The Keepers of Sulbreth Release

Yesterday I came home from work and powered up my computer.  Couldn't wait to check. And there it was.  Kindle had my book up for sale with its new cover and new price.  Nothing like seeing your book for sale to get you inspired to work on the next one.  I am busy working on the edits for the second book, Beyond the Gate.

The Keepers of Sulbreth introduces the island kingdom of Futhark where a small group of sorceresses called, Keepers, have used their gifts to contain the denizens of hell behind a magical gate.  But something is slowly going wrong and more and more of the demons escape into the human world.  Working with the young king of Futhark, the Keepers find a gifted warrior foretold in prophecies to help them close the magical seals. Cage Stone reluctantly gets pulled into the dangers facing Futhark.  The otherworldly foes force him to reveal his secrets and his heritage.  As he bloodies his sword in demon blood, he slowly realizes the dark mind behind the troubles have been controlling his destiny from his birth.  He vows to take back his life and save Futhark at the same time.

Cover art by Gayle Bower

Keepers recieved many excellent reviews when it was first released, including from Publisher's Weekly and Booklist. Now my goal is to remind readers of this and restart my promotion. 

I have a lot still to learn about self-publishing and the best way to promote the book.  The price is another thing I've had to make decisions on.  I priced the book at $2.99 to start.  I've read JA Konrath's blog many times and absorbed his advice.  It's a tough decision.

The price of ebooks is a controversial issue in and of itself.  I buy lots of ebooks.  Some of the reasonably priced ones written by my friends but I also purchase ebooks from 'famous' authors and I do resent paying the same price as for a mass market paperback.  Why should an ebook cost that much when there is no shipping, no manufacturing or storage costs?

What do you think is a reasonable price for ebooks? What royalty rate should authors receive from ebooks?  The same as print?

Fall Approaches

Every August since I've tried make my way as writer becomes a time of stress and pressure. My bill-paying job is teaching. That means in a few days I'll be back on the job from 6:45 am until around 3:15 Monday through Friday. It will cut into a huge chunk of my writing time. Not that I write much during those hours during the summer months. During those times I do all the other things that chew up time. Laundry, yard work, cooking, cleaning, shopping and blogging to name a few. Starting soon I'll be doing all those things in the evening and those hours are my writing hours.

You can't hear me, but I'm screaming, "I don't want to go back to school." Now I love my students but I want to stay home and write. I want to finish this WIP and sent it out. I want to work on book#3 of The Futhark Chronicles. I want to find a home for First Dragon. But like so many writers I don't have this choice. Not only does the mortgage need my income but so does the college tuition of two children. Let's not even talk about food. Yes I have to work so we have that stuff.

I set a goal to finish Tiger's Mate before returning to school and I'm getting to it a little early today and planning on working late. Maybe this will be the one to allow me early retirement.

Back to Goal Setting

For a while this spring, I was all about goal setting. Writing them down and posting them here really helped me stay on track. It's like a public confessional. So I'm going to do it this week because I really need to get back on track.

#1. I'm going to finish 'Beneath the Mountain,' book three in The Futhark Chronicles from Medallion press.

#2. I'm going to do an overnight visit with my mother who lives about 2 hours away and do it without guilt for all the work I'm leaving behind at home.

#3. I am going to finish the one last flower bed that I haven't weeded and tan-barked yet this year even though it's the biggest messiest one.

#4. I'm going to work out at least 5 days out of seven.

#5. I am going to try a new wine this week. Don't know what kind yet but I'm going to browse for it. (I won't drink the whole bottle in one night)

That's enough goals to get me started this week. I hope my friends put some pressure on me to stay on top of this. Hope you all have writing buddies who do that for you.

Promotion Dollars

I was quite excited this week when I googled my forthcoming book from Medallion Press, The Keepers of Sulbreth, and found the retail catalog they send to booksellers online. I've heard they do a great job with it from someone who works in a bookstore. On my books page in the publication, the promotion my publisher will do for the book was listed. Among the venues listed were the online and print editions of Publishers Weekly. There were a few more places where they will promote my book upon its release. How thrilling for me.
My romances are published by wonderful small publishers who deal mainly in ebooks. All the cost of promotion are my own. With no advance how do I decide how much I should spend on promotion? This was especially true with the very first ebook I had published. I didn't know if my royalties would be in the thousands or the single digits. Yet if I didn't do any thing for promotion, I was assured of low sales numbers. And where could I turn for guidance? Even fellow authors are reluctant to talk about numbers when it comes to expenditures and profits.
Another difficulty is how to measure the effectiveness of my dollars spent. Sure I can check the hits to my website that come directly from a site where I'm doing promotion, but do those hits translate into sales? So far I've refrained from buying ads in major romance magazines like The Romantic Times. But with my first fantasy novel coming out next January, I'm tempted to join fellow authors in an ad appearing in the Realms of Fantasy magazine. Should I or shouldn't I?
It's a dilemma for sure. I wonder how authors in my situation decide what works, what doesn't and how do they decide how much to spend?

Can You Hear Me Now

As promised, Verizon delivered my new router today. It was just like the other big monster that brings my FIOS TV and high speed internet to brillant light all over my home. It was even easy to replace. So I'm back online and feel a great deal of relief. I can check in on my yahoo groups, visit facebook and stop in to tweeter. Life is as it should be again.
I was worried about promotion and all that daily stuff I do to 'keep my name' out there. But guess what? My web site had the average number of hits it always does. I don't know what to think about that.
In the meantime, my first fantasy novel, The Keepers of Sulbreth, is available for preorder at Amazon. Even if you don't want to preorder, I would appreciate a few tags. I'm working on book#3 in that series, tentative title, Beneath the Mountain. The second book, Beyond the Gate, is already contracted though I don't have a release date for it. Book #4 will be the final. It is an epic fantasy so it will have an epic battle for survival. Enough said.
Nice to hear everyone again. Can you hear me now?

A Hard Week's Work

Setting my weekly goals is really helping me stay on task. I did finish those edits for Medallion and send them back for The Keepers of Sulbreth. I had a wonderful editor who gently led me through the process.

I did go see the kids play their sports. Some excitement, some boredom and even a little sunshine instead of bitter rain.

I did some promotion on my yahoo groups. Does anyone know if that really does anything for sales or directing people to a blog or website?

I visited my favorite blogs most days. I do really enjoy that. It provides a real feeling of connection when I'm sitting at my chaos-plagued writer's desk and yearn for a gallon-sized goblet of wine.
Today I actually planted some ground cover around the maple tree in my front yard and squirted a little chemical death on a few stubborn thistles determined to crowded into my flowerbeds.
I'm calling last week a success in the goal department. I have to keep it going so forgive me if they're all starting to sound the same.
#1 - Get back to editing 'One Good Woman.' Yes, I've decided on a title for the fourth book in the Solonian Chronicles. I'm nearly half way as I hoped to be this month despite the pause to work on The Keepers of Sulbreth.
#2- Clean up my writing desk and organize my expense list and income spread sheet.
#3-I'm going to make my writer's meeting next Saturday, someway, somehow.
#4-I'm going to make some changes on my website. I think I have some deadend pages. Duh.
#5-I'm going to do a little more outside work. No promises on how much, just SOME.

Now #1 might have to be adjusted if I get my manuscript back from The Wild Rose Press to do first edits on To Tame a Tiger.
Thanks for all the support over the past two weeks. I'm going for number three.

New Cover

I'm still working on my edits for Book#4 in The Solonian Chronicles, but I have to do a small interrupt here to show off my new cover for To Tame a Tiger coming soon from The Wild Rose Press.

Isn't it lovely? This fantasy romance is hopefully the first in a series and if all the covers are so wonderful, I'll be thrilled.

Now back to my weekly chores with one added:

Chore#FIRST AND MOST IMPORTANT: meet 7 day deadline for Medallion on edits for The Keepers of Sulbreth.

Another One Down

I've set some challenging goals for myself this year, but I'm having some trouble deciding the order in which I should attack them. Two major goals have already earned the 'finished' moniker and now I'm taking a day to decide what to work on next.
To Tame a Tiger finally has found a home with TWRP. I'm thrilled about that. That company is super organized and constantly striving to improve everything about themselves from their customer service and what they do for their authors.
The second book in my fantasy series with Medallion Press, Beyond the Gate, is finally traversing cyper space to their docket with the expected edits completed. In the past three weeks I cut nearly three thousand words to make the writing tighter and do more showing and less telling. I think it's the best book I've ever written to this point.
Now what should I do next? The choices are varied and I want to have them all done before the end of 2009. Here are my choices in no particular order.
Book three of my fantasy series with Medallion Press, Beneath the Mountain, is about half completed. I had to set it aside to work on other projects. This is the thing I most 'want' to work on but it's also the one I probably have the least need to get right on. My editor at Medallion probably won't look at it until fall at the earliest as we work on getting the first book ready for its January, 2010 release.
Book four in my Solonian Chronicles with New Concepts Publishing is finished. That is the first rough copy is done. Unlike some of my writer friends, my first copy always needs tons of work. This is probably the one I should get right on because I'm sure they'll work to get it out as soon as possible since it's another book in a successful series. This is the last book in that series and I'll probably be pitching another series to them next fall. But for some reason, I'm feeling little inspiration to get started on this, perhaps because I know I have to major revisions to the first part of it.
My 'Tigers of Salubria series,(I hope it ends up being a series with TRWP) also has a second and third book completed and waiting for revisions. I hesitate to start work on that because I don't know how quickly TRWP press moves on looking at a second book when I don't even have a release date for the first one.
The last option is my newest fantasy book, First Dragon, that I completed a few months ago. I've been querying agents who like my writing and give my kind words but no contract. They want urban fantasy not sword and sorcery type. They think they can't sell it. So after months of frustration with those replies, I'm going to try and find a home for it on my own. Wish me luck.
Those are all my choices. I'm giving myself today to decide. Suggestions are welcome.

My To Do List

Thanks to everyone who encouraged me on my to do list this past week. I nearly made it.
First the things I didn't accomplished. I failed at the squidoo page. Seems like it was a simple thing to do, but I didn't quite get it done. Sorry to all my friends whose blogs I didn't visit despite the best of intentions. Third failure was more personal as I skipped the treadmill twice.
I did manage everything else. It's such a relief to have my edits on To Tame a Tiger, done and off to TRWP along with all the other paper work. So it was a good week though very busy with long hours. I cut over 1000 words from Tiger without deleting any scenes. Hopefully I cut the right ones.
This week I'll be working hard on edits for Beyond the Gate, the second book in my series with Medallion Press. BTG is the second book in The Chronicles of Futhark and takes up the epic fantasy adventure in the moment following the end of the first novel, The Keepers of Sulbreth.
I also made a new list and some of it involves promoting A Ruthless Good. I've fallen behind in that.
So I'm going to go visit some blogs and then get to those edits.