James P. Sumner's Blog
July 28, 2015
NEW RELEASE INFORMATION
June 23, 2015
MY LIFE AS AN INDEPENDENT AUTHOR, AND WHAT I'VE LEARNED ABOUT SELF-PU*LI*HING (WITHOUT THE B.S.)
"HOW IT ALL BEGAN FOR ME"
My name is James P. Sumner. I'm a self-published, independent author, and I sell my books on Amazon. I've been doing this for almost two years. In that time, I have written and published four full-length novels, and one short story. In this relatively short time, I have learned a helluva lot about the business of writing and self-publishing. Am I an expert? No. Not even close. Sorry. I'm far from a template on how to do either of those things. I am, however, just like you. I work full-time... I have a family to support... I wouldn't call writing a hobby, because I work really hard in every spare second I have to further my writing career, but it's not the thing I do for a living. Not yet, anyway. But my point is, very few independent authors make a living from writing. That's a fact. People can top up their monthly income with it, but they still need to work as well. It's a hard business, and a competitive business. I have very little operating budget, for the simple reasons I've just stated. I started out, in July 2013, with maybe £30 a month to spend on this. To give you an idea of how uselessly insignificant that amount is, a highly-coveted, game-changing Bookbub promotion could quite easily set you back $1500... Yikes! But I manage, and even though I'm in the early stages of my career, I'm doing alright for myself. Everything I know, I've found out as I went along. You can easily spend more time planning and promoting than you do writing, which is a vicious circle. There are people out there who can help you with that, and I'll touch on that later in the blog, but what I thought I could do is share with you my experiences, my techniques, my successes and my failures, in the hope that you might find it useful, save yourself some time (which could be better spend writing) and help you on your journey to writing superstardom! So, let's start at the beginning: a little about me. I've always loved reading, and from a young age, I've always enjoyed writing. I dabbled with ideas as I progressed through my teens, and my early twenties, but lack of focus, patience, and a short attention span meant I never took it seriously and committed to it. It was always just something that sounded like a fun thing to do, but I never actually wanted to make the effort and do it. Then I grew up... I met a beautiful woman and got married - a real fairy tale! And it kick-started my obsession with writing. It all started on my honeymoon, in May 2013. We went to Greece for two weeks, and (like you do) I stocked up my Kindle with a few books that took my fancy, and I sat by the pool, turning lobster-red, reading in the sun. The first book was "Siege" by Simon Kernick, which I'd had my eye on for months, and I really enjoyed it - it was fast-paced, edgy, set within a small timeframe... all in all, a damn good book. The second book I read was the one that got me. The one that made me believe I could be a writer. It was "Lethal People" by John Locke. The book itself was alright - it's no literary classic, but it's a decent, short read that took me maybe four hours on the sun lounger. Two things got me about the book. The first was that it was a quick and easy read - low on description, more dialogue-focused, and very fast-paced. I liked that. It was refreshing and I enjoyed the experience. The second thing was that I thought it could be better. Not in a critical way, but a practical way. I thought there were elements of the story, of the characters, that I would've done different. I'm not saying I'm a better writer or anything, I simply mean that if it was me, I would've done it differently. And that sparked this creative... explosion in my head. What if I DID do it differently? And then came the catalyst that finally made me pick up the pen... I looked up the author. John Locke was the first self-published, independent author to sell one million e-books on Amazon. In fact, there's only been a handful of people ever to do that. And he was the first. So I lay there, burning happily away in the Greek heat, and I stared at my Kindle. I'd just read a book that inspired me to write my own, and the guy who wrote it published it himself, showing me that it was possible to get the book out there in the world without the need for a big publisher and an agent.I could do that... So I did. Like I said before, I'd dabbled for years with different ideas, but never had the patient to structure them and turn them into a story. But I had in my mind the idea for a character that I'd created whilst sitting at my desk, at work, about six months prior. I had no idea what to do with that character, but I had a name, and a look, and the beginnings of a personality, so I used him. I toyed around with loads of different ideas, looked for inspiration in the Amazon charts, at what was selling well, and eventually settled on a genre and a theme. Adrian Hell, the assassin, was born. I have absolutely zero formal writing training. I don't know the "proper" way of writing a book, structuring it, planning it... I didn't know the standard format for layout, dialogue... I even struggled with basic grammar when I first started (unprepared for how difficult it is to write U.S. English when you're British). But I had the basis for my story, and I was determined to write it. I started out by writing a basic description of every main character - height, eye colour, hairstyle etc, so I knew what they looked like. Next, I wrote down their personality, their mind-set, the way they think, so I knew who the characters were. Finally, I wrote a very brief history, maybe a two paragraphs, so I knew why they were the way they were. I figured, that way, I didn't need to make it up on the spot as I was writing and risk losing any consistency. That worked quite well for me, and it was fun literally creating people. Then I looked at the story. I didn't (and still don't) have the mental capacity to detail line by line, chapter by chapter, everything that will be said and done, start to finish, in my book. At first, I put this down to a lack of discipline and experience, but as time went on, I realised that wasn't the reason. I found myself thinking like an artist. I'd never really had a creative outlet before, and I always used to look at those artists and sculptures who talked all fancy and pretentious and think they were idiots. But I'd become an artist myself. I was creative. I was telling stories to people, and that's an incredibly complex and artistic thing to do. My Adrian Hell series is written in the first person, so it's the character who's telling the story. I love this style, because you feel like you ARE the character. But also, it fascinated me that I could actually get inside their head and tell the reader not only what they were thinking, but why they were thinking it. In standard thrillers, third person/past tense, it's hard for the storyteller to legitimately tell you why a character thinks the way they do. I was writing about a hitman, someone who killed people for money, for a living, and I wanted people to like him. That's a tough sell! But I figured, if you understood him, you might sympathise with him, which would lead to you rooting for him. I found that wrote very organically. I knew how my story started, and I knew how it ended. I also thought of a couple of big set-pieces throughout the story that would make for exciting reading. But everything else, I literally made up as I went along. I had no plan, no structure, nothing. I just started writing. I was thinking like Adrian would think. He walks into a bar... then what? Well, he'd definitely put some music on and order a beer - okay, let's have him do that. Now what? Well, I want him to have a bar fight... what could cause that? I thought of something and wrote it. The next day, what if he meets the guys who he had the bar fight with, and they turn out to be another character's bodyguards? That'd be funny... okay, we'll do that... And so on... And that's how the first Adrian Hell book come to fruition. I quite literally made it up as I went along. And it seemed to work pretty well. The first draft finished around 63,000 words, and I had a working title of "Heaven & Hell"... which eventually became "Paradise Burns" - that was the title I looked to publish. I read, and re-read, the book... over and over again until I hated the sight of it, making sure it was as close to perfect as my abilities at the time would allow. I increased the word count to 71,000 words, re-read it for at least the twentieth time, and then stopped. That was it. I'd written a book. I remember staring at the screen and letting that sink in for a moment. I'd written an ACTUAL book. Like the ones you see in shops, or on Amazon - like I read...! I mean, wow! And do you know what? That feeling never goes away. The overwhelming sense of achievement when you finish the first draft, or the final draft, of your book is beyond words (ironically!), and it helps you remember why you do it. I started work on the next one straight away - the excitement was too much for me, and I'd already started planning it (as much as I DID plan things) as I was writing my first, so I could be sure to set the story up. So whilst I was scribbling away at the first draft of what would eventually end up as "Hunter's Games", I started looking for ways to publish my debut novel. PART II is coming soon!
April 4, 2015
“Implementing The Nick Stephenson Method – Week Two”
Following on from my post last week, I’m back with the latest performance results of my perma-free title, True Conviction, and the impact of the “Your First 10K Readers” program from Nick Stephenson on my overall brand.
With one day still to go in the second week, I’ll be honest – I couldn’t hold on any longer to share my results with you. It’s been a damn good week!
To re-iterate what I said in my first post, given I was starting at, pretty much, zero, I had very little expectations, and felt that any kind of improvement would be a victory for the program, and for my brand.
The findings from the first week showed a strong start, followed by a sharp decline, then finished with an increase in UK figures and a steady, and unexplainable, decrease in US performance… so, without further ado, let’s take a look at the second week’s figures:
March 30th, 2015
Amazon US: 14
Amazon UK: 119
Subscribers: 7
March 31st, 2015
Amazon US: 16
Amazon UK: 145
Subscribers: 5
April 1st, 2015
Amazon US: 11
Amazon UK: 143
Subscribers: 3
April 2nd, 2015
Amazon US: 13
Amazon UK: 216
Subscribers: 3
April 3rd, 2015
Amazon US: 5
Amazon UK: 384
Subscribers: 14
The decrease in US figures has continued, to the point where it’s next-to-nothing now. But the increase in the UK is staggering! Yesterday, I moved 384 free copies! And, since April 1st, I’ve had 6 paid sales across my other titles, which might not sound like much, but compared to the 6 (if I was lucky) that I was doing in the whole month before I started this, doing 6 in the first 3 days is brilliant.
And the impact on my rankings, after yesterday’s phenomenal performance?
Suddenly, I’m halfway up the Top 100 Free Titles list, across all of Amazon UK, and the way things are going, why shouldn’t the top spot be in my crosshairs?
I also sent out another mailing list post on April 3rd. Since the last one, I’d almost doubled my subscribers list (at time of writing, I’m currently up to 78), so I decided to send my original newsletter out again, to the new half of the list. So far, the stats are:
SENT: April 3rd, 2015 (19:00 GMT)
AUDIENCE: 39
OPENS: 22
OPEN RATE: 56.4%
CLICKS: 1
CLICK RATE: 2.6%
Still fantastic stats when compared to the industry-standard percentages!
At the time of writing, which is 16:15 on April 4th, I’ve already done 146 in the UK, so I could be on for another 200+ day. Could I break the 300+ mark again? Or was yesterday a fluke? Perhaps too early to tell if the growing trend is set to continue. But, what I do know is, the 400+ mark was within my grasp yesterday, so I’d like to think it’s only a matter of time before I get there.
Again, since March 23rd, I have done zero promotion for any of my titles. Everything that’s happened has done so on its own steam, as a result of implementing the methods outlined and endorsed by Nick Stephenson. And as the second week is winding down, I have to say I’m continuing to be impressed by the results, and I absolutely have my eye on that #1 spot on the Amazon UK charts.
I’ll be back next week with another update, to see if True Conviction’s chart positions can continue to improve!
JPS
March 30, 2015
“Implementing The Nick Stephenson Method – Week One”
Having spent three months re-editing my books and re-building my brand, on March 23rd, 2015, I went live with all three of my books on Amazon, D2D and with the new-look website, http://www.jamespsumner.com. I followed Nick Stephenson’s “Your First 10K Readers” programme via his website and Facebook group, and I was eager to implement his suggestions. These focused on:
– Make Your First Title Perma-Free
– Better Keywords
– Building Your Mailing List Via MailChimp
– Working Towards Long-Term, Sustainable Downloads And Visibility
Briefly, this is how I went about it…
I published my first title using D2D, which reaches out to Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iTunes and a few others, and made it FREE. Once live, I contacted Amazon and asked them to price match it, which they did within 36 hours.
I purchased a piece of software called Kindle Samurai, which uses Amazon.com to help you find the best keywords to use when publishing your title through KDP. These help you find popular keywords that produce low results, meaning you have a better chance of appearing on pages one or two of that search enquiry. It rates each suggestion as Excellent, Difficult or Bad. You get seven excellent-rated ones, and use them for your title.
The next thing I did was place an advertisement at the beginning and end of each book, offering my second book as a free download to anyone who signs up to my mailing list. This list is important, because you’re essentially building your own audience and own promotional tool. Long-term, if you have a decent list, you can promote yourself, meaning you have no need to pay other people to do it for you. The added bonus is that your list will contain solid leads, who are fans of you, and your genre, so they’re more likely to be receptive to your product.
Finally, if the first two things work, this will, in theory, lead to Amazon’s algorithms working for you, and you gaining more visibilty on the site, in the “Also Bought…”, “Books You Might Like…”, and Category Chart sections, which leads to regular, organic, downloads of your titles.
I’d read of other people’s experiences, some of which spoke of overnight bumps from $300/month to $1500/month, for example. That’s great, but the thing I had to bear in mind was that they were already doing $300/month… Since publishing my titles in February 2014, I think my best month as $70, and that was a result of a paid promotion run that cost me $110…
My point is, I wasn’t doing all that well to start with, so while a big bump would’ve been great, ANY improvement would be a victory.
So, this past week, I’ve monitored my downloads and my rankings, to see if this would work for me. I’ve tried other people’s techniques in the past, to no avail, so I was optimistic, but slightly skeptical.
It’s worth mentioning, I have done absolutely ZERO promotion on my books. I usually choose some promo gigs from Fiverr.com to give my downloads a boost, but, as Nick himself pointed out, this typically leads to a huge spike in the first three days, then a decline to nothing again – which Amazon take as an exception, rather than the rule, when it comes to your book’s popularity, and ultimately ignore you.
So, here are my figures for the first seven days. These are download stats for my FREE title (found HERE on Amazon US and HERE on Amazon UK):
March 23rd, 2015
Amazon US:��57
Amazon UK:��59
Subscribers:��3
March 24th, 2015
Amazon US:��39
Amazon UK:��22
Subscribers:��6
March 25th, 2015
Amazon US:��42
Amazon UK:��17
Subscribers:��4
March 26th, 2015
Amazon US:��31
Amazon UK:��42
Subscribers:��7
March 27th, 2015
Amazon US:��24
Amazon UK:��52
Subscribers:��4
March 28th, 2015
Amazon US:��21
Amazon UK:��82
Subscribers:��5
March 29th, 2015
Amazon US:��22
Amazon UK:��117
Subscribers:��6
Total Free Downloads:��627
Total Subscribers:��46
Both US and UK started off equal. A general decline followed, with it being slightly more rapid in the UK. Then, a huge spike in the UK, alongside a steady decrease in the US.
The impact in the UK has been great, and as of March 30th, 2015 at 9am, these are my rankings:
I have seen very little retrospective sales of my other titles, which I expected. Firstly, the second book is free if you subscribe to the mailing list, so by default, I’m kinda hoping not as many people buy it. The third book is a paid title, but before people (hopefully) start buying that, they need to read the first two, which takes time.
I wasn’t expecting an overnight success story, but I have to say I’m very happy with the figures, considering I’ve done nothing to influence them.
I do find it strange that very little is happening in the US, especially given the keywords (which are arguably the most important factor through all this) are geared towards the Amazon.com site. Some of the ones I’ve used don’t even show up in the Amazon.co.uk search bar, yet I’m clearly having a bigger impact in the UK.
Here are some more stats about my mailing list. I sent out my first newsletter on March 27th, 2015, which, at the time, reached 35 subscribers:
Newsletter Sent:��March 27th, 2015 (19:00 GMT)
Audience:����35 subscribers
Opened By:����28 subscribers
Open Rate:����80%
Clicked By:����4 subscribers
Click Rate:����11%
Both my Open and Click rates are well above industry-standard, which is a great start. Interesting that 49% of my subscribers are based in the US, yet they account for only 37% of my overall downloads…
So, am I happy with my first week? Yes – I’m ecstatic, if I’m being honest! It’s early days, and I’m hoping these figures continue, and grow, over the coming weeks, but overall, this is a fantastic start.
It’s also proof that Nick Stephenson knows what he’s talking about, and I would absolutely recommend spending time to work through his strategies for publishing/marketing your ebooks.
I’ll post again after the second week is in the bag, so we can see if the trend continues.
Thanks for reading!
JPS
December 19, 2014
Promotion Update: Dec. 19th
15th Dec: Flurry of Words [website] (1 day)
[Update #1: 16/12] Slow start to the promotion, but it was a small site running on its own for the first day, so I’m happy with the 3 US sales. Peaked at 46,655 overall in the US, plus 77th in the “Thriller > Crime > Vigilante Justice” chart and 79th in the “Thriller > Pulp” chart… all in all, a solid start that I hope we can build on throughout the week, as more promotions start to run.
16th Dec: FacebookProGig (3 days) and RichardJagger (3 days)
[Update #2: 19/12] An unfortunately poor performance mid-week on the promotion, racking up a meagre 3 sales in the US and 1 in the UK as a result of these promotion gigs… still early days, but I’ll admit I’m a bit gutted there’s not been a bigger impact so far.
1 8th Dec: BKnights (7 days)
[Update #3: 19/12] A notable increase with the start of BKnight’s promotion, with 8 sales in the US and 1 in the UK since yesterday. This one’s running for a whole week, so I hope it will continue to build momentum. Highest chart positions so far, reaching 27,619 overall in the US, as well as 49th in the “Thriller > Crime > Vigilante Justice chart and 62nd in the “Thriller > Pulp” chart. I think there’s a glitch with the Amazon UK rankings, possibly due to my keywords not updating properly, as I did get into the 19,000s overall, but didn’t hit the Top 100 in any specific charts. This is definitely an area, as previously, any overall ranking above 75,000 would get me into the Top 100, so I definitely should’ve charted quite well.
19th Dec: BookSCREAM [website] (1 day)
22nd Dec: AugustVF7 (1 day)
23rd Dec: Media_By_Design (3 days)
24th Dec: Flurry of Words [website] (1 day)
25th Dec: KindleService (5 days)
26th Dec: Psymon_H (7 days)
29th Dec: Marketing_Ebook (5 days)
30th Dec: AugustVF7 (1 day) and Taranko1 (3 days
December 16, 2014
Promotion Update – 16th Dec.
15th Dec: Flurry of Words [website] (1 day)
[Update #1: 16/12]
Slow start to the promotion, but it was a small site running on its own for the first day, so I’m happy with the 3 US sales. Peaked at 46,655 overall in the US, plus 77th in the “Thriller > Crime > Vigilante Justice” chart and 79th in the “Thriller > Pulp” chart… all in all, a solid start that I hope we can build on throughout the week, as more promotions start to run.
16th Dec: FacebookProGig (3 days) and RichardJagger (3 days)
18th Dec: BKnights (7 days)
19th Dec: BookSCREAM [website] (1 day)
22nd Dec: AugustVF7 (1 day)
23rd Dec: Media_By_Design (3 days)
24th Dec: Flurry of Words [website] (1 day)
25th Dec: KindleService (5 days)
26th Dec: Psymon_H (7 days)
29th Dec: Marketing_Ebook (5 days)
30th Dec: AugustVF7 (1 day) and Taranko1 (3 days)
December 15, 2014
The “One Last Bullet” December Promotion
As a Christmas treat for everyone, I’ve decided to lower the price of all my books to $0.99 / £0.99 for three weeks.
I’ve also invested in a strong marketing campaign for One Last Bullet. My budget would only stretch to one book, so while all three are reduced, I’m pushing the latest one with the promotion.
I’ve never done a full-on promotion before for a Paid novel. I’ve run four promotions (including three launch promos) for Free novels in the past, usually lasting a week. I used a standard plan of blasting every website I could that advertises free ebooks and running it with them Monday to Friday. The result was always a decent week of downloads, but not really any sales once the book resumes normal price.
After much research, I’ve learned of, and adopted, a successful strategy used by many indie authors – which, when you look at it, makes a lot of sense. It’s one of those things – you don’t know it until you know it!
So, using a couple of websites (in the cheaper bracket) and a lot of Fiverr gigs I’ve had success with in the past, I’ve put together a three-week campaign for One Last Bullet, in the hope of finding my footing and vying for dominance in the Paid Kindle charts.
I will update this post every 1-2 days with updates on performance – more for a case study for myself for future reference, but also for the interest of readers and authors alike.
My plan is this (the name is a Fiverr gig unless stated):
15th Dec: Flurry of Words [website] (1 day)
16th Dec: FacebookProGig (3 days) and RichardJagger (3 days)
18th Dec: BKnights (7 days)
19th Dec: BookSCREAM [website] (1 day)
22nd Dec: AugustVF7 (1 day)
23rd Dec: Media_By_Design (3 days)
24th Dec: Flurry of Words [website] (1 day)
25th Dec: KindleService (5 days)
26th Dec: Psymon_H (7 days)
29th Dec: Marketing_Ebook (5 days)
30th Dec: AugustVF7 (1 day) and Taranko1 (3 days)
The promotion will run from today (15th December) through ’til 2nd January 2015.
Crucible has already had a strong month, racking up 28 sales in the first two weeks, completely unprompted! I’ve reached the dizzy heights of the 26,000s overall on Amazon, as well as the Top 75 of two Thriller sub-charts, which is an amazing performance for me. I’m hoping with this promotion, and a Twitter/Facebook push for Hunter’s Games, that I can gain some traction in the charts going into the New Year and building up to the launch of Brave New World – Part 1, which I’m hoping to do in April.
Wish me luck!
JPS
December 8, 2014
Christmas Gifts And Other News!
Hello loyal readers!
First of all, I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who’s contributed to the growing Twitter presence @TheFirstHellion. I’ve gained 40 new followers in the last week, all of whom are lovely and helpful and supportive of indie authors. These peoples are fellow authors, promotion/re-tweet sites, reviewers and general book lovers, and the community is really helping me grow my brand.
I also need to give a shout out to Tim Heath, a fellow author who gave me some valuable hints and tips to help build my brand. You can find his debut novel, Cherry Picking, on sale now – here if you’re in the US and here if you’re in the UK.
So, as seen on the Twitter feed, I’ve been generating some build-up to a Christmas present from me to my loyal readers and growing fan base over the last few days – a thank you for all the support over the last 12 months. To give you all a quick “year in review” summary, since February when Crucible was first released:
Paid Downloads across all 3 titles: 369
Free Downloads across all 3 titles: 8,617
So, all told, an incredible 8,986 people in the world have a copy of my book! Not bad at all for my first year!
And to thank everyone for helping me achieve such amazing results, here is my gift…
Starting 15th December 2014 and running through ’til 2nd January 2015, both Hunter’s Games and One Last Bullet will be $0.99 / £0.99!! That’s right – all three Adrian Hell novels will be available across all Amazon sites for less than a dollar / pound!
THANK YOU ALL!
Alongside this, I will be running some promotions for One Last Bullet, and I will be blogging over the festive period with updates on how the book performs. I will also be promoting via Twitter and Facebook myself, so if you’re connected to me via either method, can I ask that you take a few moments out of your day to share the posts amongst your friends and contacts.
2014 has been an amazing year for me, and 2015 promises to be even more incredible.
Much love, folks!
JPS
November 25, 2014
Writing Update and What’s To Come in 2015
Hello loyal Hellions,
I hope all of you are well and enjoying life!
I thought it’s time I gave you an update on where we are at the moment, as well as an insight into what I’ve got planned in 2015.
BRAVE NEW WORLD
So, Adrian Hell #4 – “Brave New World” (Part 1) is coming along very nicely. Not including the 4-week break I took from writing it, I reckon I’ve been working on this latest novel for a grand total of 5 weeks so far, averaging 90mins a day, 5 days a week. So, in 37.5 hours of writing, I’ve got just under 50,000 words written – an average of 1300 words an hour!
I’m really happy with the progress, and compared to the first three books in the series, this latest one is looking set to hit the 90,000 word mark comfortably. We might even hit 6 figures! I’m probably about halfway through the story anyway, so things are going very well so far.
THE FOUR WEEK BREAK
I mentioned just then a month long break from writing. This was because of my first experience with writer’s block. I can honestly say it’s a truly depressing feeling for an author to want to write something and physically not be able to. It’s like someone had broken my fingers! I re-wrote a particular part of Brave New World (around 6,000 words total) three or four times before giving up on it. No matter what I did, it just wasn’t right. So I stepped away from it – taking a week away from writing completely, then spending the remaining time planning the future of Adrian Hell, experimenting with novellas and looking at marketing strategies for next year. When I finally came back to it, the words flowed out of me. I couldn’t understand how I ever struggled in the first place, which was actually quite annoying! But we’re back on track, and my aim is finish the first draft by Christmas.
2015
So, what does the future hold?
Well, in terms of Adrian Hell, we have Brave New World, parts 1 and 2, down for release next year. That much is set in stone, as far as I’m concerned.
In addition, I have two new (yet related) projects I’m working on that will finally start to get some more attention. I won’t give too much information away at this stage, as there will be some surprises in store, but I can say this:
Adrian Hell: Origins…
A proposed series of three novellas (short stories, typically between 15,000 and 30,000 words) detailing moments in Adrian’s life prior to the events in Crucible. My plan is to give the first of these away free to subscribers of my mailing list. The main drawback with that currently being I don’t have any… I’ll get to my plan for that later. The second and third of which I will publish at £0.99 / $0.99 on Amazon, as well as submit them for consideration to the Kindle Singles scheme – a marketing tool Amazon run for short stories. I can tell you that one of these stories will tell you (in more detail) how Adrian lost his family. This story has been discussed briefly in Crucible, but that particular adventure deserves more attention, I think.
A New Series…
So, I’ve been teasing on and off for a while about a new series and a new character. The initial storyline I had for them simply didn’t work, and I abandoned it after 8,000 words. I have since re-visited the idea and have come up with something that not only works, but that I’m excited to start writing. No giveaways as to name and plot, but I will say this: the character is introduced in Brave New World, and their first two stories interlink with Adrian Hell’s fourth and fifth books! I’ll give out more information once they’re “out there” and Brave New World – Part 1 has been released.
Are we excited yet? Good – so am I.
MARKETING
The main hurdle any independent author faces is self promotion. It’s difficult and it’s expensive. Word of mouth from friends and family is always the starting point – and I thank everyone for their support and ask that they keep spreading the word as best they can.
I have the website now, which has been positively received. Alongside this blog and the Facebook/Twitter pages, I’m also a member now of various Goodreads Communities, which has resulted in a few more fans and sales. I’m also looking to invest in various promotions early in the new year – focusing on one book per month, running promotions for each one on the run-up to the release of Brave New World, hopefully sometime around April.
AND FINALLY…
In an effort to break into the mainstream, I have recently sent the manuscript for Crucible for consideration to the Darley Anderson Literary Agency. For those of you playing the home game, these are the people who represent Martina Cole and Lee Child! Turnaround time is typically long with these types of things, so the fact I’ve heard nothing after 3 weeks doesn’t faze me (although I’m not hold my breath!).
I also entered the competition run by This Morning on ITV in association with Curtis Brown Creative (another top ranking UK Literary agent) where, to celebrate National Book Month, you submit the first 3,000 words of your current, unpublished/unfinished book and the winner wins representation by the Agency and support for publishing your new book when it’s finished. Sounds great, and the 5 finalists are on TV on 27th November for the results. At time of writing, that’s in two days’ time, and given I’ve heard nothing, I’m assuming they don’t want me on TV in 48 hours… but again, it’s nice to get yourself out there and, after all, you never know!
So that’s it from me. Thanks for reading and remember to check out the website at http://www.jamespsumner.com for information on my books and links to the blog, social media sites and the mailing list subscription.
Bye for now,
JPS
November 14, 2014
“Advice On How To Get Your Sci-Fi Published” by Melinda Brasher
Hi folks,
This is the first guest post on my blog, and I’m excited to introduce fellow independent author, Melissa Brasher:
“How to Get Your Science Fiction Published in Magazines”
Guest post by Melinda Brasher
Submitting your stories to science fiction magazines can be a long and painful process, since even the most talented and well-published authors get rejections. For me, it all proved worth it the day I saw my story, “Foreign Bodies,” published in a professional online magazine—alongside a color illustration commissioned just for my story.
If you’re new to the process, or right in the middle of trying to get your whole catalogue of stories published, here are some hints for submitting to science fiction magazines.
Do your Research
As they all say, read the guidelines carefully and submit exactly the way they want. This includes file types and special formatting. If they don’t mention it at all, use “standard manuscript formatting.” And if they request documents in .doc, do NOT send the newer .docx files. If a magazine stipulates “no space opera” or “no vampires,” don’t send your space-opera-vampire saga, no matter how earth-shatteringly wonderful it is. Find another magazine for that masterpiece. It’s also best to read issues of the magazine you’re submitting to.
Send Polished Drafts Only
This should go without saying, but I’m going to say it anyway. Only present your absolute best work, revised multiple times, and proofread by other eyes than yours.
Don’t Treat it like a Novel Submission
For short stories, your cover letter (if requested) should be very, very short, not like a novel query. Include story name, genre, and word count, but unless they ask for it, don’t give a summary or even a hook. And certainly don’t say how wonderful it is. Include any writing credits and wrap it up with your contact info.
Use “Good” Rejections
If a magazine gives you a “good” rejection, keep submitting to that magazine. I’ve had several stories or travel pieces accepted by magazines that first gave me good rejections. Though some magazines include a “please try us again” line in all their rejection letters, many magazines only say it if they really mean it. They saw something in your piece that they liked, and would like to read something else. Some magazines also have tiered rejections, and you might get something like “this came really close.” Definitely don’t give up on that magazine.
A really good rejection is personalized. It’ll say something about your story. Here’s an example: “This is nicely written and I enjoyed where the story was going, but then the story just seemed to stop. What of the third wave? Did Edwin’s struggle against Peter really end there? Best of luck placing it…please try us again.” This is the second similar comment I’ve received about one of my stories. It’s part of a series of interconnected stories, and the editors’ comments tell me I need to punch up the ending more—make it stand alone better—if I want to sell it on its own.
Examples of other “good” rejections: “While I enjoyed the final twist, the story as a whole isn’t what I’m looking for right now,” “What we really liked about this story: character driven, real people/personalities, tentative hope at the end. However, it didn’t quite emotionally grab us.” I’m looking at that story now, to see how to improve the emotional connection. And here’s another: “Yours was high quality. Try us again.” I did try that magazine again, and my second story was accepted.
Listen to Editors
If they ask you to rewrite, don’t go diva and insist that it’s perfect the way it is. The editors’ suggestions will very likely improve your piece. My most professional sale came after the editor’s request to reduce the word count and simplify one section. I did as requested, and they ran the story. What’s more, I think it’s stronger now. On another story, the editor asked me to tweak the ending a bit—not change it, just make it a little stronger. It was another of my series of connected stories, and I needed it to stand on its own better. Now it does (read it for yourself free on On the Premises). Editors are often very perceptive people, and because they have more distance from the piece, they can see things we can’t.
Manage your Income Expectations
Don’t expect to get rich. The professional-rate magazines are very competitive. However, there are quite a few magazines and anthologies out there that do pay a bit (often from $10-60). Plus, a paying magazine, even if it’s only a token payment, gives you more writing cred.
Embrace the Rejections
Don’t be afraid of rejection. Remember that the only way you can get acceptances is to get rejections. So keep submitting. Don’t worry; the rejections get easier. And along the way, you may get some useful critiques of your work, critiques that will help you get better.
A great resource:
Ralan.com — listings of speculative fiction magazines, divided by pay rates. Also includes writing links and other resources.
To read some of Melinda’s Brasher’s science fiction, check out
“Stalked” in On the Premises. Free online
“Passcodes” in The Future Fire. Free online
“Foreign Bodies” on Intergalactic Medicine Show (subscription required to read whole story)
“Sand and Fire” in Spark Anthology IV
Her YA fantasy novel, Far-Knowing, is on sale until the end of October for only 99 cents (links below.) You can also download “Chaos Rises,” a short-story prequel, free.
What people are saying about Far-Knowing:
“Both well written and entertaining.”
“Far-Knowing pulls you in right away.”
“The world-building is spot on.”
“A fascinating view of how magic could work.”
“Hard to put down.”
Download Far-Knowing on Amazon
Download Far-Knowing on Barnes and Noble
Download Far-Knowing on iTunes
Download Far-Knowing on Smashwords
Download “Chaos Rises” FREE on Barnes and Noble
Download “Chaos Rises” FREE on iTunes
Download “Chaos Rises” FREE on Kobo
Download “Chaos Rises” FREE from Smashwords:
Melinda Brasher loves visiting alternate worlds through books and exploring this world through travel. She’s currently quite obsessed with Alaska, and has lived in Poland, Mexico, and the Czech Republic, teaching English as a second language. Her short fiction appears in Ellipsis Literature and Art, Enchanted Conversation, Electric Spec, and others. Visit her online at melindabrasher.com
