In the last couple of months, I have published two books. “The dark strain” was the first book I published. It is the second book in the dark series. The first book being “The coming of dark”. The dark strain is the continuation of the life of one of the characters in the first book. The two books are connected but still have somewhat different stories so they can stand alone. “The coming of dark” is more of a supernatural horror story while the second book is primarily the story of several seemingly unrelated people who suddenly gain powers. Unfortunately, their powers, and one unscrupulous scientist, may be the end of them. The second book I recently published is titled “The Entity”. This is more of an occult horror. It is the biggest book I have published so far with over three hundred pages on Kindle. It involves several characters and a few unique situations. I have one review of “The Entity”. Thankfully, it’s a five-star review. Debra M. says, “Touch of The Stand.” She said more but that part stuck with me. Prior to that I hadn’t thought about it. But I can see some similarities. Though I can’t seriously compare this book to “The Stand” it still feels good to be indirectly compared to a great author like Stephen King. I have another book I’m trying to finish. I’m close but I can’t say how soon it will be ready for publication. It depends on what problems I run into. Like the song says “some days are diamonds and some days are stone. As far as my personal reading I am almost finished reading “The Andromeda Evolution” by Daniel H. Wilson. It is a Michael Crichton book following The Andromeda Strain. I will give a review after I’m finished. One coincidence about that book and my book “The dark strain” is the cover. There is a slight resemblance in the designs. The cover of “The Andromeda Evolution” includes hexagon shapes, mine are more looping. Originally, I had someone make up a cover for me. It is the picture of a woman standing on broken ground. I didn’t like it. I soon made my own cover and took off the old cover. Unfortunately, with Goodreads I couldn’t do that. Goodreads will not allow one to change book covers. I was able to add an alternate cover which is the one I’m using now. One small comment. The picture on the cover of “The dark strain” is the picture of a spiderweb. I took the picture from my front porch. There was a spider in it, but I deleted him, or her.
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H. G. Wells, who is one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time was quoted as saying the following; “Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.”
I think most writers can relate to that quote. Though writing can be fulfilling --especially after it is finished, and you have a few good reviews –it can also be a rather daunting task when you’re writing it. The story doesn’t always unfold the way we want it to and the right words sometimes elude us. But, luckily, there are also those times when the right words come to mind quicker than we can type them out. Those are the magical times. There are a couple of things that make what Mr. Wells said so remarkable. One is the overwhelming amount of material that he put out in his lifetime, both fiction and non-fiction. Until I had read his biography, I didn’t know that he was such a prolific writer. To be honest I am only familiar with, “The time machine, The war of the worlds, The invisible man and The Island of Doctor Moreau.” Two, one should consider the time in that he lived. He didn’t have a computer to work with. There was no copy and paste or any of the other great things a processor can do. In fact, the manual typewriter had just come out a year after his birth. Which meant he had to either do his whole book in shorthand or work it out on the manual. A few things about Mr. Wells. H. G. Wells was born Herbert George Wells in 1866 and died in 1946. In 1884 he won a scholarship to the Normal School of Science in South Kensington. His earliest specialist training was in biology. Mr. Wells is best known for his science fiction novels. He is often called the father of science fiction along with Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times. His first novel was “The time machine.” If you haven’t read it or seen the movie(s) it is about a society that is divided into two classes. There were the subterranean workers – the morlocks, and the decadent Elei. A few other novels were published in order. (1895) The wonderful visit (1896) The island of Doctor Moreau (1897) The invisible man (1898) The war of the worlds (1899) When the sleeper wakes (1901) The first men in the moon There are numerous books and articles written by H. G. Wells both fiction and non-fiction. One website that I have found allows one to download the works of H. G. Wells for free. It is gutenberg.org. You might want to check it out and see what you think. If you’d like to see more quotes and an awesome YouTube video, click Here. And one more shameless plug. “The old man and the girl” ebook, an inspirational drama, is free on Amazon October 18 & 19. US -- Here. UK -- Here Just thought I’d put out another blog to let people know what I’m up to. A few weeks ago I downloaded an app called Grammarly. People had informed me that there were quite a few grammar errors in my books. They were indeed right. Even though I would go through my books several times before publishing them I was still making mistakes here and there. This was keeping me from getting a higher star rating on Amazon. I have since corrected these books. Unfortunately, it can’t tell me if my plot makes sense or if the characters are real enough. I’ve also gotten Mailchimp which helps me to gather emails so that I might eventually send out newsletters. I haven’t figured it all out yet but I’m learning. I’ve just released a book titled “The dark Strain”. It is the second book in the “Dark” series. The first book was “The coming of dark’. The books are related but can be read separately since they have their own story. “The dark Strain” is a supernatural story much like the superhero genre. In this story, however, they are not off stopping crime. They all have their problems and a deadly issue that they are not aware of. I’ve had troubles with the cover of “The Dark Strain”. I’m on my second one. It just came out on Amazon. The first one I made was too simple. I had the second one made and unfortunately, I had trouble communicating what I wanted. After a couple of revisions, I selected one of the three copies sent to me. It’s not exactly what I wanted but it’s not bad. You can view it up in the corner so I’ll let you be the judge. I hope to have another book out this month. I’m working on the editing now. This book has taken a while since it is about twice the size of the rest of my books. I have plans for my middle-grade book as well. This book has just been sitting there. I’ve done no formal advertising of it and have rarely mentioned it. Soon, I hope to find an illustrator to make the book more appealing and then I can start putting some effort into advertising. I’ve been toying with the idea of having a few hardback copies made of “The old man and the girl”. A little later I will look into the cost of doing that and if there is enough interest from others. I’ve got a lot of partial stories that I would either like to finish or scrap. The problem with writing is that it takes such a long time. It takes me several months to write a book comparable to what I’m writing now. Then I’m faced with the possibility that no one will want to read it. Which brings me to something else. Soon, I will be looking at finding three of four readers that will look at my work before it is published. They won’t be looking at grammar errors or anything like that. They will be looking at my plot. Does it make sense? Is it intriguing? What about the characters? Are they believable? Are they consistent in their actions? Can you relate to them? Does the book keep you interested? Does it drive you forward wanting to know more? And so on and so on. Some might assume I’m sitting at home watching television while drinking margaritas but that’s not the case. I have an urgency to do as much as I can while I can. I can’t depend on living as long as Jimmy Carter. I like science fiction especially when it pertains to the future. The Star Trek series is one of my favorites. I also enjoy the new series of ‘Lost In Space’. For the most part I agree with their depiction of the future. But there is one thing that really bugs me; the flashlights. In ‘Star Trek Discovery’ a group of people beam over to a disabled ship to determine what has happened to it. There is no power to the ship so there are no overhead lights. A creature has killed all the inhabitants but one. It soon kills that one. It takes the crew a few minutes to find the creature in the dark because their flashlights only have one narrow beam. Similar scenes are repeated in all the ‘Star Trek’ spinoffs, ‘Lost in Space’ and in almost all the rest of the futuristic shows. A 100-watt bulb puts out approximately 1600 lumens. As of this writing the world’s brightest flashlight can put out over 100,000 lumens. So why would anyone dare to explore space with such a weak light? It’s not realistic. I do, however, understand the reasoning of the writers. It’s a lot more suspenseful if you can’t see the dangers ahead of you. Or, to use a narrow beam of light to suddenly spotlight something unexpected. Even so it still grates on me. In one of my stories I also have a protagonist using a regular flashlight to make the story more suspenseful. In this case it’s modern times and the protagonist had not anticipated having to use the flashlight as much. This was in the start of the book ‘The coming of dark’. Speaking of ‘The coming of dark’, it is now listed on a site called Wiki.ezvid.com under 10 unsettling mysteries with a touch of the supernatural. To be frank I had never heard of the company until they contacted me. Checking them out on the internet I found that they are dominant on YouTube and other sites giving their reviews of multiple products. They seem reputable to me, but you can check them out for yourself. Also, in a couple of months I hope to be publishing my second book of the coming of dark. It will be a continuation of the first one but in a little different direction. I haven’t decided on a title yet. This is where you can find my book on the site Wiki It’s a new year and I have a few goals for the year. Some are reasonable, some are not, but I will be giving it a good shot.
To start with I have new covers for two of my books. One is for a young adult book titled “The doorway trilogy.” It is a science fiction/ fantasy novel. The other book is “The coming of dark.” This book is a psychological, supernatural, thriller. A sequel to that book should be out in a few months. I will have a preview on my website in the next few days. In the beginning I made my own covers or used Amazon’s cover creator, but they were either so so or didn’t convey what I wanted it to. So, most of the time -unless I get a lot better at designing book covers – I will be outsourcing that job. Creating a better website is also a priority. Advertising with little money is a skill I need to learn as well. What I want most is creating great books that people love. I don’t expect to write “classics”. As Mark Twain said, “Classic – a book which people praise and don’t read.” These are the new covers. I am anxious for the new year to begin. God be willing I will be able to devote myself to the writing business full time. In the coming year I expect to have new books published and old books with new faces. But I’m not sitting back waiting on the new year to begin. I have been steadily working on several projects. One that I feel very good about is a sequel to my thriller “The coming of dark”. I’ve got a good start on it, but I’ve still got a little way to go. I hope to have the book out around April of next year. This book will explain a little more about Troy who was the main character in the first book. The coming of dark is currently unpublished but I hope to have it out with a new cover in the next few weeks. I have several other book projects in the works. The range spans several genres which include ghost story, thriller, crime, science fiction and fantasy, and religious fiction. Currently I can’t say in what order these will be coming out. Writing is a fickle leader. On one I may end up stuck for a time. On another inspiration may hit me with a torrent of words that breathes life into my work. Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter how great my books are (though that’s a definite concern) if no one sees or hears about them. My connection to the social network is sorely lacking. I have to work on that. Along with that I need to advertise. There are tons of places to advertise. Finding the ones that will deliver the best results for my buck is the trick. Again, it’s something I need to work on. I’m not too fond of the business part but if I can’t make enough off my writing, I won’t be able to do it full time. That’s it for now. Merry Christmas and happy new year to all. One of my faults (among many) is that I am not comfortable with social media. This is an especially bad fault considering that I am a self-published author. This social connection is what boosts sales and helps a writer to become successful. Without strong social ties sales can be flat.
I know this is something I need to overcome, and I plan to address this. One of my resolutions for this year is to be more involved in Facebook, Goodreads, and Twitter, but I don’t see it as being a smooth process. I am more at ease talking to people face to face. Even my phone calls are usually short and to the point. There is not a lot of small talk. My latest book “The old man and the girl” has been more successful offline. Because this is a Christian book it is a different situation. Most of my books have been sold in paperback to the church I attend and to another church as well. Some books were sold directly through Amazon. Others were sold by me. I bought 30 copies from CreateSpace (who manufactures the paperback) and sold them directly. I will probably be getting more copies to sell soon. It’s good that I can sell the books directly, but it does nothing for my Amazon ranking. This, in turn stymies my digital sales. That’s where a good social media person would come in handy. I did have a giveaway on Goodreads. I mailed the books to the winners about two weeks ago. I’m hoping that when the reviews come in they will be good. Judging from the responses I’ve gotten so far, I think they will be. Assuming the reviews are good I will still need to do something to make the book more visible online. I hope to contact more churches with my Christian book. Hopefully I’ll start getting more digital sales as well. Though I am concerned with getting sales of this book other than from me directly, it is not my biggest concern. I do not write specifically Christian books. I will depend more on online sales from my non-Christian books. I have a middle grade book out. It is a science fiction, fantasy book. I had a couple other books out that I unpublished for editing. I also have a couple thriller, science books that I’m working on. I have some ambitious plans for this year, but I think I need to get a lot better on social media to be successful. Wish me luck! The old man and the girl is a Christian drama. It is the first Christian and/or drama, book that I have written. Because it was my first venture into this genre’ I found it rather difficult to write. My books before this have been science fiction, fantasy, and horror. After the first draft was finished I went through the book multiple times in an effort to make it my best work ever. Unlike my prior books I knew that I would be encountering more readers in person. Since this was a Christian novel I expected that a great many of my sales would be at churches.
I bought several dozen books at discount and began to sell them directly. I started slow. I am mostly introverted and was somewhat afraid of what kind of feedback I might get. Not that I was afraid of harsh remarks. I felt that most, if not all, of the buyers would be gentle with their criticisms. It was some of the more tepid words which I feared, such as: “I thought it was good,” or “great effort” or “I enjoyed it.” This tells me that my book is average, or just okay. That’s not what I want to hear. The first four books I sold were to people in my Sunday school class. Then began the long wait for them to read the book hoping that I wouldn’t be disappointed with their evaluation. It was only a couple days later at a Wal-Mart store when I ran into one of the ladies from church who had bought one of my books. She immediately told me that she liked my book. Then, she emphasized her words by saying she really liked it. This made my day. It was during the next week that I sold a couple more books and got more good praise. One of the books went to my Pastor’s wife. The praise stroked my ego, but I still had a lot of books left. It was a week later when the Pastor’s wife told me how much she loved the book. This really made me feel good. But it was not to be the greatest news that day. Near the beginning of the service the Pastor unexpectedly announced to everyone that I had written this book. It was a total surprise to me. Like I had said earlier I am more of an introvert. I had not gone around the church announcing that I had a Christian book to sell. After the service I was besieged by people asking for a copy. I had books I kept in my car. It was raining at the time, so I was having to run to my car to get copies. It was a very awkward situation. I sold all of them but two copies and I’m sure I missed several people because of the rain and my absence to go and get my books. Meanwhile, my sister, who lives in Alabama ordered 10 copies from Amazon which she sold to friends. I realize that soon I will run out of customers at my church. It is not a mega church. I’m hoping, however, that other doors will open for me to sell to other churches or Christian organizations. My biggest weakness is my ebook sales. I’ve had a few sales, but they were days apart. My ranking on Amazon has gone up and down. I am simply no good at promoting my book online. And, unfortunately, the books I buy at discount on CreateSpace doesn’t count toward my ranking on Amazon. I believe that this Goodreads promotion will help a lot. It is not necessarily how many people enter the contest or how many people mark my book to read. First, the chance that someone who enters this contest and doesn’t win will then turn around and buy my book is very slim. Second, most if not all the people who mark my book to read will never get to it. It’s hard to find anyone with less than fifty books on their shelf. Most have over a thousand. Some in the tens of thousands. So, how is this book promotion going to help? One word – reviews. I have seven copies to give away. In hindsight I think I should have gone with ten or more. I wish I could give away more than fifty. If the responses I’ve gotten so far isn’t an anomaly than most of the reviews I get should be favorable. If that rings true, then it will help to bolster my weak promotional skill. I have several projects I’m working on but can’t say when any of them will be finished. I’ve been slack for the last couple of years when my wife developed cancer and then passed away last year. Without question, this has been the hardest book I have ever written. There is so much emotion in it that I was not sure I could properly communicate it. I had to gauge what each character was feeling. For me this was not an easy task. I had to be sure to balance each character’s feelings in relation to what they faced, or had faced. In life people do not react to tragedy in the same way, though they may still hurt the same. The mourning period itself deviates from one person to another. To one person the mourning subsides after a few months. To another it goes on for years. I have to confess that my own experience of losing my wife last year has affected me in the writing of this book. It did not prompt me to write the book because I had started the book before she died, though I had only a few pages written. Even so I feel especially connected to the book because of my wife’s passing. I find it difficult to judge the worth of this book. Is it a good heartfelt drama that emphasizes the Christian experience? Or will it be perceived as a mawkish narrative of an overdeveloped theme? If nothing else I hope it conveys some important Christian truths that we sometimes neglect while finding faults in others. I think we all want to live happily ever after, but in life, even happily ever after, comes with some scars. This is the first day of my Amazon Free day promotion. I was a bit anxious this morning to see how effective my pre-promotion was. I had submitted to nearly 20 sites and this book "The coming of dark" had been my most successful. Not long after I had published the book it had ranked between 4,000 to 5,00 on Amazon for three months. Unfortunately, it had slipped back quite a bit in the ranking, and it was an older book so I was cautiously optimistic that it would do good.
I thought about getting up extremely early in the morning to start tweeting about my free book, but then decided I probably wouldn't make much difference. So, I got up a little after 6 am. I checked my KDP. Not a single book was downloaded. I was disappointed. I posted my free book on twitter. After a couple of hours still no downloads. I went to my book on Amazon to see if my ranking had gone up. Maybe my KDP wasn't recording the downloads for some reason. To my dismay my book wasn't free. At first I wasn't sure what to do, if anything. I have had promotions that started a couple of hours later than 12 am. After a short time I went to my KDP to check my giveaway times. I couldn't see how they could be wrong. When I submit books to different sites for a free giveaway I'm very paranoid about giving the wrong dates so I am constantly checking my dates as I contact these sites. Anyway, when I check on my promotion it is empty, no dates at all. I was mad and frustrated. It took me a few minutes to come up with a plan. I decided to contact Amazon. It's not like I could just make a phone call. The only way I knew to get in touch with them was to go to the "contact" on my KDP. I knew this could take a while. I wrote my message and sent it. The message back to me was that it could take up to 24 hours for a response. I had to accept that this promotion was a bust. A little back story. A week ago I had contacted Amazon about changing categories listed on my book site on Amazon. An Amazon representative contacted me via email saying that what I had chosen was a bit unusual and their tech guy would have to check it out to see if he could do it. He couldn't get to it till Thursday, the day before my giveaway. Thursday came and another email. The tech guy couldn't do it for some reason, but he had changed something else I had asked about. I had an idea. I went to Amazon to schedule a giveaway for the next two days, so it wouldn't all be lost. Next I decided I needed to contact the sites I posted my book to tell them that my book was not free. I only contacted two because their site said that it was too late to make changes. Besides the next two days should be okay. I got an email from Amazon about three hours after I had sent them a message. The representative said that she had tried to call me. She had my old phone number. She apologized and told me that she had went ahead and started my promotion. She gave me the link so I could check it out. I was astonished! I hadn't expected Amazon to respond so quickly, especially to actually make a phone call. I would have expected it if I was Stephen King or James Patterson. But not me. I have new respect for that monster corporation. |
AuthorWhen I write a blog, I try to keep it relevant. Often it will be about writing and books. I also review books that I read. Archives
June 2023
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