One down, one to go

Okay, the corrections have been made to the converted file for The Nostalgia Gambit. Now I need to finish evaluating the copyeditor's comments and make her suggested edits to King of Trees.

Once I get a final pass version of TNG, I will load it into Amazon's Kindle Direct Platform. That usually takes a matter of minutes, once I have a corrected file.

Oops, just realized I also need to write the "back cover" blurb.  Even though ebooks don't have a cover, they still need a description.

It will probably be January before King of Trees comes out.  Once we get into the holiday season, everything slows down.

The Nostalgia Gambit is out for conversion!

Final edits are done, the ISBN has been assigned, the cover is complete, and I have sent it off for conversion. Now to get going on King of Trees, which is right behind TNG. KoT is back from the copyeditor and I need to start going over her comments/suggestions/corrections.  I will post the cover for that one soon, too,

All this in spite of suffering through a major home renovation and Hurricane Sandy, too! Luckily, Sandy didn't affect my area too badly. I feel so bad for the folks in New York and New Jersey.

Status on The Nostalgia Gambit

The manuscript is still at the proof reader's but it's due at the conversion house next week. It usually takes them anywhere from four to 10 days to give me the file back. Then I have to load it onto my Kindle and do one last proof. Their conversion is usually excellent except for occasional problems with quotation marks or places in the text where there's special formatting.

After I give them the corrected HTML files, it usually takes only a few days to get the corrected Kindle and epub format files back. I plan to launch the book as a KDP Select book, which means that it will be only on Amazon for three months. Amazon only takes a day or so to load a book via KDP, which means the book could be in the Kindle store before December 1.

I'll post a link and add it to the Books page as soon as it's for sale.

I finished the copy edits on The Nostalgia Gambit!

I finished editing The Nostalgia Gambit, based on the marked-up copy provided by my copyeditor. I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. I have the cover, and I have the ISBNs. Now, as soon as the proof reader is done, the book can go off to the conversion house.

And then, of course, I'll have to proof again on the Kindle (my new Paperwhite arrived!) and make any last minute fixes. Once I have a corrected mobi/prc file, I will load it to KDP Select. I don't plan to leave the book in KDP more than one 90-day cycle, but I will use the free days promo feature of KDP Select to get a head start on selling.

In three months when the KDP Select period is over, it will be the middle of February or so, and I am hoping by then Smashwords will finally be able to accept epub files! That will make offering the book in other stores not only simpler, but also mean the version pushed out from Smashwords to other retailers will look much better.

The Nostalgia Gambit is back from the copyeditor's!

I just got the marked up manuscript for The Nostalgia Gambit back from my copyeditor. Now I have to go through the pages and either make the changes or (in some cases) argue about them.

After that. it will be one final proofing on my Kindle, and then off to the conversion house!

Book cover test

Below is the cover* of one of my two upcoming novels. One of the nice things about self-publishing is, the writer gets to pick the cover artist, and also to approve the cover. Of course, the writer also gets to pay the cover artist, but at least I was really happy with the way this cover came out.

If anyone out there feels like leaving a comment, tell me what you think this book is about, based on this cover. Feel free to be as vague or as specific as you like!  I'd be really curious to see if this cover conveys the concept of the story as well as I think it does.  In fact, if there's more than one guess, I'll give the person who is closest a free copy of the ebook when it's ready.

* cover artist is Monica Jorgensen

Call me a squeaky wheel!

The old saying goes that it's the squeaky wheel that gets the oil. My last post was about how only a few people take the trouble to post reviews online, and sure enough, I got a few more reviews in the last few days.  This made me notice something Amazon is doing when a book has five or more reviews. They generate snippets of a single sentence from three different people's reviews and mention when other reviewers have expressed the same sentiment. Below is an example from The Sixth Discipline, my free book, which now has nine reviews.  Note the middle entry,  from a review by someone who goes by the name Pink Dolphin, which says “Simply put I could not wait to find out what was on the next page and the next and the next.” Below the snippet it says two other reviewers made a similar statement.

I'm pretty sure Amazon is generating these in an automated way, using some sort of algorithm to identify positive language about the book (I have never seen a negative snippet) and even equating similar sentences. There are millions of books on Amazon, so I can't believe someone actually reads all the reviews. Somehow this kind of natural language parsing seems a lot cooler to me when it's being used to sell my books to you than when Google advertisers are trying to sell their products to me!

And I know five reviews is the requirement for snippets, because Tribes has four very nice reviews, but the column next to the stars rankings is empty.

On the other hand, Where Magic Rules, my fantasy novella, has five reviews and sure enough, it has snippets!

Note the yellow highlighting in that screen shot. That's to point out that WMR got a celebrity review from folk singer Janis Ian!

You couldn't expect me to talk about reviews and not mention that!

Would it kill you to post a review?

There has a been a huge kerfuffle on the web lately about online book reviews. The New York Times had a story about a man who created a pay-for-reviews service that was blatantly not providing honest reviews.  That article mentioned mostly self-published authors, but there has also been some fuss about traditionally published authors creating fake online personas, not only to praise their own works but to trash other writers' books!

Let me just say that if I were going to pay for reviews or create my own, I would have many more! Getting bloggers to write reviews is not easy, and apparently not that many readers think to go online and write reviews when they finish a book. Supposedly, reviews are what sells books. Certainly, best sellers have lots of reviews (usually hundreds). But when you look at my books' Amazon rankings, what stands out is that my best seller (not counting the free book) is No Safe Haven, which has one and only one review.

Of course, that's disingenuous. NSH is selling better than my others because it's a direct sequel to The Sixth Discipline, which is free. I'm basically a book pusher. "Sure, kid, have some! It'll make you feel good, and it's free."  Of course, the next hit costs $2.99.  People are buying the second one, but they're not reviewing it!

Interestingly, I have the most reviews (nine!) for The Sixth Discipline. Perhaps people who get it for free feel somehow obligated to post a review? Although, actually, not all nine reviewers got the book for free, but more did than didn't because I gave away some review copies even before Amazon made it free.

I wonder if the fuss about bogus reviews will devalue them on Amazon? And I wonder why some people post reviews and some don't? If anyone out there feels like answering, let me know what makes you post reviews, or why you don't post them. You can leave a comment or send me an email at my address on the Contact tab.

Or don't you want to do that either?

Shades of Empire got a lovely review!

Sunday was my birthday, and I got a wonderful present when the SFBook Review site (a very helpful, well-organized site if you like fantasy and science fiction) posted a four-star review of Shades of Empire. Reviewer Ant (short for Antony) said some very nice things:

“While there are a number of romantic elements to the plot there are some much more serious aspects at play too, including rape, the dangers of a brutal monarchy and that of the corruption inherent in those who have absolute power, not to mention the subjugation of women. Some pretty serious subjects I think you'll agree and in the wrong hands ones that could prove a story-breaker, luckily we are in good hands and the author manages everything in an intelligent and effective manner without once coming across as gratuitous or over the top. Some of the scenes are nevertheless a little graphic and as such this isn't suited to the younger reader, or indeed those who don't like to read about that sort of thing.

So it's not a book for everyone; however it is a very well crafted tale that blends some really creative characters into a multi-threaded plot without losing the reader anywhere and the way these are all brought together is excellent . . . .
Shades of Empire is a well crafted, engaging story and one which is very enjoyable despite the occasionally graphic scene and serious subject matter. Perfect for anyone who likes a bit of romance in their reading.”

SFBook Reviews is unusual in that it reviews traditionally published as well as self-published books. It covers both science fiction and fantasy and is worth checking out if you read in those genres. As a former librarian, the organization of the site, offering indexing by title, author, and genre is very attractive to me.  And of course, it's always nice when someone who reads widely in your genre likes your work. 

The Sixth Discipline is free on the Nook!

I just checked Barnes & Noble, and The Sixth Discipline is now free in the Nook store! That means Nook came in second to iBooks in the race to match the Smashwords price change. Also, it means you can make a book free on Nook if you use Smashwords to publish. You cannot do that via the Pub-It platform, which, like KDP, sets 99¢ as the lowest level price authors can charge.

Any Nook users out there, head on over and pick it up now!

iBooks won the race to be free!

I have been checking the Smashwords retail platforms every day, to see if The Sixth Discipline was free yet. I made that book free on Smashwords on June 11^th and as of today, it still costs 99¢ everywhere except on iBooks where it is now free!

That means Apple price-matched Smashwords after only 4 days!  That is much faster than it used to be. Mark Coker did not lie!

Finally!

Smashwords has updated their Apple sales figures. For the first time, my US iBooks sales beat my Commonwealth (Canadian, UK, and Australian) sales. Oh, and Smashwords updated Barnes & Noble sales figures a while ago, but I never have as many sales there, so I don't stress about that.

My books as world travelers

I've blogged before about international sales. Of course, language is an issue. To some extent, iBooks has an edge over Kindle in terms of international presence. I see iBooks sales from Australia, Canada, and the UK, as well as in the US-- the larger English-speaking countries, in other words. Amazon has a Kindle store for the UK, but that's the only one in an English-speaking nation besides the US. There are Kindle stores in Germany, Spain, Italy, and France, but those folks are mostly not looking for books in English, so that doesn't help me a lot. I really wish there was a Kindle store in Canada! I do not know what the hold-up is.

iBooks also sells in non-English-speaking countries, but I only know which countries if I get a sale. I know they sell in the Netherlands, because I did get a sale from there (my first sale listed in euros). I think the giveaway of Shades of Empire must have helped make it more visible, because I also now have a few sales from the Kindle stores in Germany and Italy as well as the UK. More euros!

Shades of Empire goes Continental

On this latest round of giveaways of Shades of Empire, I had the usual amount of takers in the UK, and another small handful in Germany, but I also gave away a copy to someone in Spain and someone in Italy. Still zero in France, though. Oh, well! C'est la vie!

My books are back on Diesel!

Actually, I don't know if they were ever gone;  I think Diesel simply changed their search syntax as far as author names. When I searched for "Carmen Webster Buxton" in quotes I got nothing, but when I searched for the books by title there were there.  Next I tried searching on my name without the quotes and all three books showed up!

Now if I can just get No Safe Haven to go to Blio I will be happy.

Housekeeping

My first sales from Blio (online store with ebooks distributed by Baker & Taylor) came in! That means Smashwords now has another retail ebook outlet up and running.  For some reason, No Safe Haven is still not available in that store, even though The Sixth Discipline and Tribes are both for sale. I have not had any luck getting Smashwords to remedy that, either. I will have to try removing the book from the distribution list and then requesting it to ship again.

I spent the morning updating the Books tab on this site (click the tab above to see) and my Shelfari shelf (see the bottom of the home page).  Having thus taken care of some housekeeping chores, I am now going to reward myself with some reading time.

London calling?

I get email from Amazon on a regular basis, both as an author and as a customer. But recently I got email from the UK version of Amazon recommending some books to me, and one of them was my own Shades of Empire, which I had been checking out on that site.  I wanted to see if any UK customers had reviewed it yet (none had, although my lovely US review does show up), but while I was there I noticed that because I had opted to let Amazon use the US Kindle store price to set the UK price, the book costs £1.91 in the UK, which is a nice change from everything ending in “99.”

It was fun seeing my own book in the email.  Hopefully, other Amazon UK customers are seeing it, too!

Availability and pricing update

I have been checking the various retail outlets, and the price change to make Tribes and No Safe Haven $2.99 again is in place in the Kindle, Nook, iBooks, Smashwords, and Sony ebookstores. Kobo now has Tribes back (it had lost it for a while) but the book is still priced at 99¢, and there's no sign of the other two novels.  Diesel has still lost all my books! And the newest outlet, Blio, has Tribes and The Sixth Discipline, both  for 99¢ but with no sign of No Safe Haven.

Actually, Blio is no longer the newest outlet for me, because I recently uploaded The Sixth Discipline to Goodreads in ePub format.  You can buy it there DRM-free, just like Smashwords.

I'm in (Book) Labor!

Both Shades of Empire and Where Magic Rules have been delivered to the conversion house. In a week or two I should have the files back for final review. The twins are on their way!

I feel like I need a cigarette and I don't even smoke.

Shades of Empire is ready for the copy editor!

Most of my fiction is far-future science fiction that takes place in imagined worlds. Sometime in May I hope to publish a true space opera. The universe is the same one found in Tribes, but none of those characters appear in Shades of Empire, in which much of the plot takes place on an interstellar cargo ship. As the title suggests, the novel also includes an emperor (and an empress, too). It's a multi-threaded story with many characters and subplots, and I'm hoping folks find it an interesting read.

I'm adding a photo of  the Eta Carinae nebula to this post, in celebration of my story. NASA has some great photos of space if you're looking for one.