Showing posts with label mystery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mystery. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 04, 2014

I've (almost) reached the halfway mark!

Now of course, this refers to a first draft, and we're talking ten chapters of a first draft that may ultimately have more than 20 chapters, but that's all I've outlined so far. So this is a very qualified celebration. But it feels like progress nonetheless. As avid readers of this blog know (Lock him up! He's referring to imaginary people!), I was well into (probably halfway, ironically) a middle-grade adventure novel (working title: Opposite Day) when I decided to shelve the whole thing. One day, I might pull it back out, and one day it might actually be shelved in a physical library, but I just wasn't feeling it. I'm not sure if it was the voice, the "reining in" of my normal adult-speak (vocabulary/idioms/cultural references) or the crazy-elaborate dual world I had built that spun out of my control, but I no longer looked forward to opening that file anymore.

Now I'm onto another "humorous suspense," much like my first two novels. Also, like my other two novels, this one takes place partly in Europe–in this case, Ireland. I like to escape when I read, and when I write, and since I don't write sci-fi or fantasy, which necessitate travel into other times or even universes, I satisfy this urge with vicarious tourism. In my plots, the characters always travel for a legitimate reason that's integral to the action–not like in my old ad agency, when we'd try to sell a commercial that took place in an exotic location (think Rice Krispies in Belize) purely to shoot in an exotic location. Without the trip to Greece, Ring of Fire would have made no sense. Without the detour to Germany, Battle Axe would have fallen apart. And now, with [working title here], my main character is compelled to hit the Emerald Isle for reasons critical to his health and his marriage.

I hope to begin posting regularly again soon, and it won't always be about the status of the WIP (work in progress), but I have given myself a loose-but-looming deadline, so one way or another, I'll be writing.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Amazon KDP Select Giveaway Part 1: The numbers are in.


As I gear up for another giveaway for Battle Axe--this time for three consecutive days--I wanted to share the results of my previous giveaway, which was two non-consecutive days over Easter weekend.

I spent a lot of time in the preceding months reading blog posts and advice from other KDP participants. I boiled their tips down to a "best of" and that was the extent of my plan. Here's a rundown of the "marketing" I did to announce the giveaway:

The Marketing:

1. Posted on my own Facebook page
2. Sent out periodic tweets from my Twitter account
3. Sent an email blast to relevant people in my address book
4. Created an event on Goodreads and invited my friends
5. Sent a note to the following free websites:
  • centsibleereads.com
  • authormarketingclub.com
  • indiebookoftheday.com
  • indiebookpromo.com
  • frugal-freebies.com
  • freebookdude.com
  • theereadercafe.com
  • thatbookplace.com
  • indiesunlimited.com
  • pixelofink.com
  • ereadernewstoday.com
  • mobileread.com/forums/
  • www.kboards.com/
  • worldliterarycafe.com
6. Posted to the following free Facebook pages:
7. Tweeted a note to the following:
@ebookmybook_now
@kindlebookpulse
@kindlebookblast 

@ereaderblast
@kindlenews
@socoolkindle       
@eBookDailyDeals
@eBookFling       
@DigitalBkToday
@kindleebooks
@Kindlestuff
@KindleEbooksUK 
@KindleBookKing 
@KindleFreeBook 
@FreeReadFeed
@4FreeKindleBook
@KindleUS
@Kindlefreebies
@KindleUK
@TweetTheBook
@kindlebookpulse
@kindleebooks
@writersRT
@kindlebookblast
@Kindlestuff
@indieauthornews
@kindlenews
@KindleEbooksUK
@FreeEbooksDaily
@KindleBookKing
@KindleFreeBook
@4FreeKindleBook
@DigitalBkToday
@kindle_promo
@higherread
@genreundergroun

8. Paid a nominal amount to be listed on these paid websites:
  • bargainbookhunter.com 
  • flurriesofwords.blogspot.com
  • bookgoodies.com
  • ebookshabit.com
  • freeebooksdaily.com
  • freebooks.hub.com
  • kindlebookreview.com
  • kindlemojo.com
  • freekindlefiction.blogspot.com
I started my activity around 7:30am EST, and the promo is on PST, so I think that gave me an advantage. It took a couple hours just to do all of the above, then I re-hit some of the contacts throughout the day (mostly Twitter, as redundancy is more accepted/expected there). So what did it get me?

The Results:
  • March 30: Topped out at #617 in free Kindle store, #11 in free humor, #2 in free comic fiction, #26 in free suspense. 429 downloads total.
  • April 1: Topped out at #729 in free Kindle store, #2 in free comic fiction, #18 in free humor, #23 in free suspense, and #19 in PAID comic fiction. 281 downloads total.
  • The few days after the giveaway, Battle Axe ranked as high as #51,062 in paid store and #35 in paid comic fiction. My other book, Ring of Fire (not part of the giveaway), "rose" to #263,393 in paid store, #93 in comic fiction. These rankings are well above anything I'd achieved previously.
  • In the six weeks since the giveaway, Battle Axe and Ring of Fire have picked up one (favorable) review each on Amazon.
My total downloads were well beneath what I was expecting--I'd read fairly common accounts of authors with downloads in the thousands and tens of thousands, so that part was surprising. And as I'd only been selling around a half dozen books or more per month up until the giveaway, selling that many in the week following should be considered a boost in sales. But we're back to nothing for the first two weeks in May. And that accounts for dropping the price of Ring of Fire from $2.99 to 99 cents.

Once I complete the second giveaway, I'll take Battle Axe out of KDP Select and consider trying it with Ring of Fire (depending on how the giveaway fares). But at the moment, it doesn't seem to have had a huge impact.

My personal feeling is that the market has gotten entirely too crowded and it's getting harder and harder for readers to pick and choose. It's overwhelming for both authors and readers at this point. I've downloaded quite a few free books myself, both indie and "legit," and some have been worth it and some I couldn't finish--or even get past Chapter 1. 

Wish I had more answers, or had more encouraging advice, but that's the state of fiction these days. It's anyone's guess where things are headed, but I'd like to think that those of us with patience will be rewarded as the wanna-bes crowding the market will get discouraged from their meager sales, shake out and move onto other pursuits.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Interviewed on "Just Following a Dream" blog!

Jessica Sayler, author of the "Just Following a Dream" blog (and author of a WIP tentatively entitled "Awakened") was kind enough to host me on her blog and ask me a series of interesting--and random--questions. However, as fellow authors know, there's no such thing as a random question or thought when it comes to fiction. Anything is fair game and anything can lead to inspiration, a plot point, dialogue or a character. The interview deals with both my humorous suspense novels, the recent Kindle Book Review honoree Ring of Fire and Battle Axe, and touches on my own WIP Opposite Day). You can read the brief interview here.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Choose Your Friends Carefully

What I mean by that is, if at all possible, during your formative years, become friends with someone who, a few decades later will offer to design your ebook cover as a personal favor. Make sure this person is someone who displays very little aptitude or passion for graphic design at the time, but through hard work and dedication miraculously transforms into a visionary artist and Photoshopper par excellence.

Well, that's what I did, anyway, and look what it got me.

I'm posting a larger cover of my debut novel Ring of Fire here, mainly to give it a place to live so I can send out links. My designer--the multi-talented Mike Sottong--worked with my crude notions of a concept and created what you see here. The plot of Ring of Fire involves a nefarious (and occasionally hilarious) scheme to monitor college student's purchase habits--using hidden cameras--and then exploit them. Where are the cameras? Based on this cover, where do you think? The basis of the ring on the cover was Mike's (and my) actual class ring, from the now-defunct Robert E. Peary High School in Rockville, Maryland.

There are conflicting opinions on whether ebooks even need covers, or if a cover makes a difference. That's a topic for another blog post. However, I'm also making Ring of Fire available as a paperback, and paperbacks need covers. Shamefully, I do judge books by their covers, and I wanted mine to look professional. First impressions and all.

Should you desire a cover for your ebook/paperback, Mike has graciously offered to work with select indie authors at a greatly reduced rate (possibly for free, depending on the terms). Just let me know and I'll hook you up.