Jules Jones's Blog, page 64
January 8, 2012
2011 book log: 102) Edward Gorey -- The Lost Lions
I feel rather guilty about taking so long to write my review of this one, partly because Pomegranate were clearly hoping for timely reviews to drive sales for Christmas gifts, and partly because so many of my friends would doubtless have been very happy to help with the "Christmas gift" sales figures...
102) Edward Gorey -- The Lost Lions
Note: I received a review copy of this through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers programme.
Pomegranate provides a treat for Gorey fans with this new edition of a title from 1973 which has been long out of print as a standalone book, although it was available in omnibus format. Hamish, a beautiful young man who likes being outdoors, opens the wrong envelope one day, and finds himself on a path to fame and fortune in films. He finds this to be less appealing than one might imagine, and prefers to raise lions... The story is told in a bare 14 pen-and-ink illustrations with one sentence per illustration, and can be skimmed in a few minutes, but Gorey does a great deal with those 14 illustrations. It's not as blatantly macabre as some of Gorey's work, but still has that eerie, off-kilter humour that was his trademark. And the book might take only a few minutes to read the first time, but you could lose yourself for hours looking at the detail in the drawings and thinking about the things implied therein.
There are other books which are more accessible to new readers and I'm not sure this one would be ideal as someone's first introduction to Gorey, but you don't need much familiarity with his body of work to appreciate the faintly sinister whimsy of The Lost Lions.
At US$13, this edition isn't cheap, but you do get what you pay for. Pomegranate have a done a superb job on the physical production side. The book is a small hardback with high quality paper in sewn signatures, and crisp reproduction of the pen-and-ink illustrations. It's laid out with one sentence and illustration facing each other per page spread, on a 6 inch square page size that makes it easy to take in the whole illustration at once while still being large enough to see the fine detail. The cover illustration is in colour, but the interior illustrations are in the original black and white. If all you want is access to the story, there are other options, but Pomegranate's new edition is a gorgeous presentation that's a joy to handle. This is a perfect "indulgent treat" for anyone who loves both beautiful books and Edward Gorey.
My review copy came packed with two Pomegranate catalogues, and one of their Edward Gorey bookmarks, which was a nice item in its own right, and I think well worth the $2 catalogue price if you like nice bookmarks. It's crisply printed on heavy stock, and comes in a heavy plastic protective sleeve, from which it can be easily removed if you prefer to use it without the sleeve.
Hardcover smyth-sewn casebound book, with jacket. 32 pages, 6½ x 6 inches.
ISBN 9780764959578
Edward Gorey -- The Lost Lions at the publisher's website.
Librarything entry, with more reviews.
Mirror of http://julesjones.dreamwidth.org/169666.html, where it has received
comments.
102) Edward Gorey -- The Lost Lions
Note: I received a review copy of this through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers programme.
Pomegranate provides a treat for Gorey fans with this new edition of a title from 1973 which has been long out of print as a standalone book, although it was available in omnibus format. Hamish, a beautiful young man who likes being outdoors, opens the wrong envelope one day, and finds himself on a path to fame and fortune in films. He finds this to be less appealing than one might imagine, and prefers to raise lions... The story is told in a bare 14 pen-and-ink illustrations with one sentence per illustration, and can be skimmed in a few minutes, but Gorey does a great deal with those 14 illustrations. It's not as blatantly macabre as some of Gorey's work, but still has that eerie, off-kilter humour that was his trademark. And the book might take only a few minutes to read the first time, but you could lose yourself for hours looking at the detail in the drawings and thinking about the things implied therein.
There are other books which are more accessible to new readers and I'm not sure this one would be ideal as someone's first introduction to Gorey, but you don't need much familiarity with his body of work to appreciate the faintly sinister whimsy of The Lost Lions.
At US$13, this edition isn't cheap, but you do get what you pay for. Pomegranate have a done a superb job on the physical production side. The book is a small hardback with high quality paper in sewn signatures, and crisp reproduction of the pen-and-ink illustrations. It's laid out with one sentence and illustration facing each other per page spread, on a 6 inch square page size that makes it easy to take in the whole illustration at once while still being large enough to see the fine detail. The cover illustration is in colour, but the interior illustrations are in the original black and white. If all you want is access to the story, there are other options, but Pomegranate's new edition is a gorgeous presentation that's a joy to handle. This is a perfect "indulgent treat" for anyone who loves both beautiful books and Edward Gorey.
My review copy came packed with two Pomegranate catalogues, and one of their Edward Gorey bookmarks, which was a nice item in its own right, and I think well worth the $2 catalogue price if you like nice bookmarks. It's crisply printed on heavy stock, and comes in a heavy plastic protective sleeve, from which it can be easily removed if you prefer to use it without the sleeve.
Hardcover smyth-sewn casebound book, with jacket. 32 pages, 6½ x 6 inches.
ISBN 9780764959578
Edward Gorey -- The Lost Lions at the publisher's website.
Librarything entry, with more reviews.
Mirror of http://julesjones.dreamwidth.org/169666.html, where it has received
comments.
January 7, 2012
Booklog: October 2011
Yes, it's the extremely late book log for October, with books read 92 to 101 of 2011. All in one chunk below the cut.
92) Agatha Christie -- The 4:50 From Paddington [audiobook]
Read by Joanna David and abridged on 3 CDs. An enjoyable audio abridgement of this Miss Marple story, and one that works well to present the salient elements of the plot. The characterisations do suffer a little from the abridgement, as one might expect, but Lucy Eyelesbarrow, who acts as Miss Marple's sidekick in this novel, comes across fairly well anyway.
http://www.librarything.com/work/15489/summary/66958663
93) Joseph Lidster -- Torchwood: In the Shadows [audiobook]
Audiobook-only Torchwood novel on 2 CDs, read by Eve Myles, and set during and after second season. This is a creepy and very Torchwood tale of a strange taxi driver who sends his passengers to a hell dimension to be punished for their perceived sins. They return as corpses, having lived out the remainder of their lives in a personally-tailored Hell while only a few hours have passed on Earth. Torchwood takes an interest in one of the missing person cases, and Jack finds himself on a trip to a Hell where death is the only release -- and temporary death doesn't count. A well-crafted horror story with good characterisation, and some interesting development of the relationship between Jack and Ianto. Eve Myles isn't quite as good a narrator as the others I've listened to, but still does an adequate job. I'd note that the plot driver is yet another religious fanatic -- they seem to be more common in the audiobooks than in the tv episodes.
http://www.librarything.com/work/4708716
94) Michael Kring -- The Space Mavericks
First in an early 1980s space opera series which was never completed. Trading ships are divided into those belonging to the big conglomerates, and independents known as mavericks, with no love lost between the two groups. Enough mavericks have been beaten or even killed that maverick pilot Fripp Enos has had himself modified -- an alien medical procedure that enhances the body's natural defences in some startling ways. Few people had the procedure done even before it was outlawed, so Fripp can usually win a fight against even an armed opponent. Which is useful, because even though Fripp doesn't look for trouble, trouble inevitably finds him.
Fripp rescues a teenage girl from a gang, and takes her to the police, only to find himself caught up in a government-sponsored kidnap plot. He and his partner rescue the girl again, and in the course of escaping and getting her back to her father, Fripp encounters a set of ancient ruins with active alien technology -- including a ring with strange powers. The novel wraps up the action-adventure plot involving the girl, but sets Fripp and Kohn on a course of trying to find out more about the source of the ring.
It's written in very purple prose, and it supplied more than its fair share of dubious gems for Thog's Masterclass in Ansible. It's also enormous fun, and not just in a "fun to poke holes in" way. The modification technology is well thought through with a believable downside to balance the advantages it gives Fripp, the book has an interesting take on the "ancient alien technology" theme, and it has my all time favourite description of hyperspace travel, with the concept of touching Spheres (actually of different shapes, not just spheres) which can only safely be crossed from one to another at the contact points, but where the foolhardy or desperate can slip along the interface to enter a new Sphere where they choose. And rather than being just the FTL needed to make interstellar travel feasible, the properties of Warp have a direct bearing on the plot. A happy teenage memory that's still fun to read, even if I recognise its flaws.
http://www.librarything.com/work/1214740/
95) Michael Kring -- Children of the Night
Second of the space opera series which began with The Space Mavericks, and alas the last one to actually be published. This one has a plot which stands as a good single episode in its own right, but leaves the arc story about the source of Fripp's alien tech ring at the point where Fripp and Kohn are merely one step closer to finding the answer. The series was clearly intended to include at least one more book to finish it off, but the third was never published.
In this book Fripp and Kohn get drawn into a revolution by a group of genetically engineered miners, and learn a little more about the ancient culture that created the ring. It's just as much purple prose fun as the first book, and I for one would have loved to have the chance to read the next one.
http://www.librarything.com/work/614337
96) August Derleth -- The Casebook of Solar Pons
Collection of Sherlock Holmes pastiche short stories. Well-written and enjoyable, even if the Watson avatar shows more than a little USian influence in his language.
http://www.librarything.com/work/439855
97) Sarah Pinborough -- Torchwood: Long Time Dead
Second of the three Miracle Day prequel novels. Torchwood is dead or scattered after the events of Children of Earth. The Hub is a wreck being excavated by the Department in search of artifacts to scavange. But one member of Torchwood just won't stay dead. The morgue drawers have burst open in the aftermath of the explosion, Suzie Costello is back, and she's brought company.
This is a well-crafted horror novel that builds on the existing features of the Torchwood universe to create a very nasty fate indeed for some of Cardiff's citizens, one that could spread to the whole world. While it's set in the immediate aftermath of Children of Earth, it ties into season one in a way that will add richness for existing fans while giving some Torchwood backstory for new fans. And Sarah Pinborough has done a great job of expanding on the character of Suzi Costello. There aren't many hard facts added, but we see more of her motivations and how she ended up as a killer.
An excellent look at what Torchwood, and its loss, mean to the people of Cardiff -- even if they can't remember their encounters with the team. Once again the Torchwood novels demonstrate just how good tie-in fiction can be.
http://http://www.librarything.com/work/11526105
98) Daniel Fox -- Hidden Cities
Third part of the medieval China-inspired fantasy by Chaz Brenchley writing under his Daniel Fox pen name. And make no mistake, this is the third and final part of a single story which began with Dragon in Chains, rather than the third of three novels. You'll need to have read the first two parts to get the most out of this book. Fortunately, that's no hardship. This is a complex story that needs the space to do justice to the lives of its characters.
At the end of the second part (Jade Man's Skin), the young Emperor had control of the island of Taishu, source of the jade that underpins imperial power, and was about to lose the city of Santung across the strait to the general who was attempting to overthrow him -- until the no-longer-chained dragon disrupted the petty wars of humans. In this volume the characters have to deal with the consequences -- the dragon will not permit boats to cross the strait unless they are protected by the presence of the Li-goddess of the sea, in the form of one of the children the goddess has taken for her use as a human avatar. As the humans play out their struggles for power, so do the dragon and the goddess, in a complex tales with many strands. It does not end in the boy Emperor winning back his entire empire, but that would not be the right end for this story, and it ends well enough.
As with the first two parts, this offers a thoughtful look at war and its aftermath, written in stunning prose. The trilogy is a long read, but well worth the time.
http://www.librarything.com/work/10300793
99) Ruth Rendell -- A New Lease of Death
Third of the Inspector Wexford series.
http://www.librarything.com/work/292941/
100) Terry Pratchett -- Wyrd sisters [audiobook]
Abridged audiobook on 3 CDs, read by Tony Robinson. Although it's abridged, it does a good job of presenting Pratchett's plot and characters, not least because Robinson is stunningly good at reading it.
http://www.librarything.com/work/1044878/61742418
101) Guy Adams -- Torchwood: The Men Who Sold the World
Third of the Miracle Day prequel novels. A CIA team goes rogue with a cargo of exotic weapons they were supposed to be escorting after transfer from the Department in the UK to the CIA. A cargo marked Torchwood... This one looks at CIA Rex Matheson, one of the new characters introduced for Miracle Day. And that's where it falls down for me, partly because I'm not that enamoured of Rex as a character -- although oddly, I like him better in this book than I did on screen. This is backstory for Rex, showing how he first got involved with weird tech operations shortly before the events of Miracle Day, and I think is likely to work better for new fans rather than those who've watched the show from the beginning. It's a competently written CIA agent thriller, but it doesn't resonate for me with way the prequels about the original team members did.
http://www.librarything.com/work/11526108
Mirror of http://julesjones.dreamwidth.org/169286.html, where it has received
comments.
92) Agatha Christie -- The 4:50 From Paddington [audiobook]
Read by Joanna David and abridged on 3 CDs. An enjoyable audio abridgement of this Miss Marple story, and one that works well to present the salient elements of the plot. The characterisations do suffer a little from the abridgement, as one might expect, but Lucy Eyelesbarrow, who acts as Miss Marple's sidekick in this novel, comes across fairly well anyway.
http://www.librarything.com/work/15489/summary/66958663
93) Joseph Lidster -- Torchwood: In the Shadows [audiobook]
Audiobook-only Torchwood novel on 2 CDs, read by Eve Myles, and set during and after second season. This is a creepy and very Torchwood tale of a strange taxi driver who sends his passengers to a hell dimension to be punished for their perceived sins. They return as corpses, having lived out the remainder of their lives in a personally-tailored Hell while only a few hours have passed on Earth. Torchwood takes an interest in one of the missing person cases, and Jack finds himself on a trip to a Hell where death is the only release -- and temporary death doesn't count. A well-crafted horror story with good characterisation, and some interesting development of the relationship between Jack and Ianto. Eve Myles isn't quite as good a narrator as the others I've listened to, but still does an adequate job. I'd note that the plot driver is yet another religious fanatic -- they seem to be more common in the audiobooks than in the tv episodes.
http://www.librarything.com/work/4708716
94) Michael Kring -- The Space Mavericks
First in an early 1980s space opera series which was never completed. Trading ships are divided into those belonging to the big conglomerates, and independents known as mavericks, with no love lost between the two groups. Enough mavericks have been beaten or even killed that maverick pilot Fripp Enos has had himself modified -- an alien medical procedure that enhances the body's natural defences in some startling ways. Few people had the procedure done even before it was outlawed, so Fripp can usually win a fight against even an armed opponent. Which is useful, because even though Fripp doesn't look for trouble, trouble inevitably finds him.
Fripp rescues a teenage girl from a gang, and takes her to the police, only to find himself caught up in a government-sponsored kidnap plot. He and his partner rescue the girl again, and in the course of escaping and getting her back to her father, Fripp encounters a set of ancient ruins with active alien technology -- including a ring with strange powers. The novel wraps up the action-adventure plot involving the girl, but sets Fripp and Kohn on a course of trying to find out more about the source of the ring.
It's written in very purple prose, and it supplied more than its fair share of dubious gems for Thog's Masterclass in Ansible. It's also enormous fun, and not just in a "fun to poke holes in" way. The modification technology is well thought through with a believable downside to balance the advantages it gives Fripp, the book has an interesting take on the "ancient alien technology" theme, and it has my all time favourite description of hyperspace travel, with the concept of touching Spheres (actually of different shapes, not just spheres) which can only safely be crossed from one to another at the contact points, but where the foolhardy or desperate can slip along the interface to enter a new Sphere where they choose. And rather than being just the FTL needed to make interstellar travel feasible, the properties of Warp have a direct bearing on the plot. A happy teenage memory that's still fun to read, even if I recognise its flaws.
http://www.librarything.com/work/1214740/
95) Michael Kring -- Children of the Night
Second of the space opera series which began with The Space Mavericks, and alas the last one to actually be published. This one has a plot which stands as a good single episode in its own right, but leaves the arc story about the source of Fripp's alien tech ring at the point where Fripp and Kohn are merely one step closer to finding the answer. The series was clearly intended to include at least one more book to finish it off, but the third was never published.
In this book Fripp and Kohn get drawn into a revolution by a group of genetically engineered miners, and learn a little more about the ancient culture that created the ring. It's just as much purple prose fun as the first book, and I for one would have loved to have the chance to read the next one.
http://www.librarything.com/work/614337
96) August Derleth -- The Casebook of Solar Pons
Collection of Sherlock Holmes pastiche short stories. Well-written and enjoyable, even if the Watson avatar shows more than a little USian influence in his language.
http://www.librarything.com/work/439855
97) Sarah Pinborough -- Torchwood: Long Time Dead
Second of the three Miracle Day prequel novels. Torchwood is dead or scattered after the events of Children of Earth. The Hub is a wreck being excavated by the Department in search of artifacts to scavange. But one member of Torchwood just won't stay dead. The morgue drawers have burst open in the aftermath of the explosion, Suzie Costello is back, and she's brought company.
This is a well-crafted horror novel that builds on the existing features of the Torchwood universe to create a very nasty fate indeed for some of Cardiff's citizens, one that could spread to the whole world. While it's set in the immediate aftermath of Children of Earth, it ties into season one in a way that will add richness for existing fans while giving some Torchwood backstory for new fans. And Sarah Pinborough has done a great job of expanding on the character of Suzi Costello. There aren't many hard facts added, but we see more of her motivations and how she ended up as a killer.
An excellent look at what Torchwood, and its loss, mean to the people of Cardiff -- even if they can't remember their encounters with the team. Once again the Torchwood novels demonstrate just how good tie-in fiction can be.
http://http://www.librarything.com/work/11526105
98) Daniel Fox -- Hidden Cities
Third part of the medieval China-inspired fantasy by Chaz Brenchley writing under his Daniel Fox pen name. And make no mistake, this is the third and final part of a single story which began with Dragon in Chains, rather than the third of three novels. You'll need to have read the first two parts to get the most out of this book. Fortunately, that's no hardship. This is a complex story that needs the space to do justice to the lives of its characters.
At the end of the second part (Jade Man's Skin), the young Emperor had control of the island of Taishu, source of the jade that underpins imperial power, and was about to lose the city of Santung across the strait to the general who was attempting to overthrow him -- until the no-longer-chained dragon disrupted the petty wars of humans. In this volume the characters have to deal with the consequences -- the dragon will not permit boats to cross the strait unless they are protected by the presence of the Li-goddess of the sea, in the form of one of the children the goddess has taken for her use as a human avatar. As the humans play out their struggles for power, so do the dragon and the goddess, in a complex tales with many strands. It does not end in the boy Emperor winning back his entire empire, but that would not be the right end for this story, and it ends well enough.
As with the first two parts, this offers a thoughtful look at war and its aftermath, written in stunning prose. The trilogy is a long read, but well worth the time.
http://www.librarything.com/work/10300793
99) Ruth Rendell -- A New Lease of Death
Third of the Inspector Wexford series.
http://www.librarything.com/work/292941/
100) Terry Pratchett -- Wyrd sisters [audiobook]
Abridged audiobook on 3 CDs, read by Tony Robinson. Although it's abridged, it does a good job of presenting Pratchett's plot and characters, not least because Robinson is stunningly good at reading it.
http://www.librarything.com/work/1044878/61742418
101) Guy Adams -- Torchwood: The Men Who Sold the World
Third of the Miracle Day prequel novels. A CIA team goes rogue with a cargo of exotic weapons they were supposed to be escorting after transfer from the Department in the UK to the CIA. A cargo marked Torchwood... This one looks at CIA Rex Matheson, one of the new characters introduced for Miracle Day. And that's where it falls down for me, partly because I'm not that enamoured of Rex as a character -- although oddly, I like him better in this book than I did on screen. This is backstory for Rex, showing how he first got involved with weird tech operations shortly before the events of Miracle Day, and I think is likely to work better for new fans rather than those who've watched the show from the beginning. It's a competently written CIA agent thriller, but it doesn't resonate for me with way the prequels about the original team members did.
http://www.librarything.com/work/11526108
Mirror of http://julesjones.dreamwidth.org/169286.html, where it has received
comments.
January 1, 2012
further to the website
Just had a chat with
![[info]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1380916456i/3231018.gif)
waveney
about installing WordPress for site maintenance, and CGI for embedding my LiveJournal on the site. Yes, I know WordPress is a blogging tool and this theoretically makes a LiveJournal embed redundant, but do you see me doing my primary blogging on WordPress at this moment in time? No, you do not, because my social network is primarily located on LiveJournal/Dreamwidth, and there are a bunch of us who use the LJ codebase tools and don't want to give them up. Rabbit is not moving wholesale to WordPress unless all of Rabbit's friends and relations do too, which is not happening.
Anyway, new tools are do-able, and will probably be done if and when I get around to it.
Prior to that, phoned
predatrix
and poked her about the bits of Syndicate 4 which she had managed to dig out last night. She's had problems emailing them to me, but we now think we have a workaround, and with any luck she'll even remember to do something about it when she gets back from dinner. Those will be going on the website once I receive them and tidy them up. And have composed a polite but firm version of "no, we are never going to write any more of it so don't bother nagging to see the rest of this." :->
Mirror of http://julesjones.dreamwidth.org/168890.html, where it has received
comments.
waveney
about installing WordPress for site maintenance, and CGI for embedding my LiveJournal on the site. Yes, I know WordPress is a blogging tool and this theoretically makes a LiveJournal embed redundant, but do you see me doing my primary blogging on WordPress at this moment in time? No, you do not, because my social network is primarily located on LiveJournal/Dreamwidth, and there are a bunch of us who use the LJ codebase tools and don't want to give them up. Rabbit is not moving wholesale to WordPress unless all of Rabbit's friends and relations do too, which is not happening.Anyway, new tools are do-able, and will probably be done if and when I get around to it.
Prior to that, phoned
predatrix
and poked her about the bits of Syndicate 4 which she had managed to dig out last night. She's had problems emailing them to me, but we now think we have a workaround, and with any luck she'll even remember to do something about it when she gets back from dinner. Those will be going on the website once I receive them and tidy them up. And have composed a polite but firm version of "no, we are never going to write any more of it so don't bother nagging to see the rest of this." :->Mirror of http://julesjones.dreamwidth.org/168890.html, where it has received
comments.
More stuff copied to AO3
I've copied Tales 5 (whole zine on one page) and the skeleton for Dead Boyfriend over to AO3, and there are collections set up should anyone wish to start adding their own stories to the relevant collections. I'll get around to doing Tales 6 some other time, because there's other stuff I need to do today.
Mirror of http://julesjones.dreamwidth.org/168538.html, where it has received
comments.
Mirror of http://julesjones.dreamwidth.org/168538.html, where it has received
comments.
Happy New Year
A happy new year to you all.
I'm hoping to have a nice quiet day with no running around, so I might actually catch up with my book log later. :-)
Mirror of http://julesjones.dreamwidth.org/168378.html, where it has received
comments.
I'm hoping to have a nice quiet day with no running around, so I might actually catch up with my book log later. :-)
Mirror of http://julesjones.dreamwidth.org/168378.html, where it has received
comments.
December 29, 2011
website updating, the profic one
Having had a fit of enthusiasm about doing some updates on the fanfic website for Gauda Prime Day, I have carried on and done some tweaking to the profic one, which hadn't been updated for [mumble] years either. So far it's mostly "I Aten't Dead", but in the course of this I decided that I should probably upload the fragments of the Syndicate honeymoon story that got written before Alex fell off a health-related cliff four years ago. It's never going to get finished, and the whole series is now OOP anyway, so fans who would like to see even a fragment might as well have the chance to. Trouble is, I don't seem to have more than the first 1400 words and some scribblings about the proposed plot (yes, it did have one), and I know we had more scenes written than what I've got. It's not in Google Docs, so the only known copy of the later bits must be on Alex's hard drive. From 2007. Which could be... problematic... I need to rummage in the Skype chat files and see if I can get that far back, and my mailspool.
It's rather weird hand-coding full HTMl after doing some fairly intensive work recently on two sites which will auto-format a lot of the HTML for you from your plaintext, or let you wysiwyg-edit your html. I still think it's easier for later maintenance if you hand-code and do proper indenting and the like, but it requires more effort to set up, and certainly more effort to remember to put it all in, including the paragraph markers.
Having had the experience of setting up a WordPress-based site, I'm wondering about the feasibility of transferring the site to a WP-based system. But running it on my own site would require non-trivial ongoing investment of my time on keeping it secure, which would probably wipe out any gains on making it easier to create new pages and re-arrange existing pages.
Mirror of http://julesjones.dreamwidth.org/167955.html, where it has received
comments.
It's rather weird hand-coding full HTMl after doing some fairly intensive work recently on two sites which will auto-format a lot of the HTML for you from your plaintext, or let you wysiwyg-edit your html. I still think it's easier for later maintenance if you hand-code and do proper indenting and the like, but it requires more effort to set up, and certainly more effort to remember to put it all in, including the paragraph markers.
Having had the experience of setting up a WordPress-based site, I'm wondering about the feasibility of transferring the site to a WP-based system. But running it on my own site would require non-trivial ongoing investment of my time on keeping it secure, which would probably wipe out any gains on making it easier to create new pages and re-arrange existing pages.
Mirror of http://julesjones.dreamwidth.org/167955.html, where it has received
comments.
December 27, 2011
author stuff to do
Besides 300 words a day, that is. :-) There are various projects that got sidelined because I didn't have the spoons, and which I should really do something about. Also some must-dos, like the tax returns (plural). Parking a to-do list here, to be added to as I remember stuff, in the hope of getting some of it done over the Christmas/New Year break.
UK tax return - deadline end January.
US tax return - deadline further off.
Update website
-- links to author/title pages on various third party sites
-- embed Livejournal on blog page (ask Richard@wavwebs about CGI)
-- new and more fashionable CSS stylesheet
-- or even put the old stylesheet on all pages
Convert various free reads currently on my website as webpages into actual downloadable ebooks in the most popular formats, and then bug friends and fans to download them onto different devices to see if I broke the file. In order of priority:
-- The two Lord and Master shorts
-- The Syndicate series, in reverse order (because some people had the first two but not the last two books)
-- everything else
Look at the unpublished and OOP shorts that are not on the website, and do one of
-- submit to publisher
-- experiment with self-publishing via SmashWords et al
The self-publishing route will probably require selecting a themed group I can publish as a chapbook-length anthology, to make the price per kword look reasonable.
I've doubtless forgotten something...
Mirror of http://julesjones.dreamwidth.org/167636.html, where it has received
comments.
UK tax return - deadline end January.
US tax return - deadline further off.
Update website
-- links to author/title pages on various third party sites
-- embed Livejournal on blog page (ask Richard@wavwebs about CGI)
-- new and more fashionable CSS stylesheet
-- or even put the old stylesheet on all pages
Convert various free reads currently on my website as webpages into actual downloadable ebooks in the most popular formats, and then bug friends and fans to download them onto different devices to see if I broke the file. In order of priority:
-- The two Lord and Master shorts
-- The Syndicate series, in reverse order (because some people had the first two but not the last two books)
-- everything else
Look at the unpublished and OOP shorts that are not on the website, and do one of
-- submit to publisher
-- experiment with self-publishing via SmashWords et al
The self-publishing route will probably require selecting a themed group I can publish as a chapbook-length anthology, to make the price per kword look reasonable.
I've doubtless forgotten something...
Mirror of http://julesjones.dreamwidth.org/167636.html, where it has received
comments.
10% off sale at Loose Id
My publisher is having a 10% off sale today (Dec 27 US time). Yes, I know ARe is having a 50% off sale, but some of Loose Id's titles aren't available at third party retailers (typically the ones where it's not cost-effective to pay the listing fees charged by the third party outlets). For my books, those are Black Leather Rose, Spindrift 2: Ship to Shore and Yule.
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December 26, 2011
Number-crunching - sales figures
Number-crunching updated to include 2011. The numbers here are the total sales from when the book first went on sale to the end of the calendar year cited. Which means you can also get the sales per year figures for 2009 onwards with a bit of subtracting, if you're so inclined.
This does not include sales over the Christmas period, as the publisher account period runs to the third week of the month. Next month is when I start to get an idea if the big push on selling ereaders this Christmas will show up in my sales figures.
from 1st day on sale until end of2008200920102011Black Leather Rose7749229951024Buildup 1: Mindscan1304146615541629Buildup 2: Pulling Strings711857918967Dolphin Dreams1739215123522725Lord and Master1510183920572390L&M 2: Taking Work Home648102012011408Promises To Keep1002111912001242Spindrift659801858924Spindrift 2: Ship to Shore419480510516
The pattern I was seeing last year continues -- sales direct from the publisher's website are a trickle (which is not surprising as all of these books have been out for at least three years, with my last release in August 2008). The bulk of the sales are coming from third party resellers, and the bulk of those are coming from Amazon. Second place now seems to go to ARe overall, although there's also a showing from Fictionwise and Barnes & Noble. Not much from Sony, although even there there's a handful of sales.
I made just over $2k in royalties, which given that I have no exposure from new releases for over three years, and have been doing no promotion, isn't too bad. It's certainly an incentive to keep working on the new book. :-)
And this shows very clearly why there will be no third Spindrift book, even though I know what the plot would be. The first Spindrift book is available on third party sites but has still sold fewer copies than three titles which are only available direct from Loose Id. If I were still writing full time and able to put out 2 or 3 books a year without risking quality, I might gamble on it, but I'm writing around a day job as and when my health is up to it. Not happening. I have more books I want to write than time to write them in, and sales are something I take into account when picking which one of them to put at the head of the queue.
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This does not include sales over the Christmas period, as the publisher account period runs to the third week of the month. Next month is when I start to get an idea if the big push on selling ereaders this Christmas will show up in my sales figures.
from 1st day on sale until end of2008200920102011Black Leather Rose7749229951024Buildup 1: Mindscan1304146615541629Buildup 2: Pulling Strings711857918967Dolphin Dreams1739215123522725Lord and Master1510183920572390L&M 2: Taking Work Home648102012011408Promises To Keep1002111912001242Spindrift659801858924Spindrift 2: Ship to Shore419480510516
The pattern I was seeing last year continues -- sales direct from the publisher's website are a trickle (which is not surprising as all of these books have been out for at least three years, with my last release in August 2008). The bulk of the sales are coming from third party resellers, and the bulk of those are coming from Amazon. Second place now seems to go to ARe overall, although there's also a showing from Fictionwise and Barnes & Noble. Not much from Sony, although even there there's a handful of sales.
I made just over $2k in royalties, which given that I have no exposure from new releases for over three years, and have been doing no promotion, isn't too bad. It's certainly an incentive to keep working on the new book. :-)
And this shows very clearly why there will be no third Spindrift book, even though I know what the plot would be. The first Spindrift book is available on third party sites but has still sold fewer copies than three titles which are only available direct from Loose Id. If I were still writing full time and able to put out 2 or 3 books a year without risking quality, I might gamble on it, but I'm writing around a day job as and when my health is up to it. Not happening. I have more books I want to write than time to write them in, and sales are something I take into account when picking which one of them to put at the head of the queue.
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half price sale at All Romance eBooks
For those who found shiny new ereaders under the tree yesterday, All Romance eBooks is having a Christmas and Boxing Day sale. From the email I got:
I will now indulgence in self-interest and link to my author page on ARe rather than to the top of the site. :-)
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The 50% Rebate will be offered on all Incentive Eligible titles as indicated by the Crown Icon for which payment is made via Paypal or Credit Card. (It can not be combined with other discounts).
See notes in the shopping cart for details. Offer is for December 25 & 26 US/Central. No Rainchecks.
I will now indulgence in self-interest and link to my author page on ARe rather than to the top of the site. :-)
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