S.G. Basu's Blog, page 44

Ah! The beauty of illustrations

The thing I love best about being an indie author is the freedom. I have control over every creative step – deciding on formats, designing the  covers, directing the editing process. Yes, it is for the most part, a lot of work, but the creative process is nothing short of intoxicating to me. I could go on and on about every little facet that I enjoyed, but I have to make myself stop, and focus.

In today’s post I want to highlight one aspect – illustrations! Illustrations, you might ask. And you would be totally justified in asking. Maia’s story falls in the YA category, so why on earth would you put in illustrations? First of all, because I liked the idea – it sounded fun. And I realized that illustrations would add so much by explaining the unfamiliar concepts I introduce in my story. Even with a lot of conviction, the decision to follow through was not a slam dunk though – I got a lot of advice on how illustrations in a YA book goes against the rules of the genre, how illustrations are sometimes frowned upon because they constrict imagination. But then, I thought, if being an indie author I was not willing to take a risk and follow my heart, who would?

So, I embarked on a search for an illustrator to bring my world to life. I did not have to look to far. Ron, then a fellow author in my Writers’ Critique Group (Rockville Writers’ Group), introduced me to Nora Meek. I met with Nora and I was extremely impressed with the style and her ability to translate my words into gorgeous visuals. And, so began our collaboration. We met a few times to discuss my vision for the novel and mostly coordinated online to create about ten wonderful illustrations that I was proud to add to the book.

Here are a couple of my favorites of the bunch, the one where Maia practices her swordplay in Appian.

And then the spaceport of Arpasgula, from where Maia journeys into Xif.


Now I can’t wait to get to working on the illustrations for my second book.

Everything has a shelf life, even story outlines

Even when I was a child, I often dreamed in episodes. What is that, you might wonder? Well, I would have a nice, long dream one night. The following night I would dream its sequel. Weird, right? I agree, it is. The first time this happened to me, or my first memory of such a thing is from when I was ten. And since then, I have done it often. So, guess it was no surprise that when I sat down to write my first novel, it spawned into a multi-book series.

I decided very early on that Maia’s story would be told in five parts. I had a nice sketch of the storyline broken into five sections right before I started drafting the first part. It was definitely as easy as it was fun in the beginning. The workload was not as much as it is now, the story was just getting started and the characters were young and not as complex. Writing the first book was a challenging project because it was my first time writing, but other than that, keeping track of the story threads was not too overwhelming a task. The second and the third parts simply flowed – I was having a ball.

Then, I had to slow down a little – I had  to start thinking about publishing my novels, my work life was getting rather demanding, and a new baby waltzed into my life. A few years passed by in the blink of an eye. Finally, when I was ready to get back into the business of writing again, I encountered one of the biggest challenges – I had not looked at my story sketch in years and in the meantime, the characters had grown so much that the old story did not make much sense anymore.

What fun! I was aiming to write a 1000 words a day, and here I was stuck with a story that had expired. It was frustrating. I wished I had taken up a less complicated project, or rather a smaller project. I wished I had drafted all five parts without taking a break in between. I wished … Oh well, I realized there was no point simply wishing – I had to rework the story for parts 4 and 5. And so I did. I had to sequester myself from my daily tasks, banish every old idea from my head and think fresh. Two days later, I had completed the outline of part four. Now, I could write my 1000 words. YAY! What a relief, at least for a few months.

Note to myself – when Maia’s story is all told and another character shows up demanding your time, remember they can only have book each. No more series, no more dreaming in sequels.

–  Author of “Maia and the Xifarian Conspiracy.” Now on Amazon.

The numbers game on Amazon

I am having the time of my life. Yeah, well, somewhat.

So, last week I decided to spend some time looking at my rankings on Amazon – you know, the Author rank, the Sales rank, etc, etc.

Bad idea !

Around the beginning of this past week, my print book was listed in the 300K range. Not bad, I thought. I was not actively promoting it, I was building up the infrastructure at this point. I spruced up my Author Central bio, added all the relevant links and waited a day. Then, I took a peek.

OMG … was I seeing this right? My book was plummeting, it was now barely above the 600K point.

PANIC !!!

What am I doing wrong? Did I spell everything right? Or did I annoy some all powerful book God who unleashed his wrath on my baby?

I checked again a couple of hours later.

OH NO !

It was down to 800K and sliding down further every hour.

A few more hours of frantic checking later, I decided to make use of the situation. I thought, well, let’s make lemonade with the lemons. Good thinking, right? Hmmm … in hindsight, I am not so sure. I decided to test what effect a Kindle free promo would have on said numbers.

So, the promo went live the following day – at that point my print book was at 900K and my eBook was at 600K or so … and going down.

Then came the crazy 24 hours after my promo went live – checking my Author Central page for rankings more often than I would like to admit, checking my Kindle Direct for the number of downloads, stressing out to the point that made me want to unpublish my book and what not.

I never thought I would, but I did survive. And I did not unpublish my book either. Phew!

Now, here’s the lowdown on the experiment – I had about 100 downloads, with no promotion of the free deal whatsoever (as per design). The eBook version shot up to 3000 on Top free books on Kindle and came in #6 and #7 in the specific genres of “Juvenile/Coming of Age” and “Juvenile/ Science Fiction.” After the free downloads ended, the ebook went back to its pre-free rankings – which I expected. What I did not expect is a ranking of 90K on my print book the following day – YAY I had sold a couple of copies and shot up the ranks.

I do not know who bought these copies – if the free kindle download triggered the sales or if it would have been bought regardless. But this I do know, if I could to sell about 3 books per day, I could easily get in to the 50K-90K range – this was very good data.

And, there’s one more thing I know now – it is better to leave those numbers alone. If my mother were to hear about this, she would quote the following Shloka, and very wisely so.

“Karmanye Vadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu Kadachana,

Ma Karma Phala Hetur Bhurmatey Sangostva Akarmani”

Translated as – “You have a right to perform your prescribed action, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your action. Never consider yourself the cause of the results your activities, and never be associated to not doing your duty”

The idea is to keep on doing the job the best you can, the results (numbers in this case) will take care of themselves. So, keeping that in mind, I decided to devote my time and energy to editing part two of my novel, researching promotion strategies and writing my 2000 words everyday. It has been peaceful around here since.

–  Author of “Maia and the Xifarian Conspiracy.” Now on Amazon.

What comes next?

After my first novel was listed on Amazon last week, I sent out a note to friends who had been supporting me all these years. Other than the “Congratulations,” most of the reply notes expressed a similar sentiment – how relieved I must be, now that the book is out there. I smiled every time I read that, thinking how different it actually had been for me.

I am not sure about traditionally published authors, but for an Indie author like myself, this is only the beginning of a long journey. Yes, the writing is done, the editing as well. Design has been taken care of, all listing details reviewed and submitted. YAY!!! It’s good to go. Send out the emails, pour yourself a glass of wine. And then, figure out the trickiest part of the business. Marketing your book.

Amazon, KDP, Smashwords, Apple, B&N – what to choose and how? Promos, giveaways, signings – when to do them and how to maximize their benefits of each? Numbers, numbers, numbers – what do they mean anyway?

The last two weeks have passed in a daze. I have never been so busy and preoccupied and stressed at the same time, and it seems like it would be that way for a bit longer while I try to navigate the waters of promoting a book. Oddly, this reminds me of having a child, of how proud and happy I was when I held my daughter for the first time, yet so overwhelmed. It has been a learning experience since, and a joyous and rewarding journey. Maybe … I hope it will be the same way with the book.

~ “Maia and the Xifarian Conspiracy” is now on Amazon. ~

Maia and the Xifarian Conspiracy

What comes next?

After my first novel was listed on Amazon last week, I sent out a note to friends who had been supporting me all these years. Other than the “Congratulations,” most of the reply notes expressed a similar sentiment – how relieved I must be, now that the book is out there. I smiled every time I read that, thinking how different it actually had been for me.

I am not sure about traditionally published authors, but for an Indie author like myself, this is only the beginning of a long journey. Yes, the writing is done, the editing as well. Design has been taken care of, all listing details reviewed and submitted. YAY!!! It’s good to go. Send out the emails, pour yourself a glass of wine. And then, figure out the trickiest part of the business. Marketing your book.

Amazon, KDP, Smashwords, Apple, B&N – what to choose and how? Promos, giveaways, signings – when to do them and how to maximize their benefits of each? Numbers, numbers, numbers – what do they mean anyway?

The last two weeks have passed in a daze. I have never been so busy and preoccupied and stressed at the same time, and it seems like it would be that way for a bit longer while I try to navigate the waters of promoting a book. Oddly, this reminds me of having a child, of how proud and happy I was when I held my daughter for the first time, yet so overwhelmed. It has been a learning experience since, and a joyous and rewarding journey. Maybe … I hope it will be the same way with the book.

~ “Maia and the Xifarian Conspiracy” is now on Amazon. ~

Giveaway on Goodreads.com

Autographed copies of “Maia and the Xifarian Conspiracy” are up for grabs at Goodreads.

Enter the Giveaway

“Maia and the Xifarian Conspiracy” is now on Amazon

It has been a long journey, but a great one for sure. The first part of Maia’s story is now out there. Although the road ahead is longer than the one I have traversed until now, I feel as if I have lifted the heaviest of the weight. The first step is almost always the hardest one to take, or so it seems to me now.

It is a very happy moment, a proud moment as well, to be able to present my work to the world. And now, on to Part Deux.

 

 

What’s in a name?

I never imagined that the hardest part of getting my first novel ready would be picking a name for it. When I first started, I had a name in mind. That was chosen from the heart, and it seemed perfect until a reviewer pointed out that it was the name of a reputed organization. I would have kept it still if it did not recall sectarian overtones that I just could not shake off my mind. So, out it went into the recycle bin.

I then decided to have the name of my protagonist in the title. I was planning to write a series and I wanted to start building a recognition of my heroine’s name. The tail end of the title was harder to land. Should I highlight the motif used in the series, or maybe a central theme? Should I share a key instrument that is used in the book, something that drives the plot forward? Or would that end up being too much of a reveal?

SIGH!!!

Sometimes, I just want to get to my worktable and write stories. Writing is fun. The rest – naming, putting together a cover, getting a marketing plan together, is fun but not as much as bringing characters into life. But, like so many others before me, I persist. Oh what a journey this has been.

Createspace now offers “matte” finish for book covers

This was the one thing that I did not like about publishing through Createspace – they did not offer a “matte” cover option. So self-published titles through CS were always “glossy”. So when I came across this offering while trying to upload edited material this afternoon, I was beside myself with joy.

Existing books can also be converted to the new format without going through the entire approval process. Check out the details in the links below.

“Announcement: Matte Finish Now Available for Print Book Covers

CreateSpace is excited to announce Matte cover finish for print books. It’s easy for you to choose Matte or Glossy finish, available at the same cost, for your new or existing titles. Changes to your book’s cover finish will be available in that finish within four hours and your title will remain available for sale during this time. Learn more”