All Gave Some,Some Gave All -Thank You

Freedom Isn't Free

Judgment Tramp is a book about the hunt for a killer, but it's also about a soldier's attempt to return to civilian life. Sure, the book is categorized as a mystery/thriller, but I think of it as more of a psychological thriller than anything else. 

The protagonist, Eb Maclean, is just a guy who's trying to get his life back together. He isn't necessarily looking for trouble;but trouble seems to find him quite easily. A lot of his problems are inside of him, because, try as he might, he can't seem to leave the army in the past. His experience is troubling and it leads him to react to the events around him in specific ways.

Eb isn't a superhero. He isn't a Hollywood creation, and he isn't bigger than life. He's flawed, and sometimes he isn't even a nice person. He can be stuffy, judgmental, and even a bit of a bigot. He's angry. He's confused. And most of all, he's human, with all of the wonderful qualities and limitations of the species. He isn't Rambo--he's just a guy who answered the call to do a dirty, messy job that most people wouldn't do, and he will never fully recover from it.

Eb isn't special.

I write that as a matter of truth because Eb is a creation of mine, but in reality he is no different than any other soldier, past or present. None of our soldiers go to Iraq and Afghanistan (or Omaha Beach, or Gettysburg, or Monmouth Courthouse) and come back whole. They leave a little piece of themselves behind. They sometimes come home with problems like PTSD. We don't do enough for them--we should take better care of our people who give so much to us.

Eb is one of those people. He is not special--he is typical of the type of people who serve our nation. And I have no problem calling him a hero.

Like all of our military people, Eb didn't just pay the price for his service--he paid for all of us.

I hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day holiday weekend. Please be safe, and remember to take a few moments to thank our servicemen and women for their sacrifice on our behalf. Eb Maclean is in good company.

In honor of Memorial Day, JUDGMENT TRAMP (an Eb Maclean Novel) will be free :May 26 & 27 on Amazon.

KDP Select: 3rd Time's the Charm

It has been over 3 weeks since I ran my last KDP Select free promo for my thriller, Judgment Tramp. And, although, I was never unhappy with my results the first 2 times, (I figured any exposure was good exposure),I had never reached anywhere near the success of some of the authors who were kind enough to allow me to share their experiences on this blog.


But, you guessed it, this last promo blew the roof off the previous two.


Before I get into why I think this happened, let me give you some numbers. We all like numbers, don't we?


1st promo Dec. 26 & 27 (Mon. & Tues)--fresh out of the box, no platform, barely on twitter or other social media sites; in other words-I was clueless.
---Sales prior to promo: 2 No borrows (what are those?)
---Downloads: 400 US; 64 UK; 4 DE Total= 468 ;
(Averaged about 8-10 DL's /hour & they were fairly consistent; Highest ranking: #1431 in free)
--Post-promo sales: Sales did not happen. Book plummeted back to where it had been prior to the promo. I had only 2 sales the whole month of January.
 --Attitude: Still hopeful. Learning experience. Hoping for a few reviews.

2nd Promo Feb. 21-23 (Wed-Fri)--I considered myself to be a toddler more than a baby, at this point. I was active on twitter, blog up and running, but still working on adding other areas of marketing and social media activity-Reading, reading reading what others have shared.
--Sales prior to promo: 2 in Jan., 6 in Feb. before promo. No borrows ( and seriously not expecting any)
--Downloads: 693 US; 67 UK; 11 DE; 1 FR Total=772;
(Averaged 20 Dls/hour the first day, decreased to about 10/hour second day until late afternoon on second day, wherein I started to see a downward trend in DL's. By 3rd day the book was getting maybe 5 an hour. At this point, ranking started the plunge despite having over 24 hours left AND having broke into top 100 in Mystery/Thrillers. Highest ranking reached: #510 in free, and #68 in Mystery/Thrillers.
---Post-promo sales: About 20 in the first week or so following the promo and then sales were trickling in every once in a while up until the 3rd promo. Not great, but, then again, better than prior to the promo.
Attitude: Hopeful. Learning experience. Disappointed that DLs seemed to hit a wall and decline suddenly before end of promo so the book's rank also declined but still more successful than first attempt.

3rd Promo: April 25,26 (Wed, Thurs.)--Added social media sites like Goodreads, and more reviews. I have toddling along and learning a little bit more about this online selfpub/marketing monster. Read, read, reading what everyone else is doing.
--Sales prior to promo: 14 in March, 7 in April prior to promo. No borrows.(Again, not expecting any)
--Downloads...wait for it... 8480 US;119 UK;7 FR;5 DE;1 ES; Total= 8612!
Wow.  
Over 10x the DLs of the last promo which ran 1 day longer. Ok, so bear with me, because I don't mind saying, it was exciting. Instead of counting DLs by the hour, I began to count them by the minute! My hope had been to double what I'd done in Feb. and I far exceeded that. By afternoon of first day , JT had already been downloaded more than in all 3 days of the Feb. promo. That evening, at one point, I realized over 800 had been downloaded in an hour!  I climbed to the top 5 of my 2 niche categories-Spy Stories & Tales of Intrigue, and Police Procedurals- fairly quickly(sometime the  first morning), and by afternoon broke the top 100 in Mysteries/Thrillers. I stayed in the top 100 of all of these lists all the way through to the end of the promo. I reached #1 in Spy & #2 in Police, #11 in Mysteries/Thrillers. By evening I was in top 100 of the Free Bestsellers! I saw my book sitting there on the free lists next to heavy hitters like John Grisham, Vince Flynn, Ken Follett, and Jeffrey Archer, and so did readers-can't be anything bad in that! Early on I even fleetingly hit the Popular list. I even ended up on the bestseller lists in the UK.
My fear had been that JT would repeat what happened in Feb., when 3/4's of the way through the promo., the ranking started to slip. When the promo ended the book was no longer on a bestseller list, which I believe was the reason sales never really took off, even for the short period of time others had reported. I wanted badly to end in the top 100 and this time I was not disappointed.
--Post-promo sales: Ok, so that was exciting, but what would happen after the dust cleared and my little book was out there on it's own without 'Free' to help it along?
When I woke up that morning and looked at the ranking my heart about fell out of my chest-- #388,000 seriously? 
Ok, while I was picking myself up off the floor, somehow it had climbed back up to 4 digits. Those Amazon algorithmists, what a bunch of pranksters....
It didn't stay there, of course, but the book has enjoyed steady sales since it went back to paid. The first few days, just as so many have reported, were the best: Day 1:14 books, Day 2: 21  Day 3: 28 and 2 borrows (my first!); Day 4:19 and 5 borrows. The book even managed to stay in the top 100 in Spy Stories & Tales of Intrigue for 5 more days, which was totally unexpected, and probably helped somewhat. I've even had borrows which continues to amaze me. I won't bore you with more details, but sales and ranking have slowly decreased, but not unexpectedly. However, over 3 weeks later, sales are still happening at a steady pace of 1-3 a day. Not amazing, but considering sales prior to this promo were more like 1-2 a week, I am still very pleased. ( I have seen only 1 UK sale by the way. International Sales is an area that needs exploring.)
--Attitude: Hopeful. I see more possibilities now. It's all a learning experience right?


SO what made the difference?

1. Categories- I switched JT over to less populated niche categories after reading Ben Wretlind's analysis of categories on his blog here. This made it supremely easier to climb into the top 100 on the bestseller list.
2. Help- I asked my twitter buddies to retweet me. I mean I specifically messaged and asked other authors with whom I felt comfortable because we had a mutual helping relationship already established; and true to form, my fellow indies jumped right in there. In fact, I really do attribute the very quick rise in sales to their early tweeting and if you are one of those authors, I can't thank you enough for your help. At one point a twitter bot picked up that my twitter handle was the #5 twitter name on Twitter.(yes, that was 4 twitters in a sentence!). I have no idea how long that brief flash of social media fame lasted (I was right behind MSNBC) but I'm sure it gave JT the early boost at a critical time. I also joined tweet teams at WLC which I like to do as often as I can anyway.
3.Exposure- Although I had submitted to Pixel of Ink (again), Ereader News Today, Digital Book Today, I was apparently too late and never got picked up (again). However, I had posted on many facebook sites, (actually I didn't have time to post on even half of the sites I had found), and some minor ebook sites. I sent an invitation out on Goodreads. and I posted on the Kindle Boards. I did not realize until sometime after that I had popped up in a couple places unexpectedly. I have an extensive list that hopefully I'll be able to share at some point, but I worked on doubling my exposure. I employed a friend to help me with this part, by the way. It is time consuming, but key. I believe downloads slowed so quickly during the previous promo because I had reached the limits of my platform at that point.
4. Luck and the old Success Begets Success thing- I really think with some of this the stars have to align. I think that in my case, things fell into place this time. Also, when you hit those Bestseller lists, the ball really starts rolling.  Downloads beget downloads. I'm not sure if it would happen this way again. There are rumors that the KDP Select magic is wearing off and others are not getting the great results they got before. Recently bloggers have reported Amazon algorithms have changed, and not favorably for the Select books. Perhaps. But for me the 3rd time was the charm. I plan on doing another free day soon. I'm hoping it will goose sales a bit and keep Judgment Tramp floating where it is- way above the pre-promo ranking and sales.


**Oh,and one other thing, I decided to change the pricing for the book to $.99 after about 7-8 days, when I thought the book's ranking was slipping, to see if it would help keep it from plummeting. I saw absolutely NO difference. The sales stayed steadily the same and there were no borrows during that time period of 2 days. It simply wasn't worth losing the $1.65 per book, so I probably will not do that again, and certainly not as a means to jump start sales.


So, now the question is, how to maintain decent sales after a successful KDP Select Free Book promo? What has everyone else been doing?


Read other authors' experiences on my page "A Gathering of KDP Select Experiences".

Announcing New Release: Sullivan’s War: Book III - Edaline’s Dawn

At the beginning of April, I interviewed author Michael K. Rose shortly after his release of Book 2 of the amazing scifi series, Sullivan's War. I am pleased to be able to announce on this blog that Book 3 of the series is now available as well. Read about Book III: Edaline's Dawn below and check out my interview with Mr. Rose here.

With the release of All Good Men Serve the Devil, the first book of the series Sullivan’s War, Michael K. Rose began science fiction readers on an adventure that would span the galaxy as Rick Sullivan, Frank Allen and Kate Alexander came up against ruthless gang leaders, assassins, bounty hunters and highly-trained soldiers from Edaline, Sullivan’s home planet.

Now, with Book III - Edaline’s Dawn, all that Rick Sullivan has worked for comes to a head. In this action-packed finale to the series, Sullivan finally returns to Edaline to overthrow the planet's oppressive regime. Will he be able to help organize a new uprising against the government? How do the mysterious hyperspace entities figure into Sullivan’s future? And what will be the fate of Frank Allen?

Find out in Sullivan's War: Book III - Edaline's Dawn!

Praise for the series:

"Gritty, hardcore sci-fi with a fascinating twist, guaranteed to please!"

"A sci-fi thriller laced with action and political undertones. A Must Read!"

"Mr. Rose knocks another one out of the galaxy…."

"The writing style is engaging and creative…."

"…this thrill-a-minute ride will keep you glued to your seat until the very end."

For more information please visit: http://www.michaelkrose.com/sullivan-s-war

Biography

Michael K. Rose is a writer of science fiction and literary fiction novels and short stories. His work has received rave 4- and 5-star reviews and the books in his Sullivan's War series are frequent inhabitants of Amazon’s “Bestsellers in Science Fiction Series” list.

Writing is not Michael’s only passion. He’s an avid traveler and has visited over two dozen countries on four continents. He also loves classical music and has season tickets to both the symphony and the opera. He can be reached at myriad_spheres@yahoo.com.

Links:

Website:

http://www.michaelkrose.com

Blog:

http://myriadspheres.blogspot.com/

Twitter:

http://twitter.com/#!/michaelkrose

Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000670152582

Amazon Author Page:

http://www.amazon.com/Michael-K.-Rose/e/B0062EIPN2/

Goodreads Author Page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5323090.Michael_K_Rose

Mark Your Path To Balance In Writing

Last time I said I'd talk about a technique for making sure your stories have the proper balance. First, though, let's establish that balance is often a means to an end. Balancing plot, setting, and character is a good place to start, but adjusting the balance between the three elements is the real goal. As a writer of thrillers, I want my books to be slightly plot heavy, and I leave much of the narrative about setting out. I try to relegate my character development to the dialogue between my characters. 

But first there needs to be a reliable method for judging the writing, chapter by chapter, page by page, and sentence by sentence. I use the marker method, and it works very well. I first heard about this while talking to another writer, but I didn't really understand the system until I read a how-to article in one of the writing magazines. I tried it, and it worked like a charm!

Because we are looking for three different parameters within our writing, we need three different colours of magic markers: one for plot (I use red), one for character (blue), and one for setting (green). I tackle this job one page at a time, working from a printed copy. Here is a short excerpt  from "Judgment Tramp", and I've coloured the sentences according to how I think they relate to the story.

Agent Ricci was sitting in the driver's seat of a battered, government-issued Ford Crown Victoria with the driver's side front window down, making notes on a legal pad.

“Get in, Mr. Maclean,” she said. She started the car. “We need to talk.”

“Good morning to you too,” I said crossly as I closed the passenger door and buckled my seat belt.

“It hasn't been anything like a good morning,” she said as she backed out of the space. She gunned the engine and made a U-turn to go up the hill away from the beach. “Where can we get a decent breakfast?”

“I've already had breakfast.”

“I could care less. You can sit in a booth and watch me eat.” She looked away from the road for a moment and gave me a cold stare. “And then you can tell me why you lied to me yesterday.”

The first sentence is solid blue, and it tells us a lot about Ricci, even without knowing anything about the book. The next sentence is more about plot--she needs to "talk", and given what the first sentence tells us, that means she has some questions for Eb Maclean, so this sentence is marked red. 

Eb isn't happy, and his reply shows it, so his response is marked blue for character, but then he is in the car, buckling his seat belt--the car has become the setting, and this part of the sentence is marked green.

The rest of the excerpt is marked accordingly, and the excerpted example shows a reasonable balance between plot, setting, and character.

Some sentences will be marked with more than one colour--perhaps red and blue if the sentence serves to reinforce plot and character at the same time. Once a chapter is marked it is easy to see if there is one predominant element in the writing, and if the balance isn't to your liking you can change it easily.

The marker method can be expanded if you wish. I know of one writer who uses the marker method  to check to see if the sensory aspects of writing are addressed. One colour would be used for auditory elements, another for olfaction (smells)..and so on.

I like to keep it simple and stay with the three marker system. Now that I've been writing a while, I tend to use this technique only when I have a chapter that gives me trouble. For example, when things are not flowing, I tend to go crazy with dialogue, and I don't do enough picture-painting with my language, or I get bogged down in character description.  There is a restaurant scene where Imme is talking about 9-11, and initially I got carried away and went off track with too much description that didn't add anything to the plot. The marker trick helped me see that, and I ended up cutting most of it out. Then the chapter started working.

Sometimes

Give it a try. It's an easy system to use, and it will help you keep your writing under control.


What other techniques do you use to keep yourself on track?

A Question of Balance In Your Writing

Writing a story, a short story, novella, or a full length novel, is hard work. Most writers have a collection of unfinished novels and stories taking up space in the computer hard drive--stories that never got off the ground, or, just as likely, burned out after 100 pages or so.

Sometimes the story idea just isn't good enough, or the writer's attention is redirected elsewhere. Most writers have one or two stories that sit around in cyber never-never land, waiting to be finished.

At times, however, the story idea is fine--but the writer becomes overwhelmed in the middle of the first draft. Experienced writers are familiar with the "100 page curse", and often the writer is hard-pressed to understand why the story stalled out. Too often the writer blames "burnout", or "writer's block" for the problem, when in fact it is something very different; the real problem is that the story has been thrown out of balance, and the writer gives up and moves to another project.

Story balance is an important element of writing that is overlooked. A balanced story has just the right mixture of plot, character development, and setting. Most novel-length stories emphasize one of these elements over the others, but the best novels weave all three elements together in a way that elevates the entire work to a higher level.

That's great, but what about that unfinished manuscript? 

The first trick is to identify what type of writer you are. Some people write monumentally long first drafts and struggle to pare the finished manuscript down to size. Some writers throw a first draft together with the bare minimum...and then the challenge becomes fleshing out the finished product in a way that doesn't bury the original story.

Most writers do one or another at various times. I'm this type of writer, although I must confess that I tend to write a more streamlined first draft than I did back in the day. "Judgment Tramp" was purposefully written to be plot driven, and I tried to add just enough character development and setting to flesh the book out. 

The setting of "Judgment Tramp" was important to me--I love South Haven, Michigan, and I wanted it to be a big part of the book. I also made a decision to emulate Frederick Forsyth--I wanted my readers to have the opportunity to walk around in the town where my story was set and be able to find specific buildings and areas described in the book. But it was equally important to me that the setting of "Judgment Tramp" didn't take over from the story. I resisted the urge to write too much description of South Haven--and the finished book isn't bogged down by page after page of narrative that detracts from the plot (at least I hope it isn't!).

I also wanted my characters to be molded by the setting--we are all shaped by our locale, and Eb and Maggie are reflections of their upbringing. Michigan is a big part of who they are, and that's a key for a writer seeking balance; the characters and setting are to a great degree intertwined with each other. The plot of any story is dependent upon that character-setting relationship. Recognizing this is a huge step forward for a writer, and almost every first draft ever written needs tweaking to bring these elements into harmony with each other.

Next time I'll delve into techniques that will help writer's check their story for balance.

An Interview With Author Michael K. Rose

Michael K. Rose is quickly becoming an Indie author to watch.  He is a writer of science fiction and literary fiction novels and short stories. His work has received rave 4- and 5-star reviews and the books in his Sullivan's War series are frequent inhabitants of the Science Fiction Series bestsellers list. More information about his writing can be found at http://myriadspheres.blogspot.com

Michael, thanks for allowing us to ask you a few questions! Did you always want to be a writer?

Actually, no. I've always enjoyed writing and publishing a book was on my bucket list for a long time but during various times in my life I've wanted to be an astronaut, an actor, a musician, an archaeologist and a travel writer (which counts, I guess, and still might be something I try my hand at).


When did you first begin to think you had an aptitude for writing?

A few years ago I had written some short stories. This was when I did begin to think about being a writer. I thought they were pretty good and so I started submitting them to the fiction magazines. I did this for a couple of years, collecting rejection slips, before finally deciding to put them out there on Amazon and to see what kind of response I got.

Was there anything specific in your educational background that provided a spark for writing?

I've always been an enthusiastic reader. Early on my dad introduced me to the Sherlock Holmes stories and, via films and television shows, science fiction (I'm an unabashed Trekkie). My interest in Victorian literature has continued, as has my love for science fiction. During high school I went to a prep school in New England and had great English teachers there who introduced me to many of the classics. In fact, one of them lent me Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles from his own personal library. And writing has always come naturally to me. I never had much difficulty with spelling or grammar and there were few words that I troubled over when reading as a child. Again, I think my dad reading the Sherlock Holmes stories to me helped with that. I was exposed to words that my peers simply weren't using so as my education continued I was at an advantage in that respect.

Did you try going the traditional route at first--by wooing an agent? Or did you decide right from the start to become an indie writer? Do you feel like you made a good choice (to be an indie author)?

As mentioned, I paid my dues and collected a fair number of rejection slips before I decided to self-publish. And a year ago self-publishing wasn't even on my radar. It took getting a Kindle and finding all the wonderful self-published works available at Amazon for me to begin thinking about it. I decided I would start small, see where that went, and in November of last year I published a short story called Sleep and a collection called Inner Lives. Sales were not impressive but reviews full of high praise soon began trickling in. I was completely taken aback! I knew that I had a knack for writing but the overwhelmingly positive response was a big surprise. As of this writing, my work now has thirty-five positive reviews and only one negative review. It still amazes me that so many people think so highly of my writing.

Your books are "speculative" science fiction. How would you describe that to someone who is unfamiliar with the genre?  Do you see yourself sticking with science fiction in the future? 

Speculative fiction is simply any fiction that includes elements that are not found in the "real" world: magic, futuristic technology, vampires, etc. What I've always loved about the genre, particularly science fiction, is the limitless possibilities it offers. It is true that there are at least as many stories as there are people on the planet, but when we travel to other planets look at how many more possibilities there are! And I like the speculation, I like asking and answering the "what ifs." I like imagining what life would be like on another planet, on a spaceship, in a parallel universe. I find it endlessly fascinating to explore how other writers have imagined the universe.

Now, as a writer I do not limit myself to speculative fiction. It is the lion's share of what I write but I also have a few projects lined up that could best be called "literary fiction." Interpret that as you will. :o)

How balanced are your books--between plot, setting and character development? What aspect of this is the most difficult for you when you are knocking out a first draft? 
I actually find that setting plays less of a role in my work than either plot or character. At least so far. I have one project lined up that would, essentially, be a grand tour of the great cities of Europe and how each city affects the main character in different ways. Regarding plot, I suppose some of my more literary works (see the collection Inner Lives, for example) could be accused of being bereft of plot. They are heavy in character development. The Sullivan's War series is plot-heavy, particularly in the first book, but there is quite a bit more character development in Book II. 

Honestly, I find writing action the most difficult (ironic, considering how action-oriented Sullivan's War is). I sometimes feel like writing about people fighting gets a bit stale but based on the reviews I've managed to pull it off.

You recently released Book 2 in the Sullivan's War series, and I know you are planning on the release of Book 3 soon. Did you find that the first book in the series was the most difficult to write? 

Well, it's not too difficult with Sullivan's War, as they are all novellas. Each book was plotted after finishing the one before it, however, because even though I had a general idea of where I wanted to story to go, anything was bound to happen and throw a monkey wrench into my plans. So, that made it easier to keep things consistent. Book I came very easily to me. Book II wasn't too bad and now that I'm writing Book III, I find that I'm being over-cautious. I am trying to avoid repetition in the action scenes, descriptions, etc. So, I would say this last one is the most difficult for that reason. Book III is also the climax for the story. I have to get it right. It looks like it's going to be non-stop action from beginning to end, very fast-paced, and I hope my readers feel satisfied with the ending. I'm working hard to make sure that is the case.

What do you see as the future of the book industry? Will the traditional, brick and mortar bookstore survive? Do you feel as though the future is bright for indie authors? Is the playing field becoming more level with the rise of the e-book? Do you think e-book marketing is beginning to follow established patterns? Is there a clear-cut method for success as an indie writer? 

I'll address these questions as a whole rather than one at a time. I actually wrote a blog post about the future of books (here: http://myriadspheres.blogspot.com/2012/01/future-of-books.html). Briefly, I believe that the mass market paperback will become a thing of the past and while books will survive, they will survive as collectors' editions, items for those who want a physical copy of a book they love to have signed, display on a shelf, etc. I like to use the analogy of audiophile-grade vinyl records. They are still produced in small batches for those who want them but most of the population will opt for the CD or mp3 version. I could be wrong in this but if an ebook costs the same as a paperback (and in many cases less) and ereaders become increasingly more common, I think a lot of people will find themselves preferring digital copies. I hope that bookstores don't die off. There are still many collectible books out there, books people will want on their shelves. Will stores selling exclusively new material survive? I don't know. Barnes & Noble made the transition to ebooks and they could still have brick-and-mortar stores fifty years from now. But I doubt they'll be the warehouse-type operations they are now. They will carry the collectible versions and if they're smart, they'll include a free digital version with each physical purchase (just as some CD manufacturers have done). If they're smart they'll also begin to offer ebooks in multiple formats. If they offer mobi files of a book at the Nook store they will not be formatting themselves out of  taking part in the biggest game in town: the Kindle. And the really smart retailer will produce an ereader that can read all the major ebook formats. They'll sell all the formats as well.

Regarding marketing, it is all about exposure, as far as I can tell. The more eyeballs on your book the better and it really doesn't seem to matter who those eyeballs belong to. I think ebook readers are, partially due to price, beginning to experiment outside of their comfort zones when it comes to book genre. Indie authors are developing large and loyal followings. It's completely possible a reader will pick up a book by an Indie author based on rank and ratings and not even realize it's self-published. The path to success seems clear: get your book out there in any way possible. But do so tactfully and respectfully. No one likes a self-interested asshole, which is something writers like you and I realize. Make connections. By helping each other we help ourselves. If a potential reader sees ten tweets about a book, it is certainly better that those tweets come from ten different people rather than one. And on that note, I would like to thank you for all the support you've offered me and other Indie authors. And thank you for the great interview as well!

Thanks, Michael! As you mentioned, we all have to support each other, and I enjoy working in concert with great people like you to promote Indie authors.