David VanDyke's Blog, page 6
July 15, 2013
A funny thing happened on the way to the end of the series
So as I was writing the final Plague Wars book – I thought – I began to realize several different things at once. One was that the books had shaken out into two very distinct parts, one on Earth during the next story year, covering the happenings on the planet, the struggles to reunify or at least resolve the major problems keeping the human defense effort from coming together for the anticipated arrival of the Meme Destroyer ship that they expect, about nine years out. I’m 90% done with this part.
The other part of the book, which I only have about 20% done, is the military and economic run-up to the climactic battle, and then of course the battle itself. This part of the book would cover about eight years of story time, skipping forward year by year for about half of this part and the final part being the detailed battle sequence.
Well the story kept lengthening and lengthening. Orion Plague was almost 100K words, and this was headed for something like 120. Nothing wrong with that per se but given the relatively distinct natural partition, I wondered if it would not be better to split it into two books.
This would do several good things.
One, it would allow me to dodge the “get it done” syndrome that afflicts most writers, and allow me to concentrate on the first book for a more complete and satisfying story.I would be able to concentrate more on that single story, and not worry about the next part, and vice versa, getting the first one off my mental plate for the second. I genuinely believe this will result in two better pieces of work.
I would also be able to fill in some gaps I would have otherwise left, fleshing out some holes that, while not critical, nevertheless beg to be filled. It’s easier to keep a smaller more concise story in my head than a sprawling one.
It would also give the fans something to read earlier rather than later. As an author and marketer, it has the advantage of creating more distinct works that will probably be better received individually. It will also keep the series visibility high a little longer as the two different parts have their own separate presence on the Hot Releases lists and their own category lists.
The price will stay the same; two smaller works, still novels at around 60-70K words for $2.99, instead of one larger work at 120K for 5.98. This is not an attempt to stretch things out and squeeze more money out of anyone; rather, I really believe it will be win-win (or is that Nguyen-Nguyen?) for all involved.
Here’s a sneak preview of the cover of the final book:
So in conclusion, I expect to have the next book – haven’t decided on a final title, though it will have the word “Cyborg” in it because cyborgs figure so prominently in it – out around the end of the month, and then Comes The Destroyer, the final Plague Wars book, out less than a month after that. And then Tactics of Conquest, Stellar Conquest Book 3, about a month after that…it never ends, and I love it! Happy reading.
Filed under: Writing Blog
July 13, 2013
A reader poll
All right, here’s a real hypothetical, and your answers will influence my decision. I have the final book in my Plague Wars series two thirds finished. It’s shaking out into two distinct parts: what happens on Earth and what happens in space. The Earth portion precedes the space portion. So, it will nearly be two books in sequence, each 50-60K words (that’s about 250 trade paperback printed pages for those who are not familiar with word counts) – essentially two shortish novels or one long one.
As a reader, assuming the price were the same overall, would you rather see the first part published a month sooner at $2.99, then the second part a month later at $2.99, or would you rather wait for one book all together at $5.98? I would probably use the same cover and call them Comes the Destroyer: Part One and CTD: Part Two, with a short explanation to that effect.
I’d love to hear what everyone thinks.
Take Our Poll
Filed under: Writing Blog
June 30, 2013
Reaper’s Run Crosses the Finish Line
So I just hit Publish on the latest installment in the Plague Wars series, called Reaper’s Run. It’s your favorite female ass-kicker Marine Sergeant Jill Repeth’s origins story, though it’s stripped down and action packed. There’s always more that could be written but too much back story does not a good front story make.
This one is good.
RR chronologically fits between books one and two, but I also designed it as an alternate introduction to the whole series. With discoverability the #1 problem for independent authors, I am gambling that a different path leading to it, as well as an addition to it, might introduce the series to some new fans.
The book also contains a bonus post-apocalyptic novella in keeping with the theme: The Last Man by Ryan King. It’s another experiment in discoverability, to see if we can help some folks find Ryan and his excellent suite of short stories, novellas and at least one novel as of this writing.
I’m still working on Comes the Destroyer, Plague Wars book five, which I am hoping to complete around the end of July. I’ve also begun editing a book by Vaughn Heppner that is turning out to be very interesting, and I suspect will do well when it gets published in a month or two. It’s a gritty alien-invasion story of one man’s struggle against overwhelming odds.
So whether you’re already a fan, or are new to the series, take a look at Reaper’s Run.
Cheers and keep reading,
Dave
Filed under: Writing Blog
June 23, 2013
Reaper’s Run Approaches
I just finished the draft of Reaper’s Run, which expands the story of Marine Sergeant Jill Repeth’s escape across an increasingly darker and uglier America. The first few chapters are drawn directly from Eden Plague and Demon Plagues, but the rest of the book is completely original.
Chronologically it fits between books 1 and 2 of my
Plague Wars series, and fills in an important gap. One complaint some readers have had is the 10-year jump from book 1 to 2. I wrote them that way because I wanted to tell the later stories, but I found this one kept demanding my mental attention. It was mostly built in my mind before I ever started to write it, so it was not terribly difficult, and along with the action-packed tale itself, it also provides a lot of background and context for the rest of the series that will really enrich the readers’ understanding of and connection to the material.
I should have it published by the weekend of the 4th of July.
Here’s the cover: simple and clean, and evocative, I believe.
The next item on my list, currently in the middle of, is copy-editing Russell Blake’s new thriller “Upon A Pale Horse,” not to be confused with “On A Pale Horse” by Piers Anthony. Blake’s upcoming book is a high-powered, pulse-pounding suspense novel, less overtly violent than his Jet books but actually more intense because of it. The theme is conspiracy and biological experimentation, but I can’t tell you any more than that. I expect he’ll have it published within a month, but that’s just an educated guess.
After that I’m beta-reading and editing Nick Stephenson’s “Departed,” the follow-up to his first Leopold Blake thriller (no relation to Russell…after all, one is a fictional character). I haven;t gotten far into it but I can tell you I liked it even better than his excellent debut novel, so I have high hopes.
After that I will be editing Vaughn Heppner’s new book, for which I do not have a title, but he tells me it’s a mil-sci-fi novel in a new universe or timeline, rather than his other Star Soldier series.
Interspersed with all this editing work I will be working on Comes The Destroyer, book 5 of Plague Wars. I have it half written, and hope (if everything goes right, go away Murphy) to have that out by the end of July. After that, I expect to get book 3 of Stellar Conquest out by the end of September. Yes, folks, the life of an indie author is never free of massive quantities of work. I love it.
One final thing: Donna Morang just published The Wild Side of Alaska. If you like true-life adventure stories, you’ll love this book, which is her own story starting from her childhood in Montana through her early adulthood in Alaska, hunting, fishing, gold mining, trying not to get killed by wild animals, wild weather and wild people. I edited it for her and I’m not just saying, it’s a really good story.
The Wild Side of Alaska on Amazon
Cheers and have a great week everyone.
Filed under: Writing Blog
June 16, 2013
Dead On Arrival – How Not To Be
Had an excellent question on the KDP forums the other day, which inspired me to write a pretty good blog post (I thought) off the top of my head. Then I thought, why let only the couple of hundred or so souls who cruise those boards see it, when I could share it with the tens of people who read my blog.
)
So the question was, “How do I make sure my new KDP book is not dead on arrival.” The poster had noted that many books were so bad when first published that that’s the way he considered them – no hope of sales, no hope of positive notice. So bad that promoting them would just draw negative notice, bad reviews, and a chorus of derision.
So here’s my reply, slightly edited:
Self-publishing a new book is like dressing for a job interview. There are several components of your ensemble that will cause the potential employer (buyer/reader) to dismiss you out of hand, before they even ask questions.
I’d put the items roughly in this order:
1. Cover. This is your first impression. Colorful, attention-getting, APPROPRIATE TO THE GENRE. Something like this:
2. Blurb. If the reader gets past the cover, he/she will probably read the blurb. Make it short, 3-4 sentences at most. It should contain a question or mystery, something to catch the reader’s interest. It should NOT be a summary of the book. Less is often more. Make the reader want to find out about the book, don’t tell her already.
Blurb should also be very, very, very well edited. One error in the blurb will kill a certain percentage of sales. Several will stop them altogether.
3. Formatting. The first thing I notice when I open the Look Inside is the formatting. It doesn’t have to be absolutely perfect; it’s not the most important thing in the world, but it is the most immediate thing the reader will see. Make sure indents are correct (not too large), chapter headings look right (centered, proper font size), no blank lines between paragraphs (on fiction).
4. Proofreading. Just basic spelling and punctuation. This is a must. Errors, especially early on, will kill your sales.
5. Copy editing. Grammar, word usage, clarity of meaning. Go over it yourself as many times as you need to, and then get others to do so. Pay someone if you have to, especially for your first book. This is where a lot of well-meaning writers stop investing in themselves. They don’t want to pay for a copy edit. But if they do, two good things happen: they get a much better first book (and so make a good first impression) and they will learn a lot from the editor and editing process, which will reduce the need for it in the future.
6. Opening hook. Unless your book is a direct sequel, you have to get the reader interested in those opening pages, be it the Prologue or Chapter One. Ideally, within the first three paragraphs the need to be interested, because that’s where they will make their initial decision about the book. With book 2, this is also a good idea. By book 3 or a series, the reader is usually committed to read and you can get away with a bit slower start – but a good fast start is never bad.
7. Content editing and/or beta reading. You often don’t have to pay for this; often other authors or readers will give you feedback on your story, plot, pacing, flow, all those higher-order things. It may take some begging or swapping between you and other authors, as in “I’ll do for you if you do for me.”
8. Ending. You want to have a relatively clean, clear ending. IMO raw cliffhangers, i.e., leaving the protagonist in mortal danger, smacks of cheap tactics to buy the next book. IMO, and others may disagree, you should have closure of the main story line, but leave some hanging thread, some mysteries, some interesting pieces that entice and promise more later. You book creates a relationship between you and the reader. Relationships need both satisfaction and something to look forward to, until the end of the series or the standalone book, at which point, if you are sure it’s over, make it over and say “The End.” Don’t end your book ambiguously unless you really will do a sequel, or you are more interested in satisfying your craving for artsiness. The reader will be unhappy. Unhappy readers don’t buy more books or recommend you to friends.
9. Front and back matter. Keep front matter to a minimum, but do make sure whatever needs to be said is said, and that you put your “other books by this author” information in there, as well as your web site, FB and twitter pages, or whatever you want to allow the reader to know. When they hold your book in their hands is the moment when you have their complete attention, and the end of a good book is a good time to advertise another of your good books.
10. Teaser from the next book. If you have it written, even partially written, put something from the next book, or another book if a standalone, at the end of your book. It’s a free bonus to a fan, and an enticement to someone who is on the fence. Why not? There’s no downside. And with ebooks, you can put this in later when you’ve written it, even if you don’t have it ready when the book is published. Like your sample and/or hook, it should grab the reader’s interest, not merely fill in background info. Make them want to buy that next book.
And, from Kara Haskins:
We now have that new feature through Author Central that allows our readers to sign up to be automatically notified by Amazon when we publish something new. Mention it somewhere on each and every work, either in the front or back. Let readers know while they hold your book in their hands and it’s fresh in their mind that it’s fast and easy to ‘Stay up to Date’ with your releases. Of course they can do this through your website as well, but they might prefer to do so through Amazon.
***
…and the latest news on my work, I’m almost done drafting “Reaper’s Run,” which will fit chronologically between books 1 and 2 of Plague Wars. It tells the story of Jill Repeth’s escape across the USA during a time of great upheaval. I intend it to stand alone, but it also fills in the story nicely for those who want more Plague Wars material. It will come in at about 50K words probably, that’s 200-ish pages: a short novel or long novella. It should be released around the end of the month.
Then I have Plague Wars Book 5, Comes the Destroyer, half written. I hope to have it released about the end of July. Then I will need to write Stellar Conquest Book 3, which continues the mil-sci-fi story of humanity’s offensive against the Meme.
Cheers, and Happy Father’s Day, and late Mother’s Day for all you moms.
Filed under: Writing Blog
June 7, 2013
New Release – Desolator: Stellar Conquest Book 2
Well here’s a swift follow-up to the excellent launch of Planetary Assault, the anthology that contains First Conquest: Stellar Conquest Book 1. It’s called Desolator: Stellar Conquest Book 2. I wrote it immediately after book 1, with all the enthusiasm of a new creation, and I really think it’s even better than my average so far – which is still pretty good.
If you like combat/military science fiction, with warships, space marines, aliens creepy and conventional, and more Henrich Absen, Jill Repeth, Rick Johnstone, Bull ben Tauros and Spooky Nguyen, you’ll be happy with this new book.
Planetary Assault has been doing well, staying consistently in the 2000-3000 range of Amazon books overall, and sitting solidly on several Top 100 lists, thanks to the pull of the other two authors and, dare I say it, me too, and is picking up good reviews.
Speaking of reviews, if you can commit to reviewing any of my work, I’ll be happy to give you an ebook copy for free.
In other news, I am well along on Comes The Destroyer, Plague Wars Book 5, which should come out in July sometime. I also have a novella in the works, titled Reaper’s Run, which will tell the story of Sergeant Jill “Reaper” Repeth as she escapes across an apocalyptic America immediately after the Eden Plague is loosed on the world. Chronologically it will fit between the Eden Plague: Book 1 and the Demon Plagues: Book 2. Call it a 1.5.
Cheers, and have a great reading summer!
Dave
Filed under: Writing Blog
May 21, 2013
New Release – Planetary Assault: David VanDyke, BV Larson, Vaughn Heppner
First, exciting news: Two sci-fi authors and I have just released Planetary Assault, an anthology of three novellas (about 90,000 words all told, 300 or more pages), one from each of us. Mine is called First Conquest, which launches my new Stellar Conquest military sci-fi series. I am sure you will enjoy the other two excellent author’s stories as well. It’s available right now on Amazon, but eventually will show up on other venues.
Fans of Plague Wars will be happy to hear that several characters from PW, most particularly Spooky Nguyen, Sergeant Major Jill Repeth, Commander Rick Johnstone, and Admiral Henrich Absen, are carried 100 years into the future to be part of EarthFleet’s first assault and conquest of a Meme Empire solar system. In it you will find lots of fleet and ship action, a Marine assault, a covert operation, more on the alien Meme, and all the heart-pounding action you have come to expect.
More great news: Stellar Conquest book 2, titled Desolator, will be released in just a couple of weeks! The delay in Planetary Assault coming out has worked to your advantage, as it gave me time to write and polish up its follow-on. I may be too close to the subject, but I feel like Desolator may be the best, tightest, most gripping story I ever wrote. Then again, I think we authors always like our latest work best.
If you are unsure about getting into a new series without finishing the old one, Plague Wars, fear not! Plague Wars #5, Comes the Destroyer, which will cap the series, will release in July. More Spooky and Skull and Jill and Rick and Daniel. More covert ops on Earth, more high-tech advances, and more space battles as the fledgling EarthFleet prepares to meet the Meme Destroyer.
Phew! Happy reading and stay tuned on this channel for more updates as they happen.
David VanDyke
Filed under: Writing Blog
April 25, 2013
James Patterson and other stories
Hello from California, where my wife and I are on vacation.
Got a good one in my inbox today from fellow author Nick Stephenson. The link will explain it all, a must-read for indie authors and anyone interested in the state of books and publishing today (but not tomorrow or yesterday – things change so fast).
http://noorosha.com/openresponsetojamespatterson/
Latest news – I had hoped to be able to announce the publishing of First Conquest about now, but as it’s a combined project with two other mil-sci-fi-authors, it’s taking longer than anticipated. Let that be a lesson to everyone: add more authors, multiply time. However, it is getting close to done so I expect it to come out in May. It’s a short novel (almost 50K words) set 100 years in the future of the Eden Plague (Plague Wars) books, where humanity conquers its first enemy star system.
The other authors, BV Larson and Vaughn Heppner, have also written novellas that tie in to their respective mil-sci-fi series, so you will get three for the price of one. I believe it will be priced at 2.99 but as Larson is the point man on this, he’ll have the final say. Anything under five bucks is a great deal for all of the mil-sci-fi fans out there. I believe the anthology will be titled “Planetary Invasion” or something along those lines.
First Conquest will kick off my new Stellar Conquest series. The second book, Desolator, now running about 60K words, is very near done and I intend to publish immediately afterward.
Hopefully this cover will come out well on your screen.
Some of you probably wonder what happened to book 5 of Plague Wars, Comes The Destroyer. It’s still in the works, but I had to get FC done, then I was mused/inspired/whatever to write Desolator. Now I have to buckle down after this vacation and get ‘er done. CTD will round out the Plague Wars books.
After that I have several other projects. I am not sure which will claim my attention first, but I will probably write them in the order I list below:
A fantasy called In The Service Of The Queen. First person, in the style of Zelzazny’s Amber. It will be quite a bit different from the typical fantasy offering of today, which is a risk. But, I have to write what moves me. I already have this and the second book, titled One Man, One Blade, plotted out.
A straight PI suspense thriller in Nick Stephenson’s shared world – it will be billed as a Leopold Blake/Mary Jordan Thriller, probably titled Blackmailed. This will probably come out about when he brings out book 3 of his trilogy, which began with Panic and continues with Departed.
A musket-and-planet alternate history book, as yet untitled, which I would rather not reveal the plot and idea for, as I don’t think anyone has even done it quite like this before.
A YA space opera about a pair of gifted twins who stow away on a spaceship only to become part of humanity’s first encounter with an alien race.
Cheers to all and my next post will probably be announcing the publishing of FC.
Dave
Filed under: Writing Blog
April 5, 2013
It’s getting to be an oft-times thing…
…this roundup of stories, but I find myself running across so many good ones that I can’t help but share them. I guess you could call it meta-blogging, since for example the first link is a blog post commenting on two other stories. How deep does this rabbit hole go?
First up is a post on the topic of “What do readers owe authors.” Read the thing first, then see my comments.
http://www.teleread.com/promotion/what-readers-owe-authors/
What do I think readers owe us authors?
The price of the book.
That’s it.
After that, it’s all gravy. It’s great to have fans. It’s great to have fans that recommend your work – oh, yeah, that’s awesome. But no one owes it to us. It’s a gift when a fan tweets or facebooks or otherwise spreads the word about our books, but they don’t owe us. We are selling product here. It’s an affective product – like music or a movie, we are selling entertainment, an experience, that in its best form provides both fun and some kind of human improvement (fun first). It might engender loyalty and admiration, but not obligation.
So, dear reader, I love that you support me, but if I ever start to presume upon your gratitude…just shoot me. Metaphorically, anyway.
***
Here’s an article from the point of view of a publisher-friendly writer – something of an apologist, I would say, though not too unbalanced. This is different for me because I find myself most often anti-tradpub – not in principle, but in practice, because of their many miscues and the walls they have historically kept so high.
http://www.futurebook.net/content/can-publishers-disintermediate-amazon
The article, though a bit hard to follow, basically says this: publishers have shot themselves in the collective foot, and have to get their act together.
Surprised? Not me.
The thing that did occur to me, though, was that what has really, really changed in the last five years, is their gatekeeper status. And in fact, that status was the key to their success – and their ossification. God bless Amazon for blasting those gates open.
Now, publishers are increasingly relegated to, in essence, a talent agency not so different from those that manage actors. A publisher can relieve a writer’s load by providing marketing and product-improvement services (cover, editing,) and a lot of generalized and insider know-how – but no longer do they have the cozy deals with the big-box book chains which have themselves lost control of their market. In fact, the publishers and bookstore chains were so incestuous (okay, let’s be fair – merely orgiastically in bed with each other, not actually breaking any laws) that when Amazon opened the bedroom door, both got tipped onto the floor at the same time.
All right, I may be stretching a metaphor, but hey, that’s the fun of writing.
Bottom line, publishers are no longer the exclusive gatekeepers – and in fact, many have smartened up and realized that cherry-picking indie talent is a sure-fire way to profitability. So now, like in many industries, there are now two broad roads to success – the old way through the publishers, and the new way as an indie. It’s rather like, say, breaking into movie/TV acting. You can go the Juilliard and Shakespeare route and get lots of credibility the conventional way, or you can get out to Hollywood, wait tables and show up at every audition until you get a gig, and work your way up. Before Amazon and KDP, there was only one way – through the publisher gates.
I said it before, and I’ll say it again. God bless Amazon, for what they did. No matter what they may do in the future, they’ll always have Kindle on their karma.
***
A very interesting post on some not-so-obvious ways to market your book. The one about giving a free ebook copy to everyone who buys a print copy interests me; I just have to figure out how to do that.
http://www.futurebook.net/content/can-publishers-disintermediate-amazon
Filed under: Writing Blog
April 4, 2013
A couple of good e-publishing articles for you.
This one is great, as most of Ms. Rusch’s are, as insight into a midlist author and her wisdom and travails. There’s a lot to absorb here. My bottom line takeaway ended up being, stay indie until you’re sure the deal is strongly to your advantage, and always have more than one lawyer/agent review the potential contract.
http://kriswrites.com/2013/03/27/the-business-rusch-the-logic-behind-self-publishing/
Here’s one from Hugh Howey, who is or should be a hero to all independent authors. He makes the point that if you want to make it, don’t expect to write a single book and hit the big time. Even EL James actually did not do that – she had a huge following in fan fiction before the translated that popularity into 50 Shades. He also makes the point that success is variable and in the eyes of the beholder. For some, making a few hundred bucks a month is success, a nice paying hobby. For others, they want to go full-time and need several thousand a month to pay the bills.
He also echoes what I have been saying all along – a self-pubbed author is akin to other independent artists – musicians, painters, sculptors, etc., and needs to start from the ground up. Unless they get lucky enough to win Idol at age 16, most musicians built their career for years before getting “discovered” and hitting the big time.
He also points out what I realized long ago – a digital backlist will keep on giving for the rest of an author’s life, as fans discover and then decide to read all of the books. And he mentions price – lots of people are pricing themselves out of the market because they don’t want to “give away” their work. Just do the math. 10x the fans at 2.99 makes more money than 1x the fans at 12.99.
I could recap a bunch of wisdom here but hey, just read the article.
http://www.salon.com/2013/04/04/hugh_howey_self_publishing_is_the_future_and_great_for_writers/
Filed under: Writing Blog
