David R. Michael's Blog, page 25

THE SUMMONING FIRE – New Review

 
The Summoning Fire rated 4 tentacles at She Never Slept.
 
Michael does an excellent job of showing how people cope with the new world order, from a heartbroken man who offers Reese temporary shelter to my particular favorite, a group of children who are forced to scavenge for food, including a human hand – a terrific example of this book's black humor…
 
Michael's novel is a stark tale of a woman on a mission of vengeance in a post-apocalyptic world who doesn't hesitate to mow down unholy bastards in order to reach the unholiest of them all, the monster who cost her everything and who doesn't take betrayal lightly…
 
Read the whole review here…
 
-David
 
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Junebug Day!

 
He came a few days over schedule, but with all the welcome we could muster. =)
 
-David
 
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A Bit More DavidRM Backstory

NOTE: I've been busy working on The Journal the past few weeks, which has a tendency to make me clam up (unless you ask me about The Journal, then I'll talk you into the dirt). This post is Part 2 of an essay-like-thing that I wrote in February 2005. Hard to believe six years have passed. I've written a *lot* since then, novels and stories, but most of this is still the way things are (or were). This is me.
 
I wanted to write before I ever wanted to make games. That bit of RM History has been going through my head a lot in the past couple years.
 
It all started with The Lord of the Rings. I read that (the first time) in 7th grade. Actually…no…that's not true. I can remember being inspired to write as far back as 4th grade. I would read books, like Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, and would want the story to just keep going. So I would think up…well…I didn't call them "sequels" at the time.
 
(Side Note: I first read Star Wars in 4th grade too. Oddly enough, as much as I loved the story, it didn't inspire me to write. At all. Odd. I wonder what makes some stories write-spirational and some not.)
 
The Lord of the Rings, though, was a turning point. That's when I shifted toward fantasy. A shift that was hammered home the first time I read The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever. I was caught up in the creation of my own worlds. I even made a couple of languages. I created multiple cosmologies, various ways that magic worked (or didn't work). I created "chapter outlines" for a series of books about 2 brothers brought by magic into a fantasy world where they become warriors and leaders in an epic battle against a very Mordor-like evil. I drew pictures of the important characters. I created maps that fit the stories I could see unfolding.
 
I seldom finished anything, though. I dreamed big. Too big.
 
As I moved into high school I actually started work on a novel that was set in a post-apocalyptic world. I was heavily influenced by Tunnel in the Sky and its story of teenagers stranded on a strange planet. I kept the kids on earth, and used a nuclear war to isolate them in a valley. I wrote my first story in that "timeline" in 8th or 9th grade. Then I projected into the future, thought about the civilization that would result, and wrote about that civilization moving past the boundaries of its small valley out into the world of the post-nuclear war Southwest USA. The first "draft" of the book was probably too short to be called even a novella: 50-ish handwritten pages. When I went back to type it, though, it grew. And then I had an inspiration for how to make the story better, and it expanded again. And became more complex and more interesting. I still think that the story line I had plotted out would be a viable book. [2011 Note: Maybe not so much anymore.] I used an "outline" to plot that story. I would use a pencil and ruler to create indentation lines on pages of a spiral notebook so I could have a neat-and-tidy outline. I probably worked on that novel off and on over 2-3 years. I still have the 200+ typed pages of the manuscript. [2011 Note: Odds of them ever being seen by anyone? Very slim.]
 
In college, most of the writing I did was class reports. Also, by that time, I had caught the bug to design and build video games. That sucked up most of my fictive inspiration, I think. And then came the role-playing games (RPGs). For the years from 1989-1993, I thought that I could use both RPG's and games as a substitute for writing fiction.
 
My frequent stops and starts with fiction writing in the decade before had shaken me. And I got scared that I wouldn't be able to finish a story, much less a book. But video games and RPG adventures: those I could do. Plus, those I could do with other people contributing in various ways. Took some of the burden off me.
 
I remember in 1992 I found an old notebook page with 3-4 handwritten paragraphs. I read them, and it was the first time in my adult life when I read fiction I wrote and thought, "OK. That's not bad at all." I sat down and expanded those few paragraphs of character description into what I consider my first real short story, with a beginning, middle and end. And it didn't suck. (It's painful to read now, but it still "doesn't suck.")
 
Unfortunately, after that, I got stuck again. When I wasn't working on expanding my RPG rules (250 single-spaced manuscript pages by the time I abandoned it), I tried to work on fiction…or said I was trying…but all I was doing was going back to that one story and editing it, over and over. Sometimes I might even have made it better.
 
In the late 1990′s, I started writing non-fiction articles for GDNet [www.gamedev.net]. I couldn't do fiction, it seemed, so I wrote what I knew: game development. I would still have the occasional story idea, but most of what I was "writing" then was week-by-week RPG adventures. The GDNet writing grew over time, and eventually resulted in me writing a chapter in one book and then writing my own book about indie game development. [2011 Note: And then another book about so-called "serious games".]
 
Non-fiction writing always seemed like "cheating" to me. Sure, I was writing, but it wasn't the type of writing I had longed to do all those years ago. (I don't think I ever got past that "non-fiction is cheating" mentality until last year [2004]. I still struggle with it some.) The writing for RPG's also seemed like a kind of cheating. At least it was fiction, made-up stuff, but it wasn't stories. I wanted to tell stories.
 
When I got the contract for the indie book, that gave me the confidence, for the first time in a long time, to tackle a novel. I started the planning in September 2002, as I wrote the first chapters of the indie book. It took me until June 2003 to muster the guts to actually write the novel. I didn't want to fail. Again. It's taken about 15-18 months longer than I thought it would, but that novel is almost finished. And I think it's pretty good. Or will be. [2011 Note: I finished that novel, Threads, in late 2005.]
 
I didn't plan to write an autobiography, but it seemed cathartic while it was happening, so I kept it up.
 
-David
 
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TrackerBox – Ebook Sales Tracking Software

 
Friend and fellow indie software developer/indie writer, Mark Fassett, has announced the release of TrackerBox, his new ebook sales tracking application.
 
Highlights of TrackerBox

Import sales reports from all of these ebook vendors:

Amazon KDP
PubIt
Smashwords
CreateSpace
All Romance eBooks

Support multiple Authors and Pen Names
Track sales for every title and chart your sales and income progress
Group and sort reports by any column
Apply parameters to the reports, including selecting multiple titles, authors, and/or Vendors
Export reports to XLS, PDF, CSV and HTML
Run multiple reports and see them side by side

 
A few miniature screen shots:
 


 
You can read about TrackerBox on Mark's Web page, here:
http://www.storyboxsoftware.com
 
-David
 
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I Don't Know, So I Write

NOTE: I've been busy working on The Journal the past few weeks, which has a tendency to make me clam up (unless you ask me about The Journal, then I'll talk you into the dirt). This post is from an essay-like-thing that I wrote in February 2005. Hard to believe six years have passed since then. I've written a *lot* since then, novels and stories, but most of this is still the way things are. The way I am.
 
In most cases, I know what I believe. And I know why I believe it. That's something I've worked on since my teenage years.
 
I expect that what I believe will be visible in my fiction … though when I look at my novel (Threads, unpublished) … I don't really believe in either magic or ghosts or fate, but there they are. Quite prominent, actually. So besides those, I think my beliefs about the individual, free will, and so will be discernible.
 
In fact, it's probable that my fascination with ghosts and fate (for example) are a direct result of my atheism and belief in free will. That's the unknown for me, and the unknowable, so they draw my attention.
 
I've never been a fan of starting a writing project with a theme. I'm not out to convert anyone. I'm quite the non-proselytizer. I don't like preaching.
 
The stories I've written as an adult … including RPG story arcs that I've put together … have been about:
 

Strong individuals whose choices have left them alone, crossing paths, recognizing someone they could love, but ultimately continuing on their separate ways.
Lots of RPG campaign arcs that deal with views about and/or avoiding/beating death.
Stories and RPG arcs that dealt strongly in betrayal and false appearances.
Failure as a necessary component of life.
Loneliness and being alone. Being an outcast, voluntarily or otherwise.
… probably some other less-than-cheery themes in the accumulated scribblings.

 
Thing is, though, I didn't start with any of those themes in mind. They just … happened.
 
Writing is all about making choices, of course. But some choices I prefer to leave to … not chance, really … but to a more organic process than just deciding, "My next story will explore themes of loneliness, showing that while the individual can exist by herself, totally isolated, she's happier when she connects with other people." Some choices seem more natural and spontaneous if they arise from the subconscious.
 
Also, I often will accept something that occurs randomly or semi-randomly more readily than if I chose it outright. I've noticed this most often when I'm prepping an adventure for an RPG session. It seems more "fair" (to the players, maybe?) if I let the dice decide, and then embellish, than if I pick something outright. On the other hand, it doesn't bug me to buck the dice if I don't like the result. If the result seems workable, I'll go with it. If it doesn't seem workable, or spur an idea that result could be creatively used, I'll roll again or just pick something.
 
So … I like to use writing to explore what I believe, and maybe even test it to see if it makes sense. I like to explore the periphery, the unknown and unknowable, creating systems that could work … maybe … like rules for how magic could work … and how the dead could interact with the living … and how fate and free will might exist side by side. Is there a god or a god-like being?
 
I don't know. So I write about it.
 
-David
 
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One of the Perks (and Curses) of Being Indie

No one tells you what you should work on. Either now, or next.
 
It's all up to you.
 
This is a very cool perquisite of being indie, I assure you.
 
But it's also one of the curses of being indie. When you're a one man show, "opportunity cost" isn't just an interesting concept you read about in business literature, it's a fact of life and work. You have limited bandwidth for focus and projects. Working on THIS usually means you cannot simultaneously work on THAT. You have to choose one or the other–and then stick with the choice until THIS or THAT is finished.
 
How to know which you should work on? THIS or THAT? As Hamlet put, "Aye. That's the rub."
 
I waste more time in indecision than pretty much anything else. Sometimes I'm amazed I get anything done at all.
 
You can try to calculate return on investment (ROI). You can list pros and cons.
 
Most often, though, whether THIS or THAT boils down to gut feel and more than a little bit of optimism/wishful thinking.
 
Right now, I'm leaning toward the choice that means I get to buy an IPad 2…
 
-David
 
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The Day Job Strikes Back!

 
For those of you that don't know, I don't have an actual "day job". I resigned my last full-time job in March 1999. I've been self-employed since that time developing and selling software (The Journal) and, until last year, the occasional video game, and even writing a couple nonfiction books about game development.
 
What I have called my "day job" over the last 12 years has varied from one year to the next. In 1999, it was Artifact 1. 2000, it was a unpublished game project for Sierra Online and Artifact 2. 2001, was The Journal 3. 2002-2003 was continued development of The Journal and writing my first nonfiction book, The Indie Game Development Survival Guide. 2004 was The Journal 4. 2005 was my second book, Serious Games: Games that Educate, Train and Inform. 2006 I split between A Short Story a Day and a game project that died a slow, painful death in mid-2007. 2007-2009, I worked on The Journal 5 (that took a lot longer than I had expected). 2010, I continued to work on post-release improvements The Journal 5 and in restarting my writing–and then adding "indie publishing" to my list of accumulated "indie activities".
 
Whatever project I have called my day job, though, for most of that time, The Journal has been my primary source of income. Which means no matter what else I work on, sooner or later I always come back The Journal.
 
The Journal makes it all possible, my indie lifestyle and my occasional odd choice of projects (like spending several months doing nothing but writing), my house, my family's continuing habit of eating and wearing clothes, et cetera.
 
All of that to say: I released an update of The Journal today (feel free to check it out). Mostly a maintenance release fixing bugs, but with a few new features that a small number of people will actually find useful.
 
And also to say: I now need to work on a more significant update of The Journal. That's going to slow down my writing for the summer. This shouldn't slow down my *publishing* (at least, not for a few months). I still have Gunwitch and GoSH1 and the omnibus collection which will be coming out. Writing new stuff, though, will be at a slower pace, especially for the next few weeks (I can only obsess about one thing at a time).
 
And, oh yeah–Baby Junebug is due in the next few weeks too. That'll probably have an impact…
 
The writing is not stopped, merely slowed for the summer. Just an FYI.
 
-David
 
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Writing Progress Report

 
Writing progress report for the week starting Monday, May 30, 2011.
 








Writing Project


Words




Monday


HoE2 plot tweaking.







Tuesday


HoE2


1011




Wednesday








Thursday








Friday








Saturday








Sunday


















Total



1011




 








Publishing/Marketing




Monday





Tuesday





Wednesday





Thursday


Updated stories posted in "Free Fiction" category on the blog to have "Free Fiction" in the post title.




Friday





Saturday





Sunday





 
Reading List

Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay.
Hazard by Gardiner Harris.

 
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9 Months of Indie Publishing – Ebook Pricing Addendum

My post from Wednesday disclosed my sales numbers over my first 9 months of indie publishing. Today's post talks about my evolving ebook pricing strategy.
 
When I released my first ebook, "Nostalgia", I priced it at $1.29. I came to this number based on the word count. I had come up with a word-count-based scale for short stories that looked workable to me at the time. Something like $.99 for anything up to 5000 words, and then increasing by $.10 per 1000 words. Or something like that.
 
That scheme lasted about a month. Then, with no sales of "Nostalgia", and a sudden urge to standardize pricing, I changed "Nostalgia" to $.99 and I've used that for short stories ever since. Regardless of word count. My available short stories range from 2000 words to 8500 words. They're all $.99. They've all sold at least one copy.
 

The Summoning Fire was my first indie published novel. There was (and still is) lots of chatter on the Web and forums about pricing ebook novels at $.99. But to me, that's the "discount bin" price. I avoid the discount bin as much as I can. $2.99 was another popular price, since it's the minimum price you can set on Amazon and still get a 70% royalty. (Some people seem to believe $2.99 is somehow "magic". I don't think that. I believe in simple math.) But $2.99 still seemed a bit low for a novel. From what I could see, $2.99 was doing well for novellas in the 20,000-word range and there were (and still are) lots of novels, indie and otherwise, doing well at higher prices. So I opted for $3.99. I also used $3.99 as the ebook price when I released The Girl Who Ran With Horses in late November 2010.
 
In March 2011, though, seeing that my unit sales of both The Summoning Fire and The Girl Who Ran With Horses were hardly impressive, I upped both ebooks to $4.99. Two-and-a-half months later, Horse Girl's sales have remained steady with a slight upward trend. TSF's sales have also remained steady–but not in as positive a fashion. So, the $4.99 price increase didn't hurt Horse Girl, but didn't help TSF (so far).
 
When I released The Door to the Sky in March 2011, I chose $2.99 for the price. Primarily because the novel is short. Only about 35,000 words. I added a bonus short story (about one of the main characters in the novel) to bring the total word-count of the ebook up to 41,000 words. So far, The Door to the Sky has sold only a few copies, but I don't think that's because of the price. I'm pretty sure it's the blurb and just the odd nature of the book itself. Not just the atypical nature of the story being told, but also the "mosaic" approach I used when structuring it.
 
I priced my first collections of stories at $.99 because they were on the shorter side. Nasty, Brutish & Short Short, with 13 flash fiction stories, came to just over 10,000 words. Serene Morning & Other Tales of a Little Girl has only 4 short short stories, with a total word-count of about 3600. The more recent collections have all weighed in at over 20,000 total words, so I priced them at $2.99. When I get the omnibus collection ready, since it will have about 70,000 words total, I plan to price it like the novels: $4.99.
 

 
Here is my current Ebook Pricing Plan:

$0.99 – Short story (or a small collection of flash fiction,
$1.99 – Long short story or short collections (10K-20K words) (unused so far)
$2.99 – Collections, short novels (20K – 50K words)
$4.99 – Novels, collections (>50K words)

 
Of course, all of this is subject to change. Evolution never sleeps.
 
-David
 
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9 Months of Indie Publishing

 
I uploaded my first indie-published ebook, the short story "Nostalgia", in September 2010. Since then, I've released 3 novels, 5 collections of short stories, and 9 more short stories.
 
(NOTE: I didn't *write* all that between now and then. I can be prolific, but I'm not superhuman.:-) )
 
My biggest (and most consistent) seller so far is The Girl Who Ran With Horses, followed (distantly) by The Summoning Fire, and then Nasty, Brutish & Short Short.
 
That said, my biggest seller, which I still call "Horse Girl", only (finally) crossed the 100-copies-sold marker in May.
 
Here are my sales numbers for all books as of 1 June 2011:
 




Total Books Sold


214












Novels







The Summoning Fire


31




The Girl Who Ran With Horses


111




The Door to the Sky


4












Collections







Nasty, Brutish & Short Short


18




Serene Morning & Other Tales


7




Demon Candy


4




The World Wears Thin


1




Brain Freeze & Other Stories


1












Short Stories







Nostalgia


9




Baptism


9




Curtain Call


2




Insanity


5




A Fine Mess


4




The Perfect Hiding Place


2




Evanescent


2




Sweet Tooth


2




Effie Two-Five


1




Secondhand Coffin


1




 
In general, being available longer means more total sales for a title. You really see this with the short stories. You can spot which ones have been out the longest. However, "Nostalgia" went 4 months before having its first sale, and Horse Girl came out two months later than The Summoning Fire.
 
Break-down by month and type of book:
 








Short Stories


Collections


Novels


Total




2010-09


0


1


6


7




2010-10


0


6


10


16




2010-11


1


5


7


13




2010-12


2


0


37


39






















2011-01


4


2


30


36




2011-02


7


7


13


27




2011-03


8


4


17


29




2011-04


7


3


12


22




2011-05


8


3


14


25




 
NOTE: The March, April & May numbers aren't "final". April & May will both improve as Smashwords's sluggish reporting continues to trickle forth data. I'm reasonably certain that everything *before* March is set and won't change.
 
I don't know that I have any lessons to impart.
 
My review queries for The Summoning Fire netted me about 10 reviews (and cost me quite a few more free copies than that), but never had any measurable effect on sales. My review queries for Horse Girl netted me fewer reviews, but–and this is a big but–sales for Horse Girl started *before* any reviews were posted, and have been about a consistent dozen or so per month since February (after selling 60 copies its first 2 months). I haven't done review queries for anything released since then. Which might account for Demon Candy's (no reviews) and The Door to the Sky's (1 review) poor performance. Or might not. I never requested reviews for Nasty, Brutish & Short Short either. Or any of the short stories.
 
The simple truth is: I'm still largely invisible as a fiction author. Until that changes, not much changes.
 
With each book or story I put out, I become a shade less invisible. How much less varies by the book or story. At least the effect is (mostly) cumulative so each new book gets to build on the ones already out there.
 
I have 2 novels that will come out over the summer. One of them (GoSH1) will probably help bolster sales of Horse Girl. The other (Gunwitch) might bolster sales of either The Summoning Fire or The Door to the Sky. Or maybe I'm wrong both counts.
 
I guess we'll see.
 
-David
 
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Now Available – "The Perfect Hiding Place"Now Available – "Insanity"Now Available – THE DOOR TO THE SKY