I've been away from this blog for a while now, mainly due to a constant and pervasive exhaustion pretty much every minute that I'm awake. This morning I'm feeling a little bit better, so I decided to take a few minutes that throw some updates at you.
An interesting one is that I've started a fan page on Facebook, where I take on the role of Kvothe, the main character from Patrick Rothfuss's books. It's fun, and I (or rather, he) have (has) a little over 300 fans as of this writing. I did it for fun and as a way to organize some fundraising for Mr. Rothfuss' Worldbuilders drive later this year, and the fans seem to like it. You can check it out here.
Because of the above mentioned exhaustion, work on my current novel has ground to a halt. I've gotten very little done on it lately, and that annoys me. I'm so distracted by the overwhelming urge to sleep all the time that gathering my wits about me enough to write well is very hard. It's about all I can manage to work on Living With the Dead, and after I get done posting there most days I feel like I've just finished doing calculus for an hour. Maybe I should see a doctor...
...because I have been very encouraged by my recent sales. I expect April to be a lot slower than March was, but March was another milestone month for me. I broke the $1000 mark in sales for the first time, and broke the 400 copies sold mark as well, which I've been close to for a while. Unless I get a big surge in sales this month, it's looking like I won't do quite that well for April, but that's OK. I know that there will be peaks and valleys, and I just hope that enough of my readers will still be waiting patiently when I finally get done with my current work in progress.
The book I'm working on right now, my vampire novel tentatively titled "Beautiful", feels like some of my best work. Not necessarily in depth, but for sheer entertainment value. Not that I consider the book shallow by any means; I don't. I've just made a real effort to avoid the philosophizing that most of my other work is so heavy on and focus on making the characters deal more with what's going on around them.
On thing about Beautiful that I can say for sure: it's funny as hell. That wasn't my intention at the start of the story, but since I'm taking a similar approach to the characters as I do with Living With the Dead, and basing them off of me and the people I know, funny stuff just tends to creep in. I started reading over a bit of the story the other day, and it made me laugh. Which is a good sign, since I'm the one that wrote it.
That's about all I have for right now, everyone. If you do check out the Kvothe page on Facebook, make sure to "like" it if you're interesting in some daily laughs by yours truly, and want to keep an eye out for a few neat fundraising things I'll be doing over the next several months.
For example:
In the next few days (as soon as I can find it), I will be auctioning off a signed hardback copy of "The Walking Dead" deluxe edition volume one. Series creator and writer Robert Kirkman even drew a little zombie inside the cover. All proceeds from the auction will go to Worldbuilders later this year. I'll be auctioning off some other stuff throughout the year as well.
One thing I plan on doing soon is offering a BIG giveaway of some of my eBooks to anyone that wants them, with a few caveats: one is that anyone who wants a free copy when I do this promotion has to promise to download it on a certain day. I'm hoping that if enough people do that, it will give my sales rank a nice boost on Amazon, which frankly I need right now. The other neat part is that if a certain number of people request their free copies, I will donate a certain amount of extra money to Worldbuilders this year. I don't have it set in stone just yet, but we'll say for every ten copies requested, I'll donate an extra five bucks. Something like that.
I'll post details when the time comes, along with an email address that people can send their requests to. Until then, I'll do my best to keep you all updated.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Geeking out: Patrick Rothfuss
So, for those of you paying attention, you know I'm a huge Fan of Patrick Rothfuss. He's the guy that wrote what I consider to be the best fantasy novel ever written, The Name of the Wind. It's also tied with To Kill a Mockingbird as my favorite book of all time. I've bought so many copies for people as gifts that I'm pretty sure I've paid off a good chunk of his mortgage.
I like him for more than just his writing, though his talent with words and story leaves me dumbfounded. A big part of why I became a fan of the man himself is because I started to follow his blog, and got to know him through his writing there. Adding to that, I was there and donated with him during his first Worldbuilders charity drive, an annual fundraiser for Heifer International. I'd never heard of Heifer before, and he introduced me to them. They're an amazing organization that provides long term solutions for food and commerce to people in need, both at home and abroad.
An author with a singular talent, a platform on the internet to converse with his fans that he used to be open and honest with them instead of just pushing his work, and a philanthropist who shares my concern for the well being of the less fortunate. Yes, that's the kind of guy I want to look up to.
Imagine the nerdgasm I had when I found out he was going to be a mere thirty miles away on Friday, March 11? His tour for The Wise Man's Fear was coming through Lexington. I had to be there. Simply no other option.
It took some effort, and working extra in trade, but I managed to get off work to go. My lovely wife went with me, and we met up with a friend (and made some new ones.) The event itself was pretty huge--some estimates put the crowd at about 400, though I think that might have been a bit of an overestimation. At least 200, maybe 300. Whatever the number, it was a lot of people to cram into Joseph-Beth. We had four first edition hardbacks of The Wise Man's Fear to get signed, and we were there for a very, very long time.
Mr. Rothfuss himself was an excellent and funny speaker. He told us hilarious stories about how weird it is for him to be treated like a rock star. He read a column from The College Survival Guide, which he wrote for ten years while attending (and then teaching) college in Wisconsin. He told us an adorable and really funny story about his son. He was comfortable with us, treated us with real respect, and in every way seemed happy to be there.
He also introduced the crowd to Jonathan Coulton, a geeky sinder-songwriter that he loves. He did this by singing, at the crowd's request, an acapella version of Coulton's "I Crush Everything", a sadly sweet song about a self-loathing giant squid.
Yes, you read that right. And he sang it well and loud, his voice was beautiful.
Here's a live version by Mr. Coulton.
In return, Mr. Rothfuss led us all in singing the first two verses of "You Are My Sunshine", and then pointed out that if you pay attention to the words, it's really not a happy song. I admit that I never really did, nor did I know the song apart from the chorus.
The best part for me was sitting with him, talking to him for that brief minute, and getting my picture taken. He knew who I was when I introduced myself (he and I have sent a couple emails back and forth, one of which he posted on his blog back in August, with a link to Living With the Dead in it) and damn it, he even gave me a chocolate-covered fortune cookie.
The best part, in the end, was that I got to see first hand the reality of the amazing success he's had, which he completely deserves. Being there with the huge crowd of people seemed to bring him real joy, and knowing that we were so rabid in our support of him seemed to wipe away some of the fatigue the grueling schedule of his book tour was grinding into him.
It felt a lot less like a book signing, and a lot more like hanging out with a friend. Patrick Rothfuss could have made a career as a public speaker, a comedian, a lecturer, his talent with a crowd is so good. Instead, he decided to teach, and write, and hope to become published, which he did. And then became a NYT #1 bestseller. So many other options that would have fit his talents, but he chose to tell stories.
I, for one, am thankful for that.
I like him for more than just his writing, though his talent with words and story leaves me dumbfounded. A big part of why I became a fan of the man himself is because I started to follow his blog, and got to know him through his writing there. Adding to that, I was there and donated with him during his first Worldbuilders charity drive, an annual fundraiser for Heifer International. I'd never heard of Heifer before, and he introduced me to them. They're an amazing organization that provides long term solutions for food and commerce to people in need, both at home and abroad.
An author with a singular talent, a platform on the internet to converse with his fans that he used to be open and honest with them instead of just pushing his work, and a philanthropist who shares my concern for the well being of the less fortunate. Yes, that's the kind of guy I want to look up to.
Imagine the nerdgasm I had when I found out he was going to be a mere thirty miles away on Friday, March 11? His tour for The Wise Man's Fear was coming through Lexington. I had to be there. Simply no other option.
It took some effort, and working extra in trade, but I managed to get off work to go. My lovely wife went with me, and we met up with a friend (and made some new ones.) The event itself was pretty huge--some estimates put the crowd at about 400, though I think that might have been a bit of an overestimation. At least 200, maybe 300. Whatever the number, it was a lot of people to cram into Joseph-Beth. We had four first edition hardbacks of The Wise Man's Fear to get signed, and we were there for a very, very long time.
Mr. Rothfuss himself was an excellent and funny speaker. He told us hilarious stories about how weird it is for him to be treated like a rock star. He read a column from The College Survival Guide, which he wrote for ten years while attending (and then teaching) college in Wisconsin. He told us an adorable and really funny story about his son. He was comfortable with us, treated us with real respect, and in every way seemed happy to be there.
He also introduced the crowd to Jonathan Coulton, a geeky sinder-songwriter that he loves. He did this by singing, at the crowd's request, an acapella version of Coulton's "I Crush Everything", a sadly sweet song about a self-loathing giant squid.
Yes, you read that right. And he sang it well and loud, his voice was beautiful.
Here's a live version by Mr. Coulton.
In return, Mr. Rothfuss led us all in singing the first two verses of "You Are My Sunshine", and then pointed out that if you pay attention to the words, it's really not a happy song. I admit that I never really did, nor did I know the song apart from the chorus.
The best part for me was sitting with him, talking to him for that brief minute, and getting my picture taken. He knew who I was when I introduced myself (he and I have sent a couple emails back and forth, one of which he posted on his blog back in August, with a link to Living With the Dead in it) and damn it, he even gave me a chocolate-covered fortune cookie.
The best part, in the end, was that I got to see first hand the reality of the amazing success he's had, which he completely deserves. Being there with the huge crowd of people seemed to bring him real joy, and knowing that we were so rabid in our support of him seemed to wipe away some of the fatigue the grueling schedule of his book tour was grinding into him.
It felt a lot less like a book signing, and a lot more like hanging out with a friend. Patrick Rothfuss could have made a career as a public speaker, a comedian, a lecturer, his talent with a crowd is so good. Instead, he decided to teach, and write, and hope to become published, which he did. And then became a NYT #1 bestseller. So many other options that would have fit his talents, but he chose to tell stories.
I, for one, am thankful for that.
 |
| Joshua Guess (left) and Patrick Rothfuss, March 2011 |
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Sales for new books: One week in (and other sundries)
So, as many of the five of you that read this blog at present may be aware, I released two new works on the Kindle store and the Nook a week ago. This morning at three O'clock marked seven full days of sales, and I'd like to share the facts and figures with you to see how this month has been shaping up so far. Please keep a few things in mind as you read--1) I'm using only the sales of my books that are $2.99 or more to figure books sold per day, though I am including the income from my .99c titles in any dollar amounts I mention. Similarly, I'm only using the total money earned from Barnes and Noble, and am not including the number of books I've sold through the Nook anywhere in here. Yes, that brings my averages down slightly, but the weird accounting stuff on B&N's dashboard means the only thing I can be sure of is how much money I've made. With that in mind...
The first seven sales days of March, I have sold:
69 copies of Living With the Dead: With Spring Comes The Fall (Months 1-6)
38 copies of Living With the Dead: The Bitter Seasons (Months 7-12)
52 copies of Living With the Dead: Year One (Months 1-12, plus bonus material)
I crunched the numbers as best I could, factored in what foreign sales (which means a lower royalty rate) I could, and here is the result:
Seven days of sales have made me $406.46. That averages out to $58.07 per day, and 22.7 books sold per day. Compare that to February, where for the entire month I made $819.70, averaged $29.27 per day, and sold 14.1 books per day. That's a huge improvement, though I expect it to go down over the next few weeks.
Part of that is because of the initial surge as we tried to push the new stuff up the charts, which netted sales of $96.66 on the first day. I might actually be wrong about the averages going down, because just a few minutes ago the metadata on my new stuff (bitter seasons and year one) went live. This means that customers won't just be searching for them anymore, but will now also see them displayed on pages of other eBooks, ones that people who bought my books also purchased. I've talked about metadata before, so I won't get into that. Suffice it to say that the rest of the month will be very interesting, and I will post updates where appropriate.
Now, I'm going to get on my high horse again. I've mentioned many times that I save 10% of my royalties (gross) to donate to Worldbuilders, the charity drive that's run by fantasy author (and superstar, both in fantasy and in the world of beards) Patrick Rothfuss. What I haven't gone into detail about is Mr. Rothfuss's body of work, which I desperately want to do. So...
I first read "The Name of the Wind", his first novel, in mid 2008. My wife had purchased it on one of our trips to the bookstore, where we always spend way too much money. TNOTW is an AMAZING book, seriously one of the best pieces of writing I've ever come across. At first, I wasn't interested in reading it. I'm terrible about picking up new stuff, new authors. I couldn't be happier that I was eventually browbeaten into reading the book--Kvothe is one of the most complex, human, and just straight out awesome characters ever created. The tone of the book, the loving care with which each word is chosen and fit into the almost lyrical rhythm of the story, is perfect. I've bought many hardcover copies for others as gifts, and at least as many paperbacks.
So, in short, read it. Go on, right now. I'll wait.
...Done? OK, now go out and buy "The Wise Man's Fear", the sequel to TNOTW. I'm halfway through my second reading of it, and it's equally amazing for totally different reasons. The writing is still great, but after my first read through, I felt an odd disquiet. I tried to figure out what it was that wasn't meshing for me, what wasn't working. Eventually I came to realize that it wasn't the book that was wrong; it was me. I had read through the story expecting it to be the first book, but that's not the case. I can't tell too much about either of them, because I don't want to ruin the story, so let me write a paragraph about each to whet your curiosity.
In TNOTW, we meet Kvothe; Hero to many, villain to some, and legendary figure across the known world. We see three stories twined into one--the legend that grew from his (mis)adventures, the man he has become in the present...and the real story behind his life. The truth of his deeds, honest and raw, told in the voice of the hero himself. I'm trying not to copy the jacket quote from the book here, which was what led me to read it in the end...so here's a link to it: My Name is Kvothe...
If the first book is about the birth of the hero and many of his clever triumphs, then TWMF is about his coming to grips with reality and the harsh repercussions of his decisions. The clever writing was what threw me off at first, making me expect more of the same. However, where the first book creates potential for Kvothe as a character, the second shows how he meets it. I really, really can't say much more, but trust me...If you go into this book with an open mind and simply look at book one as history and canon, you WILL see the brilliance of it, the skill with which the author created a tone that fit the story even better than the first book.
OK, I'm done gushing now. Go to amazon's Patrick Rothfuss page and buy his books! Also, check out his shopping enabled Wikipedia page, which I didn't even know existed, and read about him. He's a neat guy.
The first seven sales days of March, I have sold:
69 copies of Living With the Dead: With Spring Comes The Fall (Months 1-6)
38 copies of Living With the Dead: The Bitter Seasons (Months 7-12)
52 copies of Living With the Dead: Year One (Months 1-12, plus bonus material)
I crunched the numbers as best I could, factored in what foreign sales (which means a lower royalty rate) I could, and here is the result:
Seven days of sales have made me $406.46. That averages out to $58.07 per day, and 22.7 books sold per day. Compare that to February, where for the entire month I made $819.70, averaged $29.27 per day, and sold 14.1 books per day. That's a huge improvement, though I expect it to go down over the next few weeks.
Part of that is because of the initial surge as we tried to push the new stuff up the charts, which netted sales of $96.66 on the first day. I might actually be wrong about the averages going down, because just a few minutes ago the metadata on my new stuff (bitter seasons and year one) went live. This means that customers won't just be searching for them anymore, but will now also see them displayed on pages of other eBooks, ones that people who bought my books also purchased. I've talked about metadata before, so I won't get into that. Suffice it to say that the rest of the month will be very interesting, and I will post updates where appropriate.
Now, I'm going to get on my high horse again. I've mentioned many times that I save 10% of my royalties (gross) to donate to Worldbuilders, the charity drive that's run by fantasy author (and superstar, both in fantasy and in the world of beards) Patrick Rothfuss. What I haven't gone into detail about is Mr. Rothfuss's body of work, which I desperately want to do. So...
I first read "The Name of the Wind", his first novel, in mid 2008. My wife had purchased it on one of our trips to the bookstore, where we always spend way too much money. TNOTW is an AMAZING book, seriously one of the best pieces of writing I've ever come across. At first, I wasn't interested in reading it. I'm terrible about picking up new stuff, new authors. I couldn't be happier that I was eventually browbeaten into reading the book--Kvothe is one of the most complex, human, and just straight out awesome characters ever created. The tone of the book, the loving care with which each word is chosen and fit into the almost lyrical rhythm of the story, is perfect. I've bought many hardcover copies for others as gifts, and at least as many paperbacks.
So, in short, read it. Go on, right now. I'll wait.
...Done? OK, now go out and buy "The Wise Man's Fear", the sequel to TNOTW. I'm halfway through my second reading of it, and it's equally amazing for totally different reasons. The writing is still great, but after my first read through, I felt an odd disquiet. I tried to figure out what it was that wasn't meshing for me, what wasn't working. Eventually I came to realize that it wasn't the book that was wrong; it was me. I had read through the story expecting it to be the first book, but that's not the case. I can't tell too much about either of them, because I don't want to ruin the story, so let me write a paragraph about each to whet your curiosity.
In TNOTW, we meet Kvothe; Hero to many, villain to some, and legendary figure across the known world. We see three stories twined into one--the legend that grew from his (mis)adventures, the man he has become in the present...and the real story behind his life. The truth of his deeds, honest and raw, told in the voice of the hero himself. I'm trying not to copy the jacket quote from the book here, which was what led me to read it in the end...so here's a link to it: My Name is Kvothe...
If the first book is about the birth of the hero and many of his clever triumphs, then TWMF is about his coming to grips with reality and the harsh repercussions of his decisions. The clever writing was what threw me off at first, making me expect more of the same. However, where the first book creates potential for Kvothe as a character, the second shows how he meets it. I really, really can't say much more, but trust me...If you go into this book with an open mind and simply look at book one as history and canon, you WILL see the brilliance of it, the skill with which the author created a tone that fit the story even better than the first book.
OK, I'm done gushing now. Go to amazon's Patrick Rothfuss page and buy his books! Also, check out his shopping enabled Wikipedia page, which I didn't even know existed, and read about him. He's a neat guy.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
New Releases!
Crossposted on Living With the Dead!
Above, you see the link and brand new cover design for the first six month collection of LWtD, available on the kindle store since October. You may remember that 10% of all my royalties will go to Worldbuilders, the charity drive run by Patrick Rothfuss (whose new novel, "The Wise Man's Fear" came out today as well) for Heifer International, an awesome and completely transparent charity that helps provide sustainable food and resources at home and abroad. Basically it helps people who need food raise livestock that produce food and renewable resources, like milk, eggs, wool, etc. This ebook has been doing well, and I'm hoping that the following do the same.
The above is "The Bitter Seasons", the second six month collection of LWtD. Just like the first collection, it's available for a mere $2.99, and clocks in at an impressive 130,000 words--the length of the average fantasy novel.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is "Year One". This brings together all of year one, "With Spring Comes The Fall" as well as "The Bitter Seasons" into a single, gigantic ebook. The best part is that it's 4.99, which saves you a dollar off the price of buying each one individually. That's not all, though! This volume has a ton of bonus material, which includes:
Three short stories by the author, Joshua Guess (that's me!)
"Rollin' in the Deep", a short story by Annetta Ribken
"If you're bitten by zombies, you're off the guest list", a short story by Rachel Ayers
"Monsters Unmasked: A Living With The Dead Novella", by Lori Whitwam
And an essay by the author (me, again) on the creation of the blog and the inspiration that keeps it going.
You'd be hard pressed to find a medium-length paperback for five bucks, and this massive beast is 258,000 words all together, which is about the size of the average Stephen King novel. It's a great deal, so if you like helping new authors, like supporting an awesome charity, and want to carry the story around with you, please check it out and buy!
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
One More Week!
***A reminder that 10% of ALL royalties I make from ALL sales of my work on both the Kindle and NOOK will go to Patrick Rothfuss's fundraiser for Heifer International at the end of 2011. Heifer is an excellent organization that helps people at home and abroad build sustainable food supplies and manage resources, and are totally open financially with the public. Buying my books will help fund that charity drive, but even if you don't want to purchase my work, I can't suggest strongly enough that you check out Heifer for yourself and chip in if you can. They do good things.***
I'm a bad Josh for not updating as often as I promised to on this blog. But now is the time, because in about a week, I will be putting out new stuff on the Kindle and Nook.
So, for those of you who want the long version: On March 1, I will be pushing the "Publish" button on the Kindle and Nook versions of "Living With the Dead: The Bitter Seasons", which is the next installment of the bi-yearly LWtD collections. This collection will pull together September of 2010 through February of 2011, the second half of "year one" of the zombie apocalypse. It will be priced at $2.99, the same as the first six months, Living With the Dead: With Spring Comes The Fall. I will note that both of these collections are full book-length, the first one clocks in at just over 100,000 words, which is about the average size of your standard thriller. Together they will come close or exceed the 200,000 word mark, which is about the size of a small Stephen King novel.
I sure hope you're still reading, because as I mentioned in a previous post, I'm also collecting both of those book-sized volumes into one massive fire-breathing monster of an eBook. This collection will have the whole first year in it, creatively titled "Living With the Dead: Year One". Both of the six month volumes will be included, as well as a bit of behind the scenes stuff about the process of writing a serialized story, and how LWtD is supported by readers and inspired by them. The best part about this collection is yet to come....
See, I've made some friends in the last few months, as well as having reconnected with some old ones. Several people, along with myself, have written short stories to be included in "Year One". Annetta Ribken, Lori Whitwam (while this link is to her author page, I strongly suggest checking out the "blogs" link and at least reading her blog "Fermented Fur", it's amazing, funny, sad, hopeful...and moving. I cried with her when she lost her dog, Ozark.) and Rachel Ayers (whose other website, Near and Far, is a great webcomic and should be heaped with praise) have all contributed to the short stories that will be included in "Year One". There is a possibility that a few other people may as well, possibly folks who have written blog posts on LWtD before, but time is growing short...
So--"Year One" will be the whole first two volumes--$2.99 each--plus some behind the scenes words from me, plus at least six short stories set in the LWtD universe. That's a lot of words. A lot of story. You're likely saying to yourself right now, "This must cost at LEAST one trillion dollars."
But you'd be wrong. Oh, so wrong. This collection will be offered for $4.99. That's a dollar off what you would pay if you bought each six month collection by themselves. AND you get all the extra stuff, the bonus material. I'd say that's a pretty good deal.
Now, I realize that some of you have already purchased "With Spring Comes The Fall" and might be a little miffed at the choices here. Some of you will want to read the extra stuff that comes in Year One, but not want to pay for something that, in part, you already own. So here's what I suggest.
If you just want to get the blog collections and don't care about the bonus materials, then just buy "The Bitter Seasons".
If you REALLY want the bonus material and don't mind shelling out a few bucks, then buy "Year One"
If you DO mind shelling out those few bucks, already have "With Spring Comes The Fall" and can't decide between the options for whatever reason, then I suggest that you just buy "The Bitter Seasons". While the bonus content is only available in "Year One" for now, there is always a possibility that it will become available by itself at a later time. That's something I would have to talk to the other authors about, but if there were demand for it, I would make the effort.
Oh, and here's what the cover for "Year One" is going to look like...
Nifty, eh? This is courtesy of my friend and sometime collaborator, Courtney Hahn, who commissioned it as a Christmas gift for me. Which introduced me to my new cover artist, Rosie Coleman, who is a young lady with an amazing talent and a bright future. Rosie did the above image as well as the cover for my debut novel, Bound to Silence.
On a related note, my vampire novel isn't going to be released with the new LWtD stuff. I've suffered a lot of setbacks, the least of which was being incredibly sick for most of January. Progress has been good lately, and I'm really hoping to release it in the next few months.
And lastly...
I'm thrilled beyond words that LWtD has had the level of success it has seen on the Kindle and Nook. I'm not making huge money, but it's enough that it gives me hope that one day in the foreseeable future, I could be doing this full time. That being said, each and every one of you are always free to read the blog in its original format--online and free, updated almost every single day. Many of you already do, and still purchase the eBook versions to have a convenient copy of the blog to tote around and read at your leisure, or just to show support for a writer you like. I just want you all to know that your support means the world to me, however you choose to show it.
As always, thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy next week's new stuff!
I'm a bad Josh for not updating as often as I promised to on this blog. But now is the time, because in about a week, I will be putting out new stuff on the Kindle and Nook.
So, for those of you who want the long version: On March 1, I will be pushing the "Publish" button on the Kindle and Nook versions of "Living With the Dead: The Bitter Seasons", which is the next installment of the bi-yearly LWtD collections. This collection will pull together September of 2010 through February of 2011, the second half of "year one" of the zombie apocalypse. It will be priced at $2.99, the same as the first six months, Living With the Dead: With Spring Comes The Fall. I will note that both of these collections are full book-length, the first one clocks in at just over 100,000 words, which is about the average size of your standard thriller. Together they will come close or exceed the 200,000 word mark, which is about the size of a small Stephen King novel.
I sure hope you're still reading, because as I mentioned in a previous post, I'm also collecting both of those book-sized volumes into one massive fire-breathing monster of an eBook. This collection will have the whole first year in it, creatively titled "Living With the Dead: Year One". Both of the six month volumes will be included, as well as a bit of behind the scenes stuff about the process of writing a serialized story, and how LWtD is supported by readers and inspired by them. The best part about this collection is yet to come....
See, I've made some friends in the last few months, as well as having reconnected with some old ones. Several people, along with myself, have written short stories to be included in "Year One". Annetta Ribken, Lori Whitwam (while this link is to her author page, I strongly suggest checking out the "blogs" link and at least reading her blog "Fermented Fur", it's amazing, funny, sad, hopeful...and moving. I cried with her when she lost her dog, Ozark.) and Rachel Ayers (whose other website, Near and Far, is a great webcomic and should be heaped with praise) have all contributed to the short stories that will be included in "Year One". There is a possibility that a few other people may as well, possibly folks who have written blog posts on LWtD before, but time is growing short...
So--"Year One" will be the whole first two volumes--$2.99 each--plus some behind the scenes words from me, plus at least six short stories set in the LWtD universe. That's a lot of words. A lot of story. You're likely saying to yourself right now, "This must cost at LEAST one trillion dollars."
But you'd be wrong. Oh, so wrong. This collection will be offered for $4.99. That's a dollar off what you would pay if you bought each six month collection by themselves. AND you get all the extra stuff, the bonus material. I'd say that's a pretty good deal.
Now, I realize that some of you have already purchased "With Spring Comes The Fall" and might be a little miffed at the choices here. Some of you will want to read the extra stuff that comes in Year One, but not want to pay for something that, in part, you already own. So here's what I suggest.
If you just want to get the blog collections and don't care about the bonus materials, then just buy "The Bitter Seasons".
If you REALLY want the bonus material and don't mind shelling out a few bucks, then buy "Year One"
If you DO mind shelling out those few bucks, already have "With Spring Comes The Fall" and can't decide between the options for whatever reason, then I suggest that you just buy "The Bitter Seasons". While the bonus content is only available in "Year One" for now, there is always a possibility that it will become available by itself at a later time. That's something I would have to talk to the other authors about, but if there were demand for it, I would make the effort.
Oh, and here's what the cover for "Year One" is going to look like...
On a related note, my vampire novel isn't going to be released with the new LWtD stuff. I've suffered a lot of setbacks, the least of which was being incredibly sick for most of January. Progress has been good lately, and I'm really hoping to release it in the next few months.
And lastly...
I'm thrilled beyond words that LWtD has had the level of success it has seen on the Kindle and Nook. I'm not making huge money, but it's enough that it gives me hope that one day in the foreseeable future, I could be doing this full time. That being said, each and every one of you are always free to read the blog in its original format--online and free, updated almost every single day. Many of you already do, and still purchase the eBook versions to have a convenient copy of the blog to tote around and read at your leisure, or just to show support for a writer you like. I just want you all to know that your support means the world to me, however you choose to show it.
As always, thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy next week's new stuff!
Saturday, February 5, 2011
That's what I get for bragging...
Sooooooooo.....
Several weeks ago I went nuts because I finally got into the top 3000 on the kindle store. I was really, really proud of that. That was on the night of January 19 through the morning of January 20. That period of time, that 24 hours, was my best selling single day. I was super excited.
Then, amazon changed things on me. The switch from DTP (digital text platform) over to KDP (kindle direct publishing) didn't seem to do much at first. On the twenty first, as other people were reporting problems with their accounts, from information vanishing off the pages of their long-published kindle books to the kindle converter not working and thus not letting them upload their works, I went to dinner with my wife. It was her birthday.
While I was there, Living With the Dead: With Spring Comes The Fall got booted from the kindle store and went into draft mode. Draft mode means it wasn't on sale at all. Totally unavailable. I know for an absolute fact that I didn't do that. Amazon swears they didn't. They also told me that the switch to KDP didn't do it. Mysterious universe, isn't it?
At any rate, I won't go into the hellish twelve days that followed in the detail my angry brain wants to. Suffice it to say that every problem I could possibly have had with that book, I did have. When I republished it, all of the metadata was gone--meaning that it wasn't being recognized on its own page, nor was it being shown on the pages of other books, which is a big part of how readers find your work on the kindle store. It was almost two weeks of utter frustration as my data came and went.
I was at 288 sales when all of that started, and at the rate I was going, I should have beat 400. I probably would have done better than that, really, since my sales momentum was building up nicely. I should have beat a thousand dollars, but I didn't. I got close to 900, which I am certainly not complaining about. I'm thrilled with what I accomplished last month, and the payday that will be coming in seven weeks or so.
My point is that I was on the path to much larger sales, the numbers and momentum were there to show it. Then amazon killed that momentum, purely by accident I'm sure, and wouldn't even own up to it. I sent out email after email, and through the process of trying to get some help with the plethora of issues that cropped up, came to realize a few things.
While the kindle is clearly the biggest success amazon has ever had, and while it makes them literally about a billion dollars (if not more), they just aren't as focused on support for the authors who stock it with titles. I won't go into the horrors of trying to get an honest response or any help at all here--this isn't a rant solely about amazon, for one very important reason.
With Spring Comes The Fall is back on the store, and has been for the last five days. Its data is fully integrated again, and it is selling. In fact, from 3am on the fourth until 3am this morning (which is how I measure my sales days) was my best selling day ever. Which is weird, because there wasn't nearly the same buildup as there was last month. But I'll take it.
The kindle store is still a great and easy way to publish. It's useful as hell for an indie like me, and for the most part it works well. I get paid regularly, My books' pages look good, and for the most part it's stable.
But now I've seen how bad it can get. I've heard horror stories from other authors that make my woes look like absolutely nothing. I've gazed into the abyss that is seller support, KDP "support" (I put that in quotes because while it exists in name, it does not actually exist in practice), and the false promise of a response "within 24 hours". I feel like the abyss gazed also into me...
So I take every day of selling, be it good or bad, with a grain of salt. I know now that at any moment for no reason at all, my work can be bumped off the store. Leaving me, the author, with no choice but to lose a day of sales by resubmitting it, which takes 24 hours. Then it's purchasable again. Still a less painful and faster option than hoping blindly that tech support will fix it. I promise you, no matter what the problem--they won't. Nor will they reply in any reasonable time frame.
I still respect amazon for how amazing their platform is, and for what it is doing to revolutionize the publishing machine. I just don't give them credit for doing all they can to support us, the ones who populate their super-profitable store with goods. You might have noticed that I haven't capitalized "kindle" or "amazon" in this post. That's intentional. Not to thumb my nose at them, but because they've lost that sense of scope and power in my mind that made them a bigger concept. God gets caps, Hope gets them. Freedom, even.
I used to feel this amazing love for amazon, for providing me with the platform I needed to build my career without middlemen. I still appreciate that platform, but in my mind I see the company for what it really is, uncolored by my excitement and optimism--just another big corporation interested in making money. Which is fine--that's what business is for.
I guess the rose tint was knocked off my glasses, and I'm pretty thankful for that. Better it happen now than later, and from here on out I can manage my relationship with amazon as it should be--a business relationship that is as emotionless as the servers that feed out my book. I shouldn't expect them to cater to me, one single writer toiling away in obscurity, nor should they expect me to stick just with them for distribution of my work when it's obvious there are other options I can explore in addition to them.
Sounds like a bad divorce or something, sorry. I just hated having my dream dangled so closely in front of my face, just to have it snatched away. I'm better now. /Rant over.
More to come on Monday: a happier post that will have some details about my forthcoming works due out in early March! It's gonna be exciting!
Several weeks ago I went nuts because I finally got into the top 3000 on the kindle store. I was really, really proud of that. That was on the night of January 19 through the morning of January 20. That period of time, that 24 hours, was my best selling single day. I was super excited.
Then, amazon changed things on me. The switch from DTP (digital text platform) over to KDP (kindle direct publishing) didn't seem to do much at first. On the twenty first, as other people were reporting problems with their accounts, from information vanishing off the pages of their long-published kindle books to the kindle converter not working and thus not letting them upload their works, I went to dinner with my wife. It was her birthday.
While I was there, Living With the Dead: With Spring Comes The Fall got booted from the kindle store and went into draft mode. Draft mode means it wasn't on sale at all. Totally unavailable. I know for an absolute fact that I didn't do that. Amazon swears they didn't. They also told me that the switch to KDP didn't do it. Mysterious universe, isn't it?
At any rate, I won't go into the hellish twelve days that followed in the detail my angry brain wants to. Suffice it to say that every problem I could possibly have had with that book, I did have. When I republished it, all of the metadata was gone--meaning that it wasn't being recognized on its own page, nor was it being shown on the pages of other books, which is a big part of how readers find your work on the kindle store. It was almost two weeks of utter frustration as my data came and went.
I was at 288 sales when all of that started, and at the rate I was going, I should have beat 400. I probably would have done better than that, really, since my sales momentum was building up nicely. I should have beat a thousand dollars, but I didn't. I got close to 900, which I am certainly not complaining about. I'm thrilled with what I accomplished last month, and the payday that will be coming in seven weeks or so.
My point is that I was on the path to much larger sales, the numbers and momentum were there to show it. Then amazon killed that momentum, purely by accident I'm sure, and wouldn't even own up to it. I sent out email after email, and through the process of trying to get some help with the plethora of issues that cropped up, came to realize a few things.
While the kindle is clearly the biggest success amazon has ever had, and while it makes them literally about a billion dollars (if not more), they just aren't as focused on support for the authors who stock it with titles. I won't go into the horrors of trying to get an honest response or any help at all here--this isn't a rant solely about amazon, for one very important reason.
With Spring Comes The Fall is back on the store, and has been for the last five days. Its data is fully integrated again, and it is selling. In fact, from 3am on the fourth until 3am this morning (which is how I measure my sales days) was my best selling day ever. Which is weird, because there wasn't nearly the same buildup as there was last month. But I'll take it.
The kindle store is still a great and easy way to publish. It's useful as hell for an indie like me, and for the most part it works well. I get paid regularly, My books' pages look good, and for the most part it's stable.
But now I've seen how bad it can get. I've heard horror stories from other authors that make my woes look like absolutely nothing. I've gazed into the abyss that is seller support, KDP "support" (I put that in quotes because while it exists in name, it does not actually exist in practice), and the false promise of a response "within 24 hours". I feel like the abyss gazed also into me...
So I take every day of selling, be it good or bad, with a grain of salt. I know now that at any moment for no reason at all, my work can be bumped off the store. Leaving me, the author, with no choice but to lose a day of sales by resubmitting it, which takes 24 hours. Then it's purchasable again. Still a less painful and faster option than hoping blindly that tech support will fix it. I promise you, no matter what the problem--they won't. Nor will they reply in any reasonable time frame.
I still respect amazon for how amazing their platform is, and for what it is doing to revolutionize the publishing machine. I just don't give them credit for doing all they can to support us, the ones who populate their super-profitable store with goods. You might have noticed that I haven't capitalized "kindle" or "amazon" in this post. That's intentional. Not to thumb my nose at them, but because they've lost that sense of scope and power in my mind that made them a bigger concept. God gets caps, Hope gets them. Freedom, even.
I used to feel this amazing love for amazon, for providing me with the platform I needed to build my career without middlemen. I still appreciate that platform, but in my mind I see the company for what it really is, uncolored by my excitement and optimism--just another big corporation interested in making money. Which is fine--that's what business is for.
I guess the rose tint was knocked off my glasses, and I'm pretty thankful for that. Better it happen now than later, and from here on out I can manage my relationship with amazon as it should be--a business relationship that is as emotionless as the servers that feed out my book. I shouldn't expect them to cater to me, one single writer toiling away in obscurity, nor should they expect me to stick just with them for distribution of my work when it's obvious there are other options I can explore in addition to them.
Sounds like a bad divorce or something, sorry. I just hated having my dream dangled so closely in front of my face, just to have it snatched away. I'm better now. /Rant over.
More to come on Monday: a happier post that will have some details about my forthcoming works due out in early March! It's gonna be exciting!
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Totally Bragging
Ok, I don't want to toot my own horn, but I'm going to out of sheer disbelieving happiness.
Very early this morning, Living With the Dead: With Spring Comes The Fall FINALLY broke into the top 3000 on the Kindle store. This has been a goal for me since day one. I've come so close so many times, and at today it finally happened. I've had a nice rush of sales, and the money is certainly going to be a good thing. There are so many other reasons this makes me happy...
One is that this book is on three top 100 lists. Here's a pic:
You can see that between noon and one pm, I am at 2,696. I'm so psyched about this there literally aren't words to describe how happy I am. What's more, the two kindle top 100 lists I'm on for categories are great too...
Very early this morning, Living With the Dead: With Spring Comes The Fall FINALLY broke into the top 3000 on the Kindle store. This has been a goal for me since day one. I've come so close so many times, and at today it finally happened. I've had a nice rush of sales, and the money is certainly going to be a good thing. There are so many other reasons this makes me happy...
One is that this book is on three top 100 lists. Here's a pic:
Now, this is the one taken this morning. It's pretty awesome. But...not as good as the one I took just after noon. You'll see that the early morning one has me at rank 2,950 or so...at noon, however...
So...on the Sci/fi list I'm up there with Edgar Rice Burroughs, Phillip K. Dick and (I almost had a heart attack) Douglas FREAKING Adams! It's completely surreal to me that I could be listed near those amazingly talented and frankly classic writers. I'm not comparing myself to them, or to anyone on that top 100 list. They are my heroes, and I am shocked but thrilled to be among them.
On the contemporary fantasy top 100, LWtD is rubbing elbows with the likes of Charlaine Harris, Laurel K. Hamilton, and Jim Butcher. I'm actually higher up on the list at the moment than several of Mr. Butcher's Dresden Files novels, which is amazing to me. I'm a huge fan of Jim Butcher, and I think he's one of the best writers of any kind of fiction out there right now. I am honored to be on the same list with him. I'm also ahead of Laurel K. Hamilton, at least one of her books, which I consider a small but personal triumph. I'm not a big fan of her work, but she IS insanely popular, so I count that an honor as well.
I hope that in my excitement and zeal, I haven't made you think that I am saying anything especially amazing about my work, or knocking anyone that I mentioned above. I'm just so happy that enough people like my work to make this possible, and shocked at the amount of success I've reached in so short a time. I'm an indie writer. I'm not a professional like those mentioned above. They have years of practice in the craft, and I don't. I have gotten supremely lucky to have the fan base that I do, and in no way am I saying that I am better than anyone. I'm just happy to be among them, for whatever length of time I am lucky enough to be so.
I wouldn't be making a point of saying any of that about the authors I mentioned, but I'm still working on building a career and I don't want people getting the wrong idea. When I say "I'm beating several of Jim Butcher's novels" I'm not sticking my tongue out and giving him a raspberry. He's making a mint from his books (and justifiably--they're great stuff) and I think every one of his novels is on the top 100 list for contemporary fantasy, and they stay there. I'm just trying to get across how psyched I am to be in his company, much less ahead of a few of his books for a while.
Ok, done with that whole rant. I'm going to go try and burn off some of the energy this has put into my tired body so I can sleep enough to manage to work tonight. Thanks to every one of you that bought my blog collection, or read the blog, or told a friend about it, or just offered a kind word. This is all on you, not me. YOU made this a reality for me, and I can never thank you enough. In return, I will keep on working, improving my skills in the hope that one day I am as good as Butcher, Hamilton, Harris, Burroughs, Dick, and Adams. It makes me happy that you, my readers, like my work enough to put me past this goal. I'll keep on working for you!
Totally not bragging, though.
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