NEW RELEASE: Rogue Skies

ROGUE SKIES HAS ARRIVED!

One-click today and start reading!
The price goes up on Sunday, September 22nd, so snatch your copy now at only 99c!

https://books2read.com/rogue-skies

Cunning heroines, bold heroes, magic, space, and mayhem—transport yourself to new worlds of limitless adventure and excitement in this page-turning limited edition collection from some of today’s best-selling Science Fiction and fantasy authors.

Fans of Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Neil Gaiman, Anne McCaffrey, John Scalzi or Sarah J. Maas, Leigh Bardugo, Tamora Pierce, Lois Lowry, and Maria V. Snyder will find themselves transported to weird realms and epic otherworlds in this reality-optional boxset.

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Rogue Skies features my prequel novel Curse of the Drakku: Origins and is the only place where you can buy this addition to my latest fantasy series. For .99, you can’t go wrong! Get your copy of Rogue Skies today!

NaNoWriMo Support

NaNoWriMo is upon us! Who of you are writing a novel this month as part of the annual event? Don’t be shy. Share your intent in the comments so the rest of us can support your efforts.

I’m a long time fan of NaNo and five-time winner. I’m not participating this year as I was in mid-writing on my current project and the timing wasn’t right for me. For the rest that are, I hope you’ve been hitting your word counts so far. What’s working for you? What’s keeping you from achieving your goals?

If you’re part of NaNo this year, I’d love to be your cheerleader. Writing can often be a lonely exercise but it doesn’t have to be. You’ve got a ton of others ready to see you hit that 50k mark and I’m one of them.

NaNo taught me to focus. It taught me to crush through my first drafts and go back to fix it later. It doesn’t need to be perfect, just written. Get those words out, only you can tell your story.

It wasn’t until I won my first NaNo that I realized I could do this writing thing. Before then I wrote short stories, mostly flash fiction, and winning gave me the confidence to push on and keep at it. Now with five novels released since I won, I can honestly say without NaNo, I wouldn’t be a published author. It’s meant so much to me and I want others to experience this joy.

Write on my friends. Keep at it. I invite you to share your tales and your experience with the rest of us. Having a strong support system helps tremendously and I want you to succeed!

Happy writing everyone!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First Ever BookBub Deal (Results)

I recently ran my first ever BookBub Featured Deal, the gold standard of all book promotions, and I wanted to share the results for all my fellow writers and interested readers. If my experience can help you better organize your business or promotional goals, right on!

In case you didn’t know, I started a pen name for my horror works. Several months ago I set-up a Twitter account, Instagram, and even a Facebook Author page as well as a free Wix website for the name. I went this route out of respect for my family. Needless to say, the pen name doesn’t have much of a social media presence and nothing published under that name until now.

On July 20^th, I released the first novel under that name and had a couple sales. Literally a couple. By the time my Featured Deal ran, it only had nine sales.

I tend to submit my novel The Selection to BookBub every thirty days, as is their policy, and have been rejected at least nine times. On July 25^th, not even a week after I released my horror novel, I submitted The Selection and while there, I figured I’d give my new book a shot knowing I’d get rejected and would have to wait another thirty days.

Two days later, a full week after the book’s release, I got the email from BookBub accepting my submission and that it would run my .99 deal on August 5^th if I wanted it. Umm…YES! I paid the bill, about $350, and geared up for the email blast.

My novel had a ton of things going against it for a successful BookBub promo. It was a new novel by a new author with very little social media presence. It was a stand alone book with no series to back it up. It was exclusive to Amazon. It only had (and as I write this still does) two reviews. I did nothing else to promote the book other than a couple low cost AMS ads and a low budget BookBub ad (which is waaaay different than their Featured Deal). I did add another book on pre-order so potential readers had more to try from me and to know I wasn’t a one trick pony.

The morning of the 5^th came and the email blast went live. I was nervous and worried I wouldn’t get any downloads. I knew how many I needed to sell to cover the ad cost and waited anxiously for the numbers. I’d been watching other authors on kBoards share their BookBub success and hoped I’d follow suit.

One the first day, I sold a grand total of 286 copies, well short of my goal and a bit discouraging. It was the single biggest selling day ever for me, but I knew then I wasn’t going to cover the ad cost. That day, as the numbers rolled in, I went through a series of emotions, mostly rethinking my ability to write and if maybe I ought to toss it all and give up. So far, I’ve not made back the cost of producing a book, ads, or anything. At the end of that day, I was bummed but decided to carry on because I feel I can write compelling stories that others enjoy. My time will come.

So day two came and went and I sold a total of 42 copies. So far today, day three, I’ve sold 3 copies. I’ve also started to see a rise in Kindle Unlimited page reads which will help. There have been 4 pre-orders of the other book I put up just before the promo.

So what’s my take away? After the initial shock of watching sales come in slowly and talking myself off the ledge, I’m viewing this as an extremely positive experience.

To land a BookBub Featured Deal on the first try with a new book and new pen name was amazing. What better way to introduce that name to readers than the best promo service around? I expect this will set up my name for quite a while and give it the foundation it needs for future success.

Promoting a horror novel on a Sunday might not have been the best day. Don’t get me wrong, when BookBub says we wanna share your book, you jump at the chance. I’ve tried other services and none have the return they have.

I knew going into it that a stand alone book stood less of a chance to recoup ad costs and in my case, that has proven correct. If it were the first in a series, the read through to the other books would’ve helped tremendously.

For those that wanted to know, there ya go.

Oh, on the bright side, my novel did rise to number one in two of its three categories, earning the coveted orange Best Seller stripe and in one category, I was beating out Stephen King!

Onward and upward friends!

 

New Year, Better Plans

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you can take the best of 2017 and carry that over to this year. Let’s leave all that negativity and hate in the past and move forward with a purpose and a bright future ahead.

2017 saw the release of my first novel, The Selection. It has since been rebranded as The Selection: The Forgotten Chronicles Book 1. It’s now the first in what I’m planning as a trilogy, set on the planet Anastasia and following Eron as he moves beyond the Selection. As the series title suggests, the Forgotten play an immense role in all of this.

I’ve had mostly positive responses to the book and it’s brought me more readers which I hope to continue into 2018.

To further that, the audiobook release of The Selection: The Forgotten Chronicles Book 1 is due within a week or so of this post. It’s narrated by Paul Jenkins and sounds AMAZING! I cannot wait for its release. I think you’ll love it!

The second book in the trilogy, Rise of the Forgotten comes out on January 19th. You can pre-order the ebook now for only .99. ( A little under the radar pro-tip: if you really don’t wanna wait, the paperback is actually live and available to purchase now.)

I’m working on the third book of the trilogy, The War for Truth. I’m about 8,000 words into it and I’m planning a late Summer release, maybe July. If all goes well, you may also get the release of a series of novellas in the Fall that relates to 4-5 characters from the series.

Other than the scifi series, I’m planning on releasing two horror novels in 2018. One is titled Brown’s Sacrifice and the other is Soul Windows. Both are set in Brownsville, my pseudonym for Murphysboro, where I live. I’ve thought about branding those as Brownsville Oddities Novels and see how that goes. I have a possible third novel to include in that series, however I’m not certain about that yet.

In May, my book The Selection: The Forgotten Chronicles Book 1, will be re-released as part of the On the Horizon book bundle which includes 22 full-length scifi and fantasy novels with the theme “little to no tech.” My book fits perfectly with the theme and to make it enticing to those that have already read my book, I’m going to include an exclusive short story that’s only part of this bundle. The best part is you can pre-order it for only .99! I highly encourage you to check it out and pre-order your copy today. Even if you’ve read my book, that’s still 21 other full-length novels for less than a $1!

Finally, I’ll be working on a fantasy novel for a 2019 release as part of a larger shared world project. I think at last count we had something like 20-25 authors committed to the project. Our plan is to release a book a month, all tied into the same world. It’s a fascinating concept and will finally get me to write the fantasy novel I’ve been wanting to write since I started creating stories.

This is what you can look forward to from me in 2018. I’m grateful to those of you who’ve supported me by buying a book, sharing my posts, or offering words of encouragement. It’s lonely sometimes as a writer and you make it all worthwhile. Thanks again for everything! Let’s crush 2018 and make it the best yet!

 

 

NaNoWriMo 2017 and More

NaNoWriMo has been over for about a week now. How’d you do? Did you cross the 50K threshold? If not, did you at least make progress on a new project or work on an existing one?

I nailed my target on the last Sunday of November. This makes my fifth NaNo win since I started many years ago!

The book I wrote, titled Soul Windows, is probably my darkest one yet. I wanted to write something closer to a pure horror novel than anything I’ve done before. I think I did it, but time will tell. I haven’t gone back to revising it yet. Immediately after I finished it I went back to an older manuscript set in the same small town of Soul Windows. I have a third book also set in the town and my plan is to release all three of them in rapid succession for a horror “series” in the sense that they’re all in the same world. There might be a few minor tie-ins between them, but other than the setting they are stand-alone books. Once I’m done with the older manuscript, I’ll get back to Soul Windows.

While writing during NaNo, I was also busy revising and working with my editor for the new sequel to my scifi novel The Selection. I’ve rebranded it as The Selection: The Forgotten Chronicles Book 1. My plan is a trilogy with the possibility of a series of 4-5 novellas set in the same world but not part of the main storyline. Think of it like the Star Wars movies where there are the main movies with other movies set in the same galaxy. The new book, Rise of the Forgotten: The Forgotten Chronicles Book 2 is due out January 19th. It’s actually up for pre-order now though the cover is a placeholder until I get the actual one. Feel free to grab it for .99 today! (Oh, btw…if you’ve read The Selection and would like to be part of my ARC team to help me launch with at least 10 honest reviews, let me know. I’m assembling my team now!)

And as if that wasn’t enough, you may have missed my release of The God’s Eye: A Collection of Horror Short Stories. This might be the last short story collection I release. I have so many longer projects in the works that I haven’t written short stories in a long time. I only have a couple reviews on it, but wow–I struck a chord with my readers! I’m humbled by the kind words. You can get it here: The God’s Eye.

I’ve also got a short story in the new collection from Hellbound Books called Shopping list 2. It’s one of my darker pieces and something that made me squirm as I wrote it! Check it out here: Shopping List 2.

Finally, my book The Selection is part of a 22 author, 22 novel international collection called On the Horizon. We’re offering it now for a preorder price of only .99! That’s 22 novels for less than .05 each! The theme of the collection is scifi and fantasy with little to no technology. My book was a perfect fit and I might be adding something to it that’s exclusive to the collection. Please consider preordering it on the Nook or Amazon. You’re support would be most appreciated by me and the entire collective of international authors.

So, yeah. That’s what I’ve got going on. What about you? Share with us your new releases, projects, or other awesome news in the comments below!

NaNoWriMo 2017

Hey friends, I wanted to formally announce that I’m participating in NaNoWriMo 2017. If you’ve followed me long, you know I’m a huge proponent of this event. If you haven’t and don’t know what I’m talking about, let me give a brief intro.

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It’s every November and the goal is to write a 50,000 word novel between Nov. 1st – Nov. 30th. As far as novel length goes, 50k isn’t really all that much. But for writers who’ve been struggling or needed a boost to get out there and write, NaNo is the perfect way to get at it.

Back when I wanted to pick up writing again, I used NaNo to kick start my work. I failed the first year or two and finally “won” with my book Master of the Drunken Fist. I went on for three more consecutive wins. For me, being able to finish a novel made being a writer a reality.

This year I’m doing a horror novel. For now, I’m titling it “Soul Windows” and have even created a pretty sweet looking cover to give myself an added incentive to finish. I plan on discussing this new novel throughout October as I lead up to Nov. 1st when I actually get to start writing it!

Anyone else interested in jumping on board? Go to the NaNoWriMo site and register. It’s free and they’ve got a ton of useful posts in the forums. If you do, add me as a writing buddy. My name there is Lailoken74. I’ve created a private Facebook group for my writer friends who want to participate in NaNo as a place to share info and encouragement. If you want in, click here.

I can’t wait to get started! I encourage you to try it if you’ve ever had the urge to write. For seasoned writers, it’s the perfect way to jumpstart a current or future project.

(Almost) Average August Recap

It’s finally August 31st and I can back down from posting a bit. If you’ve been following along this month, you might’ve noticed I went on a post frenzy, sharing a new post every day.

I decided in late July to give it a try and I’m proud to say I’ve made it to the end. I think instead of my normal once a week posting schedule I adhered to prior to August, I might up that to three times a week: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

During this past month, I’ve had the most visits, views, likes, and comments since I’ve started this blog several years ago. I was blown away by the response I’ve had and hope to continue offering interesting posts going forward.

So in case you missed it, here’s a rundown of the last 30 days.

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New Release: Twilight Madhouse Vol.1: My post about a new horror anthology featuring 10 stories, including my short piece “Achievement Unlocked.”

“Gate” Crashing: My rant on using the suffix -gate for scandals.

Writing Ideas: My tips and tricks when trying to get the creative juices flowing.

Reality Bites Book Awards: I was nominated in four different categories.

Rough Writing: I reminisce about a difficult lesson learned.

Morning Routine of a Non Best-Selling Author: It’s exactly as it sounds.

Reviews, Reviews, Reviews: I discuss the latest reviews for my book The Selection.

Review Circles for Authors: I’ve started a Facebook group for authors to give and receive reviews.

Tools of the Trade: A nice discussion about the hardware and software I use to write.

Forgetting to Remember: My terrible problem with remembering names.

Dirty Dish Philosophy: Lessons learned from washing dishes.

5 Posts for Indie Authors: 5 blog posts I thought were informative to the indie authors of the world.

Flash Fiction – “Zombie Says”: I offered a free story for you the reader!

Author Spotlight – Greg Alldredge: An interview with scifi author Greg Alldredge.

Review – “Fire Eyes Awakened”: My review of R.J. Batla’s new book.

“Self To Younger Self, Come in”: Words of wisdom I’d share with my younger self.

Review – “Twilight Madhouse Vol.1”: My review of the horror anthology with my story “Achievement Unlocked” in it.

10 Things Learned Since I Started Writing: As the title implies, 10 lessons learned since I started this journey.

Reality Bites Book Awards – Final Round: I made it to the final round in the category of “Sci-Fi Author.”

Giving Back: I strongly believe I need to give back to other writers in any way I can.

Eclipse Comic Con Recap: I attended an awesome event and met new friends.

Upcoming Events: A list of all the places you can find me in the next few months.

Just Finish Already!: Get that story out of your head and on the screen.

Indie Comic Creator – Todd Black: A super talented creator of indie comics I met at the Eclipse Comic Con.

Musical Inspiration: How music inspires my writing.

Sacrifice for Greatness: What are you willing to sacrifice in order to be great?

Choose Wisely: Important decisions can lead to lasting consequences.

Author Spotlight – Pamela Morris: My interview of Pamela Morris, an excellent horror author you should know.

“The Selection” – Chapter 1 Preview: I offer the entire first chapter of my novel The Selection.

Youthful Dreaming: When I was younger, I really, really wanted to be Spider Man.

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I hope you’ve enjoyed my month of madness. When you have time, please check out the posts from this past month and please consider clicking “like,” commenting, or sharing whatever interests you.

Thanks for your support!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sacrifice for Greatness

Nothing worthwhile has ever occurred without tremendous effort and sacrifice. You must be able to set aside your “wants” and make it happen.

Anyone’s who has ever wanted to be a writer, a musician, or an athlete cannot attain greatness without some sort of sacrifice.

I’ve heard time and time again from would-be writers that they want to write. Ok, well do it! You cannot call yourself a writer if all you do is wish to be one. Add pen to paper, scribble a word, and add more. Sit at your computer and type those glorious words one after another. Those are what begin to make you a writer.

Learning to play an instrument isn’t easy. Figuring out chords, notes, and timing takes…well, time. You have to practice a lot. There’s no other way around it. Wishing to be a musician doesn’t make it happen.

You must do something in order to achieve these goals. You must get up off your chair and lift weights if you intend on improving your physical strength. You must go out and run if you intend on improving your cardio health. Sitting down and wanting to do these things doesn’t make them happen. Actually doing them does.

In order to achieve any of this, you must be willing to sacrifice something. All of these take time. So instead of playing video games, lift weights. Instead of sleeping in late, you have to get up early to write that story. Instead of watching television, you should practice your scales.

Time is both finite and infinite. We as humans only have so much of it, limiting what we can do with it. How you chose to spend your time will dictate how successful you are in your endeavors. You must be willing to give up whatever time you dedicated to doing nothing to activities that will get you closer to your goal.

Wanting to do something is one thing, but putting your actions into play–actually giving an effort into it–will get you closer to your dreams. Doing so means not doing something else. That’s the sacrifice required to achieve your goals.

How willing are you to let go of what’s holding you back? You’ll be amazed at the results when you are willing to give up your fleeting entertainment in order to focus on your dreams.

10 Things Learned Since I Started Writing

When I started this writing journey, I was naive to the complexities of it all. I guess in it’s most basic state, writing is just me and the words on the screen or paper. It’s when I started sharing those words that things changed. Here are ten things I learned since I started (in no particular order).

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Editing is your best friend. I didn’t understand the serious need for revision and editing. I knew those things were important, but as I progress in my career, it’s abundantly clear how vital good editing is to my work. And I can’t do it on my own.

Sometimes the first draft is hard to finish. The moment I start revising parts of the first draft before it’s finished, I bog myself down and the pace of my writing slows to a crawl. That’s not good. I need to get that draft out, warts and all, as quickly as possible so I can jump in and fix it after it’s done.

I’ll never please everyone with my work. As much as I love what I write, not everyone will see it that way. It’s ok. Art is never universally accepted. There will be some who it doesn’t work for and that’s fine.

Writing is not a solitary endeavor. Contrary to popular belief, writing is not an individual act. Sure, the writer creates and physically writes the story on their own. However, to make it work, we need other sets of eyes to help us tighten our prose. And once that’s done and you want to share it with the world, you need others to spread the love. It takes a team of dedicated individuals to make that happen. I find it best not to piss off those that can help.

Family and friends don’t always support you. I gotta start by saying I have a tremendous amount of support from a lot of my family and friends. They might not agree with the subject of my stories, but they’re super supportive of my work. Then there are those that can care less. Yeah I spent a ton of time working on perfecting my stories, only to have it fall on deaf ears. Just because they are family or friends doesn’t mean they’ll automatically help or buy the book or leave a review. And thats ok. They are under no obligation to do so. If they sell Mary Kay cosmetics does that mean I have to buy them? No. Same with my writing. It’s cool.

Rejection isn’t personal. Let me restate that: rejection isn’t personal. It’s not an indictment of you as an individual. For whatever reason, the story didn’t work for that person. Cool. Move on. Try someone else. Revisit your story to see where the holes are. Send it out again. And again. And again. Maybe try a different market. Whatever the case, remember rejection isn’t personal.

Success doesn’t happen overnight. You hear so many uplifting stories about people leaving their day jobs to become full-time authors. I would love to have that kind of financial success from my writing. However, unless your book goes viral and everyone under the sun suddenly wants to read it, this takes time and patience. Lots of it. Don’t be discouraged. Keep at it. If you have a passion for your craft and continually seek to improve, your chances of this happening are better, but not guaranteed.

Everybody has advice. Take it at your own peril. Many people mean well, but that doesn’t mean they know what they’re talking about. Maybe they do. Talk to fifty different authors and you’ll get fifty different answers. Sift through this massive trove of opinions carefully. Try different things, but always be wary of the advice given. How to find the best and most trustworthy advice? I don’t have an answer. I take in a lot of suggestions and sometimes I’ll try them, sometimes not. It’s a personal thing I guess. Just be careful with what “rules” you follow given to you by others.

Self publishing is easy, getting noticed is not. I couldn’t believe how incredibly easy it was to get my stories uploaded to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple. It literally was a click or two and *poof* done. That’s it. But that’s also why indie authors are slammed by critics and readers. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. I spent a lot of time revising and editing my first collection of stories to leave the best impression I could with potential readers. I still had a few errors in my work. Then when it came to earning eyes on my stories, that was (and still is) a difficult process. I’m basically asking someone to use their hard earned cash to buy a book from an author they don’t know and invest their time with me. That’s a big ask. I better deliver with my work or they won’t come back.

You will have to sacrifice if you want to succeed. When I started writing, I played a lot of video games. One day I came to the realization that the time spent playing games on the Xbox was time spent not writing. How could I hope to grow as a writer and create new work if I spent my time playing games? I stopped cold turkey. I didn’t join my friends on our weekly game night anymore. I didn’t spend hours on a Saturday morning hunting achievements. Instead, I used that time to write more and read more. I’ve whittled down my gaming to two mobile games, that’s it. I miss those gaming sessions, but if I wanted to be serious about my craft, I had to make concessions somewhere.

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There you have it, my ten things learned since I started as a writer. As you start your journey or are knee deep in it, how do these compare to your experiences?

Feel free to like, share, and comment. Thanks!

5 Posts for Indie Authors

Indie authors have a tough time getting noticed in the sea of titles out there. Here are five posts to help give you an edge and the motivation to succeed.

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Indie Author Finds Success Hitting the Festival Circuit

Faced with a difficult time being discovered, author Raymond Depew hit the festival circuit to market and sell his books.

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@#*&$it – Self-Publishing Does NOT Have to Cost You Anything

Author K.S. Brooks breaks down how indie authors can publish their work for little to no money–and still turn out a great product!

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15 Book Publicity Commandments

Writer Carolyn Howard-Johnson discusses fifteen top practices when promoting your books.

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Please Don’t Buy My Book

Author David Gaughran breaks down launch success and failure for two of his books.

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8 Myths about Book Sales That Authors Need To Ditch Now

Writer Beth Bacon breaks down myths authors need to eliminate now!

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Being an indie author, heck any author for that matter, is difficult. The more we as writers hone our craft and work on promoting effectively, the more chance we have to succeed and rise above the rest.

If you found something useful here, please like, comment, and share this post with others. Thanks!