S.J. Pajonas's Blog, page 93

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today, after a nice morning walk on the treadmill, I’ll be with my relatives all day eating, eating, and more eating. And possibly a nap on the couch, if I’m lucky.

If I’m thankful for anything in my career, I’m thankful for all of you, all of my readers who come here or read my books. I love creating and writing, but knowing there are people out there that want to read what I write makes this much sweeter. Thank you for everything.

I hope you all have a lovely Thanksgiving if you’re celebrating today! I’ll be back tomorrow with a NaNoWriMo update.

xo

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Teaser Tuesday – Rin’s Embarrassment

It’s another Teaser Tuesday for CHAOS IN KADOMA WARD! This book is now available, but the teasers are not over yet.

Why I’m No Longer Using A Mailing List

I’ve been a blogger since 2004 and writing on my blog has always been a part of me. I first started off blogging about nothing because I was really just interested in having my own website and learning the software. Then I transitioned into knitblogging (yes, it’s a thing) until around 2010. I loved my knitblogging community and I was among the first 100 knitters on Ravelry because my friends started the whole revolution. It was grand, but I had kids and lost a lot of knitting time. Time changed things, as it always does.

Then I started writing and began blogging again as an author. Suddenly, my love for blogging took off again! I enjoyed being here, talking about craft or my books or Japan or just about anything. The good times were back! I really enjoyed being here and making my blog a part of my life and my career. So many people (SO MANY) told me I was wasting my time, though. I remember one luminary in the business who told me to stop telling other authors to blog because I was wrong about why blogs were important. Yes, someone on the internet told me what to do. Shocker, I know.

Time changed things again, and all the author community was screaming about newsletters and how you NEEDED one to succeed. I was skeptical, but I started one. And in the beginning, things were okay. I occasionally sent out emails while still blogging about the same things, but I became obsessed over all the little numbers — how many subscribers I had, how many people opened or clicked, how many unsubscribed. It was all-consuming.

I even went through a period of doing list building initiatives. I grew my list through Instafreebie and BookFunnel. I paid money to be a part of contests where I would get a list at the end. Not to mention I was also paying $35-$45 per month to maintain the list on MailChimp. I was paying at both ends!

Then I heard the real way to get people on your mailing list and keep them was to offer them exclusive stuff. So I wrote a novella just for my mailing list people, plus I gave away an omnibus of short stories. But all that did was prompt people to subscribe to my list, download the free books, unsubscribe, and mark me as spam.

Major sad face. I never spammed anyone!!

Add to this that no one engaged with me via the newsletter like people did with blogging and they didn’t buy books either.

Why was I maintaining a newsletter again??

It was double work with blogging and newsletter writing. It was time and money sucking.

It was time for it to end.

But don’t worry! I’m not trashing everything! The title of this post really should be “Why I’m No Longer Using A TRADITIONAL Mailing List.”

Guys, I HAVE RETURNED TO BLOGGING. No more exclusive books (except the Nogiku Series Guidebook) and slaving over a newsletter every two weeks (or more). Instead, I’m moving to a system that will send my blog posts to my readers and they’ll get the same great content at the speed they want. All my news will be here on the blog and if you subscribe to the newsletter, you’ll get some options on how to receive the content — right away, weekly digest, just news, just new release alerts. I’ve hooked up the back-end system with reliable and fast Amazon SES (Simple Email System), one of the best email systems on the planet, and the templates will be familiar to my current readers. You’re going to love it. And it should go into effect later this week.

I’m so excited about this new paradigm I’ve shifted into and I’m excited to get back to bringing new content both here and to my book readers as well.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask them below.
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Sunday Update – November 19, 2017

What a week. I’m so glad it’s over. I thought this week would be stressful what with CRASH LAND ON KURAI free and CHAOS IN KODAMA WARD publishing, but it was even worse than that.

Monday was probably the only good day. I was able to write and get stuff done because I scheduled all my blog posts for the week ahead of time and my FB ads were all ready to go.

Tuesday, things started to get hairy. I had a lot of prep work to do for the release day of CHAOS IN KODAMA WARD and the proof arrived that day too. It was our last CSA pickup of the season too. But besides all this, I was really nervous about publishing the book and I could only think think think about it.

Wednesday was the day CHAOS IN KODAMA WARD published. Unfortunately, the launch did not go well. I only managed to sell 12 copies between pre-order sales and first day sales. One of my worst launches yet.

Last Day To Get CRASH LAND ON KURAI For Free! Nov 17th!

Just in case you missed it, today is the last day to download CRASH LAND ON KURAI, the first book of the Hikoboshi Series, for free. If you missed my post earlier this week, now’s the time to pick it up before the sale ends!

Download for Free on Amazon

Available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited

And please, if you do download and read it, don’t forget to leave a review! All reviews are appreciated!

PS) Since I’m bound to get some questions about this, I tend to only make first books in series free once every two years unless the whole series is available, and then I may make the first free or 99¢. THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE hasn’t been free since June 2016. This one will probably not be free again until late 2018 or into 2019.

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CHAOS IN KADOMA WARD Is Now Available!

Yay! It’s finally here! I’m so excited that today is the day CHAOS IN KADOMA WARD is available to everyone.

I remember writing this book and wondering what the heck I was doing. Lol. Second books in series are so hard. And though I had set up a good world in the first book, actually taking that world and making it work was difficult. When the first draft was done, I knew I had something I could work with, but it wasn’t all there yet. I didn’t like the ending and I had strayed from my original premise. When I decided to get into the draft and make changes, I had better ideas and started to become really excited about the trajectory of the series. This book turned out to be a lot of fun!

CHAOS IN KADOMA WARD really cements the characters, the corporations, and what’s at stake for the survival of this society, in whatever shape that may be.

I hope you love this book as much as I did writing it! Pick it up today at Amazon!

Purchase or Borrow on Amazon

Available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited

For my readers on Nook, iBooks, Kobo, and Google Play, I fully expect to bring this series to those stores in early 2018. Stay tuned!

And don’t forget that the first book in the series, CRASH LAND ON KURAI, is free this week only!

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Teaser Tuesday – Revolution

It’s time for another Teaser Tuesday for CHAOS IN KADOMA WARD!

In CRASH LAND ON KURAI, Yumi gets a good taste of the strained relations between the corporations on Hikari. Not only did they shoot her ship down, causing them to crash land on Kurai, but they also fought hard amongst each other to gather up the stranded strangers and turn them into a free workforce of their own.

So it’s natural that Yumi lands on Hikari in CHAOS IN KADOMA WARD and is met with strife. Not only does she have to figure out how to fit in, but she’s witnessing the swift degradation of a society that has had ENOUGH. They’ve been through it all in the last hundred years, and they’re at their breaking point.

But what can Yumi do? Though Rin is successful in his job, they’re both far down the totem pole of influence. The best they can do is hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

Want to pre-order CHAOS IN KADOMA WARD?

View the cover, blurb, read an excerpt, and purchase CHAOS IN KADOMA WARD via my website…

Check out CHAOS IN KADOMA WARD now!

This novel will be available on November 15, 2017, TOMORROW, on Amazon.com and in Kindle Unlimited.

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CRASH LAND ON KURAI Is Free For A Limited Time! Through Nov 17th

I have excellent news for you this week! In honor of the publication of CHAOS IN KADOMA WARD, the second book of the Hikoboshi Series, I have decided to offer CRASH LAND ON KURAI for free this week only.

Have you been thinking about trying out this series? Here are some excerpts from reviews I feel give a good impression of this book!

“Honestly, this was a brilliant read. There were so many interesting elements in this story and I cannot wait to see where the series heads from here. It is certainly a series I’ll be keeping an eye on!”

“The author does a solid job of world building and revealing characters. I was immediately struck by the dialogue. It’s exactly what you would expect from soldiers. I don’t mind a good potty mouth when it is in character. The universe felt only slightly reminiscent of Firefly (the short lived but much loved Joss Whedon series) because of the Eastern elements, but I really enjoyed the deep thought SJ Pajonas has obviously dedicated to this world and these people. Nothing felt out of place unless it was supposed to.”

“Yumi has to feel out who is friend and who is foe among the new people she is meeting. Not only her own life, but those of all of her shipmates hang in the balance. I read it in two days, and only because I had to put it down to go to work. Just a really refreshing read in a genre that has become dominated with military SF lately (which I love!) This was a nice change, and I am really looking forward to the rest of the series.”

I really enjoyed writing this book last year for NaNoWriMo so it’s seems fitting that I offer it now for free, while I’m publishing Book 2, and writing Book 3. I hope you enjoy it!

Download for Free on Amazon

Available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited

And please, if you do download and read it, don’t forget to leave a review! All reviews are appreciated!

PS) Since I’m bound to get some questions about this, I tend to only make first books in series free once every two years unless the whole series is available, and then I may make the first free or 99¢. THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE hasn’t been free since June 2016. This one will probably not be free again until late 2018 or into 2019.

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Sunday Update – November 12, 2017

During November, it’s hard for me to break away from NaNoWriMo to do other things, but this time around, I’m being much better about budgeting my time.

We had a busy week around here. Monday and Wednesday were our only normal days, and the rest were either abbreviated or off from school.

On Monday, we did our normal things. I wrote during the day and we had gymnastics in the evening.

Tuesday was Election Day, which means a half day of school for my kids. I dropped them off in the morning and then voted and went for a walk to exercise off the donut I bought at the school bake sale. Lol. I made sure to bring singles this time because I wasn’t missing the baked goods. The day turned out well when all the election results came in, and I felt a little better about humanity.

Wednesday, my husband worked from home and the cleaning ladies came. I went for a walk while they were here and got in my words in any way that I could.

Thursday and Friday, My kids had off from school due to a statewide teachers’ conference. On Thursday, I took them grocery shopping in the morning and then they had piano lessons in the afternoon. We’ve been watching Supergirl together whenever we can, and we watched an episode together during our lunchtime, which was nice. Then on Friday, my husband worked from home and I just tried to keep my kids from eating each alive out of boredom. Not easy, especially when I’m trying to write a first draft.

Saturday was another day where we just tried to keep the kids from being bored. I tried to set up some playdates but either people were out of town, busy, or sick. Not surprising given this particular four-day weekend and the weather in November. The youngest went to a birthday party, and by the end of the day, I thought I was getting sick too. I was just plain worn out. I did get in 2000 words though!

Today was a bit more chill. I didn’t do much. I didn’t walk. I sat on the couch a lot and did work on the computer. I set up all my blog posts for this week and wrote. We managed to get a playdate set up for the youngest, so at least she was occupied.

Thank god we go back to school tomorrow! At least the kids do. I go back to my daily work days.

NaNoWriMo Update – November 9, 2017 – Fukusha Model Eight

*clears throat* I’m trying out a new image format for my posts. We’ll see if I like it, but it’s time to get rid of the Thirsty Soft font, since EVERYONE uses it now.

So, if you’ve been following along on Facebook, I’m participating in NaNoWriMo once again. Here’s my Facebook Page where I update about my progress every day. NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month, and during the month of November, writers endeavor to write a 50k novel from November 1st through to the 30th. Now, most of you know my work. Never have I ever written a 50k novel. Mine are almost all 80,000 to 110,000 words, so basically, I try to write 50k of A NOVEL during NaNoWriMo and call it the challenge complete. Then I spend most of December actually finishing up said novel. It works for me, so I can’t complain.

As you can see, I’m already way past the 10k mark which is exciting! At least for me.