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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.

NaNoWrimo Days 29 and 30

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Just so we have the numbers…

Day 29  – 2,843

Day 30 – 3,107

TOTAL: 50,320!

Yes, it’s official: National November Writing Month has come to a close, and after an exhausting last ditch effort, I have successfully written over fifty thousand words in just thirty days. Final tally, between the two books is as follows:

The Tree of Liberty:  28,976 words added. 69,979 words total in the story.

Topheth: 21,344 words added. 76,297 words total in the story.

Neither book is finished yet, but both are rushing headlong to their conclusions. I’m going to try and wrap things up in the next week or so, see if I can’t get these done and into the hands of my BETA readers before the end of the year. And then, I can return to In the Widening Gyre and wrap it up as well. But for now, at least, I can relax.

NaNoWrimo Days 26-28

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Very productive these past few days. I think we’re gonna make it!

Day 26  – 4,049

Day 27 – 3,632

Day 28 – 4,606

Total words: 44,370

I have only 5,630 words left in the next two days to reach the 50K Finish Line! So far, I’ve added almost 29K words to The Tree of Liberty and slightly better than 15K words to Topheth. Both books have now broken the 70K word mark, but unfortunately, neither is finished just yet! Still, we’re a lot (and I mean A LOT) closer to being done.

Some of you will be invited to be BETA readers for The Tree of Liberty. I hope to release it in 2013 for “general consumption” but I’ll want to get feedback and reviews on it before that time. Since Topheth is being read at my critique group, I’m just gonna hold off on releasing it until they’re done (or nearly done with it).

This is all part of the new strategy to actually market and promote these books with something resembling intelligence.

The third book I hope to finish this year, In the Widening Gyre, I will continue to make available as it gets finished. But once it’s done and y’all have given your thoughts on it, I’ll take it down from the site and put it up for sale. I know it’s frustrating to have the book only 2/3 done, but I promise I’ll get the rest completed. I genuinely want to be more disciplined in my approach as I move forward with this, but there are so many stories to write, and they don’t all like to wait. That’s sometimes why books get back-logged and other projects move to the front. In the end, they all get a little closer to being done, but they don’t always come out as soon as some of us would like (I guess I include myself in that as well, frankly).

In the meantime, I’ve put together a sample cover for the fourth Jefferson’s Road book: God and Country. I invite you to check it out on the front page (yes, I know about the colon. I’ll fix it in the final version.).

NaNoWriMo Days 19-25

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19-Nov 1123
20-Nov 0
21-Nov 0
22-Nov 3988
23-Nov 3430
24-Nov 1768
25-Nov 1078

I’ve got 32,083 words finished as of 11/25 (11/26 numbers are still being generated, but they’re in excess of 3,100 at this moment.) I still need to come up with another 15K words or so before Friday. I think I’ll make the threshold just in time.

So far, Topheth has passed the 70K mark, and is rapidly careening toward an end (looks like it’ll wind up somewhere in the 80K range); and The Tree of Liberty has pushed past 62K, and is still climbing. I’m not sure how many words it’ll have. There’s a few hiccups in the plot line I didn’t see coming, which might lengthen the story–I hope, not unnecessarily.

I believe I’ve hit and pushed through the wall, and now only sheer, dogged determination is going to get me across the finish line.

But if I get through this, and then can still wrap up In the Widening Gyre by the end of December (barring any unforeseen-by-any-except-the-Mayan-end-of-the-world events), then I will have successfully completed no less than six different novels this year (Spilled Milk, Eye of Darkness, The Elixir of Life, Topheth, The Tree of Liberty, and In the Widening Gyre). Not too shabby at all!

Next year will be the year of sequels! I hope to write a stand alone for NaNoWrimo 2013, though. I have a number of candidates in mind.

And the series just don’t end. Just the other day I came up with a concept for a space opera based on the political intrigues surrounding a future Silk Road (that’s what happens when I spend too much time watching the History Channel), in which contact with earth has been lost, and the far-flung colonies believe that humans on earth have been wiped out. It’s got a lot of grit, with something resembling a Firefly feel (though without the whole controlling planets and failed revolution type thing). It’ll be less cowboy, too.

Of course, God only knows when I’ll get around to writing it. But this is precisely why I’m aiming to churn out multiple books per year. I’ll never get anything fun written if I don’t ramp up my pace. God willing, at some point in the near future, I’ll be able to do this full time. Then we’ll see what can happen.

All right. Enough rambling. I gotta get my “B” back “IC”. Later!