Seeing with Other Eyes

One of the intriguing things about reviews is the opportunity to see your work as a stranger would. I’ve been living with my books for so long by the time my readers see them I’ve lost all sense of distance and perspective. Then I’ll come along and read a review that makes me think “Hmm. Never really thought about that, but I suppose that’s true!” The most recent exemplar of this being a very nice review for Scent of Metal. (I didn’t *plan* to do “new things with genre”, it just sort of …happened. And I’ll probably do it again.)

And it’s not just the nice reviews that do this. Even the puzzled, bewildered, disappointed, or unhappy reviews can have gleaming insights. One recent reviewer, stating a preference for romance-genre books of varying types, was understandably not satisfied with my science fiction (same book as above). BUT! They read the entire book! To have enticed a hard-core (cough) romance reader to finish a moderately hard-core science fiction book is a triumph indeed….

Matchbook is live

The Amazon Matchbook program is up and running, and I’ve even had one person use it!

In brief, if you have purchased any of my books in print form, you can now get a discounted ebook version of the same novel. Yes, it is retroactive. I plan to put all future books in the same program, too. I don’t like having the high paper prices — it’s the cost of doing business with distributors — but this way I can add value to the purchase. And with the gift-giving holidays approaching, you can get the bundle to give Aunt Ethel the paper book and give the cheep ebook for yourself! Win-win!

Amazon MatchBook

For those of my readers who have purchased print versions of my books, you might be interested to know that I have signed up *all* my books with the new MatchBook program–which lets the reader get the digital version for a discounted price. Furthermore, it is retroactive–if you purchased the print book *before* this announcement, you can still (somehow) get the discounted ebook. The program isn’t active yet, but will be soon (weeks, not months I am told). All of my “extra” ebooks are set $1.99 or lower (Bureau of Substandards is FREE!).

I hope this will take some of the sting out of the extended distribution price raise…

What’s going on

I’ve been busy doing Good Things like writing more and finally getting this website cleaned up a little. Note the new little widget off to the right–that’s where I will keep my writing status updated on projects and state of completion. Of course those on my mailing list (hint hint) will get advanced notice of actual publication, sales I have planned (yes, I have plans) and other cool stuff.

In other news, I’ve been updating and changing my CreateSpace print books. Found some irritating formatting issues (thank you so much, Word, I’ll have to do the same for you some day…) and now was a good time to do it, because the Big News in indie circles is Baker&Taylor and Ingrams now allow POD books to mingle with the elite in their catalog. This means a bookstore can ORDER MY BOOKS and as long as I look professional, they won’t be able to tell I’m not operating out of 1 Worlds Away Press Plaza. (Unless you tell them.)

The downside to this is I had to raise the prices on the print books. Ebooks are staying where they are, don’t worry. Distributors, on the other hand, need to be able to offer bookstores a discount, and I need to price it high enough that I don’t owe the distributor money after that discount. (Actually CreateSpace won’t let you set a price that puts you in the red, but you know what I mean.) I didn’t like doing this, but given how few print copies sold even at the old price I am hoping this does not annoy too many of my fans. Someday it will be possible to do POD for mass market paperbacks and the books will be even cheaper…but not now. Anyway, just wanted to explain what was going on and that I wasn’t just trying to get readers to pay for my second yacht. (I don’t even have an inflatable kayak, OK?)

Now, back to writing…

 

Audiobook of Firehearted!

First, let me say I know very little about the audiobook world. Knew they were out there, but had no idea how to make them, how many people bought them, etc. Still, Dean Wesley Smith‘s advice to leave no format unturned prompted me to investigate Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX) which has an indie-friendly way for voice artists and authors to find each other and, you know, do bidness. It works! I put Firehearted up to test the system. The narrator is Tim Campbell, who by day is a mild-mannered professional actor and singer but unleashed his secret power of accents for this audiobook.

Head out to Audible.com and check out the sample (little green arrow below the cover image).

This is my learning audiobook, and I need input. I encourage my readers to spread the word to those who like audiobooks. And please leave comments! Positive, negative, room for improvement–I want to learn.

Thanks!

I have been busy…

…with good stuff for my patient readers!  Here’s the scoop.

Writeathon: Two chapters finished, and if I’m allowed to include the weekend in the time allotted I have great confidence the third and final chapter will be done by then. Woohoo! Another book done–look for it in 2013.

Who Are All You People: Hello new visitors! Checking ye olde sitemeter, visits jumped in May and continue to grow. People are also hitting my Amazon link and my Associates account thanks you. The true motto of self-publishing is “it all adds up.”

Tell Your Friends Dept.: One last free day for The Long Way Home! Sunday, July 29th is the birthday of NASA–an organization of great importance in the Sequoyah series. And August 2 books 1 and 2 should be live on Barnes & Noble (barring gremlins).

I’m Famous!: I was interviewed by the splendid and worthwhile Akamai Reader site (link). Read all about my dark secrets!

Coming Soon: New website design by an actual web-designer (which I am not). I have seen it and it is quite cool. Also, I took the plunge and messed around with CreateSpace to produce my first print book. It was much easier than I expected. After I check the proof The Last Mage Guardian will be available in paper, and as time permits I will format the rest of my books. I’m also thinking about offering signed copies on my store.

UPDATE: typo fixed. That’s why he’s my favorite proofreader, folks.