The Journey or the Destination?

These past couple of months, the slow, slow sales have comprised the backdrop to rising doubts on my part about my chosen course of self-publishing.

The novels I have up there haven’t been selling much at all–maybe a copy or two a week–while the new anthology that I launched last week has sold exactly one copy (to a friend, who very kindly downloaded a copy shortly after the launch! ). Of course, there are mitigating circumstances.

1. I am giving away the first novella in the collection. I had 60 downloads of that in the first week. So, many people who downloaded it might not yet have read the novella–and in particular, those who actually like it enough to want to download the full, paid anthology. So even with the free download, it might not have found its audience as yet.
2. Short stories don’t sell as well as longer works, apparently. There seems a fair bit of confirmation of this. I don’t know if rebranding it with emphasis on the novellas might make a difference, but I have no plans to do so for now.

And yes, there are a number of additional factors that no doubt go into this. But I cannot help but wonder whether the recent changes at Amazon have just pushed the books out of visibility.

Naturally, there are things I can do to get myself out there. I’ve done a few interviews and hope to do more going forward, but I always wonder how much impact those have. How much of my as-yet undiscovered audience (who will require some convincing that they are my audience in the first place) are likely to find me? Of course, the more places that I am, and the greater number of websites where I have a presence, will mean that there’s a greater chance my audience will find me! But will they?!

These past, slow weeks have made me wonder whether the traditional publishing route is the best one to take after all.

Learning to fly

The best metaphor I can think of, at least off the top of my head, is that we’re clustered at the edge of a cliff, during an earthquake. The leading edge of the cliff’s underside is eroded, and the cracks are starting to show, in the ground beneath our feet.

This is the publishing industry.

Those who cling, not just to print itself, but more importantly, to the business models that arose out of exploiting the efficiencies of print–contracts and pricing based on overhead, printing costs, distribution, etc.–are at the edge of that cliff. The seismic shift in the industry is going to crumble the ground right out from under them–is going to, and is presently doing just that.

It’s Alive! (and also: free novella download)

Or at least, it’s LIVE. As in, my anthology of five collected stories, Persephone’s Library and Other Short Stories is now available for purchase at Smashwords and Amazon. Pending approval, it will also be available at ibooks, BN and all the other retail distribution channels that the smashing Smashwords partners with.

The stories in the collection are set in bleak and futuristic landscapes. A couple of them contain psi- elements, while others are just about characters striving to live their lives and rebuild their realities in worlds where society as we know it has become un-integrated from itself. There are no flashy or dramatic apocalypses–intead, the stories are about changed, ravaged and fatigued civilizations, societies that have fallen apart, and the characters living within them, trying to find their own meaning and balance.

While several of the stories are pessimistic, others are hopeful, themed around the idea that life goes on, and that we can find hope even in dark times, even after much is lost. Sometimes, it’s just about finding something to believe in enough to make life worth living.

I’ve decided to offer the first story in the anthology–a novella called “Don Coyote de la Merika” for free, in its entirety. It’s a separate download of the entire 11-thousand word novella. Head on over, grab a copy and give it a read-through. I hope you enjoy it (in point of fact, I hope you enjoy it enough to want to purchase the entire anthology!). If you get the chance after, I’d also love it if you were to post a review!

My idea in doing the giveaway is to give you an idea of how I deal with character, story arc, pacing and plot. You can also see whether you feel the resolution is appropriate to the narrative. This strikes me as fair–this way, you know what you’re getting.

And if you like it, then for the price of a latte, you can buy four more stories by yours truly, grouped around similar themes (and in some cases set in the very same world), in Persephone’s Library.

As well, if you enjoyed the free download, please feel free to pass it along to friends or to send them to the Smashwords page to download their own copies. I just ask that if you pass along the file, that you send it in its entirety (so with all the attributions, the copyright notices, the little note at the back by me, promising good karma if you buy the anthology etc.). Also, please do not sell it, commercialize it in any way, or create any derivative works without contacting me to seek permission.

That’s about it! I hope you will check it out–and that you will enjoy!

Hel-lo exciting!

Tags

cover art, Kit Foster

The cover art for my upcoming short story anthology is in–and it looks fantastic! Thanks to Kit Foster for his amazing work on these pieces.

As an aside, Kit was absolutely wonderful to work with. I’m not great with ground-up conceptions of visual composition etc, and so I really relied on him–I basically gave him excerpts, synopses and a few other descriptors, and he went with them, coming up with general concept images, that then evolved, via our correspondence, into the final covers that I’ve posted here.

I especially love his visually striking style and the crisp clarity of the images. Another priority was on the one hand having a uniform “look” across the two titles, while at the same time having each look distinctive and evoke the mood of the story it illustrates. Kit rose to the challenge fantastically and with consummate professionalism. Bottom line: if you’re looking for a cover artist, definitely check out his work and see if it’s right for your project. You’ll certainly be seeing more covers by Kit in these environs, going forward…

So why two covers?

My plan is to release the five-story anthology (which clocks in at about 40,000 words, actually. Several of the stories were longer than I remembered!) at $2.99, while also releasing Don Coyote and Persephone’s Library (both of which are in the anthology as well) as individual short stories, at the $.99 price point. So each of the covers will be used in conjunction with the individual short story’s release. But then, I’ll also be using one of the covers to illustrate the anthology as a whole.

I’m so excited about these two covers that I just don’t know how to decide between them for the anthology. What are your thoughts? Which of these covers makes you want to click through to see what the story is about, and maybe read an excerpt?

What I learned from Dean Wesley Smith

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Dean Wesley Smith, not revising, output of books, revision, writing fast

A number of years ago, I attended a workshop given by Dean Wesley Smith–a two-part session at the Surrey International Writers Conference. It was incredibly inspiring, and in many ways it was truly a game-changer for me.

But, while his talk gave me a number of things to aspire to, it also highlighted the differences between our respective experience and situations, demonstrating several points at which I would need to diverge from the methods he used on his path to success.

If you’ve visited his fabulous blog, you’ll know that DWS is very persuasive–and he’s even more so in person. His presence is friendly, humorous, accessible and in all immensely personable.

The Quest for a Title

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creating a brand, fire rusalka, konstantin's gifts, rusalka virus, vasilisa the brave

What do I call The Book? O the dilemma!

I started with “The Rusalka Virus” as my working title, but I knew that was off the table, as it sounds like a contemporary thriller–not a novel set in an alternate version of 19th century Russia, featuring serfs turned hybrid supernatural creatures whose enhancements last the entire month, while their negative traits, such as vampirism and and pyromania, are tied to the full moon.

Finding the Right Brand

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creating a brand, fantasy, fiction, science fiction, steampunk

I wish I could say that this post was going to provide the insights and ideas that any self-publishers might need or want, in seeking to distill the brand that they would like to create for themselves. Nope. This is more by way of a question to the Cosmos: Help! I don’t know what to do!

So there are a lot of challenges in self-publishing. There’s kind of an ideal convergence of factors that have to come together, in order for such endeavours to thrive–or even to achieve some modicum of success. Things like putting together a professional package, marketing it to the right people in the right way (and the fact with that is that what worked last year might well not work this year because we’re already inured to that novelty). This is the stuff that the publishers offered–or tried to.

The Power of Impulse

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impulsive decisions, law school

A week after creating Crow Girl Publishing, I’m still a little startled by the idea of being a business owner. It’s something that it would never have occurred to me that I would ever be, until about a day or two before I registered the name. Even when I was writing, freelancing, doing all that, I never thought of myself as having a business (I thought of writing as a business, but that is a different thing).

I suppose I should be used to it. A number of decisions that have ended up changing the course of my life have come upon me quickly, often as not sneaking up from behind and then settling over me and snapping into place as if they had always been there. I’d deliberate after the initial idea came, and ask myself if it was the right choice. But the real decision was made in a snap, not in the subsequent investigations and self-doubt.

Flying Horses

Dulac, Flying Horse; I think this is public domain. If not, let me know, and I'll take it down.

My dad had an assortment of stories he used to tell my brother and me when we were kids. There was one about a king and a magician, which recently found its way into Konstantin’s Gifts, my upcoming release from Crow Girl Publishing:

One of the stories his sister had always loved best had been about a proud king, who had summoned a magician to his court. When the sorcerer and his assistant arrived, the king led them to a stable, where a magnificent black stallion was kept.

“You are the fifth magician I have brought here,” he said. “I command you to make this horse fly.”

The magician was all too aware that the other four magicians had failed—just as he was aware that what the king asked was impossible.

Crow Girl Publishing

VIII

I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
That the blackbird is involved
In what I know.

(from Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, by Wallace Stevens)

This week, I decided that it probably made the most sense to start a publishing company. So, I did. I did the necessary searches, registered the name etc. It didn’t take long. World, meet Crow Girl Publishing. If Crow is on my side, then this could be the start of a beautiful friendship.

It’s not open for submissions–sorry writer friends. It’s just for the whole self-publishing undertaking. Nor is it an attempt to conceal that I’m self-publishing. Anyone going to the website will find it patently obvious (I think), that it’s just me, doing my thing. It’s just a matter of branding, and the overarching vision I have, in that context.