C.E. Murphy's Blog, page 114

Website Redesign in Progress

All right, for the next few-to-several days the site is likely to be something of either a mess or very plain, depending on how badly I've broken things. I'm doing a redesign and it's clear I need to start from scratch, so that's what I'm pretty much doing. Apologies for the mess, and I swear I won't be leaving it for months on end.

On Running A Kickstarter Campaign

I have SO MUCH to write about what I've learned from running the Kickstarter campaign that I've basically been unable to move forward on it, you know? Too much information and not enough mental capacity to break it down. Fortunately for me, a friend who is looking at running some crowdfunding had a list of questions to put to me, and that's giving me some badly-needed structure. So I'm gonna hit this thing over a series of blog posts, and will do my best to include further questions asked in comments and the like as well as break out my own personal experiences.

…all of this stuff basically assumes you're a writer running crowdfunding, but I imagine that after the fact a lot of it might be helpful to other people. I hope so, anyway.

What would be a reasonable amount to set as initial goal? (I understand the part where if you don't make goal, you get zero.)

For me, this depends on anticipated wordcount, but the "if you don't make goal" bit is the kicker.

For "No Dominion", which I planned as a novella, I set my initial goal at $4000. I chose that number because I've sold 3 novellas in the past, and was paid approximately $3K, $3500 and $4K for them. So I'd been going to split it down the middle for "No Dominion" and ask for $3500, but then I jumped the gun and got Kyle Cassidy to do the cover art photo shoot, so I went ahead and rolled the cost of that into the campaign, thus setting the dollar amount at $4K, and setting the novella price point as a whole for the campaign at $4K.

Tim Pratt set a $6K goal for his novel-length Kickstarter. I suspect I would do around the same, probably topping out around $7500 for an anticipated, say, 80K novel, because the *idea* here is to get the cash in the door, so it's counter-productive to aim super high and not make it. It's a question of what's the minimum bearable to make for your work, but one of the positive sides about crowdfunding is it frees you to do something you really want to do, and that may be worth taking a little less cash in hand.

How long does one run this thing?

Kickstarter itself suggests 30 days, because there's pretty inevitably a trough in the middle. I ran "No Dominion" for 45 days and will do that for any other Kickstarters I run, because 45 days is pretty likely to mean everybody who might want to buy in is going to have a paycheck in that time. 30 days can miss out on people who only get paid monthly, and that can make a difference.

What's with this video one does?

I think the video is God's way of being cruel to writers. Honestly, for mine, I wrote a 45 second speech, practiced it a bunch of times, then set up my phone to record me and recorded it about twenty times until I had one where I hadn't embarrassed myself stumbling over the words. I was very proud of myself for managing to put a fade out at the beginning and maybe the end. Regardless of the approach, keep it short, because people lose interest fast. Under 60 seconds is genuinely fine.

Assuming it makes the goal, when does payment come in, all at once or in chunks?

All at once. Amazon takes approximately 2 weeks to process it, and then it's all yours. This is a totally bizarre concept for writers: the entire advance up front. This is also why you'd better be pretty goddamned sure you're going to do the project.

And how does one disseminate the rewards?

For writers, your major reward is of course your novel/short stories/etc, which you would *think* Kickstarter would allow you to attach to the patron email lists they automatically create for you. For some bizarre reason they don't allow epub/mobi/pdf/doc attachments, though I've suggested it to them (and if, say, everybody reading this would like to go suggest it to them too, Kickstarter's contact link is at the bottom of any given page).

I do not yet know if you can attach such files to the finalized mailing list that they suggest you create, because I haven't gotten that far yet. At the moment, I'm providing links to a password-protected Tumblr page for rewards, and have taken their Excel files to create a mailing list which I'll end up using at the end of it all if I can't attach an e-pub file of some sort.

Other rewards of a physical nature are sent to addresses which you can collect via the above-mentioned finalized mailing list they suggest doing shortly before you're ready to send everything out.

Except for international patrons, shipping appears to be assumed to be included in the patronage reward level, so bear that in mind when setting reward levels.

Are there deadlines for writing/producing these?

Only those you set yourself. Probably adding an extra month to any deadline you think you might actually make is smart. She said, having not done that. :)

Recent Reads: MATCHBOX GIRLS

One of the things about being a writer is people sometimes ask that you blurb their books. Sometimes they're total strangers. Sometimes they're people you've known for fifteen years. Being asked by someone you've known forever is far more alarming than a stranger asking you, because both parties are painfully aware that it's not just a professional relationship riding on the request. It's a presumption on friendship, and the potential outcome of not liking the book is considerably more agonizing than it is with someone you've never met.

Furthermore, if you're me, you're miles behind on your TBR list already, and have so many writing projects going that you've put a moratorium on blurbing books at all until sometime after April.

This was the scenario when Chrysoula Tzavelas emailed to ask if I might consider reading her debut novel, MATCHBOX GIRLS, for a blurb. She knew it, too, and the email she sent asking if I'd read the book had a considerable air of "I'm doing this because I promised my publisher I would at least try, and I feel I should humor her" about it. So she was rather astonished when I said I would try to make time to read it, and honestly, if I hadn't known Soula for fifteen+ years I wouldn't have said I'd even try. I started reading MATCHBOX GIRLS with the general assumption that I would like it (because I don't go into a book assuming I *won't* like it, that would be silly) combined with a certain trepidation because oh god, what if I *didn't* like it?

Fifteen minutes later, I posted a grumpy update on Twitter: I am two chapters into @chrysouladreams's MATCHBOX GIRLS, and I REALLY WANT to keep reading instead of going to stupid work!

I went to work anyway, because I had to, but two nights later I stayed up well past my bedtime reading it, because I couldn't stand not knowing how it ended for a whole 'nother day.

Chrysoula's written a wonderful urban fantasy novel with a sympathetic, depression-suffering protagonist who can barely keep the cat fed, nevermind take on more serious duties, who suddenly finds herself the guardian and protector of twin 4-year-old girls whose usual guardian has disappeared under Mysterious Circumstances. It is a complete delight. The relationships are tremendously well developed, deep and realistic without any of them being romantic. The *descriptions* are incredible. (I weep in despair.) And there are charming, unexpected twists and character developments that make it a good read all the way through to the end. It's well worth it.

Now. MATCHBOX GIRLS is coming out through a small press. In order to help offset the costs of production, they're running a Kickstarter campaign where you can get not only the print edition of the book, but also extra goodies. This is the Internet & crowdfunding at some of its finest: it's essentially a pre-order with bonus material for pre-ordering. How can you not love that?

Also, far be it from me to use a "oh YEAH? well my MOM LOVED IT, so THERE!" pitch to sell a book, but, well, my Dad's halfway through reading MATCHBOX GIRLS–and he doesn't turn his nose up at fantasy, but it's not his first reading choice either–and he's loving it. So there. :)

The Numbers Game

Readers often ask me where they should buy books from, whether I get the same cut from an audio or e-book as a physical copy, and when they should buy a book, because they are concerned with giving me the best deal, and sometimes with what it might take to push me into bestseller numbers. So I asked my editor about some things, such as:

There is a rumor that best-seller lists don't count books that are sold early, only the ones that are sold in the official week of release. This is a question of some relevance, because my books are almost always on the shelves two weeks before release date. So: does it matter to the lists?

And the answer is yes and no. Almost everybody has to deal with the same soft release problem that I get (a hard release is like Harry Potter got: you were not gonna get that book before midnight the day it was supposed to come out). The NYT apparently aggregates the numbers/momentum over the first weeks of release, whereas USA Today evidently only counts books sold from the week of release (though if you buy it on the Sunday when it's supposed to come out on Tuesday, that counts as the release week).

We looked at some of my numbers with some of the Walker Papers and concluded that there are enough early sales that it *could* affect my ability to get onto some lists. So ideally? Really, really ideally? My readers would torture themselves and not buy the book until the actual release day, and then everybody go out at once and buy it immediately. This, however, is asking a lot of readers, and I can't corral everybody and release them all at once. :)

There is also a rumor that Amazon's numbers don't count toward any lists. That one is apparently more true than not, though apparently Amazon falls on and off in usage for the lists depending on how willing they are to release their numbers, which varies.

B&N.com, however, *does* count toward list numbers.

Amazon also *always* ships early unless it's a hard release date. I don't know if B&N does, but I gather B&N aggregates the numbers shipped anyway and lists them on release day/week. So–without biting a hand that feeds me–it's probably of more use (not just me, but to any author you like) for readers to pre-order through B&N.com instead of Amazon*.

Now, all that aside, here's the other vicious truth: I'd really need literally everybody who buys my books to buy them in the first week/month of release in order to have any hope of making seriously big numbers. I have wonderful, loyal readers who have given me an amazing career and have kept my books on the shelves for a long life, which is hugely, hugely important to continuing to do this for a living, but if I want to level up to the best seller lists**, something has to change.

Possibly what has to change is I have to write something different which catches fire, but that's very hard to predict. :) In the meantime, though, the best I can probably do is hope to get something going that leads into a big splash for the final book of the Walker Papers.

Because we're on the downward slope here, guys. There are nine books planned for the series, and the timeline is pretty much hell bent for leather from the start of SPIRIT DANCES all the way through to the end of book 9. It's probably too late to rack up some kind of magic momentum for RAVEN CALLS, since it's out in four weeks, but I (we, if I assume you're in this with me) have two books after that to try to hit it out of the park.

*This is not a statement intended to make people with Kindles feel bad. If you have a Kindle, for heaven's sake, buy a Kindle book. I get the *royalties* the same no matter what; this post is just about whether there's hope for me to reach a bestseller status over the next few years. :)

**And I do. I have always been in this game to–for lack of a better phrase–win it, and my personal definition of "win" is not "beat the other guy" but "get onto the national bestseller lists". There is nothing wrong with being a mid-list writer and I'll take it if that's what I forever land at, but my completely-out-of-my-hands goal is to have that awkward first name "New York Times Bestselling Author" preceding the already-on-the-covers "CE Murphy". :)

Website Registration

All right, I've started getting spam registering as users again, so I'm shutting down the "anyone can register" option again. However, I'll post a page with a big link on it soon about how to register at this site: basically, email me with your username and email address and I'll set you up an account so you can respond here. I'm sorry, and I'll try to come up with a more elegant solution in the long run, but for the moment that's how it'll have to be.

You can email me at cemurphyauthor AT gmail DOT net. :)

RAVEN CALLS contest winners!

The cemurphy.net winners of the RAVEN CALLS giveway are izzybot, uofmdragon, and willowblade!

All of you please email me at cemurphyauthor AT gmail DOT com with your snail mail addresses, your username if that's what you've won under so I know who you are, and whatever name I should sign the books to. :)

RAVEN CALLS arrives!

This part never gets old. :)

A particularly handsome model displays the new book. :)

I'll pick 3 random commenters to send a copy of RAVEN CALLS to. That's 3 on mizkit.com & 3 on mizkit.livejournal.com, just so that's clear. :) And hell, I'll be doing this on cemurphy.net, Twitter, Facebook and G+, too, so if you're very thorough you can have up to 6 chances to win a book, I suppose. :)

And oh, the spot varnish on this one is AWESOME. AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME!

Recent Reads: HEAT WAVE

The preposterously silly HEAT WAVE, by Richard Castle, is precisely what you think it will be. Rick Castle, if you don't know, is the crime novelist played by Nathan Fillion on the TV show "Castle". HEAT WAVE stars Nikki Heat, the character Castle has based on Kate Beckett, the "real life" police detective he's following around and studying for his next series. You get the idea. :)

There are two splendid things about this book. One is that it reads very much like an episode of Castle, with very similar interactions between the characters, who are all obviously (and deliberately obviously) based on the TV show characters.

The other utterly great thing, though, is that HEAT WAVE is *exactly* the kind of book that Richard Castle the character would write. Everything about it is exactly what you'd expect from Castle, which I think takes a rather deft (ghost-writing) hand. I'll have to read the next one, because that was just pure silly fun. :)

Recent Reads: The Crossroads Trilogy

(This post was written over the course of a few weeks.)

I read Kate Elliott's SPIRIT GATE a few years ago when it first came out, and have had the sequels sitting on my shelf for over a year, unread because (as I may have mentioned previously) being a full-time writer (and Mommy!) really cuts into your reading time. So I wanted to re-read SPIRIT GATE before tackling the other two, 'cause I barely remembered what had happened in it.

I liked it even better the second time through, which seems to be something of a trend for me and epic fantasy. I suspect I read too fast to appreciate all the nuances and story developments the first time through, and that I catch them more solidly the second time, even if it's been a long time since I've read it.

What I particularly noted this time through was Kate's descriptive abilities. I honestly have no idea how she does it, even when I'm sitting there reading and trying to analyze it. Someday in my copious free time I'm going to have to try my hand at real epic fantasy, and go beg her for help. :) Anyway, as usual with Kate's work, it's a great solid book of good characters, alarming encounters, desperate measures and inevitable conclusions. If you like epic fantasy and haven't read it, do. :)

SHADOW GATE: The second book in the Crossroads trilogy is stronger than the first, I think, and that's even with enjoying the first very much. I've been friends with Kate a while now and it's really interesting to see what she talks about in her blog posts being reflected in her stories–things I wouldn't necessarily have noticed actively on my own. There's a *lot* of (not just women, but very often women) playing the hand they're dealt, no matter how dreadful that hand might be, and it's making for astonishingly good characterization. As a reader I completely understand where each of the characters is coming from (even if I don't necessarily like the character very much), and that's pure gold both from a reader's and a writer's perspective.

Also, holy crap, someone I totally didn't expect to died and I'm still a bit O.O over it. Actually, two people, though the second one I probably should have seen coming because it's going to totally cause everything to go to hell (and also probably maneuver a major character into the position that appeared to be inevitable when I began reading the trilogy. But maybe not, so I'm all eager to find out!), whereas the first one is sheerly "BUT HEY WAIT NO I LIKED THAT ONE WAIT STOP ACK!" O.O

Cannot. Wait. To read the third book! Eee!

TRAITORS' GATE: The inevitable totally failed to happen, and something else obvious and yet completely surprising happened instead. This is the strongest book of the trilogy, and it ends beautifully, although my instant reaction was NEXT BOOK PLEASE AGGHGLGL! Somewhere in the last third of the book, when it became clear what had been going to happen all along even though I had utterly, completely not seen it coming, I started panicking: how were they going to get out of this? And then: Oh, crap, they're not AGHGLGLGH NEXT BOOK PLEASE! Furthermore, it became increasingly apparent that Kate Elliott has subscribed to the GRRM School of Epic Fantasy*, where nobody is safe, and I really had no idea who was going to come out of it alive, which was terrific. I love that palpable sense of distress as a reader, watching the tragic inevitabilities unfold and wondering how it'll affect the characters. And there are highs to meet the lows, love stories that are not romantic or which break the rules of the societies the characters come from, so it's a beautiful, satisfying ending to a whacking big epic fantasy.

Looking back at the trilogy, it's…it's epic fantasy on a personal scale. I mean, epic fantasy has to be or you'd just be listening to someone narrate "And then this happened, then this happened, then that happened." But the Crossroads Trilogy dives into the hearts and stories of individuals in a way I've rarely encountered. One set of major characters, the reeves, who fly with giant eagles, can literally see it all from above, but despite that, the story is very much told from the ground level. There are battles, but at most we get glimpses of them from an eagle-eye view; mostly we see them from the points of view of soldiers and slaves, from people who have lost everything to the war and from those who, having lost everything, are willing to sacrifice the last thing they have to end or profit from: themselves.

The pacing is therefore…not, perhaps, what one would expect from epic fantasy. There are tangents, stories told not precisely because they drive the main thrust of the books, but because they reflect the world as a whole, and how it's being changed, and how the people in it are being changed, and the choices they have to make and live with. If I had written this (nevermind Kate Elliott's descriptive abilities, which far outshine my own), it wouldn't have delved into so many characters so deeply, telling their stories alongside the main thread. It wouldn't have really occurred to me to do that, even though I've enjoyed other writers who've done the same kinds of things. The worldbuilding here is astonishing and deep, and I would happily, happily spend many more books in the Hundreds. Hell, despite its problems, I'd be pretty happy to spend some real time in the Hundreds, and I feel like I'd even have a fair grasp of the customs and behaviors expected of me, which is quite something for a purely fantasy world.

*She may have subscribed to this a long time ago. I'm afraid it's been so long since I've read Jaran or the King's Dog books that I simply can't remember anymore. :)

Easy Pickings now available on Amazon & B&N!

You now have three very exciting options for buying "Easy Pickings", the Jane Yellowrock/Joanne Walker crossover novella written by Faith Hunter and myself!

1: You can buy it here on CEMurphy.Net (or on Faith's site) for $2.99. The download will give you an epub, a mobi, and a PDF file, so any type of e-reader you have will be able to read it. This, frankly, is our favorite way for you to buy it, because we get about $2.75 off that sale, rather than $2 from the other sites. :)

That said, I'm really quite okay with you buying it at one of the following sites, because that raises its profile there, and we need that!

2. You can buy it here on Amazon if you have a Kindle and only want the Kindle file. It'll still cost you $2.99, though.

3. You can buy it here on B&N.com if you have a Nook and only want the epub file. Still $2.99. :)

(Really, if you're at my website, I expect you'll probably buy it here. It's the folks who don't hang out here who *really* need it at B&N and Amazon!)

Two heroines. Two magics.

One world.

There's nowhere in America like the Big Easy. Just ask Jane Yellowrock, shapeshifting vampire killer, whose hunting grounds run the length and breadth of the Bayou.

Just ask Joanne Walker, whose shamanic magic has drawn her to the heart of American Weird.

But it's not Joanne's world, and it isn't Jane's either. In a New Orleans where Katrina never hit and supposedly-dead vampires stalk the streets, Jane and Jo have to find and defeat the magic that brought them there–or they just might find themselves…

EASY PICKINGS

fan fiction by the authors themselves!

Read the teaser and

PLEASE NOTE: You will be given the option to "return to open at mizkit dot com" once you've paid! Click through on that, because that's what will bring you to the download page! So don't skip out of Paypal until you do so through that link! Otherwise you won't get your story, and I won't know that! I'll think you're out there happy as a fish in water, reading all about Jane and Jo's adventures, when instead you'll be sniffling in your tea! Don't let that happen!