Q&A on the Encrypted Sequel, Fan Fiction, EE7, Will Yara Get a PoV, and More

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Lindsay

I thought I’d take a break from the self-publishing theme today and share some news about what’s coming up next with Encrypted, the EE series, and other projects. This is the first of two posts where I answer reader questions (a thank you to the ladies — and Andre! — over at the EE forum for posting them for me) and chime in on fan fiction, characters on Twitter, and other terribly important topics. 😉

Moondreamer asks, “What’s the timeline for Decrypted? Will it happen soon after Encrypted, a few years afterward? A long time?”

Decrypted will take place shortly after the first novel. I’m finishing up a Tikaya-and-Rias short story right now (tentatively called Enigma) that takes place on the journey back to the Kyatt Islands. Decrypted will start with them pulling into Tikaya’s home port where Rias will be about as welcome as a toe fungus.

There’ll be the family and government to deal with along with a new mystery to solve. And, because we haven’t had nearly enough underwater adventures (maybe I’m planning to be the first big oceanpunk author?), Rias may be building the first submarine to mix Kyattese Science with Turgonian engineering.

MaggieJ asks, “Are there going to be anymore EE stories after EE6 or is that one going to end it?”

Assuming I can actually manage to end the current story arc and wrap up everything in Book 6? 😉 I do have some ideas for future adventures (more on a possible EE7 below), but I’ll probably take a break to work on something else and also see what the interest level is amongst readers.

Meera asks, “This is kind of along the same lines: Any more books in that universe, or do you want to start somewhere else?  Will you write more in the Flash Gold Chronicles after EE6 (7?) is out?”

I do want to start a new series at some point, though that doesn’t necessarily mean abandoning the gang forever. I definitely want to write a couple more Flash Gold stories and bring some closure to those characters. I’ve even kicked around the idea of getting Kali and Cedar onto their airship and out of the Yukon as a jumping off point for a whole new series. Of course, there are other projects in the holding pattern too. I need to learn to write faster so I can implement all of my ideas sooner!

Mana asks, “What’s it feel like to have fan fiction/art/twitter characters all over the place? Is it an author dream come true or an “oh dear god don’t they have a life” type of thing?  Rabid fans want to know…”

Amaranthe & Sicarius by Hydroxify

It’s really cool! It’s been very rewarding to see that the characters resonate with people and that they want to spend more time with Maldynado, Amaranthe, and even Sicarius (it’s amazing how many readers are interested in the inner life of such a stiff, unfriendly sort of assassin!). It’s also cool to see that a community has grown up where people who probably wouldn’t have ever met otherwise are now online buddies. Maybe we’ll all meet up at a con someday. Some have even proposed a pool party at my house (they don’t seem to mind that I don’t actually have a pool and can only offer a Slip ‘n’ Slide and a horseshoe pit).

Exstock asks a pile of questions, starting with… “–I second the “more EE after EE6?” question!  So one arc is done; I’m sure plenty of us would be happy with the start of a new arc.  :) Will Sespian get a love interest in said hypothetical books? Will Yara get a POV? And what is Sicarius’s internal reaction when someone swears by the Emperor’s ancestors?  Seeing as, you know, he actually is one.”

You mean a love interest other than the one he already has? 😉 There may be something floating around in the back of my mind…

I haven’t thought much about doing a completely new story arc yet, but I do have some ideas for an EE7 that would wrap up a lot of the relationship threads (and there’s always the idea of a quest for someone’s unidentified parents…) that probably won’t have time to find closure in EE6. I see that story as perhaps being the first book to have more than two POV characters. In that case, we might get into Yara’s head. We’ll see! I have to figure out where everything is going to end in 6 first.

As for whether Sicarius has a reaction to someone cursing the emperor’s ancestors, I imagine he might note it, once in a while, in that dry way of his, but I suspect it’s like most of our curses where we just spit them out and nobody thinks much about what they mean.

Andre Dias asks, “- What’s the biggest sense of accomplishment with EE? – Which character do you feel a stronger bond with, if you make distinctions regarding them. Or do you love them equally?”

Well, finishing that first book was a pretty big milestone for me! Now I’d say that I get the biggest kick out of hearing from readers and seeing how much people are enjoying the story and characters. So the biggest sense of accomplishment may just be in having created a world and characters that many readers are passionate about.

As far as favorite characters go, it’s usually certain pairings that I enjoy writing because of the way they interact with each other. I’m sure it’s no surprise that I love writing dialogue, and that’s not something you get to do a lot of when the hero wanders off alone. For pairings, Maldynado and Books are always fun because of their contrasts (and now Maldynado and Yara too). And, of course I like writing Amaranthe and Sicarius too. What’s not to love about stony glares, one-syllable answers, and a monochromatic wardrobe?

Kitty asks, “Will there be more short stories of the EE Team? Have you got another universe in mind for new stories? When is book 6 out? ;)”

I haven’t started writing 6 yet, so no idea for a date yet. I’ll see how long it takes me to do Decrypted (I’m shooting for about January for that one.)

I have a couple of new series ideas, and I’m not sure which one I’ll do next. I have a globe-trotting urban fantasy in mind, a steampunk/dystopian world, and I still want to get back to my Goblin Brothers heroes and publish their first novel. GB1 is already in draft form on my hard drive somewhere. I just haven’t polished it up because middle-grade fiction is a pretty tough sell in ebook format.

Right now, though, I’m just focusing on these next two books. And whatever short stories demand to be told in the interim (look for Enigma in October some time!).

Hm, I have more questions here, but I’m going to answer them in a later post. Thanks for reading, all!

Update: the second Q&A around is up.

Posted in Cut Scenes and Fun Extras | Tagged , , , , | 24 Comments

How to Sell Advanced Reader Copies as a Self-Published Author

Posted on September 12, 2012 by Lindsay

As my three regular readers know, I released the fifth book in my Emperor’s Edge series last week. A couple of weeks before that, I offered an eARC (electronic advanced reader copy) for sale on my site. This was the first time I’d done that, and, overall, it went well with nearly 250 people paying $10 for the file and a promise of the finished ebook when it was ready to go.

I’d originally come up with the idea of selling the ARC because I’d given away some free copies to folks who’d contributed to my Kickstarter campaign last spring. This created some strife in the fan forum between those who had been around for the KS event and those who hadn’t. I figured I’d better make copies available to everyone who wanted them, lest I start a civil war over there.

In addition, I’d posted a short story on my site the month before, and several people had expressed interest in having a copy for their e-readers. This meant paying for cover art, editing, and formatting, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to spend money on that when I wanted to keep the story free. But, I thought, if I could sell some early copies of EE5, maybe I could come up with a couple hundred dollars to pay for turning the short story into an ebook.

As you can guess from my numbers, I made enough for that and covered the full editing, cover art, and formatting costs for EE5 as well. This was the first time I’d ever recouped the ebook-creation expenses before the book was released (when going through Amazon and other online retailers, you get paid 60+ days after books sell).

I thought some people would find it useful to read about how I went about selling the ARC on my site and where I screwed up what I would do differently if I did this again.

Step 1: Determine Whether People Would Actually Buy an ARC if You Made It Available

It probably goes without saying, but this is going to be for authors who already have an established fan base. If you’re releasing your first book, you’ll have trouble getting more than Mom and Memaw to pay for advanced copies.

Let’s say you’ve been publishing for a while now and you have some loyal readers following your work. You figure that if they knew about it, many of them would be interested in an early copy of the new project. The second thing to ask yourself is whether you have a mailing list or at least the email addresses of these fans so that you can drop a note directly into their inboxes, announcing the availability of the ARC.

It is unlikely that you’ll have good results if the only way you have of contacting people is through Twitter, Facebook, and/or your blog. From my own experience, I know I have some regular folks who stay in touch on Facebook, Twitter, etc., and many of them bought copies of the ARC, but there were far more people whose names I didn’t recognize from everyday interactions. They’re folks who were on my list and decided to check out the ARC after I sent an announcement (the majority of the purchases came within 12 hours after that).

Step 2: Determine the Format of Your eARC and How “Proofed” It Will Be

For my “eARC,” I offered a copy of the same Word .doc I’d just sent off to my editor. If I were to do this again, I’d have someone format it so people could get it in .mobi or .epub versions, which would have made things a little easier for readers. I also imagine I might have gotten more sales that way. But, since formatting is something I pay someone to do, I didn’t consider it for this. I had this idea around 9:30 am Wednesday morning and had the blog post and Paypal button on my site about an hour later. (I was heading out of town that Saturday, and my editor already had the manuscript on her desk, so figured I had a pretty small window to make this happen if I wanted to do it.)

Something you’ll want to consider is if you want to sell an unproofed copy the way I did or wait until you have a polished version back from your editor. There’s a time when I would have been mortified at the idea of letting someone read anything less than perfect, but, despite beta readers and editors, I’ve yet to publish a manuscript without some typos in it. You’ve probably found five already in this blog post. So, anyway, I’m over the delusion that I could put out something perfect. At least 250 people now know that I can never remember whether to use lie or lay, who or whom, and that I have a knack for odd typos that result in terms like, “the breast’s maw.” Ah, well.

If you do want to wait until you have a polished version, this may involve delaying the release date of the regular ebook. The appeal of ARCs for readers is, of course, that they’re getting the story before it’s available in stores. In the traditional publishing industry, where everything takes longer, a reader might be able to purchase an eARC four or five months before the actual book comes out (I did that with Lois McMaster Bujold’s latest this summer, dropping $15 to download the ARC from the Baen website). With self-publishing, we can publish the ebooks as soon as they’re edited and formatted, but there might not be many people willing to pay to get an ARC a mere day or two before it’s be available at Amazon.

I will say, though, that I did have quite a few people say they paid for the ARC because they knew the money would go to me directly, rather than to Amazon or someone else who would take a bigger cut than Paypal. It’s definitely nice to have people that care enough to think about such things!

Step 3: Determine Cost

I sell my ebooks for $4.95, so the obvious price point for an eARC would have been something similar, but I didn’t think it’d be worth my time to set everything up, email people (I mistakenly, didn’t think of automation this first time around — more on that farther down), and deal with the inevitable “customer service” emails I’d get for $5. I decided that I’d go with $10 and include the eARC (Word doc), final ebook (mobi and epub files), and an ebook version of that short story as well.

At the $10 price point, I made $9.41 after Paypal took its cut ($9.31 on foreign sales). Compare this to the $3.30 or so I would have made if these folks had purchased the ebook through Amazon or B&N later on. Since the Word file didn’t cost me anything extra to produce, I earned about $6 more per buyer in the end. If I’d only charged $5, it would have been a dollar more from each person which, as I said, wouldn’t have been worth the extra work. In the end, even with 250 buyers, this wasn’t a huge pile of money, but I’m very happy that it allowed me to cover the entire ebook-creation costs of EE5 and the short story up front.

Step 4: Figure Out How to Handle Sales

I’ll tell you first what I did and then what I’d do differently if I did it again.

I wrote up a blog post, announcing the availability of the eARC and letting folks know what they’d get and how long the offer was available (it’s always a good idea to put a time limit on these sorts of things, so people, if they’re interested, are less likely to put off buying until “later” and then forget). Then I headed to my Paypal account and clicked the “Merchant Services” tab. I selected the “create payment buttons for your website” link and filled out a three-part form. They gave me the code, and I stuck it at the end of the blog post. Overall, it took less than 10 minutes to go from, “I wonder how I go about doing this” to having the Paypal button in the post.

Paypal has an option where you can send folks to a specific URL after making a purchase, and, because I wasn’t thinking, I had it send people back to my blog’s home page. After I’d sent 50 or 100 emails of the file by hand, it occurred to me that it wouldn’t have taken that long to have made a hidden page on my site with the links to the files, so people could download them from that page as soon as they paid. Instead, people had to wait until I checked my email and sent the file. I checked my mail a lot that first couple of days, but, to my surprise, orders kept trickling in over the next week. I was literally sitting at the U.S. Open in New York, watching tennis with a friend and answering emails on my iPhone, telling people where to grab the files.

Did I mention that it’s not a good idea to try something like this when you’re heading out of town in a few days? Yeah.

So, as I said, if I did this again I’d automate things. I’m sure there still would have been emails with questions, but the whole process would have been a lot less work for me overall.

Step 5: Gird Your Loins for Customer Service Emails

Actually, everyone was very nice and pleasant to deal with in emails, but I had a lot of people sign up for this who didn’t know how to sideload a file onto their kindle, ipad, etc. I spent quite a bit of time, trying to talk them through finding their kindle’s email address for forwarding the file, or getting a Word doc onto their iPad, or using the USB cable to transfer the file, etc.

In the end, nobody got too cranky, but I felt bad that people experienced delays and frustrations.  And, as I said, this created more work for me than I’d expected. I used to think I’d eventually add an e-store to my website, so people could buy ebooks directly (thus reducing the cut I share with Amazon/B&N/etc.), but I’m not sure about that after this. It’d be no trouble for people who buy from Smashwords and know how to transfer files to their e-readers, but for the people who are used to instant, automatic, wireless delivery, I think it might be a headache all around!

All right, that post went on a tad long. I hope something was helpful. If you have any questions about this process, please let me know. Or just comment to let me know you actually read most of the post. My ego likes to hear that. 😉

Posted in E-publishing, Tips and Tricks | Tagged , , , , , | 37 Comments

Where Can You Promote Your Free Ebook?

Posted on September 11, 2012 by Lindsay

If you’re an author and you’ve been offering a short story or perhaps a series Book 1 for free, in hopes that readers will try it and go on to buy your other work, you may have had some good results. Or you may have encountered ye olde book promotion problem. Just because your ebook is free doesn’t mean people will automatically find it. So, how can you get a little publicity for the title?

Fortunately, with all the people now offering freebies as part of the KDP Select program (enrolled authors can make their ebooks free a few days a quarter on Amazon without going the Smashwords-price-matching-route) many ebook blogs are offering inexpensive sponsorship opportunities to the plethora of authors seeking to promote their freebies.

Here are a few spots (links go straight to sponsorship pages):

  • Kindle Nation Daily — I’ve done a few sponsorships with these guys over the last two years and had mixed results as a fantasy author. I’ve rarely recouped the cost of the ad in sales earnings, but now that they have less expensive options for people plugging a free book, I’m trying them again. (I should point out that thriller/mystery authors I’ve encountered have sung the praises of KND; with a lot of these sites, books geared toward a more general audience will do better.)
  • Pixel of Ink — I had good results advertising with these folks last year, though they get pretty backed up, and you have to subscribe to their newsletter to find out when slots will be available. That’s for regular priced books though. They now list some free titles on a daily basis, and they don’t charge (though that makes it hard to get selected). I think odds may be better of getting chosen if you make the request several weeks out.
  • BookBub — I learned about these guys when I received a free sponsorship from them out of the blue, and I definitely think I’ll buy future sponsorships — I got a boost to EE downloads of course, but I also like that they have their readers broken down by genre and charge different prices depending on your genre and how many readers you’ll reach. They also charge less for advertising free books than books that are simply discounted.
  • Free Kindle Books and Tips — Free listings of free ebooks, though it’s another space limited thing.
  • Ereader News Today — Another big one where I’ve had success. Their sponsorship pages are often closed for submission (as is the case right now), but it’s worth signing up for their advertising newsletter because they send a note out to people when they’re opening up, and it pays to be on the list and sign up early. I’m pretty sure I’ve never gotten any extra junk from the newsletter.

I’m aware of lots of other blogs that list free ebooks, but have only listed the larger venues here. I’ve rarely seen major upticks in downloads from advertising on small/new blogs (though if they’re offering free mentions, then there’s little to lose). That said, if you’d like to suggest a site (especially if I’ve missed a big one), please feel free to do so.

* For those who like to point out that people who shop for free ebooks on these sites rarely go on to buy anything, I’ll add my usual argument that a) in my experience, this simply isn’t true — many people have told me they became fans and bought my books after trying the free one and b) get enough downloads and your book will appear in the free bestseller lists on Amazon, which line up side-by-side with the paid bestseller lists in each genre (in other words, 10,000 people downloading your ebook can help you even if they never read it, because it increases your visibility on Amazon where it has a chance to catch a buyer’s eye).

Posted in Book Marketing | Tagged , , , | 26 Comments

Self-Publishing Success Interview with… Me :)

Posted on September 10, 2012 by Lindsay

Hi folks,

I’ll have some new blog posts for you this week (specifically I want to talk about my experience with selling advanced reader copies from my site — how it went, what I learned, etc.), but for today, I thought the self-publishers out there might be interested in an interview I did with Joanna from The Creative Penn. She’s well established in the blogosphere and has published best-selling ebooks of her own, so it was quite the honor to be on the show!

Here’s the link:

Build A Fulltime Writing Career Slowly With Lindsay Buroker

If you’re an author, check out Joanna’s other shows while you’re there. She’s interviewed some people who are far more successful than I am!

 

Posted in E-publishing, Interviews / Success Stories | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Author Earning Extra Money Through Monthly Short Story Subscription Offering

Posted on September 7, 2012 by Lindsay

When people hear the term “e-publishing,” they naturally think of ebooks these days. Why not? Lots of independent authors are doing well publishing ebooks through the Kindle, Nook, iPad, etc. stores. But long before e-readers became popular, there were e-zines and other forms of online publishing. A lot of these publications were “for the love,” and few made their creators much money, but there have been exceptions…

Back in 2002, author and teacher Bruce Holland Rogers started selling short story subscriptions through his website, and he continues to earn money this way (among others) today. He’s agreed to answer a few questions for us, and I think his story will be particularly inspiring for authors hoping to diversify their income streams (i.e. so we don’t rely solely on Amazon to pay for the monthly coffee and chocolate supply).

Welcome, Bruce! Could you tell us about your short story subscription service and where you got the original idea?

I got the original idea from a story that probably wasn’t true. I read a book about guerilla marketing for writers, and according to the book, there was a pioneer of email subscriptions who offered to send a limerick a day to anyone who would send him a dollar. The book said that the limericist has been flooded with payments and made $100,000 with this service in its first year.

According to the story, this writer had basically used a spam email to find his subscribers. This was supposed to have happened in the early days of the public Internet when there wasn’t even a name yet for what we now call spam.

I knew I couldn’t start my subscription by sending a spam solicitation, but the idea of distributing my work to paying readers by email seemed terrific. So that was what got me started. I launched shortshortshort.com in 2002.

Once my own subscription service was successful, I tried to learn more about these daily limericks by subscription. And as far as I have been able to tell, the whole story was apocryphal. It does not seem to have happened.

How many subscribers do you have and how did you get those first ones? (I imagine they’re the hardest.)

I have had up to a thousand subscribers. Right now, because I haven’t really worked at maintaining my readership by finding new readers, I have drifted back down to 500.

I got my first subscribers, and built my initial numbers, through a sort of pyramid scheme. I call it a pyramid scheme, but it was completely transparent, honest, and realistic. I said that if I had one subscriber, I’d send that one person one story for the year. If I managed to get ten subscribers, I’d send stories quarterly. With twenty-five subscribers, I’d send a story a month. And so on.

My first subscribers were family, friends, and my most enthusiastic fans. Because they wanted more stories, they recruited more subscribers for me.

When I had about 250 subscribers, I was obliged to send two stories a month. Delivering two really GOOD stories each month was already getting to be a challenge, so I changed my policy at that point and promised to send three stories a month no matter how many subscribers I had. The original scheme could have had me writing more stories than that, and I think that would have ended up disappointing all concerned, because three stories a month is really the limit of what I can produce up to my own standards.

Do you ever get burned out on writing short stories? Three a month seems like a lot to me!

I wouldn’t say that I get burned out on writing short-short stories, but I do get burned out on everything else that takes time away from thinking about and writing stories. I teach, and I love teaching, but if I could, I’d cut back the teaching to just one class a year. I’d really prefer to have a lot more time for writing and thinking about what I’m writing.

But three stories a month is about the right pace for keeping me pleasantly under pressure. Or even unpleasantly under pressure, but satisfied that I’m getting work done.

Of course, sometimes, as when my wife suddenly left me, my usual resources have taken a hit, and it has been hard to keep working. There was a time when I put the subscriptions on re-runs, extending the expiration date for all subscribers and sending out stories that I had written years earlier. But to tell the truth, getting back on track with the stories was very helpful to me in picking up the pieces of my life. And it’s tremendously rewarding to have paying readers with whom I am in direct contact. They keep me going just by letting me know that they’re reading and thinking about the stories. Even if the occasional reader didn’t like a particular story, I am pleased to be getting a reaction. And, too, a story that wasn’t one reader’s cup of tea will almost always be a story that makes a different reader email me to say, “That was one of your best ever.”

Some subscribers have said to me that they’d like me to only send two stories a month, but to send only the best ones. The problem is, readers would disagree greatly about which, out of any month’s production, were the two best stories. That always serves as a great reminder to me that the reader creates half of the story, and some of my work makes for better collaborations with this group of readers than with that group. Writing is not perfectible. That’s actually kind of reassuring. Although, of course, the shorter a work is, the more the writer can reasonably be expected to make it very, very close to perfect. So the pressure to do good work, to strive for excellence, is always high.

The other thing that makes me strive for excellence with every story is that I’m always getting new subscribers. Every story is some new subscriber’s first. First impressions matter. So I try really hard to make every new subscriber feel with the first story he or she gets that the subscription was a good idea.

How is payment handled? It looks like you use Paypal. Does Paypal automatically renew people’s subscriptions and such?

I take PayPal or checks. I prefer checks, actually, because of the rather high percentage that PayPal takes in fees for a small transaction. No, PayPal doesn’t renew anything automatically. Renewals only come when I ask for them, or the subscriber herself notices that her expiration date is coming soon.

PayPal is international, and that’s a great help. I have subscribers all over the world.

Have you done any advertising or promotion to get people to your site and (one hopes!) signed up for your subscription?

I did a little advertising early on, but most of my subscriptions come from people who have heard me read or give a lecture in person. I think part of the motive for subscribing is to support an individual artist, and that means getting an impression of me as a person.

I’m going to be trying some ads at my local art cinema beginning later this year.

Have you thought about bundling the short stories and later selling them in ebook collections? Getting paid twice, as it were?

Getting paid twice? I’d be very disappointed if I only got paid twice! For most stories, I get paid at least three times. First, I’m paid by the subscribers. Second, I’m paid when the stories are published in magazines or anthologies. (Most editors see that the subscription stories haven’t really been published in that they aren’t available. There is no publication of record where you can go to read one of the stories, so although some small and generally non-paying publications won’t consider the subscription stories unpublished, the major markets do, and those major markets are the places I credit as the “first publication” for the stories.) Then the stories are translated into German or French for the translation editions of shortshortshort.com. I don’t make much from those since the numbers are small and I split with the translators, but I’m hoping to grow those services and to add languages. Then the stories appear in collections. In the past, that has always meant trade paperback from a small press. However, I’m going to self-publish my next collection as an ebook and as a trade paperback.

Because my stories are short, a few of them get picked up for educational use. My stories have been incorporated into textbooks internationally and used as the basis of questions on standardized tests in various U.S. states.

None of these income streams is big, but they do add up. If I can regrow my subscriber base from 500 to about 2,000, then I’ll be making a living from shortshortshort.com, and I really could consider the option of just teaching one class a year and spending much more of my time writing.

That’s fantastic, Bruce. Good luck with the ebooks and with finding more subscribers for your short stories. Thanks again for stopping by!

Thanks for the questions! www.shortshortshort.com is the site.

Bruce’s bio:

Stories by Bruce Holland Rogers have won a Pushcart Prize, two Nebula Awards, two Micro Awards, two World Fantasy Awards, and, most impressive of all, the Jonny-Cat Litter-ary Award for a work of cat-related fiction. He has received fellowships to teach writing and conduct story research in Hungary, Finland, and Japan, and he has taught private writing seminars in Greece and Portugal. His stories have been translated into over two dozen languages. He is a member of the permanent fiction faculty at the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts, a low-residency MFA program also known as the Whidbey Writers Workshop.

Posted in E-publishing, Tips and Tricks | Tagged , , , , | 10 Comments

The Emperor’s Edge Book 5 (Blood and Betrayal) Is Now Available

Posted on September 4, 2012 by Lindsay

Blood and Betrayal, the fifth Emperor’s Edge book, is officially out. It’s currently available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords. It should be up at Kobo within a couple of days and Apple soon after.

Here’s the blurb:

The last thing Maldynado Montichelu—former aristocrat and current ladies’ man—ever wanted was to be left in charge. After all, the team just blew up a train, crashed a dirigible, and kidnapped the emperor. It’s kind of an important time.

But, with Amaranthe captured by the nefarious Forge coalition, and Sicarius off to find her, the team is lacking in leaders. Also, Sicarius has made it clear that Maldynado’s life may be forfeit should anything happen to the emperor while he’s gone.

To make matters worse, Forge’s cutthroats are after Sespian, and the young emperor believes Maldynado’s loyalties are suspect. As if it’s his fault that his older brother is working with the coalition to usurp the throne. If Maldynado can’t figure out how to earn the emperor’s trust quickly, Sespian will go off to confront their powerful enemies on his own.

 Meanwhile, Amaranthe must find a way to escape from the coalition’s newest ally, Master Interrogator Pike, a man who plans to pull all of the secrets from her head, one way or another…

For those who purchased the eARC on my site, you should have received an email with links to download the final ebook (if you have one of the early versions with some missing italics, you can download the file again for the updated copy) as well as the Sicarius & Sespian short story, which, thanks to your help, is now available at Smashwords for free. A big thanks to everyone who bought an ARC as the funds raised allowed me to pay for the editing and cover art, not just for the short story but for EE5 as well.

As always, thank you for reading and for your support. I hope you enjoy this new adventure!

Posted in My Ebooks | Tagged , , , , | 33 Comments

An Interview with Warrior, Mercenary, and Ladies’ Man… Maldynado Montichelu

Posted on September 2, 2012 by Lindsay

Before I released Book 4, I talked Sicarius into doing an interview (which wasn’t easy, believe me!). Since it was so well received, I thought I’d see if someone else on the team would be up for something similar. Before I even finished making the request, Maldynado shoved everyone else out of the way, puffed his chest out, and said he was the logical choice, on account of the next book being all about him (I keep telling him it’s only half about him, but he doesn’t seem to hear that part). Thus I headed over to Facebook and the EE forum and solicited questions. (Please stroke his ego a bit by leaving a comment below… to let him know you were interested… somewhat.)

Maldynado Interview

Maldynado by Alex Baird

Maldynado, thank you for agreeing to answer a few questions for your fans. I’m certain they’ll appreciate your time, especially given how busy you’ve been crashing things of late.

Crashing? You mean that dirigible? That wasn’t my fault. You sent that monstrous flying aircraft after us, something so technologically advanced that it was like a steamroller bearing down on a farm cart with stone wheels.

What about the garbage lorry?

What? That was the boss’s fault! And so was the wagon in Larocka Myll’s basement. Why does nobody ever blame the woman? When it’s clear she was giving directions?

But enough of that. Did you say fans? My fans? I am ready and available for them. Er, they are female, right?

Judging by the names on the interview questions, yes.

Oh, good. Not that I mind male adoration, but woman are more… desirable.

Uhm, yes. Let’s get started, shall we? Alita asks: “I know you like having your ‘snake greased’ by random women but do you think you’ll ever settle down and start a family?”

*blink, blink* The first question is about…? Er, I’m certain I don’t know what you mean in regards to… snakes… but as to the rest, I must say that I hadn’t considered it, no. I’m still a virile young man. It seems early to consider draping more than shopping bags on my arms. Babies spit up on one’s fine garments, and toddlers are always unpleasantly sticky and grimy. They’ll put anything in their mouths, you know. Some of my brothers have kids, and the little brats warrior-caste scions haven’t exactly endeared me to the idea of children.

Perhaps you simply need to marry a woman with the ability to suitably discipline your children so they’d be well-behaved.

Well, that’s… a thought, but, no, no, it’s too soon to think of such things.

All right, moving on. Ndngirl asks: “Have you ever gotten Sicarius to the Pirates Plunder?”

Dear ancestors, no! Who would invite him?

Er, I suppose once or twice, when I’d had a few deep quenching swigs sips of applejack, I might have tossed an invitation his way, fully expecting that he’d ignore it. And that’s what he did, unless you count the glares. I don’t. Glares are a part of his normative state. That being a truth, you’ve got to pity the woman who– Ahem, I’m sure if Sicarius has, ah, needs, that he takes care of them in private.

Kendra asks: “Which do you think is more important for a man of taste to have: the perfect hat or a finely-balanced rapier?”

I must confess that I was expecting questions of a little more… substance. Don’t my female fans know that there’s more to me than a love for fashion and sword innuendos? I have hidden depths, remember?

It’s possible you’ve hidden them too well.

*sigh* Very well. A hat is a wonderful way to express one’s personality (and exquisite taste), but a functional and aesthetically pleasing blade is a must. One never knows when one will have to stab highwaymen, Nurian spies, or meddlesome businesswomen bent on taking over the world.

Stab…? Never mind. Let’s move on. EEfangirl asks: “We know about Ravido. Tell us about your other brothers. What was it like growing up with six older brothers?”

Dreadful, really. My Marblecrest ancestors may have been generous in handing out looks and sublime physical attributes, but senses of humor are scarce in the bloodline. It’s amazing how such a large family can have only one member who isn’t uptight, stiff, and humorlessness. That’s me, by the way. My wit was terribly unappreciated.

I could have handled that — after all, you see that I can even get along with Sicarius — but my kin have petty and cruel streaks as well. They take insufferable amounts of pleasure in the misfortune of others, and they’re not above causing that misfortune, on the sly of course, if it’ll provide entertainment value. Ravido’s actually one of my more decent brothers, relatively speaking, probably because he grew up first and got out of the house as soon as he was old enough.

Before me move on, let met get something straight… You “get along” with Sicarius?

When we’re not training, planning a mission, or trying to have a good time. And when he’s not standing behind my shoulder, giving orders or glaring.

So, basically when he’s not in the room.

Yes, exactly.

Elizabeth asks: “What is your biggest regret in regards to your family?”

That I lost Tia. The story’s in my book if you want the details. I don’t care to repeat them.

Your book?

Yes, Blood and Betrayal. My story, my book. I can’t believe how long it’s taken my biographer to get around to writing it, hmmph.

Next, Lysana asks: “Any true loves in your past, or did they all end when the sun came up?  (Or when the allotted hour was over?)”

Hour? I assure you my nocturnal endeavors are always longer than that. Goodness, didn’t you know that Turgonian men have stamina? And that my ancestors granted me far more than the average–

Ouch, why’d you kick me under the table, Lady Author?

Let’s stay on topic, Maldynado. Any true loves in your past?

I’m certain I was on topic, but if you insist on discussing the intangibles… there may have been women for whom I had feelings when I was a young and naive pup. But women always want you to settle down and start a family and take on responsibilities. *shudder* No, thank you.

Adamai asks: “In the group, who do you feel closest to? After Amaranthe of course.”

I know I can count on Basilard to have my back in a fight. And I like playing Tiles with him, even though he totally cheats. He’s a fine chef too. I never would have expected to find decent cuisine out in the wilds — though I do have to look away when he’s foraging. He plucks ingredients from the most unappealing spots.

Books would be all right if he wasn’t so insufferably full of himself. And boring. And if he trusted me to have his back. I’ve hauled his hairy cheeks out of the fire heaps of times, and he still thinks… well, if you’ve read the book, you know how quick to mistrust he was on this latest adventure. After all we’ve been through, I thought we were closer than that, but whatever. He’s the one who needs friends. Not me. People love handsome, affable fellows such as myself.

Maria asks: “So far your only (blood) relative we’ve seen (Ravido at Ft Urgot) didn’t seem to have your fashion sense. Do any of the men in your family consider their appearance nearly as important as yours, or is Ravido a good representation of them?”

Well, Ravido was in uniform when you saw him, wasn’t he? Military clothing is terribly drab and unimaginative. I’ll allow that the dress uniforms can give a man a dashing appearance, but they him a touch stiff too. Which means they suit Ravido just fine.

The rest of my family, enh, they know how to dress. They lack my flair, naturally, but it’s not like they wander around with mismatching socks.

Moldynotgo asks: “You’re the romance expert. You must think love is for everyone. But what about… Sicarius? Could you imagine him as a romantic hero?”

*sticks his finger in his ear, checks for wax, and leans closer* I’m sorry. I don’t think I heard you correctly. Can you repeat the question?

Is there any scenario in which you can see Sicarius as a romantic hero?

No.

You don’t believe everyone can find love?

Love is a feeling. If Sicarius ever had feelings, he buried them at the bottom of a rock quarry and smothered them with a landslide. No, forget that. He blew up the entire mountain on them so they’d never escape. I’ll bet you a million ranmyas that he’d deny ever feeling love if you asked him about. He’d probably call it some kind of weakness an enemy can exploit.

Mana asks: Besides your family and the occasional failed pick up line, what embarrasses you the most?

Being seen in public with comrades who insist on wearing blood-spattered military fatigues and other garish mercenary accoutrements. *long-suffering sigh*

Tara32 asks: “how big are your……feet?”

*lazy smile* Ample. Why don’t you bring your… shoes over here, and we’ll see if they… fit?

Sylvia asks: “Maldynado, you seem to give everyone on the team a hard time, with the exception of Sicarius, but you seem to pester Books the most. Is there a particular reason, besides fashion? It seems like there is genuine brotherly affection there. Also, my mother wants to know, despite your obvious attempts to prove yourself disreputable, how do you really feel about honor and a warrior’s responsibility to their nation. And one last one from both of us, if you could give Sicarius a make-over, without being murdered that is, what would you change?”

Some people just ask to be picked on, due to their self-importance and pomposity, but I hold no ill will toward Books. And I assume he knows my ribbing is without malice. Someone has to keep the tone light around here. Given all those wizards and monsters we encounter, it could get unbearably dark and grim if someone didn’t inspire a chuckle here and there.

Wait, who thinks I’m disreputable? You haven’t been talking to my sisters-in-law, have you? I try to be an honorable fellow, so long as it doesn’t involve too much personal hardship. This last year has been tough due to all this early rising and assiduous training. *shudder*

Sicarius? Dear ancestors, his name is coming up an awful lot in my interview. He has his own interview, you know. As for the question, if I thought I could have gotten away with it, I’d have cut his hair in his sleep. The man is desperately in need of a barber. As for the rest of his ensemble, it’s bland and a tad metal-heavy, but it’s not entirely hideous.

Alex Baird’s Maldynado (and Yara)

All right, thank you for your time, Maldynado.

That’s it? I can talk about this subject all night.

The subject being… you?

Naturally.

Isn’t that Yara over there waiting for you?

Ah, perhaps so. Yes. Goodnight. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t.

That doesn’t narrow down the allowable activities very much.

*smirk*

Posted in Cut Scenes and Fun Extras | Tagged , , , | 39 Comments

Do Book Blog Tours Work (and how do you set one up?)?

Posted on August 31, 2012 by Lindsay

This is my on-vacation week (where I’m supposedly not working on anything related to ebooks or writing — hah?), so I’m glad to have a guest post to share with you today. Middle grade and YA author, Michelle Isenhoff, is here to talk about book tours and how they help (or do they…?) with promotion and book sales. She’s fresh off a big tour and has learned a lot from the experience. So, without further introduction, I give you…

Michelle Isenhoff on Book Blog Tours

The End

Nope, that’s not a typo. Today is the end. The end of my first-ever blog tour.

Ahem, I see I better start at the beginning…

Let’s see, the beginning would actually be nine years ago, when I penned my first children’s novel. But that would make for a long story involving rejections, rewrites, vastly improved writing skills, four additional novels, and a Christmas present. So let’s just skip to the gift, shall we?

In 2010, my husband gave me a Kindle, which opened up for me an awareness of the whole digital world, including self-publishing. By then I had four novels sitting in a drawer, so I jumped in with both feet, quickly self-publishing all four books in the spring of last year. I may have jumped into the Pool of Publication, but my books slipped in with hardly a ripple. Such a beginning taught me a great deal about what not to do. So for the release of my newest middle grade novel, Beneath the Slashings, I decided to make all the waves I could. Part of that involved organizing a blog tour, which brings me back to “The End.” But instead of writing a how-to tutorial, I’ll just let you in on my experience.

Putting a Tour Together

A blog tour is simply a consecutive run of posts about a particular book on a variety of blogs with an aim to give your book as much exposure as possible. Since I write in the children’s genre, the first thing I did was compile a list of blogs that review middle grade fiction. They’re easy to find, especially when you find one with a long blog roll of similar sites, but I was a bit choosey. I wanted active blogs with a fair-sized audience to get the most publicity for my efforts. I also searched out a few blogs by kids.

It took much longer than I thought. Only about a third of my queries were accepted (or even answered). Also, many of the larger blogs do not review self-published work—but they often accept guest posts. So, in addition to soliciting reviews, I wrote a variety of articles, including character interviews, a post about lumberjack lingo, a few aimed at teachers, and this one, of course. (Thanks, Lindsay!) I even put together a handful of lumber camp recipes on a cooking blog. With a little creativity, you can find many “angles” to write about.

I do have to admit to some bribery. To provide incentive and thank those who participated, I promised a drawing for a $50 Amazon gift card at the end of the month. Any review left on Amazon during August qualified. I also priced my book at ninety-nine cents for the entire month of August so my review bloggers could offer their readers a special price. I avoided giveaways, as those have never worked out well for me.

As the tour progressed, I learned to never assume things will run as planned. Several bloggers backed out or forgot to post. Some didn’t include links. A few needed further explanations. A couple rescheduled. And two dropped off the face of the earth; I never got another response after their initial agreement. My advice is to stay organized and keep in touch with your bloggers as much as possible. Send out reminders, graciously untangle crossed wires, link to their posts, follow up with thank you comments, and roll with whatever happens.

My Conclusions

And now I’m really to “The End,” the part where I summarize results. Honestly, a blog tour is a lot of work. Was it worth it? Yeah, I think so. Here are some of the benefits I reaped:

•    feedback from many different reviewers
•    lots of eyes checking for those last slippery typos
•    new contacts
•    reviews posted on Amazon and Goodreads
•    thirty different blog audiences exposed to my work
•    interaction with my audience through blog comments
•    a spike in Newsletter sign-ups
•    a few more followers on Twitter and Facebook
•    fan input which resulted in a new and improved cover image

But what about sales and Amazon rankings? The increased sales of other books? That’s really what all the effort boils down to, isn’t it? Honestly, I was a bit disappointed. The children’s genre is a tough, tough market for a variety of reasons, and my monthly sales usually hover just under the three digit mark. I had hoped with the low price tag the new book might move a little better than it did. I must take into consideration, though, that it is the third in a trilogy, and even though they are each stand-alone novels, I’m sure that put some people off. I did, however, see an increase in the sale of my other books, particularly the first one in the trilogy, so I may yet reap further sales later (when the book will be priced at 2.99). Overall, my digital sales are on track to double this month, and I netted two bulk paperback orders, but I think the most significant benefits will be long-term rather than immediate.

Will I do a blog tour again? Yes, I will. I still think it’s an effective way for an indie to gain exposure. But I think I’ll top the next one off at two weeks rather than a full month. The prep work took a LOT of time, and though the tour was fresh for each new blog audience, it began to drag out for my regular readers. In the meantime, I’ll be putting into effect a new marketing campaign with the start of school: Teachers get them free (any digital edition anytime). It should be a lot less effort!

Michelle Isenhoff is an elementary teacher and the author of several middle grade and young adult novels. Her new release, Beneath the Slashings, takes place in a Michigan lumber camp and concludes a trilogy of Civil War historical fiction. You can find Michelle and her new free-for-teachers policy hanging out on her children’s literature blog.

Posted in Guest Posts | Tagged , , , | 40 Comments