Arthur Slade's Blog, page 3
September 13, 2019
Look Ma, I made it: The Kloppenburg Award
So this happened:
“The Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild congratulates Arthur Slade on receiving the 2019 Cheryl and Henry Kloppenburg Award for Literary Excellence
The Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild was proud to host the luncheon award ceremony for the Cheryl and Henry Kloppenburg Award for Literary Excellence on September 10, 2019 at the German Cultural Centre, 160 Cartwright St. East, Saskatoon. Jillian Bell, President of SWG, emceed the event and Cheryl and Henry Kloppenburg presented the award to Arthur Slade. His Honour the Honourable Russ Mirasty, Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan, brought greetings and congratulations, as did City Councillor Cynthia Block on behalf of the City of Saskatoon. Arthur Slade gave a short thank you speech and a short reading of his work.
The award honours a Saskatchewan writer who has written a substantial body of acclaimed literary work. It carries a prize of $10,000 and a framed limited edition print of a painting by Saskatchewan artist Dorothy Knowles.
Jury Citation: “The winner of the 2019 Kloppenburg Award for Literary Excellence is Arthur Slade. Critically acclaimed and lauded in multiple venues around the world, Arthur Slade’s writing is doing the very important work of inspiring future writerly generations by engaging young readers of today. With cutting-edge graphic novels and gripping fantastical fiction, not to mention a robust online presence, Slade is extending the expectations of literary genres and placing Saskatchewan on a growing international stage of young-adult literature.
His remarkable body of work includes Young Adult Fiction, Middle Grade Fiction, and graphic novels. Slade won the Governor General's Award for Children's Literature for Dust, a book that Publisher's Weekly says "sustains the hallucinatory, off-kilter tone of a prolonged nightmare..." Kids and teens alike love Arthur Slade's books because through them they are invited into his aptly named "Worlds of Wonder & Imagination." More importantly, Slade's writing, by turns gripping, lively, funny, and weird, is a gateway for thousands of young people into a lifelong love of and engagement with books and reading. Among Arthur Slade's other awards are the TD Canadian Children's Literature Award, the Mr. Christie's Book Award, and the prestigious Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire for speculative fiction.
Too often, in English Canada, we discount the literary merit and hard work of full-time writers, especially those who work in the mode of "genre literature," or what used to be called "pulp fiction." So, how good it is to be able to recognize the achievement of Arthur Slade, the author of a dozen and a half Young Adult novels, mainly with a Fantasy theme. A finalist for umpteen awards, there is a lot to be said for an author who has received a Governor-General's Award for Children's Literature and a Mr. Christie Book Award, not to mention a prize for the French translation--in France--of one of his signature titles. Arthur Slade's name deserves to be spoken in the same breath as so many other Saskatchewan-born and/or based great writers, such as other Kloppenburg Award for Literary Excellence recipients, such as Yann Martell and Sandra Birdsell.”
Cheryl and Henry Kloppenburg, lawyers by profession, but philanthropists at heart, established this prestigious award in May 2010. The three Honorary Patrons of the Award are His Honour the Honourable Russ Mirasty, Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan, His Worship Charlie Clark, Mayor of the City of Saskatoon, and Dr. Peter Stoicheff, President of the University of Saskatchewan.
The Kloppenburg Award for Literary Excellence is one of the most lucrative provincial awards in Canada.
Winner Biography:
Arthur Slade was raised on a ranch in the Cypress Hills. He graduated with honours from the University of Saskatchewan and is the author of over twenty novels for young readers. His books includeThe Hunchback Assignments, which won the prestigious TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award and the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire (France), and Dust, winner of the Governor General’s Award for Children’s Literature. His work has been published in multiple languages around the world and he divides his time between writing, giving presentations to students, and his family. He lives in Saskatoon, Canada.
Here I am looking very happy. It was a great meal.
January 29, 2019
Mission Clockwork Audiobook
Well, I’m pumped about this audiobook version of Mission Clockwork (AKA The Hunchback Assignments). It’s released By Podium Publishing today on Audible. And it’s book 1 & 2 together!
Honestly, it give me chills to listen to Derek Perkins narrate the story:
Death By Airship
It’s here! Flying airships. Cannons firing. And a pirate prince who doesn’t want to be king.
He just wants to survive!
Read more at the link:
October 3, 2018
Amber Fang Boxed Set
Well, all three Amber Fang books have been combined into an extra exciting boxed set. You can even pick up the paperback, too.
I must say I love the cover by Lily Dormisev.
Amber is in a bit of a bad mood. She just found out that someone has dog-eared a book!
May 30, 2018
Cover Reveal: Crimson (International Edition)
Here it is! The International cover for Crimson done by Mr. Derek Mah. The book is available now all across the world. Just click this magical link RIGHT HERE.
May 1, 2018
Cover Reveal: Island of Doom
It's out today! The conclusion to the 4 book series. Airships! Warships! Doom! And (cough) a romantic moment or two (cough) which the guys can skip.
http://www.arthurslade.com/missionclockwork
April 16, 2018
Cover Reveal: Empire of Ruins
Book 3 in the series is out today! Crocodiles! Airships! And a mysterious artefact called The God Face. Modo is hip-deep in trouble!
Visit EMPIRE OF RUINS
April 3, 2018
Cover Reveal: The Dark Deeps
Behold! THE DARK DEEPS is here... Today is the official release day...
Really, it is...
Read all about it HERE.
This book is an excellent steampunk page-turner. It’s almost as though Slade has written a love song to the first fluttering of a young man’s heart, complete with steam-powered pirates, sharks and submarine battles.
— The Globe & Mail
March 19, 2018
(re)Launching a Bestselling Series (Trying to hit #1)
Here’s the hook line :
My latest book is the #1 Young Adult Steampunk new release in the US and UK on Amazon Kindle. Err...can I call it my latest when the book was first released nine years ago?
Here be the goods:
I once had a worldwide bestselling series called The Hunchback Assignments. The series was published by Random House in the U.S. and various other publishers in various other countries from 2009-2012. The first two books sold well in the U.S. The next two not so well. So the series went out of print (except in Canada where it continues to do well—thanks to my home country!). But when I looked at the sales over time I felt it just didn’t sell enough (I’m sure this is a common feeling among authors). It should have been more popular, darn it! Was it the cover? The publisher? The market? The…. (insert Psycho sting) writing?
Since the English rights had been returned to me in all countries (except Canada), I decided self-publishing was a great way to find new readers. When I look at the sales of the original series in the U.S. only about 5% were to ebook buyers. So I felt like a huge chunk of the market had been missed (and also didn’t exist in 2009 the same way it does now).
So What did you do, Mr. Smarty Pants?
I re-examined everything. I read Chris Fox’s excellent book (Relaunch Your Novel) and used the methods inside to revampe the series.
I had thought up the original series title (The Hunchback Assignments) but over the years became aware of how unwieldy it was. It’s unwieldy because it’s long and also because you have to explain it (or at least read the book before it makes sense—you see he’s a hunchback secret agent who goes on assignments and…). So I gravitated towards the German title of the series Mission Clockwork. That was punchier! And I did a poll (at Pickfu.com) to see if that title would work for new buyers:
So Mission Clockwork won the title bout. It seems counter-intuitive to give up all the years of website mentions, reviews, etc that feature The Hunchback Assignments. But these would be new readers I was targeting about a series they'd never seen before. And Kindle is all about social proof. Plus I could still quote the reviews. And I have a review team of about 600 who are part of my newsletter subscribers. So they would kindly leave reviews for me.
(*Enjoying this article? Want to let readers know about Mission Clockwork. I'd appreciate it. Just click on the handy dandy links provided below.)
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I wanted something attractive. I looked around and found science fiction books that were doing well on the charts. My research led me to Jeff Brown, whom I contacted and he came up with this:
Love it!
As a side note, Jeff lives in Mexico. So I assumed he was an ex-pat American. It wasn’t until we chatted that I discovered he grew up in Saskatoon and had once played the bagpipes across the street from my house. Small world.
Newsletter Promo
I have just over 8700 subscribers to my newsletter. On Tuesday (tomorrow as I write this) they will receive notice that the book is available for purchase. I cross my fingers that they’re in a reading/buying mood.
Advertising
I have bought advertising from several paid book promo companies. (there’s a great list for that at Reedsy.) I also have a Facebook Advertising campaign (I took Mark Dawson’s Ads for Authors course) and an Amazon advertising campaign and a Bookbub campaign.
Why is the book only available on Amazon?
Ah, there’s the rub. I hate disappointing potential readers. But Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited program is too massive (and lucrative) to ignore. So I decided to go exclusive with them. Over time I intend to gradually move the books out to other vendors.
How much did all of this cost?
Here’s the list of expenses. There are blanks for Facebook, Bookbub and Amazon ads because those are not a set number. So they may add as much as $500 to the overall cost.
Results?
Well the book went live on Friday the 16th. So my review team put up reviews that day. So there’s the social proof. The marketing campaign appears to be working because the book is climbing the charts. I won't know for a while whether or not it will "stick" there.
Are you trying to become one with the Amazon algorithm?
No. Instead. I’ve tried to mind meld with Amazon’s algorithm. Long story short: Amazon’s system decides where you belong in the rankings after it judges your first five days of sales. So the idea is to sell a higher amount each day in those first five days then Amazon (in theory) will deem it worthy and push the book along to its readers if you’ve succeeded. The person who has mind-melded with the algorithm is David Gaughran. Go to his website. Read all his books about selling on Amazon (he’d love it if you read his history novels, too, I’m sure).
What about the other books in the series?
There are four books in total the series. Book Two will be released on April 3rd (so two weeks after the first book). Then the third book on May 1st and the fourth on May 29th (4 weeks later). This is because Amazon’s various charts (new releases/popularity/etc.) reward new books the best in the first 90 days of a book being released. So if I do this properly each book will get the most attention possible in that time period.
Wait! Wait! Wait! Do you have a graphic that outlines what the launch week will look like?
Of course I do! Here it is. Feast your eyes on the tiny details. Please ask any questions you have in the comments.
Will it work?
Well, tune in and see. You can watch the rankings here.
Or click the cover:
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Will you post about the results once all is said and done?
Yes, and perhaps in the middle of all this if there is anything that comes up. But I will definitely do a wrap up post.
Other resources: tons of info at: Kindlepreneur. Tons of support at 20booksto50K Facebook Group and SFF Facebook Group.
Did I mention I’m not afraid to ask for help? Please share the book to your friends and followers. And if you want to share the blog...then just click on the share tabs at the bottom of this page.
Thanks!
Art
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