Read "In Stasis" for FREE!

Several days ago I finished my revisions on “In Stasis”, my first (and probably best) Will Vullerman short story. For all purposes, the story is ready for publication. While I have yet to format it for Kindle, and the cover art is still in concept form, the story itself is polished and ready for readers.

And, as I promised, you guys get to read it...for free!

Here are the instructions:

First, you must be a follower or “chronic reader” of this blog at the time of this post to be eligible for a free copy of “In Stasis”. That just means that you have to be one of the 129 current Google followers of this blog, or that you're someone who has been reading this blog for a while.

Second, I need to receive an email from you in order for you to get your free copy. Send me an email at jtbdude [at] gmail [dot] com requesting a copy of the story, letting me know for verification purposes that you're a follower or a reader of this blog.

Lastly, make sure and tell me the format in which you'd like to read the story. I can supply three versions: .odt, PDF, and .doc. Since I haven't formatted the story for Kindle, I won't be able to give out .prc files.

Once I get an email from you, please be patient. It may take up to a week or longer for me to reply with the story attached. African internet is less than stellar when it comes to uploads.

There are no strings attached. While I'd value your opinions and critiques, they are not required for you to receive the story.  If you wish to send me your thoughts on the story, however, I'd love to hear from you.

Please be aware that this offer is not indefinite. (Wow, I sound like a salesman...) This is only available to blog followers from now up until the time the story is published.  After the story is published, this post is no longer valid. So make sure and hurry if you want to read the story!

I hope you enjoy it! :)

Publishing: My Thoughts

It's somewhere in the back of our minds. All the time, we feel it. That maybe, someday, we'll complete this novel, revise it to perfection, and publish it.

Maybe you're writing the novel. Maybe you're revising it. Maybe you're looking to publish it. Or maybe you're just a writer trying to get better. Nevertheless, we always have that little dream that we'll get our story out there. It won't be a print-and-send-to-relatives tale, but a genuine published work of art.

That's why I wrote this post. This isn't a guide to success, but rather an analysis of where and how you should publish.

In a way, you could refer to this post as another in the teeming multitude of posts on what many of us call the Great Publishing Debate.

Because really, for the young writers, there's two options. You try the hard route of getting published traditionally, which requires rejections, queries, agents, and all of that jazz. Or you self-publish, which is increasingly becoming a viable do-it-yourself option. You could even do eBook-only, which just requires basic computer knowledge.

In a way, I might seem biased. After all, I already went the self-publishing route, right? The War Horn is already on the market for any reader who wants to check it out. But still, the debate goes on, and the forces are evenly matched. For the young, unpublished writer, it's a hard decision.

Why? Listen up and I'll tell you.

At first, self-publishing looks better. After all, you get tons of money (which is debatable), you do it yourself, and more importantly, you don't have to go through the lengthy process of actually getting noticed. Getting published traditionally looks like a lot of work!

Nevertheless, traditional publishing has several advantages. First, they have reach. They're trusted. They're well-known. They can reach audiences you can never get to on your own. Christian fiction authors Donita K. Paul and Wayne Thomas Batson have each sold over a quarter million copies of their books. That's a ton of readers!

Traditional publishers also have the advantage of bookstores, which, despite online retailers like Amazon, are still a fantastic source of advertising. Even if the books aren't bought, they're seen. Physical books on a physical shelf in a physical store seem somewhat more compelling. Some people I know buy their books primarily through bookstores.

Okay, now the publishing scene sways in favor of the traditional publishers. But there's one huge problem with traditional publishers: money.

Let me show you.

On Amazon.com, the average digital Christian fiction eBook costs ten dollars to buy.

Also on Amazon, my own eBook (The War Horn) costs three dollars to buy.

Okay, so traditional books are more expensive. But wait, there's more.

One Christian author once stated that he averages about fifty cents per book he sells. That's a twentieth of the list price.

When I sell one book on Amazon, I get about two dollars. That's seventy percent of the list price. So that author's book is three times more expensive than mine, but I would make four times as much money as he does per book. Those are tough statistics!

Using those stats, it also means that even if this guy sells four times as many books as I do, we'd be making the same amount of money. If I sell a hundred books, I'd get two hundred dollars. If a this author's book sells a hundred copies, he'd get fifty dollars.

That's a big difference, and now it looks like self-publishing is in the lead.

But he makes more money than I do. Why? Because he has a big following. How did he get that? Through traditional publishing.

And just to stir things up, a third paradigm is emerging: independent publishers with high royalty rates, unlike traditional publishers. Marcher Lord Press is a high-quality Christian speculative fiction publisher that releases tons of great books. If a book has Marcher Lord Press's name on it, I'd read it. Their name is almost synonymous with great Christian fiction.

Independent publishers are spreading, too. Scott Appleton is a Christian fantasy author who started Flaming Pen Press. It's published several great books thus far, such as J. R. Parker's Kestrel's Midnight Song and the soon-to-be-released Out of Darkness Rising by Gillian Adams. Another publisher to watch is the newly-launched Magpie Eclectic Press, which was started by Nichole White, who did the cover art for The War Horn.

This is the Great Publishing Debate, and it's highly confusing and controversial. It's constantly being changed by innovations in the market, such as Amazon's Kindle Select.

Now that you've seen it, here's my stance.

Marketing is a huge advantage. I've learned that for myself. The War Horn occasionally picks up a few sales, but without a sizable following or a big name behind it, its progress is slow. Unless you've written something that has an insanely awesome plot (and an equally good synopsis) that makes it as compelling as the newest thrillers from traditional publishers, chances are, you'll have a hard time attracting random people to your books.

Still, it can be done. I know a writer named Gregory Downs who has sold thousands of copies of his eBooks after self-publishing with KDP. Again, I know another Christian writer who put his eBook up as free for one day and had ten thousand downloads. Getting your book out there takes a lot of commitment, though.

My thoughts? I've self-published The War Horn, but I had several reasons for this. First, the book is just a bit longer than a hundred pages, hardly a publishable size. Second, it's a pretty normal historical fiction with an Arthurian twist. Not the most interesting genre.

I'm going to continue my self-publishing experiment with my science fiction short stories, but again, a collection of short stories is less-than-marketable. Novels are much better for publishers.

Once I've written a book that I consider good enough - I'm hoping that Tornado C will be "the one" - I'm going to test out the waters of traditional publishing. Who knows what'll happen? Marcher Lord Press now appears to be accepting YA, and AMG Publishers is also looking open. It's worth a try. Publishers can get you an audience, and once you have an audience, self-publishing suddenly looks good again.

My recommendation to you? Wait until your book is ready to think about publishing. But once you're ready, I'd suggest trying out traditional publishing first. It has the advantage of a wide market.

So what's your opinion on the publishing debate? What do you think about this whole thing? What are you planning to do once your novel is finished and ready to be taken to the world? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Concerning Short Stories (and Other Random Things)

Greetings, blog followers!  It's been a while, hasn't it?  Summer (at least in America) is just about here, and in west Africa the rainy season has started.  Which makes it hard to get things dry, but at least we get great weather!

Yes, rain is great weather, especially after you've been eating dust for three months.

Progress is coming along slowly with my current novel, Tornado C, but I expect to start writing it in the next week or two, provided that this outline doesn't eat me.  (Outlines are vicious carnivores, I'm telling you.  At least for SOP writers.)

Recently, however, my writing has moved in a new direction.  I wrote a 6.5k short story that I called "In Stasis".  Why is this new?  Well, it's the first work of sci-fi I've written in over two years.  Fantasy is normally my home genre, but I've found that writing sci-fi is a welcome break.  It's a great genre to be writing in!  Since short stories are a relatively short commitment, they are a rather addictive way to dabble in other genres.

The protagonist of In Stasis is an elite agent called Will Vullerman, who is contacted by the government to undertake a secret mission to the off-limits and war-ravaged continent of America.  Right now, I'm working on a sequel to that story, tentatively titled "The Eternity Code".  These may be the first of many Will Vullerman short stories.  I'm hoping to release each story on Kindle for 99 cents: as they say, the best marketing is having a backlist of other titles.  The stories will hopefully appeal to a broader audience and draw in random people who find my stories while browsing the Kindle Store.

And hey, they're not too expensive, either. ;)

And, on a note of randomness, our family received a package from America yesterday.  (It appears to have been soaked in colorful stickers.)  Many fantastic things were contained within this package, so many things that for a while I thought that it might be bigger on the inside.  But it wasn't, unfortunately.

Among this awesomeness was twenty-four packets of Cheez-Its, which I hadn't tasted in six months.  (I'm in cheese heaven.)

But also included was an unbelievable amount of music albums.  There were four Thousand Foot Krutch albums alone, including their brand-new album "The End Is Where We Begin".  I put some of the albums from that package on my Kindle, and my playlist is totaling to almost 200 songs now.  We're so blessed to have such awesome friends!

And now TFK has taken the number one slot on my favorite bands list.  Mwahahaha.

So how have you all been in my absence?  Writing, I hope?  What are you working on now?

Oh, and how many of you are TFK fans? ;)

I'll be back again tomorrow with a scheduled post.  Au revior!

Marketing

All right, I admit it. I was preoccupied with The War Horn's release. I was rather absorbed in revision and formatting too, jumping through Amazon's hoops to get The War Horn on the market.

And I say it freely (but with some pain): I really don't know what I'm doing when it comes to marketing.  (Although I did manage to create the above banner. It's not half as bad as I thought it would be, but I'm no digital artist, so I kept it simple.)

I've heard it said that half the success of bestselling books comes because they're well-marketed. Oops! Because until The War Horn's initial sales rush started slacking off—about three days after the release date—I hadn't really put much thought to it.

However, I do have an inkling of what I need to do. To spread the word, there are several things I can do:

1) Get The War Horn going on sites like Goodreads and Shelfari.

Check. Here's The War Horn's Goodreads page, by the way, and here's The War Horn's Shelfari page. Feel free to take a look!

2) Get reviews and have readers spread the word.

This part doesn't depend on me. While I know that you all have busy lives—after all, I'm a "reader" of other blogs too—if you read The War Horn and truly liked it, I'd appreciate if you'd spread the word on Goodreads, Shelfari, and especially Amazon.com. That would be an enormous help.

And even if you don't have the time to plaster reviews, if you read The War Horn, shoot me an email and tell me what you thought.

Other than this rather meager plan, though, I have no marketing strategy. (It really embarrasses me to say so, but it's true.)

So I decided to ask you. Do any of you have any advice on the matter? Have you picked up anything from other authors that might help in spreading the word and getting The War Horn "out there"? Any particularly good resources? (I'd ask for book titles on the matter, but my choices in books are mostly limited to what I either buy or what I'd get through Kindle Lending Library.)

Thanks, all. You're awesome. :)

The War Horn - Now Available!

Last night I uploaded my novel to Amazon, over the course of two hours. (We had a lot of technical difficulties.) But by the time the clock hit 10:00 PM, we were done and The War Horn was submitted to review.  I described it thus on my Facebook:

"I have this awful tearing-up feeling in my gut. It's a cross between going to a writer's workshop for the first time (now THAT was something else), meeting someone from online for the first time (almost as bad), going to an American party (eurgh), and eating too many banana muffins...after you had a sandwich. Yeah, it's bad."

I woke up this morning and - glory! - to my great wonder and excitement, The War Horn was live.

(I'd put a screenshot, but it doesn't seem to be working, and other sorts of pictures are in short supply.)

You heard me right.  After a long journey, of which you all played a part, The War Horn is now available to purchase on Amazon.com's Kindle Store for $2.99.  Don't have a Kindle?  No problem.  There's a free Kindle App - you can find it here.

Now, without further ado, here's the Amazon link to The War Horn:

Purchase The War Horn here!

Now, where to go from here?

I'm not much of an advertising person.  Actually, some people I know didn't even know that I was publishing a novel until now.  But to get this book out here, I'm relying on one thing: you guys.

I'll be spreading the word, of course.  But the greatest advertising comes from word of mouth.  Blogging about it, telling friends about it: those things are much more powerful than some rich, professional advertiser that makes his living selling books.  If someone tells you to read a book because it's good, you actually know that person and trust their recommendations.  In the same way, readers are more likely to pick up a book because someone they know recommended it.

So I'm asking you, reader: if you read the War Horn and liked it, please take the time to write a short review on Amazon, add tags to the novel, etc.  Maybe even blog about it, or tell friends to read it.  It's only in that way that it'll get out there.

And thank you.  Without you guys, I don't think I would've done something so daring as to publish a novel.  You made it possible.

Oh, and a word to the pre-readers: your endorsements are on the first page.  You might enjoy re-reading it, too - I made a few changes here and there (such as adding on a few paragraphs to chapter eight and chapter nine) since you read it.  I also just smoothed out the prose in places.

Thank you, all!

Soli Deo gloria!

(*now feels the leave to release the pent-up excitement*  GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!)

*ahem*

EDIT:  I'm working on adding The War Horn to sites such as Shelfari and Goodreads, which are also influential when it comes to reviews and ratings.  The War Horn's Shelfari is here, and it's Goodreads profile here.  If you read The War Horn and like it, consider rating or writing a review of it on either site.  I, myself, am on those sites as well, so feel free to check me out.

Who Gets to Pre-Read?

The time came to draw names. And then I discovered that I had no hat. (Sadly, my fedora was left behind in the States.)

So I improvised and used my sister's trenchcoat pocket. What's cooler than a trenchcoat, anyway?

However, I'll belay the talk and cut to the chase:

The winners are....

LARK

FARRAH

ELDRA

CIARA

and

DAUGHTEROFLIGHT

Congratulations, winners! I'll send you The War Horn in your respective formats ASAP. Since internet is limited, however, there might be a delay. Be patient and good things will come, as the saying goes.

Remember: you need to read this within two weeks and, if you liked it, write an "endorsement" that's less than a hundred words long.

Many thanks to all who participated! If you didn't win, no worries: I'm hoping to have The War Horn available before February reaches its end. Once the cover art is finished and the pre-readers have read the book, then it's just a matter of days before The War Horn comes to a website near you.

Want to Pre-Read The War Horn? Read This Post!

There comes a time where a writer gets so familiar with his work that he can no longer detect what mistakes may remain.  You can always keep revising, but the work in question will never be perfect.  Novels that are actually published aren't perfect, they're mostly perfect.

With The War Horn, I've done all the editing that I can do.  The final revision is finished.

So what do you do?

You get pre-readers to read the work in question.

And, my blog readers, those pre-readers are you, and this work in question is The War Horn.

Yes, readers, your wildest dreams have come true. (At least, I hope that this is your wildest dream. O_o) This post is the "READ THE WAR HORN FOR FREE!" post.

This'll be very simple.  There will be five lucky people who get to pre-read The War Horn.  However, before I go on to explain how these five lucky people shall be chosen, I need you to read something.  In order to pre-read The War Horn, you need to be able and willing to do three things:

First, you need to be able to read the War Horn within two weeks, if not sooner.  The War Horn is just over 110 pages print length, a quick and easy read, so this shouldn't prove to be any trouble for you.

Second, if you have any feedback whatsoever, please send it to me.  If you see a typo or an inconsistency or a passage that just strikes you as awkward, let me know.  This is the last polish before The War Horn is put for sale, so it's important. (This doesn't mean that you should do an in-depth critique.)

Third, if you liked the book, please write a paragraph of one hundred words or less telling why you liked the book, and send it to me in an email. This will be the equivalent of an "endorsement" and will go in the front of the book, along with your name or alias.  (If you're willing, you can also put your age in the endorsement, and your blog address, if you have one, but those are both optional.)

By participating in this pre-reading contest, you agree that you are able and willing to do the above.

Now, what do the readers get out of it?  You will, of course, get to read my novel before everyone else, and get your name in the front of the book with your endorsement.  Like I said before, the endorsement bit is only if you liked the book.  In addition, I'll mention all of the pre-readers - whether or not you actually liked the book - in the acknowledgments.

Here's how you can get your name in the hat:

Comment below (or email me) and tell me you want to pre-read The War Horn.  Include your email in the comment, or, if you're not comfortable with that, send it to me in an email.  That's it.  If you want to earn an extra "entry" in the hat, you can blog about it.  Send me the URL either through a comment or an email to validate your entry.

If you have a preference for format, let me know in the comment section while you're entering.  I can send it to the winners in either .doc, .pdf, or .prc format. (PRC is Kindle's format.  If you have a Kindle, all you have to do is hook it up to the computer and copy-and-paste the file.  You can then read it on your Kindle.) If you don't specify a format, I'll send it in .doc.

The contest starts right now and will close next Friday, on the 3rd of February.  Once the contest closes, I'm going to literally draw five names out of a hat. If you win, I'll email you a copy of The War Horn in your format of choice, as well as write a short blog post announcing the winners.

Let it begin!  Allons-y!

The War Horn - Plans and Schemes

Of late, I've been scheming.  Plotting.

I posted about this on my other blog, but in essence, I want (very badly) to go to the 2012 OYAN Summer Workshop, which I went to this past year.  Problem is, plane tickets cost mucho money, eh?

So...I had an idea.

It was midnight.

I was staring at the ceiling.  Again.

And then I had the brilliant idea to publish The War Horn as an eBook and make thousands of dollars and be rich and have enough to go to the Workshop.

Right.

So I started on my quest - I went to CreateSpace and looked into their Kindle Publishing options.  If I would publish The War Horn, it would be self-publishing.  It's such a weird little book that no one would even touch it.  At 25,000 words, it's a short little novella, and the genre is very hard to define.  It's supposed to be somewhat historical, but, as I've said before, it fails in that respect.  It does, however, have fairly good writing quality (by my standards) and one of my greatest endings.  (I only have a half-dozen endings to choose from, anyhow. ^_^)

Turns out, Amazon has this thing called Kindle Direct Publishing.  It's really straightforward: upload your book, upload a cover, select a few options and set a price, and BOOM! you're published!  And they have a fantastic 70% royalty rate.  That's seventy cents out of every dollar. $700,000 out of every million.

Problem is, they have an 18+ age rule.

However, I'm fairly certain that I could use my parents account to publish without violating their rule, since I would have parental permission and an account for payment methods.  I emailed them about it, but the only reply I've gotten so far basically said, "We're busy right now, we'll email you later."  Except, much longer and more diplomatic.

So, what do you think?  Good idea, bad idea?

Also, I may - just maybe - be looking for people to pre-read the novel.  And critiquers.  Not before my family, of course ;) they'll read it as soon as I'm done with my own edits.

Thoughts?

Oh, and one more thing.  If I published the War Horn as an eBook, would you buy it?  Speak truthfully.  The price would be somewhere below four dollars.  I'm setting up a poll on the sidebar - take a look and vote, and/or comment below.

Until we meet again,