Jonathan Moeller's Blog, page 39

The Pulp Writer Show, Episode 199: Ergonomics For Writers

In this week’s episode, we take a look at some ergonomics and health tips for writers and other sedentary workers. You can listen to the show with transcript at the official Pulp Writer Show site.

-JM

Coupon of the week, 5/6/2024

Once again it is time for Coupon of the Week!

This coupon code will get you 50% off the audiobook of DRAGONSKULL: FURY OF THE BARBARIANS (as excellently narrated by Brad Wills) at my Payhip store:

SPRINGFURY

The coupon code is valid through May 25th, 2024. So if you need a new audiobook for spring, we’ve got you covered!

-JM

CLOAK OF TITANS rough draft done!

I am pleased to report that the rough draft of CLOAK OF TITANS is done!

Next up is a bonus short story called BLOOD WALK, which newsletter subscribers will get for free in ebook form when CLOAK OF TITANS comes out.

Despite the name, BLOOD WALK will be a more comedic story. CLOAK OF TITANS is a pretty intense book, so BLOOD WALK will be a bit lighter. It will feature the return of Casimir Volansko, the truck driver who just wants to retire. You might remember him from IRON DRIVE and CLOAK OF DRAGONFIRE.

So this is an excellent time to sign up for my newsletter!

-JM

Question of the week: The Board Game Edition!

It’s time for Question of the Week, which is designed to inspire interesting discussion of enjoyable topics.

This week’s question: what is the board game that you have been playing the longest? Board games have many advantages in the modern age – they don’t require electricity, don’t need to be charged, and they also have a pleasingly tactile feel that you just don’t get from tapping a screen. And sometimes you learn a game when you’re a kid and it sticks with you ever since.

For myself, I think the board game I have been playing the longest is chess. I first learned to play when I was ten, and have been playing on and off ever since. I recently discovered Chess.com, and I like its large supply of chess puzzles, which are kind of bite-size chess when I don’t have time to play a full game, which is most of the time.

-JM

ad results April 2024

I forgot to do an ad roundup post the last couple of months, but let’s do one for April now!

I do these posts because there are two errors indie authors can fall into regarding advertising. One is that advertising is totally useless. The other is that advertising is the silver bullet that will bring riches and fame showering upon their heads. Neither is true. The fact is that advertising is simply another tool, one that can bring good results, but must be used well and carefully to be effective.

With all that in mind, here is how my ads performed in April 2024.

First up, Facebook. Here’s what I got back for every $1 I spent on these series.

Facebook:

THE GHOSTS: $7.29, with 13.7% of the profit coming from the audiobooks. GHOSTS also benefited from a strong halo effect from GHOST IN THE VEILS.

CLOAK GAMES/CLOAK MAGE: $2.85, with 11.3% of the profit coming from the audiobooks.

Bookbub:

I didn’t really do anything with Bookbub ads this month due to lack of time, but I plan to run some FROSTBORN Bookbub ads in May if all goes well.

Amazon ads:

Remember that for Amazon ads, an ad really needs to get a sale (or a complete page read in KU) between every 6 to 8 clicks to be effective, so I will include that metric.

HALF-ELVEN THIEF: $12.67, with 8% of the profit coming from the audiobook, and a sale/complete read for every 0.46 clicks. This is an astonishingly good result, but HALF-ELVEN THIEF benefited hugely from the release of its sequel WIZARD-THIEF.

STEALTH & SPELLS ONLINE: CREATION: $8.86, with 10% of the profit coming from the audiobook, and a sale/complete read for every 1.41 clicks. This is much improved from previous performance for this book, and it’s entirely because of the title change from SEVENFOLD SWORD ONLINE: CREATION to STEALTH & SPELLS ONLINE: CREATION, since that is more in keeping with the conventions of the genre. (And a huge thank you to narrator CJ McAllister for taking the time to record new credits for the audiobook so quickly.)

DRAGONSKULL OMNIBUS ONE: $43.38, with 88% of the profit coming from the audiobook, and a sale for every 3 clicks. This is a weird one, because almost all the sales come from the audiobook, which massively outsells the actual ebook. I advertise this one because it’s obviously a good driver of sales to the audiobook at little cost to me.

So, as usual, we can see that long series with audiobooks are generally the most profitable ones to advertising. Also, if you’re writing a series that will go into Kindle Unlimited, it might be a good idea to set up some Amazon ads on the first book BEFORE you publish subsequent books, since the halo effect will also give a strong boost to your ads and the first book.

And as always, thanks for reading!

-JM

 

The Pulp Writer Show, Episode 198: Seven Inaccurate Movies About Writing

In this week’s episode, we take a look at seven popular movies about writing & writers and take a look at what they got wrong. You can listen to the entire show (with transcript) at the official Pulp Writer Show site, along with Spotify and other popular podcast platforms.

-JM

Coupon of the Week, 4/29/2024

Once again it is time for Coupon of the Week!

This coupon code will get you 50% off the audiobook of DRAGONSKULL: CURSE OF THE ORCS (as excellently narrated by Brad Wills) at my Payhip store:

SPRINGORCS

The coupon code is valid through May 20th, 2024. So if you need a new audiobook for spring, we’ve got you covered!

-JM

My dear boy, why don’t you just try acting?

Read RAH writes in to say:

“I have plowed through 13 of your most recent books in the last week. You’re one of the few authors, who has an output speed that, when combined with several other authors, comes remotely close to keeping up with my reading needs. And that you do so while maintaining a stable content quality, is amazing.”

Thanks! Quality is in the eye of the beholder, of course, but I’m glad that my books qualify as quality in your eye.

That does make me wonder – I’ve been doing this for a long time. Thirteen years now! That’s the longest consecutive time I’ve ever been at any one job. 151 books is a lot of books. I know of a lot of writers who have burned out and left for a variety of reasons, but I’m still plugging along.

I suppose there are a variety of reasons. I thought up four!

1. ) I have a good perspective on what hard work is. Writing is hard work, of course…but it’s not that hard. Like, I used to unload trucks, and I taught classes, and I did IT stuff, and all of that was harder work than writing. And there are harder jobs than unloading trucks – being a cop, or an emergency medical technician, an inner city school teacher, a corrections officer, a farmer, all that’s way harder. Writing is sitting in a chair and pressing buttons in the correct sequence, essentially, which I am very fortunate to be able to do. So I don’t get up in my own head about writing because I know, objectively, there are way harder things to do.

2.) I’ve been fortunate enough that people mostly like what I write. I get occasional emails telling me how much I suck, but not all that often.

3.) I don’t get too precious about my writing process.

What do I mean about that?

Someone was telling me about a book for new writers that she had read. It’s apparently highly rated and regarded, and all the advice was terrible. Like, you should never write more than 300 words a day. Or how you should have worksheets with detailed physical descriptions and inner motivations for each of your characters. Or you should make a flowchart describing the book’s plot. There was also a bunch of stuff that honestly seems like the sort of busywork elementary teachers sometimes invent to fill time.

There’s a lot of this kind of writing advice out there. Much of it seems to boil down to elaborate procrastination to avoid writing by doing writing-adjacent work. If it works for people, good, but a bunch of it seems really unnecessary.

It reminds me of a semi-apocryphal story story that actor Dustin Hoffman once stayed up 72 hours straight because his character had been awake that long for his scene. Laurence Olivier, upon hearing this, reportedly said “my dear boy, why don’t you just try acting?” Olivier meant it as a joke and had his own complicated process for getting into character, but apparently his preferred method was elaborate makeup, not long-term sleep deprivation.

So I see all the elaborate character journals and flowcharts and whatnot and I think…you know, why don’t you just try writing?

4.) I enjoy the process.

In the end, I really do enjoy the process of writing, and I suspect a lot of writers thought they would, but don’t in the end. Like, they enjoying having written, but not the actual writing so much. I enjoy both having written and the actual process of writing.

So, whatever the reason, I’m glad I’m still here. Thanks for reading, everyone!

-JM

CLOAK OF TITANS and Starfield

Now on Chapter 14 of 25 of CLOAK OF TITANS.

Eagle-eyed readers will note that the chapter count has expanded from 24 to 25. Regardless of how many chapters the book ends up having, I am over the halfway point of the book.

Meanwhile, in the answer to last week’s Question of the Week about Xbox games, I think I am going to try Starfield.

It reminds me a great deal of Wing Commander Privateer from the 1990s. If you remember the Wing Commander games, they were basically TOP GUN but IN SPACE!!! Privateer took the basic flight gameplay but changed it so you were an independent privateer captain, and you had to make your way through the Gemini Sector as a mercenary, a merchant, a pirate, or some combination of the three. You had to buy your own equipment and weapons, and find a way to turn a profit on your jobs. If you played the main plot, you got involved in a conspiracy involving a lost alien relic, but you don’t have to do any of the main plot at all – you can just fly around making credits, fighting pirates, and trading.

Starfield basically feels like someone took Wing Commander Privateer and then added on a Skyrim-esque roleplaying experience for when your character is on the ground.

I know it got middling reviews, but I’m enjoying it so far. Perhaps because it feels like a massively updated version of Wing Commander Privateer.

-JM

Question of the week: the first fantasy novel

It’s time for Question of the Week, which is designed to inspire interesting discussion of enjoyable topics.

This week’s question: what is the first fantasy novel you remember reading? After all, if you’re hanging around the website of Jonathan Moeller, Pulp Writer, there’s a non-zero chance that you enjoy fantasy books, so it seems like a suitable question.

For myself, the very first fantasy novel I read was MAGICIAN: MASTER by Raymond E. Feist. What got me into that was the BETRAYAL AT KRONDOR computer game, which was a classic. After I finished the game, I did some reading (remember this was way before the Internet, so you couldn’t find out anything you wanted whenever you wanted), and I was astonished to realize that KRONDOR was based off an actual novel series. So I got MAGICIAN: MASTER and started reading it.

Fun fact: years later I realized that MAGICIAN: MASTER was in fact the sequel to MAGICIAN: APPRENTICE and went back to read the first book.

-JM