Writing Update

I'm halfway through my current work-in-progress, a sequel to Double Murders that I started drafting during the summer. That's right, Vic Boyo the doofus detective is back in action, just as confident and clueless as ever. Hard to believe it's been seven years since the first book came out. Guess I've had other trilogies to work on in the interim. But now it's time to give Boyo his due.

Like the first book, I'm using a manuscript I wrote back in high school as the framework and fleshing it out as I go. So far, the first 25 pages of the original novella have swelled to over 100 in the latest iteration. That ratio won't continue; otherwise, the final draft will be 400 pages. Book 1 is under 250, so that's the sweet spot I'm aiming for.

It's been fun bringing back characters while adding new ones, and Boyo's internal monologue is unlike any of my other protagonists'. Half Sam Spade, half Michael Scott. Hard-boiled screwball crime noir that doesn't take itself too seriously, but where the good guy always wins in the end. 

I was making pretty good progress on it—three chapters a week—before the school year started. Now I'm averaging about one chapter a week. But progress is progress, and if I can get the first draft done by end of year, I'll consider that a win.

Two New Collections

 

You'll notice something when you click on either one of those covers: a Buy Direct option. I'll be adding this feature to all of my novels as they drop out of Kindle Unlimited and become available wide again. If you'd like more of the purchase price to go to the author instead of a massive megacorporation, buy direct.

I've decided to take a different route with my covers. Instead of making those fun 3D box sets, I'm going with this triple flat-panel look. For one thing, as cool as the 3D covers are, they're false advertising. Because readers aren't getting an actual boxed set when they buy a collection of eBooks. And since I'm going wide, distributors like Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and Apple don't allow the 3D boxes anyhow. So this way I'm keeping things consistent across all sales channels.

Taking the Plunge

Tackling Amazon ads has been on my to-do list for a while, but I haven't had the mental bandwidth to give it a go. With real life and the day job constantly vying for my attention, not to mention projects around the house, it's been tough to stick to my writing regimen, let alone learn a new skill. Excuses, excuses. The timing for things is seldom perfect. Sometimes all you can do is say enough with the procrastinating. So that's what I did. And then I put on my student hat.

My first step was to take the free Kindlepreneur course. Venturing into advertising blind, I figured it couldn't hurt to get some sage advice. The online course was helpful and explained everything in a way that made sense. What more could you want? It's definitely an advertisement in itself for Publisher Rocket, a book marketing software program that has some very cool features. But instead of shelling out $200 for that, I used Gemini (the Google A.I.) to come up with 50 keywords related to Murders at the Manor, one of my better-selling titles. Then I plugged each of those keywords into the Amazon search bar, one at a time, to see how many were used by shoppers. That narrowed the list down to about twenty-five, which I deployed in my first ad.

Following the Kindlepreneur directions step by step, I ran a sponsored product ad with manual targeting, a daily budget of $10, and set my bids at $0.65. (Anytime a shopper clicked on my ad, I would be charged 65 cents.) These amounts were based on best practices; however, Amazon made it clear that I would do better if my budget were $25 each day and my bids were well over a buck per click. But I held my ground. Because going broke is no fun. At the end of my three-week experiment, I had 166,000 impressions (that's how many shoppers saw my ad), 228 clicks, and 8 orders. Overall, I spent $160 and earned $16. But if I factor in sequel sales and Kindle Unlimited reads occurring at the same time, I earned $90 in total. Better, but not great. Not by a long shot. 

I've decided to put the ad on pause while I recoup my losses. Once I break even, I'll try it again with automatic keyword targeting, or I might go with a book in a smaller category. (Something like space opera sword & sorcery, perchance?) This was a good learning experience, and I no longer feel clueless about advertising on Amazon. Some authors have lost thousands of dollars on their ads, and I understand how easily that can happen. But if you set your budget, stick to that budget, and pause things before they get out of hand, you can learn a lot from the data you've collected. Then regroup, course-correct, and give it another shot. 

To be continued...

Eliminating the Middle Man

As my books drop out of Kindle Unlimited this fall and I start releasing them wide again, I'm going to try something that many other indie authors have been doing for a while now: selling direct. Instead of only offering my work via distributors like Amazon or Draft2Digital who take a 30-40% cut of every sale, I've decided to start using a platform called Payhip that takes a low 5%. It's just another option for eBook readers who might not want to financially support the megacorporations and would rather have more of their money go straight to the author.

How does it work? Glad you asked. Just click on the book you want, like you would on Amazon. Choose Add to Cart if you plan to do some more shopping or Buy Now if you're good to go. All sales are secure through PayPal, and the eBook you download is in EPUB format, the most widely supported.

On each of my landing pages, I'll be including the new Payhip option, but there will also be the usual links to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, and Kobo. The more options, the better. You can check out the humble Speculative Fictioneer store right here. Only a few books are available at the moment, but expect plenty more on the way in the coming weeks.

New Release: Angels & Androids

A new player has entered the game. 

As Dome 10's criminal underworld destabilizes with bosses vying for the role of kingpin, assassins target Drasko in an effort to silence him. Hot on a sniper's trail, Investigator Sera Chen makes a terrifying discovery: one of the most powerful men in the Domes is building an army of killbots.

Meanwhile, someone is hacking into citizens' neural implants, forcing them to act against their will. But before Sera and Dunn have a chance to find out who's pulling the strings, they're sidelined. Sera is suspended, and Dunn is assigned desk duty.

That doesn't slow them down for long. Confronting zombies and zealots, mutants and madmen, Sera tries to connect the dots. She'll need people she can rely on, but with a sadistic puppeteer able to control anyone, who can she trust?

eBook       Paperback

Going Full Indie

Since 2010, I’ve had 130 short stories, 2 novellas, and 8 novels traditionally published. I submitted my work for consideration, waited weeks (or months) for a response, collected hundreds of rejections, and celebrated the acceptances. I was an active SFWA member for two years. I had an agent for a while. I felt like I was doing everything right. There were certain hoops to jump through in order to be considered a "real" author, so jump I did. And I learned a whole lot along the way.

But there came a point when I decided No more. I just wasn’t finding joy in the process. I felt like it was holding me back creatively. I tried being one of those hybrid authors for a while, publishing some things on my own while submitting other manuscripts via the traditional route. A route which, as far as my novels were concerned, left me disappointed at every turn. 

I needed to stretch my wings and go full indie, leaving the old ways of doing things behind. So that’s where I am now. No more submitting my work to publishers and waiting on them for a seal of approval. For better or worse, I’m taking care of it all myself. And I’m having more fun at this writing hobby than I’ve had in a long while. 

The rights to six of my novels are still with a trad publisher, but when those rights revert in five years, I’ll be re-releasing them with all-new cover art and maybe some bonus material. Until then, I’ll see how many novels I can write and release on my own. Already, I’ve managed to independently publish 15 books since I fired my agent and forged ahead on this road, no longer shackled by the ways of the past. 

Freedom is a beautiful thing. So is rediscovering the joy of storytelling that my 12-year-old self knew all about. Got a little lost in the weeds for a while, but not anymore. Goodbye, gatekeepers. Hello, new books, new readers, and new adventures in publishing.

New Release: The Interdimensionals Trilogy Concludes

Now Available

The battle has just begun. To save the future, Anthony Reynolds and Sephora Ashton must change the past by becoming cold-blooded assassins. The interdimensional entities have established a tetrarchy spanning four epochs of Earth, thousands of years apart. Anthony and Sephora will have to travel back through time and eliminate each tetrarch—hiding inside the skulls of unwitting human hosts—in order to destroy their foothold in our reality. Otherwise, the interdimensionals will absorb all that we have and leave us with nothing.

To accomplish their mission, Anthony and Sephora must rely on each other and trust Peter Gideon, a young man brought back from the dead who cannot leave the space-between-space without reverting to a mindless zombie. Traveling aboard his ethereal aeroship, existing outside of time, they will track down each of the tetrarchs' interdimensional signatures. But it won't be smooth sailing. The Moule people, possessed by the Red Queen's acolytes, are hunting them, determined to derail their efforts at every port. And Anthony, overwhelmed by doubts when he discovers who his parents were in the real world, may end up jeopardizing everything he and his friends have fought for.

eBook       Paperback

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Edits are Done

Even after working in education for 26 years, summer break has yet to lose its thrill. I didn't get into teaching for the summers, but they're a great motivator to keep me in the field for another twenty years or so. I've worked on a lot of projects around the house the past few summers, but this year I decided to buckle down and pretend I'm a full-time writer. So far, that's meant spending a week wrapping up the first draft of Angels & Androids and devoting the last two weeks to revisediting. I made a habit of tightening up the manuscript as I went along over the past year, so the final round of edits really wasn't too arduous. I cut a couple thousand words and added another thousand, so it ended up being about 91K. A little longer than the other two installments in this trilogy, but not by much. And, as promised, the ending is a satisfying one.

Writing two trilogies in the same world with many of the same characters is something I haven't done before, so it's a mixed bag to say goodbye. On the one hand, I'm relieved I was able to pull it off, I'm pleased with how everything turned out, and I'm ready to move on. But I'd still like to stick around for a while and see what happens next. Probably because I've been invested in these decades-spanning tales for so long, I can't help feeling like they're part of me. What a journey!

Next up: formatting the eBook, the paperback, and the box set. Time to put on my publisher hat.

Novel #24

It took me a while, but I finally managed to cross the finish line: 92K of futuristic action and adventure, mixed with some mystery and mayhem along the way. Readers who enjoyed the first two installments of Dome City Investigations can look forward to more riveting character development, thrills, and chills, while those who've also read Spirits of the Earth will get a kick out of the extended cameos. I did my best to wrap up this trilogy in a satisfying way without sacrificing any of the payoffs, and I'm pleased with how it all turned out. The cover and blurb are good to go, so after a few rounds of edits (130 pages down, 215 remaining), it'll be ready for an August 5 release.

The Interdimensionals Trilogy Continues...

Now Available:

Anthony Reynolds and Sephora Ashton escaped from Madame Antic's sky city, and now they must navigate a new life in the dangerous ruins of London. Nothing is as it was in the technologically advanced Victorian city with no name. Here tribes of survivors hunt and gather in the dark of night, keeping vigilant watch during daylight hours. Mutant animals with poisonous fangs roam the outskirts, and, according to legend, mole people live underground. But if they exist and have managed to hide from Antic all these years, then they might hold the answers Anthony seeks. 

No one can tell him where he came from, or who he was before Madame Antic kidnapped him to play a role in her elaborate stage play. No one even knows what year it is. But when Anthony and Sephora are driven underground by gunmen wearing gruesome masks, they find themselves in a surreal subterranean refuge complete with its own lavish hotel and casino. There they meet the man responsible for it all, a man who claims to have answers, a man with a penchant for gambling with human lives: the enigmatic Monsieur Moule. 

eBook       Paperback

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