Self-Publishing Blog
On the topic of self-publishing, in print or electronically, fiction or non-fiction. Help for the new author in the new world of self-publishing.
22,000+ words in two weeks?
July 17, 2011 | 
Author And I’m still not fried somehow. It’s been a little over 10 days, and I’ve averaged 2,200 words a day, but I’ve only written for four of those days. I got burned out after the first 11,000 in two days, but I’m back at it.
Why, you ask?
There are two books coming out this year, of course. A World Forsaken is due out by the end of September, and Circle of Sorcerers needs to go to editing by August 21st. It’s mid-July now, that’s why!
Why finish so late, you ask?
There was a lull between book 3 and work on these two titles. Frankly, I got depressed. Real depressed. Sales were declining, a string of terrible reviews were cast, and I lost hope and confidence in my ability. Is this what I’m supposed to be doing? I asked myself on a daily basis. Well, the answer I came up with is simple.
No one is perfect, and very few will write a best-seller when they first get started. Even if you write a great book, there are plenty of people who won’t like it. Forge ahead, find the audience, and speak to their hearts. It’s all you can do.
I’ve never been the egotistical type of writer; I have passion and dedication to what I do, but I don’t think of myself as the best thing since sliced bread. I’m a writer – I write stories, and people either love them or hate them.
I’ve already enjoyed a great deal of success with my stories, so I take that as a sign that somebody somewhere is enjoying them. Although readers don’t often share their feelings in reviews, and no matter how much I wish they would when they enjoyed the books, I get encouragement from those who take time to write to me on here, on Facebook, or through email and tell me about it. So, to the fans, I respectfully say, “Thank you!”
In closing, I’ll summarize: we’re on schedule.
Posted in Mages of Bloodmyr, Novels, Self-Publishing Blog, The Survivor Chronicles | 
Tags: self publishing, writing | 
No Comments » Amazon Tagging Returns with Changes
Amazon’s popular tagging feature allows readers and authors a chance to perform search-engine optimization on their favorite titles. In essence, you can add “fantasy” as a tag to fantasy books to help them gain exposure, and other people can tick the box to “agree” to it. The more a keyword is tagged, the better it’s exposure.
Recently, the tagging functionality was taken off from the U.S. Kindle store. Why? To sum it up, there are three commonly-agreed possibilities with no word from Amazon.
- The $9.99 boycott. People were complaining eBooks were priced the same as (or, in some instances, higher than) their paper counterparts. Readers put tags expressing their disdain for it. This was not a small, constrained incident.
- Indie authors participating in “tagging circles”. I did it. It’s good as long as it’s done responsibly. For instance, an author may want more people to tag “fantasy” on his fantasy book. The tag is appropriate for the book. In other cases, authors may want a tag like “Stephen King” to be exposed to people searching for Stephen King, even though the book isn’t, in fact, written by the master himself.
- In a sort of twist to #1, Amazon may have seen undesirable tags like “bad book”, “trash”, and so forth littering the pool. They may have taken a break to remove them or add a word censor of sorts.
What does this mean for the rest of us?
May 2011 Updates
Oh, I’ve been busy lately. Whew! I am presently working on five books, in no specific order:
#1 – Book 4 of The Survivor Chronicles to finish the series.
#2 – Book 1 of Songs of Sorbia, The Circle of Sorcerers, a new fantasy series.
#3 – Book 1 of a vampire book. I haven’t decided on the title yet.
#4 – Non-fiction self-publishing book (instructional)
#5 – The d10 Core Roleplaying Game System core rulebook. (along the lines of D&D, White Wolf pen and paper games, etc.)
Lots of work load. Of course, the Survivor Chronicles takes precedence because it actually has a due date of end of September. I want to get Circle of Sorcerers to the editor in August. #3 and #4 can wait a bit, and I really want to get #5 to final playtesting before the end of the year. I would love to finish it in 2011, but I don’t know if it will be possible. Designing roleplaying systems, although the system for this is basically finished, is not an easy process to outline on paper so others can understand it.
The self-publishing book was slated for this year, but I may wait on it until Q1 of 2012. I don’t want to release it in 2011 if the standards change right after Christmas like they sometimes do. I want the “2012 Edition” to be valid for at least 2012, if not for a year or two afterward.
Just wanted to let you guys know what’s been going on. Some people do read my little blogs. 
Trucking along
I’m in between book releases right now. Prisoner and Survivor is undergoing the editing process, and it will probably continue through the beginning of April. I’m almost 30,000 words into The Circle of Sorcerers, and I’m feeling more and more confident about it as I go along. It’s very different from the zombie series I’ve written so far, taking on a bit more of a literary feel than the cinematic style of the Survivor Chronicles. So, some of my fans from my zombie books may like it, some may hate it. As always, check out samples before buying anything (not just my stuff, but any book).
I’ve been working very slowly on a paranormal romance story, but I’ve been putting most of my time and attention to polishing Prisoner and Survivor and writing The Circle of Sorcerers. I’ve also been putting some time into my self-publishing book that I hope I can release before the end of the year, but it’s no big deal if I can’t.
There are lots of books on marketing your book, selling your book, advertising it, and trying to get publicity and exposure. There are fewer books on actually creating a book and getting it ready for mass consumption through all of the nifty services available. Fewer still do this in an easy-to-follow way. Though I do explore a little marketing and advertising in the book, the whole intent is to provide a walk-through for people trying to do the same thing that I’m doing: writing and publishing books.
That’s all for now. Happy reading!
Falling Off the Shelf
Due to some sort of Amazon glitch, The Dying Times has “fallen off” the virtual shelf at that retailer. I can only say that saying it has been a stressful time since this happened is an understatement.
I’ve been working with Amazon’s KDP service to get the title reinstated, but it’s not back yet. The paperback editions of both books are still available, and the Kindle version of the second book is still up. Hopefully, it will be resolved quickly and soon.
Posted in Novels, Self-Publishing Blog, The Survivor Chronicles | Tags: amazon, Kindle, novel, The Dying Times, zombie, zombies | No Comments » February Report, 120 days later
It’s been four months since The Dying Times hit the scene, and about 23 days since The War of the Dead was released. I’m here to report on sales rankings, sales numbers, and so forth. People ask me about this all the time, and I promise, as always, to include some shiny graphs and stuff. I will include sales from all channels as of 02/25, and they shouldn’t change a huge amount until the end of the month.
Posted in Novels, Self-Publishing Blog, Site News, The Survivor Chronicles | Tags: novels, sales report, self publishing | No Comments » Book Marketing and Promotion
I’ve been asked from time to time how to get a book out there and get it going, so I decided to make a post about it instead of telling everyone individually. I have a book marketing eBook on Amazon (for $0.99) and it’s on Smashwords (for free), so you can check it out if you want to learn some extra tips on marketing just to Amazon’s crowd. This is more of a general book marketing and promotion post to tell you some of the things I do that have worked well. I should also put a disclaimer that I’m hardly an expert at this, as I’ve just gotten started myself; however, people are asking me how I’ve been able to sell around 2,000 copies in five months. I don’t think this is amazing success by any sense of the word, but it is probably more successful than most. (At least more successful than around 700,000 ebooks and more successful than about 8,000,000 print books on Amazon.)
Posted in Self-Publishing Blog | Tags: amazon, barnes & noble, marketing, promotion, publicity, publishing, reviews, sales | 14 Comments » KindleProcessor, a tool from Late Nite Books
Posted in Self-Publishing Blog, Site News, Software Blog | Tags: KindleProcessor, publishing, self publishing | No Comments » Loss Leaders and Giveaways
Posted in Self-Publishing Blog | Tags: amazon, giveaways, loss leaders, marketing, promotion, publishing | No Comments » The Dying Times now for $0.99
Posted in Novels, Self-Publishing Blog, The Survivor Chronicles | Tags: 99 cents, amazon, Kindle, Nadene, The Dying Times, The Survivor Chronicles | No Comments » Self-Publishing Book in the works?
Posted in Novels, Self-Publishing Blog, The Survivor Chronicles | Tags: book, publishing, self publishing | No Comments » How PublishAmerica Works
Contest Begins Now: Win a Free Kindle 3G!
Posted in Novels, Self-Publishing Blog, The Survivor Chronicles | Tags: amazon, Dying Times, free, giveaway, Kindle, sweepstakes | 2 Comments » Riches vs. Fame: An analysis
Posted in Novels, Self-Publishing Blog, The Survivor Chronicles | Tags: amazon, self publishing, stephen leather | No Comments » Trial Run on eBay in the Works?
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