Tag: News

Moving Along…

It’s been a while since I’ve added much to the blog. I try to make things that have more than passing promotional value to put on here and the day job has been interfering. What time I choose to invest into the writing experiment has been intended to edit Dropship Down, the first book set in my Science Fiction setting Total War. Of course, I’m only partially successful with that as I often find myself fiddling with other stuff that has nothing resembling an intended release date. Despite that progress is being made and I’m still feeling optimistic that I may be able to release earlier than expected.

I’ve commissioned cover art from the wonderful Daria. I’m exceedingly curious to see what she comes up with. The studies I’ve seen look very promising and I’m very happy with the cover of The Half Elven Orphan.

As far as sales, I still have no idea. I’ve learned that it takes at least six weeks for most sales data to show up in the Ingram Spark back-end. Except, of course, as discussed earlier, for print copies in Germany. That’s such a strange anomaly. There are some signs that there have been sales, but let’s just say I don’t expect to see it on any bestseller lists.

Of the people who have read it, response has been overwhelmingly positive which is wonderful. The German anomaly has led me to look at that market in a little more detail, which led me to believe it would be smart to go for German as the first translated language.

That’s about it from here. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to add some more in-setting stuff to the website. Perhaps an excerpt from something that is planned for far future release. I have not yet decided what’s next.

Publishing Mystery

The Half Elven Orphan is the first book I’ve published and I’ve done it independently, so everything is a new experience. First off, it looks like I’ve actually sold some books. Not enough to buy more than a junk food lunch, but it’s not zero. My primary channel is Ingram Spark and they have a dashboard where you can see where sales have been made. To my great surprise, the first four print books that have showed up there have been sold in Germany. I mean, I do know people in Germany, but them buying more than one or two books when I’ve already told them I will give them copies for free doesn’t make sense. It stands to reason, then, that these must be other Germans. Which is very odd. My website has almost no traffic from Germany that I can’t match to people I know.

Beyond that, I know that there must be some e-book sales too, as the book has a sales rank on some e-book only sites, but they haven’t showed up yet. So, thanks (or Dankeschön) everyone who has bought one. For e-book buyers, there will be another sale over on itch.io starting the 17th of December. I still highly recommend itch if you want the e-book. No DRM, it comes with a pdf with a a Table of Contents and Glossary and files for the artwork and map. Oh, and they give the author a far large proportion of the proceeds.

A Parcel Has Been Delivered

Despite the best efforts of his superiors, a parcel with some books from Milton Keynes has arrived.

I have yet to understand why I was charged for the privilege of receiving 0% tariff book while I have VAT and EORI numbers, but they’re here and that’s certainly something.

I’ve decided to fulfill direct orders. Obviously, I don’t have to pay the retailer 55% like I do on in-store prices, but I do have to ship it. The book is 349g, which means that with packaging it’s quite expensive to ship individual copies. So, it’s the same price as in stores which is €20, but shipping is free everywhere in the EU.

Paperbacks Everywhere

Just a small update to the previous post. Paperbacks seem to be orderable off all Amazons, Barnes and Noble and presumably other places. Waterstones does not appear to have added it to their catalogue unfortunately. I’m not sure what I would need to do to achieve that. In any event, many of the sellers on the Where to buy page now offer the paperback. I’m not wild about delivery terms, but hopefully (ebook) sales makes them take a few in stock.

Newsletter Changes

I’ve posted the entirety of the draft version of The Half Elven Orphan and sent all the accompanying weekly newsletters. So, I’m changing the frequency of the newsletter. The draft version will remain accessible until the end of the year, but I feel it will only cause confusion if I leave it in place now that the actual book is released.

For the foreseeable future, I will send one newsletter a month (if there’s anything worth mentioning). There will be occasional excerpts, news and of course I’ll continue the world-building posts too. It’s time to get to work on The Value of Nobility, Tales of Vatan, Alagariel Book Two and Dropship Down, Total War, Clausewitz Book One. Dropship Down is rather closer to being done that I thought, so that shouldn’t be long now.

Oh and of course, here’s the Where to Buy page. If you want an ebook, I recommend the itch.io version as it just has more goodies, better updateability and supports authors better.

Ebook Released Today!

The Half Elven Orphan became available today on all the big sites. I’m attempting to list the places where it’s available on the Where to buy page. It’s also on Goodreads now. Obviously, I’m in dire need of reviews, so if you’re a reviewer and would like a review copy, please let me know.

Where to from here?
Next up, I’ll be polishing Dropship Down book one of the Clausewitz Series. I’ve been going through it a bit the last few days and honestly it doesn’t need all that much work. It’s about 160k words and I doubt much will be changed. The time for another long stretch of editing. Never say never, but I might manage to get this out in a few months.

After that, I’ll be focussing on The Value of Nobility, book two of the Alagariel Series. How fast I try to get that out honestly depends a little on whether The Half Elven Orphan generates any interest at all. It is going to have some major work done to it before it’s up to the same standard as Alagariel I.

It’s hard to see the future beyond that, but of the 10-15 books I have in a state that look a little like completeness, I’d like to publish one every six months or so. Time will tell if that can be achieved.

“It has been well said that an author who expects results from a first novel is in a position similar to that of a man who drops a rose petal down the Grand Canyon of Arizona and listens for the echo.”

P.G. Wodehouse, Cocktail Time

Halloween Sale 50% Off!

Hey everyone, I decided to join in on the Halloween sale over on itch.io:

I’m still in the early stages of my journey through services like itch.io, so I thought I’d give it a try for a few days.

This book doesn’t have a Halloween theme (no more than fantasy in general does). If you really stretch it, Samhain has something to do with Fae which has something to do with elves which have something to do with half-elves, so let’s go with that.

The Half Elven Orphan itch.io release!

I just released The Half Elven Orphan on itch.io.

You can find it here.

I decided to go with itch.io first for a number of reasons. First off, it allows me to give epub readers a pdf version with the cover art and a map. Second, I can update things in future and buyers can easily re-download. Third, they pay authors far better, which for now, means more (human) artwork and real editors in future.

For those of you who want a print version or want it in their customary library, the big sites will follow soon(tm). It’s much harder to update things there, so I’m being rather more meticulous about the whole thing.

The cover of The Half Elven Orphan, with the protagonist, a femal half-elf, crossing a river at night mounted on a black horse.