Comments and Signins

As I'm feeling very under the weather at the moment I plan on this being very short.

I have received notification elsewhere that posting a comment here requires signing into something.  As I have the system set to accept comments from anonymous posters I don't see why that's the case, so if someone is still having issues with it, please let me know via comment here, a message on Twitter, or via my e-mail address which I listed in another post.  Thanks!

On another note, I've sold more copies of Subject 12 so far this month than I have any other month, and usually several months put together.  In fact, other than last month, you could take any two months' sales figures and add them together and you still wouldn't equal the number of copies I've sold this month!  Thanks!  This is great!  Makes me really want to write more and get it out there for you guys and gals, and make no mistake!  As soon as I'm feeling better I'm getting back to work, and that's a promise.

Reviews, Both Positive and Negative.

Thanks for the support, guys.  I really do appreciate it.

Over the last two years I've received a number of reviews for my works on several sites.  From Good Reads to Smashwords to Amazon, I've received a fair amount of secondhand feedback.  I refer to it as secondhand because the reviews are not meant, specifically, for me.  They're meant for other readers to help them make choises in what they want to read.  I want to make this distinction because I want all my readers (both literary and of this blog -- so hello, new reader, if you haven't read anything else of mine) to know that I understand the difference.

This brings me to the main thrust of this post; reviews and my response to them.  Positive reviews I treasure because, like any human being, I am in part ego-driven.  Tell me I did a good job and I'll want to do more for you.  Tell me I did a bad job and I'd like to know how so I can fix it and do better the next time.  Interestingly enough, as I was writing this post I got a new review for Subject 12.  That's exactly the kind of review I like to get.  It's not 5-stars and I'm still glad to get it.  It doesn't need to be a "perfect" review because the book isn't perfect as-is.  First off, there are some glaring editing mistakes in Chapter 7.  When I went back to read them the first time after publication I physically cringed at how bad some of them were.  I'm going to fix them and I plan on doing it in the upcoming month, hopefully in the next two weeks, but I'm not holding my breath.  Back on topic, that review clearly outlined his considered pros and cons, and pointed out how disconcerting it was for the love scene to end so PG (I'm going to kick it up a notch, bam) only to have the next scene open so much more graphically.  It also touched on the editing issues.  I hope I can win that star back with the corrections I'm going to make, but if I don't I'm not going to complain.  In fact, I'm not going to complain about any fully-negative reviews I get, including this one for The Grand Granger.

While I find that aforementioned review confusing in the sense that the blurb and sample should have been enough to tell him that he wasn't going to like the rest of the story, I'm not going to respond to it directly or indirectly any more than I have. There is nothing I can say or do that would reflect positively on me or my writing, and I honestly don't expect everything I write to be appealing to all readers.  Furthermore, I refuse to be another Anne Rice and attack people who don't like my books.  Aside from my lack of obsession with homosexuality, rape, and sadomasochistic sex in my writing (the lack of vampires, though that may change in the future, should further differentiate me from her), I'm just not a Mac user, that worried about people thinking my work sucks if it's substandard, or a giant in the literary field.  I freely admit to being a former fan of hers.  Unfortunately, I just could not get through Armand the Vampire -- and I suffered through more than one of her series in my attempts to support and enjoy her writing.  Interview With the Vampire will forever be one of my favorite books, so in that sense I'm still a fan.

Whew, sorry, I got up on my soapbox there just a bit.  I'll try not to let that happen again.

So, where does that leave me standing?  Someone didn't like one of my stories.  That's fine.  I don't think the reader handled things appropriately by either Amazon (A week is too damn long to allow returns of e-books, guys, seriously.) or the reader (bought, read, refunded, and complained) in question, but it's far from the end of th world or more than a minor annoyance.  I'm curious what you the reader feel about both The Grand Granger and the review in question, of course, but other than that I'm pretty much through with the matter.

Keep reading, keep telling friends and family, and keep reviewing!  The more word gets out about my writing the more readers I get and that encourages more writing!

Oh, and for all of you that read this far, I want to give you a peek into the story I'm working on right now.  I don't have a title for it yet, but I'm having some good ideas.  I'm also having some problems because the original story was supposed to be twice as long as Banshee and it's grown into something at least as long as The Grand Granger in what I have planned.  Probably longer, if I want to be honest.  Anyway, without further ado:

Alaska. A lonely Guildhall, more than an hour away from any civilization besides the small, surrounding village, whiles away the 22-hour summer days.  Things are quiet, like they always are.  Sedate.  Actually, downright boring.  Out of the blue, word comes that a new recruit is on the way; a Reagent Protocol recruit.  The last one didn't work out so well, considering he died from self-immolation shortly before he went through with his plan to murder a local family.  This new one, despite also being a former Confederation member, seems different.  Erudite.  Educated.  A fifth-level Shadow Mage and far too powerful to be stuck so far from anywhere his abilities might be useful, actually.  So why was he there and not somewhere his abilities could be of more use?  Could be be trusted?  What were his plans?

 Thanks again for reading!   Don't hesitate to drop me a line!  The spam protection on here requires me to authorize all posts, so I do read them, even if I don't respond.  Sometimes I'm just too busy and forget.

DMCA Takedown Letter

So, in order to combat the piracy of my book (and I haven't even looked for The Grand Granger yet, so I'm keeping that singular at the moment), I have to start filing DMCA Takedown Notices/Letters.  This isn't too bad, all things considered, except that I now have to start doing regular searches for my book to see who and what's pirating it.  Needless to say, this isn't something I'm looking forward to doing, and so far today I've dedicated at least an hour to this crap when I should be writing -- which I was doing until this e-mail I'm about to share and discuss arrived.

There's a catch to filing DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright ACT) Takedown Notificiations.  To show this as graphically as possible,  I'm going to copy/paste an e-mail I just received from a company I contacted (2Shared, for those who are wondering).  I'm going to edit out e-mail addresses and suchlike and add emphasis at key points, but substantially this will be the exact e-mail I received.

 Please write us back arranging your complaint into the correct copyright
report sample set by DMCA and we'll react on this matter asap.

According to DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) the notification must:
1. Identify in sufficient detail the copyrighted work that you believe has been infringed upon (i.e., describe the work that you own).
2. Identify the in-world item that you claim is infringing on your copyright, and provide information reasonably sufficient to locate the item in-world.
3. Provide a reasonably sufficient method of contacting you; phone number and email address would be preferred.
4. Provide information, if possible, sufficient to permit us to notify the user(s) who posted the content that allegedly contains infringing material. You may also provide screenshots or other materials that are helpful to identify the works in question. (This is for identification only, not to 'prove' substantive claims.)
5. Include the following statement: 'I have good faith belief that the use of the copyrighted materials described above and contained on the service is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or by protection of law.'
6. Include the following statement: 'I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.'

The DMCA provides that you may be liable for damages (including costs and attorneys fees) if you falsely claim that an in-world item is infringing your copyrights. We recommend contacting an attorney if you are unsure whether an in-world object is protected by copyright laws.

I'm going to focus on point 2 first.  What qualifies as in-world?  I believe websites do, but I'm not 100% sure.

Also, "liable for damages"?  So, basically, if they feel my registered copyright isn't sufficient to protect my rights to control distribution of my work they can sue me?  Also, they recommend contacting an attorney so I can verify that my registered copyright is sufficient to protect my work from their unauthorized distribution?  I can't afford either.  It's bad enough I have to take screenshots and send them to a company that isn't even registered with the US Copyright office like it should be.

So where does this put me?  Unfortunately, it puts me in the "I'll just have to wait and see if sales continue apace or if they start to slump again" category.  If sales drop again like they did in January I'll have no choice but to talk to a lawyer and possibly alienate my readers much like over the whole Napster/P2P crap.  I don't have the money, I don't have the income, and I don't have the time if I want to continue focusing on my writing instead of being distracted by all this.

Piracy -- I'm now a victim.

I found out why a lot of my blog traffic is coming from various malware-infected and piracy sites.  People have been posting copies of Subject 12 on the web for free download.  This is NOT approved by me in any way, shape, or form. While I have given away copies of The Grand Granger via Amazon's KDP system, Subject 12 has never been offered in such a manner.

I'm flattered that people think that my work is worth sharing and that other people feel it's worth downloading, but I have to point out that my total gross income from last year was under $2000 and that every download of my book that didn't result in a sale cost me at least $1.40.  So, if anyone out there reading this downloaded Subject 12 and enjoyed it but didn't buy it, I ask that you please head over to Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes and Noble, Sony, iTunes, etc, and purchase a copy.

I'm currently looking into what I'd need to do to get the download links for my book taken off of 2Shared, downloadprovider.me, and similar sites.  I'm also looking at what I'd need to do in contacting Google to remove the offending links from their search, but it's a bit overwhelming at the moment (I'm no lawyer) and it's taking away from my writing time.

So, please, support an author and buy my book instead of just downloading it.  It encourages me to continue writing by keeping me fed and not distracted by pesky things like legal disputes.  Thanks!

Quick Update

It's been almost a month and I haven't moved vis a vis Smashwords.  Why?  I've been too busy in my day-to-day life to even do the research I need to do in order to start transitioning.  Things are cooling off with me, so expect updates by the end of the month, including the possibility of new markets -- but don't hold your breath on that one.  Progress on my followup piece to Subject 12 has been slow, but progress is being made.  I've found that, once again, I've had to go back to writing things out longhand before I can type them up.  This is, obviously, very time consuming; but it has the benefit of creating a first draft before I even start typing.  This means editing time gets cut down slightly in compensation, and it means I can write without benefit of a laptop (of which I do not have a functional unit), or the distraction of having a laptop with internet connection while I'm out.

Also, I'm seeing that a lot of the traffic I'm getting here is potentially malware-related and coming up from the weirdest searches across the globe, including a lot from Russia -- of which a fair amount seems to be malware-related -- and a fair amount from Romania, Bulgaria, and other places that I never thought I'd sell books to.  I cannot stress enough to you guys that you have to be careful.  Run antivirus and anti-malware programs.  There are plenty of free and effective tools you should be running at least once a week to maintain your computer's functionality as well as protecting yourself financially and your privacy.  I'll be happy to make some suggestions if anyone would like to know more.

The good news is that Banshee seems to be a hit, judging by the number of page hits that blog entry still seems to be generating.  I'd like to hear more about it from my readers, hint hint.  (I don't want to dig up a picture of a wink here, or use the emoticon, so please assume I did.  Thanks!)

I'll be doing a better blog entry here in a day or so, so please keep your eyes peeled!  Thanks for the interest, thanks for reading, and I look forward to hearing from any and all of you!

Smashwords No More

As I've noted before, I've had a less-than-positive experience with Smashwords.  Their draconian formatting requirements, their spotty sales, slow pay schedule, random updates to their sales figure, and their overall bad reputation among the buying public were not offset by the "ease" with which I was published on several major retailers.

Furthermore, I sell more copies of The Grand Granger in a month on Amazon than I give away copies of The Supernatural Cookbook in a quarter on Smashwords.  If I include all the retailers I sell through via Smashwords then this comparison falls down, but since I was giving TSC away to drive up exposure and sales of Subject 12 this is pointless to me, especially considering approximately half the reviews I get through the Nook store for TSC seem to indicate that people think it's supposed to be a serious piece.

I looked today to refresh my memory on all the steps I'd have to take to publish on Smashwords and my mind boggled even as my soul rebelled.  Yes, selling The Grand Granger through all the outlets Smashwords offered was appealing.  However, the 26+ step process to format the blasted file to Smashwords (but not mine) satisfaction was prohibitive to say the least.  For a $.99 ebook (yes, that I'd be get 74 cents per sale), it was insane.  It's not happening.  Ever.  Period.  Take that to the bank, it's safer than a Volvo parked in Fort Knox.  I don't have the time, inclination, or desire to rip my stuff apart to get it into something that resembles how I want it to look all while waiting hours upon hours to get a sneak peak at how it actually came out.

So what does this mean to you?  Not much.  First off, I've sold 14 copies of S12 through Smashwords and I believe around 20 copies though Smashwords' distribution network.  Maybe a few more, here or there, but less than 50.  These people should be able to refresh their copies as needed into the future without problem  If this includes you, don't worry -- I'm trying to get your back, Jack.  How will I do this?

Since I originally published via Smashwords Barnes and Noble instituted -- or at least publicized -- their program for independent authors and publishers.  So did Google Books (which I don't think existed when I signed up for Smashwords, but I digress), and several options for cross-platform distribution opened up or became public enough that I finally caught wind of them.  While payment per-copy may be lower at the same price, not having the Smashwords-taint or formatting requirements appeals to me.  I will be investigating them further to join in at the level I want -- but I will be publishing directly to Barnes and Noble without anyone else sticking their nose or fingers in.  As I own both a Nook and a Nook Color (the Nook Color is an Android tablet running a ROM directly form the SD card, but I do own one), Barnes and Noble has always been a market I wanted to break into directly -- current sales of S12 being nonexistent there or not.

Since I'm sure someone is curious what I mean by Smashwords-taint, I'll explain.  Smashwords attracts a lot of authors publishing low-grade erotica.  A shocking amount, and I'm someone who has spent a lot of time on the internet.  In addition, their formatting restrictions are painful and the end result is "pretty good", but not as good as a human-created file could, would, and should be.  In order to publish on Smashwords, one must create a .doc file in a very specific format.  As step 1 in the process is to "nuke" all the fancy formatting stuff an author may have put in (such as tabs, smart/curly quotes, etc.) and then replace them all with specific indents and various other chores, this is time-consuming, frustrating, and pointless.  Next, and perhaps the worst offense from my point of view, the instructions are all for Microsoft Word/Office 2000/2003/2007.  I don't use any of them, I see no point in paying for them when I can use Open/Libre Office, and the "style guide" reads like it's written for people who think that all caps and sixteen different fonts in a book make it more attractive.  Seeing the end result and proliferation of, let's face it, garbage on their site I have to admit that maybe it is.  It's a real shame that there are so many jewels awash in a sea of trash on the site, but there's nothing I can do about it -- and I find myself being considered guilty by association.

I'll admit that Subject 12, Banshee, and The Grand Granger aren't for everyone.  In fact, the Guild Files stories are actually targeted at a relatively-small audience, though I'm glad to see that people have embraced it from outside the group I targeted it at.  The Grand Granger, being a novella, hasn't been as well-recieved as I'd hoped due to its length.  However, I'm also sure that I can do better selling them -- and I will!  I will keep all files on Smashwords for a couple more weeks, most likely, but they will be down by the end of the month if at all possible (even if it means I won't ever see the $7.20 they're currently waiting for/holding for me since it takes $10/quarter worth of sales to get paid) and I'll have other options up and running as soon as posisble.

So, thank you for reading, thanks for your support!  If you know anyone who might like my books, don't hesitate to tell them about them.  If you have something to say, contact me, leave a comment, or hit me up on Twitter.  I look forward to hearing from you!

Guild Files: Banshee -- Ready For Download

I changed my mind for two reasons.  First, this made more sense, and second, I couldn't get the PDF version to look at all good and I didn't feel like spending another hour trying to fix it.

So, without further ado, I give you Banshee.

For Amazon/Kindle/Kindle Fire/Kindle app users, you'll want this version of it.

Guild Files: Banshee in .mobi for Amazon users

For the rest of the world, you'll want this version.

Guild Files: Banshee in .epub for everyone else

The content is identical, they're just formatted slightly differently and the .mobi has a mock cover image because if I didn't have one I got errors in the Kindle previewer program.  Not owning a Kindle, I can't test it on it, but I got good results with the .epub version on my OG Nook.

Thanks for reading and please don't hesitate to share you thoughts either directly with me via e-mail, Twitter or via any other outlet you can find, and if you enjoyed please tell all your friends!  Enjoy!

I Hear a Banshee Floating Around

Well, I'm almost ready to load Banshee up for people to download.  I just need to set up a Dropbox account and upload.

Just to recap:  Banshee is the story of Jared Blackroot, son of David Blackroot, a disability-retired Heroe's Guild legend.  Unfortunately, there's bad blood between David and Boyd Pelcrow, father of Darvis Pelcrow, who has been making life in and out of school impossible for Jared.  What Darvis doesn't know, however, is that Jared actually is the "freak" he's been calling him since Jared's family moved to town, and he's not just a one-off weakling -- something Jared has kept secret from everyone except his family, and something he may finally show the world after the last beating Darvis and his toadies gave him.

This story comes with a content advisory -- the violence and language are graphic in places.  Also, a disclaimer is needed:  Much like The Justice Fiend in Subject 12, opinions stated by characters are not my own.  I feel the need to emphasize this as one reader was so turned off by the opening scene that she had to force herself to read the rest and part of it was the sentiments and epithets uttered by one of the characters.

Well, with that out of the way, I want to share my plans for this piece.  I'm going to offer it in epub/mobi/pdf formats for free download with no cover image via Dropbox for an unspecified (but at least the month of July) amount of time.  If I can find a cheap (under $10 -- I got paid $85 this month in royalties) cover I'll throw it on and put it up as a "donation" version on Smashwords for $.99 if I can stand to jump through the hoops I'll need to in order to get it formatted.  Why Smashwords and not Amazon?  Royalties.  The Grand Granger sold 40 copies this month, totaling $17.40 in royalties that I'll see in 2 months.  Smashwords offers a flat 75% royalty plan that means I'd see 2x per sale, even with a delivery charge.

If I can work through my ADD enough to finish the project, Banshee will be at Amazon, however, in an anthology of short stories.  I don't plan on spilling the beans on this one, though, as I don't want to get hopes up in case I run out of steam or interest in the project.  Suffice it to say there will be a direct tie-in to Subject 12.

As soon as I have Banshee converted and uploaded I'll edit this post to include the link and post about it on Twitter as well as in both the Subject 12 and my author's profile discussion forums on Amazon.

As always, feel free to comment or ask any questions here, on Twitter, or on Amazon.  I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

Thanks for reading

Banshee Early Reader Results

I sent the smoothed-out rough draft of Banshee to be read and early feedback is less than positive.  I need to hear from more readers, but what I've heard so far is worse than early reviews of The Grand Granger.  As that was bad enough, this twist is rather discouraging.

Will post more as I know it.  Thanks for reading.

Banshee

I finished the rough draft of Banshee tonight about 20 minutes ago.  It currently weighs in at over10,000 words and probably expand by as much as 20% by the time I'm done editing, so referring to this as a "short" story is perhaps an understatement.  Of course, the people I ask for opinions on it may make me cut quite a bit out.  We'll see.

I'm still planning on giving copies away, but I may have to make it a bit more limited in scope than originally planned.  The story grew in the telling until it was far bigger than what I'd set out to write, and I think it's better for it as well.

Details on everything will be posted later, as they're finalized.  The details I can give now are that the story is graphic both in violence and language:  To do otherwise wouldn't reflect the spirit of the Heroes' Guild/Subject 12 universe, and might deceive new readers (if there were any to get their hands on a copy) as to the nature of the beast.

Speaking of the nature of the beast, I'll try to address a few points in future blog entries that have come up in both reviews, conversations I've had with readers, and my own thoughts on the matter.  In the meantime, however, you can probably expect Banshee to be available before the 4th.  I'll let you all know as soon as I'm happy with what I've written and can share it.

Thanks for reading!

Two Quick Notes

While I won't go so far as to say I'm cooking along in writing it, I will say that I'm progressing nicely with the short story I'm working on for you guys.  I figure I'm about 2/3 done and I like how the story is growing and going.

The $.99 experiment on Amazon isn't paying off, literally.  Maybe it's too soon after the free promotion to really tell, but while sales are up they're still not paying the difference yet.  I'll give it to the end of the month, though, just to see.

More updates as they come. 

Change in Pricing

I recently changed the price of The Grand Granger to $.99.  On a side note, I wish the cent sign were still in the standard compliment of keystrokes available, but I digress.

The reason for the change was simple -- my contract with Amazon to sell exclusively was up and I was sick of asking so much for something that, however enjoyable, felt overpriced at that price point.  Unfortunately, I also lost my 70% royalty option on it.  What that means is, instead of just over $2/sale, I'm now making 35 cents per sale.

This doesn't seem a like a lot because it isn't.  However, I didn't write The Grand Granger to get rich.  I wrote it for people to enjoy and to gain exposure for my other works.  I can't say it's worked fabulously to garner more attention to Subject 12, but over 300 people have downloaded it and, hopefully, read it.  Let's see if they come back for more.

On another note, free time is at such a premium for me lately that it's stressing me out.  That means (since I write in my free time, currently) I'm not writing as much as I would like.  I'm also keeping two or three projects going at once so I don't get too frustrated or bored, which also impacts my completion rate.

One of those projects will be a short story that will be available for free download.  I'm working on how best to distribute it, but it's still a weeks (at best) from completion. It's set in the Subject 12 universe and is about a teenager named Jared Blackroot.  His father, David, is a disability-retired Guild member who was quite respected before his injuries.  Unfortunately, there's bad blood between David and the father of Darvis Pelcrow, and Darvis has been making life impossible for Jared.  What Darvis doesn't know, however, is that Jared isn't just some one-off super, and Jared has had more than enough -- especially after the last beating Pelcrow and his toadies gave him.

I'll let everyone know when I'm finished.  Once again, thanks for reading!

Back in Black.

I was tempted to start this blog post with a copy/paste of the lyrics to that legendary rock tune.  However, I decided at the last minute that while I'm not above puns so bad they make me groan as I'm writing them, I'm not quite that cliché.

As anyone following my Twitter account knows, I've had some computer trouble this week.  To wit, my copy of Windows ate itself during a driver update for my video card, and since I stored a lot of things on the desktop, a direct reinstall was not advised since it might wipe out everything stored on the desktop.  As this could potentially wipe out things running the gamut from pictures friends had sent me up to thirteen years ago to my entire collection of mp3s to, perhaps most important for anyone reading this, everything I'd written over the last fifteen years, I decided not to take the risk.

This meant I had to back up all the important stuff from the hard drive without a working OS on the drive.  Since I've worked some freelance PC repair over the last few years I had an external adapter and backed up the most vital data on a microSD card via a borrowed laptop.

But only after knocking the hard drive to the floor AS it was energized: IE, spinning.

There was some data corruption, but I recovered almost everything I couldn't replace.  Luckily, this included everything from master copies and rough/early drafts of Subject 12 and The Grand Granger to what I've written of Rogue and the followup to The Grand Granger, which I'm calling The Princess Diamonda Incident at the moment.  I may change it, depending on feedback.  I haven't verified the files yet, other than TPDI to see if there was any corruption, but I'm going to take it on faith that, because these files are so small, the ECC capability of the hardware saved them.

I'm now running again on a 2TB Seagate hard disc that I hope doesn't have any of the issues plaguing a lot of the manufacturers since the flood in Thailand last year.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

So, on to more savory things.  First off, I am already back at work.  While I've had to put Rogue on hold again (I'll explain more about that in a later blog entry if I get any questions regarding it), I am hard at work on the followup to The Grand Granger.  I refuse to put a completion date on it, but I will say that with luck it'll be published before August.  At that point I'm planning on dropping the price of The Grand Granger out of the 70% royalty zone (check earlier blog posts if you have any questions about that), but I'll be doing another 1-day giveaway to drum up interest in the sequel.  I don't plan on letting anything slip about it at this juncture, but I will say that if you read The Grand Granger you'll probably enjoy it a lot more, but it should stand entirely on its own.  The same could not be said for Rogue which will require having read Subject 12 in order to get the most enjoyment out of it -- but as I'm having extreme difficulty with getting from where I am in the story to the later scenes I have all planned and scripted, I cannot say that it's really that important at the moment.

I want to apologize for not responding to the blog comments personally at this time.  The reason being I've been busy, under the weather, and have had issues with my computer and smartphone for weeks now.  I think I can attribute some of the PC issues to the failing hard drive/Windows install, but the cell phone problems are because I can't leave well enough alone and keep upgrading the firmware whenever possible.  As such I like to use early release, bleeding-edge if you prefer, versions of the firmware and things often don't work as they should the first time -- or begin lagging/developing issues under stress.  So, I want to take a moment here and thank both commenters for their feedback.  I will reply to future comments, and that's a promise, whenever possible.

I'll try to post again sooner than I have this time.  Thanks for reading and for your support!

Plans for the Future and Notes on Pricing

Hello again.  Just figured I'd update, pass along some info on the seemingly-strange pricing structure I have, and share some plans I have for the future of my novels.

Let's get to it, then.  My immediate plans for my novels are on hold.  There are several reasons for this, but probably the biggest one is called stress.  My doctor had to double my blood pressure medication to bring my numbers back down to a reasonable level.  Yes, at 32 I'm battling high blood pressure.  I've been fighting it since I was 15, so this is nothing new, but the increase in medication level is.  Normally any change is just in type of medication rather than the strength, but that's pretty irrelevant.  Right now I'm on the highest dose of this particular medicine and if I can't get my numbers under control long enough I'll have to add more -- and that will bring with it even more side effects.  So far the worst one seems to be a very depressed energy level (which I probably don't have to tell you why that's not good for writing), but I'm watching out for some worse ones.  However, I am trying to get some writing done.  I've written probably two thousand words in the last two weeks, which makes me feel embarrassed at such a low output level, but it is what it is.  Adding to my stress are tax woes, though half of that is my own fault.  I could have used some advice for a fist-time filer that I didn't get until after I'd already filed.  Yeah, I only owe $65 more in taxes than I paid, but it's a pain in the butt to amend a tax return.

Now, that's probably more personal information than anyone actually cares to read, so let's move on to the pricing structure.  Put simply, The Grand Granger is $2.99 because Amazon forced me to price it that way.  That's a head-scratcher to some, so I'll try to explain.  First off, Amazon has two royalty schemes; 35% and 70% (compared to traditional-published royalty rates of 25%).  Obviously the 70% royalty scheme is more attractive, but it comes with some strings attached.  First, a book has to be a wholly-new creation (that's how I'm simplifying the actual details) instead of a public-domain novel (aka a classic).  Secondly, and this is the kicker, the book must be priced between $2.99 and $9.99 in the USA store.  What does that mean?  Well, since all books have to be priced (at least last time I checked) in $1 increments starting at $.99, I could either get paid ~$.35, $.69, or $2.09 (not counting the delivery charge).  Considering I feel The Grand Granger is worth more than a paltry 70 cents per sale, I opted for the $2.99.  If Amazon would allow the 70% royalty option at $1.99 you can bet your breakfast I'd have my price lowered to that as soon as the Kindle Select promotion period ends -- or sooner if they'd let me while keeping the Select status.  Meanwhile, when I debuted Subject 12 I priced it at $4.99, dropped it to $2.99 to boost Christmas sales, and pushed it back up to $3.99 because I noticed sales were the same at both prior price points.

Continuing in that vein, there are a few things that probably need more explanation.  For starters, what is Kindle Select?  It's an exclusivity agreement with Amazon.  In return for a 90-day exclusive sales agreement, Amazon offers to let me offer any book enrolled in the program for free for up to 5 days during the 90-day period, pays me if anyone who subscribes to Amazon Prime "borrows" the book, but at the caveat that it has to be enrolled at the 70% royalty level as well.  There's a little more to it, but that sums it up.  Since I wrote The Grand Granger to be kind of a loss-leader to get more sales of Subject 12 on the books, my plan all along was to get it either at the $.99 price point or in the Kindle Select program so I could give it away, and it took me 4 months to write instead of 4 weeks, I went the latter route for now.

So, why do I price my books so low when some people have been surprised that I wasn't published traditionally?  Simple.  Value.  I'm of an age where I remember going into bookstores and walking out with three paperbacks for $10, and I don't mean used paperbacks.  I remember staying up late to devour those books, being tired all the next day at school but insisting on staying up late again so I could finish one more chapter before passing out again, dragons and spaceships and superheroes battling it out in my dreams.  I wanted to continue in that tradition of fun, inexpensive books, so I went low-ball when I had the chance.  Unfortunately that also comes with it the perception of value.  How good could it be for only $4?  $3?  It must be crap!  Well, I'm trying to prove those people wrong every day, and with your help I can do it!

Well, I think I'm done for the night.  I encourage you to leave comments or hit my up at my Twitter if you want.  I promise to get back to you as soon as I can.  Thanks for reading!

Free Promotion Fallout

Well, as you no doubt are aware, I ran a free giveaway promotion of The Grand Granger on Amazon for my birthday.  Total tally for the day was, worldwide, 274 copies "purchased" and I reached a high of 33rd for the day on the science fiction charts under the free titles.  While I realize that a lot of people probably won't ever even read it, the fact is that for a book that's been on the market for less than three weeks (just over two at that point, actually) that was pretty good.

So thanks, everyone, for helping that number reach so high.

As to why I entitled this "Fallout" when "Update" would have been appropriate...  I guess sometimes I just need to make things sound dramatic when they aren't.

Thanks for reading!

A Little More About Me

Okay, it's been a few days and, with my impending birthday and accompanying giveaway of The Grand Granger for that 24-hour period (see my Twitter feed on the right if you haven't already), I felt it was probably a good idea to share a bit more.

Since I left things focused mostly on my currently-published books and some experiences while publishing them, I'll spend more time talking about myself so you, the reader, can get to know the author better.

To begin with, I am not a city boy.  I like being able to step outside and see trees rather than neighbors, an open field instead of asphalt, and to hear my roosters crowing, my ducks quacking, and the wind rustling through the leaves.  There's nothing quite like sitting in the shade on a warm summer day, savoring a cigar, reading a book, knowing the chores are done and the only thing I have to worry about is one my cats jumping in my lap or a chicken being stupid and pecking at the ash on my cigar.  Yes, it has happened, and it's usually followed by a look of disgust and some serious beak-wiping on the grass.

I've loved reading all my life.  I've devoured books from almost every genre at some point, and when I was sick last year I read almost the entire Discworld series by Terry Pratchett in about two weeks.  If you haven't yet, and you like books that make you laugh out loud and read passages to friends and family members, I highly recommend them.  However, despite dabbling in other areas, I find myself returning to fantasy and science fiction time and time again.

When it comes to my writing I usually have more than one project going at once, which does help me from getting too bored with any one of them, but slows my output and encourages mental and physical exhaustion.  Since I suffer from bouts of tendonitis in my right wrist (and being right-handed), extended bouts of writing will often leave me in pain for days, preventing me from typing excessively or even writing things out long-hand.

Speaking of writing things long-hand, a lot of my rough draft work is done on paper, with a fountain pen.  I find the two-stage process encourages creativity while allowing me to write almost whenever the mood strikes.  Too bad it usually happens after I'm in bed, trying to get to sleep.  Insomnia is often the result -- but so is some of my best work.  If you do a lot of writing and don't need to worry about carbon paper (which is actually the reason the fountain pen lost favor and the ball-point became so ubiquitous) and haven't tried a fountain pen, treat yourself and give it a whirl.  Just don't totally cheap-out or you'll find out why a good fountain pen would last fifty or sixty years of use and still work well and why a cheap fountain pen usually found its way into a desk drawer to be forgotten about as soon as something better could be obtained.

So, we come back to progress reports on my writing.  The sequel to Subject 12, Rogue, is progressing very slowly.  There are various reasons for this.  Without going into detail that's irrelevant at the moment, my free time (which includes writing time) is at a premium and has been for a while, I'm working on the second complete rewrite of the first chapter, and in an attempt to boost cashflow I'm editing an old book I wrote in an attempt to make it marketable.  That I have a sequel to this old one already partly written doesn't hurt, either.  But, have no fear, I am working on Rogue.  My goal is to have it up by the end of the year.

On the subject of Subject 12 and Rogue, another goal I have for the year is to edit out all the typos in Subject 12 and update the copyright page (among other things) so I can republish it.  When I do I'll include a sneak peak at Rogue as a bonus, so keep your eyes peeled because I'll post an announcement here when that happens.  Anyone who has a copy through Amazon will get the update first (though they'll probably have to delete their existing copy on whatever device they have) because of Smashword's publishing requirements.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day, everyone, and thanks for reading!

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog.

First, a little about me.  I've lived all of my life, aside from a month or two here and there, within forty-five minutes of the Saint Lawrence River.  Northern New York state is fantastically beautiful (at least this part of it) at some point during all four seasons -- and for two of them the entire season.  I've tried my hand at a few things, including four fabulous years as a paranormal investigator (and on occasion eliminator, but I'm no Ghostbuster and I never crossed the streams), but I always kept coming back to my desire to write.  So, in 2010, I made it my goal to take this novel I'd just finished (Subject 12) and get it published.

I couldn't get a single agent to return an e-mail.  Not even a rejection letter.  Of course, I respected those that advertised and said "no unsolicited manuscripts" and every other caveat they put down, including the dreaded "do not submit manuscripts to anyone other than me if you expect me to respond".  Again, I got nothing.

So, since I knew Subject 12 would have a fairly small audience, I went ahead and looked into electronic publishing.  Luckily, Amazon had released the Kindle and made things relatively easy for the new author to publish.  I say relatively because their formatting guide was a joke and you needed extensive knowledge of XML, HTML, and (it seemed) two different programming languages to create a book suitable for e-publishing on Amazon.  Thankfully things are a lot easier now, but at the time it was stressful.  I spent a week (giving up the opportunity to meet someone I'd grown very fond of in the proceeding couple of months -- who moved shortly thereafter and I've lost track of her) putting in up to twelve hours a day researching tools, programs, and formatting aids to figure out how to get a file that Amazon would accept.  The day I was supposed to leave and drive to Vermont I found the two tools I needed, but only well after I would have had to have left.

Fast forward a couple days of experimenting (and a lot of cursing on my part), frustration (more cursing), failure (did I mention cursing?), and almost-successes and I finally had what I wanted.  It was crude (if you've read the Amazon version you can see what I mean), it barely passed muster, and I really should have spent some of that time cleaning up typos that I had missed during the editing process, but it worked.  So I published, filed for a copyright (I think I filed for a copyright first, but that's not central to the narrative at this point), and waited.  Amazon was on the ball and I got it up in short order.

Time for a celebration!  Except I couldn't get a sale in the first few days.  I closed out October of 2010 with zero sales.  In a way, though, I didn't mind too much.  It was almost the end of the month and my goal was it WOULD be up before October 31st come hell or high water.

So, I published on Smashwords (which has turned out to be a mistake for a variety of reasons) because it was the ONLY way I could find to get on the Barnes and Noble bookstore -- and, amazingly, it also got me on Sony, Apple, and Diesel.  The markets they serve have continued to increase over the years, and unlike Amazon they allowed me to publish a freebie.  So I dug out this "story" I'd written as a joke and published it.  The Supernatural Cookbook was a joke I'd come up after a conversation with a friend.  She'd said I could make anything sound good to eat.  In the internet meme world I would have put the CHALLENGE ACCEPTED banner on it, because I instantly -- and I do mean instantly -- began describing roasted ghoul haunch.  She laughed, I laughed, the people she shared it with laughed...  And my "story" was created.  It tied in with another short I'd written, so I ran with it.  To date the Supernatural Cookbook has been downloaded at least 4,000 times between all outlets, but I can't attribute a single sale of Subject 12 to it.

I don't want anyone to think that I feel Smashwords isn't a great venue.  It is.  It offers a higher royalty rate than anyone else, it allows both free and paid works, it publishes to all the major e-tailers except Amazon, the cost of admission is merely an annoying and potentially frustrating and (I'm going to be honest here) pointlessly byzantine and draconian formatting method.  The net result is a clean, finished product, in every major (and a few minor) formats for any and all e-reader devices and tablets, but having to lose all your formatting or use a specific word processor (that I, as well as many others, hate) that costs a lot of money isn't worth it.  At least not to me.  Furthermore, despite sales that started topping 100 copies a month on Amazon with Subject 12 alone, I was lucky to sell a single copy of Subject 12 on Smashwords, Apple, Diesel, Sony, Barnes and Noble, etc, per month.

In the meantime I began work on several different projects, got extremely sick and almost died, had to deal with family drama, had a neighbor's dog kill several of my ducks and the ensuing confrontation was so unpleasant that I've been looking for a place to move to, and in general had life decide that I needed to be a punching bag again.

The sad fact is, Subject 12 exhausted me.  The reason why it ends on such a cliffhanger note is because I had a choice -- continue writing and try to wrap up such an epic storyline in a single paragraph while I was finding it harder and harder to even put a hundred words a day to paper (my goal while writing was one thousand per day) or wrap it up and do a full-blown sequel.  I chose the sequel and, from the sounds I've been getting from most of my readers who have reviewed or contacted me directly (I've replied to every one that I'm aware has done the latter), I chose wisely.  But, and this is the point I want to stress, I was burned out.  The fight scene between The Justice Fiend and Hammer was written in a single day.  If you do a word count you'll find it's around, and probably north of, eight thousand words.  You'll also find it's the only place in the book that has numerous typos in a short space.  It took more out of me than I had to give, yes, but I refused to compromise on quality for the rest of the book and, ultimately, was why I decided on the sequel.  I'd failed to meet too many of my self-appointed goals already.

I started working on the sequel but I ran out of oomph and interest way too quickly.  I started another project that I plan on revisiting soon, but I ran out of steam and interest (mostly because I shared the first part of it and the entire feedback I got was "can we start an off-topic area in the staff area of this forum for posts like this?" directed at an Administrator) shortly after beginning.  Again, I was burnt out from the intensity of that fight scene in Subject 12.

Fast forward a year.  November, 2011, I decide that I need to keep rolling on the wave of Subject 12's minor popularity.  After all, sales jumped in June, then again in August, and continued growing slowly in September, and October, and November was shaping up to be the best month yet!  I wanted a quick-and-dirty short, no longer than 20,000 words, that I could sell on Amazon for $.99 to really attract attention to me.  About that time Kindle Direct Publishing Select program had come out, but only for books with a 70% royalty rate, which meant a $2.99 minimum price tag.  Thus began The Grand Granger.

Health issues, family issues, relationship drama, wash, rinse, repeat.  I was late getting it out the gate.  I "finished" the first week of December, but it wasn't good enough.  I sought feedback so I could tell where it needed improvement.  Very few would give me any, and the first person to read it described it as "like sex, but without an orgasm".

Ouch.

I mean.  Damn.  Really.  Ouch.

So, I went back.  I hammered on it, tweaked it, cleaned it up, expanded here and there, and put more backstory and a glossary in it.  Got some more feedback on it, but it was like pulling teeth.  Gave up, came back to it, lost time due to more drama, worked on it some more.  But I got it done.  By then I had at LEAST six times as much in time, effort, and energy (not to mention frustration, aggravation, and disgust) tied up in it, and Amazon still only offered Select status for 70% royalty books.  So, since I could get virtually no feedback on the finished product, I decided to go ahead with it anyway.  A friend sent me a list of typos and I fixed them.  Two or three days later I had formatted for publishing and I started the process.  Filed a copyright, made 2 sales, and found a typo that had been overlooked.  I fixed it, uploaded the final result, and notified the two buyers (both of them follow me on Twitter), and started expanding my outreach to you, my readers.

That brings me up to tonight, where I'm going to wrap this up.  I'll try to use this site as a contact point for you, so don't hesitate to leave messages or e-mail me (which I'll have up as soon as I can get this thing figured out), comment on any blog post I make, and to keep you updated on what the heck is going on with my various projects.

I guess what I'm trying to say is have no fear, Hammer will strike again.  The Confederation and the Tal'Red have many more stories about them yet to be told.  I hope to have another book I wrote years ago cleaned up and published before the end of the month, but Hammer and the Confederation may call me too much to make that happen.

In the meantime enjoy the stories and don't hesitate to contact me.  Thank you for reading!