Let's Talk 2019

What’s planned for the coming year?

1. Publish Whisper in the Universe
2. Write Balance of War
3. Get Amy to do a cover for Balance of War
4. Giveaways…many, many giveaways

Giveaway Schedule (11am EST every Saturday except when I’m planning to attend a con)

NOTE:  As of February 1, this schedule has changed.  Based on January experience and Facebook responses I'm completely committed to offering these books to interested readers, but am trying to be less intrusive of those who follow the series Facebook page.  I will be offering giveaways only 1 day per month, but will be offering multiple books on these days.

• January 5^th – Dark Passages
• January 12^th – The Fourth Age
• January 19^th – Dark Passages
• January 26^th – The Fourth Age
• February 9^th – Dark Passages, Heroes of Bardoom
• March 9^th – The Fourth Age, Heroes of Bardoom, Broken Circle
• April 6^th – Dark Passages, Broken Circle, Against All Gods
• May 4^th – The Fourth Age, Council's End
• June 8^th – Out of Time
• July 13^th – Blood and Magic
• August 10^th – The Fifth Age
• September 7^th – The Fourth Age

Note#2:  Due to the upcoming loss of my employment, I've had to cut plans for this year short.  While response to my books has been overwhelmingly positive, they are still sort of mired in a plethora of tens of thousands of other works out there.  I'm not giving up; just stating a truth.  As always, can't appreciate enough the people who try to help spread the word.  The Chronicles will continue.

After all the marketing attempts I’ve tried, the easiest, cheapest and most satisfying are kindle giveaways.  Paperback giveaways on Goodreads used to also be a good choice until they started charging for them.  If you go that route, I wish you better luck.  I gave away 10 copies with over 1000 people interested in the book. I got a couple of really nice ratings and reviews and I got 0 in sales and by year end no additional interest.  Continuing with that approach is too costly when I can get my book into the hands of more than 75 people for the same price through a kindle giveaway.  Not everyone who wins a book will read it, but you don’t have to be a math genius to know your odds are better if your book is in the hands of 75 people versus 10.  Now, doing a Kindle giveaway through Goodreads is a very good choice, but its only an option if you publish through Amazon Publishing.  That just isn't an option for me. 

Anyway, I hope these Giveaways generate enough interest that some will read the books and potentially enjoy them.  If you do, please let your friends know.  And in the future you can expect more Verdan Chronicles.  I've written the first couple of pages of Balance of War: Volume 11 and may have a working title for Volume 12 (more to come on that later).  In the meantime, enjoy the giveaways, look for updates on the Facebook page and you can always come to this site to check out random musings or leave a question or comment.

2018 In Review

2018 is just about over.  For me, it represented the start of the next chapter in the Verdan Chronicles. It all started somewhere between 1980 and 1982.  I had a story in my head.  It took place on a world in my head.  And it was lived by dozens of characters in my head.  In 2017 I completed the story that began all those years ago.  But a few things happened along the way.  While the high level story never changed from what I originally envisioned, there were still several twists and turns along the way that seemed both natural and surprising.  I fell in love with my characters and I enjoyed writing.  Others expressed interest in what wrote, so I published it and the feedback I got was generally very positive.  Was it possible I wrote something others could enjoy?  Well, unless people were being generous and kind without knowing me, their feedback was encouraging.  That was very important.  It kept me motivated to “get my books out there”.

So, let’s recap.  In 2018 I decided there was an extended story worth telling.  I came up with an outline and committed to doing three more books.  It was an up and down year from the perspective of having time.  I originally hoped to publish volume 10 by year end, but I can say as of today that I’ve finished my final draft and have engaged Lulu to begin the publishing process.  I expect the book to be published in a January/February timeframe.

So where do the Verdan Chronicles stand as of today?

• Books published – 9
• The Fourth Age ratings – 12 (ratings out of 5 stars, 7-5s, 3-4s, 1-3, 1-1)
• Other volume ratings – 3 (rating breakdown out of 5 stars, 3-5s)
• 2018 # of books sold – 86 (down from 88 in 2017)
• 2018 revenue earned – $126.10 (up from ($97.66 in 2017)
• 2018 publishing expenses - $1025.00
• 2018 marketing expenses – $911.68 (Amazon, Goodreads, Facebook, Illustration)
• The Fourth Age Amazon kindle sales rankings as of 12/16/18 – 374,385 out of 4,125,948; 23,612 in Sci Fi/Fantasy out of 166,982
• Facebook Page Likes/Page Follows – 618 likes/624 follows

So, what does that all mean?  It means if I wanted writing to be my profession, I’ve totally gone about this the wrong way and would starve to death.  It means while not everyone thinks my story is worth reading, most people who give it a shot generally like it.  It means I’ve sold more books than 90% of the other authors whose books are available on Amazon, which also means most authors are not able to support themselves just through writing. I’m in good company. But at the end of the day, I still enjoy my story and I still enjoy writing.  And if the next 1000 reviews are negative, I still have a dozen that are good, and those are the ones that keep me sharing my story, writing blogs and updating people through Facebook.  And I have the one review that matters the most…my own.  I love my story.  If I didn’t, I’d never be able to get through the half dozen or more rereads and drafts that I do for each one.  Editing is not always fun, but it is necessary.

So here we are.  Do I have any regrets?  Nope, not really.  If I had tried a more traditional approach which would have required more discipline on the first book and working tirelessly to secure a literary agent so that person could push my books to publishing houses.  I’m certain it would have meant discussions around possibly altering aspects of my story to make it more “marketable”, because if you want to make money, that is your #1 priority.  If you can’t market the book, you can’t make money.  And if you can’t make money, then no publisher or agent is going to support you.  Publishing is a business.  For me, writing was a creative process, I never thought of it as a business.  I wanted to make my book unique.  But in the few seminars I attended I was constantly reminded that in order to sell my book I had to explain what other books it was like.  Publishers need that to know how to market it.  That’s what I was told.  In reality, I could compare my books to about a dozen or more other stories.  But just picking a couple was nearly impossible. I wasn’t trying to write a derivative of someone else’s work.  I was writing my story. With a million or more other authors out there, that makes for a lot of stories, many of them worth reading.

So that's where the book and my head are at this Christmas Eve.  Do I hope more people read my story?  Sure.  Do I hope they like it?  Absolutely.  But with all the choices people have, it takes a combination of luck, hard work, a good support network and a sound approach.  It can happen, but count the number of authors you've even heard of.  Is it anywhere near 4 million?  Is it near 400?  So yeah, a sound approach gives you your best shot, but even that is far from a guarantee.  It really comes down to readers and whether they believe in it.  Are they willing to recommend it?  If you get enough people like that, then anything can happen.  That's the real magic.

Next up...2019.

That Was Interesting

Sort of.  Quick note about the Kindle version giveaway currently wrapping up.  Over the past few months Amazon redid the giveaway program.  The sweepstakes type of giveaway I’ve run in the past (where you spend one week gathering entries and then randomly draw winner names) was discontinued.  Only two types remained and the recommended option was to award a winner every so many entries.  They offered three options (every 100 entries, every 200 entries or every 300 entries).  Amazon claimed this would generate three to four times more traffic for promotions.

I was dubious about that claim, but went for it.  In July, I ran a one week giveaway that had a little over 2000 entries.  I wanted this giveaway to last a week, so I opted for one winner every 200 entries.  This would have worked well, except traffic and interest wasn’t the same as July.  After one week the giveaway ended and only two kindle versions were given away.  There are no refunds, so I’m left with 8 more copies to give away.  This time I’m going to try their second option which is just “instant winner”.  The first 8 people to enter will automatically win.  While I normally try to advertise these giveaways in order to gather more interest in my site, I’m going to instead reward those who follow by only posting the giveaway link on my facebook page.  I will not make this public on Amazon like they recommend.  I’ve seen how that works (or doesn’t).

If this works, I intend to follow this model going forward.  A week before the giveaway I will create and promote a post announcing the giveaway.  I’m only going to do this for two days tell people to follow my page if they want to know when the link goes live.  The day before the link goes live I will announce a time.  On the day of the giveaway I will post the link and let’s see how long it takes.  If I end up spending less on promotion, then I will likely increase the number of copies given away.  Seriously, I want to reward the people who support me.  Writing this story is a passion.  It’s not about making money (and believe me, I’m not).

Now for the exciting stuff.  The first draft of Whisper in the Universe is done!  So, what does that mean?  That means the entire story is written.  My writing process usually works like this.  I think of a major story arc that could encompass a trilogy of books.  I subdivide it into three major arcs, each of which can encompass a book.  I decide upon where I want the story to start and where I want each major arc to end.  I decide upon the main protagonists and antagonists and what I want to tell about their story.  I outline the first few chapters and the final chapter and then I start writing.

As the book progresses I’m constantly going back to make sure my transitions make sense and that I haven’t committed any glaring continuity errors.  I periodically stop to outline a few more chapters and in this manner I slog my way through the book.  When I say I’ve finished the first draft, it means that from a detailed perspective, every sentence, every paragraph, every page and every section has been read and reread at least three or four times.  If I notice any obvious spelling or grammar errors, I will fix them as I find them.

What happens next?  Now I’ll reread the entire book and make sure it flows from beginning to end as well as possible.  I’m also looking for any larger or long term continuity errors.  And, as always, I’m correcting spelling or grammar.  This is the second draft.  Since Word will not run auto spell or grammar check on a document this size, my third pass is to run that manually and go back through the book reviewing, and if necessary fixing, anything highlighted by Word.  That's about as much of an independent edit as I get.  That’s the third draft.  I’ll do one final read through of the book and if nothing stands out as awkward or clunky, that will be the final version.  I then reach out to Lulu to publish.  After they put everything in book format, I will get one final review.  That is only for the stupidest of errors that I missed as they only allow me 50 corrections for free and will charge me for any corrections above and beyond that.  So, at this point, the story is what it is.  I’m past that level of correction.  And then finally, the book is published. 

The only book that went through more revisions was The Fourth Age.  The reason for that is that I originally started documenting this story in past tense.  When I decided to make it a book for others to read, I wanted it to be more present tense and more active voice.  That required a major rewrite and led to some very poorly worded paragraphs with mixed tense.  But on the ninth pass through the book I realized my corrections were starting to sound worse than where I started.  So I stopped.  I still cringe once in a while reading my earlier books when I find things I should have corrected, but I really don’t find that many and hopefully they don’t detract from enjoying the story.

There you have it.  That’s my process.  I expect to finish my few passes through the book pretty quickly.  My goal is to reach out to Lulu prior to year end and start the publishing process.  I’ve worked with them now on nine books, so I know about how long it takes.  But it also varies based on how much other work they have going on.  Thus, Whisper in the Universe, could be published by end of January or as late as March.  The good news is that it is done and will be published.  As always, enjoy!

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.

Checking In

Hey, it's been a while.  Been very busy, some of it Verdan related.  Wanted to give everyone an update with what's going on.  After the flurry of Giveaways earlier this year, I'm still waiting to see what feedback I might get.  Ratings/reviews thus far are generally very positive, but not everyone likes it.  That's sort of to be expected.  I haven't given up on my previous post and logging some of my earlier memories, but I've also been struck with some creative moments and have written several new pages for Whisper in the Universe.  My goal is still to publish it later this year.

There's a lot of creative content out right now that I find absolutely wonderful.  I find it interesting that a lot of the themes being explored today are ones I've also explored in my series; although they are general themes that have been done in several works, each of them with a different twist.  I like to think there's room for different interpretations of them that can all be interesting.

Summer appears to be here (finally!).  I'm going to be at several conventions this year (Origins in June, San Diego Comic Con in July, Gen Con & Wizard World Chicago in August).  Feel free to let me know if you'll be there.  I always carry around some promo bookmarks with me and I'm not averse to giving away a free book or two if someone is really interested in exploring my world.

And yes, I still plan to collaborate with Amy this summer on a new illustration.  Expect to see that later in the summer.  I don't know about you, but I can't wait to see it.  Amy and I have agreed to the subject and general theme of the work.  More to come on that later.

I hope each of you who read this are having a great time and that your path with take you through Verdan at some point.  I think you'll enjoy it.