News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #31…
#176: Review. For those readers who didn’t read my review of Carolyn J. Rose’s Through a Yellow Wood, you should. It’s the sequel to her Hemlock Lake. I’ve added her book to the “Steve’s Bookshelf” page on my website. In my review, I nitpicked the title. Let me officially apologize to Carolyn here. Poetry is not my forte. She informed me that the title is similar to a line from Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.” Frost’s poem considers choices in life and is therefore appropriate for this excellent mystery.
#177: No attacks from the mommy-porn troops? I was expecting some for my mini-review of the Fifty Shades trilogy last Wednesday. Yes, I know, reading tastes are completely subjective, but I’m incapable of understanding the popularity of these three books. Similar books used to come in plain, brown paper wrappers—hard to do with eBooks, I guess.
#178: Interviews. Recently I did a couple of interviews, one for Pat Bertram’s blog and another for Black Heart Magazine. (You’ll enjoy both these websites.) Readers can study them and look for inconsistencies…LOL. I like interviews because they generally cover all of my writing experiences. A book review just focuses on one title. (My preferences for reviews and interviews can be found on the “Join the Conversation” webpage.)
#179: New contests. I changed my contest list…check it out HERE. Because I’m reluctant to give away my hard work (the writing is not hard, but the editing is!), I tend to not do that, although I’ve introduced some books that way. It used to be a good investment toward name recognition to do this with Amazon’s KDP Select (at the beginning of the program, authors often had downloads in the thousands), but not so much anymore. Contests are a way for readers to get free copies of my novels and short story collections…Amazon eBooks only (I don’t want to get into mailing costs, especially overseas, and Smashwords and trade paperbacks are a hassle—sorry).
#180: Come Dance a Cumbia…with Stars in Your Hand! This is a pre-release announcement of the third book in my sci-fi trilogy—the first two installments were Survivors of the Chaos and Sing a Samba Galactica. I’m painfully editing Cumbia (the hard work in writing). Like Samba, it will be a Kindle-only eBook (at least for now) and tentatively priced at $4.99. And you thought the saga ended with the Singer curing the Swarm?
#181: Blog success? I’ve been pleased to see the number of my blog readers steadily increase throughout 2011 and 2012. If you like my op-eds or the other features in my blog, tell your friends. Share them. Like them. It’s all free (as long as you acknowledge the source—this is done automatically on Facebook). While my sci-fi thrillers are not op-ed per se, why not try one if you haven’t already? Or, two or three? I’m the same writer—a bit dystopian with a dash of hope thrown in, just a spinner of yarns writing to entertain you. Readers who buy my books keep the blog going, in fact—maintaining a website requires financial investment on my part and writing a blog takes time. You can help out—none of my eBooks will cost you more than popcorn and a coke at the theater. I guarantee that you’ll have more hours of enjoyment too.
#182: My eBook pricing? Avid readers already know that eBook pricing is chaotic. As a reader, I’ve stopped buying any eBook over $10—yeah, I know, that excludes many of my favorite writers who let themselves be gouged by the Big Six (in their defense, they probably have nothing to do with the pricing). None of my eBooks costs more than $10. Here’s a list:
The Midas Bomb (Infinity Publishing)………………………………….$7.69
Angels Need Not Apply (Carrick Publishing)……………………….$4.99
Full Medical (Carrick Publishing)………………………………………..$4.99
Evil Agenda (Carrick Publishing)…………………………………………$2.99
Survivors of the Chaos (Infinity Publishing)……………..………….$8.95
Sing a Samba Galactica (Carrick Publishing)…………………….…..$5.99
The Secret Lab (Carrick Publishing)…………………………….………$0.99
Pop Two Antacids and Have Some Java (Carrick Publishing)…$0.99
Every price here has logic to it (some of it historical and/or beyond my control). In the Zen spirit, they are what they are, but they’re all under $9. The obvious gap in the list is Soldiers of God, only available as a trade paperback from Infinity Publishing. I hope to turn it into an eBook real soon now. All these books can stand alone, but they are related. Some of the contests (see #179) refer to the connections.
In libris libertas….
