Excellent Adventure as it Stands

On the creative front, I started writing some scenes that may be a part of the steampunk series, but I am not entirely sure where they fit. I think I found the dark man character that makes a mysterious entrance and remains a shadowy vision for a bit. Again, none of this is clear to me. I do not want to force it because that just never works, but he is not fully formed. I don’t know how he figures in the story, but he insists he belongs…

I seem to be stuck for the last recipe for the cookbook. Originally there was going to be a coconut recipe, but I am not happy with anything I look at and there needs to be a better story to lead it.

The current government standoff regarding the debt ceiling seems to be applying external pressure for me to finish the other project – because in it the US cedes some territory to China to pay its debts but it won’t work if that fact can no longer be called “fiction.”

At the start of summer, I sat back to watch how my titles would do after the Smashwords sale began. The action in the last 2 weeks has been again dominated by the Kindle Store with over 400 copies of the cookbook sold. There is absolutely no action at Barnes & Noble’s Nook Store. It’s almost as if the books are invisible there!

Downloads have increased at Smashwords as well – 1518 for the cookbook, 63 for the novel and 30 for the short.

It’s not enough to retire, but that is with no new marketing. Interesting.

On other news, I lucked out and got in on the Google+ beta. I still believe it has great potential and hope that when we are done tweaking it we’ll have an extraordinary social media tool. I love the circles and the potential for people who want to maintain a private persona but still need a public one…I especially like the potential for video chats (hangouts) for the ebooks.

I edited a first person account of a concert that I wanted to release a short (cover attached) and do an event to launch it. The response was underwhelming (though those who responded were enthusiastic). Perhaps I will not do it for this project, but I think that it puts a lot more tools in the hands of epublishers and ebook writers to take charge of their marketing activities online.

As with everything, details as it all develops in my excellent adventure.

My Summer So Far

The action at Smashwords picked up a little bit in the last week or so. The novel sold one copy and a handful of people picked up the cookbook. There seems to have been a marked slowdown at Smashwords, and apparently Mark has noticed it as well. They’re addressing the issues and books will run through the premium catalogue faster.

There is no action at the independent sellers and apparently my titles are not there, which is a little strange because they were there earlier – but I suppose because I made changes last month and the titles needed to be resubmitted.

Amazon seems to have deleted the bad review for the cookbook, so now I have two five-star reviews. That’s good, but I wish they’d left the bad review in as it was the raison d’etre for the second volume, Family Tree…

Most of the action these last two weeks has occurred over at Amazon with 729 sales of the cookbook and one short. At Barnes & Noble nothing is happening. Nothing at all.

There is a translation of the short still in limbo because I have not received the final word from the editor. (That’s the draft of the cover, a sort of metaphysical call for a resolution…)

Everything else has slowed down at my end. I’ve been toying with a story but it refuses to shine. It keeps suggesting itself but it goes nowhere. The other day, just for fun I gave to a Michael Bay treatment. It still sucked, but the explosions were freaking awesome!

In the meantime, I am reviewing work in the drawers to see if any of it is ready to be published. Sometimes I find this part harder than the actual writing itself, especially because in my role as Publisher I appear to have become hypercritical. I was always a harsh editor, but who knew I’d be such as harsh mistress as a publisher.

Summer Reading Sale at Smashwords!

Over at the Kindleboards, some authors have created a Smashwords Summer Sale and I decided to join them. If any of you would like to take advantage, please be my guest and happy summer reading!

Justified is 50% off with coupon code QN65G. Putting May to Rest is 50% off with coupon code HB99A.  

Happy Independence Day!

Is a movie anti-tie-in a marketing strategy?

The numbers for some of the retailers carrying my books have started coming. There is a significant delay, in comparison to Smashwords which reports sales immediately – or even Amazon and Barnes & Noble which provide monthly and end of week reports.

Of course, I knew these numbers are behind the sales, but it gives me an idea of how it starts…

At the moment, I only have numbers for Sony. Apparently there have been 84 sales for the cookbook.

Over at Amazon, last week I sold 143 copies of the cookbook.

I chose to take this as good news, although to be quite honest, I have no idea if this is normal (there apparently is no “normal” in ebooks) or dismal (but how could it be?).

It is still too early to try to determine what the numbers think, but I believe it is important to document it so I have a better idea of how this works.

I just entered a few promotions that might result in some attention for the novel. I wonder if I can do an anti-tie-in: “It’s cheaper than a ticket to Horrible Bosses!” 

Then I started thinking, Kevin Spacey would be an awesome Edmond Styles! An author can dream...

Do Not Try This While Hungry!

Writing a cookbook can be a lot of fun but it is also a little frustrating.

Personally, I want to introduce my readers to ingredients they might not usually consider. But you want to make it relatively easy and palatable, so that they try new things. Most people are not very adventurous about food.

That timidity can be conquered with a little intelligence. If you tell someone exactly what to expect, they’ll be more likely to try it.

The frustration is trying to find the right recipes in a sea of options. Also, I only write about recipes I have tried myself or tasted and liked, so my own prejudice comes into play. It goes without saying that you should never write about it or research it while hungry. That is just self-imposed torture!

The challenge with volume two of the Kali: The Kitchen Goddess series is that I am picking foods or ingredients from virtually every continent! That is a lot of stuff to consider.

So far, I have tried to include vegetables, rice, side dishes, desserts, drinks… It’s taking a lovely shape and I am so incredibly hungry!

Kindle Sales Rule

Amazon has taken all the action in sales lately. The first two weeks in June there were 177 sales of the cookbook; but nothing for the short story or the novel.

Over at the Nook store, there’s hardly any action with one sale of the short story.

At Smashwords, the downloads of the cookbook stopped at 1499 and one sale. The novel has sold 6 copies and there are still 46 downloads. The short story is still at 19 downloads and no takers.

Clearly, it is time to do another round of marketing and I am considering a few strategies for July to generate some interest. As soon as I have a concrete plan, I’ll post it here. I know I have not explored every marketing and publicity tactic available to me, so there is still a probability that I can turn this around.

Of course, that is no guarantee that it will affect sales but we’ll see. This remains very much a work in progress.

Reviews remain elusive… It’s time to try review blogs again!

In the meantime, my Kindle people are running the show.

Like a Beached Whale

It is not a pretty image: that of a beached whale. But we do not have air conditioning and today was the third day of a heat advisory. Torment is the most I could commit to these past few days. Seriously, this is weather only Sylvia Plath would love because it just couldn’t make her any more suicidal!

I didn’t even feel human through most of it but imagined myself literally a wilting flower, occasionally hit by a blast of indifferent and slightly warm air from my little fan.

After a mighty thunderstorm, the temperatures lifted a bit and I was able to get back to the new cookbook. It is awfully hard to write about food when you don’t want any. It’s even harder to write about deep frying when it is over 100-degrees!

Other than that, the only work I did in the last few days was a note about monkeys in the steampunk novel. (I grin devilishly as I leave that sentence hanging and not explain it further.)

I tried to read, but in my delirious state I am not sure how much of it I retained.

Now, I will go back and try to jot down another recipe before the heat returns and paralyzes all the action.