Sarah Ettritch's Blog, page 6

I Wasn’t Going to Post Today…

I have a fragile right shoulder. Merely raising it over my head the wrong way when I’m washing my hair in the shower can hurt it.

This time, it was stupidity. When I was gaming earlier in the week, it started to twinge. I should have stopped playing, but I was having too much fun. I’m paying for it now. I won’t be able to game until my shoulder feels okay again, which will hopefully be soon. Every day it feels a bit better, but I doubt I’ll be able to game until Monday at the earliest, and I’ll have to be careful.

Lesson learned: When shoulder twinges, stop playing. I’ll lose an hour or two of gaming that day, but if I keep playing, I could lose days.

Fortunately I’m adept at mousing with my left and right hands, so my left hand is driving the mouse right now. Unfortunately using my left hand while gaming doesn’t work well because the default control scheme in games is suited to right-handed players. I could remap all the keys, but I’m too lazy to do it, and it’s best to give gaming a break for now, anyway.

Typing is okay, as long as I don’t do a lot of it. I’m prioritizing my fiction writing over everything else. I worked on Deiform Four and Daros 5 today, so I figured I’d just update the WIP section of the site and leave it at that.

Then I read Kobo Writing Life’s blog (I’m doing a lot of reading and Netflix watching while my shoulder recovers). It’s about a huge summer-end sale they’re having this weekend, so it’s something I need to tell you about today.

In a nutshell, all books published through Kobo’s Writing Life platform are available for 50% off from today until August 31. That includes all my books, and all other books published by independent authors. If you’re a kobo shopper, this is a great opportunity to stock up on ebooks.

Details here: http://kobowritinglife.com/2015/08/27/save-your-readers-50-on-kwl-titles-on-us/

In other news, I’ve finished my major revision of Deiform Four. It now clocks in at 68,000 words, and it’ll go to my editor in early January. I’m much happier with this draft. Everything that bothered me about my first crack at the personal stuff has fallen by the wayside.

I’ve put the draft aside for now, and will edit it with fresh eyes when I’ve finished the first draft of Daros 5.

Enjoy the last weekend in August. Time flies!  

I Wasn’t Going to Post Today… is a post from: Sarah Ettritch

Place Your Bets

Place Your Bets, the fourth installment in the Daros Chronicles, is here!

Place Your Bets

Author: Sarah Ettritch
Series: The Daros Chronicles, Book 4
Genre: Fantasy

While the king’s body is still warm, the Primacy seizes power. Erryn continues her uneasy alliance with the wild folk, and Avere finds out more about the mysterious woman in the rose cloak.


Overview

While the king’s body is still warm, the Primacy seizes power. Erryn continues her uneasy alliance with the wild folk, and Avere finds out more about the mysterious woman in the rose cloak.

Place Your Bets is the fourth installment in the Daros Chronicles, an epic fantasy serial.

In Daros Chronicles 1:

When Erryn reveals that she’s a Beast Master to save Princess Filmona’s life, she’s banished from the people she loves and the only home she knows.

In Daros Chronicles 2:

Erryn’s sheltered upbringing makes her a target for unscrupulous men, while Princess Filmona has to decide between duty and her heart.

In Daros Chronicles 3:

Erryn agrees to travel with wild folk, and Avere shadows a mysterious woman. Meanwhile, the king’s meeting with visiting Westerfox primates ends in tragedy.

I’ll start Daros Chronicles 5 on Monday. It’s already outlined. Unlike many of my other stories, I’m not writing this one by the seat of my pants. Much of the story came to me in a rush. I don’t have all the details (for example, I only met Avere shortly before she appeared in her first scene), but I know all the major plot points. Daros 5 will be released in November.

The revision of Deiform Four is going well. I should have first draft version 1.0 by the end of the month.

Have a great weekend!

Place Your Bets is a post from: Sarah Ettritch

Smashwords Summer Sale

I’m posting on a Thursday this week to let you know that two of my books are available for half price at Smashwords until midnight Pacific time tomorrow (July 31). You can pick up The Salbine Sisters and The Missing Comatose Woman for 50% off. Both books are standalone novels, so I rarely discount them (in fact, I think it’s the first time I’ve discounted The Missing Comatose Woman).

Pick them up here:

The Salbine Sisters

The Missing Comatose Woman

Use the coupon code SSW50 at checkout.

In other news, I’ve finished the first draft of Deiform Four. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I’ll be doing a major revision to this draft, which I expect will take me around three weeks or so. When it’s done, I’ll contact my editor to set up an editing date, and from there I’ll have a rough release date. I expect (hope) to release it sometime in early 2016. My editor is currently working on Daros 4.

I hope you’re having a wonderful summer! (or winter, depending on where you are in the world…)

Smashwords Summer Sale is a post from: Sarah Ettritch

The Dinner Question: Would I Invite the Characters from Threaded Through Time?

Today I answer the question, “Would I invite the characters from Threaded Through Time over for dinner?” Watch the video until the end to see a very special guest.

In other news, I’ve adjusted my estimated length for Deiform Four. I believe it’ll clock in at around 70,000 words. I’m in the home stretch now. I know all the scenes I have to write between where I am in the draft and the end.

When I’ve finished the first draft, I’ll be doing a major revision to the “personal stuff” sub-thread that runs through all the books. As I was writing the draft, I wasn’t happy with something that had happened, and as I got deeper into the draft, I realized where the characters (Jillian in particular) wanted to go. Because of that, I’ll probably need 2-3 weeks to rewrite some parts of the book. So I guess when I hit the 70,000 words, I’ll have finished first draft version 0.9. I won’t quite be at first draft 1.0, but I’ll be close.

Daros Chronicles 4 will go to my editor next week.

Have a good weekend!  

The Dinner Question: Would I Invite the Characters from Threaded Through Time? is a post from: Sarah Ettritch

Try Rymellan 1 For Free

I’ve decided to give Rymellan 1 away, perhaps for a limited time, perhaps forever. I haven’t decided yet. Right now, you can grab it for free from my website in exchange for signing up to my new releases list. I only send an email when I release a book or have something significant to share (meaning I’m giving something away), so it’s a low volume list, and you can unsubscribe from it at any time. If you haven’t tried Rymellan 1, now would be a good time.

I will very likely set it to free at all the bookstores sometime next week. Well, I’ll do it everywhere except Amazon. Unfortunately, Amazon doesn’t allow books to be set to free unless they’re in the Kindle Select program (and then only for 5 days within each 90-day enrollment period). “But I’ve seen plenty of books on Amazon that are free for longer than 5 days,” you might be thinking. That’s because Amazon often price matches books that are free elsewhere. I’ll be hoping it does that for Rymellan 1, but there are no guarantees. Price matching is always at Amazon’s discretion.

If you’ve already read Rymellan 1, you might be interested in a short ebook I’ve put together called Rymellan 1: Extras. In the book, I offer a paragraph (or two, or three) of commentary about why I wrote each story, I talk about my toughest Rymellan story problem and how I solved it (I blogged about this, so you might already know the details), and I reveal why I self-published the Rymellan Series (you might be surprised at the answer). You can also get the ebook by signing up to my new releases list.

If you’re already on the new releases list, hang tight. I’ll send out download links to both Rymellan 1 and the Extras ebook next week. I want to set the book to free at the bookstores first, if I decide to go ahead with that. Either way, you’ll get the links.

If you’re not on the list and you want both books, you’ll have to sign up twice. Don’t worry, you won’t get duplicate emails once you’ve confirmed your subscription to both lists. Unfortunately there’s no elegant way to offer the downloads separately, and I have my reasons for wanting to have separate signups.

To sign up to the list and get Rymellan 1, go here.

To sign up to the list and get Rymellan 1: Extras, go here.

Before I go, I wrote my blog post last week before the US Supreme Court handed down its decision to make same-sex marriage legal in 50 states (I believe. Americans can correct me!). Congratulations to lesbians and gays in the US. I honestly never thought I’d see same-sex marriage in my lifetime. As a lesbian who came out in the early 1980’s, I have a number of stories to tell about harassment (from the police and people on the street). I never would have imagined how quickly things would change. Of course, you can’t legislate attitudes, but making sure people have equal rights under the law is a damn good start.

Enjoy your weekend!

Try Rymellan 1 For Free is a post from: Sarah Ettritch

Amazon’s New Pay-Per-Page Compensation Model

Today I thought I’d address some misinformation I’ve seen on the Internet about how Amazon is changing the way it compensates authors. You may have read that Amazon will now pay authors based on how many of a Kindle book’s pages a reader actually reads. That’s true, but only for books that are read as part of the Kindle Unlimited program.

Kindle Unlimited is Amazon’s ebook subscription program (the other two big ones are Oyster and Scribd; all my books are available on both). Because I’m an indie author, I’ll speak about how it works for us. If I want one of my books to be in the Kindle Unlimited program, I have to make the book available exclusively at Amazon and put it into what’s called the Kindle Select program. All books in Kindle Select are automatically added to Kindle Unlimited. The exclusivity requirement is a deal breaker for me, which is why my books aren’t available through Kindle Unlimited.

Authors aren’t compensated for books read through Kindle Unlimited (called a “borrow”) in the same way that we are for a plain old sale. Every month, Amazon puts a certain amount of money into the Kindle Unlimited pot. At the end of the month, it divides the money up based on the total number of borrows across all books, and the number of borrows a specific book has received.

For a completely contrived example, if the pot for the month is $1,000, 000, and $1,000, 000 books are borrowed, authors will receive $1.00 per borrow. If 2,000,000 books are borrowed, then authors would receive $0.50 per borrow. Lately, the payout per borrow has averaged around $1.30 (down from $2.00 or so when the program was first introduced). Up until now (and until July 1), if a reader downloads a book through Kindle Unlimited and reads at least 10% of it, it counts as a borrow.

This compensation model resulted in two things:

Most authors wouldn’t put long books into the program, because they wouldn’t be paid enough for a borrow. For example, Rymellan 1 is priced at $6.99. If someone buys it, I get 70% of 6.99 (minus download fees – authors pay for the “free” whispernet), which works out to about $4.83. If I were to put Rymellan 1 into Kindle Select (and hence, Kindle Unlimited), I’d be paid about $1.30 per borrow. No thanks.
It encouraged people who want to make a quick buck to put very short books into the program. Think about it. If a reader only has to read 10% of the book for it to count as a borrow, then the shorter the book, the fewer number of pages they have to read. For really short books, just reading one page would do it, meaning that a borrow would be counted as soon as the reader opened the book. The authors of these short books get the same amount of money for a borrow of a 10-page book as I would for a borrow of Rymellan 1. Hardly fair.

So, Kindle Unlimited is full of short ebooks that offer little value. Don’t get me wrong. There are many authors (including myself) that write short stories. I’m not talking about them. I’m talking about short non-fiction books that people hire freelancers to write.

With the new “pay per page” compensation model, Amazon is trying to address both problems. It’s trying to thwart the “get rich quick” crowd, and it’s hoping to encourage authors to put longer works into the program. There will still be a pot for the month, but instead of divvying up the money based on the total number of borrows, the pot will be divided based on the total number of pages read across all books.

For me, as long as the program requires exclusivity, I won’t be putting longer books into it. Also, we’ll have to see what the “pay per page” model actually translates to for novels. If it turns out that authors get a penny a page, for example, that would be better than the current $1.30, but would still fall short of what one would receive for a sale of a higher-priced book.

Note that Oyster and Scribd pay the full sale royalty when someone borrows and reads an entire book. In other words, a borrow and a sale are compensated in the same way.

Also note that all the retailers are tracking what you read. They obviously know what you’ve bought, but they also know how far you’ve read in a book, and if you’ve skipped around inside it. The only way you can avoid this is to never connect your device to the retailer, which isn’t convenient.

In conclusion, yes, Amazon will move to a “pay per page” model on July 1, but only for books borrowed through the Kindle Unlimited program.

I’ll end with different type of cat video. You may have already seen this. If not, keep your eye on the upper right and prepare to hold your breath.

Later.

Amazon’s New Pay-Per-Page Compensation Model is a post from: Sarah Ettritch

The Dinner Question: Would I invite the Rymellans Over?

When I was considering what I might blog about this week, for some reason I thought about a question my friend asked when she interviewed me a couple of years ago. She asked, “If you could invite the characters from one of your books over for dinner, who would you invite?” If you listened to the interview, you may or may not remember my answer. I won’t repeat it in this post, because at some point I’ll answer the question again in a video.

I’ve decided to broaden the question a bit. Instead of only being allowed to talk about one set of characters, I thought I’d answer the question, “Would you invite [the main character(s) from book X] over for dinner?” I’ll eventually create a video answer for all my books.

This week, I’m starting with the Rymellans. Would I invite the Rymellans, specifically Lesley, Jayne, and Mo, over for dinner? The short answer is: probably not. I explain why in the video.

Have a great weekend!  

The Dinner Question: Would I invite the Rymellans Over? is a post from: Sarah Ettritch

Bits and Bobs #5

A writing bits and bobs today:

Rymellan 1 Sale at kobo

First, you can get Rymellan 1: Disobedience Means Death for 0.99 at kobo today (and only today). Find it here.

Daros Chronicles 4

Second, I’ve finished the first draft of Daros Chronicles 4. I haven’t titled it yet. Something usually comes to me when I’m editing, and as happened with Blood and Blades, I sometimes change my mind about the title at the last minute.

Daros 4 clocked in at almost 18,000 words. That’s quite longer than usual for a Daros installment. When I write an installment, I have a story point in mind that I’d like to reach. It took more words to get there this time, but it’s possible that the word count will go down. I wrote a few lengthy conversations near the beginning that I’ll probably shorten (writing dialogue between characters often helps me work out story problems/character dynamics). On the other hand, I’ve written a number of notes to myself about stuff to add/expand upon. So maybe the installment will still be around 18,000 words when all is said and done.

Unfortunately, Daros 4 won’t be available until sometime in August. When I booked the date with my editor a couple of months ago, the earliest she could take it was the end of July. Especially unfortunate, given the end of Daros 3.  

Bits and Bobs #4

In the video I recorded for my first post of the year, I said I was only going to post to the blog when I had something to say. I haven’t had much to say lately. On top of that, my partner retired in September 2014, so this is the first spring/summer that she’s home. She’s getting me away from my computer. I expect my blogging to be sporadic during the warm months.

I don’t have anything earth shattering to say today, but I didn’t want to go a month without posting at all, so I figured I’d do a mixed bag post.

Netflix

If you have Netflix, you might want to check out Grace and Frankie. It’s about two wives who find out late in life that their husbands have been having an affair with each other for 20 years. The wives are played by Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda, and the husbands by Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston. Top-notch actors all around. We’ve watched four of the thirteen half-hour shows in the first season and will definitely watch the rest. It’s part drama, part comedy.

What else am I watching on Netflix these days? I missed the X-Files when it was on TV. I don’t like watching TV shows on TV (though I made an exception for the excellent The Walking Dead last season, because I couldn’t wait for it to show up on Netflix). I used to buy DVD sets. Now it’s Netflix. A few months ago, I watched The Fall, a police/crime series set in Northern Ireland. Who played the lead? Gillian Anderson. I liked her so much in the show that I decided to check out the X-Files. I’m on season two and hope to finish watching everything by the time the new X-Files revival releases. Oh, and The Fall is great. Recommended.

Other shows I’d recommend on Netflix:

Last Tango in Halifax has one of the better lesbian relationships I’ve seen portrayed on TV
The Good Wife
Broadchurch
Damages
Covert Affairs
The Walking Dead (I resisted this one for a while because I’m not into zombies, but when I first got Netflix, I decided to give it a try and discovered that it’s not really about zombies)
House of Cards (though I didn’t like season 3 as much as the first two seasons)
George Gently
Line of Duty

Living Off the Grid

Have you ever thought, “I should get solar panels,” or something like that? We sometimes do when our hydro bill arrives. Anyway, I read an article about a BC couple in their mid-fifties who decided to live off the grid in a big way. J. David Cox has written a book about their experience called Our Life Off the Grid: An Urban Couple Goes Feral.

This isn’t your typical living off the grid. He and his wife Sally bought land on a remote island in BC and built their house themselves—and on a slope, to boot. Logs, tools, and equipment had to be hauled up a hill. To get to the mainland, they have to boat to where they can catch a ferry. Not the life for me, but I admire their determination and spirit.

If you’re looking for something different, it’s an interesting read. Some of the humour isn’t politically correct. If you’re easily offended, you’ve been warned.

You can pick up the book here:

Amazon.ca

Amazon.com

Kobo

Smashwords

Gaming

I’ve been revisiting some of my old favourites. Gog keeps having really great sales. I recently finished Knights of the Old Republic, and now I’m working my way through the sequel. Both games have stood the test of time and are just as fun now as they were over ten years ago. I can’t remember if I finished the second one back then. I’ll finish it this time.

 

Our cat Zazz watching me play Knights of the Old Republic back in 2003. She loved sitting on the CRT monitor, where it was warm. She’s a creaky old cat now.

I also bought Pool Nation from Steam. I wasn’t sure whether I’d enjoy a pool simulation. It’s fun! Along the same lines, I absolutely love Pinball FX and Pinball Arcade. FX’s tables are all simulations designed for the computer, so they contain cool effects that real tables don’t. For example, people move around the tables in response to the ball hitting something, ships fly, etc. In addition to tables based on new concepts/worlds, there are tables based on Star Wars, Marvel characters, South Park, The Walking Dead, and other properties I’m probably forgetting.

In contrast, all the tables in Pinball Arcade are faithful recreations of real pinball tables. The team has done a fantastic job. If you played (or play) pinball, you’ll recognize many of the tables: the Addams Family, all the Pin-bot tables, Elvira…lots more. You can find a list of tables here.

I enjoy both FX and Pinball Arcade. Sometimes I want to keep it real. Other times I want flying ships, and characters inside the tables cracking jokes.

Suggestions

I’m always looking for game, book, and Netflix suggestions, so if you’ve watched, read, or played anything you’d recommend, let me know and I’ll take a look.

Have a great weekend!  

Bits and Bobs #4 is a post from: Sarah Ettritch

Blood and Blades

Blood and Blades, the third installment in the Daros Chronicles, is now available. By the end of this installment, we’ve met all the major players (or at least the ones I know about. Sometimes a story throws the writer a curve ball). At this point, we’re about 35,000 words into the story, which would be the first third of a typical fantasy novel. Things are moving along nicely.

All the buy links are here. The book is still processing at kobo and Google Play. Hopefully it’ll be available at those stores soon, and at Scribd and Oyster. I distribute to the subscription services through Smashwords, so it can take up to a week to appear on those sites. I’ll update the book’s page with the links as soon as I have them.

Try Daros 1 for free!

If you haven’t been reading along and you want to give the serial a try, you can get Friends Torn Apart (Daros Chronicles 1) free at Smashwords using coupon code: BN67Z

Apply the coupon code at checkout. When you buy a book at Smashwords, you get all formats, including PDF.

I wish the other stores had coupons. Apparently kobo will be introducing coupons by the end of the year, which will be great. I’ll then be able to offer kobo coupons, as well.

Deiform Four

I’m pretty much over my cold/bronchitis (I can taste and smell again!), so it’s full speed ahead. I’ll start Daros 4 next week. While I’m writing it, the first draft of Deiform Four will be on hold. Deiform Four is also coming along nicely. I’m well past the halfway point, and it might come in shorter than the 75,000 words I estimated.

I’m still catching up with stuff, so that’s it for this week. Have a great weekend!

Blood and Blades is a post from: Sarah Ettritch