Month: December 2012

2012 Retrospective

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I was about to begin this post with some banal cliché about what a crazy year it’s been, or what a difference a year makes, or something similar, when it occurred to me that such thoughts were, well, banal and clichéd. It’s a curious habit we have: taking stock of the past 364 (or in this case, 365) days and asking ourselves how things are different. Life changes on a dime, and what difference does it really make where that change happens on the calendar? My life about came to an end almost four years ago with my wife’s cancer diagnosis. Every day since then has been a gift of sorts (still cancer free going on four years!).

Not a lot has changed for us here in the Scott home. I still have the same job I had last year. Same schedule. Same house. Everyone’s a year older. My daughter is now leading worship at our home church, but that’s only been going on for about six weeks now.

We’re still having the same sorts of arguments and disagreements and disagreeableness in a house filled with teenagers that we were last year. Things are a little smoother in some ways, but not so much that I could say things are radically different. The economy still sucks. Politics still suck. And our American culture shows continual signs of severe distress. Life goes on, even as it feels like it’s getting worse all around.

I began this post with the intention of talking about my writing/publishing career, and now it seems it’s taken a more serious tone. Apologies for that.

What’s changed… Well, I have more books available now than I did this time last year. I had just finished Spilled Milk, and Eye of Darkness remained a future hope. The Lost Scrolls came out this year, so that’s good. I now have two more completed novels I’ll be releasing soon (and The Elixir of Life, the sequel to The Lost Scrolls, is due out in Spring), and one more that will be completed shortly (In the Widening Gyre). At the end of 2011, I’d sold 344 books for the year, at an average rate of 29 books a month. I made about $371 on books that year. As of 2012, I’ve sold 1106 books for the year, at an average rate of 92 books per month, and earned about $1,625 for the year. Of course, that includes the major sale in September, which I’ve yet to duplicate. The actual average is about 38 books per month. Still an improvement, but hardly enough to live on.

I’ve now finished nine novels. Soon to be ten.

I think this next year, I want writing to be fun again. These past few months it’s taken on such a push (both the heavy September marketing and the NaNoWriMo contest in November being largely responsible), that I want to back off a bit and have more fun doing this. What’s the point if I’m not enjoying it? Especially given the nature of the world at large to show such signs of rot. I write because I need to – not because I have some kind of message to give (Jefferson’s Road notwithstanding), but because I need the escape from it all, perhaps just as much as my readers (now in excess of 31,000 books being read – that’s new!) need the escape as well. And, of course, there’s always the possibility that I’ll get “discovered,” or that something radical will happen, and my books will take off – thus changing our lives permanently.

Well, one can always hope.

Happy New Year.

Christmas Sale Recap

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So, after making two books with fewer than five reviews available for three days over Christmas – and hitting several pages with announcements about the books – here are the results:

Eye of Darkness – 239 books given away.

Spilled Milk – 656 books given away.

As of this writing, I haven’t sold any additional copies. My only hope now is that I’ll at least garner the missing reviews I need for the books to do a proper giveaway. But even that is questionable at this point.

Post-Mortem:

1) When doing a Christmas sale, it’s probably better to do it either before Christmas, or immediately thereafter. Almost no one appeared to download much of anything on Christmas Day (duh), which means that whatever momentum I hoped to gain was lost.

2) There is definitely something to be gained by having five reviews instead of just three or four. Spilled Milk has one more review than Eye of Darkness, and it sold almost three times as well. While that may be a function of a better cover, better title, or just a genre with a broader audience, it may also have to do with the fact that the reviews on it are more trustworthy for the simple fact that there are more of them. And this is particularly frustrating, because I had promises from three people that they would post reviews for Eye of Darkness, and yet nothing happened (and for the guilty parties: I still love ya, and I hope you will eventually leave the aforementioned reviews).

3) It’s probably better to promote one title at a time, rather than more than one. I think doing two at once diluted my efforts. Rather than one book getting 895 downloads, and thus rising higher in the rankings (thus incurring more downloads), I inadvertently made the two books compete with each other, thus diluting the results and probably bringing the numbers down as a whole.

4) Evidently, I’m missing a crucial step in promoting my books. I don’t know if it’s due to my unfamiliarity with Twitter and Pinterest, but those are two tools I know I’ve underutilized. I wish sometimes that I wasn’t such an internet immigrant (I was born on the boat), so that I understood some of these things a little more intuitively. Alas, I’m gonna have to play catch up along with the rest. I probably don’t make half as much use of Goodreads as I could. And drive-by posts at the various message boards don’t help much. There are many people who are quite active and involved on these sites, and I know they sell well – and they all give the same advice: be involved in the forums. My complaint is that a) this takes away more time from my family, b) I’d rather be writing, and c) I’m so much more of an introvert that relating to people I’ve never met is a little counter-intuitive for me. And I can make all those complaints, and none of it matters, because those who participate sell better than those who don’t – no matter what the excuse.

All of which is to say: there’s definitely value in using a publicist than trying to do it all myself.

All right. Enough whining. I’m getting back to writing now. In the Widening Gyre has about 65K words written, and I’ve already started work on the sequel to Eye of Darkness as well as the next Jonathan Munro Adventure: The Music of the Spheres. TTFN!

One Day to Go…

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I’m nearing the end of the second day of the Christmas sale. I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow – whether or not things will spike up now that the holiday is done. The returns haven’t been quite what I’d hoped for, but I believe they’ll still be sufficient to accomplish what I wanted, which was to gain a few more reviews for the books than I currently have. Some of the reviews I’ve requested haven’t appeared as yet (speaking only about books that are currently published), and given that Amazon is currently cracking down on sock puppet reviews (not that I have any) – which has the unintended consequence of eliminating actual reviews from people who received a copy of the book as a gift rather than as a purchase – there’s just been some real difficulty in garnering the reviews needed to promote my books effectively. Thus, the giveaway might just generate enough reviews to put the books over the top.

The second and third reasons are important, but not as significant at this stage. Second, is selling some more books and making a little more money than has been coming in of late. We’ll see what manner of dent this little giveaway has toward that end. I’ll probably see a slight bump, if nothing else. The third reason is finding new readers – which is always important. I’m sure there’ll be a net increase in fans of the books, but again, not as many as I’d like.

The books have fallen off of their high marks. We did break the top 40, but now I’m back down to the top 70. Then again, tomorrow may be the day that changes things, given that people are more apt to buy when they’re not focused on the holiday. I suppose I could chalk that up to the learning curve. In a real sense, everything I do – promotion wise – is totally experimental. If I knew some magic bullet that would create tremendous publicity and help my books sell like I know they can, I’m sure I’d be using it by now. But alas, such charms remain hidden to me. Success in this line of work seems so unbelievably random. But what else can I do besides keep plugging away and trying to do a little better tomorrow than I did today? That, and praying for lightning to strike?

Still, it’s like I told my wife back in 2005, when I started writing with a view toward publishing: “Baby, this is a ten-year plan. Not a one year plan. Ten years to start seeing results.” We’re now seven years in, and I’ve finished nine novels. I’ve got three more years of writing before I can reasonably take stock to see whether or not it’s been worth it. I’m thinking that, by that time, we’ll have made it (maybe just made it, but made it nonetheless). I just need to be patient and diligent and attentive to what the sea change in publishing means for a career as a novelist. And I need to remain confident in the talents and skills God has given me. And the stories that are still begging to be told.

That being said, this next year is swiftly upon us, and along with making sure I try to publish intelligently, I also intend to get back to having fun at this. It’s too much work with to little reward not to enjoy doing it.

The Christmas Sale Begins!

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It’s about five o’clock on the first day of the Christmas sale. So far I’ve given away a little more than 270 books. Not nearly the numbers that I expect to have by the end of the sale (it usually takes a little bit for the books to get noticed, it seems), but not a bad start. Of course, now that people are getting home from work or last minute shopping and settling in for the evening, I expect it’ll start to take off.

Nevertheless, the two books are both at #46 in their respective categories. I’m hoping we can reach #1 before the sale ends, but I recognize that there’s probably a lot of competition for that spot this time of year.

Spilled Milk:

Eye of Darkness:

And So It Begins…

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The Christmas sale is off and running. The early morning returns are showing the first few nibbles of interest. I’ll doubtless be checking this every hour or so through till Wednesday to see how things go. I hope those of you checking out the books for the first time enjoy them – especially all you new Kindle owners out there.

In the meantime, I’ve uploaded a new chapter to In The Widening Gyre which you can find here. I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas if I don’t talk to you again before Tuesday.

Christmas Sale!

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So I’m doing a little Christmas sale type thingy. Using KDP Select for two of my titles that need a little love. I’m not making use of my regular publicist for these two, if only because I can’t seem to rally enough reviews for her to put to use.

I don’t know how big it’ll be, given that everyone and their brother will be pushing for Christmas, but what the heck. It’s worth a shot. At the worst, I hope to give a way a couple thous. and maybe garner some of those reviews I so desperately need. At the most, I’ll actually make some money doing this.

I’ve got a little more work to do to pull this off, but we’ll see how it goes. The books are below (if you’re curious), and the promo runs from December 24 through December 26. Maybe there’ll be some new Kindle owners I can dazzle. :P

CHRISTMAS SALE! December 24, 25, and 26, Spilled Milk is FREE to Download!

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006RMQYLY

What would you do to protect your kids? For Gerrold Smith, a widower whose children have been taken from him by the courts, the answer is to hold the city hostage. What starts as a random act of violence quickly escalates into terrorist activity, and as Gerrold discovers the city’s dark secret, he must choose between saving his own children, or sacrificing them to save even more.

CHRISTMAS SALE! December 24, 25, and 26, Eye of Darkness is FREE to Download!

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007GPG0IS

A mercenary ex-Sheriff and a girl outcast from her tribe investigate serial kidnappings and murders. Is it evidence of magick, or is some other darkness bringing such evil into their land?

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This morning I wrote an epilogue to the Jefferson’s Road series. Yeah, I know the series isn’t done. In fact, it’s only half done. But there are some developments within the third book that I wanted to follow up on, that can only be resolved at the end. Thus, the epilogue. It seems strange, writing those pages. I know exactly how this story ends. I always have, actually. What blows me away is how its developed over the course of three books now, and yet still is on target to reach the final pages–and I’m not even talking about the epilogue. I’m talking about the last chapter. Strange to have that already in my mind. Unchanged. The story moving unerringly towards it.

I’ve never written anything like this before. I have other books – other series, but nothing quite like this.

Anyway, I’ve heard back from one of my BETA readers already. No major edits just yet. I’ve got two more out there I’m waiting on, and then we’ll go forward toward releasing the next book. In the meantime, I’m plugging away at In the Widening Gyre. We’ve passed 60K words on it. It’s slow going, for some reason. I have to push myself to get any words written. I had a brief spate of creativity with the story after getting over one hump, so I’m sure I’ll have more.  But this is where the self-discipline I’ve been learning comes in.  This is where I stick my BIC, and make it happen, cause it won’t write itself. I’ll get there.

Ta-Daah!

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And now, ten days into December, Jefferson’s Road: The Tree of Liberty is finished! I wrote the final words around 6:00 this morning and typed “The End.” Final word count tally: 84,703 words. That means this book is about 10K words longer than the previous “mile” in the road.

My son asks me, “Do you still feel as excited now when you finish a book as the first time?” The answer, of course, is “No.” Finishing a book now is more of a relief than an elation. I still enjoy doing it, but I think I enjoy the process more. Although at this point, the most satisfying part is knowing that I can move yet another project off my over-burdened plate and concentrate on the next project.

In The Widening Gyre is next on the list. There’s 57K words finished on that book, and if I keep to my current pace (50K per month), I’ll have it wrapped up before Christmas. This will give us three books to move forward into the new year. Total of nine books now written (wow!), shortly to become ten.

At this point, I still have some minor editing to do on Tree, as well as writing the first chapter of the fourth book so I can pull a teaser from it for the back of the book. As well as an Afterword, though that isn’t hardly as necessary. I’ve started a draft on Amazon for the book – have to do the same thing for the next two as well, of course. And I have to do the same over at Createspace.

The main thing, however, is getting the book into a suitable kindle format and securing BETA readers to give it a run through. Some of you will be getting an email from me shortly, asking to participate. If you don’t get one and would like to be a BETA reader, drop me a line or leave a comment on this post indicating your interest.

On a related note, I’m almost at six weeks of writing at this accelerated (for me) pace, and it looks like I’ll make it to the “I’ve formed a new habit!” level soon. Good news for my back list!

And Just Like That…

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Topheth is done. I wrapped up the final two chapters tonight (more accurately, this morning). The final tally for the book: 81,045 words. Not too shabby, frankly.

I’ll still be vetting it with my writer’s group on Wednesdays, letting them assist me in editing it and getting it ready for publication, which will happen sometime early next year. I still have to go back and be sure I incorporate all the previous edits I’ve already received on it. And I’m curious to see what they think of the ending, and the consistency of the characters, plot line, and so forth.

But since the overwhelming response has been positive so far, I’m not worried in the least.

This means that all I have left to wrap up this year is The Tree of Liberty and In the Widening Gyre. Yes, I’m finally getting back to that story. Probably not tonight, but this week for sure. I have to reread the whole thing to remember where I left off and recover the voice I was writing with. At present, I have a little better than 55K words written on it, so there’s no reason I can’t finish it sometime in the next twelve to fifteen days. And then I’ll be free to advance onto another project.