self-publishing

A Change of Cover

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You might notice that I’ve updated the cover on Night Feeders. It’s one of the alternate covers that Fena provided for me. I was growing tired of the dusty western look, and wanted to push readers more in the direction of horror. Especially considering how creeped out some of my readers have been after reading it. (Cue evil writer laughter here.)

Let me know what you think of it. I’ve updated it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords, but it might take a while to update completely. I’m doing a refresher course on this self-publishing stuff since I have a YA Sci-Fi apocalyptic piece I want to put up in the next month or so. For some reason, YA Science Fiction just isn’t selling in the short story genres much lately. You would think it would considering the Hunger Games is so popular, but oh well!

Look for more updates in the weeks to come. Especially post-Camp NaNo!

Night Feeders is Alive and Kicking

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A western tale with a supernatural twist, Night Feeders is a difficult story to pin down. It resists staying put in a proper genre, and dances around somewhere between a horror and western, with bouts of humor taking hold along the way. Humor in my stories tends to veer along the lines of American Werewolf in London. One minute you’re horrified, then next you crack a smile because laughing after that scene just wouldn’t seem right in a way.

The story follows the sad decrepit town of Clarkville and the ominous secret Sheriff Ritters keeps hidden below. If you’re a fan of the supernatural, and enjoy a good western such as The Quick and the Dead, then this story ought to please.

Now available at Amazon, B&N, Smashwords.

By the way, I’m still trying to get Amazon to put Clawbinder up for free as well. If you have a moment, and want to help me get my free book up properly on the site, try the following:

  1. Scroll down to “Tell us about a lower price”
  2. Choose Website
  3. Give the link for Barnes and Noble or Smashwords (where it’s free).
  4. Set the price and shipping cost to 0.
  5. Click Submit Feedback.
  6. Thanks in advance! 🙂

The reason for this is kind of long-winded, but good to know in my opinion. I used to have this listed to be distributed via Smashwords since it allows for a free publication like this to be pushed around to multiple venues. However after a few weeks of waiting for the status to change from “Fixing conversion problems with Amazon” I discovered that this was not my fault. Apparently there are a bunch of authors who had to give up on Smashwords’ distribution to Amazon, and were then forced to upload directly instead.

To be honest, I’m not sure which company is to blame. All I know is that as an author, I’m missing out on potential readers because free eBooks are a challenge to post.

Accusations, Free Short Story, & Cover Reveal

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I have to admit, that after a busy couple of weeks during the holiday season and finally this equally busy weekend, it’s nice to get some decent writing time in. It’s been a little while, hasn’t it? I think the last writing update I had was November 28th, which really tells you how busy I got there with work and family after NaNo. I plan on doing a post in a couple of days about my overall wordcount for 2011 – a total of 137,158 – I’m quite proud of it, even if I only won one out of the two NaNo’s I participated in.

On the fanfiction side, I have quite a few pieces I need to post around, probably over at Archive of Our Own and FF.net, so if you follow those places expect some new stuff posted soon. I’ve signed up once again for Part 2 of the Werewolf Big Bang over on Livejournal. If you’ve never participated in a big bang before, it’s great practice for writing longer pieces, which I’m trying to get better with since I’ve started self-publishing some pieces.

Yes, Clawbinder is now free to download on most of the eBook stores you can find. Amazon is still being darn slow in recognizing that it should be a free eBook, but if you have a Kindle you can easily download a copy on Smashwords. The short story is already free online, but the eBook version contains a preview for my western novelette that should soon be released. If you do get a copy, please leave a review as well!

Clawbinder

Saira has been trained from birth for this: to battle one of the Great Ones and retrieve that precious prize. But Rajani is old and clever, and like the Great Rocs before her, she is wise to the ways of thieves. A fantasy short story.

B&N | Smashwords | Kobo | Diesel | Amazon (waiting for price drop) | Sony (coming soon!) | Apple
Night Feeders

In the old dusty town of Clarkville, the ruthless Sherriff Ritters keeps a tight hold on the townsfolk. They fear him not because of his followers, but because of the supernatural jewel he wears around his neck, and the creatures he keeps. When a stranger comes looking for one of the victims, he finds that Ritters is far more dangerous than he imagined.

Coming Soon!

Finally got to bring two parts of the storyline together in a meeting that’s far more awkward than I had imagined it would be when I decided to put this trio together. It is a pretty stressful situation though for all characters involved, so I can’t say I’m very surprised. I’ve been itching to get some writing in on this piece, so being able to make some progress really makes me pleased!

Summary: Leekston is an unassumingly quiet southern town, but it hides many secrets. An unusual government entity that studies the strange supernatural activity in the area is only one of many. Six years after the incident at the Kayak Hills subdivision, Suzie once again must protect her family from the creatures of the night and help to prevent a tense situation from taking more lives.

Project: The Secrets of Leekston (Working)
Deadline: April 2012 (Updated Deadline)
New words written: 1,162
Present total word count: 53,392

Total Word Count for 2012: 1,162

Links Galore!

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I blame Writer Beware for getting my brain rolling on self-publishing applications. I’ve got a number of short stories in the mix right now, many of which have been out waiting to be picked up by a publisher for months. As a writer, I can’t deny the temptation to try self-publishing out to see what I think. Even if it is just to say that I’ve experienced it.

A Guide to Publishing an Ebook on Amazon Kindle, Barnes and Noble and Smashwords

Artists for Book Covers – In my opinion, this would be the hardest step for self-publishing a book or novelette. You want to find an artist that is not going to break your wallet, but still be original and truly draw attention to your book. Browsing this page, I’ve already found two potentials:

Wayne Palesado – A Horror artist whose werewolf work looks particularly gruesome.

Oliver Wetter – My only concern here is that his stuff looks so polished, that I bet getting him to design an ebook cover would be a pain on my pocket. =)

Clare Hulfish – Who I admit won me over with her creepy Coraline-esque leaf eater photo. That just sums up the type of artwork I have an affinity for, a mixture of creepy, whimsical, and fantastic all rolled into one.

And finally, Murder Must Advertise, a handy site for questions regarding self-published mystery novels, but a bunch of this advice would be useful for all types of novels.