Things and Stuff

I've been gone for a while, kind of an unofficial hiatus.  Sorry about not giving warning, but life does get in the way sometimes.  Thanks for sticking around though!

I don't have a ton of news to share, but there are a couple of things.  Brace yourself!

I am ridiculously excited about Mars and the Curiosity and all the gorgeous photos and space-type amazingness.  If you have somehow missed out on all of that, go do the Google thing and get yourself a faceful.  Do it.  Now.  I'll wait.  (No, this isn't exactly news about me, but I'm excited so I'm sharing my excitement.  you're welcome.)

Ken!  You were going to tell us about how your marketing and stuff has affected your sales and stuff.  And stuff.

Right!  I'll do that now.  I haven't learned anything.  Sorry to disappoint, but I haven't seen any real changes with either the blog tour or the free Amazon days.  I did, however, give away several hundred books.  Hopefully some of them will be read by people just like you, and maybe even a few of them will enjoy the book.  That's what it's all about anyway, and I am very happy to gain any readers that I can.

Ken!  What about Clockwork Charlie and the next book in the Caithiir series?

Yeah...  Clockwork Charlie is still puttering along, but I've started another couple of things so I'm not as close to done as I would have liked.  It's going well though, and I'm still very excited about CC and I can't wait to get it out there for everyone.  As far as the next book in the Caithiir series goes, it's on the back burner for now.  Frankly, I have other things that I am in love with right now that I want to get done first.  It will be coming eventually, and the story is already pretty well outlined up in my brain meats.

Ken!  What other stuff are you working on?

I've started a noir style mystery/thriller that I'm having a lot of fun with.  The language is rough and the main character is rough and the violence is rough and the alcohol/drugs/sexiness is rough, so it's definitely not for the kiddos.  No title yet, but once I get it figured out I'll let you know.  I'm targeting this one at a much shorter word count (probably only 30,000 to 50,000 words) which might mean that it's a novella rather than a novel.  I'm never sure about the lengths of the different types of stories.

Ken!  What are you reading, and should we be reading it too?

Right now I'm reading The Mists of Avalon and Stories.  The Mists of Avalon is good so far, and has a lot of great Celtic religious stuff in it that I enjoy.  Honestly, it started out slow, but once you get to the meat of the story it's well worth it, in my opinion.  I'm also reading Stories, which is a collection of short stories by folks like Neil Gaiman, Chuck Palahniuk, Diana Wynne Jones, and a ton of others.  It's great and you should read it immediately.  That's all I have to say about that.

Ken!  Why do you keep doing this?

Because I'm bored and I like to imagine a whole lot of people just as excited as can be to hear what I have to say.

Alright, that's it for today.

Thanks for reading,
buh bye then

The River Runes, Free!?!

Hey, everyone! 

Just wanted to update to let you all know that The River Runes is now officially exclusive to Amazon.com, and starting today you can get it for free, throughout the weekend.

That's Friday the 13th until Sunday the 15th!

Go get your free copy Right Here, and please be sure to tell your friends!  I would love to see how far up the Amazon free list The River Runes can get. :)

Thanks!

Kindle Select?!

In my continued effort to streamline my marketing strategies before I release Clockwork Charlie, I am going to be enrolling The River Runes in KDP's (Kindle Direct Publishing) Select program for 90 days.

What does that mean?

Well, for one thing it means that The River Runes won't be available in ebook format anywhere but Amazon for three months. I know there's a chance that this will limit my sales, but to be honest, sales outside of Amazon have been pretty sad so far anyhow.

The good side of going exclusive with Amazon is that I can run up to five promotional days where I can offer The River Runes for free on Kindle.

Free? That's crazy!

Maybe so. However, going free on Amazon should help me to gain some exposure, plus get my book out there for thousands of potential readers that are afraid to spend their hard earned money on an author they don't know. Hopefully, some of them will actually read the book, decide they like it, and be more likely to buy the other books that I put out. This could also be a great chance to get more reviews out there.

Unfortunately, I'm still new to all this, and it is all definitely conjecture at this point. Everyone out there seems to have a different opinion, so for right now The River Runes has to be my guinea pig. I don't think she minds, I know she's strong enough to carry the burden. :)

Why is my book a girl?

I don't know.

This is all an experiment for me. The sales I lose on other platforms will be made up by the information I get out of the whole thing. Maybe exclusivity is awful, maybe it has its advantages, or maybe it'll be just the ticket to getting my work to a larger audience. I don't know yet, but I promise to tell you whatever I learn from it all.

Also, once I start KDP select the price for The River Runes is reverting to its original $2.99 price tag. So, if you wanna grab it for $.99, now is the time. Hey look, there's a link to it! RIGHT HERE

As of now, you can still get it from Barnes and Noble and other stores as well, but it'll be gone soon.

Alright, that's it for today.
Thanks for reading,
buh bye then

300 Words

That's all it would take for a person to write a novel every year.  One page, or 300 words, every day, and you would be writing a pretty good length manuscript every year.  That's awesome.

Now, there is a lot more to it than that, there is grammar and punctuation and storyline... and reading. 

"If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write.  Simple as that." -Stephen King

However, the point of this post is to talk about the act of writing.  The words have to hit the page if you want to write a story.  Short story, novel, epic, poem, screenplay, it doesn't matter what it is, if you don't sit down and write it, it won't get done.  There are some writers that swear by their word count, and others that don't have one at all.  In my case, I need the daily word count.  (I don't always stick to it, I'm slacker.  There are far too many days that I don't write at all, but I feel like crap on those days because I don't feel like I've accomplished anything.)

When I'm being good, my word count is 2500 words a day.  That's a lot.  On writing days, though, I hit that number and life is good.  Some of it is trudging, and sometimes my brain is numb because I know that I'm writing things that will just be deleted later, but the story moves forward.  Forward motion, hopefully every day, is paramount to finishing what you start.

300 words is a very low number.  Fourth graders are hitting 300 words for their essays and book reports, the night before it's due.  However, if I wrote every day, and my word count was only 300 words, I would still be writing a novel a year.  Now take that back to when I started this blog, when I finally decided that I was going to do it, (my first post was in May of 2008) and I would have at least four novel-length manuscripts. 

Would they all be worth reading?  Maybe not, but even without writing every day, I have written thousands of pages that will never see the light of day.  Every writer has.  (Okay, probably not every writer)  The sad truth, though, is that I have those four novels in my head already.  They are good stories, that I think people will enjoy them, because I think I would love to read them.  I just haven't written them because, as I said earlier, I'm a slacker.

What's the point?

Write every day.  You should, I should, anyone that hopes to get their story out there should write every day.  Even if it's only one page.

Alright, that's it.  Thanks for reading.
buh bye then

End of the Tour

Well here we are, folks.  The River Runes blog tour is officially over, and it's time to talk about the results.  First, I'd like to welcome all of the new readers to Just 1 Writer, who came in from other places in the tour.

"Welcome!"

I am truly excited to see so many new subscribers, I believe there are 23 of you, and I can't say how much I appreciate your support of the blog tour.  Feel free to browse around, check out some of the popular posts, and comment as much as you'd like.  I'm really glad to have you here!

I have already reached out to the winners of the tour, there were several ebook giveaways throughout, and the big giveaway here, so check your emails to see if it's you.  If not, I'm sure this won't be the last giveaway we have here.  If it is you, congratulations!

Next, I want to talk a little about what changes I've seen, thanks to the blog tour.  As I said earlier, this blog has gotten over 20 new subscribers!  I'm excited about this, and I can't wait to see how many of you guys turn into regular readers of the blog.  My twitter account has also gained quite a few new followers, and this is the first time my followers number has been higher than my following number.  I hope I'm not to boring!  If you're a new follower on twitter, @ me with a question or comment sometime and I'll be sure to get back to you.

As far as sales go, I think it's too early to say.  Getting my name, and The River Runes, out there was the big point.  At least as far as this tour was concerned.  The more people that know the book is out there, the more of a chance that they will buy it.  No one buys something they don't know exists, they have to hear about it first.  Overall, the experience was a good one, and I think this helps me in my planning as I rev up to release Clockwork Charlie.  The launch for that will be much bigger, more blog stops, more giveaways, more everything.  I'm already psyched.

So, my thanks go out to all the great folks that hosted during the tour, and all of you that paid attention.  The blog will go back to normal on Thursday, or at least as normal as it ever is.

Thanks for reading,
buh bye then

Great First Week!

Wow.

It's been one hell of a week.  This is the end of week one on the blog tour for The River Runes, and it's been very exciting.  Eight stops so far, and more to come next week.  The reviews have been kind, and the interviews were fun and I've been able to share the book with a bigger audience than ever before.  If you haven't checked it out yet, GO HERE

Also, Welcome to all of the new followers to the blog!  I'm excited to have you guys and girls along as I make this writing journey.  I'm not the most reliable poster, but I do my best. :)

Once the tour is over, I will post more specifics about how it went, and do my best to tell you how it may or may not have affected my sales and marketing plans for the future.

This is a short one, just wanted to say hi, and thanks for reading. (new readers and those of you that have been here awhile, alike)

Thanks for reading
buh bye then
  

Animated Covers!?!

I don't know how many of you read J.A. Konrath's blog, A Newbies Guide To Publishing, but yesterday he posted some examples of his new animated covers.  Here's the post: Animated Covers!. (I'm sad Stephen King's book won't be in ebook format for awhile, but I'm not mad.  I still buy paperbacks all the time)  I fell in love, go check them out if you haven't seen them.

I liked them so much that I spent almost the entire day trying to make one for myself that was halfway decent. I'm sad I couldn't do one for The River Runes (since my laptop went bye bye I lost most of my non-essential book files), but I'm psyched about the one I did for Clockwork Charlie.  Once I launch this book, hopefully in August, this baby will be making its way through blog tours galore:

What do you think?  I'm very happy with it, but I'm not sure if I should keep the wink at the end (Opinions Please! lol).  And hey, if you are interested in getting an animated cover to help show off your book, you can contact Deer Watson Media at deerwatsonmedia@gmail.com to see what they can do for you. 

Also, Monday is the official beginning of the blog tour for The River Runes!!  Make sure to follow along Right Here so that you can enter for your chance to win an ebook version of  the book and a $50 Amazon gift card.

 Alright, all, that's it for today.
Thanks for reading.
buh bye then