R.J. Blain's Blog, page 73

A Play by Play Book Review: Fifty Shades of Grey, Chapter One

This entry is part 1 of 1 in the series Fifty Shades of Grey Play by Play

For those of you who know me more than a passing acquaintance are likely familiar with my inability to turn down a challenge when pride is on the line. There was this one time my husband ordered fish curry soup at an Irish pub, and it was so bad that he couldn’t finish it.

He loves seafood.

So my loving friends waved a few bills in my face and dared me to chug the broth. One of them, knowing me, made a comment about whether or not I could handle such a small bowl of soup.

The gauntlet had been thrown down, and I rose to the challenge.

If you want to see me look ill in the real life, just say curry and fish together in the same sentence. Next time, I’ll make sure to get a better bribe for doing it. (I have some dignity. Not much, but some.)

So, what does that little story have to do with Fifty Shades of Grey? Well, I was challenged. Dared. There were no bribery involved beyond a copy of the book being loaned to me for the purpose of my reading and reviewing.

I have a few motivations for reading this book, however. First, I want to see for myself if it’s as abuse and rapish as everyone says. I have pretty thick skin, and I have some familiarity with the bondage community. I’m not into it, but I know a lot of folks who are, and I’ve been friends with quite a few Dom/Sub couples.

I’m going in aware of the culture, aware of what constitutes as rape in one of these couplings (or scenarios, as specific instances are commonly referred to), and aware of the scene on a lighter level.

I’m also going into this wondering what the heck is so appealing about this story.

So, here goes. I will be quoting scenes from the book in small quantities as part of my play by play. If you’re uncomfortable talking about sex, rape, relationships, or anything of that nature, you’ve been warned. It’ll be here, and I have no interest in softening my opinion to make it easier to swallow.

I use affiliate links in this post. For reasons, involving earning money if someone clicks and buys the book. Greed, yo. I has it. Loads of it.

It begins. Yes, there will be spoilers ahead! ALL OF THE SPOILERS.

To be honest, I’m totally apprehensive about this book. I’ve heard terrible things about it–particularly about how poorly written it is. Poorly written books make me sick to my stomach, and I mean that in a quite literal sense. If this book is half as bad as I’ve heard, I’m going to need antacids before this is finished.

I scowl with frustration at myself in the mirror. Damn my hair – it just won’t behave, and damn Katherine Kavanagh for being ill and subjecting me to this ordeal.

The opening paragraph has brought me to a complete halt. This might be a new record. I’m the type of girl who is as likely as not to wrap my hair in a bun without untangling my long, frizzy locks. My perm died out months ago, and my hair is so brittle I’m amazed I’m not bald.

Within two sentences, I’ve learned I have absolutely nothing in common with this woman.

Seriously, who has someone to do their hair every day?! What is wrong with this woman?

She’s either really rich or really spoiled.

Oh, and it starts with a stare-in-the-mirror cliche. Sigh.

This is going to be a long post, and an even longer read. Well shit.

P.S.: I sleep with my hair wet almost every night, thank you very much. I like it. Go ahead and judge me and my messy locks.

Also, when I’m only two paragraphs into a book and have already found a plot hole/continuity error, it’s pretty sad. There is not enough coffee in my house for this.

I have reached the end of the first scene. Ana seems to fit the ‘everyone walks on her’ trope type so far. I don’t have a connection with her at this point. She looks like she might be a nice person, and if this Kate chick is trusting her to go to this oh-so-important interview, she might be somewhat competent, though her internal monologue is about as flaky as a toaster strudel.

The roads are clear as I set off from Vancouver, WA toward Portland and the I-5. It’s early, and I don’t have to be in Seattle until two this afternoon. Fortunately, Kate’s lent me her sporty Mercedes CLK. I’m not sure Wanda, my old VW Beetle, would make the journey in time. Oh, the Merc is a fun drive, and the miles slip away as I floor the pedal to the metal.

I think I understand why people have been saying the writing is bad. Most people would either say “I floored the pedal” or “I put the pedal to the metal” rather than both in the same line, since it’s saying the same thing.

Yeah, at this point, I’m sighing and making an effort to ignore the writing in this story. And the fact that a college student who is studying to be a journalist owns a Mercedes CLK, which is essentially an executive’s vehicle for those who can’t drive manuals but still want a luxury sedan.

If Kate can afford that car, why is she rooming with Ana?

I think I better stop trying to think too hard about this, before I hurt myself.

She hands me a security pass that has VISITOR very firmly stamped on the front. I can’t help my smirk. Surely it’s obvious that I’m just visiting. I don’t fit in here at all. Nothing changes, I inwardly sigh. Thanking her, I walk over to the bank of elevators past

the two security men who are both far more smartly dressed than I am in their well-cut black suits.

With the excerpt above, being totally honest, I could like Ana. She’s self-effacing, yes, but there’s a flash of humor here I actually like. There’s a little spark of something here.

This is sort of how I end up showing up at fancy places–way too under dressed. Maybe if it weren’t for the spoiled-girl introduction, I might find her likable.

I’ll say this much: EL James’s descriptive skills need a visit to boot camp. The telling here is so rampant, and her descriptions so poor, that I think I need a seeing-eye dog and a cane, since I’m definitely not getting any imagery in this book. That’s a a shame.

Confession Number One:

I have a soft spot for men who catch ladies when they trip over their own feet. I’m a tripper. I can trip over a stray hair shed by my cats. My husband has become a master at the one armed ‘save the wife’ grab. Except that time I spun around a door to pounce hug him and brained myself on the wall.

Not even he can save me from my stupidity.

Point to you, EL James. Point to you.

At this point in the novel, Ana is meeting Grey for the first time. Ana is a ditzy clutz, who makes me look coordinated.

“You sound like a control freak.” The words are out of my mouth before I can stop them.

The foreshadowing begins, I see.

At this point, I’ve come to the conclusion that Christian Grey is one of those unobtainable men; looks perfect, expects perfect, and wants imperfect so he can make it perfect–for him.

Personally, at the time Ana says the above gem of dialogue, I would have been planning my escape routes from the building, determined not to get involved with this guy any longer than necessary.

Ana is even flakier than the toaster strudel I mentioned above. Since he has dark copper hair, I’m going to go with rust.It’s plenty flaky.

It’s like watching an imminent train wreck; I see the trouble coming, and I’m bracing for impact.

I’m reading this interview, Ana is a bumbling so-and-so at it; can’t blame her there, I suck at those things as well. They’re scary, and she has every right to be nervous. That makes her pretty real in that regard. Grey is toying with her like a mouse.

Ana, however, is being painted as a very shallow person, with a very animistic need for Christian Grey.

I don’t like it.

That said, while he’s a jerk, and while he’s very obviously toying with her and her emotions, there’s nothing here yet that’s crossed the line for me.

Ana’s snarky, and in some ways, she really earns the verbal sparring from Mr. Grey at this point in time. I can’t say I wouldn’t do the same. I tend to get snarky during interviews, too. It’s a defense mechanism.

“Until we meet again, Miss Steele.” And it sounds like a challenge, or a threat, I’m not sure which. I frown. When will we ever meet again? I shake his hand once more, astounded that that odd current between us is still there. It must be my nerves.

My reaction to this startled me a bit. I was actually alarmed. I sat straighter, did the whole eyes narrowing thing, and tensed up.

After his behavior, his aggression, and toying with her like she’s prey, challenge or threat used in this way set off most red flags I have.

But, I think I get why people are interested in this. I know a lot of women (and no small number of men) who want to find that ‘love at first sight’ thing–and we’re being told, repeatedly, that Ana has instant chemistry with Mr. Christian Grey.

I will not speak about the writing quality, I will not speak about the writing quality, I will not speak about the writing quality…

I made it to the end of Chapter One! I survived!

At this point, I’m frighteningly curious to see just how Christian worms his way into Ana’s life–and why the hell she is challenging the Alpha predator when she’s obviously below him in rank.

She’s weird. Actually, she’s just flaky, and I’m not really sure Ana has a solid characterization yet. On one hand, I think she’s a smartass, on the other, I think she’s so sheltered that she wouldn’t know how to tie her own shoe strings–or brush her hair–without help.

How the hell does a piss poor college student get to be so sheltered? It’s the antithesis of being poor. Poor folks learn to rely on themselves, because they have no choice. This Ana is behaving like the rich girl… probably the rich girl many of us wish we could be.

I get that. A lot of us read to escape our own lives, and it’s pretty damned easy to slip into Ana, in the sense of idealistic desires. This is actually a pretty good psychological exercise in understanding people.

Women and men often desire what they can’t have, and Ana is in a position to live out those fantasies–however twisted they might be. Or unhealthy.

I dislike Kate. She threw Ana to the wolves. There’s absolutely no reason Ana should have been picked for this job. She could have wrangled someone competent for it, easily.

My general thoughts and opinions:

Chapter One, not the worst thing I’ve read, but by no means anywhere near the top of my list of good books. It’s tolerable. I haven’t thrown up in my mouth yet. The only character with any sort of actual consistency is the one secretary and Christian Grey, however, which worries me quite a bit.

 

Author Services: KDP Select

This entry is part 22 of 22 in the series Author Services - A Review Series

In a previous blog post, I discussed my financials. I had several people approach me and ask about January, the first month where all four of my titles were involved in the KDP Select system.

KDP Select is Amazon’s exclusive system. In exchange for exclusivity on Amazon, I get access to free book promotions (five days of ‘selling’ my book for free) or I get access to the Countdown Deals offering, which allows me to discount my books with a timer attached to them.

It also gets me into the Kindle Unlimited system and the Kindle Online Lending Library system, a way readers can borrow my books without directly paying for them. (They pay Amazon for access to the system, I get a cut of the big pot each month.)

I’ve spoken about this before, but I’ve had less than good luck with epub retailers. In the year or so I was with major retailers–actually, closer to two, considering Smashwords’s refusal to remove the Eye of God from their distribution for four months–I made less than $50 worth in royalties.

To put this into clear contrast, I made over three times that amount in January alone from KDP Select benefits. So, in the interest of disclosure, epub was a failure for me in many ways, which is why my interest in KDP Select as a viable platform for me as an author. Maybe if I become more popular, epub retailers will become more lucrative for me, but my focus is currently on amazon and acquiring a following there.

Before I dig into January 2015’s KDP Select numbers, I want to talk about the KDP Select system in general–this is a service review, of sorts, for the system as a whole.

A long time ago, Select only offered free promotions. Their lending system wasn’t a thing back then. There wasn’t really a whole lot of good reasons to become exclusive with Amazon. However, the free day promotions were nice. When Countdown Deals was launched, I took advantage of it, and I got decent results for Storm Without End.

The two combined did make KDP Select look pretty nice–but not nice enough. For a while, I went back to non-exclusive.

When Winter Wolf released, I pumped over a thousand dollars into promotions in my effort to break into the epub market at the same time I was promoting the novel on Amazon.

I earned a big bad $16.00 from epub vendors. Amazon was much, much better, earning out $1,300 between Inquisitor (book 1) and Winter Wolf (book 2). Technically, I lost money on my promotion specifically for Winter Wolf. If I hadn’t been pushing so hard for epub (which was a miserable failure) I wouldn’t have invested nearly as much–but I wanted visibility, and I wanted to try to break into the epub market.

All in all, it was an epic failure. I know a lot of people want epub versions, but if people aren’t buying the books, saying epub versions are desired doesn’t do any good for the author–except waste a lot of effort, time, and money, as it did in my case.

To put this into perspective, I’ve had probably 50 comments from readers wanting epub versions. I’ve had less than a quarter of that number in actual sales.

(That said, if you want an epub version, please buy a copy on Amazon and convert it to your flavor of choice. My titles are all DRM free.)

So, unless something changes for me in the epub front, or Amazon’s KDP Select system starts falling flat on its face, I’ll probably stick with Amazon. I resumed full KDP Select exclusivity in January 2015–to be exact, I enabled it on the 31st of December to keep things properly segregated.

I understand people wanting copies of titles in their format of choice, but supply and demand rules apply. I can’t hold myself hostage to an audience that doesn’t support me as an author–or has actual interest in my books. (I totally support taking legitimately purchased copies of ebooks and converting them to the reading format of the owner’s choice.)

My opinion is harsh, but I can’t spread myself so thin–not for $50 over a couple of years. Maybe if a few zeroes were added in there, or if my audience actually read using epubs, it’d be a different story. (I can count on two hands the number of times people have actually requested epubs and cared enough about the books to acquire them on Amazon and asked me for ARC epub copies.)

This is not to disparage the readers–I know people have their cool fancy epub readers, some of which are waterproof and can go into bathtubs!! At the same time, however, I need to make a livable career for myself.

So, KDP Select has come through for me, where epub sales have not. And that’s the name of the game for each and every author trying to make a living wage–go where the audience goes.

Sometimes, I make stupid, stubborn, and personal choices on the books I write. I talked about that in the post regarding my decision to become a full-time author. Requiem for the Rift King and The Fall of Erelith are both series losing me money–but I’ll write them to completion, for myself, and for my readers and fans.

So, I’m going to dive into some numbers here to help illuminate my experiences with KDP Select.

First up, January 2015’s numbers: (Title, Unit Type, $Royalties, # of Copies)

January
$467.90
229


Inquisitor
$206.75
112


KU/KOLL Units
$97.73
71


Standard
$109.02
41


Storm Without End
$16.35
9


KU/KOLL Units
$8.26
6


Standard
$8.09
3


The Eye of God
$9.15
6


KU/KOLL Units
$6.41
5


Standard
$2.74
1


Winter Wolf
$235.65
102


KU/KOLL Units
$70.94
52


Standard
$164.71
50

It’s worth taking a close look at these figures. One month’s sales is not a trend setter. Historically, February is always a lower month, while January still has purchasing power due to Christmas and people cashing in on gift certificates. February tends to be a lower month for me all around.

KU/KOLL units pay less in royalties, but the numbers of units sold is often equal (or higher) than my standard sales–especially in the case of my urban fantasy series, which include my most popular books.

In short, my income was a bit over $170.00 higher in January than it would have been otherwise. As a general rule, these tend to be extra sales. I did not see a notable increase or decrease in standard sales when I’ve switched on and off from KDP Select in the past.

Now, not all authors will share that experience. Some are experiencing major losses of revenue due to the new Kindle Unlimited library. I’m not one of these people. My income has increased.

Let me use December of 2014 as an example of why I feel this way. This includes all data from December, but I’ll color the things to look at in blue.

December
$1,335.33
919


Inquisitor
$605.91
717


Free – Promotion
$0.00
408


KU/KOLL Units
$237.09
168


Standard
$368.82
141


Storm Without End
$27.02
12


KU/KOLL Units
$5.24
4


Standard
$21.78
8


The Eye of God
$12.24
6


KU/KOLL Units
$2.86
2


Standard
$9.38
4


Winter Wolf
$690.16
184


Standard
$690.16
184

If you look at the Standard Units for both Inquisitor and Winter Wolf, they’re pretty close. Winter Wolf is 40 higher than Inquisitor, which can be easily attributed to the fact it released in November.

Now, take a look at Inquisitor’s sales. Inquisitor has been around a lot longer, was cheaper to purchase in December, and had an equal amount of KU/KOLL Units–a trend that repeats in January of 2015.

Since the release of the KU/KOLL line, sale figures in general have been lower–except when I’ve been enrolled in the library, where my sales increased. These users are taking advantage of the Kindle Unlimited library. Will this trend continue? I really don’t know. I will say this much: preorders for Storm Surge are low, and I know a lot of my readers and fans are taking advantage of the unlimited library. You can’t preorder books through the unlimited library. While Storm Surge is not in a popular series, I know of a good number of people either intending to buy the book or check it out in the library when it releases.

Release month will tell the tale for certain, but my general feeling is that as an author, I’ll be impacted in general sales even if I wasn’t enrolled in KDP Select.

I’m battling against a constant supply of ‘free’ books. That’s a hard deal to surpass, and I can’t blame readers and fans for taking advantage of the kindle unlimited library. There are a lot of really talented authors who are exclusive to Amazon.

So, sure, December is a pretty good indicator that there are a lot of users who are using the new library system over buying titles directly. I suspect that there are also users who stray from the library to get titles from favored authors.

But for someone who is starting out–I don’t have that fan base. I’m not really all that popular yet. I hope to be, but I’m not. I’m a realist like that.

I made $577 using KDP Select’s new Kindle Unlimited library. Considering most of the year I wasn’t enrolled in KDP Select to take advantage of it, or the books it does well in weren’t released, that’s not bad.

I will be watching it over the months. If the trend continues, and I keep making money in the Select system, I’ll stay.

Right now, I just don’t have a viable reason to leave it yet. Despite my efforts, epub markets were panning out. Most of my audience, at current, is on Amazon.

Your mileage will vary.

Permanent Price Reduction on Three Novels

In preparation for the crazy year of book publishing ahead of me, I am reducing the price of three of my novels–The Eye of God, Storm Without End, and Inquisitor–permanently to $2.99.

Please consider buying a copy for yourself or a friend!

So you have a one-stop shop to see what the books are about, and why I’m reducing their prices, I’m going to include information on all of the titles–and my favorite passage from each book. Come along for a wild ride through my publications!

I’ll begin at the beginning. The Eye of God is my debut book. I have a lot of work I need to do on this book–even now. I want to go back and update the styling to be more in line with what I’m writing now. I’m pretty sure there are errors in the book, too.

There’s been one criticism I’ve seen in reviews that I fully intend on addressing as well–character insights in certain scenes. I want to bring both Blaise and Terin alive a bit more on the page.

Here’s what the book is about:

Blaise tries to act like a good human, but someone always manages to ruin things for him. When the Emperor’s most powerful weapon is stolen and its human vessel is kidnapped from the Arena, Blaise must choose between meddling in the affairs of mortals or remaining true to his duty.

To make matters worse, the Archbishop has betrayed the church and God by giving the Emperor the second piece of the Triad, the Heart of God. Should Blaise stand idle and leave the mortals to their own devices, the people of Erelith won’t just lose their lives: Their souls will be destroyed by a power that was never meant to fall into mortal hands.

If Blaise can find the Eye of God, he might be able to save the humans from themselves. Unfortunately, his only hope for success lies in the hands of a slave who wants nothing more than to die. If Blaise can’t save Terin and enlist his help, the Erelith Empire will fall.

The Eye of God is now available on Amazon for $2.99.

Favorite Passage: (Author’s note: This is one of the creepiest descriptions I’ve written, thus its presence on my favorite passages list.)

Twisted bodies covered the ground, barely visible through the pale fog rising from the black water surrounding them. As though trying to reclaim the lives they had long-since lost, rotting bits of flesh clung to their pale bones.

 

The second book I’m reducing the price on is Storm Without End. This is the second novel I released. It’s also one of my favorites. I’ve always wanted to seriously pursue an epic fantasy, and this is my take on the genre. The story focuses on two characters, Kalen and Breton. These two men have been among my favorites to write. Every time I take a journey into their world, it never fails to remind me how much I really love writing–even when I’m groaning about deadlines.

There’s often more in-your-face magic in The Eye of God, but for me… this is the story where the real magic began.

 

About the Book:

Kalen’s throne is his saddle, his crown is the dirt on his brow, and his right to rule is sealed in the blood that stains his hand. Few know the truth about the one-armed Rift King, and he prefers it that way. When people get too close to him, they either betray him or die. The Rift he rules cares nothing for the weak. More often than not, even the strong fail to survive.

When he’s abducted, his disappearance threatens to destroy his home, his people, and start a hopeless and bloody war. There are many who desire his death, and few who hope for his survival. With peace in the Six Kingdoms quickly crumbling, it falls on him to try to stop the conflict swiftly taking the entire continent by storm.

But something even more terrifying than the machinations of men has returned to the lands: The skreed. They haven’t been seen for a thousand years, and even the true power of the Rift King might not be enough to save his people — and the world — from destruction.

Storm Without End is now available at Amazon for $2.99.

Favorite Passage:

The words were torn from his thoughts and spit from his lips. “Because you will be their King, and you will Ride with them. You will wage war against your own people, and their blood will drip from your stained banner. You will crush them beneath the hooves of your black horse. Then, like Arik before me, like me before you, you will be put to the sword and another will take your place. Your existence within the song of the ancestors will be a blight they will strive to erase.”

The pressure eased against his throat. “And if you live?”

Kalen didn’t have an answer to that. The Guardians always managed to find him, no matter how far he’d ridden in the past. One would appear on his trail and stay a respectable distance behind him, a shadow who watched, listened, and never intervened.

Finally, I’m reducing the price of Inquisitor, the first Witch & Wolf novel. In a way, Inquisitor represents my first foray into writing marketable fiction. The Fall of Erelith (The Eye of God) and Requiem for the Rift King (Storm Without End) are series I enjoy writing… but they aren’t money makers. There’s a lot more reader interest in my UF than my traditional and epic fantasy. That’s okay. I do enjoy working on the Witch & Wolf series. I’ve already begun work on Book 3, Blood Diamond, for those who are interested. It’s possible it might be ready by the end of the year.

I have labors of love I want to finish first. That said, if enough people support Blood Diamond, I’ll try to have it ready for a Christmas release. You can also support the release of new books by buying older ones–I rely on those royalties to pay for all of my various production costs.

Inquisitor started its life as my attempt at writing a murder mystery thriller. I started plotting the murders… and I got bored.

So I made the murderer someone interesting–someone with a real bone to grind. And then I decided that the real victim of the murders wasn’t those left dead, but someone else–the main character.

It evolved from there. I love a mystery where nothing is as it seems. I like having to tell stories where the truth is tangled in with the rest. That’s what I wrote. It’s not an easy read–I don’t pull punches, I don’t dumb anything down. I wanted to write something challenging for the readers–but leave enough clues scattered through the pages where the tangles could be undone.

I still don’t know if I succeeded or not… but I really had fun with this story.

About the Book:

When Allison is asked to play Cinderella-turned-Fianceé at a Halloween ball, the last thing she expected was to be accused of murder on the same night. She has to find the killer or she’ll be put to death for the crimes she didn’t commit. To make matters worse, the victims are all werewolves.

On the short list of potential victims, Allison has to act fast, or the killer will have one more body to add to his little black book of corpses.

There’s only one problem: One of the deaths has struck too close to home, and Allison’s desire for self-preservation may transform into a quest for vengeance…

Inquisitor is now available at Amazon for $2.99.

Favorite Passage: (There are a lot of passages I really like from this book, but this one just resonates.)

 

Mark interrupted his mother with a jerk of his hand. Then he turned back to, taking hold of my left hand. “Allison Malinda Ferdinan, please marry me.”

I don’t know where he had pulled the ring out from, but he held it up to me with a trembling hand. A single diamond caught the candlelight.

It twinkled.

My eyes burned, but I didn’t cry. One day, he’d stare at the true love of his life with wet eyes, and the girl in front of him wouldn’t be me. But, I had promised to play his game. There was nothing but the truth in his gaze.

Had he been serious about proposing all along? It’d be like him, creating an illusion so the truth of his sincerity could become something truly powerful.

Any other girl would’ve been flattered. Too bad I wasn’t her.

I wondered how much it would hurt him when, as had happened tens of times before, I vanished to become someone new, someone he’d never see again. Would it hurt him as much as it would me?

Time wasn’t kind to werewolves. It didn’t let us forget.

Not trusting my voice, I sat perfectly still. The dip of my chin was as close to a nod as he’d get, although it wasn’t the yes he hoped for. Mark smiled as he slipped the band over my gloved finger.

The cold, tiring touch of silver seeped through the thin material. I stared at the ring and shivered. It wasn’t just a piece of jewelry, but it was old. Old silver, forged and reforged again, carrying with it an age almost as great as mine.

It hurt, but the white material didn’t blacken. It was pain I embraced, because I deserved it for the betrayal I would soon commit.

A clock counted the midnight hour.

I really was Cinderella, but I didn’t have glass slippers, and there’d be no happy ending for us.

You can check out all of my available titles here.

Teaser: Blood Diamond, Witch & Wolf Book 3

Dante Anderson should have been the Shadow Pope of the Inquisition, but at age five, he’d developed a rare form of Earth sight, a power unique to witches. As the first in his bloodline to be cursed as a witch, he was disowned. Embracing the name of Emmett Jackson, he was more than happy to make his escape, leaving his twin brother to carry the unfortunate mantle of Pope.

Unfortunately, the Inquisition doesn’t let anyone go easily, and Jackson isn’t an exception…

Blood Diamond is the third book of the Witch & Wolf series, following in the wake of Inquisitor and Winter Wolf.

Please enjoy this sneak peek of the story.

Chapter One

The world was full of corpses, and I, Emmett Jackson, knew them by name. Unfortunately for me, my brother knew I knew.

That’d teach me to tell my twin any of my secrets.

When he had asked for my help, waiting on my doorstep when I had gotten home from work, I hadn’t expected him to call me in to be the getaway driver of an Inquisition field operation—let alone one dangerous enough to warrant my brother’s armored truck. He’d been spinning the keys around his finger with a smug smile, knowing he had me dead to rights when he told me I’d be driving. I doubted the red-painted, tempting seductress of a monstrosity could be eliminated by anything short of a missile or a tank. Even if someone wanted to blast their way in, they’d need a ladder to reach the door. I wasn’t small, not at six foot nine, and I had needed the step rail and the roll bar to climb in. The rest of the team had needed me to give them a hand.

Maybe my brother hadn’t wanted me to play getaway driver, but as a way to make certain the Inquisitors could get into the Red Beast without needing a ladder.

I drew a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. I should have refused him and the lure of driving his absurd, stupid truck. I should have told him I’d do a stint in the Inquisition headquarters shuffling papers and naming dead people instead of pretending I was trained for field operations.

Drumming my hands against the leather wheel—probably the only normal thing in the truck—I waited. The manila envelope on the dashboard mocked me, reflecting in the windshield as I watched the darkening forest for any signs of the team’s return. Once I opened it, I’d know more about the operation and its Inquisitors than I wanted. I’d know the names and faces of the dead, and if my bad luck held, I’d get a glimpse of their last moments.

The remnants of spirits were vindictive like that.

I leaned forward, resting my forehead against the top of the wheel. My brother had been in enough of a hurry to get me into his truck and onto the road that I hadn’t had time to change out of my suit. Combat boots, fatigues, and Kevlar protected them. I wore a silk dress shirt and an equally thin jacket that a bullet would ignore before tearing a hole through me.

Clenching my teeth, I bumped my brow against the wheel a few times as I muttered curses at my idiocy.

A smart man would’ve put the idling engine into gear and left. If I did that, I’d be the target of my very own Inquisition field operation, and I doubted even the Red Beast could withstand a pack of angry Fenerec armed with more firepower than the military. They had missiles—I had supplied all six of them to them. If they launched one at the truck, they’d smash the vehicle into teeny tiny bits.

I turned my head to check the clock. In ten minutes, it’d be time to rip open the envelope and find out how the operation was going. If things went well, the photographs would tell a story where the Inquisition’s victims would be dead and my team would still be nameless faces. My brother had been adamant about the next part of my directions: if half of my team was dead by sunset, I was to take the Red Beast and get out of the area as fast as the big diesel engine could go.

I’d clocked it at a hair over one hundred miles per hour over the rabbit trail of a road leading into the forest, much to the dismay of the nine passengers crammed into the cab.

In a way, I felt sorry for my brother. He thought he knew me. He thought he could guess what I’d do, like he was so good at doing as the Inquisition’s youngest Shadow Pope. Unfortunately for him, while I had nodded my acknowledgment of his orders, I had no intention of abandoning the Inquisitions—and the team knew it. They’d stared at me like I’d grown a second head for daring to disobey orders within five minutes of receiving them, but I wasn’t about to have a pack of Fenerec haunting me for getting them killed unnecessarily.

If everything went well, I’d do as my brother wished, staying in the Red Beast, clearing away a year of obligation to the Inquisition as reward for my efforts.

If things didn’t go well, I wasn’t the only one armed. The world was full of corpses, but if any of the Inquisitors numbered among the dead, it wouldn’t be because I had abandoned them. If I were to add to the numbers, it’d be because I’d tapped a bullet between someone’s eyes.

I checked the time again.

Five minutes was long enough to double check my gun, a vanilla Beretta M9 I had snatched on my way out the door, right along with my brother’s keys. I preferred something heavier—at least an M16 could slow a Fenerec down without silver shot—but the M9 would suffice. It was loaded with silver, and that’d stop a Fenerec for a bit—or kill it, if my aim was good enough.

If I needed the Beretta, it was because the team was in trouble, and I had left the Red Beast in favor of stupid heroics without the benefit of body armor and heavy munitions.

If I didn’t get myself killed, my brother was going to finish me off when I made it home.

I took my time checking the magazine before chambering a round, turning the safety on before holstering the weapon. Drawing a deep breath, I held it to the count of thirty before letting out it. The manila envelope didn’t weigh much; photographs and a few sheets of paper didn’t. Dumping the contents onto the Red Beast’s dash, I flicked on the overhead light and used the reflections in the windshield to flip the twenty-three photographs and the stapled papers face down.

So long as I didn’t directly look at the faces of the men and women the Inquisition meant to kill, my magic wouldn’t trigger. The photographs belonged to the wild Fenerec pack living too close to civilization. The papers belonged to the eight men and one woman on my team. If they died, I’d learn their True names instead of the code names they favored during a field operation.

I sighed, watching as the vestiges of the sunset faded from the sky. In the dark of night, I would begin my own hunt—one my brother wouldn’t approve of.

If he had wanted obedience, he wouldn’t have turned to me. He should’ve known better than to think I would turn my back on those entrusted to my care.

I lifted my chin and began my grim tasks of flipping over photographs so I might learn the names of the dead. Of the twenty-three, one still lived, and all I could see in her solemn expression and her jade eyes was accusation.

A Reader’s Guide to Supporting Authors

Readers make or break an author’s career. While many authors will claim they write for themselves, my truth is far more complicated than that. I write for myself, and I write for you, my readers. I am also a reader.

It’s confession time, I suppose. Writing ‘my readers’ took a lot of courage on my part. I’m not the only author who addresses readers as ‘the readers’ or ‘the fans’–it’s hard writing my readers or my fans. It feels like I’ve grown some sort of ego, but the simple truth is this: without my readers or my fans, I don’t have a career.

So, to those of you who have supported me by buying my books, thank you. Every day you prove time and time again that you’re the reason I write, and that you’re the reason I haven’t quit writing in favor of going back to a standard office job.

Without you, I don’t think I would have had the courage or motivation to keep struggling with a very, very difficult career choice. Each time one of you approaches me and tells me that you loved my stories, you remind me why I write.

Thank you, my fans and readers. I’ll never be able to fully express how important you are to me.

You, my readers, my fans, and general lover of books, are the real power behind the publishing industry. It doesn’t matter if your favorite authors are backed by a big publishing house or if they’re self-published. How your books get into your hands isn’t the important thing here. What is important is knowing how you can help authors thrive–authors just like me.

This guide will go into the many ways readers and book lovers can support their favorite authors. Yes, even if you aren’t my fan or reader–this applies to all authors, in my opinion. I might have written something like this in the past, but it’s worth revisiting.

I’ll begin with the obvious one.

Buy Books

It’s very difficult for an author to survive, especially when they write full time. The writing career (At least mine) is not friendly. Most readers aren’t interested in an author’s financial stability. You want to read a good book. I get that. So do I. That’s why I started writing in the first place–I want to read and write good books.

But financials are a very important part of an author’s life. Every book you buy helps them achieve, well, their basic livelihood.

Sure, we write for you, readers, but writing isn’t free. If you’re interested in reading more about my financial situation, to give you an idea what’s involved in producing a novel, you can read this article regarding my income and plans to become a full-time author.

So what can you do if you can’t afford another book? ‘Buying’ a book when it is free helps the author get a little bit more visibility. It does count! Sure, the author doesn’t get paid for those free sales, but you can leave a review, which I’ll talk about a bit later.

If you own Amazon Prime, you can also check out books on a kindle through their Kindle Unlimited Lending Library doodad. Authors get credit if you read 10% or more of a novel. The credits aren’t as high as if you buy the book, but if you already have prime, it’s a great way to help your favorite authors who happen to be in the KDP Select system. (All of my titles, at time of writing, are in the KDP Select system, so you can check them out on your kindle if you’re a prime member! Amazon Prime also includes a lot of nice things, including better shipping and access to tv shows and movies.)

If you already own a copy of the author’s books, buy a gift for a reading friend. Just make sure they accept it, if you’re using Amazon’s digital system, as the author isn’t paid until the gift is accepted, even if you’ve already paid for it. (That part of things sucks.)

Review Books

A lot of people think that reviewing a novel is scary. It doesn’t have to be. If you really love a book, or want to support the author, go to amazon, find the book, and leave a review. It only needs to be a few sentences long. Pick something you truly love about the book and talk about it. Choosing a star rating is daunting, but authors really appreciate it–I really appreciate it.

From my perspective, four and five star reviews are the best, but little beats a really well thought out three star review. This is the type of book that lists what you really liked about the book and what just didn’t work out for you. Three star reviews, when written to help readers and the author, are extremely helpful.

But, keep this in mind: most readers don’t care about the author’s feelings when they read reviews. They want to know how other readers thought about the title.

I know leaving something other than a five star review is also daunting, but it’s okay. While I love five star reviews, I expect a reader to have really adored my book to leave a five star review.

So, as a plea on behalf of all of us authors–go forth and leave a shining review, precious reader!

You make us, and you break us.

P.S.: Some of you noticed I specified Amazon as a place to leave reviews. The major retailers are often where people check out and buy books. Goodreads can be nice, but it isn’t the true powerhouse. Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, and the other major retailers are.

Tell Your Friends

Word of mouth is the best form of advertising for an author. If you truly love an author, take the one on one approach. Talk to your friends about the books you love. Encourage them to buy. If they can’t afford it, but seem interested, and you can–buy them a copy of the book.

Spread your love of an author’s books to others. This is one of the best things you could ever do for your favorite author.

Talk to the Author

Most authors are shy. It took me a long time for me to be able to put myself out in front of people… and doing so is still quite scary. But, I truly do love talking with people about reading and writing. I don’t like to respond directly to reviews unless there is a pressing need to, but if you want to talk books, I love talking about books. I’m also happy to talk about my books, especially if it isn’t directly connected to a review. (The irony here is staggering. I know, reviews are my lifeblood, but I still can’t get comfortable talking directly about specific reviews.)

If you approach me, I’ll say thank you–but I’ll often try to avoid discussing specific points.

But, readers, authors are people too! Talk to them about anything. If you’re polite and courteous, who knows what might happen? You might make a new friend.

Advertise Your Authors

I’ve been asked, in private, if there were ways that they could support my books directly. Yes, it sounds just like you think it sounds–they wanted to offer financial support for my books.

Advertising and promotion is extremely difficult for authors. It’s expensive or it’s time consuming. So, here’s a bullet point list of some sneaky ways you can help an author promote their books–without them knowing you’ve done it. I’ve also included some more visible ways you can help, too.

You can promote and advertise an author’s books like a NINJA. I’ve had this happen to me, and it’s been one of the greatest things to happen to me as an author. I’ll note that this is usually something self-published authors need far more than traditionally published ones. But still–you can use some of these tricks for traditionally published authors as well–especially the resharing, retweeting, blogging, and general word-of-mouth options. The good traditional publishers are already using the paid venues to support their authors, so they need more word-of-mouth help than financial assistance.

If you know of an upcoming free day promotion, register the book with lists and websites promoting free days. (You can do this mid promotion, too, if you know how long it’ll be free for.) (This is huge! Someone did this for Inquisitor, unbeknownst to me, and the results were amazing.)
Purchase an ad spot on a website. There are many sites that use amazon’s affiliate system to share books. Pick one, give them the link to the book, and buy a spot. (There are sites that will do this for as low as $5 or $10.)
Post a review or promotional post on your blog or website.
Invite the author to do an interview or guest post on your website.
Reshare, Retweet, Reblog, Like. All of these things help.
Write and post your own tweets, facebook, google+, pinterest, etc about the book.
Talk to the author and offer to sponsor a blog tour or other promotional campaign. (Some authors want full control over how they advertise, and you can buy them a blast promotion for as little as $45 or so. These promotions help an author spread word about their books to bloggers outside of their usual sphere of influence.)
Volunteer to help with a book release. Host a spot for the book on your blog, your website, or post it to your social media outlets.

In short, spread the word about your favorite author–there are a lot of ways you can help an author. Many of these ways are free, but take time. Authors want to be writing, editing, and producing books–the marketing elements are difficult and time consuming, which often means even the serious, professional authors are balking at the work involved.

I saved the best for last. The top way you can help authors?

Keep Reading.

Thank you, lovers of books.

Yours,

An Author.

P.S.: I like virtual hugs.

New Hosting

Due to slow service and reaching bandwidth caps, I shifted my domain to a new host. I have to correct all of the images over 300+ posts and however-many pages I have, so please ignore the clutter for the time being. Things will be fixed soon, promise!

Author Services Guide: Using Amazon’s AMS Platform Effectively

This week, I’ve talked a lot about Amazon’s AMS platform, first announcing the system and my hopes for it, as well as ranting about some of the more idiotic elements of their creative guidelines. Today, I’m going to go into some nitty gritty detail about how to take advantage of the AMS platform.

Marketing sucks. Many authors break out into a cold sweat at the thought of trying to promote their work. Spending money on advertising is scary business. Many authors stubbornly decide organic advertising (things not paid for, which grow naturally) is the only way to go about it. There is a lot of potential in pursuing paid advertisements, if you understand how to mitigate risk and maximize performance.

I know those pretty catch phrases annoy a lot of people, but that’s the name of the advertising game. The idea is to mitigate your risks–or control your expenditure to ensure you’re not throwing away your hard-earned cash–while also ensuring you’re getting the best bang for your buck. It’s not easy. It’s also absolutely impossible to guarantee the performance of an advertising campaign.

To begin, I’m going to explain the differences between the two different services AMS currently offers advertisers: Product Targeting and Interest Targeting.

Interest targeting is the easiest advertising option for authors. You select a category you want and Amazon will serve ads to those who are browsing products in that category. It’s very broad, giving authors a higher chance of getting impressions. (Impressions are ad views.)

However, it’s a broad category. Science Fiction and Fantasy can cover a lot of territory, and your specific book won’t appeal to every Sci Fi and Fantasy fan.

But, this form of advertising is the easiest. All you need to do is set a cost per click value and run the campaign. Set up is easy, as is basic management. In an interest-based advertising campaign, there are only a few figures you will need to know to be able to manage your campaign.

Please bear with me, as there is some math involved–don’t worry, though. It’s very basic math. If you can add, subtract, divide, and work with percentages, you have all of the knowledge you need to make sense of the numbers.

Impressions and number of clicks meld to become your click through rate–or the percentage of clicks versus impressions. Your mileage will vary, but don’t be surprised if your click through rate is below one percent. This is normal. In a cost per click campaign, you’re less worried about your click through rate as you are your return on investment. This is how many people buy your product after clicking on your advertisement. This buy rate is your major concern–and what we’re gunning for with this ad campaign.

So, how can you tell if you’re getting a good return on investment? It’s a number game. There are three figures you need for this: Your total number of sales, your total number of clicks, and your cost per click. Here’s the basic math:

Note: These are hypothetical figures, as I do not currently have sales figures. (The AMS system is simply too new.)

Step One: Calculating Number of Clicks per Sale (Click to Sale Ratio, AKA Conversion Rate)

Clicks divided by Sales = Number of Clicks per Sale.

Example: 115 users clicked on my ad; 10 users bought the book.

115 / 10 = 11.5.

Step Two: Calculating Investment

Click to Sale Ratio multipled by Cost Per Click.

Example: 115 users clicked on my ad; 10 users bought the book. I paid $0.15 per click.

11.5 * $0.15 = $1.725

Step Three: Calculating Return on Investment

For the purposes of this example, my royalty per sale is $2.15. I paid $1.725 per sale in my ad campaign.

$2.15 – $1.725 = $0.425 (Actual Return on Investment)

$0.425 / $2.15 = .19767 (ROI Percentage, AKA 20%)

Step Four: Understanding the Results

In this scenario, my return on investment is $0.425, which is a 20% profit margin. 20% is not a high margin. That said, it is a profit. Any time you come out with a positive return on investment, you’re a winner. You’ve gained more sales than you’ve spent money. This is the name of the advertising game.

While a lot of analysts are likely rolling in their graves at this simplified version of data management, this post isn’t designed to make you a statistics expert.

It’s here to teach you the basics. In an interest-based ad campaign, such as the one Amazon AMS allows you to do, this is the information you really need to focus on.

Now that you’ve had a crash course in Marketing 101 for cost per click campaigns, we’re going to go kamikaze and take a look at product-based advertisement. Product-based advertising, in theory, should have a lower impression count but a higher click through rate and conversion rate. Conversion rate, by the way, is the rate clicks become buys.

You want a very, very high conversion rate–ideally 100%, though that’s not going to happen.

While interest-based campaigns take out a lot of the work, product-based advertisement offers a lot more in terms of interested users. Here’s an example of my active product-based campaign. This shows some of the products I’m specific targeting for my Storm Without End campaign.

If you click the image, you can get a closer look at the types of products I chose. In short, I picked titles I thought were similar to my own–I also picked similar merchandise. This is taking interest-based advertising to the next level. By picking and choosing products that I feel are in line with what my novel is about, I have a higher chance of gaining interest from shoppers. I want these shoppers seeing my title and becoming familiar with my name as a brand.

It’s important to point out at this is less than a full day into the Storm Without End campaign. These numbers are, for all intents and purposes, useless. Once I have viable numbers–and enough of them to be worth looking at–I will continue this author services series discussing the pros and cons of Amazon’s AMS system.

For now, I want to bring your attention back to the branding comment I made above.

Branding, or the process of creating security and familiarity in a customer, is critical; as someone sees a product often, a sense of trust is developed–regardless of whether or not they’ve used/read the product. That’s why branding advertising is so important. It brings a sense of trust and familiarity, whether it is deserved or not. It’s a human mentality thing–if you see something frequently, it must be good or safe. It’s a security in numbers, and unfortunately, a sheeple thing.

In a way, it’s sleasy, and a lot of marketers take advantage of that. It’s an unfortunate part of the game–a part I don’t like. But, it works. If it didn’t work, advertisers wouldn’t spend so much money on these types of campaigns.

In case you hadn’t noticed, I do not have stats for individual products. This is enough to drive me up a freaking wall, three times over. I can’t tell if a specific product is performing better than another.

So, like interest-based promotion on AMS, I have to rely on averages to know if this form of campaign is working. That’s a terrible way to do it, but that’s all I have to work with at this point. Amazon’s AMS system has embraced ‘Keep it Simple, Stupid’–which works, to a point. Ultimately, it means that I will have losing products and winning products, but I will target my costs per click to the overall picture.

Easier for authors to manage in the large picture, and it has the benefit of removing the time sink that is adjusting a cost per click campaign per product or keyword.

The math is the exact same for the interest-based campaigns. Ratio of Clicks multiplied by the cost per click is your average investment, with your royalty figures serving as the basis for your profit margin, or return on investment.

That’s AMS in a nutshell–a very simplistic nutshell. Can it prove a good tool for authors?

Only time will tell.

But no matter what your decision is, when you’re advertising your book, your return on investment is king. Your goal is to always have a positive return on investment. That means you’re making money instead of losing money.

With paid advertisements, you are always at risk of losing money. That’s the name of the game, so author beware–and be aware. You can save yourself a lot of heartache and headache if you watch your advertising campaigns careful. Always take the time to do the math. If you’re bleeding money while advertising, you’re not doing it right. Close the wound and find something that works.

At the same time, I think it’s important that all authors realize that taking the risk of advertisements might be well worth it. Paid advertising can open doors that organic growth simply can never reach. The trick is knowing when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em.

Transitioning from Part-Time to Full-Time Writing

Until this year, I have been under the very common umbrella of part-time writer, no matter how much I’d like to claim I was writing full time. By spending more than half of my time editing for clients, I wasn’t really a full-time author. That changed when I set aside most of my editorial work in favor of actually writing.

In this post, I’m going to go into detail about my evolution as a writer, as well as the challenges I’ll face transitioning from part-time to full-time writing. There is also a bit of a question and answer session at the very end, as a few folks on Google+ wanted me to address some specific aspects of my writing career.

To some, the story began when I published my first novel, The Eye of God. The story of Terin and Blaise was written after Storm Without End, but due to my decision to rewrite Storm Without End for the sixth or so time, The Eye of God was published first.

The story actually begins long before I hit the publish button. If I had to pick an actual date my writing story began, it was when I sat down, some twelve years ago, and hammered out a novel in three days. I consumed an entire case of Nestea. I also made my fingers bleed.

I learned very quickly that the story was complete and total garbage. After a fight with depression and low self esteem, I eventually got back into the saddle, writing a bunch of mostly-finished (but not edited) novels, until I discovered Kalen’s first story. Eventually, that novel would become Storm Without End.

It took me eight years, approximately, to get to the point I wrote the first draft of Kalen’s story, which is drastically different than Storm Without End–it doesn’t even include a reference to the Rift, let alone any actual Rifters.

You might be wondering why I’m telling you this. Here’s why. On the fourth draft of Storm Without End, which was titled Ascension at the time, I got a bunch of serious bites from agents. I also got a great mention on Authonomy. The novel had been selected as the site’s ‘One to Watch’, which doesn’t mean anything in the long run except for some validation and a pat on the back.

None of the bites from agents worked out for me, but it gave me the courage to sit down and finish a project. I chose The Eye of God. With a great deal of help from the internet, in the form of crowdfunding, I was able to release my first book.

I made a lot of mistakes, but I did my best to own up to them–and fix them. After release, I had the book reedited. I had the cover’s typography adjusted. I learned from all of my errors, and I pushed onward.

I also learned one very important (and terrible) lesson: I had a long way to go as an author.

In the interest of being blunt and honest, without the crowdfunding efforts and working my ass off as a developmental editor, which allowed me to publish The Eye of God at par on costs, the book would have lost substantial money. I could never have ever survived as a full-time author if I had to rely on this novel’s income.

Here’s the proof:

The Eye of God
$414.54


2013
$197.85


Misc
$71.25


Standard
$126.60


2014
$216.69


Free – Promotion
$0.00


Kindle Countdown Deals
$32.78


KOLL
$8.75


KU/KOLL Units
$16.75


Standard
$158.41

Over two years, the novel has made $414.54. That’s not a lot at all. It’s, by far, my worst-performing novel. It’s nowhere near a living wage–or minimum wage, for that matter. It’s also the novel I want to go back and fix, from start to finish, cleaning up my writing style, adding little tidbits here and there, and generally improving.

I really hope I can start doing that seriously after Storm Surge releases.

From my experiences with The Eye of God, if someone asked me about the realism of working as a full-time author, I’d be forced to laugh hysterically and say, “No.”

I, like so many other newbies to publishing, made a lot of mistakes.

And then, because I’m human, I dove into production of my second novel, Storm Without End, where I proceeded to make a lot more (new) mistakes. Unlike the Eye of God, I actually invested into promotion for this novel. The jury is still out on whether or not that was a success or a failure. Generally, a mixed lot. I didn’t lose money on the promotion, but I didn’t make much money either.

For the record, I rewrote Storm Without End some six or so times. I rewrote The Eye of God twice. I sometimes feel like I should have rewrote The Eye of God four or five extra times to make it a better book. Oh well. I lived, I learned.

Like with The Eye of God, Storm Without End was made possible because of a lot of great people on the internet helping me pay for its expenses. I published Storm Without End breaking even on its costs of production.

Here’s the financial story that Storm Without End has to tell.

Storm Without End
$852.44


2013
$428.63


Kindle Countdown Deals
$233.59


KOLL
$14.20


Standard
$180.84


2014
$423.81


Free – Promotion
$0.00


Kindle Countdown Deals
$99.99


Kindle MatchBook
$0.63


KOLL
$8.75


KU/KOLL Units
$8.44


Standard
$306.00

If I were trying to survive as a full-time author, I would be homeless. I likely would have starved to death, too. As it was, my husband footed virtually all of our living expenses.

This is where the cold, hard truth comes into play: Writing is not an easy career, not unless you have a golden horseshoe rammed up your ass. I don’t. I have terrible luck, as evidenced by things like sewage floods in my basement.

The key with self-publishing–or publishing in general–is to keep moving forward. I could have rolled over, gotten a real job, and gave up. I sometimes think this is exactly what I should have done. My family would be a lot more financially stable, to say the least.

Without my husband’s grumpy (very grumpy) support, I never would have gotten four novels released.

After a few more ventures into crowdfunding, which mostly didn’t work as well as it could’ve, I had enough funds to (mostly) cover the costs of my next two novels–mostly. Being totally honest, neither Inquisitor or Winter Wolf started fully funded. The little I made from The Eye of God and Storm Without End paid for what I didn’t have for Inquisitor and Winter Wolf. Ignoring those pesky details, I dove head first into my largest effort to date: Inquisitor’s launch.

I invested over $500 in the promotion–out of pocket money. This novel had almost as much investment as Winter Wolf. It was a wild ride, and my very first venture into Urban Fantasy, which is a far more popular genre than my normal traditional and epic fantasy fare. In a way, I feel like I copped out, that I started writing in a more popular genre to give myself a solid chance at being an author.

I really enjoy my Witch & Wolf novels, but I’m not going to lie: I copped out. I wrote to the genre because I needed to do something successful. It didn’t hurt that I also enjoyed telling the story. I like the Witch & Wolf stories. I’m looking forward to finishing the series, which has four novels.

I’m also looking forward to writing the next series in the same world as the Witch & Wolf books, but deals with a totally different facet of the world–and the creepy things living within it.

But I copped out, and I have no shame in admitting this.

With Inquisitor, the financial story started to change.

Inquisitor
$5,285.85


2014
$5,285.85


Free – Promotion
$0.00


Kindle Countdown Deals
$401.31


KOLL
$153.54


KU/KOLL Units
$381.71


Standard
$4,349.29

This novel gave me hope that I might be able to make something out of myself. Inquisitor launched in May of 2014. Genre matters. While I love Requiem for the Rift King and The Fall of Erelith, the Witch & Wolf stories are my bread and butter.

After Inquisitor’s initial success, I immediately went to work on Winter Wolf. I decided to repeat the same tricks I used with Inquisitor, trying to get Winter Wolf into Amazon’s mailers.

More mistakes. Sigh. You’d figure after four books, I’d have this down, right? Wrong. The tricks that worked so well with Inquisitor, consisting mostly of book tours online, failed to render results with Winter Wolf. I didn’t get into Amazon’s mailers. Considering how much I invested into Winter Wolf’s launch, it was a flop. I’ve barely broken even at this point in time on Winter Wolf, even considering the crowdfunding efforts.

Here’s a cold lesson for those who are hoping to break into novel writing: Production costs either time or money or both. In my case, both. Money, money, money. While some folks can do their cover art on their own, I’m not one of them. Same with editing, advertising, and so on.

As I mentioned before, I do not have a golden horseshoe shoved up my ass. If I did, I’d be wiggling that money maker… and I wouldn’t be writing this blog post, either.

Here’s the story, Morning Glory:

Winter Wolf
$1,203.20


2014
$1,203.20


Pre Order
$240.82


Standard
$962.38

Frightening, isn’t it? It’s never fun having a significant amount of promotional funding blow up in one’s face. I blew a lot into Winter Wolf–just over $1,000. I didn’t get lucky. I’ve broken even, so at this point, I can start paying it forward–and finish paying off the resulting credit card debt from paying for Winter Wolf’s expenses.

This is where the story gets really scary for me. I have let go of my security blanket, the editorial work which has ensured I stayed in the black rather than splashing around in the red without any hope of surfacing.

My next novel is Storm Surge, and it will release on April 14, 2015. It’s currently available for preorder. At the time of writing this post, I’ve had a grand total of one preorder sale. That’s probably around $3.14 or so in royalties, as a rough guess. (Thanks, person who preordered!! I really, really appreciate it!)

To give you an idea of the risks I am taking, here is a rough breakdown of my expenses: $200 + tip for cover art, ~$40 for typography, $~700 for editorial, $60 for copyright registration. I’m looking at a minimum of $1000.00 in investments.

If Storm Without End is an indicator, I doubt I’ll ever break even on this title. By the time I finish both Requiem for the Rift King and The Fall of Erelith, I will be splashing about in the red sea… except I won’t float.

But that’s where one important thing comes into play, something that plays a major part in my decision to go into writing full time. I’m insane. I mean, seriously, I have to have at least a few loose screws in order to even attempt this. My husband is also insane for giving me 2015 to at least try to build a career for myself.

This is one of the most terrible things I’ve had to write in a long time on this blog… but unless I get particularly lucky, I really might end up just another casualty in the writing world. I don’t want that, and bless my husband’s heart, he doesn’t either. But reality is reality. I have 2015 to prove I can get up to near minimum wage, and I’m going to make the best of it.

After Storm Surge, I will be seriously applying myself to Rider of the Sun Horse. (Click the link for an unedited sample of the novel!) I don’t know the publication date at this point in time, but I’m hoping I can have it ready for early June. While Storm Surge is undergoing editorial, I will be working on transcribing Rider of the Sun Horse. In good news, it’s already a quarter transcribed, give or take a little. I have a tentative plan to have it transcribed and ready for editorial for April 1, 2015.

After Rider of the Sun Horse, I will be working on editing and completing Zero, one of my science fiction novels. It’s approximately halfway to two thirds completed. I’m hoping to have this novel ready for editorial by April 15, 2015.

After that, I will be working on either Project Zeta or Evolulite, two more science fiction novels. Unfortunately, I don’t have the cover art for either one of these projects yet–soon, though. Soon.

If I finish all of these novels, I will begin work on The Fall of Erelith Book 2, Royal Slaves. If I were to judge my work by profitability, I should abandon the series, but I refuse to do this. I started it, and I’m going to finish it. My goal is to have The Fall of Erelith, which will likely be a trilogy, finished by 2017. The third book will be called Genocide, and it’ll be a wild ride.

After Royal Slaves, Witch & Wolf fans will be delighted to find out that I’ll be dedicating my time on Blood Diamond, the third novel of the set. Silver Bullet will follow in 2017.

As for the fourth title in the Requiem for the Rift King series, it’s called the Tides of War, and I’ve already started writing it. I don’t have any idea when it will be ready.

Things will be gloriously busy for me. If I have to acquire a regular job, I’m expecting to produce 2 novels a year at absolute maximum. If I am dedicating myself full-time to my writing, I’m hoping for four to six a year, depending on length.

So, to bring this back to the main subject, I’m going to talk a bit about my decision to transition–and all of the risks I’m taking by doing so.

The biggest risk is the cost of investment, which I have to pull out of pocket and from royalties. Producing a novel isn’t cheap for me. At current, it costs $1,000.00 per novel, assuming I do not do any promotion and I try to limit my editorial staff to two people. That’s risky, because I’m a terrible self-editor, and I prefer having three editors going over the book. Unfortunately, I can’t afford three editors going over the book. Fortunately, my best friend is willing to help by reading over the books and pointing out technical errors, on top of my hired editors.

I hope she doesn’t hate me by the time this year is over…

In order to plan ahead, I’m paying my editorial staff and cover artist in advance. As I receive royalties, I send them payments, which we keep track of. That way, they’re already paid when the manuscript is ready. It has helped keep my stress levels mostly controlled. Mostly, however, is the key word.

Looking at this post, this is all I have to say for myself: I am not making the correct choice, if I’m looking at this from a financial perspective. It’s the right choice for me for my dream career, and giving it my best shot for becoming a reality. But, I am in a unique position.

Without my husband’s support, I simply could not do this. Writing as a full-time job without a partner to cover the household costs simply wouldn’t be possible.

I’m not sure what else I can say about it than that–if you are thinking about making a go at it as a full-time author, I really hope you have a huge savings account or a partner to help support you financially–or a golden horseshoe up your ass. (And if you do have a golden horseshoe up your ass… do you have a second one? I’ll bend over.)

I was asked some questions on Google+, so as an addendum, I’m including the questions and my answers.

Q: Can I provide by month by title royalty figures?

A: Sure can. I’ll even provide it by year. Here you go!

 

Inquisitor
$5,285.85


2014
$5,285.85


April
$55.45


May
$953.66


June
$1,794.71


July
$749.10


August
$410.79


September
$305.74


October
$223.49


November
$187.00


December
$605.91


Storm Without End
$852.44


2013
$428.63


November
$67.93


December
$360.70


2014
$423.81


January
$67.08


February
$97.99


March
$30.48


April
$13.72


May
$74.50


June
$81.90


July
$15.59


August
$5.92


September
$3.43


November
$6.18


December
$27.02


The Eye of God
$414.54


2013
$197.85


July
$37.40


August
$25.55


September
$8.30


October
$12.45


November
$38.25


December
$75.90


2014
$216.69


January
$38.97


February
$33.41


March
$2.05


April
$7.74


May
$39.35


June
$40.43


July
$13.04


August
$10.81


September
$11.57


October
$5.69


November
$1.39


December
$12.24


Winter Wolf
$1,203.20


2014
$1,203.20


November
$513.04


December
$690.16

Q: Can you explain how you choose tags and categories?

A: Ouch, this question burns us, precious. Categories and keywords (tags) are such a hard choice. Ultimately, I went by my gut feeling. I supported my gut feeling by browsing Amazon and checking for other books in the categories. As for keywords, I have started to take a look at some tools that checks Amazon’s website for the usage of a keyword, hoping to get into more obscure keywords while also having popular keywords. This is really an ever-shifting target for me.

I don’t think anyone has a right answer for this one. All I can say is experiment every now and then and see if the changes make a positive difference. That’s what I do. I change my categories and keywords twice a year, roughly.

Q: Do you have any advice for breaking out in non-US markets.

A: Unfortunately not. If you have any recommendations, I’d love to know… my non-US sales are abysmal.

Q: What do you recommend investing in to advance my writing career?

A: I’m going to break this down by type–production and post production costs.

Production Costs: Cover Art and Editorial. The rest is gravy, but if you can afford to invest in your novel, this is what I would choose over post production costs.

Post Production Costs: This is a hard one. I’ve had limited luck with book blog tours on the internet. It helps get the book out there–and to get those important early reviews. If I had to say one post production service to hire for… a book blog tour that includes reviews. Reviews help readers decide if they’re interested in buying.

Ideally, you’ll get a loyal fan base who posts reviews early after release. That’s ultimately my goal. I’ve actually gotten reviewers from tours request notification of new releases–and ARCs as soon as they’re available.

At the end of the day, every penny of your post production costs should be going to get your book in front of the eyes of readers interested in the type of story you have to write.

Unfortunately, there is no correct answer to the question. You have to go with what works for you and your budget. That’s a terrible answer, but it’s the only one I can give you.

Q: Marketing. What’s NOT worth paying for?

A: Hang me over water and set me on fire. This is another hard question. But, I’m going to take aim and fire at a lot of services here. First, any service that tries to guarantee a lot of traffic without any substance–such as posts to a facebook feed, are likely garbage at this point. Why? Facebook’s rules prevent many people from seeing content like this. You’re better off just buying ad space on facebooks… and I doubt you’ll make a profit doing that. You might, but I doubt it.

Twitter has similar problems, but if you can buy tweets for a really popular feed, you might luck out.

At this point, until I hear otherwise–or get to experience it for myself–I’m going to say ixnay to Bookbub. It’s expensive. Very, very expensive. The same applies to similar services. That said, if I get a book that gets accepted, I’m going to take the risk, as I’m interested in seeing if the hype is worth it.

My favorite venue for paid advertisement is through book blog tours including reviews–or very cheap blasts that get you on a lot of blogs for a day to get you in front of readers. Your mileage will vary.

Author Services: Amazon’s Giveaway Platform

Amazon is on a roll in its efforts to dominate the digital marketplace. Today, Amazon has announced the release of its giveaway platform, a tool that is only partially viable for authors.

For all of ten seconds, I was convinced heaven had come down to Earth. Reality quick reasserted itself, never fear. Digital products, such as ebooks, are not eligible giveaway products.

Good news, however, is that paperback products that are prime eligible are eligible giveaway products.

I think I just found a reason to go back and redo all of my paperbacks. In case you hadn’t noticed, my entire paperback catalog is currently offline. I will be doing new releases in a different trim size in the near future, as well as correcting errors in the print versions and so on. This was a painful decision for me, and one I won’t have time to actually do for a while, but it will get done–eventually.

Once it is finished, I will be taking advantage of this tool for the paperbacks.

So, authors, rejoice! If you have paperback copies you want to give away on amazon, you now have a great tool to do it–and you do not need to be a member of KDP Select to take advantage of it.

Author Services: Amazon’s AMS Snubs Thriller/Mystery/Genre Authors

Amazon’s AMS, its new Pay Per Click advertising platform (yes, the one I talked about yesterday in this post), takes aim at the authors of thriller and mystery genres, with a notable number of civilian casualties in the fantasy, science fiction, and horror genres. What do these five distinct genres have in common? You guessed it–guns and weaponry.

Warning: Sarcasm and opinionated ranting ahead.

Buried deep within Amazon’s AMS services is a nasty little clause stating that no cover art featuring any sort of violence or guns may be used. In most advertising venues, there is generally leeway for certain amounts of ‘controversial’ content matter. Having worked in advertising as an office job for a few years, stupid content rules are nothing new to me. However, Amazon’s current no-weapons stance could spell disaster for self-publishers in its KDP Select system–and provide a damned good reason for authors like me to give up exclusivity, especially when Amazon has gone out of its way to piss off a great many of its exclusive users.

How did this all begin? I asked why Winter Wolf’s creative was rejected.

And I quote the CSR’s response to my query:

Thank you for reaching out to us. I am sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused to you.

I’ve checked your account and see that this ad campaign was rejected, since your cover image has firearms and weapons. This is not allowed as per the policy guideline of Amazon.

If you’d like to resubmit this campaign, please update the cover image and republish your book “Winter Wolf.”

A CSR agent continues the discussion with this little gem:

As a reference in relation to your inquiry, you may take a look at section “4. Unacceptable Ad Content” and “6. Placement Specific Guidelines” for details.

I’m unable to discuss other reasons behind the limitation of certain elements on Ads covers, however, this should always respond to equal terms for all the Amazon community in order to provide a good customer experience to avoid affecting sensitivity.

What pissed me off about this was the way the CSR suggested I update my cover image and republish my book as a solution to this problem. I put the text in red, because I’m imagining all of the blood my fictional book is currently shedding.

Seriously, excuse me? That cover cost hundreds of dollars. It was tens upon tens of hours of work for my artist.

How about this, Amazon? Why don’t you pay for the new cover art? You can also factor in the potential loss of revenue while the cover waits in a six plus month waiting list for alterations or repainting. While you’re at it, why don’t you also submit a proposal on how to create engaging art for the book that’s (properly) sanitized (to meet your guidelines) to the point that my alcohol-based hand cleaner develops self-esteem issues.

Heaven forbid someone’s sensibilities be offended.

For some reason, I suspect the resulting proposal would involve poor Nicole being forced to cling to some man’s leg. Wait, that won’t work either. By Amazon’s AMS guidelines, 90% of all romance covers should be rejected, too. (Whether or not Amazon will enforce the rules for romance cover art is yet to be seen.)

Hey, Amazon. Seriously, get your collective heads out of your asses. An obviously fictional weapon (note the CSR points out ‘firearms and weapons’ in the explanation) on a cover of a fictional story is not an endangerment anyone, nor is it going to affect sensitivities. I’d say it won’t impact your bottom line, but wait, yes it will: it’s a huge endangerment to your financial bottom line as you lose hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of dollars of potential sales as you cut out six distinctive genres of fiction. What’s the deal? Are you afraid someone might think your company supports terrorism if you allow advertisers to promote their fantasy, thriller, horror, etc covers?

And damn it, I’m going to say it, even if it pains me–a tasteful romance cover showing a bit of skin isn’t going to kill your poor, sheltered users either.

Delicate sensibilities, indeed.

Have you forgotten how bloody popular thrillers and mystery novels are? And romance, for that matter? And fantasy too, by the way. You know, things like Game of Thrones, Wheel of Time, and so on? Which, for the record, feature swords and general violence on (many/some of) their covers. (Which are weapons, by the way, in case you’re confused, Amazon–I think you are.)

But, if you’re going to take aim at weapons… why not just open fire on all of your major sources of income? According to the rules, many romance covers are doomed, though most will probably slip through without much issue.

I’ve got my popcorn out. Popcorn for you! Popcorn for me! Popcorn for all the riled up authors who want to make a living!

I’d love to hear if the romance authors out there have been hit with the rulings, or if Amazon’s playing nicer with the romance authors.

This policy (in my not-so-humble and rather annoyed opinion) has huge ramifications for authors like me, who feature guns and magical weaponry–including swords–on her covers. To keep this party properly open, I’m going to toss in tasteful displays of skin, too. Nicole’s showing some belly in that cover, after all.

Where is the line drawn for things like tasteful nudity and reasonable violence? Guns are right out. Swords are questionable at this point in time.

Supposedly, religion is supposed to be right out, but I have suspicions that Christian titles will be able to be promoted just fine. Things like that seem to happen with companies for some reason.

Now, before I start my rant about cover art and the presence of weaponry on them, I want to make this much clear: I am not anti-amazon as a result of this boneheaded move. Yes, I’m pissed, yes, I’m annoyed, yes, I’d like to smack around the desk monkey who thought this was a good idea, but Amazon represents almost the entirety of my income. I’ve tried non-exclusive, and that failure of an experiment netted me less than $20 in earnings and cost me a great deal of income. I’m definitely not happy about this current situation, as it significantly limits my tools, but amazon is my bread and butter at the moment.

While Amazon’s AMS has taken aim at almost all of my covers, Amazon is where most of my fans are. (And frankly put, if you wanted to support me, do so by clicking one of the links and buying a book or two for yourself or a friend.  That’d be awesome, seeing that with the exception of Inquisitor, I likely can’t take advantage of the branding and general advertisements being offered by Amazon’s AMS.)

In short, I’d love to throw money at Amazon to help me connect with my fans–and I’m seriously peeved that this option has been lost to me because of an overzealous desk monkey who can’t understand that tasteful nudity, guns, swords, and other bits of weaponry does not constitute a support of horrible lack of morals, terrorism, or otherwise harm delicate sensibilities. I like to think that my covers are not in any way offensive. They are typical fantasy fare. If Amazon is so concerned about the delicate sensitivities of their users, get out of the fiction business.

Back on subject: Allow me to begin by showcasing my only book cover (Inquisitor’s) that is permissible according to these rules:

While I am of the opinion that this is a lovely cover, it’s a pretty good thing that at first glance, the creative managers over at amazon didn’t zoom in the picture and notice the exploded car behind her. I mean, that’s technically an act of violence, right?

Right. So, technically, if the creative ad approval team was really observant and decided to play hard to the rules, this cover isn’t allowed either. What fun.

The cover that brought the whole issue to light is my

Most of the covers include daggers or swords, but Winter Wolf’s has firearms, in this case, an assault rifle and a pistol.

At least I slipped Inquisitor through the ad creative requirements.

To be fair, it was nice of the CSR to express concern over whether or not I’d continue publishing with Amazon. At least their AMS sanitation hasn’t reached out for all cover art on titles–yet. I’m a small fish at this point, but it’s nice they want me around… sort of.

Rules like this annoy me so much. How long will it be until Amazon (and other big distributors) decide that their advertising creative rules should apply to general cover art? It wouldn’t surprise me.

Having worked in the glorious world of advertising before… all I can say is Woohooohooo, it’s all been done, wooohoooohooo, it’s all been done, wooohoooohooo, it’s all been dooooonnnnneeeee before…!