Category Archives: publishing

Happiness is Knowing that Your Book is Selling

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I am not an obsessive person by any stretch of the imagination, but if there is anything I obsess over, it is whether my books are selling.  I check my sales daily.  It’s not about money.  I guess you could call it pride.  Writing is still a hobby for me, but someday in the distant future, I’d like it to at least supplement my retirement.

I have been selling more than a book a day on average for a while now.  I also knew that His Robot Wife would be guaranteed to sell.  After all, His Robot Girlfriend has been downloaded over 100,000 times.  Of course, it’s free.  In the first two weeks His Robot Wife has sold 46 books, and its not even in iBooks or Barnes and Noble or Kobo yet (HOPEFULLY SOON).

I have to say that it’s a really good feeling to get up in the morning and know that I will sell some books that day.  My personal goal is to sell 8,000 copies of His Robot Wife in the first year.  I’ll let you know how that goes.

Thanks to all the Post-Christmas Ebook Buyers

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There was a mini-run on my books right after Christmas at both Amazon and Smashwords.  I won’t know until later if the same was true on Apple, B&N, Kobo, and the others.  Thanks to everyone who purchased one of my books.  Feel free to email me and let me know what you thought.

New Years Resolution: Publishing

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As a self-published author, I really need to put on my publisher hat and get paper editions of every book out this year.  Case in point: both The Dark and Forbidding Land and The Drache Girl have been out for months in ebook form and aren’t yet available in paperback.  I don’t sell very many paperbacks (whereas my ebooks are really starting to take off) but I think they help my exposure.

As for a traditional publisher, I still have a desire to see my work in giant stacks of hardbound editions, but I don’t have much that will be ready this year to submit to a publisher or an agent.  Maybe Women of Power.  On the other hand, the publishers are doing such a good job of driving themselves out of business that I may not get a chance.  Expect to see at least one major publisher fold in 2011.  Expect also to see some big names going the self-publishing route.

Positive Ratings by Book

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One of the ideas the marketing book that I am reading had, was to figure out the percentage positive ratings.  In other words, how many of the ratings on each book were 5 or 4 stars, divided by the total number of 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 star ratings.  Here are all my ratings by book.

His Robot Girlfriend– 59% positive on 1359 ratings.
His Robot Wife– 90% positive on 116 ratings.

Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Elven Princess– 62% positive on 71 ratings.
Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Sorceress — 55% positive on 44 ratings.

Senta and the Steel Dragon: Brechalon– 73% positive on 11 ratings.
Senta and the Steel Dragon: Voyage of the Minotaur– 100% positive on 4 ratings.
Senta and the Steel Dragon: The Dark and Forbidding Land– 100% positive on 3 ratings.
Senta and the Steel Dragon: The Drache Girl– 100% positive on 9 ratings.

Princess of Amathar– 86% positive on 7 ratings.

Tesla’s Stepdaughter– 0% positive on 2 ratings.  (They were both 3 stars.)

No reviews or ratings yet on:
Blood Trade
Women of Power
Astrid Maxxim and her Amazing Hoverbike.

So You Want to Write a Novel

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Fixing the Holes

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Now that I have Text2Go, to read my manuscripts to me (which helps me find oodles of typos) I’m going to go back and double check all the manuscripts that I created before I had it.  I used Text2Go with:

Tesla’s Stepdaughters
Brechalon
The Dark and Forbidding Land
and The Drache Girl

I’m reviewing The Voyage of the Minotaur now, and as soon as I’m done, I’ll do:
His Robot Girlfriend
Princess of Amathar
Eaglethorpe Buxton and The Sorceress
and Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Elven Princess

When I’m done with that, I have to get the following paper books out:
Tesla’s Stepdaughters – Digest Edition
The Voyage of the Minotaur – Trade Paperback
The Dark and Forbidding Land – Trade Paperback
and The Drache Girl – Paperback

Only when I get all this done, can I get back to writing.  Would I rather be writing?  Sure, but as a self-publishing author, I’m also the publisher.  I’ll let you know right here as each of these projects are completed.

Updates

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Here are some updates on the writing front:

The Dark and Forbidding Land: Senta and the Steel Dragons book 2.  I am more than halfway through the second draft.  After that I will begin editing.  I’m still planning on having the ebook done about the first of August.  I have to listen to it being read to me with Text2Go, to catch any lasts typos.

The Drache Girl: Senta and the Steel Dragon book 3.  Yes, I have decided to change the title.  There is already a book called The Sorceress’s Apprentice and then of course the new movie The Sorceror’s Apprentice.  I prefer to save any confusion or trademark problems and go with this new title.  I’ll have to do a quick revision pass, to make sure there’s no conflicts between book 2 and book 3 (which was written before 2) and then an editing pass with Text2Go.  So figure about August 20th for the ebook.

His Robot Wife.  With the popularity of His Robot Girlfriend, it just seems stupid not to push this to the front burner.  Tentatively the ebook should be available about early December.  No, I haven’t started writing yet, but I have a good outline.  Speaking of which, I was getting a little bummed by a few one and two star reviews on iBooks, until I saw 47 people gave 1 star to the Bible!

Women of Power, Knights of Amathar, Nova Dancer
I have about three chapters done of each of these, so it’s only a matter of which do I want to work on first.  Right now, this would be the order, but that may change.

August 12, 2010
One month from today marks the second anniversary of the City of Amathar Blog.  Check back on that day for specials on all my ebooks, a contest, and more.  Remember, that day only.

Mixed Reviews

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I just got my feedback from the Amazon novel contest and it was a mixed bag.  Two reviewer gave me feedback on my excerpt.  There were some things they liked and some they didn’t (most of which I had already fixed in a later revision anyway), but one urged me to consult my dictionary (which I do on a daily basis).  She gave me two examples and one was true– I had mispelled a word into another word, one that I didn’t want to use.  The other example though showed that she should have used the dictionary.

It’s very hard to get a manuscript ready and people spend years and years going over theirs again and again to get it just right, sometimes hiring editors who argue over what to change.  So even though this whole episode puts me in kind of a funk, that doesn’t mean I won’t have another book ready for next year’s contest.  It’s going to be The Jungle Girl.

The Voyage of the Minotaur – Another Rejection

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I got my rejection letter from Baen books today. I have a list of about 5 more literary agents and a dozen or so publishers who will be getting queries from me next. If I haven’t got a positive response by summer, I’ll self-publish it, so I can move on to the next project.

His Robot Girlfriend – 20,000 Downloads

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His Robot Girlfriend has topped 20,000 downloads! Yay!