Thoughts on series and perma-free

For the last five years, the conventional wisdom among most indie writers has been to write short books in sequential series and make the first book permanently free. It’s a strategy that works, to a certain extent. It’s what got me from making pizza money on my book sales to making a humble living at this gig. However, I’m starting to question that wisdom.

I have two books available for free this month: Genesis Earth and Star Wanderers: Outworlder (Part I). Genesis Earth was my first indie published novel, a “standalone with series potential” (specifically, a trilogy) written according to the conventional wisdom for breaking into traditional publishing. Outworlder is a very different book: the first in an eight-book novella series, strong enough to stand alone but short enough to leave the reader wanting more. And for several years, it was perma-free.

Outworlder was the first of my books to make it big. It’s gotten tens of thousands of free downloads and driven thousands of sales (I don’t have the exact numbers because I haven’t yet collated all of my sales reports from the past five years, but that’s something I plan to do). It was largely on the success of Outworlder and the Star Wanderers series that I built my early career.

But over time, downloads of Outworlder slowed to a bare trickle, and sales did as well. I could give it a short-term boost by running a few strategically placed ads, but it would always fall back down to a baseline that was simply unacceptable.

Also, when you have a book that’s permanently free, it tends to accumulate a lot of negative reviews. It’s strange, but some people seem to feel more entitled to XYZ when they get it for free, as opposed to paying for it. Or maybe these are the people who try to go through life without actually paying for anything? Who hoard everything, even the stuff that they hate, so long as they can get it for free? I don’t know.

Certainly, that’s not true of everyone who reads free books. But when you have a perma-free book, it tends to accumulate more of the barely-coherent “dis buk sux” kinds of reviews from people who probably weren’t in the target audience to begin with. And over time, that tends to weigh the book’s overall rating down, which unfortunately can be a turn-off for people who are in the book’s audience.

Contrast that with Genesis Earth. I launched it at full price with a blog tour (which I put together myself, among writer friends whom I knew personally and who had readers who would probably enjoy the book). It sold about a hundred copies in the first ninety days, then slowed to a very low trickle—maybe one or two sales each month, if that. Things continued like this for several years.

Then, back in December, I made it free for one month. Downloads immediately shot up, and continued strong throughout the entire month. Even without any advertising, I was still getting maybe 50 downloads per day on Amazon, plus a constant trickle on the other platforms. For the next couple of months, sales of all my other books grew as well

For April, I decided to make it free again, just to see if I could duplicate that kind of success. I haven’t done any paid advertising for it, but I have submitted it to various sites and newsletters that will promote free books. The result? Thousands of downloads, with a baseline rate of more than a hundred downloads per day.

Genesis Earth has never been perma-free, but every time I set it free for a limited time, it’s like I’ve released the pent-up flood waters. In contrast, Outworlder struggles to get any downloads at all, even when it’s free for only a limited time.

Part of this may have to do with the reviews. Genesis Earth has a much better overall book rating, simply because most of the people who read it over the years were the ones willing to pay full price. This also means that the book has grown into its own niche organically, since the people who have bought Genesis Earth also tend to buy other books similar to it. Retailers like Amazon take note of this, and tend to associate these books with each other in things like also-bought recommendations.

This is all just speculation, but when all of this comes together, it seems to result not only in a higher download rate when the book is free, but more downloads from people who are in the book’s targeted audience.

The mos fascinating result of this is that when the book goes back to full price, sales get a small but long-lasting boost. I’ve seen this with Bringing Stella Home, which was free in March. It’s not a huge boost—maybe only five or six books a month—but it boosts all of the other books in the series as well, and lasts for a couple of months. It’s not just Amazon where this is happening, either—in fact, it may be boosting sales on the non-Amazon platforms even more.

Bringing Stella Home is different, though, because it’s a full-length novel (about 110k words, or +300 pages) in a series that can be read out of order just fine. In other words, more of the “stand-alone with series potential” that was the convential wisdom in the old tradpub world. Like Genesis Earth, it has never been perma-free.

So what’s the takeaway?

That maybe the convential wisdom among indies is all wrong. That perma-free actually taints books and makes it harder for them to stick in the rankings, or to grow into their natural audience. That longer stand-alone books with recurring characters set in the same universe may be better for gaining long-term traction than shorter, more episodic books. Also, that the more books you give away for free—not just first in series—the better that all of your books will sell.

My experience is purely anecdotal, and there’s a lot more analysis I need to do before I can say anything for sure. From what I can tell, though, it seems that the best strategy is to write longer, fuller books that satisfy more than they entice, and to use free as a marketing strategy for only a limited time.

In other words, the collective wisdom of KBoards is completely off the mark, and Kris Rusch (who regularly gets vilified on KBoards) actually knows what she’s talking about most of the time.

Like I said, this is all anecdotal and more analysis is required. But I’m very curious now to make some of my non- first-in-series books free for a month, just to see if it has a similar boost. With Bringing Stella Home, for example, a lot of readers seem to be jumping over books 2 and 3 to read Heart of the Nebula, the direct sequel (but book 4 in the Gaia Nova series order). It would be very interesting to see if Desert Stars has an awesome free run as well, resulting in more sales after it reverts back to full price.

Lots of interesting stuff to consider. It’s definitely going to inform my writing and marketing efforts in the future.

State of the Vasicek 2015

I recently read a post over on Brandon Sanderson’s blog where he did an exhaustive recap on his writing and update on all of his WIPs, and called it State of the Sanderson. Since it’s the end of the year and I’m already looking back in order to make some new resolutions for 2016, it seems like a good opportunity to do something similar myself.

In 2015, I managed to publish five books, including two novels, a novelette, and two short stories:

2015 Release

In addition, I wrote a number of short stories that are currently on submission to the major markets, and will probably be published (by myself or in the magazines) sometime in 2016. These include:

Killing Mr. Wilson — Time Travel (950 words)
My Name Is For My Friends — Sword & Sorcery (2,000 words)
Utahraptors at Dawn — Cyberpunk (1,950 words)
Welcome to Condescension — Sci-fi Humor (750 words)
A Less Than Perfect Game — Sword & Sorcery (1,250 words)
Elusive Eden — LDS Science Fiction (2,200 words)
The Janus Anomaly — Space Opera (4,400 words)

All of these stories will get out eventually, though it may take a while. I’m putting them on submission to the short story magazines and anthologies that pay at least semi-professional rates, since none of them buy exclusive rights to the stories. Why rush to self-publish if I can get paid twice?

In a lot of ways, it was a pretty decent year. In other ways, I wish it had been more productive. I didn’t publish anything for the first six months, except for A Hill on Which to Die, which I later unpublished in order to take it out of Kindle Unlimited (the first and probably last time I will ever experiment with exclusivity). I made up for it later, but still.

Next year is going to be a lot more productive, I hope. I started a lot more projects this year than I finished, so in 2016 I plan to refocus on the writing and substantially increase my output.

As for writing projects, here is what I’m working on:

Major Projects

Sons of the Starfarers

There are five more books before this series is complete, and while I know more or less how the series is going to end, I’m still in the process of writing it. However, I’m making good enough progress to publish at least two more books in the series this year, possibly three or four.

Captives in Obscurity (Book V) is already written and ready to send off to the editor. Trouble is, cash is kind of tight right now and I probably won’t be able to send it off until after I’ve filed my taxes, which I hope to do early February (I always try to get a jump on tax season each year). For now, that means I’m looking for a launch in May.

Patriots in Retreat (Book VI) is my current WIP, and I hope to have the first draft finished before the end of January. A lot of stuff happens in this book—it’s kind of like the Empire Strikes Back episode, where crap hits the fan and things get real. Then again, Friends in Command (Book IV) was kind of like that too, and Captives in Obscurity has some really crazy developments… point is, I think you guys are going to like these books.

Haven’t outlined any of the other books in the series yet, but I’m a pantser so that’s normal. I do have a climactic ending that I’m working toward, which will tie in this series with all of my other books in the same universe. It’s going to be great to see it all come together, and I expect it will over the course of the next year!

STATUS: Book VI currently in progress.

Gunslinger to the Stars

I started this book in earnest a few months ago, then hit chapter 2 and realized I had a beginning and an end but no idea what to put in the middle. So I put the project on the back burner, letting the ideas percolate until I’m ready to pick it up again and go full throttle. With luck, that will happen very soon.

This is a really awesome project, and one of the ones I’m most excited about. I’ll post a few excerpts in the next few weeks to give you guys a taste, and I think you’re really going to like it!

STATUS: On the back burner, will resume again soon.

Queen of the Falconstar

A few of the readers who enjoyed my Star Wanderers books have mentioned that they wish Jeremiah, Noemi, and Mariya had ended up in a polygamous relationship. While I don’t think that would have worked for that particular story, in Queen of the Falconstar, it’s a major plot point. In addition, the book is an origin story for the Hameji, which should be a lot of fun for readers of my other books as well.

I’ve been working on this project off and on for the last year or so, and while I have a pretty good handle on the main storyline, I’m still a little iffy about how to proceed. It may have some promise as a hybrid between Space Opera and Sword and Planet (sword and starship? Is that even a thing?). The Princess of Mars books are on my reading list, so I’ll probably revisit this project after reading through some of those.

STATUS: On the back burner.

The Sword Keeper

I really need to finish this book. It’s already more than half written, and has some really fantastic potential. For the last three years, I’ve been working on it off and on, but 2016 will definitely be the year that I finish it (though it might still be a while before it’s published).

STATUS: On the back burner.

Secondary Projects

Starship Lachoneus

In spite of finishing the prologue and publishing it as “Worlds Without Number” under my J.M. Wight pen name, I haven’t yet made a serious attempt to write this book. The main reason is that it’s a passion project that I don’t expect to pay off very well or earn me much prestige. Still, when my career is at a point where I can afford more time for a passion project, I will probably pick it up.

STATUS: On the back burner.

The Genesis Earth Trilogy

Genesis Earth is a standalone book, but I realized soon after finishing it that I could easily turn it into a trilogy. Back in 2011, I even started writing the second book: Edenfall. But one thing led to another, and it got put on hold in favor of Star Wanderers.

The trilogy is still on hold, but if there is enough interest, I could certainly resume work on it. I made Genesis Earth free for the month of December, and it’s had a much stronger free run than I’d anticipated (especially with almost no advertising). Depending on the feedback I get from readers, I’ll finish this project sooner or later.

STATUS: On hold, may resume soon.

Mercenary Savior

This is a prequel to Bringing Stella Home that I’ve had kicking around in my head for the last two years. The interest in Heart of the Nebula has been surprisingly steady, even more than a month after publication. If either of those books starts to break out, then I will definitely pick up this project. Otherwise, I can’t justify making it a priority.

STATUS: On hold.

Empress of the Free Stars

Empress of the Free Stars is a sequel to Stars of Blood and Glory that I started back in 2013 but never got further than the prologue. Again, unless my Gaia Nova books start to break out, I can’t justify prioritizing this over my other WIPs.

STATUS: On hold.

Children of the Starry Sea

This one is a novelized sequel to Star Wanderers, with all of the major characters from that series. I know there’s some interest in this one, but for now I think my time would better be spent launching new series rather than returning to old ones. But in 2016, that may well change.

STATUS: On hold.

Lifewalker

This is a standalone I started back in 2013, and I even got several chapters into it before I put it on the back burner. Haven’t touched it since, so right now it’s really more on hold, but my Dad keeps bugging me to finish it (he read the first chapter and really liked it). So yeah. Someday.

I will say this, though: if the short story that’s derived from this book gets picked up by one of the magazines, I will definitely move it up in the writing queue.

STATUS: On hold.

A Brotherhood of Swords

This book is supposed to be a Sword & Sorcery prequel to The Sword Keeper, but since I already have plans for that book, this one is on hold. I did get a really good short story out of it, though.

STATUS: On hold.

That pretty much does it. This next year is going to be super, super busy, and hopefully productive as well. My goal for 2016 is to get back in the saddle, writing full-time again as soon as I can. There are other resolutions I plan to make as well, but those can wait until Thursday.

Sick sick sick!

I have been sick for about a week now and it sucks—literally. Got a sore throat right now, and I’m sucking on garlic to try to make it go away. Strangely enough, it seems to be working.

It all started with my cute little niece, who apparently is an incubator for the plague. Came down with the mother of all stomach flus a week ago, and was spraying out both ends for three or four days. Just when my stomach settled and I thought things would return to normal, I woke up on Sunday with a throat so sore I could barely breathe.

Somewhere in the middle of all that, though, I managed to finish Captives in Obscurity (Sons of the Starfarers: Book V). So that’s going out to the first readers. After that, I’ve got a couple of projects that I could start working on, though I probably won’t get to it until after I’m feeling better.

Heart of the Nebula is up for pre-order, though, so check it out! I’ll send out a newsletter announcing it soon, but I just switched from Tinyletter to Sendy and I’m still figuring out how it all works. Keep an eye on your inboxes though!

Now back to sucking that garlic…

To publish or submit?

Man, I am so sick right now. Caught a stomach flu from my neice, and it has been going through me like a chainsaw through butter.

In any case, things are going fairly well aside from that. Heart of the Nebula is now up for pre-order through November 21st, so you can expect to hear a lot more about that in the coming weeks. Captives in Obscurity (Sons of the Starfarers: Book V) is nearly ready to send off to my test readers, and should be published sometime in January or February. Besides that, I’m working on a couple of other big projects that should come out next year.

Right now, though, I have something of a dilemma. Do you guys remember Starship Lachoneus? It’s that completely unmarketable story idea I had a while back: the one where Jesus Christ organizes the construction of a generation ship to take humanity to the stars, because after His millenial reign, the Earth will be rendered uninhabitable. Well, I wrote the prologue, and it actually stands well enough on its own to be a short story. The dilemma is whether I should publish it now, or submit it to a short story market.

From what I can tell, the market for Mormon sci-fi short fiction is somewhere between small to non-existent. Irreantum closed a few years ago, Sunstone is limited to an annual contest, and Dialogue only pays in contributor copies. The Mormon Lit Blitz would be awesome, except that the story is more than 2k words long. Another option would be an anthology like Monsters and Mormons, but I’m not aware of any new ones.

I could try to submit it to the mainstream sci-fi markets, but I don’t think it would be a good fit for any of them. It’s written for a Mormon audience, with cultural and religious references that only people familiar with Mormonism would get. That said, the religious elements aren’t all that different from any other sci-fi world-building element, and the story isn’t overtly preachy or moral, so I suppose you don’t have to be a believing Mormon to enjoy it.

What do you guys think? Should I submit it elsewhere first, or publish it myself?

Cover reveal for my next big novel!

Wow, it’s been forever since I posted anything on this blog. I’ve definitely been busy, but haven’t been as good at keeping up with it here. That’s definitely going to change.

For those of you reading the Sons of the Starfarers series, I’m only about a chapter away from finishing the first draft of Captives in Obscurity. If all goes well, that one should be out sometime in December/January. There’s a huge, game-changing shift that takes the story in a completely unexpected direction—one that’s going to be really fun to tie in with everything else that’s going on. It should also answer some of the wider questions about the Gaia Nova universe, and set things up for the book where they rediscover Earth (or at least attempt to).

I’m also working on a fun shoot ’em up sci-fi adventure novel with the working title Gunslinger to the Stars. It’s kind of like a mash-up of Firefly, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Monster Hunter International. The main character is Sam Kletchka, a gunslinger / man of fortune from New Texas, one of the Gliese colonies near Earth. He sets out for adventure with his arsenal of firearms (affectionately named Mercy, Faithfulness, Righteousness, Judgment, Preservation, Love, Kindness, and Trust), and hilarity ensues, along with lots and lots of explosions.

In the meantime, though, I have some really, really awesome news! On November 21st, the weekend before Thanksgiving, the fourth novel in the Gaia Nova series will be coming out! Here is the cover and book description (the artist is Hideyoshi, who also did the covers for the other Gaia Nova books): HOTN (cover)

THEY LOST THE WAR, BUT WINNING THE PEACE IS STILL WITHIN THEIR GRASP.

Five years have passed since the Hameji conquered James McCoy’s homeworld, all but enslaving his people. Now, the occupation threatens to destroy them.

Deep in the heart of the Good Hope nebula, there is a place where they can start over. But it will take a strong leader to get them there, and the temptation to trade freedom for security has never been greater. Even if they manage to escape from the Hameji, the greatest threat to their future may come from within.

James once gave everything to save the ones he loved. This time, his sacrifice could make him a legend.

Heart of the Nebula is a direct sequel to Bringing Stella Home. Like all the other books in the Gaia Nova series, however, it can be read as a standalone book. A lot of characters from the other books come back for this one: James of course, but also Stella, Abaqa, Lars, and many other people from The Colony. There are also a lot of new characters.

This may be the most important book of my career to date. I started it almost five years ago, and have been working on-and-off on it ever since. In that time, I’ve really poured a lot of myself into it, perhaps more than any other book I’ve written.

If all goes well, it should go up for pre-order by the end of the week. The print version will come out with the ebook. Once Heart of the Nebula is up for pre-order, I’ll set Bringing Stella Home to free until November, and probably organize a blog tour for the book release. If you’re interested in having me guest post on your blog, shoot me an email at joseph.vasicek@gmail.com!

Two new stories!

Now that I’m back from Cape Cod, I’ve got two major projects that I’m focused on: finish the first draft of Captives in Obscurity (Sons of the Starfarers: Book V), and get Heart of the Nebula ready for publication in November. Those are some big releases, so you can expect to hear a lot in the coming months about them—especially Heart of the Nebula, which I’ve been working on for the past four years. Lots of exciting stuff!

In the meantime, I had two smaller releases in the past couple of weeks, and I think you guys are really going to enjoy them!

The first is the re-release of “A Hill on Which to Die,” an epic fantasy novelette about a band of free orcs trekking into the wilderness to start a new clan. This is my first real foray into fantasy, but I really enjoyed it and am thinking seriously about writing more books in this universe. If that sounds like something you’d like to see, then give this story a try and let me know what you think by posting a review or shooting me an email.

The second is a short story in the Star Wanderers universe. Longtime readers may recognize it as a story I wrote last year as part of the Short Blitz challenge. “Starchild” is a quick read that takes place in a far-off corner of the universe, and shows what life is like on a tiny isolated space colony in the Far Outworlds.

This is only the tip of the iceberg as far as stories go. My goal is to have a new release at least every two months, with short stories in between the major novel releases. I’ve been averaging about one short story every month as far as writing goes, and it looks like quite a few of them are going to come off of the submission pipeline (either by getting picked up or by exhausting the pro/semi-pro markets) in the next year or so. This is all in addition to my novel writing, which hasn’t slowed down in any way from writing short stories.

So you can definitely expect to see more stories from me in the coming months! And as always, if you want to be the first to hear about a new release (as well as special offers and exclusives), then be sure to sign up for my email list.

Thanks for reading!

Nothing Found

Update from Cape Cod

Wow, it has been forever since the last time I blogged.

So I’m at Cape Cod right now, vacationing with family for the next full week. Since my parents are moving from Massachusetts from Iowa, this will probably be the last time that we come up here, at least for a very long while. I’m doing my best to enjoy it, which means that I’m not doing much writing at all.

However, I have a lot of things in the pipeline to come out soon. At the end of this month, A Hill on Which to Die will be out not only on Amazon, but all the other retailers as well. And after nearly five years of work, I’m finally getting Heart of the Nebula ready for publication. If all goes well, that should be out over Thanksgiving.

Lots of other stuff going on behind the scenes, too. When I get back, I’m going to finish writing Captives in Obscurity (Sons of the Starfarers: Book V), which I started back in June. I hit a block midway through, but after taking a break to let the ideas percolate, I think I can jump back in and finish it before the end of September.

There are a few other projects on my mind too, including one with the working title Gunslinger to the Stars that’s a bit of a mash-up between Firefly, Monster Hunter International, and Guardians of the Galaxy. That one is going to be a lot of fun to write. Then there’s The Sord Keeper, which I hope to finish (finally!) before the end of the year.

As for the vacation, it’s been pretty fun so far. My sisters are all here with their families, and it’s been good to catch up with them and their kids. We’ve all mellowed out a bit over the past decade, so it’s not nearly as stressful to be around each other as it was when we were all teenagers. We can actually play a full game of Shanghai without someone rage-quitting midway through! Okay, okay, usually it was me doing the rage-quitting, but still…

Cape Cod is a nice place, but I have to admit, I kind of miss Utah. I’ve lived ten years of my life in New England and another ten years in the Intermountain West, and I have to admit, Utah feels a lot more like home. When my parents move, I won’t have any roots to pull me back to this part of the country, and I don’t anticipate ever coming back except to visit.

I used to say that Cape Cod was my favorite place in the world. It’s definitely still up in the top ten, but it’s not at the top anymore. If you asked me which place was, though, I honestly wouldn’t have an answer. It’s been almost three years since I did any serious traveling, and I’m starting to get antsy to get out there again. We’ll see what the future brings.

Streamlining

About a month ago, I decided to make some changes to my writing process. I’d noticed that a lot of time was passing between book releases, and that even though I was writing almost every day, there wasn’t much to show for it.

My old process tended to go in one of two ways:

ONE

“I have the coolest idea for a story! Ima drop everything and write it now!”

Writes the first chapter.

“Okay, it’s not quite as cool as I’d imagined, but I can work with this.”

Writes another chapter or two.

“Hmm, this story is starting to have issues. Maybe it’s not as cool as I thought it was.”

Gets writer’s block for a couple of days. Struggles to do anything productive.

“Dammit, why isn’t this story coming together? I should be doing 2k words a day, but I can barely manage 500. If this story is really that bad, then maybe it’s not the project I should be focusing on right now. Maybe I shouldn’t even be writing it at all.”

Gets discouraged and takes off a couple of days.

“I have the coolest idea for a totally different story! Ima drop everything and write it now!”

TWO

“It’s been forever since I actually finished anything, so I am going to stick with this project until it is DONE.”

Writes productively for a week or two.

“Yes! The story is coming together just like I knew it would!”

Reaches a difficult scene.

“Why am I not as productive as I was last week? I can do better than this! Words, dammit! Words!”

Struggles to finish the difficult scene. Loses all momentum and enthusiasm.

“Okay, that was pretty tough, but at least it’s finished. I am really, really, really excited about this random shiny story idea that came to me yesterday, but I have to stick with my current work in progress until it is DONE.”

Procrastinates for hours every day. Watches in dismay as productivity falls.

“WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME??”

Tries for weeks to regain enthusiasm for the project. Invariably fails.

“Maybe I should work on something else.”

It went on like this for the better part of a year, which is why I haven’t published anything for the last six months (until Friends in Command, that is). And honestly, it’s not a lot of fun. When you feel like you should be more productive but don’t seem to really be getting anywhere, it’s very easy to lose touch with the passion that made you want to be a writer in the first place.

So back in May, while hiking in the mountains, I thought about it for a while and asked myself: what is the 20% of what I do that produces 80% of the results?

The answer, interestingly enough, wasn’t “butt in chair, hands on keyboard.” I’d been doing that for months, and all I had was a dozen unfinished projects to show for it. For me at least, merely showing up to work is not enough to produce results.

In 2014, one of my resolutions was to publish a new release every six weeks. I didn’t keep that resolution perfectly, but I did keep a regular release schedule right up to the holiday season. At that point, I ran into some troubles with Friends in Command and pushed the publication date back (which in retrospect was definitely the right thing to do). I abandoned my release schedule (which was not the right thing to do) and fell into the traps I mentioned above.

When I write without a goal beyond a daily word count, I tend to spin my wheels. In contrast, when I write with a set of goals for a project timeline, such as deadlines for finishing the first draft, sending it out to first readers, making revisions, and preparing the finished project for publication, I tend to get stuff done.

So I streamlined my writing process by giving myself more structure: a WIP log with writing deadlines and publishing schedules. And this is how it works now:

ONE

“I’m really excited about my next project! I’ve been thinking about it for weeks, ever since I put it on the schedule, and now I can finally work on it! Yay!”

Writes for a week. Gets the coolest idea for a totally different story.

“I have the coolest idea for a totally different story! Ima put it in the WIP log and schedule it for… let’s see… two months from now. That should give me something to write while I’m getting project X ready for publication.”

Continues to work on current WIP.

TWO

“It’s time to finally finish this thing so that I can publish it six months from now.”

Writes productively for a week or two. Reaches a difficult scene.

“This story is not coming together, and my deadline is coming up. I don’t know if I’ll reach my deadline. I’d better swap places with this and project Y in the publishing schedule to make sure I have something to publish.”

Keeps writing anyway. Begins to lose momentum and enthusiasm.

“Well, I’m not going to finish this project by my deadline. However, I have enough time that I can take another shot at it six weeks from now, after finishing project Z. I’ll write what I can by the deadline, then box it up so that I can approach it with fresh eyes when the time comes.

Writes until the deadline and sets unfinished project aside. Starts next project with renewed enthusiasm.

In June, I spent most of my time working on Captives in Obscurity (Sons of the Starfarers: Book V). I hoped to finish the project by the first week in July, but I hit a really difficult scene about midway through. Instead of forcing myself to stick with it, though, I pushed on until the deadline and left it unfinished so that I could pick up the next WIP on the schedule.

I think that was the right thing to do, because changing it up has helped to keep things fresh, both for Captives in Obscurity and my current WIP, Heart of the Nebula. Instead of bringing heaps of baggage to the next project, I’m starting clean, and things are going quite well. With luck, Heart of the Nebula should be up for pre-order in September and published over Thanksgiving week. As for Captives, I’ll come back to it in September with fresh eyes, which will not only help me to fix what was broken, but finish the first draft in a few weeks, rather than taking months to agonize over it.

So that’s what I’ve been up to. Hopefully it will lead to lots and lots of books in the coming months and years!

Goodreads Giveaway for STARS OF BLOOD AND GLORY

Hi guys! Just a quick update that I’m currently running a Goodreads Giveaway for Stars of Blood and Glory until the end of the month. I ordered three copies to sell at conventions that had a minor typo on the spine (“blod” instead of “blood”), so I’m giving those away since I can’t sell them. These will be signed copies, so if you’re interested, check it out!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Stars of Blood and Glory

by Joe Vasicek

Giveaway ends May 31, 2015.

See the giveaway details
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Where’s SONS OF THE STARFARERS: BOOK IV?

So it’s been several months since I released Strangers in Flight (Sons of the Starfarers: Book III), and I’ve already gotten some flak from people waiting impatiently for Book IV: Friends in Command. Some of you may be wondering about that yourself, considering how I wrote and released the first three books within a couple of months of each other.

Well, here’s what’s going on. I wrote Friends in Command a couple of months ago and sent it out to my test readers, hoping that they would enjoy it. Many of them did, but they pointed out some problems that required a major rewrite. Essentially, I had put the entire novel in one character’s point of view, but there were plot points that happened outside of her point of view that made that not work.

So I went back and did a major revision, throwing in Aaron as the secondary POV character. And the plot points turned much smoother. But when I sent it out to a second round of test readers, they told me that it felt too much like a bridge story—that something was still missing. It wasn’t that the book was broken, or that the story didn’t come together properly. The story was good, but the book wasn’t as satisfying as I wanted it to be.

Now, Friends in Command is part four in a nine-part series, so in a lot of ways it really is a bridge. But I want this story to be more than that—to be strong enough to stand on its own, and not just set things up for the later books. Kind of like how Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes back sets things up for Jedi, but is an amazing movie in its own right (arguably the best one in the whole franchise). So with the new feedback, I identified some character elements that I needed to develop, and went back to work.

So far in the series, each book has centered around a different character. The first book, Brothers in Exile, focused on Isaac, the older and more responsible brother. The second book, Comrades in Hope, focused on Aaron, the younger brother who is eager for a chance to prove himself. Strangers in Flight revolved around Reva, the girl that they rescued in the first book, and Friends in Command revolves around Mara, the close friend and confidante that Aaron makes in book two.

The main thing is that I’m doing all I can to make this book as great as possible. I could have pushed it out a couple of months ago just for the sake of putting it out quickly, but I didn’t want to do that until I knew I’d written a quality book. So don’t be worried that I’ve dropped the ball, or that I’ve abandoned the series—I definitely have not! I’m just hard at work making sure it’s done right.

If you’ve been eagerly awaiting the next Sons of the Starfarers book, the good news is that I think I’m just about ready to release it. I’m finishing up with the third round revisions today, and I feel really good about it. I’m still going to send it out for one last test reading pass, just to make sure, and if everything’s good I’ll send it out to my editor before the end of the month. My cover designer is already working on the cover, and my editor says he should have a slot open very soon.

So if all goes well, I’ll put Friends in Command up for pre-order in the first or second week of April. The pre-order price will be $.99, with a tentative release date of May 1st. If things don’t go well, I may have to do another revision pass, but I’ll still do my best to release the book by June.

Six months without a new release is far, far too long. Fortunately, I have some other books coming down the pipeline, such as Heart of the Nebula, a full-length novel and direct sequel to Bringing Stella Home. With luck, that one will be out before the end of the year. And I’m about halfway through with The Sword Keeper, another awesome novel that I think you guys are really going to enjoy.

Lots of stuff going on! I’d better get back to work, but don’t worry—the books are coming!