10,000 words today, with 3 of 29 chapters done. I think the book will be about the length of CHILD OF THE GHOSTS – 100,000 words, give or take 5,000. I have a lot of balls in the air here in Real Life (lately I feel like a master juggler), so I can't promise when it will be done, but I think I can hit a release of late spring or early summer.

-JM

Caina Amalas returns – GHOST IN THE STORM

As you might have guessed from yesterday's post, I've begun the next book in THE GHOST series, GHOST IN THE STORM. I did 2,400 words yesterday, and I'm hoping to do a minimum of 2,000 words a day (or more) until the rough draft is done. I might not actually do 2,000 words a day, but by God it won't be from lack of trying.

The first sentence of the book:

Caina saw the dead sorceress standing in the center of the room.

I am very excited to write this book – the ideas for it have been rattling around inside my skull since 2009. And I never thought I would get to write this book. In fact, after I finished the last Caina book, I seriously considered giving up fiction writing altogether.

What happened instead? You happened. All of you. You read and voted in the Caina "Choose Your Own Adventures", and you read CHILD OF THE GHOSTS, GHOST IN THE FLAMES, and GHOST IN THE BLOOD.

And because of that, there's going to be GHOST IN THE STORM. Thank you.

-JM