Just a heads up, but to celebrate the sunny springtime weather and 3 month anniversary of _Shift, I’ve dropped the price to .99 until Sunday on Kindle. It’s been getting good reviews so far and has made me positive enough to start in on a second book :-) http://amzn.to/2owWZf4
Are you in Taiwan? I’ll be at the Taipei International Book Exhibition next week along with other local English-language authors! Stop by, say "Hi!", and stock up early on some great indie reads for summer.
The Inkshares pre-order didn’t work out, so I saved a bit and paid for an editor out of pocket. New employer with a lot more workload? I stayed up a little later and made better time of my weekends. Hospitalized for a bit? Hard to type with an IV stuck in the back of your hand, so I sketched out a couple extra scenes in my head.
...or, if you’re in the Taipei area, you can find me at the TWG Press booth in the International section of TIBE 2017. I’ll sign it a copy and even draw a silly picture, if you’d like. :-)
Again, thank you all for your support early on. It was valuable in an intangible way and truly appreciated.
So about a week-and-a-half ago, the pre-order for Shift ended unsuccessfully. If you pre-ordered a copy, your payment should have been refunded by now.
So, is Shift dead? Heck, no. I knew a few weeks in that this wasn’t really going to work out (I will blog on this later), and started actively seeking out an editor on my own. There is still a timeline and it still ends, late autumn.
I will still post occasional updates here and an announcement when the book is available for purchase. You can also join the newsletter on my blog to stay up to date.
It’s been a while since my last update...blame it on a combination of dealing with my grandfather-in-laws funeral (Taiwanese funerals are very elaborate and quite interesting. There are a few images on my Instagram), leaving one school and finding another to teach in, and an emotionally-oppressed energy level with regard to the book. Turns out, when most of the people you’ve developed relationships with artistically over the past couple of decades are photographers (because you were a prolific street photographer), marketing your book via social media isn’t very productive. Photographers don’t seem to be prolific readers. Also, turns out that living overseas, while an invaluable life experience, is a wall to marketing your book in the meat world.
First off, sorry that there was no week 3 update, but I was busy...MAKING BOOKMARKS!
I have a couple of planned things ahead, including attending an event with my writing group and a public reading from my book and these should come in handy.
So, 4 weeks down and 8 to go. This past week, Shift finally passed into double-percentile territory, which raised my spirits a little. That being said, I still have to manage an increased sales rate if I am going to hit 250 pre-orders by August 5th.
Thinking...thinking...I’m open to ideas.
One of the main issues is that most people in my social circle, those that aren’t family & friends, know me for my street photography and not science fiction scribblings, something I’ve only had the courage to throw out into the world for a year or so. And those into photography, apparently, don’t read much, as I discovered during a recent Facebook messaging effort. With that in mind, I’m trying to extend my efforts outside of it, which is difficult, because outside of it is very noisy.
Fingers crossed.
Even though I didn’t do a week 3 update, some of you may have received a scene from Shift in your Inbox. I changed the pre-order page sample chapter to something earlier on an more character-centric: the first meeting of Pei & Roy. It’s available there now if you didn’t get it via email.
Week 2 Update! We booked a couple more pre-orders of Shift this week. It’s quite a bit less than the weekly rate I need to hit the minimum goal of 250 copies, but I still appreciate the purchases.
Every.
Single.
One.
Every single one counts. Again, if you are looking for other ways to help the Shift pre-order campaign succeed, please consider clicking the "Recommend" link on the pre-order page or,if you have a few more minutes, reading the sample chapter (and clicking the "Read More" link to do so), then leaving a short review.
On that note, I threw together a book trailer. Apparently, books need trailers now. Maybe I should have done a promo trailer for the teaser trailer for the full trailer first? Oh, well. Too late now. It’s out there. You can see it at the top of the book page. Feel free to leave your comments on it.
State of the Book Still on schedule. Ahead of schedule, actually. Slightly. Enough that I decided to give my favorite secondary character, Guadalupé Escalanté (a.k.a. Lupé), an additional scene and round her out a bit. If you’re interested in reading an earlier scene from her perspective (and inspired by a children’s drawing of a monster), I posted one to my blog a few months back.
First things first, thank you all so much for your support. Hopefully, the momentum will continue on an upward trajectory over the next few weeks and I’ll hit the 250 pre-orders I need for editorial services. At 90,000-100,000 words, that’s a big deal and somewhat cost-prohibitive. If you are looking for ways you can continue your support, you can:
Pass the word around (email your scifi-inclined friends, bring the pre-order campaign up during your weekly memosa brunches and afternoon cocktail parties, throw the link up in chat during a Minecraft LAN party, and so on.). Personal suggestions are always the best suggestions.
Click on the "Recommend" link at the bottom of the pre-order page
If you have the time, click on the "Read More" link, read all of Chapter 13, then write review.
Every little bit helps.
State of the Book The Fall 2016 target stands and for those who ordered physical copies, you should receive them ahead of the holiday shopping season. In a linear sense, I’ve started in on the final act of the story. However, I spend my bus commute time to and from work writing key scenes on my phone and tablet, and have already written quite a bit of the final act in that way. Overall, I’ve completed about 70K words of the 90K word goal. Of what’s written, chapters 1-9 (about 30K words) are in third draft form. The rest are a mix of first and second drafts.
Miscellany A couple of days ago, I posted to my blog about the Inkshares.com pre-order with some Q&A. Not really required reading as you have already pre-ordered the book (Again, Thank You!), but you might still be interested.
Did I mention that _Shift was on sale this week on Kindle? Did I mention that it was THE LAST 6 HOURS TO GET IT?!!
Well, 6 hours, 25 minutes, and 46 sec...crap...43 s...aw, c’mon!
*sigh*
ROUGHLY 6 hours.
Pick up a copy for 99 cents (or pence!) here: http://amzn.to/2okwysq
Just a heads up, but to celebrate the sunny springtime weather and 3 month anniversary of _Shift, I’ve dropped the price to .99 until Sunday on Kindle. It’s been getting good reviews so far and has made me positive enough to start in on a second book :-) http://amzn.to/2owWZf4
Are you in Taiwan? I’ll be at the Taipei International Book Exhibition next week along with other local English-language authors! Stop by, say "Hi!", and stock up early on some great indie reads for summer.
Read more here.
It’s done.
No, seriously. I finished it.
The Inkshares pre-order didn’t work out, so I saved a bit and paid for an editor out of pocket. New employer with a lot more workload? I stayed up a little later and made better time of my weekends. Hospitalized for a bit? Hard to type with an IV stuck in the back of your hand, so I sketched out a couple extra scenes in my head.
And I finished.
It’s done!
You can purchase it on Amazon...
Paperback: http://amzn.to/2j2kKsl
Kindle: http://amzn.to/2i8l0GO
...or, if you’re in the Taipei area, you can find me at the TWG Press booth in the International section of TIBE 2017. I’ll sign it a copy and even draw a silly picture, if you’d like. :-)
Again, thank you all for your support early on. It was valuable in an intangible way and truly appreciated.
Now, off to fight the jellies.
So about a week-and-a-half ago, the pre-order for Shift ended unsuccessfully. If you pre-ordered a copy, your payment should have been refunded by now.
So, is Shift dead? Heck, no. I knew a few weeks in that this wasn’t really going to work out (I will blog on this later), and started actively seeking out an editor on my own. There is still a timeline and it still ends, late autumn.
Maybe even Halloween. That would be cool.
More thoughts and details on my blog here.
I will still post occasional updates here and an announcement when the book is available for purchase. You can also join the newsletter on my blog to stay up to date.
Thanks again for all your support!
It’s been a while since my last update...blame it on a combination of dealing with my grandfather-in-laws funeral (Taiwanese funerals are very elaborate and quite interesting. There are a few images on my Instagram), leaving one school and finding another to teach in, and an emotionally-oppressed energy level with regard to the book. Turns out, when most of the people you’ve developed relationships with artistically over the past couple of decades are photographers (because you were a prolific street photographer), marketing your book via social media isn’t very productive. Photographers don’t seem to be prolific readers. Also, turns out that living overseas, while an invaluable life experience, is a wall to marketing your book in the meat world.
Week 4 Update!
Week 2 Update!
We booked a couple more pre-orders of Shift this week. It’s quite a bit less than the weekly rate I need to hit the minimum goal of 250 copies, but I still appreciate the purchases.
Every.
Single.
One.
Every single one counts. Again, if you are looking for other ways to help the Shift pre-order campaign succeed, please consider clicking the "Recommend" link on the pre-order page or,if you have a few more minutes, reading the sample chapter (and clicking the "Read More" link to do so), then leaving a short review.
On that note, I threw together a book trailer. Apparently, books need trailers now. Maybe I should have done a promo trailer for the teaser trailer for the full trailer first? Oh, well. Too late now. It’s out there. You can see it at the top of the book page. Feel free to leave your comments on it.
State of the Book
Still on schedule. Ahead of schedule, actually. Slightly. Enough that I decided to give my favorite secondary character, Guadalupé Escalanté (a.k.a. Lupé), an additional scene and round her out a bit. If you’re interested in reading an earlier scene from her perspective (and inspired by a children’s drawing of a monster), I posted one to my blog a few months back.
Until next week!
Week One of the Shift pre-order is down!
First things first, thank you all so much for your support. Hopefully, the momentum will continue on an upward trajectory over the next few weeks and I’ll hit the 250 pre-orders I need for editorial services. At 90,000-100,000 words, that’s a big deal and somewhat cost-prohibitive. If you are looking for ways you can continue your support, you can:
Every little bit helps.
State of the Book
The Fall 2016 target stands and for those who ordered physical copies, you should receive them ahead of the holiday shopping season. In a linear sense, I’ve started in on the final act of the story. However, I spend my bus commute time to and from work writing key scenes on my phone and tablet, and have already written quite a bit of the final act in that way. Overall, I’ve completed about 70K words of the 90K word goal. Of what’s written, chapters 1-9 (about 30K words) are in third draft form. The rest are a mix of first and second drafts.
Miscellany
A couple of days ago, I posted to my blog about the Inkshares.com pre-order with some Q&A. Not really required reading as you have already pre-ordered the book (Again, Thank You!), but you might still be interested.
http://amwriting.xyz/shift-is-available-for-pre-order/
That’s it. Thanks again for your continued support and until the next one, same bat-time, same bat-channel.