Michael Coorlim's Blog, page 50
March 12, 2014
BBC offers 30th anniversary edition of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy interactive fiction game
This was one of the first text adventure games I played as a kid. It was pretty brutal, and took me almost a year of play in the 4th grade computer lab to finish it, but man, was it fun.
Go. Play.
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March 10, 2014
Cover Reveal: Infernal Revelation
Infernal Revelation is a supernatural thriller serial set in small-town west Texas. It’s a dark story about alienation and a goetic-humanist approach to Christian mythology. Five teens — all of them adopted — discover the dark secrets hidden in their small community, and within the secrets of their parentage.
Look for a late March 2014 release for Infernal Revelation, the first season in the Profane Apotheosis series.
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March 7, 2014
Interview over at Rocking Self Publishing Podcast
Simon Whistler over at the Rocking Self-Publishing Podcast interviewed me about my career as an author and about microbudget self-publishing production.
Give it a listen. Tell me what you think.
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March 5, 2014
Esoteric awesome podcasts
The last few podcasts I’d like to mention are strange. Not bad strange. Good strange. Awesome strange, in either subject matter or presentation.
Welcome to Night Vale is, well, a little difficult to describe. It’s a drama in the format of a small-town radio program. Night Vale isn’t just any small town, though, but one with black helicopters that fill the skies, dog parks you are instructed not to think about, and cheerful community updates. It’s Cecil, the narrator, that really sells the show, giving a sense of continuity to the twice a month episodes. It really is an amazing experiment in narrative structure, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Caustic Soda is a weekly science podcast that tackles gruesome situations and topics through a humorous lens. Toren Atkinson, Kevin Leeson, and Joe Fulgham break down and analyse their topics on multiple levels, and the program often goes places that you wouldn’t expect it to.
Hardcore History offers Dan Carlin’s off-beat and often lateral take on conventional history. The show can be a little edgy, but it can be an interesting listen.
This wraps up this miniseries. If there are any other podcasts you listen to that you think that we should take a look at, post them in the comments.
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March 3, 2014
Interview with author Kat O’Connor
I’ve interviewed Kat O’Connor, author of the psychological horror novella Descent Macabre.
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February 28, 2014
How ACX is discouraging audiobooks
ACX, the Audiobook Creation Exchange, is an Amazon-owned platform that not only distributes audiobooks to Amazon, Audible, and iTunes, but acts to bring authors and producers together, enabling the creation of the product it sells. Yesterday they sent out an email detailing some rather severe changes to their program, changes that may have a negative impact on the production of audiobooks.
What the deal was
I’ve produced several audiobooks through ACX for my Galvanic Century steampunk stories: And They Called Her Spider, Maiden Voyage of the Rio Grande, Sky Pirates Over London, The Tower of Babbage, Fine Young Turks, Chronicles of a Gentlewoman, and March of the Cogsmen. For each of these products I was locked in for a seven-year exclusivity, and chose to split the royalties with my narrators.
We started out with 50%, and for every 500 books sold this rose another percentage point. So I made 25%, the narrator made 25%, and audible keeps 50%.
This wasn’t a rate I was thrilled about, considering that I was effectively paying the costs of production as well. I also had the option to pay the narrator upfront for-hire, but as this could run into the thousands per-project it wasn’t exactly within my capabilities. For their 50% cut, audible acted as a distribution platform.
In addition to the exclusivity (which I could forego by chopping an extra 25% off my royalty rate), Audible also reserved the right to set the pricing for my audiobooks at will based on length. I had no say in this, and no recourse when And They Called Her Spider’s price was dropped to $1.95 – meaning that my narrator and I each received about $0.25 per sale.
It was also arduous to deal with their support on any other issue, and I lacked a simple way to update product descriptions or album art without asking them to make changes. When you add to this the fact that their reporting is abysmal and they only added direct deposit options late last year, one questions why one would ever use ACX to begin with.
The answer is simple: They’re the only game in town.
Oh, sure, there are other distributors of audiobooks, but none with near the market share of audible, Amazon, and iTunes. ACX has, in essence, a monopoly. Your only recourse is to not make audiobooks.
Then ACX went and cut royalty rates
ACX sent out emails yesterday explaining that they were cutting royalty rates for audiobooks produced after March 12th to a flat 40%. There was no real explanation given for this action, but the prevalent opinions among authors is that “the monopoly decided they wanted more money.” Gone is the potential for making a higher rate through more sales, and with it, all incentive for producers to accept a royalty split.
For many of us self-published authors, that royalty split was the only way we could afford to get our audiobooks produced. For the rest of us, at a 40% rate it’ll take far longer to earn back the costs of production, particularly when we still have no control over pricing.
The fallout
I can only speculate that this will result in fewer books being produced. Few talented narrators will gamble on a royalty share when there’s no higher percentage rate to win, and few authors can afford to gamble on high production costs that result in a 40% royalty rate.
On the other hand, the market is rife for a new distributor to rise and challenge ACX; when Apple opened its iBookstore to indies, Amazon raised its ebook royalty rates from 35% to 70%.
I can say that while I personally have a few books currently in production that will be grandfathered in under the old rates, I am unsure as to whether I can afford to produce new ones. It doesn’t look like it, but we’ll see what the future holds.
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February 26, 2014
Really Funny Podcasts
Continuing our series on interesting and entertaining podcasts, today I’ll be covering a few shows that consistently make me laugh.
The Smartest Man in the World Proopcast is all about Greg Proops. You might remember Greg from both incarnations of Whose Line is it Anyway, both versions, between 1989 and 2006. He’s been hosting his podcast regularly since 2010, in a largely monologue format, managing to carry things entirely on his own. He’s intelligent, erudite, and very very witty. The entire program is a tightly woven nest of tangents upon tangents as Greg frequently derails himself onto any one of a plethora of side-topics.
The F-Plus‘s mission statement is “terrible things read with enthusiasm” and that about sums it up. Lemon, Boots Raingear, Acierocolotl, Bunnybread, and the other hosts all scour the internet for everything terrible, read it in funny voices, and mock it while cracking one another up. It’s a very different kind of humor, but irresistible in a rubbernecking sort of way.
Next time we’ll look at some of the downright strange, yet nevertheless still entertaining, podcasts. If you listen to anything really funny that you think I’d enjoy, don’t hesitate to mention it in the comments below.
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February 24, 2014
Review of The Beam: Episode One by Platt and Truant
The Beam: Episode One kicks off a science fiction serial by Realm & Sands author Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant. Like all of the pair’s serials, the first episode is a short novella that establishes the setting’s premise and introduces the principal characters and themes that we can expect to see in the following arc. It ends on a cliffhanger that practically begs you to buy the followup collection of The Beam, and the idea is an enticing one.
You can read the entire review over at Book Nouveau.
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February 21, 2014
Self-Publishing Podcasts
Since getting my smartphone last year I’ve been spending my commutes listening to podcasts. There are a lot out there, but I’ve managed to find a few that I particularly enjoy.
I’ve found three podcasts that I use to keep on top of the industry, pick up marketing tips, and generally connect with other writers.
The Rocking Self-Publishing Podcast was one of the first that I followed. Presented in an interview format, its host Simon isn’t a writer, but a voice actor and narrator. It’s very professionally presented, and Simon is able to establish an instant chemistry with his guests. Bonus: Simon interviewed me for his program, and the interview should air on March 6th, so look forward to that.
The Self-Publishing Podcast is hosted by the Collective Inkwell and Realm & Sands authors Sean Platt, Johnny B Truant, and David Wright. Three authors that do tend to focus on both writing and the business of their publishing, when they manage to focus at all. It’s a lot of fun to listen to, and the interplay between the hosts is very entertaining. I’ve found that their business and creative aesthetic meshes well with my own.
The Creative Penn makes a great compliment to the above two podcasts, having more of an emphasis on marketing. Thriller author Joanna Penn has an amazing voice, and an interview style similar to, but distinct from, Simon’s. I’ve only been listening to her recently, and I’ve got many archival episodes to catch up on.
Next week I’ll introduce you to a few non-writing but very funny podcasts. In the meantime, if you listen to any writing, book, or publishing shows you think I should check out, let me know in the comments.
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February 19, 2014
My plans have not survived contact with the enemy
So, my computer melted.
Not the whole thing. Just the part around the power cord input. I pulled it out and there was a green fluid around the contact.
This is, I have been assured, a bad thing.
It hadn’t been charging, so I’ve had to wiggle the cord around a bit to get it at the right angle. This got worse and worse before the whole “melting” revelation.
Desperate Efforts
So I spent yesterday on my laptop’s last charge moderating a desperate race between Dropbox and my battery life. I was evacuating my hard drive, getting all of my writing and notes and covers safely into the cloud before the dark night fell. It was a good effort. I couldn’t save everyone, but I made a valiant effort of it.
A new laptop has been ordered. It’ll be a few days before it arrives, so I’ll be taking a mini-vacation. I could probably use one, but the estimation of the taxes I owe for my 2013 income disagrees.
Lamenting the lost
I saved a lot, but I lost a lot more. A lot of notes, a lot of half-written books. I don’t mind the rewriting, but this puts a small crimp in my release schedule. Not a huge setback, but I resent anything that impacts my productivity.
Fortunately not much was lost on my current project, but I can’t say the rest for the rest of my projects. Here’s an updated release schedule for 2014:
Spring 2014
Infernal Revelations
Summer 2014
Great and Secret Game
Oh Human Child
Autumn 2014
Ghosts of Shaolin
Hero’s Journey
Winter 2014
Crimson City
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