Shoots, it's been over a month since I hit the publish button on episode 4, and I'm only now getting started on episode 5. The main reason for the delay is I'd been waiting for inspiration to strike. And it did strike, here and there, but not often enough or with a big enough boom to give me the whole story plotted out before I got started. Well, now I'm tired of waiting for the muse, so I'm taking what I've got and I'm jumping back into the story, hoping I figure out where I'm going as I go.
I mean, it's worked out well enough so far. Right?
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Zombie City: Episode 4 is now available!
Holy Shit! After a three month long battle with the keyboard, Zombie City: Episode 4 is finally finished and available for your reading pleasure. So far it's gone live on Amazon and on Smashwords. It should show up everywhere else (ie. Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iTunes, etc.) in a week or so.
Click here for Amazon.
Click here for Smashwords.
I've got the price set at 99 cents right now, but if you're so cheap that you don't want to spend 99 cents for 30K+ words of hipster zombie mayhem, with bonus punk/hippie/biker mayhem, you can still get a copy for free by signing up for my newsletter list on the right side of this page. For the rest of the month, anyone who signs up for the newsletter gets a free PDF version of Episode 4 emailed to them.
Thanks for reading!
Click here for Amazon.
Click here for Smashwords.
I've got the price set at 99 cents right now, but if you're so cheap that you don't want to spend 99 cents for 30K+ words of hipster zombie mayhem, with bonus punk/hippie/biker mayhem, you can still get a copy for free by signing up for my newsletter list on the right side of this page. For the rest of the month, anyone who signs up for the newsletter gets a free PDF version of Episode 4 emailed to them.
Thanks for reading!
Friday, April 4, 2014
Zombie City: Episode 4: first draft finished! & cover reveal
So, I've finally typed in the last word of the first draft of Zombie City: Episode 4. It's been a bit of a struggle to find the time and energy to work on it since starting the job I started back in January, but I'm riding high now that I've got a complete object to refine. It clocked in at just over 31K words, though I don't know what it'll be once I've finished editing it. My plan is to give it a quick preliminary polish--I know there are a couple of plot points that need to be put in line--and then send it through to my brother to get some feedback (he served as beta-reader for all of the previous episodes, and is a pretty insightful dude). I'm not sure when I'll have it ready for publication--I've gotten a bit fed up with myself for making predictions that turned to be pretty far off base--but hey, one step closer.
The offer I mentioned in previous blog posts is still on the table: sign up for my newsletter (by putting your email in the white box on the right) and I'll send you a coupon for a free copy of the story on Smashwords when I finally hit the publish button. If you're not signed up for Smashwords and don't want to sign up, let me know when you get that coupon email, and I'll find some way to send you a PDF. (The episode will go live on Amazon, but I won't be able to make it free there.)
Thanks!
Friday, March 14, 2014
ZC4: the newest news
I'm currently at 24K words with Zombie City: Episode 4, and I've still got a few things I want to put in place before bringing the episode to a close. Right now I'm guessing it'll reach 30K, which will make it the longest episode in the series so far. It's definitely the most eventful episode too, with several new characters and themes being introduced. And I'm developing a clearer vision of the plot arc that will lead to the story's conclusion, probably in Episode 5.
I still feel bad for the readers who've been kept waiting. I had an opportunity to wrap up Episode 4 around the 22K mark, and Episode 4 would probably already be available if I'd done that. But I've decided that the overall story will be better--the pacing and the plot more balanced--if I postpone publication until I've added the scenes I want to add to set things up for the concluding episode. It's a case of weighing expediency against quality, and I'm putting the premium on quality.
If anyone out there has any questions or complaints, feel free to add them in the comments section for this post. My consolation offer is still on the table: sign up for my mailing list, and I'll give you a coupon code to download episode 4 for free when it comes out.
In the meantime, thanks for your interest, and thanks for your patience.
I still feel bad for the readers who've been kept waiting. I had an opportunity to wrap up Episode 4 around the 22K mark, and Episode 4 would probably already be available if I'd done that. But I've decided that the overall story will be better--the pacing and the plot more balanced--if I postpone publication until I've added the scenes I want to add to set things up for the concluding episode. It's a case of weighing expediency against quality, and I'm putting the premium on quality.
If anyone out there has any questions or complaints, feel free to add them in the comments section for this post. My consolation offer is still on the table: sign up for my mailing list, and I'll give you a coupon code to download episode 4 for free when it comes out.
In the meantime, thanks for your interest, and thanks for your patience.
Friday, February 28, 2014
Zombie City: Episode 4 UPDATE
Here's the bad news: it's the end of February, and ZC4 isn't finished.
But wait! There's good news too! Episode 4 is almost finished, like 80% of the way there. And it's got all kinds of crazy stuff in it: punks and hippies and bikers and squatters and inter-group conflicts and urinary catheters and nearly-naked women shooting people with shotguns and someone getting smashed/electrocuted/burned-to-death by a toppled light tower... and more!
Perhaps the best news of all is this: after having put ZC on the backburner last November because I didn't realize people were actually reading it, I've now managed to reconnect with the story and the main character. You see, for nearly two months I didn't write or re-read or even think about Zombie City--all of my creative energies were being put into other projects, primarily my murder-mystery Dry Shores--and I kind of fell out of touch with Shane and his world. In January, just a few days after discovering that Zombie City was developing an audience of its own, I began trying to write the next episode. But between starting a new job, and coming down with the flu, I didn't get much done. And what I did write took tremendous effort because I'd sort of fallen out of touch with the story.
Well, I'm back in the Zombie City groove now and I'm having a lot of fun brutalizing Shane and destroying San Francisco. My hope is that I'll be able to stay in the groove after finishing Episode 4 and move right into Episode 5, which I'm guessing will be the final act that wraps everything up.
The apology-offer I mentioned in my last blog post is still on the table: you can get a free copy of Episode 4 by signing up for my email list in the white box farther down on the right. Sorry, again, for taking so long to get ep4 out there, but I'm hoping you'll think it was worth the wait.
But wait! There's good news too! Episode 4 is almost finished, like 80% of the way there. And it's got all kinds of crazy stuff in it: punks and hippies and bikers and squatters and inter-group conflicts and urinary catheters and nearly-naked women shooting people with shotguns and someone getting smashed/electrocuted/burned-to-death by a toppled light tower... and more!
Perhaps the best news of all is this: after having put ZC on the backburner last November because I didn't realize people were actually reading it, I've now managed to reconnect with the story and the main character. You see, for nearly two months I didn't write or re-read or even think about Zombie City--all of my creative energies were being put into other projects, primarily my murder-mystery Dry Shores--and I kind of fell out of touch with Shane and his world. In January, just a few days after discovering that Zombie City was developing an audience of its own, I began trying to write the next episode. But between starting a new job, and coming down with the flu, I didn't get much done. And what I did write took tremendous effort because I'd sort of fallen out of touch with the story.
Well, I'm back in the Zombie City groove now and I'm having a lot of fun brutalizing Shane and destroying San Francisco. My hope is that I'll be able to stay in the groove after finishing Episode 4 and move right into Episode 5, which I'm guessing will be the final act that wraps everything up.
The apology-offer I mentioned in my last blog post is still on the table: you can get a free copy of Episode 4 by signing up for my email list in the white box farther down on the right. Sorry, again, for taking so long to get ep4 out there, but I'm hoping you'll think it was worth the wait.
Friday, January 31, 2014
Where the hell is Zombie City: Episode 4?
Back in December I mentioned I hoped to have the fourth episode of Zombie City out by the end of this month. Well, the end of the month is here, but the fourth episode isn't. I'm still working on it, and have a long way to go before it's ready. Why so far behind schedule? Work and the flu, to put it plainly.
Anyway, I'm sorry I'm behind schedule, and I'm hoping that any readers waiting for Episode 4 won't hold it against me. At the risk of setting myself up for failure again, I'll offer a new tentative release date: I hope to have the fourth episode out by the end of February.
And to show my contrition is real, I'd like to make another offer: when the fourth episode is ready, you can have a copy of it for free. Sign up for my email list--see the white box farther down on the right side of this page--and when the episode goes live, I'll send out an email with a Smashwords coupon code for a free copy.
Sorry again about the delay.
Anyway, I'm sorry I'm behind schedule, and I'm hoping that any readers waiting for Episode 4 won't hold it against me. At the risk of setting myself up for failure again, I'll offer a new tentative release date: I hope to have the fourth episode out by the end of February.
And to show my contrition is real, I'd like to make another offer: when the fourth episode is ready, you can have a copy of it for free. Sign up for my email list--see the white box farther down on the right side of this page--and when the episode goes live, I'll send out an email with a Smashwords coupon code for a free copy.
Sorry again about the delay.
Monday, January 6, 2014
Ereader News Today promo results (hurrah!)
I'm still pretty new to the ebook self-publishing world, and I've been picking up information and advice as I go along. One common bit of advice is this: promote your book. Seems pretty obvious, right? But it's not necessarily as simple as it seems.
First of all, as I mentioned in my last post, I spend plenty of time struggling with self-doubt, and it's hard to work up the confidence to try to let people know about your book when you're already sure no one wants to read it. Fortunately, I've recently had a few indicators that there are people out there who want to read my writing, and I've been faring slightly better in the self-doubt struggle since then.
The second thing that complicates the self-promotion efforts is this: there are so many options, it's hard to know what's worth the time and effort. Despite my crippling self doubt, I have actually tried a few different things--from setting up this blog to paying websites for promotion. Many of those efforts have been mentioned in other posts on this blog, and none of them have proven very effective. In fact, it would be pretty accurate to say that none of them have been effective at all!
And so the lack of results from those efforts, coupled with my own lack of confidence, have sort of kept my foot on the brakes regarding self-promotion.
But a few weeks ago I signed up for the Kboards Writer's Cafe forum, and I've come across plenty of authors who have found promotion opportunities that actually produced results. I read their posts, I took notes, and I figured I'd give it another try. (Because I'd already tried doing nothing, and I'd seen the results that brought--none.)
The first promotional website I signed up with was Ereader News Today (also known as ENT). Yesterday they included Blood Brothers as one of their featured Bargain Books (I dropped the price to 99 cents for a temporary sale, in order to qualify), and the results have been excellent. Yesterday turned out to be the best selling day in Blood Brothers six month history. I sold more copies than I had on the day of the book's launch, when I guilt-tripped all my friends and family into buying copies. And selling a lot of copies in one day resulted in the book climbing the rankings at Amazon. Here's a screenshot I took of the book at it's peak.
I'm hoping that rankings boost results in a little more visibility for Blood Brothers, at least temporarily, and a few additional sales because of it. If nothing else, I consider it a success because it's shown me that promotions can work, if you're going through a good provider. And Ereader News Today is definitely a good provider, in my experience.
So now I'm looking at other promotion opportunities, and starting to lay out a strategy. Here's hoping I'll be able to keep stoking the flame, until Blood Brother's has a steady fire burning beneath it.
First of all, as I mentioned in my last post, I spend plenty of time struggling with self-doubt, and it's hard to work up the confidence to try to let people know about your book when you're already sure no one wants to read it. Fortunately, I've recently had a few indicators that there are people out there who want to read my writing, and I've been faring slightly better in the self-doubt struggle since then.
The second thing that complicates the self-promotion efforts is this: there are so many options, it's hard to know what's worth the time and effort. Despite my crippling self doubt, I have actually tried a few different things--from setting up this blog to paying websites for promotion. Many of those efforts have been mentioned in other posts on this blog, and none of them have proven very effective. In fact, it would be pretty accurate to say that none of them have been effective at all!
And so the lack of results from those efforts, coupled with my own lack of confidence, have sort of kept my foot on the brakes regarding self-promotion.
But a few weeks ago I signed up for the Kboards Writer's Cafe forum, and I've come across plenty of authors who have found promotion opportunities that actually produced results. I read their posts, I took notes, and I figured I'd give it another try. (Because I'd already tried doing nothing, and I'd seen the results that brought--none.)
The first promotional website I signed up with was Ereader News Today (also known as ENT). Yesterday they included Blood Brothers as one of their featured Bargain Books (I dropped the price to 99 cents for a temporary sale, in order to qualify), and the results have been excellent. Yesterday turned out to be the best selling day in Blood Brothers six month history. I sold more copies than I had on the day of the book's launch, when I guilt-tripped all my friends and family into buying copies. And selling a lot of copies in one day resulted in the book climbing the rankings at Amazon. Here's a screenshot I took of the book at it's peak.
I'm hoping that rankings boost results in a little more visibility for Blood Brothers, at least temporarily, and a few additional sales because of it. If nothing else, I consider it a success because it's shown me that promotions can work, if you're going through a good provider. And Ereader News Today is definitely a good provider, in my experience.
So now I'm looking at other promotion opportunities, and starting to lay out a strategy. Here's hoping I'll be able to keep stoking the flame, until Blood Brother's has a steady fire burning beneath it.
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