Return of the Blog

I can't remember the last time I took so long between blogs.  Sorry for not checking in.  Anyone miss me?  LOL

OK, there's a lot to discuss.  The Verdan Chronicles continues to generally receive positive reviews.  To date the book has been rated/reviewed 15 times.  On a scale of 1 to 5, we've gotten ten 5s, three 4s, one 3 and one 1.  That really is better than I expected.  And yes, I figured there would be at least one bad rating in there somewhere.  Not every book is going to be for everyone.  And that one serves as a constant reminder that no matter how hard I try, someone is going to let me know how much they hate my work.  I guess I'm glad there is only one person so far who has felt that way.

Summer has been busy.  I went to a number of cons and had a great time at each.  I did a couple of giveaways on Amazon.  One had fantastic results.  The other one was ok.  I like doing giveaways because I know it ends up with my book in someone's hands (or on their mobile device), even if they don't end up reading it.  I do like getting feedback, because when I got into self-publishing I sincerely questioned whether or not my book was good enough to be "out there" and whether anyone else would actually enjoy it.

If you do read (and are so inclined), I encourage you to let an author know if you liked or even disliked their book.  For me, it tells me if my marketing efforts are even worth the time and money.  Like most authors, I don't make any money at this.  Publishing is a net cost and if I treated this like a business, it would be an absolute failure.  I'd be thousands in debt.  Of course, if my livlihood depended upon this, I probably would have taken different steps to get noticed and would probably be looking for a literary agent and publisher.  Self-publishing is a crapshoot, but in the end you are still in control.

Just a bit more on ratings.  Overall, I'm still holding onto a 4.25 average on Goodreads.  The Fourth Age is clinging to a 4.0 average.  That 1 does pull things down when you only have 9 ratings listed.  There were 2 more 5s for the first book, but they disappeared.  It doesn't make sense that someone would just arbitrarily delete a rating after taking the time to read and rate the book.  So it's more likely that they closed their Goodreads account and all of their ratings just fell off.  As much as the 1 keeps me humble, I wouldn't mind if the 1 disappeared.  If my overall rating dropped into the low 3s, I guess I would just say "I gave it a nice try" and close my own account and stop trying to make my books visible.

Don't get me wrong.  I love my books.  I could get a thousand 1s and I would still love them.  But good ratings and reviews encourage me to get my books out to more people.  I guess it would be nice if there were even a small group out there interested in discussing the books, the world or the characters.  I will likely still do more giveaways, they just become a little frustrating.  Amazon giveaways cost little, but I get absolutely zero feedback from people who have won the books.  I have one review on Amazon, it's a 5, but that came a few years ago and nothing since.  At least on Goodreads I've gotten some reviews and the words have been extremely kind and appreciated, but this year they started charging to run a giveaway, so that costs me several hundred dollars.  I can tell you that the giveaways translate to very very little in sales.  I average sales of 1-2 books per month, sometimes 0.  Although last month was an all-time sales high when I sold 3 books.  In 2 1/2 years I've sold about 50 books and given away at least 100.  I guess that's something.

What else is new?  Please check out Amy's new illustration of Celecia!  It is amazing.  I so love working with her.  I think I give her very little to work with, but she comes back with incredible art that is near perfect to what was in my head.  This last one was even better.  While all her other work was designed as a cover, this one is being used for promotions, so I'm experimenting with other types of giveaways.  As an example, I now have a T-Shirt of the latest illustration and am doing a drawing for a free one if anyone buys my book at Trenttokens.com.

That's another new thing.  TrentTokens.com is a website primarily used to sell/buy tokens for a game called True Dungeon.  It's a game I love and play at several conventions.  It's live action role playing in a dungeon filled with animatronics and characters in costumes.  Sort of like a cross between an escape room and a haunted house.  I find it a lot of fun.  Anyway, Trent has been very excited about offering books through his site.  And since I have total pricing control at his site (unlike major sites like Amazon), I can offer the books for $12.99 plus $4 shipping.  I know, that's still not cheap, but its also not much above cost.  The books cost me about $11 each and shipping/shipping materials within the US cost about $5 or a little more.  So I end up with about $1 revenue per book. Trust me, this is not a money maker, but I'm thrilled to do it.

So, that covers a lot about the business of Verdan Chronicles.  What gets me more excited is that progress continues on Whisper in the Universe, Volume 10.  I love this book.  It has new locations and a few new characters, but it starts five years after the end of The Fifth Age.  I'm working real hard to keep a high number of action sequences, but I'm also relevelsetting the world and the universe, so there is also quite a bit of exposition and some of it takes on a lot of political exposition.  And yes, some of it reflects the politics of the real world in which we live, at least my take on things.

Let me leave you with one SPOILER for Whisper in the Universe.  It has a twist on a #MeToo moment.  If you've read the first book, then you'll remember what happened to Celecia in Hamstead in the first book.  It was an event that had a profound effect upon her and the entire series.  I wrote that chapter 35 years ago.  Celecia has never shared that event in detail with anyone.  Yet in this book, an antagonist has studied her life and confronted her with close speculation of what happened.  This person threatens to use that information to paint Celecia in a different light.  That threat will cause Celecia to make some hard decisions.  It's really a story about how two sides take a tragic event and try spin their own narrative around it.  Is it worth reading?  I think so.  The twist starts in Chapter 29.

Two more quick updates.  I still anticipate completing Whisper in the Universe in 2018, but it likely won't be published until 2019.  Lastly, after a lot of consideration I now have a working title for Volume 11...Balance of War.

Have a great fall.  I promise not to be gone as long this time.