R.J. Blain's Blog, page 85

Book Review: We will Destroy Your Planet: An Alien’s Guide to Conquering the Earth by David McIntee

So, you’ve been hiding out on Earth, waiting for your chance to conquer and take over, haven’t you? Or maybe you’ve been lurking in space, hiding behind the moon, waiting for your chance to strike? If you were smart, you would have acquired a copy of We Will Destroy Your Planet: An Alien’s Guide to Conquering the Earth by David McIntee. But, you weren’t smart, were you? So here you are, stuck without a whole lot of options, without a good plan, and at high risk of losing instead of the victory you traveled so far to acquire.

Well, you can rectify this. Go and get a copy. It will teach you all about your mistakes and how to avoid them (and others like them) in the future, as well as ensure that you turn your disadvantage to victory.

Warning: You might learn something.

On a serious note, this is a really fun book. You need to go in expecting to learn stuff, because there is an equal amount of fact and fiction. This seamless blend really let me get involved with this book, so much so it took me a notable time longer to read than I normally spend on a book. Some of the content, for the less scientific of us (read: me), can be heavy. It’s definitely written to make you think about the various tactics one could use to take over Earth.

I don’t want to spoil any parts of this book, because I think this is such a good read for the geeks and nerds among us, that spoiling the tactics discussed would soil the brilliance of this novel. I’ve read (and reviewed) guides on conquering before, but this one is by far the best. The art is perfectly campy, fitting the subject well. The content is streamlined, flitting for subject to subject in a logical, smooth fashion. It reads like any good reference book; engaging yet informational. It can be dry in places, but there is an underlying tone of humor that makes the actual lessons about space and the Earth go down really smoothly. There is just enough of the absurd to ensure that any astute reader will be able to distinguish fact from fiction.

All in all, I loved the book, and would recommend it to any alien seeking to take over the planet. Alternatively, I would recommend this to any human wishing to mount a successful rebellion against the invading aliens, as it is vital that the last dredges of humanity are aware of the challenges they face.

I especially think that you should take care to read the section on caring for your pet humans. It might come in useful for those alien species who are interested in expanding their empire rather than completely destroying life on Earth prior to taking over the planet for resources.

It’s hard for me to find flaws in a book like this, which bends the normal rules of conquering, delivers it with humor coupled with facts, and turns it into something engaging and entertaining. The writing style is smooth and easy to read without being dumbed down. It crosses barriers, I think, allowing those who have a strong understanding of sciences to get as much out of it as those of us who aren’t as good at sciences. While there are some numbers thrown around, you don’t need to be highly skilled in math to get the idea of what McIntee is talking about as he discusses how your race might best handle conquering Earth.

In short, this is a great, fun read, and I really recommend it to anyone who enjoys science fiction (movies or books!) and wants to think a little about how smart aliens would go about conquering Earth — and I promise you, it isn’t as far-fetched as you might think.

Author Services – Diving into the World of Marketing & Promotion

Writing a novel and posting it on amazon/smashwords/goodreads isn’t enough. In order to become a truly successful novelist, you need to spread the word about your book. Some people do this the old fashioned way. Others hire from a plethora of author services.

This series is a compilation of my experiences with various author services, including cover artists, graphic designers, book review services, book tours (blog-based), and newsletters designed to expand your brand and awareness of your novels. There will be other services also reviewed. What kinds?

Who knows? You’ll find out when I do!

Each review will be based on my experiences and should be treated as such. What doesn’t work for me may work for someone else. What does work for me may not work for someone else. Ultimately, how you handle your promotion and novel career is your choice.

I am hoping by being honest and forthcoming about my opinions on these services, you will be able to make the best choice for your career.

There will be three basic rankings for services:

Recommended
Neutral
Writer Beware

I will use the writer beware flag when the service is either a confirmed scam, or a good idea with horrible implementation, or a service that simply did not provide any beneficial results.

Recommended will be services I would use again.

Neutral services are those I’m on the fence about. While I didn’t love the service, I’m undecided on whether or not I would use the service. Sometimes I may not use the service again because it didn’t work out as well for me as I would like. Either way, Neutral Services are those I do not view as a scam.

I will also try to be fair in my reviews of each service or individual — for example, my initial proofers were those who were more skilled with developmental editing than copy and proofing editing. This was my fault, and not theirs. (In other words, don’t try to make a cat act like a dog. Developmental editing is much different than copy and proofing editing.)

A final note:

Some of the posts in this series are older, as I wrote the posts prior to creating the series.

Book Rooster – A Review

A while back, someone recommended Book Rooster to me as a way of promoting one of my novels and gaining some reviews.

The first thing you will have noticed is that I have not linked the site.  I tend to link to sites I back, agree with, or want my readers to draw their own conclusions about. For books, I’ll link whether or not I liked the book.

My experiences with Book Rooster have been so unsatisfactory that I refuse to help them even by improving their SEO via a link. Before I go into the how and the why of my feelings, I’ll talk about what Book Rooster is about — and why it could possibly work if they were able to deliver what they claim.

Book Rooster is a non-paid review site: by this, I mean, the readers are not paid to review the books. This part is legitimate. I signed up for their services as a reader/reviewer about six months prior to when I actually tried it myself. As a reviewer, I was able to easily acquire the book I was interested in reading and reviewing without any hassle. Whenever a book was available I wanted to read / review, I just followed the instructions and got the book for reading. Easy, peasy.

That part looked very promising — my experiences as a reader / reviewer were good. That boded well for being an author in their system.

Because it came recommended to me, I decided to dip my toe in these waters to see how well their system worked. At the time, their $60ish dollar fee for the mailing list didn’t seem all that extravagant, and it was something I was in a position to gamble with (and could afford to lose entirely on.)

I also went in anticipating writing this blog post about their services.

Now, before I go into the performance of the campaign, I’m going to talk about what the process is like. You buy the service. Like many other author services, non-refundable — which is why I didn’t think much about it at the time. Most of the author services I have seen are non-refundable, thus no red-flag went up.

From there, you fill in information about your book, provide a copy of the cover art, and the book in either mobi or doc format. They’ll take care of formatting the book to mobi if you provide a doc. I was notified fairly quickly (within 24 hours) of when my book would be scheduled to be sent to the mailing list. It was sent on time. (Since I’m a member of my genre’s mailing list, I was able to see when the email was sent. Yes, I used two different email accounts to confirm there was a mailing for my book done.)

Thirty days went by. No reviews.

Book Rooster sent another mailing of my novel without me having to ask them.

At this point, they fell off the face of the planet.

I didn’t receive a single review from their service. While I can understand that the number of reviews is dependent on who reads the book, Book Rooster has one flaw fatale which I did test.

They do nothing to encourage their readers to review the books. How did I test this? I acquired a book for review and didn’t review it. I wasn’t given a notice or anything stating I had gotten this book for review. Nothing to indicate or remind me to do this review. I’ve been sitting on this specific book for three months.

This service could work, if the operators made a little effort or ran a script checking that review A didn’t review Book B and send a reminder to do so. So, I’m out $67, with nothing to show for it.

Short and sweet point? Avoid Book Rooster. There are other services and book tours that will land you reviews at a much lower risk of your income.

I don’t feel bad about sacrificing the $67. I went in expecting to either get some reviews, the proposed ~10 reviews, or no reviews. I did this to get a good look at this service and how it worked.

My opinion? You’re better off going with a book touring service. At least that way you get the boost to your book for search engines as the other blogs link to your book and your personal website. That’s worth the fee on its own. (Of course, depending on the touring group.)

Writer, Beware. Book Rooster, while it does maintain a legitimate mailing list, is as close to as scam as it gets. IF their mailing list was more robust, it could work.

Right now? Run and hide, because you’re wasting your money.

Creating a Story Bible: Turning Concepts into Facts

Some people create their story bible as they write. Others work on it after they’ve finished. Some want to have their story bible created and ready for them before they begin writing.

So, how do you turn a novel’s concept into facts for your story bible? That’s hard. It’s one thing to take concrete ideas and events in a story and write down the important world building notes. It’s another entirely to build a world from a basic story concept.

This post is designed to walk you through how I handle turning a concept into a world I can write a novel in. I’m also going to cover what pieces of information I feel need written down versus the things I will write down after the book has been completed.

The Culture of My Character

The first thing I focus on is the character and the culture required to produce the type of character I want to write. This is the best starting spot for me because I find that cultural differences often offer ample conflict sources, both internal and external.

So, what do I need to create a culture for my novel? Remember, I work with traditional and epic fantasy, so I can’t just list a real culture and get away with it. I can base a culture on a real culture, but it won’t be sufficient to work with. Once again, this is what I need to create a world, so your mileage may vary.

Step One: Dominance Type

I establish whether it’s a male-dominated community, a female-dominated community, or an equally-dominated community. This impacts how my character may act depending on their gender. For example, The Eye of God takes place in a predominantly male-dominated cultural community. This is an extremist culture type, as well. Storm Without End has many different cultural types, but the realm the main characters are from are from an equally-dominated community with a few caveats. There are gender roles, but each gender group has equal power in the grand scheme of things. At a glance, many may believe it is a male-dominated community, but the women control just as many elements of life within the Rift as the men do.

They’re a practical people, however, so the men will do the more dangerous things in order to ensure their people survive. The women take up other roles. Equally-dominated communities are rare in my opinion, and require a certain set of circumstances to actually happen.

Most cultures in the world are either male-dominated (Patriarch) or female-dominated (Matriarch).

Step Two: Religion in your Culture

Religion plays a huge role in culture types. When you’re establishing your dominance roles, don’t forget to consider your religions as well. Religion often helps form the gender dominance roles.

Just take a look at the Catholic community, or at a Muslim community. Gender roles are well defined, and they are directly tied to the religion of the people within the community.

Religion matters. You may not delve deep into the religious aspects of your world, but you should at least be aware of how the religion of your people impacts their culture.

Step Three: Trade in your Culture

How did your people get to be where they are? Trade and resources is probably the answer to that question. Look at the resources around them, and consider how it would impact their culture. A community of people living on the shores of the ocean likely fish versus raise cattle. A community of people living in the desert may not know what a fish is and believe it a spawn of demons the first time they see one.

Are your people reclusive without reason to mingle with other cultures? Xenophobia is a large risk for them, then, especially if their religion dictates that they should remain as a pure race.

I try to list out the big factors of trade based on their environment and ecology of where they live. This gives me a solid foundation for how characters from this area may behave.

Consider this: In the eastern United States, the Amish people shun many modern contrivances. This cultural group is often looked down at with a certain amount of scorn for being extremely different. It’s hard to understand people who have beliefs far outside of your own, and this should show in cultural interactions in your novels, be it a fantasy, a science fiction, or a general literature book.

These three things are the foundation for all of the characters in my novels, so I try to have it clarified in my mind before I start writing — even if I don’t necessarily add it to my story bible until later.

The Magic of the World

While this is relevant to me as a fantasy (and sci-fantasy) writer, you can exchange magic for technology for science fiction and modern UF/USF stories. You can even convert this to modern literature, if you’re recording the type of tech your characters carry around as a general rule.

For magic, I typically build one system I share across all universes. In a way, I pretend Earth is just a single planet in a universe, and the worlds from my other stories are connected to the same universe, be it through worm holes, on the other side of black holes, or other wibbly-wobbly time magic stuff. In a way, I tend to view each world I create as a spin-off of our own universe, although the magically charged sections are in a galaxy far, far away.

Step One: Define the Level of Magic/Technology

Knowing what sort of world you need to create helps. Define what sort of technology or magic your world and story needs to work. Both The Eye of God and Storm Without End are high in levels of magic, although most of the characters don’t actively work in magic. (Though some do!) This lets me build the story accounting for that extra bit of magic.

High magic worlds include things like sorcerers, mages, access to magically-imbued items, and Gods or Goddesses who meddle in the affairs of men.

Medium magic worlds have limited access to these things.

Low magic worlds have very little access to these things.

No magic worlds would be crafted to be like Earth: No magic, but science, when not understood, can look like magic…

Step Two: Identify the Function of Magic in your Story

Adding magic for the sake of adding magic may not be a good idea. Identify how magic should impact your story, and build your magic system with that in mind.

Write down the most important factors of magic in your world. (See Step Three.)

Step Three: Build the Basics

Magic can be built in an infinite number of ways, but here are the things I think about when I’m building a magic system:

The Source

This is how magic is created or functions. If you have a divine powering spells, you would list down information on the being who fuels magic powers. If it’s the elements, you would define these elements and how they interact with each other. The source is the natural state magic occurs without human intervention.

How the Source is Accessed

Go into some details about how a character would gain access to magic or divine powers in your world. Give them rules, rituals, or anything that would help them use magic without blowing themselves (and others) up.

The Limitations of Magic

Magic is more fun when there are limitations and rules to its use. If you have a character who can do anything just because he or she wants to, it gets boring to read. Limitations make things interesting. Figure out how your characters might be limited. For example, a flame element user might not be able to work any sort of magic during a rainstorm… come up with limitations that serve as challenges for your characters.

Write these things down.

The Price of Power

Power, magic or otherwise, shouldn’t come free. Note down what prices your characters might be forced to pay in order to access their magic. It could be insanity. It could be risk of death from exhausting themselves. It could be the loss of their soul. There are lots of things you can do to attach a price to power and magic.

It makes the reading of the book more interesting if the characters actually have to sacrifice something in order to be powerful.

When you’re brainstorming all of these things, write down the important bits of information so you can be consistent in your world. Don’t be afraid to layer it like an onion. The key to building a strong, viable world lies in depth. Like with cultures, the world isn’t just an isolated group of people — usually. Find the connections between people and the world they live in, and it becomes possible to create a world that feels real even though it isn’t.

Don’t be afraid if you miss anything before you start writing. You can always add depth to your story bible after you have finished drafting and editing, especially if you’re working on a series.

Aftermath: Countdown Deals Promotion

After 168 hours, my countdown deals promotion with amazon has come to an end. I’m both happy and sad, as it did help generate a great deal of awareness of my novel. It also gave skeptical readers a change to try out the book without taking a risk on it at full price. It also gave me a feel for how I might be able to use this in the future.

So, onto the numbers. Prior to the start of the promotion, I had three sales for the month of December. Here are the stats (with a couple clutter columns removed) so you can get a feel of what to expect in terms of access of data if you run a promotion of your own. Note: During the promotion, I had 2 lending library sales and 5 ineligible sales.

Phase
Price
# Hours
Earnings
$/Hour
Sales


1
$0.99
33
$38.69
$1.17
61


2
$1.99
33
$69.04
$2.09
52


3
$2.99
33
$38.76
$1.17
19


4
$3.99
33
$54.80
$1.66
20


5
$4.99
36
$30.96
$0.86
9


Totals

168
$232.25
$1.38
161

A few things to remember:

Gift Sales are assigned to the increment they were gifted during. So, if someone gave a gift during increment 1, but the person didn’t claim it until increment 5, it’ll update in increment 1′s section.
Only eligible sales show — a Canadian purchasing via Amazon.com will not show in these statistics.
You can’t make changes to the promotion 24 hours before, and you can’t change your sales price for a period after the promotion ends.
Amazon’s stats are fickle; they update at random, so refreshing to see new stats may be futile. I noticed it would update in bursts rather than one here and one there.
The rules about whether it’s a 70% or 35% sale apply to the promotion.

So, in order to better put into perspective how effective this promotion was for me, I’m going to share the novel’s Amazon history with you, by week:

Range
Sales
%
Price
Delivery $
 Royalty


11/03-11/09
2
35%
5.99
0.00
 $  4.20


11/03-11/09
5
70%
5.96
0.08
 $20.53


11/10-11/16
1
35%
5.96
0.00
 $  2.09


11/10-11/16
4
70%
5.99
0.08
 $16.56


11/17-11/23
2
70%
5.99
0.08
 $  8.28


11/24-11/30
2
70%
5.99
0.08
 $  8.28


12/01-12/07
3
70%
5.99
0.08
 $12.42


12/08-12/14
5
70%
5.71
0.08
 $19.70

Since the launch of the novel until the promotion deal began, Storm Without End earned $92.06 in royalties from US sales, before lending library royalties. My income from outside of the US is extremely minor.

Here are my thoughts about self-publishing now that I’ve seen a very limited amount of success — and yes, I do view this promotion as a success. More on that after this list.

I call this list ‘lessons learned and warnings reinforced’ as well as potential reasons for why people say the things they do about self-publishing versus traditional publishing.

Self-Publishing a good book isn’t cheap. It could (potentially) take years to recoop the ~$1,200 investment I made in the novel. (Romance authors and those who can use photo manip’d covers may have cheaper costs.)
New books by unknown authors will not magically fly off the shelves under normal circumstances. (This applies to traditional as well. Traditional publishers just tend to have a bigger budget to gamble with.)
You’ve no one to blame but yourself for your successes and failures — including editorial mistakes. (Yes, even if you hire an editor, it is ultimately your mistake.) Piece of advice: When someone tells you there is a copy error in your novel, just STFU and fix it, don’t make excuses. It wasn’t your editor’s fault. It was your fault — it’s your book after all.
Slow and steady wins the race; because your book won’t magically fly off the e-shelves, expect to be in there for the long haul.
Reviews make a huge difference on sales — and anything ranked between 3-5* is a potential sales motivator. 3 & 4 * may hurt your pride, but if these reviews say positive things about your book, it may convince a potential reader to buy. (I got my first reviews during the promotion and noticed a spike in sales thereafter.)
Editorial mistakes can kill a novel’s chances — or get it a lot of bad reviews, even if you write a good story. Yes, it was worth mentioning twice in this list.
Perception of value matters; people like sales. I think this is rather obvious.

The Impact of A Sale

One thing I definitely noticed was that the countdown promotion impacted my sales for The Eye of God — after soul searching, I’ve decided that Storm Without End is the better book on all accounts (I’ve learned a lot from writing The Eye of God) but the sale of one book has kicked in the backlist, for all my backlist is one whole book. Here is the proof:

Date
Sales
%
Price
 Delivery $
 Royalties


11/03-11/09
2
70%
5.86
 $  0.06
 $  8.12


11/10-11/16
1
35%
5.96
 $     -
 $  2.09


11/10-11/16
1
70%
4.99
 $  0.06
 $  3.45


11/17-11/23
4
70%
4.98
 $  0.06
 $13.78


11/24-11/30
1
35%
6.99
 $     -
 $  1.75


11/24-11/30
2
70%
4.99
 $  0.06
 $  6.90


12/01-12/07
3
70%
4.99
 $  0.06
 $10.35


12/08-12/14
10
70%
4.99
 $  0.06
 $34.50

As a note, there were two additional sales after December 14.

The jump in sales on The Eye of God is definitely noticeable, comparing the original peak of sales (4) with the promotional peak of sales (10).

The conclusion? It’s just like everyone sales — a backlist will help you generate more sales because fans will buy other books by the same author, even if that other book isn’t quite as good as the first one they read. It has crystallized one thing for me, however:

I’m going to make Royal Slaves even better, to make up for the fact that The Eye of God just isn’t as good as I think it could be.

I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions, but the countdown promotions deal was a huge success for me, as far as I’m concerned. I didn’t become a runaway #1 bestseller, but I think my novel performed very well for a fledgling novelist.

I also think that my performance as a starting novelist is on average with the starting performance of any novelist in his or her first six months of release.

I hope this information proves useful to you.

A Year of Finances – The Reality of a Writer & Editor

I’ve talked about this before on Google+, but I think it is something worth revisiting on my blog. Finances are something a lot of people don’t want to talk about. It’s something that scares a lot of people. For some, there is a fear that not making a lot of money will somehow cheapen their skills and hard work. For others, there is a fear of being ostracized by the community.

Maybe I’m stupid, but maybe I’m brave. Maybe I feel that the truth about my finances will help others understand the reality of being a writer. I feel like I’m a very average self-publishing author. I can’t survive on my writing alone, although I’ve been making (and implementing) plans for 2014 to help me make my novel writing a true career.

I’m going to be extremely honest about my household, our finances, and the burden my writing puts on the household.

My husband is the breadwinner. He expects me to work hard and pull my own weight. I have to pay for all of my novel-writing finances. I have to contribute to bills and household repairs. When I fall short (and I do more often than not) we argue. His expectations are perfectly legitimate, fair, and reasonable.

He makes approximately $80,000 plus bonuses. In 2013, this will probably be close to $100,000. (I don’t have an exact amount for you because I won’t get his t4s until later, so it’s an educated guess based on his every-two-weeks paychecks and bonus estimates.)

He’s a software developer, in case you were curious. He has been extremely supportive in the face he has floated the household while I’ve been desperately trying to make my own way in the writing world.

It hasn’t been easy on either one of us.

I have 2 weeks of missing data on my income for 2013, but it’s close enough to give you a really good idea of the reality of my work-at-home life.

$5,812.51

There, I said it. That’s my earnings from January 1st, 2013 to December 14, 2013. $5,812.51.

In Canada, that income level is so low that the basic tax credits for poverty-level individuals will waive all owed amounts. I will owe $25 to Revenue Quebec for some health care fee. (This is with a spouse tax credit transfer.)

Here is the breakdown of my earnings:

I earned $2,650.00 from client editorial. Most of my projects were for $200 a piece, taking, on average, 80 hours per project. One project was for $1,000, with an 18 hour turnaround time. So, this represents 11 clients, some of whom are in phase two of their edits, which means I haven’t received the second half of my fee at this point. Some clients gave me a bonus, which is super awesome!

All in all, this $2,650 represents 818 hours of work. This is 20 weeks (or 5 months) of 40 hour weeks of editorial work. That’s a big $3.24 an hour. That isn’t a complaint, by the way. I made the decision to set the rates I did in 2013 for a reason. It’s also a part of why I increased my rates in 2014 to a minimum of $500 per project.

When I’m seriously working, I put in 14-16 hours of work in a day, just so I have time to work on my novels.

In 2013, I released two novels. In order to produce those novels, I needed to gather funds to pay my cover artist and editors. Generous friends, family, and Google+/Twitter/Facebook peeps contributed $2,442.73 to make these two novels a reality. This almost exactly covered my costs for my perks, my artist, and my editors, as well as other little production fees. Shipping ate a little of my editorial funds, as I had significantly underestimated the costs of shipping paperback books. The one shipment cost $400.00. Oops. (Let’s just say my husband was really unhappy about that and leave it at that, shall we?)

What does the $2,442.73 dollars in indiegogo contributions mean? It means I started my novel writing career even. My costs were covered.

So, how did my novels perform in 2013?

$474.36

The Eye of God released in July of 2013, and has made $181.07.

Storm Without End released in November of 2013, and has made $293.29.

Whenever I receive funds for my novels, I earmark editorial income and reserve that amount in my paypal account to pay for my novel fees. My entire income for 2013 from my novels will pay two of my proofing editors for one project.

I plan on releasing four novels next year.

What does 2014 hold for me?

It’s somewhat easy to project how the first part of 2014 will pan out for me. I’m already booked through June for client editorial work. I’m going to list all clients at the $500 mark in order to keep things confidential. Not all of my clients have opted for the $500 payment level, but most of them have. That’s all I feel comfortable sharing.

I have double booked myself for two months during 2014 so far for various reasons.

So, for five months, two of which are double booked, I will make a minimum of $3,500, . This is already a lot better than 2013 for me! Believe me, I’m waving pompoms and otherwise doing a dance of glee.

Then reality struck, and it struck hard. Here are my production expenses for 2,014.

Cover Art: $2,000 ($500 per cover.)

Editorial: $2,400. My base editorial fee is, on average, $200 per editor per book. I am looking at hiring three proofing editors per book next year. It’ll actually be a bit more, likely, but those are expenses I will cover on my own.

Copyright Expenses: $240. $60 per copyright.

Grand Total: $4,640

$3,500 != $4,640.

Now, assuming I’m able to book one client a month for the rest of the year, I’ll be okay. I’ll make more than $7,000 for the entire year. But, that financial situation is terrifying. I want to release 4 books next year to build my backlist and treat my novel writing like a true career. I can handle two books in a year, especially when I control the number of clients I take on at one time.

It is a reasonable number.

My answer to the novel-funding dilemma is to once again go down the shadowy road of crowd funding, although on a much simpler level than before. I’m going to use it as a preordering system instead of a perk system. The perks are, as expected, copies of the novels. This lets me open sales up to those who want e-pubs and don’t want to deal with amazon’s system.

(I really hate smashword’s requirement to brand their distribution system directly in the front pages of my novel. Long story.)

I doubt I’ll make goal. But, every dollar helps, even with the 9% that indiegogo will siphon off for not reaching my goal. It’ll help me stockpile all of the funds I need to pay artist and editors. It’ll put me on a somewhat firmer ground financially.

It’ll help me contribute decent money to the household.

I wish I knew how much royalties I would make on my two current novels, but some things will remain a mystery until after time has gone by.

Writing isn’t an easy career, not at all. That said, I don’t regret it, even if it causes a lot of frustration and tears few may be aware of. Either way? I’ll make it, one way or another.

Gifts fit for a Queen – Holiday Short Story on Literary Escapism

I’m pleased to announce that my short story, Gifts fit for a Queen, is now up on Literary Escapism as a part of their holiday story series. Storm Without End fans can get a glimpse of Kalen from before he was King!

100 Hours into a Countdown Deals Promotion

On December 9, 2013, I started a countdown deals promotion for my novel, Storm Without End. I used a five increment promotion with the following prices: $0.99, $1.99, $2.99, $3.99, and $4.99.

At the 100 hour mark, 3 price increments have completed, with the caveat of unclaimed gifts, which are added to the appropriate increment when they are claimed.

At the time of this posting, my novel is ranked as the following:

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,220 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

#21 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Horror >  Dark Fantasy
#25 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Horror >  Dark Fantasy

At its best, I was ranking #3,393 in Kindle Store, with #10 in both Dark Fantasy categories, #58 in Sword and Sorcery, and #74 in Epic Fantasy (kindle), and #89 in Epic Fantasy (Books).

This was a huge accomplishment for an unknown author, and the amount of support I’ve received from the Google+, facebook, and twitter communities has been staggering. Thank you.

So, let’s talk some numbers. I’ve shown you the rankings, so, what does all of this mean?

In order to reach 3,393 ranking, I had to sell over 50 books in a day at the $0.99 and over 25 books at the $1.99 price point as a follow up, approximately. When the price shifted to $1.99, I was still seeing a trickle of sales from the $0.99 price point as gifts were claimed. These gifts combined with live sales resulted in my 3,393 ranking.

In order to maintain that ranking point, I had to keep selling books.

At 100 hours, to hold the 6,220 ranking, I had to sell 132 books plus 3 lending library borrows, plus 3 ‘out of US’ sales. These ‘out of US’ sales are people who have amazon.com accounts with their kindles but live outside of the USA. I can tell that these were the types of purchases because I would see the number increase on my main stats page but they would not show in the promotions stat page.

This works out to just over 1 book an hour being sold.

So, let’s take a look at this a little deeper. What does this mean in terms of revenue?

Note: I am excluding the ‘Out of US Sales’, all sales prior to the promotion, and the lending library sales from these figures.

At the $0.99 price point: 61 sales, $60.22 in revenue, $38.69 in royalties.

At the $1.99 price point: 52 sales, $103.48 in revenue, $69.04 in royalties.

At the $2.99 price point: 19 sales, $56.81 in revenue, $38.76 in royalties.

To be fair, I actually have 4 hours worth of $3.99 figures, which accounts for 0 sales, so no revenue or royalties. Each of the price points lasts 33 hours.

Now, what does this mean in the overall game plan for me as a new author? Well, I’m going to be very honest with you, and just show you all of the numbers. Yes, all of them.

I will use grand totals by source for simplicity’s sake. All of these numbers are prior to December, as I have confirmed income rankings. I will list my sales totals for the entirety of December, although I will not be listing my total income, as I do not have confirmed numbers for these.

Storm Without End

Amazon: 19 sales, $60.05 in royalties
Createspace: 1 sale, $1.04 in royalties
Indiegogo Campaign: 37 sales, $1158.72 in contributions (after fees).

The Eye of God

Amazon: 33 sales, $122.19 in royalties
Createspace: 1 sale, $0.90 in royalties
Indiegogo Campaign: 43 sales, $1,284.01 in contributions (after fees).

December Figures, Including Promotion:

Storm Without End: 138 sales (US), 2 sales (UK), 2 sales (CA), 3 borrows, 10 paperbacks
The Eye of God: 8 sales

So, what does all of this mean? Absolutely nothing. That’s right. In the short and long term, there is no way of knowing how this promotion will impact my sales in the future — until the future gets here. I’ll let you know as I figure it out, and if I see an increase of sales due to the visibility I’ve gotten as a result of the promotion. That said, after seeing the results of the promotion, I will be using countdown promotions in conjunction with the release of my other novels. This way, people new to each of the series can grab up a copy of the first book for super cheap if the second book appeals to them. After the promotion, I will be permanently marking down the first book a little in price so new fans can enjoy the entire series without going bankrupt.

One thing I would like to make clear is this: I did not make any actual profits for either indiegogo campaign. What the indiegogo campaigns let me do was produce the books and have the funds to pay my people — the perks otherwise sucked every last cent out of the campaigns. I’m fine with that, because my goal wasn’t to make a profit, but to get the books produced so they could start off making profits when they launched.

Future books I’m using my editorial work and my royalties to pay for my fees for my editors and my cover artist. Needless to say, I have absolutely no regrets over going exclusive with Amazon in order to do this promotion. It has given one of my books a huge boost (including 3 reviews!) and I think it will serve as an excellent starting point for my career. Right now, I couldn’t drop my client work or anything like that… No worries there, clients! Maybe in 2015 I’ll become rich and famous… oh hell, who am I kidding? I’d be happy if I made enough to help pay household expenses at this point.

I wouldn’t call this a runaway success, unless the internet decided to all start posting 5* reviews and my sales magically skyrocketed at the higher price point, but there you have it.

And there, I just put my money where my mouth is. I know many people have asked for actual numbers, so there you have it. Actual numbers.

They aren’t large numbers, but they’re mine. In the case of The Eye of God, these are numbers since late July. In the case of Storm Without End, they are since early November.

And, here is the reality of an author’s position: If you find these posts useful, and the resources I post of use, consider buying one of my books. All of the work I put into my website and writing resources are done during my spare time, taking away hours from my novels and my clients.

You can view my author page on amazon here.

Alternatively, you can learn more about The Eye of God and Storm Without End on their pages on amazon as well.

How can you help your favorite authors?

I’ve heard this question asked by quite a few people, so I’m going to take a few minutes to tell you some ways you can help your favorite authors.

1: Review their books.

You don’t need to leave more than a few sentences and a star rating, but taking the time to go to amazon.com and goodreads and doing just that is a good way to help other customers know what you thought about a book. Here is a very quick guide on how to choose your star ratings:

1: This book is absolutely terrible. It is full of editing editors. (Do you see what I did there?) The author took no care with the story. It’s just bad. It is so bad you threw up in your mouth a little. It is so bad that you recruited a friend to read it with you just so you wouldn’t suffer alone.

2: This book was pretty bad. Sure, you may now have thrown up in your mouth a little, but it was bad enough you winced. It’s full of errors. The story line is abysmal. The only thing going for it is the fact that you know it could’ve been worse.

3: This book was okay. Pretty average. There were more errors than you thought there should’ve been, but you were entertained. You think that there are things that could be improved, but hey, that’s life. It was a middle of the road book.

4: You thought the book was pretty good! It could be better, but you’d totally recommend this book to your friends. It may have some errors, but all in all, it was a pretty good read, and you don’t feel like you wasted your money. You might even read it again.

5: This is one of your favorite books. It doesn’t have any noticeable problems. You love the characters, you love the story, and you’d totally take a copy to bed with you and snuggle with it. It’s a book you talk to your friends about. It’s a book that sticks with you. It’s a book that makes you think, makes you laugh, or makes you cry. Simply put: You loved it.

A short review can be something like… “I loved this book! The characters were interesting, there were twists and turns I didn’t expect, and it kept me wanting more. was my favorite, and I really liked of writing.”

Anyone can leave a comment like that, and it shouldn’t take you more than a few minutes at max to write something. Just let people know why you loved or hated the book. You don’t have to leave monster reviews like I do. You really don’t! Other customers often don’t read the long ones; they want a general gist if the book might appeal to them.

2: Tell People About the Book

Social Media and word of mouth can be powerful tools for a fan to make others aware of a novel. Tell others why you loved the book, and give them a link to it. Give the book as a gift to your friends, if you can. Either way, let people know what you thought of the book, even if it is only a few sentences or a single tweet.

3: Tell the Author!

As a reader, I notice when other readers tweet or send a post to an author saying they loved the book. As an author, when someone does this for me, it makes all of the effort and hard work worthwhile. It may not help the author sell a book (although it might…) it does brighten their day! Some authors (like me) may only manage to mumble an embarrassed ‘Thank you!’ but don’t get discouraged by that — I can be a bit shy, especially when people start saying nice things about me. Other authors get bombarded so hard by their fans that they struggle to keep up, but most authors are really grateful every time someone says something nice about their books!

You matter, no mater how large or small your network is. Never forget that, readers.

70 Hours into a Countdown Deals Promotion

As promised, I’m back to talk a bit more about my countdown deals promotion with amazon.com. Here’s a very brief recap of this post. First, only KDP Select members may attempt a countdown deals promotion. All previous contracts and sales with other e-book providers must be cleared off the books before you enroll in KDP Select. You may start a countdown deals promotion thirty days after you enroll in KDP. You can’t change the price of your novel for a certain period of time before / after the promotion.

The story:

On December 9th, my countdown deals promotion launched. See the post above for the general play by play of the deal.

On December 10th & 11th, the price increased from $0.99 to $1.99. Something interesting happened. My book managed to make it onto five top 100 lists. At it’s peak, here are the categories and the rankings:

Overall Ranking: 3,393
#10 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Horror > Dark Fantasy
#10 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Horror > Dark Fantasy
#58 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Sword & Sorcery
#74  in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Epic
#89 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Epic

In the first 33 hours in the $0.99 bracket, I sold 60 copies of the novel. In the second 33 hours in the $1.99 bracket, I sold 41 copies of the novel. At the time of this posting, I have sold 1 novel at the $2.99 bracket.

It took approximately 50 sales to breach the 4,000 overall rank on amazon, and the remainder of the sales has kept it fluctuating between 4,500 and 3,390 overall ranking.

Here is the sour truth of things: Prior to the countdown promotion, I had sold a grand total of 25 books via amazon. (My indiegogo campaign ‘sold’ an additional 37 copies of the novel.)

In short, the countdown deal promotion has made a significantly huge impact on my fledgling writing career. This is entirely thanks to the Google+, twitter, and facebook communities, as well as thanks to the power of family and friends.

I definitely couldn’t have gotten even this far without your help.

Now, a little sidetracking to discuss the problems with this promotion.

First, because I’m an unknown, new author, I don’t have the selling power of others. I don’t have a fan base. I have to entirely rely on people seeing the cover, checking out the description, and then deciding to check out a sample. That’s a really hard sale. A really hard sale.

Because so many people bought the book as gifts for others, the book has gotten a great deal of exposure I otherwise couldn’t get.

I’m steadfast against free book promotions. Why? I worked many long and hard hours on this book. It’s my career. It’s my life. I give away a lot of my time as it is. I need to pay the bills. Free promotions don’t help me pay the bills. At least with $0.99 and higher countdown deal promotions, I can at least try to pay my way in my household and catch up on holiday season bills. This lets me reach fans who aren’t certain about my books because of its normal price.

I priced Storm Without End at $5.99 to reflect the length. It’s almost 100,000 words, compared to The Eye of God ($4.99) which is 80,000 words. I will mark Storm Without End and The Eye of God both down a dollar or two when the second books of their series launch. I feel this will give new readers a chance to get older books at a more reasonable price. (And I will also run countdown promotions in conjunction with novel releases so new readers can get more books for a better price.)

Second, I’m an independent author. There is definitely a negative connotation with being an independent. There is a belief that because I’m an independent, I’m automatically not good enough to be a traditionally-published author. Now, I don’t know if this is true or not. Sure, I submitted my books. Sure, I got rejected — on requests for fulls after partials.

I’ve also learned a lot since then. You can read this post for more on why I am so very grateful to have been rejected. But, as with all things, reality and finances got in the way. I had to choose: Go independent or give up my writing career completely.

I chose going independent. I am a writer. That is what I do, and that is what I’ll always do. But, because I don’t have a publishing house backing me, I have a lot of hurdles I must overcome. I don’t mind it, but it is a major complication in the whole launching a career thing.

The Issue with Gifting

Back to the quirks of the countdown deals promotion: When I launched this promo, I suggested that people give my novel to their friends and family as a cheap Christmas present. A lot of people liked this idea, and that’s what they did. When you deal with rankings with amazon, gifting only counts to your ranking when the receiver accepts the book.

Almost 40 hours after the end of the $0.99 promotion, there are still people accepting the gifts. This is great! But, it means you will have no idea what your actual numbers will be (or how your rank will be impacted) because of how gifting works. This is just something you should be aware of.

The Lure of the Stats Page

Don’t ask me to make sense of the stats page. I really can’t figure out how it works. Sometimes it is real time. Sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes, it can take a day or more for a sale to be noted. Sometimes seconds. I’m convinced that sometimes, it just doesn’t get added at all.

I can’t give you tips on how to avoid obsessively checking out the sales/stats page in the kdp site. I haven’t succeeded at avoiding staring at it in hopes my novel will somehow be a runaway best hit. (And the realist in me says that I’ve probably hit my peak and will be extremely, extremely lucky if I ever even get remotely close to the 3,000s ever again.)

It is what it is. (You mean poopyhead stats page!)

I will leave you with this as food for thought for now.

There will be more, probably at around the 100 hour marker in the countdown deals promotion. It’ll probably involve me crying into a frosty glass of something alcoholic as my chance for fame crumbles to dust. Or me breaking out the port because the unthinkable success runaway I don’t think could ever happen to me happened. Either way, I suspect there will be alcohol involved.