Dark Currents Audiobook Released at Podiobooks

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Lindsay

At long last, the Dark Currents audiobook is up and running over at Podiobooks (you should be able to find it soon on iTunes too). Due to a misunderstanding on my part, and something to do with getting independent books into Audible, the entire novel is up for your listening pleasure. I’d meant to do a chapter each week, as we did with Emperor’s Edge, and that might yet get changed, so if you want to grab the whole thing in one swoop, now would be the time.

If you’re enjoying the audiobooks and would like to chip in a little to help fund the creation of future ones, my Kickstarter campaign still has a few days to go. You can donate as little as a dollar. Of course, if you kick in more, you can get signed paperbacks, copies of the completed audiobooks, extra scenes, and other goodies.

Thanks for the support!

Posted in Fantasy / Science Fiction, Videos & Podcasts | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

How to Improve Your Ebook Sales at Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and iTunes

Posted on March 19, 2012 by Lindsay

I hear a lot of independent authors say that their ebook sales at Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, iTunes, etc. are practically non-existent when compared to their Amazon sales. A lot of folks seem to have enrolled in KDP Select (which requires 90 days of exclusivity with Amazon), because it might give them a boost at Amazon, and, hey, they hardly sell any ebooks elsewhere anyway, right?

If you’re happy in KDP Select and don’t care that Amazon is your only source of revenue, then that’s fine, but this post is for authors who get nervous at the idea of having all of their eggs in one basket and/or would like to expand their reach and have fans from all over.

Before I get further into this post, I do want to remind you that Amazon is the biggest online bookstore out there, and you’ll probably always sell more ebooks there (though I’ve come across exceptions who sell extremely well in iTunes, for example, and aren’t that hot at Amazon). For myself, I earn $X,XXX a month at Amazon and $XXX at iTunes, Smashwords, and Barnes & Noble, with B&N being my second best earner overall.

So, how do you get on the radar in those places? I’m glad you asked…

The Free Ebook

I know not everyone is keen to give an entire novel away for free (and, honestly, there’s not much point, insofar as marketing goes, unless you have more out in the series, so the reader can go on to purchase those after enjoying the first), so before I jump into this, let me point out that you can make a short story into a free ebook. I’m a fan of using characters from your novel(s), so that the story works as a teaser to get folks into your world.

But I digress. Let’s talk about why this works.

Right now, thanks to KDP Select, there are a gazillion free ebooks at Amazon at any given time. It used to be easy to stand out over there if you had a freebie, because there weren’t that many of them, but it’s harder now. This isn’t as much the case in these other stores.

The main (perhaps only?) way to get a free ebook into these stores is to upload it to Smashwords, make it free there, and distribute it to the partner stores (iTunes and B&N being the most prominent). Because of the lag time (it can be hard to make an ebook free for a short time, for a “sale”), some authors just aren’t willing to go the free route.

Once I made my first novel free a few months ago, my iTunes sales and B&N sales grew a lot more pronounced. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, by giving Book 1 away for free, I’m making more overall, because of the increased sales of the second and third novels in the series.

The Prominently Displayed Links

I’ve done lots of posts talking about how to use your blog to sell more books. Once you start getting visitors to your site, you’ll want to make sure it’s easy for them to find your books and give them a try. You’ll notice the cover art for my Book 1s (along with links to excerpts and bookstore sales pages) are prominently displayed on the side bar of every page of my site. I don’t want people to have to hunt around to give my stories a try. The whole reason this blog is here is to sell my books!

I’ve noticed that a lot of authors only include links to Amazon on their sites, and similarly they focus their social media efforts on directing people to Amazon. You can’t do that and then wonder why you don’t sell anywhere else!

I try to include links to Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords at the least (and I’m starting to work in the iTunes links as well). Even though Smashwords isn’t a big store, it’s a great option for your international readers (no hidden taxes), and the fact that it offers every single file format out there is another plus. I’ve had people send me fan mail and mention that they read the pdfs of my books on their computer screens. Yes, one can do that with the free Kindle app, too, but not everyone is aware of it or would use it if they knew about it. I know it’s hard to imagine, but some people just aren’t interested in shopping at Amazon!

You might also try some campaigns to target these smaller stores specifically. It’s a great time to do so because a lot of indies have pulled their books out of Smashwords, B&N, etc. due to the exclusivity clause in KDP Select, meaning you have that many fewer competitors in those markets.

As an example, I first started selling books at Barnes & Noble last year when I tinkered with a Goodreads advertising campaign. I made some ads that specifically targeted Nook owners and sent them to my book’s sales page at B&N.

Taking Advantage of Smashwords Sales and Specials

A couple of times a year, Smashwords does big weekly sales to encourage people to try new authors. You can easily participate simply by checking a couple of boxes. I gave away over 200 copies of Encrypted last week, and sales of my non-free ebooks have been up ever since. I did a couple of tweets about the freebie, but most of those downloads came from folks Smashwords was pulling in via their marketing efforts (they were plugging their sale all over the ‘net).

In other words, I didn’t do anything except enroll my ebook, and I got new readers (and sales) out of the deal.

It pays to be aware of these types of opportunities. At Smashwords, you can also use their coupon generator to give away free or discount copies (for those who don’t want to simply make a book free indefinitely). This can be a good way to monitor where book sales come from, since you can see when coupons are redeemed.

Those are three methods I’ve used to increase my sales at other stores. If you want to recommend any others, or share your experiences with smaller venues, let us know in the comments.

Posted in Book Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , | 38 Comments

Indie Writing and Traditional Storytelling with Alan Dean

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Lindsay

We have a Friday morning guest post for you today, one where indie author Alan Dean discusses the rise of self-publishing. Thank you for reading!

Indie Writing and Traditional Storytelling

When writers think about the book they’ve just finished their mind at some very early point turns in the direction of publishing, after all, writers are storytellers and a story needs an audience. Most new writers, however, do not have a clue how to go about getting published so they ask friends, email famous writers, Google or do some other kind of research, and soon discover that mythical creatures known as editors are gate-keepers of the printing press and that the most influential nestle inside large corporations with baffling arcane submission procedures that boil down to excluding anyone who has not already been published successfully, or doesn’t have an agent they have already worked with, or met at school, university or their children’s play group. Following this news, there begins a drive for “representation” that, for example, puts reproductive urges so far in the shade it’s surprising that unpublished authors ever get around to procreating.

From the outside an alien visitor would be forgiven for believing that writing a novel must impart such great and ever-lasting rewards and social status that the drive to “become published” must be encoded so deeply in the substance of human life that that the risks involved in the naked pursuit of a book signing are nothing in comparison to the rewards that follow. They might even regard us as perhaps the only species in the known universe to consider our own cultural artifacts to be on par with biological offspring, and somewhat above physical and mental health.

This, of course, would be a preposterous assumption, or would it really be so far from the mark? Evolutionary psychologists, well, at least some of them, tell us that just like any other primate, human beings have an innate need to groom and be groomed. As we all know, the other great apes do this all the time through various gestures, including combing through hair and picking off ticks. It’s their way of forging alliances, making friends and seducing each other. Until recently we’ve tended to think we are above this kind if thing, but now we know that we are just the same, except we use our voices instead of our fingers. We talk, and talk and talk and talk. And when the printing press was invented in 1450 we starting printing, and after some short delay while control was wrested from the hands various central authorities, we started publishing stories. And how could that have been otherwise, because even from the beginning we have been storytellers, something that was bound to arise as soon as talking became the way we groomed each other. The best groomers are the most popular; they get to mate more often. So naturally the best talkers get to be the most desired and have far more babies than anyone else; it’s called sexual selection, which is arguably way more important than natural selection (except when the climate suddenly changes, but that’s another story).

So, we’re a species of talkers and we love stories. After all, isn’t that why texting, facebook and twitter are so successful? Through these media we get to groom so many extra people at such little cost in time. But, hang on a minute, why isn’t everyone an author? Wouldn’t such a species be housed within a vast library surrounded by endless stories being chatted out in a vast, collective buzz of interaction? Well, yes, this is how it is, but it’s controlled by a few key sources. Our newspapers, novels, television programs, films aren’t things we’ve produced and shared, they are created for us to watch and read passively. You see, as well as being creators of stories we are also citizens of a highly structured, hierarchical society that controls everything, even life and death, from the top down. We have governments and, more importantly, corporations that control what we see, talk about, watch and even think. Don’t be shocked by this, it’s simply another primate characteristic.

That doesn’t mean, though, that we have to accept it, and back in 2007 a major event happened that is slowly redressing the way we express ourselves. In 2007 the Amazon Kindle was introduced and a revolution began that led in 2010 to Amazon ebook sales surpassing paperback sales. Almost in one tick of the human clock the means to bring the world of stories back to the pre-printing age of oral tradition became available for published work. We were given the means to publish our own books, to share our stories untouched by corporate interests and investment priorities. As with the internet before, speech was given back to the collective us. We can groom and be groomed by whomever we choose, and ignore any suggestions or hints that independent writing lacks status, that a conventional publisher will impart more prestige. There’s a revolution taking place and it’s giving us back our voice, returning us to our real home, the fireside company of a story well told by the self-determined voice of our distant ancestors. With the internet and independent ebook publishing we are finding our way back to one of the very deepest parts of who we are and what we really believe is valuable to share. This is organic democracy coming into being, and there will be no stopping it.

Alan Dean has authored three eBooks:

Spaceship over Vancouver. A humorous but dark portrayal of politics & politicians in a crisis.

Sangian: Returning. An urban fantasy and mystery involving an ancient sect finding its destiny in a 21st century world.

Magical Thinking. A collection of poems influenced by magic realism and surrealism.

He can also be found at: https://www.facebook.com/raincoastfiction

Posted in Guest Posts | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Does Advertising Work for Authors? (AKA We Wanna Sell More Books, Dagnabit)

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Lindsay

advertising ebooksI never thought I’d get a chance to work “dagnabit” into the title of a blog post (or, you know, anywhere), but it seemed to be an appropriate euphemism for the occasion. I asked what folks wanted to hear about on Twitter today, and a resounding number of people (okay, it was just the one) requested a post on online advertising for authors. Does it work?

Depending on who you ask, the answer could be, “No, it’s a waste of money,” “Yes, it made me a bestseller,” “I sold some books but didn’t break even,” or “Huh? Authors can advertise?”

In other words, your results will vary. Personally, I’ve found a couple of places where advertising has worked for me (it never made me a bestseller, but there have been times where I spent less on ads than I earned back on book sales). More often I’ve lost money.

Here’s more of a breakdown:

Types of Online Advertising Available for Authors

Pay Per Click Ads

Facebook, Google Adwords, and Goodreads are all pay-per-click options. You throw a certain amount of money into a campaign (or give them your credit card number so they can charge you whatever you spend each month), and you get to make a text-based ad that will be displayed on their pages. On some sites, you can include a little picture (i.e. the cover of your book), but usually it’s about the text. You get a few words for a header and a few more for the body of the ad. If you have a copy-writing background, it could come in handy here, because there’s not a lot of space to entice someone to click.

Did they work for me?

I’ve tried pay-per-click ads on Facebook and Goodreads. The latter handed me some of my early sales, and I wrote a long post on how to set up a Goodreads Advertising Campaign last year. My own daily book sales have increased a lot since then, so I can’t guess any more how effective the site might be (when you’re not selling a lot, it’s easier to see if one particular thing you do has an impact on sales), and I’ve stopped putting money into my campaigns over there. I think it can help out in the beginning though.

With Facebook, I tried some ads to direct people to the free-ebook tab on my Facebook Author Page. It didn’t cost me much (a couple of dollars most weeks), and it did get some people to click the links on the free-ebook page (since I give away those stories to everyone, I don’t use Smashwords coupons — coupons would have been a good way to see if people were actually downloading the books, though at the same time they make a potential reader go through more steps to get to your work).

I used to use Google Adwords when I was selling affiliate products for my day job, so I have experience with them, but I never considered trying them as an author. One of the problems with pay-per-click ads is that one click can only translate into one sale (and it’s probably going to be more like eight or ten clicks to get one sale), and, as an independent ebook author you’re only making a couple of bucks per book sale (assuming a $2.99+ ebook), so there’s not a lot of room for error. (The numbers are, of course, more abysmal for traditionally published authors who make far less per sale.)

With Adwords, you can’t target as specifically as you can with Facebook and Goodreads (i.e. age, sex, reading preferences), at least not the last time I looked (it’s been a couple of years, but I don’t think Google has implemented stats on what people are fans of the way other two sites have).

As you can see from the things I’ve talked about that did work (a little), pay-per-click is a dribble-drabble sort of system where, unless you’re spending a lot of money (and that can be hard if you’re targeting a specific demographic, such as your ideal science-fiction-romance-loving audience), you won’t sell a lot of books. The good thing is that you only spend money if someone clicks your ad. The bad thing is that you’re reaching a finite number of people, and it’s almost like hand-selling to one person at a time. Goodreads does have some viral potential, since people can add your books to their reading lists (lists other people can see), but it’s hard to gauge how helpful that is.

What to be careful with when it comes to PCC ads

Make sure to target your audience carefully, so you don’t waste money (i.e. when I was setting up my Goodreads campaign, I only had ebooks available, so I put ebook in the ad copy to ensure paperback-only people wouldn’t click). With Facebook and Goodreads, you can target, for example, science fiction lovers only and even advertise to those who are fans of authors who write in a similar style as you do. Make use of that.

Banner Advertising

With banner advertising, you pay for a graphic ad to be displayed on a site for a certain amount of time (you usually pay a flat monthly fee or for a certain number of impressions). They’ll usually appear in a site’s header or side bar. You pay whether they’re clicked on or not, but they tend to be less expensive than the other types of ads I’m talking about here.

Did they work for me?

I haven’t done a lot with banner advertising, because there are a lot of studies that suggest people have had “banner blindness” for a long time and text-based ads work better. That said, their cost-effectiveness can make them appealing.

I tried a banner ad for Encrypted and also for Ice Cracker II (a free short story) last year on the Nookboards, because I was trying to figure out how to target those Barnes & Noble Nook folks. My banners were part of a rotation of ads for about three months. The campaign didn’t cost a lot, but I’m also not sure if I can attribute more than a handful of purchases/downloads to the experience.

I’m about to try a banner-advertising campaign with someone who emailed me when I started my Kickstarter campaign. His ads run on a number of gaming sites, and since there’s a lot of crossover between people who game and people who read fantasy, I thought, “Why not?” Also, I’ll be advertising the first Emperor’s Edge novel, which is free (on sites such as these, I’d think it would be a lot easier to get people to check out something that’s free than something that’s $5, and, of course, people who try the first book might want to go on to try the rest of the series).

In the end, though, I don’t expect much. For me, no form of advertising has been a knock-it-out-of-the-park success (and there haven’t been many base hits either). The main reason I’m still tinkering with it at all is that I’m making enough now that tax-write-offs are nice. Also, I like to experiment with things so I can post about them on this blog.

Sponsored Posts or Daily Blog Spots

Sites such as Pixel of Ink, Kindle Nation Daily, and Ereader News Today are blogs (sometimes with newsletters) that offer a variety of daily sponsorships where your book can be featured in a post and/or email.

These blogs have large audiences, but they’re general readership audiences. As someone who writes steampunk/high fantasy, I haven’t found these types of sites to be particularly effective, but I’ve heard of people who write in genres with a broader appeal (i.e. thrillers, mysteries) having good results. (Note: I tried KND when their rates were cheaper and I broke even with a $2.99 high fantasy ebook — I tried again recently, and I paid more and didn’t come anywhere near breaking even. I believe the proliferation of free ebooks — many of which these blogs promote — is making it harder to sell an ebook through these sites.)

I’m ambivalent about these types of sites for other reasons, too, in particular that they charge a fortune (KND especially has hiked its prices way up in the last year), and I think there’s a lot of authors paying against their better judgement, hoping against hope that it’ll somehow be worth it. I used to work in online advertising and affiliate marketing, and I’m floored by the going rates for daily sponsorships in the ebook-sphere ($200+ in some cases). Even sites with little to no traffic are charging $40-$50 for daily sponsorships. But I guess as long as authors are willing to pay such rates, the high prices will continue (these sites are all booked far in advance).

Personally, if you want to try advertising, I’d recommend thinking outside of the box and getting away from the sponsored-posts sites. If you’re a science fiction author, for example, it might be better to hunt around and find a popular SF blog that isn’t necessarily in the ebook sphere but is a place where your fans hang out. You might be able to get a text or banner ad for $50 a month.

What Really Works in the Modern Era

So, as you can see, I’m not against advertising, per se, but I’m not a huge fan of it either. There have been times where it’s helped me out (especially in the beginning with Goodreads) and more times where it’s been a waste of money. I will say something I’ve pointed out before, though:

I’ve found that once you sell your first 1,000 books or so, Amazon’s algorithms start kicking in, and your book will show up in people’s recommendations and in the also-boughts for a lot of other authors. Because of that, it might be worth losing a little money early on (if you have it to spare) if it’ll help you get to that point.

That said, the 100% most effective thing I’ve done to increase my sales is giving ebooks away for free. Long-time readers have seen me say that a lot, and it’s because it’s true. For me, it’s blown everything else out of the water.

First, I gave away that Ice Cracker II story (something that was effective in helping me sell my first book because it stared the same characters and I included an excerpt to the novel). Then, at the end of November, I decided to go ahead and make my first full-length novel free (since, by then, I had two other novels out in the series). It’s no coincidence that that’s the month this author thing went from being a part-time gig to my primary source of income.

Free works best with serial stories, though, so it’s not necessarily going to be as effective for everyone. Advertising can be worth trying if you have the money to spare. Some folks will argue, though, that the best “advertising” you can do is to buckle down and get more books out there (I don’t disagree with this sentiment).

All right, I’m done talking for the day. Do you have any thoughts on advertising? Is there anything you’ve tried that I haven’t covered? Let us know below!

 

Posted in Advertising | Tagged , , , , , , , | 37 Comments

Why Self-Publish When You Have a Chance to Go Traditional? (AKA Emperor’s Edge to Stay Indie)

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Lindsay

printing press publisherA couple of weeks ago, in my Stay Independent or Sign with a Publisher post, I mentioned that I’d had an offer for publication on my Emperor’s Edge books. An awesome editor (awesome because she liked my books, of course 😉 ) over at Amazon was interested in adding the entire series to their new 47North science fiction/fantasy/horror imprint.

As you might guess, this was a pretty cool moment. I never queried agents or pursued the traditional route (that takes so long!), but I’d always had it in the back of my head that maybe someday, if I did well enough self-publishing, I could get a “real” publisher. I wasn’t expecting an offer to come my way this soon though. My books sell decently, and my author income grew larger than my day-job income for the first time in November, but I’ve never been below 1,000 on the Amazon Best Sellers ranking, nor have I been at the top of a Top 100 category. In other words, I wasn’t expecting anyone to hunt me down and offer to publish my books. A year ago, I probably would have jumped at the opportunity, and I’ve since heard from quite a few other independent authors who said they would have too.

I ultimately decided to pass on the offer though. Here are some of the major reasons:

  • Being published by Amazon would have meant my to-be-written fifth and sixth ebooks in the series wouldn’t have been available in other stores, so my Smashwords/Nook/iTunes/etc. readers would have been left hanging. And, uh, I probably shouldn’t ‘fess up to this in advance, but Book 4 has a cliffhanger ending, so leaving people hanging would be mean. Yes, there are free Kindle apps for just about everything (I use one on my iPad), but not everyone wants to buy from Amazon. And for some international folks it’s cost prohibitive. (In a post I did on 99-cent steampunk ebooks, a reader from Denmark pointed out that he had to pay almost $3.50 for a “99-cent ebook” at Amazon).
  • You guys said you wanted the EE books to stay independent — I asked for opinions here, and on Facebook, and while some folks said they’d support either choice, a lot of people voted for me to stay indie for reasons that ranged from wanting the books to continue to come out quickly to wanting to say that an author they enjoyed was self-published. There were also quite a few Smashwords and B&N folks who chimed in to let me know they would like to continue to see my books in those stores. (Unlike some other indie authors I know, who get 99% of their sales through Amazon, I do sell moderately well in those places.)
  • I’m doing fine on my own — Though I’m curious as to what Amazon could bring to the table, one of the interesting new truths about self-publishing is that once you’re selling enough books to get on someone’s radar, you’re probably making $X,XXX a month. (Some people, not me, are making $XX,XXX a month or more!) When you’re doing that well on your own, you have to ask yourself if you really want to tinker with a formula that’s working for you. (I saw an income report of a traditionally published fantasy author who has a lot more books out and is a lot better known than I am, but he makes less than I do simply because that’s the nature of traditional publishing — there are many more middlemen to cut in.) So, though Amazon’s royalty offerings are better than industry standards on ebooks, there’s still that question of whether I’d really come out ahead (financially speaking) in the long run.
  • They’d want the rights to the audiobooks — While this is probably something you could get a lawyer and negotiate over, publishers generally want the right to create audio books of your work and sell them alongside the print and ebooks. I’m not against making money from audiobooks, but I also like giving them away for free to get new people into my world (in case you haven’t tried it yet, the first Emperor’s Edge novel is free on Podiobooks and iTunes with the second coming out shortly). You guys have even been chipping in, via my Kickstarter campaign, to help pay for the creation of future audiobooks in the series (thank you!).

Those are my major reasons for staying indie. Though I may look into a hybrid publishing model in the future (i.e. try one series with a traditional house while continuing to sell my other books independently), I’m looking to finish out the EE series before thinking along those lines.

As always, thank you for the support. The good reviews you guys left for EE and the following books are what prompted the Amazon editor to give them a try in the first place.

Posted in Ebook News | Tagged , , , , | 28 Comments

10 Free or 99 Cent Steampunk Ebooks

Posted on March 10, 2012 by Lindsay

For fantasy fans looking for a little weekend reading at an affordable price, here are a few steampunk adventures that are currently free or 99 cents at Amazon (many of them are in other places, too):

Free Steampunk Ebooks

Oh, just in case you’re stumbling across my blog for the first time and you haven’t read my stories, The Emperor’s Edge is free at: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, and Smashwords. It’s a full-length high fantasy adventure with a hint of steam. And then…

To celebrate the release of the third story in my Flash Gold Chronicles, Peacemaker, the first novella is free at Smashwords. That one is definitely steampunk with a wrench-wielding heroine who has a knack for inventing things (and occasionally blowing up things too).

Okay, enough about me. On to other authors! I haven’t read most of these, but I tried to pick stories that had a 4.0+ average reviewer rating over at Amazon. If you’d like to recommend any other ultra affordable steampunk adventures, just let us know below. Short stories and novellas are fine.

The Strange Case of Finley Jayne (The Steampunk Chronicles)

The Strange Case of Finley Jayne

Finley Jayne knows she’s not ‘normal’. Normal girls don’t lose time, or have something inside them that makes them capable of remarkably violent things. Her behavior has already cost her one job, so when she’s offered the lofty position of companion to Phoebe, a debutante recently engaged to Lord Vincent, she accepts, despite having no experience. Lord Vincent is a man of science with his automatons and inventions, but Finley is suspicious of his motives where Phoebe is concerned. She will do anything to protect her new friend, but what she discovers is even more monstrous than anything she could have imagined…

Railroad! Volume One:Rodger Dodger (a steampunk western)

Railroad is a fast pace steampunk story of gadgetry, gunplay and grit.

Join us as we follow the strange stand-alone train known as the Sleipnir (pronounced Schlipnear); eight cars of free traveling steam powered might. Able to lay her own tracks, as well as pick them up again, the train is a marvelous feat of engineering, and as an unbound entity she can travel anywhere her master desires. The only trouble is the trouble she attracts. Her owner and creator, one Professor Hieronymus J. Dittmeyer, can’t seem to help but catch the attention of all manner of odd characters, including an undead conductor and a ghostly guardian. But even the most well intending ghost just isn’t enough to keep trouble from the tracks. From run of the mill outlaws, to world-class super villains, the crew of the Sleipnir needs hands-on protecting and they need it fast!

Enter Rodger Dodger, dead-eye marksman and all around vexed soul. Dodger finds he is inexplicably drawn to the Sleipnir and her crazy crew, though he is reluctant to return to the work of a gunslinger after a dreadful history of bloodshed and violence. At the request of a restless spirit, Dodger takes on the work, straps on the biggest guns this side of the Mississippi and soon finds his life will never be the same again. (Which is just fine with him because he didn’t like the one he had anyways.)

Timepiece

Elizabeth Barton longs to escape the endless round of social ritual that defines life in the village of Hartwich during the Regency of Prince George. Her neighbor William Carrington has lost the use of his arm in the Napoleonic Wars, and now must watch from the sidelines as the final act of that conflict unfolds without him. Both go through the motions of their lives, dutiful but dissatisfied, as the Battle of Waterloo looms on the horizon. When an anonymous benefactor sends Elizabeth a pocket watch that is more than what it seems, they are swept seventy years into the future.

The London of 1885 is a steampunk dystopia where the streets are patrolled by Gatling-gun-wielding robots and the clockwork of the British Empire is slick with its subjects’ blood. This future has its roots on the field of Waterloo–in the secret weapon Wellington employed there–and it will come true in seventy years’ time unless Elizabeth and William find a way to stop it.

Caesar’s Children: A Tale of Pluritopia

What if there were a world where all the utopias from nineteenth-century literature coexisted? And what if the nations of that world were divided into two types of utopias–the Aspirants, who seek the create the best of all possible worlds for themselves, and the Gildeds, who also seek the perfect world but long to force their own ideals on the other utopias?

On the world of Pluritopia, the citizens glide through the heavens in the bellies of fish-shaped airships and learn about the exotic goings-on of the sundry utopias by means of aether-powered telephonoscopes. But when a mysterious woman from the Earth’s center appears suddenly in the tranquil Pacific Northwest paradise of France-Ville, the ideal world finds itself on the brink of the unimaginable–a great conflagration that threatens to scorch Pluritopia to cinders.

The Inventor (Fantasies of New Europa Series)

For the Countess of Caithmore, a life of wealth has led to misery. Abandoned by her husband and widely accused of being nothing more than a porcelain doll without passion or intelligence, she has ventured into dangerous territory and commissioned the help of the most famous inventor in New Europa for a scandalous project.

In the depths of his laboratory, she will submit herself to a custom-built machine that will determine the extent of her coldness once and for all. The answer she craves carries a hidden risk, however, and the man whose invention has proven her ability to feel passion may not accept the role of lover-by-proxy for long.

Lady of Devices, a steampunk adventure novel (Magnificent Devices)

London, 1889. Victoria is Queen. Charles Darwin’s son is Prime Minister. And steam is the power that runs the world.

At 17, Claire Trevelyan, daughter of Viscount St. Ives, was expected to do nothing more than pour an elegant cup of tea, sew a fine seam, and catch a rich husband. Unfortunately, Claire’s talents lie not in the ballroom, but in the chemistry lab, where things have a regrettable habit of blowing up. When her father gambles the estate on the combustion engine and loses, Claire finds herself down and out on the mean streets of London. But being a young woman of resources and intellect, she turns fortune on its head. It’s not long before a new leader rises in the underworld, known only as the Lady of Devices.

When she meets Andrew Malvern, a member of the Royal Society of Engineers, she realizes her talents may encompass more than the invention of explosive devices. They may help her realize her dreams and his . . . if they can both stay alive long enough to see that sometimes the closest friendships can trigger the greatest betrayals . . .

The Caldecott Chronicles No.1

Caldecott Estate, the ancestral home of the 32nd Earl of Rothshire, is besieged. The undead are traipsing and crawling across overgrown lawns, intent on ripping the very flesh from the Earl’s body.

But many of them will not make it that far as the 32nd Earl has two things in their way: A prised Purdey shotgun and an accomplice named, Saffy. Saffy is a young and simple girl from the local village. She is quick of foot at setting traps, and dispatching the undead to the afterlife. She is endlessly coming up with cunning and disturbing methods to rid the estate of disease.

The bizarre and gruesome details are narrated in a journal by a very Aristocratic British gent. Get a first hand look on how the Victorian upper class deal with stumbling trespassers and see how one draws inspiration from a teenage girl born to kill.

The Steampunk Detective

The Steampunk Detective is a non-stop adventure story complete with airships, steam powered spaceships and enormous towers that stretch into orbit…

Jack Mason is an orphan wanting a new life. Ignatius Doyle is an aging detective who needs an assistant. When Jack goes to work for Mr Doyle, he has no idea what lies ahead.

With twists and turns and non-stop action, The Steampunk detective has been described as “The best dollar I ever spent.” Another reader said, “It’s addictive to read, and smart….characters are lovable, interesting, different.”

Filled with references to Sherlock Holmes and the world of Victorian literature, The Steampunk Detective is an action packed adventure for readers of all ages.

The Monster in the Mist (A Chronological Man Adventure)

It’s 1890 and the citizens of Boston are beginning to go missing in the fog.

The police are confounded. The public is frightened. The city is on the edge of hysteria.

It’s up to the mysterious Smith, inventor and adventurer, to figure out what’s going on with the help of his assistant, April Malone. They’ll have to face off against a secret society, corrupt policemen and a mad psychologist hell-bent on dissecting Smith, in order to solve the mystery of what’s going on and to save the city from an even more sinister threat.

It’s the first story of Smith, a hard science fiction time traveler with more than a enough quirk to last him several centuries.

A fast-paced 45,000 word tale of scientific adventure combines elements of DOCTOR WHO, SHERLOCK HOLMES and TONY STARK set against turn-of-the-century Boston’s soot-stained streets.

Posted in Fantasy / Science Fiction | 20 Comments

Self-Publishing Tips: It’s OK to Re-Issue Your First Book (by Sheryl Steines)

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Lindsay

What do you do when the first book you self-publish isn’t a hit? Give it a new face and try again! (Long-time readers might remember that I’ve had a couple of versions of cover art for Emperor’s Edge and Encrypted along the way.) Today, Sheryl Steines is guest posting and talking about her experience re-issuing her first book.

The Re-Issue Process

Always measure twice, cut once.  It’s far less work if you do the job right in the first place.  I thought I had done that when I published my first book, The Day of First Sun.  After unsuccessfully trying to publish my book with a brick and mortar company, I chose the only other option to me, and self published it.

But the book didn’t sell well.  Besides selling to friends and family, I didn’t have much luck in the way of marketing.  I spent much time on the internet trying to figure it out.  I had book marks, business cards, and posters.  I sent letters to independent bookstores hoping for book signings.  I had a Twitter account, a Facebook author page and a blog.  So why wasn’t I selling any books?

It came down to fully not understanding how to create an internet presence, how to get a book, that I felt was pretty good, out to the market.  At some point, I had to decide if I was going to keep selling my book or I was going to stop and get a real job.  So I hired marketing help.  Sometimes, it’s far better to ask for help than think you can figure it out on your own.  I realize my limitations.

Her plan to sell my second book actually started with my first book and thankfully I put my trust in her when she suggested we re-issue the first book.  So you’re thinking about all that hard work thrown away?  When you’re an author it’s about putting out the best product you can.  There was always something nagging at me about The Day of First Sun.  I thought about the typos we discovered after it was published, the idea that I should have made it Young Adult instead an adult book.  Now it was my chance to make those changes and find more confidence in the book that I worked so hard on.

In a way, I started the process a little sad; as if someone told me there was something wrong with my child.  But it was the right decision.  The book needed to be re-edited.  While my manuscript was at the editor, the next goal was to work on my new cover, something far more eye catching. I did like my cover, but it blended together, nothing stood out. But my artist was a genius, took what I liked about my first cover and improved it.  I couldn’t stop looking at it, realizing that sometimes, it helps to have an extra set of eyes.  I was getting closer to something.

But there was more work to do.  As we worked on the physical book, I needed to work on my internet presence. Not just getting noticed, but being more professional.  Setting up accounts, making any author pages coordinate with each other.  I now would have a website with my blog, more author pages, and more twitter followers.  As I had help with the computer stuff, I realized just how computer illiterate I actually was.  But in the three months that I had the help, I gained far more than I had in the first year after publishing the book.  I relied on others to teach me what I had been unable to learn on my own.

I was amazed at the universe that includes other indie authors, the blogger universe that is so accepting and willing to let me tag along, let me write a guest blog or review my book.  The things that I was unaware of before I jumped in with both feet, it’s daunting and overwhelming, but the process has been so worth it.  I started with a book that I was so proud of, one that I thought deserved to be read but I was tentative and unsure.  I ended up with something far better than I could have imagined.  It’s now a book I feel confident with, a book that I’m excited to share with other readers.

My motto became measure twice, cut once and hopefully when it comes to my second book, I’ll be able to avoid doing the work twice.  As fun as it’s been that is.

Bio

Sheryl Steines is equal parts driven, passionate and inspired.  With a degree in English from Wright State University, Sheryl dedicates time everyday to her art.  Her love of books and a quality story drives her to share her talent with her readers as well as make the time to talk to book clubs and students about her process.

Sheryl has eclectic tastes and enjoys character driven novels.  In her own writing, the Annie Loves Cham series is driven by her love of the characters and her desire to place them in totally new situations. She enjoys testing their mettle.

Behind the wheel of her ’66 Mustang Convertible, Sheryl is a constant surprise. Her sense of humor and relatable style make her books something everyone can enjoy.

 Sheryl can be found on Twitter, Facebook, or her blog. She also encourages her readers to email her and let her know what you think of Annie and Cham!

Her first book is available on Amazon.

Posted in Guest Posts | Tagged , | 13 Comments

Kickstarter Campaign a Success! Thank You and New Bonuses Added

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Lindsay

On Monday afternoon, I posted a Kickstarter project to raise funds for the creation of the Emperor’s Edge audiobooks. Just over 24 hours after the campaign went live, it reached its $2,700 goal. Thanks to your generosity, I’ll be able to write a check to pay for the Book 3 audio production in full (by the way, a little bird told me that the Book 2 chapters will start appearing on Podiobooks and iTunes next week, so stay tuned podcast fans!).

There are 25 days left in the campaign (hey, I thought this would take a month!), and you can still pledge for goodies. Extra funds will go toward the creation of the audiobooks for the rest of the series.

To celebrate reaching the goal, I’m adding some bonuses:

  • All of the rewards that include signed paperbacks ($65 and up) will now also include a signed paperback of Conspiracy, Book 4 in the Emperor’s Edge Series (scheduled to release in May).
  • All of the rewards at $10 and above will now include the zip file with all of the ebooks I have out at the time of the packaging. At the least, this will add Conspiracy, my Flash Gold steampunk novellas, and my Goblin Brothers short stories to the existing books in the deal (Emperor’s Edge 1-3, Assassin’s Curse, and Encrypted). As always, the ebooks will be DRM-free, so you can give them to a friend if you already have them.

Want more bonuses?

  • If we reach $4,500 by the end of the campaign, I’ll have the cover and formatting done to produce a paperback version of Encrypted and include that in all of the signed paperbacks packages. That’ll mean you’ll be getting five physical books instead of three.
  • I’ll also add some goodies onto the audiobook packages. I’ll record an audio Q&A and answer one question from everyone who pledges toward an audiobook reward. I’ve also gotten Starla Huchton to agree to doing a behind-the-scenes chat about narrating the Emperor’s Edge books. These interviews will be included in all of the rewards that come with audio files.

Here’s the link to the campaign again. Thanks for your support, everyone!

Posted in News | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments