SFFS: More From "Downtrodden"

Well, back in the saddle again this week. Last time we saw Aston in "Downtrodden" he was getting interrupted while stopping a pickpocket. Poor Aston never can catch a break, as anyone who's followed my snippets on Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday can confirm. We continue on this week with "Downtrodden" and as always, if you like this snippet (hopefully you've read the previous snippets), be sure to check out my current released Triple-Shots, shown below. Three short stories in each edition, all featuring space pirate Aston West in his various adventures.

And now, for the snippet (and the repeated disclaimer that this is mostly first-draft material):

I looked up, fury filling my heart at the woman interrupting my lesson in negative reinforcement. Then, I did a double-take at the pale-faced redhead just before she smacked me across the face. I released my grip on the boy, whom she snatched up from the ground. I couldn’t tell whether he’d successfully pilfered my funds, but wasn’t about to let this pair get away with it if he had.

Yanking my blaster out, I flipped the switch next to the trigger. “That’s fully automatic, in case you were curious.”

“Put that thing away!”

“I plan on searching that kid for my money.” I aimed the barrel at her face more for emphasis than anything. “So, if you’d care to hand him over...”

Aston taking the initiative? Well, now I've seen everything! While you're waiting for next week's snippet, be sure to go check out the rest of the Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday snippets and don't forget to buy some books. You'll be glad you did.

Do Free Giveaways Impact Sales?

As many of you (hopefully) know, my e-book Seeker has been available for free since the last part of May on most sites. One of the benefits I've hoped for out of this experiment is to see a jump in sales of my for-pay titles. I will mention that as of the end of July, 591 copies had been given away on Amazon.

So, I'll take a look at some of the titles for which I receive instantaneous sales data (i.e., my self-published titles)...starting with my Triple-Shots, which are available for 99 cents each.

So, before Seeker was free, for the first 5 months of the year, these titles sold a combined 2 copies at Amazon. Fairly dismal, especially since they're relatively cheap to pick up. Perhaps people see the low price and assume that they're poor quality...that's another post for another time. But after Seeker was set to free, for the last two months or so, they've combined for a total of 17 sales at Amazon, a major jump in sales over a much shorter period of time. My impression is that folks read the free title, realize that I actually have the ability to spin a fine story, and then pick up the 99-cent titles.

The Cure, on the other hand, didn't seem to enjoy the same benefit. No copies sold the first five months of this year, and only 1 copy sold since. That's understandable, since Seeker is an Aston West novel, and The Cure isn't (even though it does come into play in my next planned Aston novel.

Death Brings Victory, another Aston-based novel, hadn't sold a copy in the first five months at Amazon, but has sold 6 copies since then. A huge jump, to be sure, but not as significant as the Triple-Shots mentioned earlier. Part of this is likely due to the larger price ($2.99 vs. $0.99), but another aspect is likely the fact that this is the third in the series, and readers likely want to try out the first two novels before this one.

Just off Author Central data, I did see an uptick in sales on those first two novels, but quantities won't be known for some time (waiting on royalty statements).

So, do free giveaways impact sales? Just from this data, I'd give a resounding yes...and if you're looking to help out your own sales, give it a try. One thing I will note is that the last two months have been a continuous streak of free giveaway days. I had a book enrolled in the KDP Select program previously, and the 5 days every 90 did not seem to have the same effect. Keep that in mind...

Amazon Rankings: A Statistical Analysis?

Apologies for missing out on this week's SFFS posting...the week's been a mess with many things going on, and by the time I gathered myself together, I'd already missed the deadline for signing up. Hopefully, next week, we'll get back into my short story "Downtrodden" but for now, I wanted to post some information on a favorite topic of mine.

Those pesky Amazon sales rankings...everyone wonders how they come up with the numbers they do, and how they correspond to sales (especially for books where you haven't self-published through the KDP program, and you don't have instant access to your sales numbers, although things are a little bit better now that you can review historical data on sales rankings of all your books through Author Central).

Everyone (hopefully) knows the basics of sales rankings. The lower the number, the more copies you've sold. If a copy of your book sells, the number gets lower. As time passes without sales, your number gets higher. But how exactly do they determine the number? I've taken some sales numbers for my two Triple-Shot collections for about a month's period, and am going to run some analysis on those. The reason is simple. My books don't sell hundreds of copies a day (in fact, each of these changes takes place after a single copy of each sold), so it will hopefully give some insight into how sales impact the ranking.

Just for having all the facts, I'll mention at the time of this posting (and at the time of these sales listed below), DMF had two 5-star reviews, and Temptation had one 4-star review. Also, DMF has more total sales, but Temptation has sold 50% more copies this year than DMF.

So, let's first look at my first Triple-Shot, featuring "Dead Man's Forge." Each date range corresponds to the three-day period surrounding the date of purchase, and the rankings on each day.

18-Jun	19-Jun	20-Jun
621463	83959	158286

21-Jun	22-Jun	23-Jun
242962	116176	204661

24-Jun	25-Jun	26-Jun
270981	79911	185757

30-Jun	1-Jul	2-Jul
383636	91069	155854

5-Jul	6-Jul	7-Jul
346592	87791	166719

14-Jul	15-Jul	16-Jul
464262	82844	127117

And now the numbers for the second Triple-Shot, featuring "Temptation" (note: the first has four dates, as two copies sold, once on the 15th and another on the 16th)

14-Jun	15-Jun	16-Jun	17-Jun
1101143	100249	72888	159123

18-Jun	19-Jun	20-Jun
225398	79764	150470

21-Jun	22-Jun	23-Jun
227376	114281	200625

30-Jun	1-Jul	2-Jul
454136	91333	156508

6-Jul	7-Jul	8-Jul
389278	90126	205350

14-Jul	15-Jul	16-Jul
464331	82883	127182

And now for the analysis...

First off, notice that Temptation sold two copies on sequential days (the first line of the data), but yet the ranking on that second purchase didn't boost it much higher than the other times that a copy was purchased.

Notice also on those date ranges where copies of both books were sold, that the increase in sales rankings were not a matched amount, and that on the following days, the drop in sales rankings were not linear between the two (i.e., one book dropped faster than the other).

Also notice that on two separate sets of days, the starting ranking for Temptation was almost identical (6/18 and 6/21), but a single copy caused it to boost to different rankings after the sale.

Now I will mention at this point that Author Central gives you a daily ranking, but doesn't tell you when the book sold during the day. I've sat and studied it by anecdotal means, but there's no way to record such data that I know of. A copy sells and boosts the ranking, and immediately begins dropping, but the AC value usually matches up to a value somewhere along the path down.

So, what are we to make of all this? I have a theory I'd like to share:

I believe until you start selling multiple copies per day, that you're included in a vast range of numbers starting at some value determined by repeat daily sales-books (likely in the 70K range). When your book sells a copy, you're bumped up to the top of that list. The next single-sale book that sells out of the Kindle store moves you down the list (unless a book starts selling more than one copy per day, in which case it gets bumped to the next tier up), and each subsequent book moves you farther down the list. Author Central would then take a snapshot at the end of each day, which is the number that gets published to your ranking chart. The only thing I'm not sure about is whether reviews get added into the equation somehow...I have an additional theory that if books are sold at around the same time (perhaps in a 5-minute window), that the number and level of star-ratings boost a book higher than the other with fewer and/or lower ratings. I'm also not sure how a book that was selling multiples per day affects the rankings when it stops selling that many on a particular day, but my belief would be that it drops back down into that lower tier and pushes copies that had just sold a copy that day down.

This would explain how a book that was sitting at nearly one million in the rankings (as mine was) would immediately reach a value of about 100K, but then sell a copy the next day and only bump up to about 73K. 

This would also explain how books that sell on the same day ended up moving up to different rankings, because if they sold later in the day, their ranking would by default be higher than another book that sold earlier in the day.

This would also explain how a book drops faster than another, if a book drops down to the lower tier before another book sells a copy.

Obviously this is just conjecture on my part, so maybe one of you out there has a theory they'd like to share, or another comment to make of some sort. Suffice to say, that Amazon truly does have the market cornered on keeping around the most complex algorithm for sales rankings known to man.

Please, feel free to comment and discuss...

SFFS: "Downtrodden" Continues

Well, Aston was still stuck in the middle of a crowded market during last week's snippet for Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday. We continue on this week with "Downtrodden" which I'm fairly certain will go into my next three-story Triple-Shot. If you like this snippet (hopefully you've read the previous two weeks' snippets), be sure to check out my current released Triple-Shots, shown below. Three short stories in each edition, all featuring space pirate Aston West in his various adventures.

And now, for the snippet (and a disclaimer that this is mostly first-draft material):

The sooner I was done with this assignment, the better. Tabor had been tight-lipped on what the cargo was, and normally that was enough for me. He was smarmy and disgusting, especially when it came to his personal tastes, but the lines he wouldn’t cross usually matched up well with my own.

I moved into a more residential area, and getting my bearings from the directions Tabor had given me, I stared up at numbered markings on the wooden shacks, when I was caught off-guard by a young child bumping into me. His hands pushed clumsily into my jacket pocket, and I snatched his wrists before he got himself into serious trouble.

“You don’t want to try that, little man.”

He looked up at me with the same empty eyes I’d seen on the sick family before and I wasn’t completely sure whether he understood the words coming out of my mouth, but he struggled against my hold. I pulled my jacket flap aside to reveal my blaster holster, to hopefully give him a little pause before he continued his attempt at picking my pockets clean of cash. His eyes went wide at the sight, but another voice made a smile stretch across his face.

“Get your hands off him!”

While you're waiting for next week's snippet, be sure to go check out the rest of the Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday snippets and don't forget to buy some books. You'll be glad you did.

SFFS: Another Snippet from "Downtrodden"

Glad to see all of the feedback on last week's snippet for the weekly Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday posts. It sounds like everyone enjoyed it, so I'll bring another snippet from "Downtrodden" out for your perusal and enjoyment. And of course, I'm still determining whether this one will go into my next three-story Triple-Shot (perhaps this fall?). And if you haven't already picked up both of my current Triple-Shots, here they are below. Three short stories, all featuring space pirate Aston West in his various adventures. Check them out!

And now, for the snippet:

Fortunately for all of us, a family of travelers passed by in the other direction, dressed in far nicer clothes than my dingy leather jacket and pants. The crowd of salesmen rushed off to separate them from what little money they had left. I took the freedom to accelerate my pace and escape their barrage.

More shopkeepers hounded me from their stores, but didn’t want to leave their merchandise unattended, leaving me able to pass by quickly without risk. I heard loud coughs and turned my head toward a young mother and three small children, all huddled in a pile against the store’s fabric wall. Their faces were tight, leathery skin pulled against the bones. Their eyes were empty as all four clutched at each other in between coughing fits. A small can rested in front of the mother, a few gold-rimmed credits inside reflecting in the sun. I almost thought about tossing one or two more in, but feared another mob of salesmen would congregate if I started flashing money around.

Besides, I was here on a job.

Note that the bolding above was just so I complied with this week's "cue word" (a new feature of the SFFS snippets?). While you're waiting for next week's snippet, be sure to go check out the rest of the Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday snippets and don't forget to buy some books. You'll be glad you did.

SFFS: A Snippet from "Downtrodden"

Apologies for the long hiatus between snippets for the weekly Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday posts. I will mention that I've been hard at work, trying to build even more tales for you to enjoy from the Aston West Universe. Today's snippet is from a short story that I'm hoping to put into the next three-story Triple-Shot sometime in the near future. Oh, you've never heard of a Triple-Shot before? Well, why didn't you say so? Three short stories, all featuring space pirate Aston West in his various adventures. In fact, there are two such Triple-Shots out there already. Check them out!

And now, for the snippet:

Stepping out through the sliding double doors, my first thought was a fog had rolled in. Then the rancid stench of bodily fluids hit me, and I realized I should be wearing a sealed pressure suit for this job.

Leave it to Tabor Yurick to send me on this sort of assignment.

I attempted to keep my breathing to a minimum as I stepped outside of my ship and off toward the commotion of shopkeepers pushing their wares on new arrivals.

“Close us up,” I told my ship’s computer, Jeanie. She immediately obeyed, gears grinding as the airstair hatch lifted off the ground and closed.

Not even two steps more, and I was mobbed by several sellers trying to ply me with worthless crap I didn’t want or need. Repeated shakes of my head didn’t seem to be doing the trick, and I almost thought I would have to pull my Mark II out of its holster.

I probably don't have to mention, at least to those who've followed the blog for a couple of years, where inspiration for this scene came from. But if you've followed Aston for long, you know that there's going to be something afoot before long, and it's not going to be persistent salesmen.

While you're waiting for next week's snippet, be sure to go check out the rest of the Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday snippets and don't forget to buy some books. You'll be glad you did.

Trying New (and Free) Things

So, one of the interesting (I hesitate to call it exciting, because that insinuates a pleasantness that doesn't often occur with the publishing business) parts of publishing is that when you're in charge of your own promotional efforts, you get to try a lot of new ideas. Toss in the added benefits of self-publishing (which I've described previously on my blog) and the complete autonomy behind setting prices and other aspects of the bookselling side of the business, and you have a vast smorgasbord of interesting.

I've toyed with varying pricing of e-books in the past, but there really wasn't a lot of stability in the numbers to draw from. So, earlier this year (late March or April), I set my novella Seeker as a free e-book through Smashwords.

The distribution of this title reaches out to Barnes and Noble and Kobo, among others, so the title was free through those outlets as well. Amazon eventually price-matched, but it took them until late May to do so. The earlier sites report back to Smashwords, so the numbers of free giveaways off sites beyond Smashwords has a lot of lag (more so than titles sold for a price), so for the purposes of this discussion, I'll stick just with the last month's worth of information from Amazon (which has instantaneous numbers for both free giveaways and sales both).

In the past month (May 25 through June 22), Seeker has given away 407 copies for free. This is a tiny amount compared to some of the numbers I've seen for KDP Select authors (who can offer their books for 5 days every 90, but a program I've previously denounced as ineffective for my purposes). However, as a comparison, over the past 2+ years that Seeker has been available for sale, it has sold less than 100 copies. So, I'd venture to say that we can confirm from this statistic that readers love free stuff.

But giving away books for free doesn't make authors any money, right?

That's where most people (in my opinion) get it wrong. Because most people are thinking in the moment, and that moment is limited to the book they're giving away free. But for those (such as myself) who have multiple titles out there, a free giveaway is a means to an end, namely to sell as many books out of the entire stable as possible.

So, let's look at my other books, shall we? First, we'll look at the next step up, the two Triple-Shot titles I have. Both are priced at 99 cents, and have had mediocre sales since their releases (less than one a month, based on the stats from my latest sales update). How'd they do this month? Each sold 4 copies. Still not as high as I'd like, but it proves to me at least that the free giveaway of one title gives a full sample of your work to a reader. If they like it, they're more willing to spend (at least a tiny amount of) money for more of your work.

Unfortunately, for my two small press Aston West novels, Heroes Die Young and Friends in Deed, I don't have instantaneous sales numbers to compare. But I have been keeping an eye on the sales rankings through Author Central, and can attest that sales for these two spiked once the giveaway started on Amazon. Whether they checked those out after checking out Seeker, and then the Triple-Shots, or just Seeker, is anyone's guess. But I'd venture to theorize that sales happened on these because of the same sampling process I mentioned before.

Only time will tell if a continued giveaway (I'm planning on leaving Seeker free until after the year's end, and then we'll see how things go) continues to yield the same results, but I plan on riding this out until I find out. And of course, I'll have to remember to come back and present an update along the way.

In the meantime, don't be afraid to try new things, even if it defies convention...

SFFS: The Final Frontier (or at least the final THE CURE snippet)

Well, we've come to the end of my snippets from The Cure as part of the weekly Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday posts. I hope you've enjoyed the snippets (although truthfully, I hope they've enticed you to pick up a copy of the book itself...and if you haven't, get to The Cure's page). I apologize for the overlap from last week's snippet, but if I'm given ten sentences, I'll try to use at least a majority of them...

The denial was getting tougher, now that she’d heard what they knew. “I don’t know what you’re...”

The woman’s voice grew cold and stern. “Kill Project Genesis. Today.”

“What is wrong with you people?”

The man and woman both stepped aside, allowing her an escape route. She pointed a long, bony finger at Mila, the nail filed to a sharp point. “Kill it today.”

And there you have it...or as a commenter last week mentioned, "Dun dun dunnnnnn!" Now to determine what I'll be producing a snippet from for next week's edition.

In the meantime, be sure to go check out the rest of the Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday snippets and don't forget to buy some books. You'll be glad you did.

SFFS: THE CURE continues

Well, third week in a row...I think this might be a record in recent memory. Welcome back, everyone who's been following my last several snippets from The Cure as part of the weekly Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday posts. Pippa had commented on last week's snippet that we don't yet know what Project Genesis is about. Well, for those who haven't already gone over to see The Cure's page, today's snippet will hopefully give it away. The two Guardians (those darn religious zealots) are getting a might bit impatient, I'd say...

“I can’t stop anything, if I don’t know what I’m supposed to stop doing.”

“You need to stop searching for a death cure, or there will be dire consequences for everyone.”

Mila stopped short. How did they know the details of the project? The young man raised an eyebrow. “Today.”

The denial was getting tougher, now that she’d heard what they knew. “I don’t know what you’re...”

The woman’s voice grew cold and stern. “Kill Project Genesis."

Oh my!

Well, for those who have not yet picked up their own copy of The Cure, you'll be happy to know that another snippet will be coming out next week. Alas, it will be the final one...

In the meantime, be sure to go check out the rest of the Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday snippets and don't forget to buy some books. You'll be glad you did.

SFFS: Another THE CURE Snippet

Well, this week's been a rough one for various reasons. But no worries, fair travelers, we're right on schedule for another week of Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday. After last week's snippet, it was almost imperative that we continue the scene until the end. So, here you go with another snippet from my standalone novel, The Cure, carrying on with Mila's standoff with the two Guardians over Project Genesis.

“I’m afraid I’ve not heard of that project. Why don’t you tell me about it?”

The man turned to his partner and said, “I told you she wouldn’t listen.”

The female Guardian gave a weak chuckle, her cold stare remaining focused on Mila. “You’ll have to excuse my partner. He tends to be impatient.”

The man’s mouth contorted as he faced the scientist, but he stopped just short of a growl. The woman’s face took on a gentle demeanor, her words anything but. “What you’re doing is an aberration. You have to stop.”

Not the breathtaking end-of-the-snippet that I would have liked, but ten sentences only get you so far. In the meantime, you could read the entire book, by picking up your own copy of  The Cure. Also, be sure to go check out the rest of the Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday snippets. Stay tuned for next week's continuation!

Sales Update - June 2013

Hard to believe it's been nearly seven months since my most recent sales update (which is actually longer than the update prior to that. Things have been a bit hectic over the first half of this year, but I do have updated numbers (except for my Champagne titles, which I have not yet received royalty statements on this year. So, here goes:

Heroes Die Young has sold a total of 426 sales (print and e-book total), which means 9 copies have sold since November (for a total of just over a copy a month over the past seven months). This compares to 27 copies sold in the July-November 2012 range, so sales are way down (of course, this may not be the case after I see a royalty statement, but the trend has seemed to hold steady for all of my titles. The five-year anniversary for this one is coming up in September, so it's going to take a bit of action to maintain my previous average of around 100 copies per year.

Friends in Deed has sold a total of 96 copies (print and e-book total), which means that 2 copies have sold since Novermber (for a total of around 1 copy every four months). This compares to around 13 copies during the previous reporting period which is another reason I've said that sales across the board have been down (again, I haven't yet seen a royalty statement this year, but based on all indicators, things are not looking up for this one. January marked the three-year anniversary of this one, so the average is still less than 30 copies per year. One thing that was pointed out to me is that bluish cover art (such as these first two books) tends to sell less than red, yellow and orange. That may be something to look into on any future books I publish.

Seeker has sold 84 copies (99-cent e-book only), so only 5 copies have sold since the last update (compared to 7 copies during the last update). December was the 2-year anniversary for this novel, which means we're still on track for an average of 40 copies per year). However, I decided to go forward with this title (at least for the remainder of this year) as a free giveaway, so my sales stats on this one will be skewed (since I'm not tracking the free sales other than spot checks). I will mention that in the course of about two weeks on Amazon, I've given away over 250 copies, proving another point that people are more willing to try out free stuff when it comes to new authors.

 Dead or Alive has sold 83 copies, with 13 copies sold during this reporting period. This compares to 48 copies sold during the previous update period (although many of those were earlier sales reported by the publisher). The book was running about 4 copies a month at last count, and so now we've dropped to about 2 copies a month. I believe that the two-year anniversary is coming up on this one in July, so we're on track for another 40 copies per month title.

The Cure has now sold 83 copies (print and e-book total), so 16 copies have sold since my past update, compared to 12 copies during the previous update (making it the only title in the field that has increased sales since last time). This book has been out almost 2 years (the anniversary is in July), so again I'm seeing a little over 40 copies per year. It does match to the earlier comment I made about cover art, in that this one stands out for its color (as does Dead or Alive) more so than Friends in Deed.

Death Brings Victory was released just over a year ago (in March), and 48 copies have sold, meaning 11 copies have sold since the last update (which was the same quantity as the last time, but over a greater amount of time). This puts it on track with most of my other novels, at just over 40 copies per year. It's hard to say whether this cover tends more toward the blue or more toward the orange/red, as both are included. However, the fact that this is third in a series (and is much more tied into the first and second books, making it less standalone) may mean that future sales will come after people read the first two.

I now have two Triple-Shot collections out, with the first having been released in November 2011, and the second in July 2012. 40 copies have sold, so 7 copies sold since my last update (versus 12 copies from the previous update). Breaking this down, 29 copies of the first have sold and 11 of the second. The first triple-shot has been placed as free everywhere except Amazon (hopefully they'll price match soon), so sales numbers are probably going to be skewed from here on out (since I won't be recording free sales in the total.

Now for the analysis of this latest period:

Since my latest update (November), I've sold 63 books compared to 82 books during the previous update for an average of just over 10 books per month over the last four (compared to 20 books per month from my previous update). On the plus side, I was anticipating this latest period to be far slower than the last, but now I have evidence to back that up.
And so I have a statistic when people ask (and quite often they do), the latest "total sales" number now stands at 860 copies.

I never saw any bump from sales of e-readers over the holidays. My choice to offer Seeker and the first Triple-Shot for free is my attempt at getting discovered by readers. The first week it was free on Amazon, I did see sales of my other Aston West titles, so it's quite possible that this will help things along in the next update.

In the meantime, I really need to finish more projects. I currently have a short story, a novella and a novel to complete.

Thanks for stopping by!

SFFS: Another Snippet from THE CURE

Well, after a week off to take care of my table at ConQuest, I'm back in the saddle for another week of Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday posting. I will, however, mention that because of some impending surgery (Friday), I may be a bit slow getting around to all of the other posts to leave comments. To keep things in line with my previous post, I'm pulling another snippet from my standalone novel, The Cure..

Last week, we were playing with zombie mice. This week, Mila is confronted by a pair of Guardians, religious zealots on her planet, who've come to provide a "warning" to her.

She looked around for anything to aid in her defense. These two hadn’t just come to give her a warning. If they’d not meant to harm her, they could have just phoned in their warning.

“You need to end your research.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. My cures save lives.”

The woman laughed. “Don’t be coy. We know all about Project Genesis.”

She’d known these people were here for it, but the fact they mentioned it by name still shocked her.

Unfortunately, it seems that "secret" projects haven't stayed secret...and maybe, if you're all good, I'll continue this snippet where it left off next week. In the meantime, you could read the entire book, by picking up your own copy of  The Cure. Be sure to go check out the rest of the Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday snippets. And again, I'd be remiss in not letting my legions of Aston fans know that although this is a standalone novel, it does come into play with a future Aston novel. So stay tuned!

ConQuest Recap

This past weekend, I attended ConQuest 44 in Kansas City. This is my third year at the event, and the first I've been on a few panels. This was, however, the first year at its new location, across the highway from The K (home stadium of the Royals). I enjoyed the hotel, though I think that its integrated water park may have been the source of severe mold problems in certain areas of the hotel.

All in all, I had a great time. Attendance seemed to be up this year (most likely due to the presence of Game of Thrones author George R R Martin) over last, about double. Panels were interesting, ranging from a discussion of world building to one on anti-heroes (like good ol' Aston). I also had a reading with my dealer room tablemate, Patrick Stutzman (pictured below). Attendance was a bit low at this reading, but I've actually had fewer folks show for other readings I've done, so...

Sales were actually high. I can confirm that I sold more books this past weekend than I had at the other two years I've attended. I'd venture to say (would take too long to confirm for sure) that I actually sold more books than I had at any other convention I've attended since Heroes Die Young came out in 2008.

I do believe Martin's attendance (though not listed as a guest of honor, surprisingly) boosted the attendance, which helped sales, but a few other notes:

- Series help sales when you make repeat apperances. I had several sales where people remembered me from previous years, had purchased my first book (or my first and second), enjoyed them and wanted to buy the rest.

- People like free stuff more than a sales pitch. When talking up my books, I'm usually a good judge of when people aren't interested. However, this year I had the added benefit of having Seeker available for free most everywhere. When I gave out bookmarks for this one, and informed them of it being free, attitudes certainly changed. Time will tell whether this leads to sales of my other books, but I think it's a good start (and can only be better than having a person leave the table with no inclination toward checking out my work).

- The curse of the introvert. I tend to be introverted, but have conditioned myself to be able to talk with people one-on-one when it comes to selling my books. Panels, however, are still a frightening experience for me. I did have some good points, but I constantly had to think through what I was going to say, which had one moderator calling on me because he thought they were skipping over me. At one point, I think I may have sparked some fire in the crowd, though, because one of my comments tended to get some rather vehement responses...but one of the folks involved came by and bought a book, so guess it wasn't a problem.

- Ensure a sufficient supply of books on hand. Patrick actually sold out of his first book in his series, and still had some of the second book remaining (which with a series, is difficult to do). Myself, I did have just enough of my series novels (the first and second books nearly selling out), but I did end up selling out of The Cure before the end of the convention. 

Like I said, I enjoyed my time this year, and am looking forward to attending next year. My next event is only in a couple of weeks, up in Emporia, Kansas. I've made sure to order some extra copies of the necessary titles, so here's hoping that I'll be able to build on the success here, and sell out of everything then as well.

The Demon-Spawn

Wendy, the one who pretends to love her daddy

Miss Fritz, queen of the demon-spawn

Don't mind me...just posting these here so that I have a way to show someone

SFFS: A Snippet from THE CURE

I apologize upfront for being so lax in my Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday posting...what's it been, almost a month now? Well, amidst all of my posts about my free Aston giveaways (Seeker and my first Triple-Shot), it almost seems like I'm a one-trick pony, stuck on all things Aston West. Now you may not think this is a problem (and bless you if you fall in this category...), but for those who like a little variety, I also have a standalone novel, The Cure, which I'm going to be providing a snippet from today.

The premise of The Cure is simple...A scientist (Mila Groso) watched her family get murdered, and has decided to bring them back to life at any cost. Unfortunately, she has no idea how much it may cost her in the end. So, to set up this scene, Mila has just been informed that her team has something special to show her from their testing (of dead rodents).

Mila drew close to the chamber wall, watching as the small animal came to a standstill. Her team had overestimated her potential for being impressed at this. “Just looks like involuntary muscle spasms.”

“Wait for it,” Billy’s lighthearted tone cautioned.

She grimaced at this waste of her time, but held her tongue and did as he said.
Without warning, the mouse stood on its haunches, eyes wide, whiskers twitching. Mila let out a joyful squeal.

“Zombie mouse.” Rachel laughed as the rodent stumbled across the chamber on two legs. “How cool is that?”

Sadly, ten sentences barely seems enough, but it will have to suffice for this week. Enjoy the snippet? Pick up a copy of the full book...and be sure to go check out the rest of the Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday snippets. And of course, I'd be remiss in not letting my legions of Aston fans know that although this is a standalone novel, it does come into play with a future Aston novel. So stay tuned!

Also, be sure to check out my other novels and novellas.Or even better, buy a copy of all my books (and those of folks I know) from Amazon through the promotion board to the right...

Bestseller Status?

Well, just received an e-mail from the folks over at All Romance E-Books, notifying me that my novella Seeker has reached best-seller status. Interesting to me, as it's not truly a romance in the modern sense of the word, but I'll still take it. And if you're on ARE, and haven't yet picked up a copy, then click the images below.

SFFS: A Snippet from "Ever Dark"

So, for those who haven't been following along the past few weeks on Facebook or Twitter, I've had my first Aston West Triple-Shot available for free, at least over at Barnes and Noble and Smashwords (and possibly other spots linked via the cover above...though I haven't checked personally). So, this week's Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday snippet is taken from one of the three stories in this freebie. To set up this excerpt, Aston has just been surprised by a freighter coming out of hyperspace.

“Freighter’s status?”

A few moments passed as Jeanie gathered information from the freighter’s computer. “Original destination was the Triton system. The ship is out of fuel.”

“Triton? I’d say the crew is having navigation problems. We’re not on any shipping route to Triton.”

“The crew does not have a navigation problem.”

“How’s that?”

“I find no life signs to indicate a crew.”

Enjoy the excerpt? Head over and get the full Triple-Shot for free. And if you have a Kindle, tell Amazon about the lower price...because I would have figured they'd price-match by now, but no such luck.

Get a Little Taste

Just wanted to post a tidbit, in case you missed it through my sporadic posts on Facebook and Twitter...but two of my e-book titles are currently available for free (unfortunately, Amazon hasn't yet followed suit).

 

Aston's faced the law many times, but now they have a secret weapon that could bring him down for good in my novella Seeker, available for free over at Barnes and Noble and over at Smashwords (and maybe others...click here to check the other formats). 

In this first of a new series of collections, Aston West is featured in the following stories:

"Ever Dark": Aston goes with his instincts, only to get more than he bargained for.

"Samaritan": No good deed ever goes unpunished, as Aston discovers in spades.

"Dead Man's Forge": When all hope seems lost, sometimes you just have to give your all anyway.

Pick it up at Barnes and Noble or Smashwords.

Piling on the Projects

So, how many projects should a writer take on at one time? A writer could write on a project until it's completely finished, and then move on to the next project. But how long will it take to complete? If it takes you three years to write and finish a novel, that's a lot of time between releases. Readers forget, publishing trends change, and what you may have been successful with back then may not work now.

But what if you work multiple projects...how many can you write on at once, and still expect to complete in a timely fashion? On the flip side, if you can finish projects on a staggered schedule, you can release intermediate projects while readers wait for your next novel.

As an example, my first novella Heroes Die Young came out in 2008, after being accepted the year before. In that year between signing the contract and release, I began writing short stories and getting them published. In the span of that year, I had two short stories published in Ray Gun Revival, giving readers a glimpse of what they'd see with the upcoming novella.

But at the same time, I was also finishing up my second novel Friends in Deed. That one was accepted and then published in 2010. In the meantime, I continued writing short stories, and had several of them published along the way. At the same time, I was also working on two other projects, my novella Seeker and my novel The Cure. And somewhere in there, I also started and finished the third Aston novel Death Brings Victory.

And so on and so forth...I always have at least two or three projects going on at the same time. Currently, I'm working on the fourth Aston novel Resurrection, another novella Fallen, and a screenplay for Heroes Die Young. In my opinion, multiple projects at the same time are the only way to keep your brand fresh in the minds of readers and fans. If not, people will read your work, and most likely forget about you by the time you have another novel come out (assuming you can't write a complete novel from start to finish in the course of 3-6 months).

But what do all of you think?

SFFS: Terribly Wrong (another FALLEN snippet)

Two weeks in a row? I think it's starting to become a pattern again...time again for reading your weekly dose of Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday posts, everyone. Once again, we're watching Aston's latest excursion in Fallen. Aston's just faced the natives of the planet for the first time, and now Life has been a bit down in the dumps lately. When we last saw Aston, he had a disintegrator cannon in hand and was ready to meet his new visitors. So, thanks in advance for all of your comments, and be sure to go visit all of the other writers through the link above.

Gazing around the area, my selections for the demonstration were limited, but I narrowed it down to the closest tree, sitting alone in the sand. Unsure of how it would fare against a disintegrator cannon, since I’d only used it against living, breathing targets before, I fired off a single shot at the top.

The broad, green leaves atop the tree all burst into flames, falling toward the ground. Unlike my past targets, the tree burned straight down its trunk, leaving only a collapsing remnant of ash until only a stump was left, barely sticking out of the ground.

I stood there, even finding myself impressed with the display. Chuckling under my breath, I turned back to face the natives. Figuring they’d followed their friend, so I could get off this planet, I was dismayed to find that not only had they not fled, but that they’d dropped to their knees.

Perhaps this would be harder to do after all.

And then they uttered some sort of obnoxious incantation, and at the same time, began bowing down to the ground and up again, before repeating the process over and over again.

Something had just gone terribly wrong.

Now don't everyone act surprised at that last line...

While you're waiting for next week's snippet, be sure to check out my other novels and novellas.Or even better, buy a copy of all my books (and those of folks I know) from Amazon through the promotion board to the right...