Some Updates

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So a few things have happened this week.

I published “Potion Shop”. It’s available for 99 cents at the moment, but will be raised to $2.99 on Monday. You can find it on Amazon or Kobo.

I also published a few more books on Kobo. Two of them are stuck in publishing. Kobo’s tech team is working to figure out why that is, and hopefully all of my currently available titles will be available on Kobo and Amazon very soon.

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Also, I have three chapters left to edit and finish writing for “Forgotten Ones”.

I am hoping it will be out this weekend as well. I’ve been sick for the last few days so it’s slowed down my writing quite a bit, but now I’m starting to feel better so I have high hopes.

Also…. Tonight is the Self Publish Round Table Podcast. If you haven’t seen it yet, then you need to! We all have a roaring good time, and the comments get pretty awesome. If you hang around after the podcast we usually have an after party and chat with all our wonderful fans.

See you tonight!

Forgotten Ones

forgottenonesminiI am down to the final edit of “Forgotten Ones”, and adding in the last few scenes.

So I finished the cover.

Thank’s to David Wright for pointing me in the direction of Font Squirrel, and the twenty-eight fonts I downloaded last night. The one I used for the title and this cover is “Griffin”. An unusual font, to be sure, but I found it eye catching.

The cover depicts “the all seeing eye”, which is appropriate since “Forgotten Ones” is about the goddesses of Fate who share an eye. (Not literally, but we’ll get to that in the story.)

I will be so happy when this one is finished. It is 22,000 words long at the moment, and I still have a few thousand to go before it’s done. That puts it at short book status, and I will be putting out an ebook and a paperback, on the new Kindle Matchbook program. So if you buy the paperback you’ll get the ebook for free. It will just take a couple weeks longer for the print book to be available as I go through for a third edit, then format, and finally set up the printing. (And the Matchbook won’t be available till October, but if you buy print copies before October you still get them once Matchbook takes affect.)

I know, I know… so much of this must be fascinating.

Know this… This time all three fates are in the fight, and they learn something about themselves they had forgotten in their attempt to survive the rise of humanity. Something that allows them to defeat a god who has regained a lot of his former power.

An Author at Pax

If you’ve been following along, I went off to Pax with a bag full of buttons, stickers and a couple books.

I decided that I’m horrible at marketing myself.

The buttons were easy. I gave them out left and right, left a few around the convention center, and then didn’t have enough to give away towards the end when they had a button exchange.

The stickers …. not so much. I gave out a couple, but I just balked.

This is just a case of me having absolutely no self confidence. I went to pull out the stickers and I started to worry… are they good enough? Are they going to be offended that I’m trying to tell them about my book? Do they think self-publishing isn’t ‘real’ publishing?

I did pull my book out and show a couple people that sounded interested in it. Showed them the cover, answered a couple questions. I even met a couple of fellow authors, and we discussed why we were self publishing instead of traditionally publishing.

I also sat in on a panel about having confidence in yourself to go pursue your dreams. A few were writers as well as their day job, and the question of “traditional vs self publishing” came up. They echoed what everyone else is seeing… A lot of traditionally published authors are jumping to self publishing because they see more of the money, and are just as instrumental in the marketing.

I know I shouldn’t have been so nervous to hand out the stickers. I could have put a sticky on the book and said “free book” and put it on a table. I could have had more confidence in myself. But I’m a work in progress.

Next year I’ll do better.
Till then… want some stickers?

Around the Web

“Around the Web” has taken a new path. I use to gather a bunch of articles I found interesting and just share them here. But now… I have a whole podcast to share and talk about them on!

So, here are a couple things we did not get to, and a couple that came up this morning:
Literary agent wish list.

6 things only writers understand (I found this list hitting really close to home.)

How to write action that won’t show you’ve never thrown a punch.

And here is the show. A lot of great info this show, and some awesome websites.

Enter to Win!

Don’t you just love that phrase? Enter to win a trip to Greece, concert tickets, or a flat screen TV!

Well, I can’t give away anything like that, but I can give away copies of “Small Bites: The Complete Collection”.

All you have to do to win a print copy is go to Story Cartel, download a free mobi or PDF, and write a review. You’ll get an entry. I will probably throw in a couple extra goodies for the winners, too.

So, free ebook, and possibly a free print book with an extra surprise? Where’s the downside?

Go check it out on Story Cartel!

Better Access

I am trying to find better ways to provide access to my books. So, how about Etsy?

I notice some people do not like to use Amazon, or Kobo, so I needed to provide other avenues for people to find my books. So the first book to be put up on Etsy as a PDF and a Mobi file is Small Bites: The Complete Collection.

The listing will provide the download for you automatically. It is also slightly cheaper then Amazon, and is DRM free.

I would really appreciate it if others would share this so that more people will learn about my books.

Right now, I am in the middle of finishing “Forgotten One”, an urban fantasy about the goddesses of Fate working to save the world from half dead gods trying to retain their power.

And also, you can get Small Bites: The Complete Collection on amazon, too.

Around the Web

And I need to do another “Around the Web” post, because I have a few interesting links to share, and i don’t want to forget.

Smashwords is allowing “pre-orders” of books published through them to any platform.

KDP select is adding support for Japanese, and a couple other changes.

4 real inventions inspired by SF, a video from SciShow.

Garrett Robinson put up a fantastic formatting tutorial for print and ebooks. (there are several on his website.)

Templates for all the headers, avatars, icons and backgrounds on social media.

A great example on world building with map making.

A flow chart on how to break free of writers block.

Cliche Book Covers… Don’t do these, seriously.

Watch Neil Gaiman read his book, The Graveyard Book

Neil Gaiman discusses being disappointed by books (writing or reading them.)

The Round Table Podcast is back with an episode about “The ‘Death’ of Cyberpunk”

Joanna Penn shares her experience taking a traditionally published book back to self publishing.

SPRT Episode 6

SPRTJust finished up another episode of Self Publishing Round Table.

We discussed pricing. What should an author price their book at? What influences it? What should they consider?

We also talked about “The Beam”, and Neil Gaiman a bit.

 

On that note, Small Bites the complete collection is out, and priced at $2.99…. But I’m going to be raising it to $3.99, and raising all the individual books to $1.99. You may want to get it before the price increases…. It is also available as a paperback through Createspace. It is $6.99.

 

A Conundrum

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As you can tell from this picture…. the blue is spreading.
A while back I shared this list of my stories in progress. There were a couple spots of blue (marking published) and a lot of orange (marking almost done). Now it’s the opposite. Lots of published, not as much “almost done”.

My publishing schedule, up until now, reflected the fact that I had a lot of short stories that were almost done, or done and needing an edit. It is a lot faster to finish, and edit, a 5000 word short story, or several flash fictions, then to complete a sprawling 30-80 thousand word book.

I can’t capitalize on that anymore. Most of the “almost done” drafts I have started are 20-50% of a 20k word novella. That takes time to finish.

This is a good thing in the long run. I wanted to get a lot of little things up and expand into longer works. I wanted to have a variety of lengths available.

It means I’ll have to slow down publication, or write faster. Hopefully write faster. That’s what I am pushing for at least. Probably both.

It’s incredible how far I’ve come in the last eight months. Osiren’s Tears was written last October. It was published in February. Since then I have written or completed 18 short stories, 2 novellas, and published them in 10 books. Two of which are also available in print.

That’s a lot in eight months. I’m kind of proud of myself for sticking with this and following my dream.

I have 12 more short stories waiting to be finished, and a lot of novellas and novels. I may not be able to get something out every week now, but I will definitely keep people posted.

Expect “The Camera” out later this week. As well as the print version of “Small Bites the Complete Collection”.

Pax is also next month. I will have stickers and buttons available. If you can’t get to Pax and you would like a button and/or sticker then just write a review for one of my books and tweet about it. I would love to send you one.

Pax Prime!

I am so excited to be going to Pax this year! I have tickets for all four days, I may skip on Saturday though.

I will be wandering the stalls, playing the games, and enjoying the crowds. I will also be giving out Buttons, and stickers for free all over Pax.

Are you going to Pax? Would you like a sticker or a button? Hit me up on twitter @crissymoss and I will be happy to meet up with you.

I will also have a few books on hand.