Writing Lives…lots of them…all the time…day and night…awake and asleep…I can't control it…
My first novel – historical military fiction – made it to the top 10 of 9 of Amazon's bestseller lists. Via my blog I share what I have learned while writing two more.
Pop = 71
This morning, after rolling out of bed on this 4th of July, I saw that my first novel had gotten its 100th review on Goodreads and its 66th review on Amazon. From the same person, and only 4 stars, nonetheless it was exciting to hit 100 on Goodreads. That is just one of many metrics that can describe my book’s success in the market.
I wanted to share a great article I came across about Peter Gabriel and 27 of his most notable songs. Gabriel and Genesis are just two of the many influences on my writing and creative thinking.
Continue reading “Peter Gabriel and one view of his 27 Best Songs”
It is too nice to sit inside and stare at a computer. Took the dog for a walk in a greenbelt near our home in Austin. And one of the challenges of the writer’s life is sitting around too much, so figured I’d get a walk in before it gets too hot.
The first novel — Lonely Hunter — in my upcoming Science Fiction novel has a lot of action in rural settings. I have long enjoyed being outside while I was in the military, to include my time as an infantry officer in the Army. So it feels very comfortable to include such settings where it makes sense.
Two and a half years after I published my novel, it is still selling several copies a day.Earlier today it had a sales rank of 50K (see the above screenshot). Sales have certainly declined from where they peaked about nine months after I published, but sales continue at a steady pace. And my novel is in a pretty small niche, so book sales have only so much upside in this niche.
My book is priced at $1.49, and it has been at that price for almost the entire time it has been for sale on Amazon, so I’m not wracking up sales by selling it at $.99.
Below you can see my Author Rank as tracked by Amazon. Even two and a half years after I launched my book it is still doing better than it did the month after I launched it. Again — see my blog on keywords. That dip the month after I published my book was because I did not know what I was doing (like most indies) with keywords. After that, I got my keywords figured out and my sales did much better.
I’m going to cut to the chase on why it continues to sell so well. There are three primary reasons, three things that anyone can do ramp their book sales and keep them up. Continue reading “Three things to do to ramp your Book Sales”
My first attempt at a novel was a dystopian science fiction story while I was in 7th grade in Hays, Kansas. It focused on the Junior High students and our coming challenges as we were to be protected from a cataclysm that would wipe out society before were were to restart humanity. Probably not the best sci fi book plot of all time.
This book came up in a discussion I was having earlier today. Published in 1968, and an eventual bestseller, The Population Bomb asserted that within 10 – 20 years the world would be wracked by starvation and wars for food.
In my early teens in the ’70s I lived in a small town in western Kansas surrounded by literally an ocean of wheat that farmers were going broke producing because the world had too damn much of it. So I could not reconcile the dire warnings of “The Population Bomb” and the reality around me.
At least until the famous “bet”.
Continue reading “Why the Population Bomb bombed”
Just on one of my favorite biking videos. It has been an intense 9 months with family and job. Now trying to ramp up my miles again, not to mention get Lonely Hunter published.
I’m a long way from what these guys do, but a beautifully shot and produced short video about the personal battle that road biking always is (kind of like writing 😉 ).
Enjoy!
Think the success of the great novel you are working on is all about the writing? Think again if you want to have a successful book launch.
BookBaby has published the results of a survey which they describe as such: “The 2017 Self-Publishing Survey conducted by BookBaby was focused specifically on revealing the most successful book marketing and promotional strategies for self-publishers. The 56-questions survey targeted two subgroups: authors who have published at least one book (either self-published, traditionally published, or both), and aspiring authors who have not yet published a book. The online survey was conducted between October 24, 2016 – November 28, 2016, and was completed by 7,677 aspiring and published authors.”
Aliens has long been one of my favorite Sci Fi movies. It is not great movie making, and it is not great Science Fiction. But it is a great action flick with lots of worthy special effects and various thrills. There is more than that, though, and it comes to a head when Ripley shouts out at the alien: “Get away from her you bitch!”