Category: Genesis Earth Trilogy

My mom gave my book three stars

Some people complain about how indie authors hit up their friends and family to give them five-star reviews…well, last week I gave the Createspace proof for Genesis Earth to my Mom, and today I noticed that she posted a three-star review for the book on Goodreads. 😛

It’s a cute one, though.  This is what she said:

Sci-fi is not my genre, but the author is my own son! I read it in 2 days (fast, for me); after page 100, I did not want to put the book down. Had to see what would develop–see the story. I’m hosting the author at home for a few weeks, so it has been fun to discuss his characters, etc. in person. I look forward to more discussion.

I posted this on the Kindle Boards just for laughs, and the guys over there agreed that it’s pretty hilarious.  A few of them suggested I rate her cooking!  But don’t worry, Mom, I’d give it at least a 3.5. 😉

In all seriousness, my Mom’s actually been really supportive of my writing, and I really appreciate that.  She is a tough (if loving) critic, though, so I’m sure she’ll keep me on my toes.

The most hilarious thing about this is that her catchphrase growing up was “suffer!”

New blurbs and an interview

First of all, I recently did an interview with Elizabeth Baxter on her blog, Small Blonde Hippy. In it, I discuss Star Wanderers, Stars of Blood and Glory, and a bit about my path to becoming an indie author.  You can find it here–go check it out!

Second, in preparation for the new ebook versions of my novels which I plan to release soon, I’ve been going over some of the old blurbs and updating them.  It’s harder than you might expect!  I think the new ones are getting better, but I’d appreciate some feedback before I post them.  What do you think?

For Genesis Earth:

A BOY AND A GIRL ON A VOYAGE TO AN ALIEN STAR.

Michael Anderson never thought he would set foot on a world like Earth. He only studied planetology to satisfy his parents, two of humanity’s most brilliant scientists. But when they open a wormhole to an alien planet—one emitting a signal that can only be a sign of intelligent life—he soon becomes caught up in the mission to explore it.

His sole mission partner, Terra, doesn’t care nearly as much about the science as he does, though. The child of a bitter divorce, she sees the mission as a chance to escape from the expectations of others.

Before they can work out their differences, a mysterious alien ship begins to hunt them down. Alone, twenty light-years from the nearest human being, they must learn to open up and trust each other—but how can they do that when they can’t even agree why they’re there?

As Michael struggles to keep the mission from falling apart, he is forced to reexamine his deepest, most unquestioned beliefs about the universe—and about what it means to be human.

For Bringing Stella Home:

HE’LL GO TO THE ENDS OF THE GALAXY TO SAVE HIS BROTHER AND SISTER.

The New Gaian Empire is crumbling. An undefeatable enemy from the outer reaches of space is sweeping across the frontier stars, slagging worlds and sowing chaos. No one dares to stand up to them—no one, that is, except James McCoy.

As the youngest son of a merchanter family, James never thought he would get caught up in the Imperial wars. But when his home world falls to the barbarian Hameji, his brother and sister, Ben and Stella, are taken away as prisoners and slaves. With the rest of the galaxy thrown into chaos, only James has the determination to rescue them—even if it means losing everything in the process.

For Sholpan:

SHE’D RATHER DIE THAN BE A SLAVE TO THE CONQUERORS OF HER HOME WORLD.

Stella McCoy never thought she’d fall prisoner to the barbarian Hameji. The oldest daughter of a working class family, all she wanted was to finish her apprenticeship and start a career an astrogator. But when the Hameji conquer her home world with their starfaring battle fleets, she is forced against her will to become a concubine to one of their highest ranking warlords.

Stella would rather die than spend the rest of her life as a concubine. Fortunately, as she looks for a chance to escape, she starts to make friends in high places. But in the dangerous world of harem politics, with new friends come new enemies—ones that have the power to destroy her.

One of the changes I plan to make is to insert the blurb immediately before the first chapter.  I’ve heard that a lot of ebook readers are downloading so many free books and samples that it often takes months before they get around to reading them. This parallels my own experience, so I figure it’s a good idea to have something in the beginning to remind readers what the book is and why they picked it up.

Other than that, no big changes except fixing typos and formatting errors.  I’m not the kind of writer who makes sweeping changes to a published story based on reviews, one-star or otherwise.

In other news, I’m almost finished with the second draft of Stars of Blood and Glory.  This has been a surprisingly fast revision, but then again, that might be because I haven’t sent it out yet to my first readers.  Based on their feedback, I’ll probably do another draft before putting it in the publishing queue.

Star Wanderers is going to be my main focus until the end of the year, though.  I’ve gotten a lot of excellent feedback on Part II, and should start the revisions in the next couple of days.  With luck, I’ll have it published by mid-July.  Part III is going to take a little more time, but I’m pretty confident I’ll have it up by October at the latest.

For that to happen, though, I need to get back to writing.  So long!

Yay for Kobo Writing Life!

So after a month of waiting, Kobo’s publishing platform, Writing Life, is finally up!  I just finished uploading all of my titles (except my short stories–I’ll just continue to distribute through Smashwords for now). Genesis Earth is already available, and the others should be up soon.

For those of you who are readers, this means that you’ll be able to find my books on Kobo almost as soon as they go up on Amazon.  The formatting will (hopefully) be cleaner, since I’ll have direct control.  Prices will generally be the same as on other platforms, but when I change the price on Amazon, I’ll change it simultaneously on Kobo, too–no waiting for weeks on end for the price to drop.

For those of you who are writers, I’ll be sure to keep you updated with thoughts on my experience.  So far, it looks pretty good: the royalty rates are better than Amazon (70% for titles priced $1.99 – $12.99, 45% for all other titles), the publishing process is faster, and the upload formats (.epub, .doc, .docx, .mobi, and .odt) are generally more flexible.  Downsides include a higher minimum threshold for direct deposit ($100 or every 6 months), fewer category choices, and what appears to be a forced 2:3 aspect ratio for cover art.

Besides that–oh, look, Bringing Stella Home and Journey to Jordan just went up too!  Man, that’s fast!  And it looks like the aspect ratios went back to 3:4, so I won’t have to redo the covers.  That’s a relief!  So yeah, I’ll be sure to keep you updated.

Also, in preparing my books for upload to Kobo, I discovered some pretty egregious formatting errors for the Barnes & Noble copies of Bringing Stella Home and Sholpan.  I’m not sure what happened–probably it had something to do with an older version of Calibre or Open Office, since I was overseas at the time and only had access to my netbook.  So yeah, if you downloaded one of the broken copies, just shoot me an email and I’ll send you the updated epub version, no questions asked.

In general, I need to revamp my publishing process.  Currently, it resembles jumping through a ring of fire while juggling half a dozen angry poodles.  Open Office, Mobipocket, Notepad, Calibre, KindleGen, DOS prompts, and Kindle for PC–yeah, I’d better get on that.  If you have any suggestions for free/open source software that does .mobi and .epub, please let me know.

In other news, I finished my first pass through Stars of Blood and Glory, and should be finished with draft 2.0 by the end of the week.  After that, it’s back to Star Home and Star Wanderers.

The print edition of Genesis Earth is in!

The proof for the print edition of my first novel, Genesis Earth, just came in the mail–and it looks AWESOME!  Check it out!

Front cover.
Back cover.
Page 1, Chapter 1.

Holy crap, it is so cool to have a book in my hands THAT I ACTUALLY WROTE.  So cool!

I approved the proof a couple of hours ago.  It’s currently up for sale on CreateSpace (where I get a higher royalty), but it should also be up on Amazon in 5-7 business days.  I haven’t opted for the extended distribution, which means that those are the only places where it’s going to be available for a while.  I might opt in a little later, but I haven’t made a decision just yet.

Next step: put out print editions for Bringing Stella Home and Desert Stars.  Those should be coming soon, probably by mid-August.

Man, this is so much fun!

Rivers and orphans and rivers, oh my!

So one of my goals this summer is to release POD (print-on-demand) editions for the three novels I currently have up as ebooks (Genesis Earth, Bringing Stella Home, and Desert Stars).  I started with Genesis Earth a couple of days ago, and wow!  I had no idea that getting a book ready for print could be so much fun!

I just finished formatting and typesetting the interior today, and it looks pretty awesome!  Drop caps, chapter headings, page numbers, a pleasingly arranged text–there’s something immensely satisfying about paper, an experience that ebooks (as awesome as they are) just don’t quite capture.  If I weren’t a writer, I’d be a typesetter–but because I’m an indie, I can be both!

As with ebooks, the learning curve for print formatting is pretty steep, but I think I’ve got the hang of it.  The guys over at Kindle Boards gave me a lot of helpful advice, and sent me a really awesome POD guide that’s been a lifesaver.  My editor (who’s also trained in typesetting) gave it a once over too, so I think we’re in good shape.

Barring any unforeseen complications, the print version of Genesis Earth should be up in a couple of weeks.  The cover art is more or less done–I just need to revise the blurb, send the PDFs out to CreateSpace, and wait for the proof to come in the mail.

One thing I’m wondering is whether to go with the free ISBN (which will list CreateSpace as the publisher) or to spend $10 and go with my own imprint.  My gut tells me to go with the free option–not because it’s cheap so much as because it’s less complicated–but I wonder if there might be some advantages down the road to taking the other.

ISBNs, imprints, and distribution channels, oh my…I’ll have to save that for another post a little later. 🙂

Summer To Do list

They say that the three main perks to being a teacher are June, July, and August, and that’s as true for TEFL teachers as it is for any other kind.  I’m spending June in Georgia, but for July and August, I’ll be back in the States.  Instead of vacationing, though, I plan to be working hard at my main career, which is writing.

Here’s what I hope to accomplish:

  • Set up a separate business checking account.
  • Release POD editions of Genesis Earth, Bringing Stella Home, and Desert Stars.
  • Set up an online bookstore to sell direct.
  • Redo cover art for Bringing Stella Home. Completed 2 June 2012.
  • Redo blurbs for all titles.
  • Identify and submit Genesis Earth, Bringing Stella Home, and Desert Stars to prominent sf&f book bloggers.
  • Organize a summer blog tour.
  • Research translation options for all titles.
  • Put proper copyright pages in all titles.
  • Track down all invoices and royalty statements.
  • Switch to the new Kobo publishing platform.
  • Fill out all sections in business plan.

The list might seem a little daunting, but two months should be enough to do most of it, especially considering that I don’t really have any other obligations.  Basically, I want to get everything done that needs to be done in the States, then get back out and spend the rest of the year abroad.

As for writing, don’t worry!  I plan to do that too, as always.  Here’s what my project list currently looks like:

  • Finish the unnamed WOTF project and start publishing it serially.
  • Finish the 3.0 draft of Heart of the Nebula.
  • Send out Stars of Blood and Glory to first readers.
  • Get ready to start Edenfall in the fall.

That last one might be of interest to fans of Genesis Earth.  The reason I haven’t finished Edenfall yet is because…well, this might sound kind of wishy-washy, but it’s because the story hasn’t really called out to me.  For that reason, I decided to put it off and work on other projects that have.

Recently, however, I’ve started to feel the whispering of an intimation that it’s time–that the story is almost ready to come onto the page.  Once it does, I have a feeling that it’s going to be quick–much like the first draft of Genesis Earth.

It’s hard to tell, though, and it may still be too early to know for sure.  The unnamed WOTF project has something to do with it, as well as living here in Georgia.  I have a feeling that rereading Genesis Earth is going to make everything fall into place, but it’s impossible to say. I’ll try doing it at the end of the summer, after I’ve cleaned up my plate a bit, and see what happens from there.

Gah, this sounds so wishy-washy!  I’m a professional writer, after all–why can’t I just pound words out on demand?  But as a creative-type, I’ve learned that that just isn’t the way I work.  There’s such a thing as starting a book too early, and for Edenfall to really shine, I feel like I need to give it a little more time–just a little.

I’m sorry for those of you who have been waiting, but don’t worry!  I definitely haven’t forgotten about it.  And once Edenfall comes to me, I have a feeling that the final book in the trilogy, The Stars of Redemption, won’t be far behind.

That’s the plan for now, anyway.  It’s definitely going to be a busy  summer!

New cover for Bringing Stella Home!

Yep, it’s in!  Here it is:

I decided to redo the cover in preparation for a print-on-demand edition which I hope to release at some point this summer.  The artist is Hideyoshi, who also did the cover art for Genesis Earth and Desert Stars.  He’s great to work with and does some seriously awesome work, so I’m glad he was up for the project!

The other version was okay, but based on the feedback I was getting, I didn’t think it did a good job capturing the real essence of the story.  Oh well–live and learn, I guess. And when it comes to cover art, I still have a lot to learn.

I just uploaded the new ebook version to Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords.  Those sites should update in the next 24 to 72 hours (Smashwords is updated already), while the Kobo, Sony, iTunes, and other versions should update in the next couple of weeks.

I’m not sure if I’ll do desktop backgrounds for this one, but if there’s demand, I’d be willing to do it.  Just shoot me an email and let me know.  My netbook is starting to go, so I probably won’t get to it until July when I’m back in the States, but if/when I do, I’ll release it through the email newsletter, same as the Desert Stars backgrounds.

That’s just about it.  I think I’ve spent more time today staring at this cover than actually writing, so I’d better get back to that.  More good stuff to come–stay tuned!

Trope Tuesday: True Neutral

The True Neutral is something of an enigma.  They generally take no side, either because they have moved beyond good and evil, or because they simply don’t see good and evil the way we do.  Or because this isn’t their war and they just want to be left alone.  Or…well, let’s get to it.

From the easydamus character alignment page:

A neutral character does what seems to be a good idea. She doesn’t feel strongly one way or the other when it comes to good vs. evil or law vs. chaos. Most neutral characters exhibit a lack of conviction or bias rather than a commitment to neutrality.

Some neutral characters, on the other hand, commit themselves philosophically to neutrality. They see good, evil, law, and chaos as prejudices and dangerous extremes. They advocate the middle way of neutrality as the best, most balanced road in the long run.

As you might expect, this alignment doesn’t describe just one type of character.  In fact, there are many different archetypes that fall under True Neutral.  They include:

That’s quite a spread, isn’t it?  The main thing to keep in mind is that these are the characters who refuse to take sides–not just in whatever overworld conflict is driving the story, but in the ethical questions that the story raises (unless neutrality itself is their answer).

My favorite example of this trope is the Childlike Empress from The Neverending Story.  As the very embodiment of Fantasia, she transcends good and evil so completely that her power, the Auryn, cannot be used to forbid a monster from acting on its own evil nature.  Truth from Fullmetal Alchemist is another good example of a transcendent True Neutral.

With everyday, down-to-earth characters, though, this alignment tends to tick me off.  The Ents, for example, very much fall under this trope (as does Tom Bombadil…unless you subscribe to this theory).  Most others examples either come across as weak, selfish, or cowardly to me, so I don’t really care much for this alignment–unless it’s the starting point of a well-constructed character arc.

For that reason, in my own work, most True Neutrals are either straight-up antagonists or gradually shift in alignment as the story progresses.  In Genesis Earth, Michael Anderson starts out as one of the weaker True Neutral types, but changes as events in the story make him grow.  In Desert Stars, Sathi probably falls into this type, though I’m not so sure; either way, he’s very easily manipulated by his Neutral Evil wife.  In Bringing Stella Home, Ilya falls under this alignment due to his moral cowardice, and Anya might as well, though more as a Selfish Good than anything else.  Roman probably does too, but more because he’s old and wants to give up the fight; that’s something I’m currently working on in Stars of Blood and Glory.

I haven’t done a transcendent True Neutral yet, but if I ever write a heroic fantasy tale with gods and demons, I probably will.  After all, if Michael Ende did it in my favorite novel of all time, how can I resist?

Finding the right price

One of the most controversial parts of indie publishing is deciding what price to set for your books.  Epublishing is so new that there isn’t any good data to base pricing decisions off of, and everyone seems to have a different feeling as to what is “fair.” Most readers (including me) agree that $12.99 is a little outrageous for an ebook, but beyond that, the opinions are all over the map.

When I published Genesis Earth, I priced it at $2.99 and haven’t changed it since.  It remains my best selling novel, but at maybe 5 to 10 sales per month, that really doesn’t mean much.  Besides, it’s impossible to know whether price has been the main factor in that.  I briefly dropped my other novels to $2.99, and it had absolutely no effect.

My ultimate goal is to make a living off of my writing, so if my books aren’t going to sell much better at $2.99 as they are at $4.95, from a business perspective I’d rather go with the higher price.  However, as a reader, I’m opposed to paying more than about $5 for an ebook, even from an author I love.  Others might be willing to pay more, but if I can build a readership large enough to support myself at the $4.95 price point, I’d much rather do that.

So, after experimenting with price points and thinking things through, here’s the scheme that I think I’m going to follow:

  • Short stories: $.99
  • Novellas and novel installments: $1.49
  • Short novels (under 90k words): $2.99
  • Longer novels (over 90k words): $4.95

The important thing, of course, is to build a readership that is willing to pay for my work.  I have no idea how to go about doing that, but as far as pricing goes it’s probably important to pick a scheme and be consistent.  Some of my friends are doing quite well at $2.99, while Dean Wesley Smith advises charging much more, but this is the scheme that makes the most sense to me–which honestly isn’t saying much.

About the only thing I can say is that the best way to push a title is to make it free.  All of my short stories were free at one point or another, and even after the initial rush was over, I was still getting around 80 to 100 downloads per week, sometimes more.  I have no idea how many of those people actually read the stories, or how many of those people went on to buy my other titles, but sales did seem to be slightly better across the board when I had at least something out for free.

Now that I’ve got eight titles out, I think it may be a good idea to drop the price of at least one of them for free and keep it there permanently.  David Gaughran recently featured a guest blogger who used this strategy to push her other titles at places like Barnes & Noble, which isn’t as indie friendly/agnostic as Amazon or Smashwords.

For that reason, I’ve decided to make Sholpan free again and to keep it there for the foreseeable future.  It’s already available for free at Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Smashwords, and Diesel, but Amazon hasn’t matched the price yet–and that’s where you can help me.

If you go to Sholpan’s Amazon page and scroll down to the Product Details, there’s a link that says “tell us about a lower price.” If you click on that, it asks for a link to the site that’s selling the ebook at a reduced price.  If enough people fill that out, I’m hoping that Amazon’s algorithms will take notice and match the price–so if you could take a moment and do that for me, I’d greatly appreciate it!

Also, if you’ve read the novella and enjoyed it, I’d appreciate it greatly if you’d take the time to post a favorable review.  Amazon has some weird thing where they copyright reviews written on their site, but for everywhere else you can just copy and paste the same review across multiple sites.  And a lot of them allow you to just leave a rating without writing a review, including Goodreads (Sholpan’s page is here).  I don’t want anyone to be disingenuous, of course, but if you enjoyed the book and took the time to rate it or leave an honest review, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks so much!  Until next time, I’ll see you around.

Vortex by Robert Charles Wilson

Almost seventy years ago, the mysterious alien beings known as the Hypotheticals encased Earth in a force field and built a network of giant arches facilitating overland travel to other habitable planets.  With access to the fossil fuel resources of half a dozen worlds, humanity is slowly killing its homeworld, even as it expands to other stars.

All of this matters little to Sandra Cole, however.  A psychologist at the State Care facility in Texas, it’s all she can do to endure another day.  But all of that starts to change when a police officer brings in a mysterious boy–a boy with a message from the future.

This is the third and final book in Robert Charles Wilson’s Spin trilogy, and it brings the series to a thoroughly satisfying conclusion.  The first book introduced the Hypotheticals and hinted at some greater scheme that they were involved in, the second book further explored the universe while raising more questions about the Hypotheticals, and the last book follows the Hypotheticals to the end of time, answering these questions while taking nothing from the truly alien grandeur of it all.

However, like the other books, the story itself is not about the aliens, but the people who make contact with them.  The high-concept science fiction goodness is all in there, but it’s framed by characters who are both human and relatable.  I wasn’t as invested in these characters as the ones in Spin, but I was still very interested in seeing what happened with them.

The structure of the book is a lot like Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed, with alternating chapters telling two stories that don’t connect until the very end.  I finished the last half of it in practically one sitting, and the last chapter in a breathless sprint–much like Spin and Axis.  The way everything came together, not only for this book but the entire series, was awesome.

I was really happy to see this series finish well, because the first book was a major influence for me in writing Genesis Earth.  As I said in an earlier post, I don’t think anymore that this is the kind of science fiction I’ll write very often, but I sure love reading it.  I wouldn’t recommend starting with this book, but if you like science fiction that makes you stand back and blink at the sheer magnificence of the universe, this is a series you should definitely check out.