Michael C. Bailey's Blog, page 103

Your Last-Minute Shopping List

Christmas is coming up fast. Have you finished your shopping yet? No? Slacker.

Well, I’m going to throw some suggestions out at you. I’ll get the selfish one out of the way: buy Action Figures! You need to get book one so you’ll be able to understand what’s going on in book two (which is now off to my test-readers. Woo!).

If swashbuckling historical fiction is more your style, my friend/fellow writer Justin Aucoin has his trilogy of piratical shorts in the Jake Hawking series, all available for the Kindle and the Nook. Start with A Pirate’s Honor and go from there.

For a faster read in a Christmasy vein, check out my buddy Rob Borkowski’s Wight Christmas, a flash-fiction short that’s available on Amazon.com for the Kindle.

For an early Christmas gift for a theater lover, snag tickets to this weekend’s final performances of my friend Scott Kegler’s play WHACKED!, at the Hole in the Wall Theater in New Britain, Connecticut.

For something a little more kid-friendly (or adult geek friendly), check out my friend Jess Maclean’s shop Geeky and Cheeky on Etsy. My wife Veronica has a growing collection of handmade G&C dolls, including a complete set of Avengers dolls.

Speaking of my wife, go visit her new Storied Threads website! It’s been re-launched with a focus on her clothing and fandom items, while her Etsy store will focus more on her original embroidery designs.

Now, go forth and shop — and in doing so, you’ll be supporting independent artists and small businesses, which is always a great thing to do.

Hello (Hello, Hello)…Is There Anybody Out There?

Today’s a writing day, and I’ll be tackling draft two of book two, and perhaps draft one of an Action Figures short story that I’m planning to post on this site after the second book reaches the public — as in, post in its entirety, for free.

“Free” seems to be the big selling point for fellow indie authors on a number of Facebook groups I joined, all of them geared toward helping authors spread the word of their work. Freebies are the big selling point, which would be all well and good if I thought the pages were reaching potential readers. Really, the pages seem to be echo chambers, in which authors pitch their product to other authors, who are too busy pitching themselves to pay attention to what others have to offer.

Not that many of the offers are all that enticing. It seems like half the books getting pushed on these pages are erotic fiction, vampire stories, or erotic vampire stories. Apparently, everyone’s hoping to become the next Stephanie Meyer (and I’ll let you make the smart-ass cracks on that point; I’m not going to publicly trash another author). Originality is passe.

Pimpin’ Ain’t Easy

Apologies for the lame blog title. All my creative energy is currently going into the edits on book two.

Anyhoo, today marks Cyber Monday, which is like Black Friday sans the potential to be trampled to death (and oh, I wish that was nothing but a facetious comment). To get into the spirit of things, I’ve put the Kindle version of Action Figures on sale for 99 cents for 24 hours (midnight Monday to midnight Tuesday).

To ramp up interest, I took full advantage of a $50 Facebook advertising credit to run an ad for the sale, and the credit has been almost completely exhausted; more than 100 people have clicked through to the book’s Amazon page, and today I’ll see if anyone was curious enough to come on back and spend a buck on my book.

The Facebook ad and the sale are the latest two things I’ve tried to generate sales. I’ve been experimenting a bit, expanding beyond past efforts such as the mailers and slathering my name all over the Internet, but I’m not feeling optimistic about some of my other avenues. I joined several Facebook-based promotional groups for writers, but what I’m seeing (aside from a scary number of posts from “authors” who cannot competently write a simple blurb) is a lot of authors throwing out their pitches to other authors…who, granted, are (or should be) readers themselves, but I’m convinced these pages are nothing but echo chambers.

As for networking opportunities, so far I’ve received one e-mail from an author who wanted to exchange reviews: I buy, read, and review his book, he does the same for mine. This strikes me as rather dicey; it’s implied that we would give each other positive reviews, and I can’t promise that. If the guy’s book sucks, I’m going to say so, so I’m choosing to pass on that particular proposal.

Action Figures – The Next Step

Action Figures has been out for about two months now, and I’m pleased with the sales and response so far. I haven’t been selling hundreds upon hundreds of copies, but there are quite a few out there, which means there are people who might talk up the book or give it as a gift for Christmas; the book has received some extremely positive reader reviews; and I’ll be putting the Kindle version on-sale for 99 cents on Cyber Monday — all things that can goose sales.

I’m also hoping to encourage people to give it a try with this announcement: draft one of book two is done!

I know some readers don’t like to start a series until it’s underway, or at least until the author shows this will in fact be a series and not just a one-off story with an unfulfilled promise of continuing, in the case of self-published authors. I understand, when someone self-publishes, it could easily end up being nothing more than a lark with nothing serious behind it, but I don’t want to be one of those guys.

So, what is book two about? Let me tell you…

Action Figures – Issue Two: Black Magic Women takes place almost immediately after the end of book one. The story explores magic in the world of Action Figures with the introduction of Dr. Enigma, the Protectorate’s consultant on all things mystical, who is called in after rival sorceress Black Betty gets her hands on a book of powerful dark magic — her main weapon in an all-out assault on humanity.

Trivia: Dr. Enigma was originally planned for book one, but she didn’t work with the story I told, so I saved her for book two. Her personality changed quite a bit from her first iteration; when I swapped Enigma out for Nina Nitro, Nina got Enigma’s personality so she could serve as a friend, mentor, and supporter for the Squad. Enigma Mk. II is more secretive, a bit darker, and her loyalties and motives are suspect. She’s a more complex character, and fits the story I’m telling much better.

I haven’t set a tentative release date beyond “spring 2014.” There is still a lot of editing to do, then it goes out to my test readers, then it comes back to me for any necessary story changes, then it goes to my editor/sister-in-law for final edits and proofing — and all the while, my cover artist Tricia will be working on yet more awesome art for the book.

And, because this is how my brain works, and because I am an obsessive writer, I am already mentally plotting book three. I have some ideas, and I know what sort of thematic elements I want to explore, so it’s very possible next year will see not one but TWO Action Figures novels!

Dangerous Minds

To get the selfish stuff out of the way: draft two of book two of Action Figures is almost done. Tomorrow is a dedicated writing day, and I don’t know if I’ll finish the climax, but I’ll come damn close.

Behold my commercialism!

Aside from writing book two, I’ve spent a lot of the past month promoting book one. Mailers have been sent out, I’ve assaulted the Internet regularly, and I took out my first Facebook ad, which has been mildly successful in driving some traffic. I plan to revive the ad during Thanksgiving week to promote a 99 cent Cyber Monday sale, which will hopefully result in some sales.

Another new initiative is a little more cooperative. My friends and fellow self-published authors Justin Aucoin and Rob Borkowski and I established the New England Self-Published Authors Group to promote our work, first and foremost, and eventually the work of others indie authors. We added one new writer, Jennifer Aqualaney, who is working on her debut novel, and we’re hoping she’s the first of many who will join the group.

Ah, but my creative writer friends dabble in areas other than prose — to wit, my buddy Scott Kegler (of Commedia Mania fame), who is putting the finishing touches on his new play, WHACKED, which is about “turkey and masturbation.” I have tickets to opening night next Friday, and I expect to be both entertained and horrified. FYI, it’s not too late to get in on the madness, just got to the Hole in the Wall Theater web site and buy your tickets now.

Yes, the show will be as disturbing as this poster suggests.

And Now, For Something Completely Different

This past weekend, Mike the writer took a weekend off to play minion for my wife Veronica, who had a booth at the Rhode Island ComicCon (the third con ever for Storied Threads).

For me, the fun part of working cons is playing “spot the cosplay.” I’ve grown to appreciate how creative and clever some people can be, with their costume choices and in crafting their costumes and props, and I love the costumes that go in wonderfully weird directions — the ones who stand out among the thousands of Adventure Time outfits, Jokers and Harley Quinns, Deadpools, and (yes, I’ll say it) Doctors.

To wit, perhaps my favorite outfit of the show, for the obscurity of it: Captain Chaos, ‘s alter-ego from The Cannonball Run.

Dah dah DAAAAAAHHHH!

This fellow made the best of a bad leg and went as Professor X from the X-Men, but he went the extra mile and wore a Cerebro rig.

Funny thing is, I don’t remember posing for this picture.

This girl wasn’t any specific character, but I loved the steampunk weapons rig. It was extremely well-done.

An odd but cool crossover: Soundwave (with Laserbeak) and Mr. Freeze.

Another fun, unusual choice: Dum-Dum Dugan of the Howling Commandos, with, for some reason, the Infinity Gauntlet.

This girl has a pretty cool (ha, see what I did there?) Jack Frost (from Rise of the Guardians) outfit in general, but I was wowed by the staff, which had a PVC pipe frame, and was then covered in crinkled masking tape for the texture, given a brown base coat, a white and blue frost layer, and then, to finish, more white and blue mixed with glitter.

Action Figures – Now Available On Kindle!

FINALLY! It took a lot longer than anticipated, but Action Figures is now available as an e-book for the Kindle!

First, the nitty-gritty details: Action Figures for the Kindle is $2.99, and if you’ve previously purchased Action Figures as a softcover novel through Amazon.com, you can take advantage of Amazon’s Kindle MatchBook feature and purchase the e-book for $.99! Keep it for yourself, or give it to a friend as a gift (Christmas is right around the corner, after all).

Don’t have a Kindle? Then download one of Amazon’s free Kindle reading aps so you can check out the e-book on your browser, your phone, your tablet computer.

Now, a commentary, mostly for the benefit of authors considering publishing on the Kindle…

It was a pain in the butt.

I went with the paid conversion service because I didn’t know a damn thing about formatting the manuscript for Kindle, and — bonus — I had a discount coupon, and the first thing I realized: CreateSpace and the Kindle Direct Publishing do not communicate well, and in some cases weren’t even certain where I should be directing my inquiries. CreateSpace would send me to KDP, which would send me back to CreateSpace, and vice-versa.

CreateSpace also did not do a fantastic job of formatting the manuscript on the first go-round. Hyphenated words that should have stayed hyphenated were turned into portmanteaus, and I had to root through my original manuscript AND the e-proof to locate the goofs, and send a detailed list to a specific team, so I could wait an additional week for the corrected proof — and I only learned about this process because of a direct phone call to CS customer service. The website was less than helpful.

The final annoyance: I never received the promised e-mail telling me the work was done. I stumbled across the fact I had a corrected version by accident.

So: not all that impressed by the conversion service, and I’m not sure if I’ll use it again, or put in the extra legwork myself to format it by hand. Live and learn.

Meanwhile…

I’m still in my holding pattern for the Kindle version of Action Figures, thanks to some errors in the formatted file (errors I did not make, that I cannot correct on my end). Next week, hopefully, I can stop talking about how nothing is happening.

And by “nothing” I mean, “lots of stuff that isn’t necessarily connected to my novel.”

Earlier this week, my friends/writing buddies J.M Aucoin and Rob Borkowski (whose new short story is available here) and I formed a new Facebook group, The New England Self-Published Writers Group. The express (and somewhat selfish) purpose is to promote ourselves, but our long-range goal is to expand the page to include other independent authors from the New England area for purposes of networking, sharing resources, and promoting projects to readers looking for something new and different.

We’re being rather picky about who joins the group, which may seem cliquish, but, as I’ve remarked in this blog before, there are a lot of people out there who self-published a novel that never should have seen the light of day — at least without first going through some extensive and rigorous editing. One of our goals is to enhance the collective image of self-published authors, and to do that, we need to exercise and enforce standards. We need to treat ourselves and others as professionals who take the craft seriously.

Most of my week has been spent in the Storied Threads studio with my wife, helping her crank out stock in advance of Rhode Island ComicCon, where she hopes to do gangbusters business. Even our dog Beatrix has been pitching in. Sort of. She means well.

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“No, really, I’m helping!”

Sign, Sign, Everywhere A Sign…

Last weekend was my farewell to the Connecticut Renaissance Faire for the season.

King Henry VIII (Christian Galpin) treats the peasants to a dramatic reading of Action Figures at the Connecticut Renaissance Faire. Yes, it was as weird as it sounds.

My wife’s assistant Kate is back for the final weekend (after taking a few days away to go to New York, get engaged, and meet Captain Marvel writer Kelly Sue DeConnick while dressed as Captain Marvel…and yes, you read all that correctly), which means I get to stay home and work on draft one of book two of Action Figures.

That’s right, I am already working on the sequel, and I have been getting the “Write faster!” treatment from people who have already blown through book one, and want to be on the test-reader list for book two. Flattering, that.

As flattering as all the requests I received over the weekend to sign copies of my book. I think I signed eight copies, and one thing I learned: it’s tough coming up with unique and witty inscriptions. But it’s a good problem to have.

I also received a few inquiries about the e-book version, and so far things are on-track there. I’m expecting the Kindle version to be ready to go next week, and sorry, Nook owners, it’ll be a lot longer before you see a version. I’m taking advantage of the Kindle Direct Publishing perks, which means I’m locked into a Kindle-exclusive deal for 90 days from the e-book’s release, so non-Kindle owners will have to wait a few months more (or download one of the many free Kindle aps for your computer, tablet, or phone).

Progress(ish)!

This was the week I’d hoped to announce the e-book edition of Action Figures, but unforeseen circumstances have held that release up…and by “unforeseen circumstances,” I mean “a conversion process that isn’t terribly user-friendly.”

When creating the hard copy novel, CreateSpace was mostly clear and straightforward. There was a lot of futzing of the manuscript on my part to get the page-by-page layout right, but the instructions were not vague, confusing, and contradictory — unlike the instructions for converting my novel to a Kindle-compatible file.

I’ll skip over the gory details and simply say: Amazon, there is a LOT of room for improvement here, starting with the fact your customer support should be integrated, so customers don’t contact CreateSpace for help, only to have them sent over to the separately run Kindle division, which then sends customers back to CreateSpace. What are you, the federal government?

Anyway, I finally got the mess ironed out yesterday, so in two weeks, I should (should) have a proper e-book for the Kindle.

In the meantime, the paper push continues: promotional mailers have been sent to about 15 indie bookstores (and this is only the first wave), reviews have started to pop up on the book’s Amazon page, and I’m already being pressured by early readers to get a sequel out.

Well, work on that last one is underway, though I won’t be touching it this weekend, since I will be at (cheap plug) the Connecticut Renaissance Faire working at the Storied Threads tent for Time Travelers Weekend. I’m there because Kate, Veronica’s assistant, is enjoying a weekend getaway to New York ComicCon with her boyfriend, fellow writer J.M Aucion (of Jake Hawking fame).

Did I say boyfriend? I meant fiance. Congratulations, guys!