May 3, 2014
Bloodridge is now available. This is the "soft-launch." At this point, I'm looking for reviews. By June 14, I'm hoping to have enough objective reviews to encourage readers to buy the book. My deal with reviewers is this: Buy the ebook (at either http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bloodridge-ds-kane/1119369309?ean=2940149607129&itm=1&usri=2940149607129 or http://www.amazon.com/Bloodridge-Spies-Lie-DS-Kane-ebook/dp/B00K0029J0/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=1-1&qid=1399136970) and review Bloodridge on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21953879-bloodridge) and on Amazon, and regardless of what you say, send me a copy of both reviews, and I'll send you an ebook copy of Book 2 in the series, DeathByte, when I soft-launch it in a few weeks.
If this works and I have enough reviews to generate sales, I'll repeat the process with DeathByte and Book 3 of the series, Swiftshadow. So, if you buy Bloodridge and write reviews for it, you get DeathByte for free, and if you write reviews for DeathByte, you get Swiftshadow for free.Of course, whaat I get is your email to me (dskane@dskane.com) containing link to the reviews you wrote to earn the free copy.
Have fun! Do this and you might end up with a free set of spy novels for your summer reading.
Right now, I'm waiting for completion of the copyedit process on DeathByte, and the book covers to be completed...
Saturday, May 3, 2014
Sunday, April 27, 2014
An Adventure In Self-Publishing – POST #6
April 27, 2014
The first major step in my self-publishing adventure is nearly complete.
Bloodridge is now loaded into Bowkers (for the ISBN Numbers for the CreateSpace paper, Nook epub and Kindle mobi ebook versions), and Ingrams / Spark (paper book sales through brick and mortar bookstores). As soon as these listings are confirmed, the CreateSpace entry will show in my Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) page, and then I can upload the mobi version to KDP. At that point, Bloodridge will be available for reviewers, and for the general public on June 14. The folks at Booknook.biz were very helpful in setting everything up so my work would be straightforward.
Sometime early next week, I expect to see the copyedited version of DeathByte sent to me by my copyeditor, Karl Yambert. I'll read his questions and reply, probably in three days. Then he'll send me the final copyedited version, and I can forward that on to Booknook.biz. Meanwhile, my cover designer, Jeroen Ten Berge should be completing the cover designs (paper and ebook) for DeathByte by the end on next week, and after I approve them, they also get sent to Booknook.biz. If things go well, DeathByte will be ready for its upload in two weeks, ready for reviewers, pending it's pub date on July 12.
Then, on to Swiftshadow, due for release on August 2. When that one is done, I will have created an entire summer's reading list for thriller devotees.
Then, I can take a more leasurely pace with the other three, which will be made available for summer 2015. To make next year less hectic, I'll work on those over the following months (autumn).
The cost of all this was about $10,000 for three books. Publicity and web site redesign were more, and by that I mean a ton of cashish more.
Yes, I could have done it on the cheap. But I hope that paying for quality means I'm delivering an excellent product to reader.
Now, back to work...
The first major step in my self-publishing adventure is nearly complete.
Bloodridge is now loaded into Bowkers (for the ISBN Numbers for the CreateSpace paper, Nook epub and Kindle mobi ebook versions), and Ingrams / Spark (paper book sales through brick and mortar bookstores). As soon as these listings are confirmed, the CreateSpace entry will show in my Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) page, and then I can upload the mobi version to KDP. At that point, Bloodridge will be available for reviewers, and for the general public on June 14. The folks at Booknook.biz were very helpful in setting everything up so my work would be straightforward.
Sometime early next week, I expect to see the copyedited version of DeathByte sent to me by my copyeditor, Karl Yambert. I'll read his questions and reply, probably in three days. Then he'll send me the final copyedited version, and I can forward that on to Booknook.biz. Meanwhile, my cover designer, Jeroen Ten Berge should be completing the cover designs (paper and ebook) for DeathByte by the end on next week, and after I approve them, they also get sent to Booknook.biz. If things go well, DeathByte will be ready for its upload in two weeks, ready for reviewers, pending it's pub date on July 12.
Then, on to Swiftshadow, due for release on August 2. When that one is done, I will have created an entire summer's reading list for thriller devotees.
Then, I can take a more leasurely pace with the other three, which will be made available for summer 2015. To make next year less hectic, I'll work on those over the following months (autumn).
The cost of all this was about $10,000 for three books. Publicity and web site redesign were more, and by that I mean a ton of cashish more.
Yes, I could have done it on the cheap. But I hope that paying for quality means I'm delivering an excellent product to reader.
Now, back to work...
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
An Adventure In Self-Publishing – POST #5
Now, finally... Bloodridge, the first title in the "Spies Lie" series is almost complete. The cover, by Jeroen Ten Berge, is done. The copyediting, by Karl Yambert, is done. The formatting into PDF for the Ingram's / LightningSource and CreateSpace print versions of the book is done, by Booknook.biz. All I'm waiting on now is Booknook.biz's formatting of the book into epub and mobi versions for Nook and Amazon.
So far, I'm impressed with the result. My publicist, Brandi Andres, has helped arrange guest columns in the Huffington Post on political and technology issues. To help with "discoverability," I've asked several authors I know (or who I've been directed to by other authors I know) to write reviews or blurbs, and now I'm waiting on them. In just a few days, I'll be offering the ebook version to readers who promise reviews on Goodreads and my Amazon author's page (which I must now create).
The total cost for all this is within 15% of my budget. And, I'll make my target date of June 14 for Bloodridge's release.
So, with the pre-release work on Bloodridge now complete, I'll begin focus on book 2, DeathByte. As the song says, "The road goes on forever and the party never ends..."
So far, I'm impressed with the result. My publicist, Brandi Andres, has helped arrange guest columns in the Huffington Post on political and technology issues. To help with "discoverability," I've asked several authors I know (or who I've been directed to by other authors I know) to write reviews or blurbs, and now I'm waiting on them. In just a few days, I'll be offering the ebook version to readers who promise reviews on Goodreads and my Amazon author's page (which I must now create).
The total cost for all this is within 15% of my budget. And, I'll make my target date of June 14 for Bloodridge's release.
So, with the pre-release work on Bloodridge now complete, I'll begin focus on book 2, DeathByte. As the song says, "The road goes on forever and the party never ends..."
Sunday, April 13, 2014
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
An Adventure In Self-Publishing - POST #4
March 25, 2014
Two months into the adventure. I've spent about $600 more than I'd budgeted, and I'm about one week behind schedule. I'm waiting on my cover designer's work, then I can send the manuscript out to a professional formatter. If I get the covers by the end of March, Bloodridge, the first book in the series will be ready for its June 15 publication date and I can ship it out for promotion (blurbs, reviews, free copies). Then, onto DeathByte, which is the second in the series, due for publication on July 15. At this rate, I will be about $3,000 over budget and will get the first three (including Swiftshadow) out by August 1. I still have no idea where that extra cashish will come from, but I can always hope it will be from book sales.
Should you do this for your books? If you have tons of stamina, can suffer the uncertainty of not knowing if what you are doing will work, and have enough cash to carry it through, then maybe. It's a tough trip.
Two months into the adventure. I've spent about $600 more than I'd budgeted, and I'm about one week behind schedule. I'm waiting on my cover designer's work, then I can send the manuscript out to a professional formatter. If I get the covers by the end of March, Bloodridge, the first book in the series will be ready for its June 15 publication date and I can ship it out for promotion (blurbs, reviews, free copies). Then, onto DeathByte, which is the second in the series, due for publication on July 15. At this rate, I will be about $3,000 over budget and will get the first three (including Swiftshadow) out by August 1. I still have no idea where that extra cashish will come from, but I can always hope it will be from book sales.
Should you do this for your books? If you have tons of stamina, can suffer the uncertainty of not knowing if what you are doing will work, and have enough cash to carry it through, then maybe. It's a tough trip.
The 7th ActFourWriters.com critique and workshop
March 25, 2014
The 7th ActFourWriters.com critique and workshop for fiction novelists is now open for applicants. Visit http://actfourwriters.com/ to see what it's all about. Then, email Brenda Barrie [brenda@brendabarrie.com] with your contact info if you want to do breakthrough novel writing.
Monday, March 24, 2014
The Snowden Effect: A Web of Conflict
March 24, 2014
I'm co-author of a@HuffingtonPost article, today, with Brandi Andres: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brandi-andres/privacy-matters-edward-snowden_b_5009738.html about how our intelligence services violate our privacy. It's time our country's elected officials had a public conversation about whether these activities should be deemed unconstitutional and the lawbreakers (the US Senate, the CIA, the NSA, or,the whistleblowers) punished or whether this is okay and we want it. Either way, it's better for us if we know and agree to the policies in effect.
What do you think?
I'm co-author of a
What do you think?
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