Dan Harris's Blog, page 15
December 9, 2012
Win Free Kindle Books in the ‘Ten Kindle Gems for the Holidays’ Giveaway!
Do you like free books? How about ten free books? And what if all of those books were voted ‘Outstanding in Genre’ by Red Adept Select?
If so, you’ll want to enter the ‘Ten Kindle Gems for the Holidays’ giveaway! It’s completely free, and one lucky person will win all ten books, including a copy of ASCENSION POINT.
You can enter via my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/dan.harris.writer?sk=app_228910107186452, or through the Red Adept Select site at http://redadeptselect.com/ten-kindle-gems-for-the-holidays.
Best of luck!
December 8, 2012
Achievement Unlocked: Choose Title for New Book
Thanks to everyone who commented and gave your thoughts and suggestions for a title. I’ve given it a lot of careful consideration, and the winning entry is…
VENUS RISING.
I love it. It’s got the obvious SF implication from the word Venus, the ‘rising’ is dynamic and interesting, and the cadence of the two words flows really well.
The book’s coming along very nicely, too. I’ve been quite ill this last week, which has stalled things a bit, but I’m nearly there with the first draft. Midway through chapter seventeen (of twenty), 57.5K words done with only another 12-13K to go. I might even get the draft done before Christmas. We’ll see.
Exciting times!
December 4, 2012
Dean Wesley Smith on ‘How To Get Started Selling Fiction in 2013′
I don’t always agree with the advice DWS gives on his blog. And that’s fine–he wouldn’t want me to. He wants writers to think for themselves, make informed decisions, and take control of their careers.
Today’s advice, though, I think is absolutely spot-on. It’s ‘an article on the good stuff and the bad stuff you face in getting to a solid career as a fiction writer‘.
Here are some snippets.
‘Examples (not all by a long ways) of some major myths in 2013 are:
You need an agent to sell a book.
You need an agent to sell a book overseas.
You need an agent to sell to Hollywood.
Traditional publishing gives you better quality in production and editing.
If you lower your price to 99 cents on your novel, you will make more money.’
And the paragraph that really resonated with me, because it perfectly chimes with how I feel about writing:
‘The solution to [being in a hurry] is take a deep breath, focus on the writing and learning to write better stories and put the books out either indie or to editors or both and leave them alone. If you get a few buyers, great. If not, no big deal. Trust the audience and the editors to decide when you have graduated to professional-level storytelling.‘
I know ASCENSION POINT is a good book. I wouldn’t have published it otherwise. I had a professional editor tell me what was wrong with it–and there were a lot of things wrong with it. We fixed them.
Is it ‘professional-level storytelling’? Maybe. My readers so far have really enjoyed it. And I’ve got a few buyers, which is great.
Is it the best thing I’ll ever write? Not by a long way. And that’s fine. I want the last thing I ever write–at the age of ninety-two while living in a bubble city on Mars–to be that best thing.
But I’m getting there.
December 2, 2012
November Sales Report: Solid First Month
December has rolled around, which means I’ve reached the end of my first month as a published author. As many of you who follow this blog are writers as well as readers, and might be considering taking the self-publishing route yourselves in the future, I thought it might be interesting, and maybe useful, if I shared my sales numbers along with info on what promotion I did to get there.
So, without further ado…
Sales and Earnings
Copies sold: 34 (Kindle – 16, Paperback – 16, Kobo – 2)
Earnings: $92.70
% to Profit*: 8.0%
(* How much I’ve earned back so far of the cost of producing the book.)
Now for some caveats:
These figures aren’t for exactly one month: the e-book edition of ASCENSION POINT was available from October 21st, while the paperback wasn’t out until November 7th. Close enough for my purposes, though.
I’ve recently discovered that it takes Smashwords up to two months to report sales from the retailers that it distributes to (Barnes and Noble, Apple, etc). I could have sold a few there, but I won’t find out for a while.
A LOT of these sales were to friends and family, probably as many as half. That isn’t going to happen every month, of course, so it wouldn’t surprise me if December’s numbers were lower as a result.
Promotion
Not a huge amount, to be honest. Here’s a breakdown:
I talked about the book a lot on this site, of course, which I think generated a few sales.
I posted to my private Facebook profile that the book was out, which got a lot of interest from friends. I sold ten copies in the two days after that post which I can directly attribute to it, I think.
I bought an ultra-cheap five-day run as an ‘Indie New Release’ on Flurries of Words for $5. Hard to tell what impact this had, as it overlapped with the bump from the Facebook post.
Every time the book got an Amazon review, I tweeted it, e.g. ‘Another 5* review for #AscensionPoint’ then the link to the review. No idea if these prompted anyone to buy a copy.
So all told, a decent start to my writing career. I’m very happy, and I’m looking forward to seeing what December brings!
November 29, 2012
Let’s Get Interactive: Pick a Title For My New Book
I’ve been using the working title ROGUE for my second novel, the sci-fi thriller follow-up to ASCENSION POINT. It’s a nice enough title, sure, but it was pointed out to me today that it’s… well, not very distinctive. And, even worse, it’s already the title of a couple of other novels.
(One’s by Danielle Steele. While having a novel with the same title as one by an author who’s sold 800 million books might work out in my favour, it also really, really might not.)
Which is where you lovely folks come in!
I’ve thought up a few possible titles, and there’s a poll at the bottom of the post where you can vote for your favourite. Or even suggest your own! I’ll pick a winner next Friday. And if I end up using your suggestion, I’ll send you a free copy of the book (paperback or e-book) once it’s published as a thank you.
Before we get down to voting, here is the current blurb for the book. It’s very rough, and the wording is nowhere near final, but it should give you a good feel for the story, and get those title-judging juices flowing.
* * * * *
A year has passed since the events of ASCENSION POINT, and the galaxy shifts uncomfortably as the opposing forces of progress and tradition threaten the new and fragile peace…
Titan society teeters on the brink of civil war.
The Commonwealth bristles with hostility towards the returning Seryn.
While the Collective remains silent in the spaces between the stars, watching. And waiting.
Against this backdrop of turmoil and unrest, the Peacetrooper brother of Senator Neela Kane has gone missing. Intelligence places him on Karak, an Independent desert world: Operative Dante Zo is dispatched to bring him home—or confirm his demise.
Quinn, employee of the shadowy Seryn Agency, is also headed to Karak. Rumours abound of a fierce and sudden tribal war, centred around a mysterious foreign woman with uncanny power—Venus. The Seryn’s most dangerous rogue agent…
Meanwhile, on Karak itself, other forces bring their pieces into play. Tasha, a young but mercurial assassin, is unleashed—to kill the foreign witch, and bring peace back to her home.
But with a renegade Titan mercenary at her side, Venus will let nothing stand in the way of her plan. And the conquest of Karak is just the beginning…
With a world in the firing line, and the fate of the entire galaxy at stake, only one question remains.
In the name of duty, is there anything that can’t be sacrificed?
* * * * *
Poll time!
Simon & Schuster Joins Forces With Author Solutions To Rip Off Writers
Reblogged from David Gaughran:
Simon & Schuster has launched a self-publishing operation, Archway Publishing, contracting one of the most disreputable players in the business to run the show: Author Solutions.
We’ll get to that distasteful link-up in a second, but first let’s have a look at what Simon & Schuster are offering prospective customers (i.e. writers).
Fiction packages start at $1,999 and go up to $14,999.
If you're a writer and you're not following David Gaughran yet, you probably should. This post is required reading: protect yourselves, writers!
November 28, 2012
What Makes the Culture So Great?
Just a quick one: SF Signal asked a group of sci-fi heavyweights what’s great about Iain M. Banks’s Culture novels. (Apart from the obvious answer, ‘everything’.)
Well worth a read, here.
November 27, 2012
Of Atheists and Comic Book Movies
What have I been reading today? Well, there’s a great rant by Charlie Jane Anders on io9 here on why atheists should read more science fiction.
“Most of the time, these are geeks who have immense respect for science… and yet, they won’t recognize a situation where they simply have no data, one way or the other.”
There’s also a great quote from the legendary Carl Sagan:
“Carl Sagan is frequently described as an atheist — but there’s also a quote commonly ascribed to him where he rejects that label, saying: “An atheist has to know a lot more than I know. An atheist is someone who knows there is no god. By some definitions atheism is very stupid.”"
Then in comic book movie news we have double-Xavier double-Magneto in the upcoming X-Men movie, and the completely unsubstantiated rumour that the marvelous Joseph Gordon-Levitt might be playing Batman when the long-anticipated Justice League film happens. No doubt paving the way for a truly shocking Batman-trilogy-without-Bruce-Wayne situation.
It’s a good time to be a comics fan.
November 24, 2012
So The New Book’s Coming Along Nicely
I’m thirteen chapters of twenty into the first draft of my second book, ROGUE. Forty-five thousands words done, probably another twenty-five thousand to go.
It’s a follow-up to ASCENSION POINT, rather than a sequel: it’s set in the same universe, and the events and characters from the first book are referenced–there’s even a cameo or two–but it’s not a direct continuation of the story. (A year has passed between the two books, for one thing.)
The pace of my writing has picked up a bit now that I’m into act three, or ‘the really exciting bit at the end’, as we industry professionals call it. I’m pretty confident I’ll be able to get the draft done before the end of January, even with a couple of weeks off for Christmas and our New Year summer holiday. Then, depending on how long the various edit phases take, I should be ready to publish in April.
Which is only six months after I released ASCENSION POINT, now I think about it. Two books a year? Seems unlikely, but who knows!
