Well, I woke this morning to find that there was a new review on Goodreads. And it was a bad one. A 1 star review that pointed out typos, thought my book silly, the sex scenes were nothing but purple prose, ... In short, the person hated First Son.
My initial reaction to the review was feeling sick to my stomach after which a black cloud fell over me. It's the first time I've received a truly scathing review. I wanted to climb back into bed and pull the covers over my head. Then I decided to suck it up.
After further thought I realized that you can learn a lot more from a negative review than from a positive one. The review provided a lot of things to consider, which I will in future writing. Besides, taking one to the chops now and then is all part of being a writer.
Still, now I need to write again but I find that I do so with a little less spring in the old key press.
More to follow...
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Birth of a Novel (First Son)
We'll take one as an example, although all five of them (currently available) have taken similar paths.
I wrote First Son specifically for Loose-Id. This is a popular publisher of erotic ebooks. Instead of writing M/F Erotica, I decided to try M/M Erotica since I had already written several M/F Romances.
Examples of my previous romances include Drained, my latest which sat on an editor's desk and never got read, but dammit I like it, Travel Logged, a great idea for a novel and my biggest seller until my recent publishing blitzkrieg, and Remote Control, another clever idea that is probably a weak romance since it was rejected by Dorchester Publishing after waiting months for a friend/editor to read it.
Several months after submitting a query letter and sample for First Son to Loose-Id, I received an email indicating that the editor loved it and I should submit the entire manuscript. I was off and running... until I received another email indicating that the manuscript was rejected by upper management. Too silly and improbable they said. After bragging to everyone that I was about to be published, I was heart broken at the receipt of the rejection email. This was the closest I had come to being published. First Son went onto the heap along with the rest of my rejected manuscripts.
At the beginning of August 2010, I was bored and thought I'd try publishing all the detritus littering my computer. One by one I submitted my manuscripts to Amazon and Smashwords, along with several rejected manuscripts by my wife, published author Melanie Jackson. Then I waited, kinda.
A post somewhere led me to Goodreads. There my wife and I promoted our books and First Son started to sell on Amazon. Initial indications, as with Blood Reich, my horror novel that lost Dorechester's First Blood competition, was that the book contained a lot of typo's. Of course it did, it had never really gone through the editing phase. It was published at the whim of a bored and frustrated computer software developer.
I read First Son and found many typos. I've since corrected them and committed new revisions of the book to Amazon and Smashwords. As I read the book, I found that I liked it. It may actually be my strongest work. Silly and improbable, definitely. But it's a decent book. I plan on writing future M/M Romances (in fact I've already started one which should be a stunner).
I'm thankful to those who have supported First Son. I'm grateful to those who have bought it. The greatest thing that can ever happen for an author is to have someone read their work. This has finally happened for me. At least to one extent, I can now die content. Now for the rest of my confusing life ;-).
Good night, all.
I wrote First Son specifically for Loose-Id. This is a popular publisher of erotic ebooks. Instead of writing M/F Erotica, I decided to try M/M Erotica since I had already written several M/F Romances.
Examples of my previous romances include Drained, my latest which sat on an editor's desk and never got read, but dammit I like it, Travel Logged, a great idea for a novel and my biggest seller until my recent publishing blitzkrieg, and Remote Control, another clever idea that is probably a weak romance since it was rejected by Dorchester Publishing after waiting months for a friend/editor to read it.
Several months after submitting a query letter and sample for First Son to Loose-Id, I received an email indicating that the editor loved it and I should submit the entire manuscript. I was off and running... until I received another email indicating that the manuscript was rejected by upper management. Too silly and improbable they said. After bragging to everyone that I was about to be published, I was heart broken at the receipt of the rejection email. This was the closest I had come to being published. First Son went onto the heap along with the rest of my rejected manuscripts.
At the beginning of August 2010, I was bored and thought I'd try publishing all the detritus littering my computer. One by one I submitted my manuscripts to Amazon and Smashwords, along with several rejected manuscripts by my wife, published author Melanie Jackson. Then I waited, kinda.
A post somewhere led me to Goodreads. There my wife and I promoted our books and First Son started to sell on Amazon. Initial indications, as with Blood Reich, my horror novel that lost Dorechester's First Blood competition, was that the book contained a lot of typo's. Of course it did, it had never really gone through the editing phase. It was published at the whim of a bored and frustrated computer software developer.
I read First Son and found many typos. I've since corrected them and committed new revisions of the book to Amazon and Smashwords. As I read the book, I found that I liked it. It may actually be my strongest work. Silly and improbable, definitely. But it's a decent book. I plan on writing future M/M Romances (in fact I've already started one which should be a stunner).
I'm thankful to those who have supported First Son. I'm grateful to those who have bought it. The greatest thing that can ever happen for an author is to have someone read their work. This has finally happened for me. At least to one extent, I can now die content. Now for the rest of my confusing life ;-).
Good night, all.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
On Having a Runaway Smash Bestseller
Well, I've hit the big time today by posting my best statistics ever on Amazon for my book First Son:
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2,172 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
It's fun watching my ranking get better on these lists. I still can't believe that my little book is so popular. Yeah.
I'll post more if my statistics improve.
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2,172 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
| Books > Gay & Lesbian > Literature & Fiction > Erotica > Gay | ||||||||||
| Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Fiction > Erotica | ||||||||||
| Kindle Store > Kindle Books > Fiction > Genre Fiction > Gay & Lesbian |
It's fun watching my ranking get better on these lists. I still can't believe that my little book is so popular. Yeah.
I'll post more if my statistics improve.
Friday, August 20, 2010
The View from the Publisher's Seat
The last few weeks have been strange. While I've begun experimenting with self publishing ebooks written by me and my wife, watching our numbers and planning for price increases, advertising, and promotional discounts to put into place next month, I've been watching from the sidelines as my wife's current paperback publisher, Dorchester, slowly crumbles.
First Dorchester announced that they were discontinuing producing paperbacks. They're going to do ebooks and POD trade paperbacks only. Today they let two of their editors go and only have one left, my wife's editor who she loves. Writers are fleeing the house like rats from a sinking ship.
Meanwhile, my self-publishing numbers have been good, considering it's the first three weeks. I think they'll be even better next month when I include advertising and promotional deals. Right now, the books are so cheap that we're barely making any money off them and couldn't possibly consider ads or discounts. If this thing takes off, who knows what kind of services a small company could offer.
So, as the big house that I once tried to get published under (Dorchester) appears to be going the way of so many failed companies these days, a new, small, independent publishing house may be sprouting.
Keep in touch. Much more to come in the future...
First Dorchester announced that they were discontinuing producing paperbacks. They're going to do ebooks and POD trade paperbacks only. Today they let two of their editors go and only have one left, my wife's editor who she loves. Writers are fleeing the house like rats from a sinking ship.
Meanwhile, my self-publishing numbers have been good, considering it's the first three weeks. I think they'll be even better next month when I include advertising and promotional deals. Right now, the books are so cheap that we're barely making any money off them and couldn't possibly consider ads or discounts. If this thing takes off, who knows what kind of services a small company could offer.
So, as the big house that I once tried to get published under (Dorchester) appears to be going the way of so many failed companies these days, a new, small, independent publishing house may be sprouting.
Keep in touch. Much more to come in the future...
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Winning Friends and Influencing People
Well, the promotion continues to go on via several book discussion groups. I've been trying to drum up a buddy read in the Cozy Mystery group on Goodreads but people are hesitant to participate. In the meantime I'm getting a head start on Moving Violation and finding several typos that I've corrected. I think I like editing even less self promotion.
Well, we crossed our first major publishing milestone last night and may pass the next one by the end of the month at the pace that things are going. I think that next month the prices of our books are all going up. I'll be combining the increase in prices with some Goodreads and Amazon advertising. Hope it all adds up to increased sales and revenue.
I'm scheduled to join in my first M/M Romance chat next Monday. Should be fun; I'm looking forward to it.
Well, we crossed our first major publishing milestone last night and may pass the next one by the end of the month at the pace that things are going. I think that next month the prices of our books are all going up. I'll be combining the increase in prices with some Goodreads and Amazon advertising. Hope it all adds up to increased sales and revenue.
I'm scheduled to join in my first M/M Romance chat next Monday. Should be fun; I'm looking forward to it.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Meeting the Nicest People
I've spent quite a lot of time the last couple of days trying to figure out all the ins and outs of the Goodreads reading groups site. Along the way I encountered some of the nicest people.
In the M/M Romance and Paranormal Romance groups people have engaged me in active discussions. As opposed to being embarrassed about having to plug my books, people have been corgile and engaged me in conversation. People have provided a lot of advice on posting and setting up an author page. Rather than being drudgery, the experience has been quite nice and made me wonder why I hadn't been to this site before (like when I actually had time to read ;-).
Anyway, I just thought I'd pass along the encouraging news that these groups can be fun and, so far, there's no reason to be afraid.
In the M/M Romance and Paranormal Romance groups people have engaged me in active discussions. As opposed to being embarrassed about having to plug my books, people have been corgile and engaged me in conversation. People have provided a lot of advice on posting and setting up an author page. Rather than being drudgery, the experience has been quite nice and made me wonder why I hadn't been to this site before (like when I actually had time to read ;-).
Anyway, I just thought I'd pass along the encouraging news that these groups can be fun and, so far, there's no reason to be afraid.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Shameless Self Promotion
Well, the books have all been written and published. Now it's that time again for shameless self promotion. I am so bad at this. Of course there's the usual dread of having to brag about yourself in public and beg people to sample your work, but there's also the tedious, time consuming process of having to find message boards and discussion groups in which to interact with people. I'm not very good at this. I prefer to sit alone at my computer and write, or work on cover art, or even update a web page.
Well, for those of you looking for places to promote your writing, I found at least one good site. Go search for the appropriate groups at www.goodreads.com. It's a fairly active location to get people interested and hopefully get them to review your work. Also plug the lists on Amazon itself by searching for the appropriate discussion groups.
Well, I'm off to google to see if I can search up any more sites. Shameless self promotion is definitely a big downside to the writing life. Sigh...
Well, for those of you looking for places to promote your writing, I found at least one good site. Go search for the appropriate groups at www.goodreads.com. It's a fairly active location to get people interested and hopefully get them to review your work. Also plug the lists on Amazon itself by searching for the appropriate discussion groups.
Well, I'm off to google to see if I can search up any more sites. Shameless self promotion is definitely a big downside to the writing life. Sigh...
Sunday, August 8, 2010
On Being Reviewed
Yesterday I received my first book review, ever, on Smashwords from Mike O'Conner in Ireland. He praised the book Blood Reich thoroughly and concluded with his only complaint which was that the book contained a lot of spelling errors.
Hmmm....
My wife had just read the first six chapter and I of course read the whole book and didn't find any spelling errors, but Mike had. The Word spell checker hadn't found them either. Now I'm dreading having to sift through the book with a fine toothed comb looking for spelling errors. I guess I know how I'll be spending the next few days.
On the flip side, it was incredibly exciting actually hearing from someone who had read one of my books and liked it. All these years of silence has been stressful. Not hearing from anyone about your work makes you wonder whether you're any good. Anyway, I definitely appreciate the review more than the couple of bucks that I made off the sale. Think of it, I made a connection with someone thousands of miles away through my little baby. I'm still reveling in the glow.
Enough for today (glow, glow, glow...).
Hmmm....
My wife had just read the first six chapter and I of course read the whole book and didn't find any spelling errors, but Mike had. The Word spell checker hadn't found them either. Now I'm dreading having to sift through the book with a fine toothed comb looking for spelling errors. I guess I know how I'll be spending the next few days.
On the flip side, it was incredibly exciting actually hearing from someone who had read one of my books and liked it. All these years of silence has been stressful. Not hearing from anyone about your work makes you wonder whether you're any good. Anyway, I definitely appreciate the review more than the couple of bucks that I made off the sale. Think of it, I made a connection with someone thousands of miles away through my little baby. I'm still reveling in the glow.
Enough for today (glow, glow, glow...).
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Enter the World of Blogging
This is my first blog entry... ever. I now have a Facebook account and am blogging; however, I absolutely refuse to twitter (what ever that is).
I thought that I would use this blog to track the progress of my writing. I just completed posting all of my works to Amazon and Smashwords yesterday for eReader download (see http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/brianjjaxn). Today I hope to start writing again on my new horror novel, Meat Hook.
Meat Hook is going to be one of those classic, short horror novels alla The Fog. A mythical character, Meat Hook, begins killing people in a town that is getting ready for it's harvest celebration. Of course, Meat Hook runs rampant at said celebration. I hope it will be fun to write and read. Should be short (e.g. 60k words).
That's it for now. I'll try to post more later this weekend.
I thought that I would use this blog to track the progress of my writing. I just completed posting all of my works to Amazon and Smashwords yesterday for eReader download (see http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/brianjjaxn). Today I hope to start writing again on my new horror novel, Meat Hook.
Meat Hook is going to be one of those classic, short horror novels alla The Fog. A mythical character, Meat Hook, begins killing people in a town that is getting ready for it's harvest celebration. Of course, Meat Hook runs rampant at said celebration. I hope it will be fun to write and read. Should be short (e.g. 60k words).
That's it for now. I'll try to post more later this weekend.
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