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Archive for the ‘Book cover’ Category

Procrastawriting or taking care of business

Posted in A writer's life, Australian author, author appearances, Author signing event, Book cover, book signing, Conflux, Creative passion, fantasy, Geeking out, research, revision, Science fiction conventions, Steampunk, Victorian, tagged , , , , , , , , , on July 11, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Yesterday, I did zero work on my current WIP, The Prudential Light. I did not have the excuse of the previous couple of days of recovering from my shingles vaccination, which really did knock me about. I did procrastawriting.

I wrote and sent a newsletter, and prior to that I signed up to Benventi for preorders for Books and Beyond 28 September. That took time. Here is a link to that preorder form. This is evidence and also if you are in the Central Coast and want to check out the event, please do. I’d love to say hi. It’s a first time, small writer event, which I think is free for the public.

I’ll be at the Geekmarkets on the CSFG table in the morning of 19 July with some of my books on offer. Also, free and fun.

I’ve signed up to Gamacon 6 September and I will have another appearance in August to announce soon.

Early October, it’s Conflux in Canberra, where I’ll have a table too. Not sure if I’ll make it onto any panels yet. That’s 3-5 October over the long weekend. A great SF con and a real experience if you have never been. I am hoping to launch The Prudential Light there but if so I need to get cracking.

I have other events later in the year as well but that’s the next few.

I have ordered book covers for The Prudential Light and Edward Huntington Esquire: Gentleman Magician so keep your eye out for those. I’m super excited about those.

While I have mucked about for two days, I actually did do some work this morning on The Prudential Light. It requires some additional structure so I had to write some new bits and one section needs a bit of research. The word count is now 53,000 word and I am not sure if this will reach 70,000 by the time I’m done.

I am in the ‘this is a mess, everyone will hate it, I can’t make it good’ stage. Or trending that way. I am still having fun with Jemima and Aunt Prudence.

Now as you can see I am writing a blog post. Is this procrastawriting? Or a heavy dose of writerly admin? I find it a bit of a diversion and I like blogging. Often I think of things I want to blog about and then don’t get around to it and then forget.

Have I told you I have started a TikTok? I am very much a Noob and the platform has amazing potential but being time poor I don’t have time to explore it and I’m also distracted by all those TikToks. My lastest talk about how hard I find revision. I love drafting novels. The hard work is shaping them into something you can read. Hence, my angst over is it good enough, can I make it better and so on.

I also owe the blog some posts from China, which I will get to.

Now it is time to get another cuppa.

PS my daughter just made me tea, put the heater on, brought me slippers, my hoodie and a cookie. I’m so spoilt.

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A bit late this week

Posted in Book cover, cover reveal, Crime shows, Paranormal romance writing, sf conventions, Viewing, World Science Fiction Conventions, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on June 16, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Usually I aim to write my blog posts on Thursdays. However, this week I got a migraine. Apart from holding it together for a visit by Patty Jansen, I spent the rest of the day in bed. Friday wasn’t much of a blast either.

What did I achieve? Text of the short story collection Robot Hearts was sent to the Ian McHugh for editing. Big tick. Lots of work install for me I am sure.

Associated with that process was registering the ISBNs and the CIP entry.

Destiny’s Blood is a 40,000 words but I haven’t added to it since Thursday due to the above short story collection and migraine.

Amber Rose is at 18,000 words and same as previous.

But there is always this afternoon, after the romance reader lunch.

Large Print version and hardback version of Emerald Fire has been achieved in the sense that I have finished the read through and made corrections, created the files, registered the ISBNs and requested the covers. A little bit finicky but all necessary. I also did the CiP entry for those too.

I also wrote a short post on my Dani Kristoff page. Here

This was to announce the cover of Destiny’s Blood.

Other monumental events. The Founders’ Legacy was critiqued in the CSFG crit group and Wednesday nigh.t Despite the blood stains from at times difficult feedback, I have some ideas to go forward and that’s the value of critiquing sessions, particularly when you know you have a difficult book and that it will create divergent opinions. However, as I have a full writing schedule revisions will be a while and I have to think things through. As I was being the one critted I had this month to do some reading for fun, so I have read a few things, currently The Time of the Cat by Tansy Rayner Roberts, who took out an amazing three Aurealis Awards last month. Lucky I had a copy because I supported the kick starter. It is a clever and amusing read and I’m still working on it. Listening to audio books, I’m still in Paladin books by T Kingfisher, just onto Paladin’s Faith. I might change up my listening after this but not sure what’s next. It depends on what I have already purchased.

Viewing wise, I stayed up late to finish Bridgeton Series 3. All hail Nicola Coughlan and her perfect breasts. I love her comeback when someone tried to body shame her. People like me with perfect breasts…I am now a member of the perfect breasts club. Thank you Nicola.

If you are into crime series, Brit Box has McDonald and Dobbs, which we have binged watched. Longer format kind of like Vera but not Vera obviously. Set in Bath, lovely, clever plots and very sympathetic characters. Thoroughly recommend. I’ve also been watch old Columbo episodes and they are fascinating.

Did I mention I was popping off to the World SF convention in Glasgow on 3 August?

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Progress report

Posted in A writer's life, Australian author, Book cover, cover reveal, Creative passion, Querying agents, tagged , , , , , , , on May 10, 2024| Leave a Comment »

A few things on the boil.

Here is the cover for the robot-themed short story collection that I’ll put out this year. I was going to call it by a different name but that old name did not suit the cover. Matthew suggested Robot Hearts. Last week I drafted two of the stories and the rest I have are already written. What do you think? I’m in a quandary about an editor.

I’ve been reading through Ruby Heart, mostly to refresh my mind about the characters and story so I can write the next book. However, I’m repairing typos as well. Reading slowly out loud takes time, but it’s good at detecting missing words etc. Pity it was proofread too. I’m almost done. Then I need to read Emerald Fire so I can start on Amber Rose. I dug out the cover for inspiration.

I’m very excited to be working on this. I did start a while ago but life just went off in a big kaboom.

Yesterday was meant to be a full on writing day. However, after aqua aerobics I was wasted and starving. So we had lunch at the club as planned. Too many good options to choose from in the pensioner lunch category. And then I flaked. I felt dizzy and sleepy. We put it down to the medication I’m on. No trip to the National Library for me.

In bed, after a nap, I managed about 1000 words on The Lightning Strike on my lap top and had a cool idea where to from there. Yes, I’m seat of the pantsing this one. Eventually I’ll have to plan it, but I like to see where the story, characters and mystery goes. I’m really liking Gene and Lily but have decided to bring in Wolf and Abbie to create some huge sparks.

Today I stumbled across a review on Kobo for Oathbound, the middle book of the Silverlands series. It completely blew me away. It was nice, of course, so nice blown away and not jaw dropping to the ground appalling blown away. Link here.

Amazon put the price of Vorn and the First Comers to free and then changed it back up again. This means that this weekend I will try to get my book store live so anyone can get it free. I’ve also decided to do a hardcover of Vorn and the First Comers, which will be its first time in print.

I’ve two books on submission. And you know it is very disheartening when you know some award winning writers can’t place their books with publishers and or agents. I will try to brazen in out until I give up hope.

That’s it from me until next time.

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Touching passion

Posted in A writer's life, am wrinting, Beta reading, Book cover, Creative passion, tagged , , , , , on April 3, 2022| Leave a Comment »

I am back here again blogging. Not year long wait this time.

Since I blogged last I’ve been making a concerted effort to reengage with my creative writing.

I booked to go the Australian Romance Readers Awards in Sydney at the end of April. I’m not up for an award or anything (not having published anything in the last couple of years) but I want to reengage with the scene, with other authors, some of whom at great buddies. And it’s a great event, at a great venue and Matthew and I will enjoy ourselves.

The next thing I did was actually get out some manuscripts. I have a middle grade book I’m writing so I reviewed what I had written so far and extended the story a bit. I have a lot of works in various stages of progress. I targeted two novels that have been almost there for a while. The science fiction one, Awakenings, I reviewed and then sent to beta readers. That was a massive milestone for me.

On Saturday, I also shared a table to sell books at the Geek Markets here in Canberra. Again, this was to help me get back into my writing groove. It’s not all just about drafting, revising and editing. There’s actual promotion, selling and getting into the scene. I had an okay day. I sold books, talked about my books and answered questions about my books. I hung with fellow writers, some I haven’t seen in two years.

I wore a mask most of the time and I’d say about 30 per cent of the people I saw walking past had masks. They don’t have to wear them, but there are still a lot of Covid around. I seriously like Canberra geeks. I have now put in to book for Gammacon in Canberra in July. (I hope I managed to snag a table)

Anyhow, something in what I’ve done appears to have worked. Today, I started working on The Changeling Curse, the sequel to The Sorcerer’s Spell, a paranormal romance, very spicy. Something happened. I am sharing the covers with you below. They have been languishing for so long for me to put the words with them.

Today, I fell into writing, editing etc and entered the ‘zen’ zone. I call it the zen zone because everything around me disappears. I lose track of time. I go into the space where my story is unfolding. I feel excitement. It’s like a drug. I just want more and more. This feeling kept going. I did lose track of time. I had an appointment and shamefacedly realised that I’d been absent. I went out and then I came back and started writing again. And the zen zone came back. I am so excited by this. I have passion again. I feel like I did when I first discovered writing. It feels so amazing.

I can’t describe how happy and invigorating this makes me feel. Now instead of setting goals like ‘half hour a day on a manuscript’ I’m setting myself goals ‘take a break before you wreck yourself.’ For so long I was in a creative desert.

I’m really grateful to my writing buddy Lily Mulholland. She beta read The Changeling Curse for me and also made comments and suggested edits. These small things, which probably took her a lot of time, have been amazing. I feel like I can do this. I feel like I’m a writer again.

I could probably look back on the last month or so and see other activities that have helped me reinvigorate my passion. I beta read for two authors. I sat down with Kaaren and talked about her story. We brainstormed ideas for the plot. I said to her… Gee I feel like I’m a writer. I also beta read another story and it somehow turned me back onto excitement of creating stories. These small things were stoking the flames I think. I did not think I’d feel this enthusiasm again. I kept wondering what I was going to do with myself if I didn’t write. My future seemed bleak. Now it doesn’t anymore.

I had to share this with you all. I have my passion back. I want to weep with the joy of it. I hope it doesn’t go away again.

Here are the covers that I have had for years. I hope to get these books out this year.

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Lasts days of Argenterra at 99 cents

Posted in A writer's life, Australian author, baking, Book cover, cover reveal, Emerald Fire, epic fantasy, science fiction, Science Fiction Romance, tagged , , , , , on April 25, 2019| Leave a Comment »

It’s been a long time between posts and I really don’t have an excuse. Life if just hectic at times. I’ve also decided that my daughter and her new baby will come first this year. That decision requires refoccusing. And I’ve been baking bread, particularly sour dough. It’s therapeutic!

Still on the writing front things have been plodding on. At times, I do not understand this industry. I love writing and making up stories but at times it is hard to be positive about the longer term. Selling a book a day is not sustainable. I will try though to keep positive!

Emerald Fire, Cry Havoc Book Two was free on Amazon for five days and people downloaded a lot of it (635). I was shocked. Ruby Heart , Cry Havoc Book One, hardly had any downloads in comparison and that was the book one (about 120). I umed and ahed about putting a book 2 on for free but I did and I’m not sure what it all means. I think my newsletter subscribers are waiting for Ruby Heart to be discounted again so they can have the set. I love writing this series so much. So much fun and research. I will be discounting Ruby Heart in May, which Emerald Fire goes wide.

Meanwhile, Argenterra, Silverlands Book one, has been 99 cents on all platforms for the whole of April. The sale ends on April 30. I even had a paid promotion and I’ve only shifted like 25 copies all up. That’s with newsletter shares and so on. The weird thing is the sell through on Argenterra appears pretty good. People do buy the next books in the series. I love the new covers. I’ll put links below in case you are tempted to sample.

I love the Silverlands series. Argenterra was the first fantasy I tried to write. My second novel ever, rewritten many times before it was ever published. I love the Argenterra world and the characters and the stories of the history.

You have until April 30 to get your 99 cent copy.

Buy links

amazon ibooks Kobo Google Nook

I have a collection of stories from Argenterra planned, ostensibly told from Kushlan Silvertongue’s point of view as commissioned by King Oakheart. A bit of a literary conceit there, having a story teller tell the story.

I’ll be releasing the stories one by one, at first, to introduce readers to the world of Argenterra and an extra for fans of the series. When they are done I will release them as a collection in one volume. They will be free or 99 cents.

The first one of these will be released in a couple of weeks as it is with the proofreader right now. That tale is Vorn and the First Comers, an appropriate place to start. I have thought about writing Vorn’s story as a prequel novel so the novella doesn’t cover the war, just the trip to Argenterra and early settlement. Here is the cover below. It’s from Patty Jansen’s premade cover store and I’ve been eyeing it off for ages.

It is stunning. It is a generic fantasy cover, I know, but evocative and beautiful.

Over the Easter break I did some writing, well technically revision as this novel was drafted years ago and I’m still working on it. I had feedback that meant I needed to change the title and confirmation of my thoughts on this SF romance of mine.

It’s a story that wants to be just SF without the romance, or it’s an SF romance that wants to be romance. In the end, I’ve decided to make it SF with romance on the side. You might think there is no difference, but there is.

Anyway I spied this cover on Patty’s site and I had been eyeing it off. My partner, Matthew, thinks Deleen’s pose is too sexy, but I think the cover is deliciously retro looking and reminds me some 80s’ covers of books say from Lois McMaster Bujold.

My great author buddy, Nicole Murphy, asked for the draft and she read it in one day. I’m gobsmacked! She gave me some great feedback and came up with the new title. The old one was ‘Cold Soldier’.

Patty was really good about retitling this cover many times. I haven’t got a blurb for this yet. They usually come last. I’m still working on the story too. This book having an identity crisis borked me from getting very far into the rewrites over the years. Now, I’m two thirds in and I’ll need to revise it again, but I feel I have better direction. It is also part of a planned series but not a trilogy. The stories should work on their own. Awakening should come out later this year. After I’ve done a few things like this blog post, I will return to it today.

No blurb as I said, but a bit of a teaser.

On peaceful Colony Five there is a coup in progress. The administrator is mysteriously replaced and security advisor, Deleen is sent on forced leave.  Previously unknown cryo soldiers are being taken out of people’s basements and burned in the city parks. People hiding the cold soldiers are being taken away and charged with treason. Disturbing as this is for Deleen, she senses danger as a kind of martial law is being enforced in the city. Then she starts having dreams of a man asleep in a glass case-a suppressed memory that is forcing its way out. She escapes the city her abandoned homestead to confront the past and save the present.

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Get your steampunk on!

Posted in Argenterra, Book cover, Book launch, epic fantasy, fantasy, Fashion, new release, Paranormal romance, Steampunk, Victorian, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 15, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Hi there!

Guess what?

I have put Ruby Heart, Cry Havoc Book 1 up for preorder on Amazon.  It is in Kindle Unlimited so it will be free to those who subscribe to that service. I will publish this book to other retailers in 2019. It will also be available in print.

This has been a long time coming. Ruby Heart had an agent. We thought this would sell but alas it did not. After five years waiting, I’m publishing myself.  I love it and I’m so excited to share Jemima Hardcastle’s story with you.

Frauke from http://www.crocodesigns.com did the covers. I love what she has done.

RubyHeart-2

Here is the blurb. It is currently being edited so it’s not perfect, but you will get the gist.

Blurb

Paranormal Victorian steampunk fantasy, with Gothic horror and romance.

A book of manners, magic and mayhem.

Jemima Hardcastle has a sad history. After her father was murdered by a secret society of magicians, her guardian and new heir to Willow Park, Edward Huntington, packed her off to boarding school. In the four years she was there, she never saw him again until she escaped from school to a house party and there he was. He did not recognise her and he even flirted with her.

A disastrous kiss, a murder and a stolen jewel herald dire happenings. Jemima is shipped off to Willow Park in the care of Fulton, Edward’s man, to be under the chaperonage of the odious Aunt Prudence and the meek cousin, Milly. While avoiding stitching in the evenings, she discovers Edward’s scientific genius and the artificial leg he made for Fulton. Her esteem for Edward rises and she is actually looking forward to seeing him again when he does not arrive as planned.

When they realise Edward is abducted, Jemima schemes to go in rescue. She has cunning and she has money and with these she plunges herself and her companions into the world of dark sorcery and London shopping.

In London, Jemima and Fulton lead a double life as they search for Edward in the slums, manufactureys and even a bawdy house. When she final discovers Edward, her life is on the line.

While a vicious and bloody fight for survival is going on around him, Edward has to choose between saving her life or unleashing the unholy, vampiric beast Geneck on an unsuspecting London.

Ruamazonby Heart is currently on preorder for $1.99 with a release date of December 22nd. It will be $1.99 until Boxing Day.

Here is the cover of the sequel, due to be published end January 2019. It’s currently with the editor. I can’t tell you how much fun I had with this story. I’ve even got another idea and maybe another, but it depends on how well it goes. If it doesn’t take off I’ll have to work on something else. Anyway I appreciate your support.

EmeraldFire-2

While I have you here, Argenterra is currently $0.99 cents until the 20th of December. A must for epic fantasy lovers.

Check out the new cover from Frauke at Croco Designs.

Argenterra-1000x1500

Here is a link to more information and buy links.

 

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Moonfall is approaching

Posted in A writer's life, Book cover, Book launch, Dark fantasy, Dragon, Dragon fantasy, Dragon Wine, Maps, new release, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 19, 2018| Leave a Comment »

The final installment in the Dragon Wine series is fast approaching. Due date 31 August 2018.

The proof corrections have arrived and I’ve started on them.

Also, the  map, which I’m going to share here.

But first! I’d share the blurb but I may have to change it.

Moonfall-highres(1)

Buy Links

amazon Google Kobo ibooksNook

Now for the map. I had drawn this out but in discussion with Dr Russell Kirkpatrick about the map, he came up with this very cool idea. He is a geographer as well as a writer, Legoman and golf/sport/music nerd. He had been looking at some historical maps of New Zealand from when not much had been explored. The map we looked at (and he did tell me who it was by) showed rumoured coastline and unknown coastlines (or not-just unknown blank space). Anyway, we thought this would work well for the map of Margra because it’s a post-apocalyptic world and the coastlines of the continents had changed, and civilisation had been devastated and once thriving cities ruined. So we came up with this, mostly Russell came up with this. I’d love to hear what you think.

This is meant to be the map that Nils puts together from his research in the Hiem archives and from hearing accounts from Danton and Brill. The map will appear in Moonfall, print and ebooks.

Margra World Map Moonfall 2

 

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New release!

Posted in Book cover, Book launch, Love and Space Pirates Series, Opi Battles the Space Pirates, science fiction, SF romance, space opera, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on March 4, 2017| 2 Comments »

It has been hectic here at Dweebenhiem! A lot happening on the publishing front.

First of all, new book!

opibattlesthespacepirates

Isn’t the cover wonderful?

Are you in the mood for a light-hearted romp through space? Forget POTUS! Take a spell from despair! Join Opi and her gravity problems. Opi Battles the Space Pirates is an adult SF romance, which features an older heroine and no explicit sex scenes.

Here’s the blurb

Ms Opeia Gayens, head of AllEarth Corp, has a problem—her company is rotten with Space Pirates. She wants to get rid of them once and for all. An unexpected invitation to dinner challenges her plans to be the bait that will draw the nasty pirates out. It’s been forever since she’s been on a date—just been Opi. Somehow, Owain McDevitt, mild-mannered, potato farmer from the planet Islay 2 is drawn into the intrigue. Yet, no one is who they seem, least of all Owain McDevitt.

Betrayal after betrayal threatens Opi’s existence and she must discover who the traitor really is before she can find her true path to happiness.

Opi Battles the Space Pirates is out on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited for 3 months. Then it goes wide to other retailers.

You can get your copy here US$2.99 Aus $3.99

Link is here

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Reaching a point in the drafting of novels

Posted in A writer's life, am wrinting, Argenterra, Book cover, epic fantasy, fantasy, General excitment, Hybrid Publishing, Indie Publishing, Writing advice, Young adult, tagged , , , , , , , on September 20, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Yesterday, just by happenstance, the ability to lose myself in a story and the loss of my university access cards, I finished drafting Book Three of the Silverlands, Ungiven Land. 8,000 words yesterday. I was knackered. I haven’t pulled one of those in ages. (A massage, hot pack,  hot shower, more hot pack was required to recuperate).

It’s not finished per se. I have to tidy the draft up a bit before sending to beta readers. There is probably a few talking heads and some scenes that need to be moved around plus other tweaking. I was fairly pumping out the words and the scenes unraveled in my head. I get all excited near the end and I plough through. I think I read in the same way. Also, I lost track of time. Didn’t eat dinner. Didn’t prepare dinner. Looked up and Matthew was home.

But damn. I got the story out. I did it. I finished my first trilogy. (picture me hands in the air, dancing on the spot) I have written in series format before say for the Love and Space Pirates series (I want to write another one) and under Dani Kristoff I’ve finished the third book in the Spellbound in Sydney series. But a trilogy is a whole new ball game. You start out thinking what’s going into those three books that make up the ONE story and time and lack of note taking can seriously derail that.

As an aspiring writer, I had lots of advice about whether to write the whole series or just the first book. The prevailing advice was don’t invest in a series you haven’t sold. So I devoted myself to a number of first books in series hoping to sell them. Lucky for me I also did writers’ retreats where I could devote myself to writing for two weeks. And in the past I had drafted second books or parts of books. I have 153,000 words of the second book (or second two books) in the Dragon Wine series btw.

That may be good advice, on the other hand, if you haven’t got notes and it’s a big complex story and you do sell the first book, the pressure would be immense. I’m not a fan of working on one book for ten years. I’d rather work on ten books over ten years. It’s all learning and I love ideas and exploring story and genre. If I had my time again, maybe I would have at least drafted the remainder of the trilogies I worked on while it was all fresh in my head and concentrated on selling the first one. It would have made this year easier.

You may recall that The Silverlands Trilogy is my self-publishing/indie publishing investment. Argenterra came out in late April. That book had been revised and edited etc many times over many years. Basically, the crafting of a load of crap into something worth reading over 15 years. I hope so!

Book Two was drafted but probably only ever a tidied draft. It was a much better draft than Argenterra was originally as I had progressed as a writer. No one had read it except me. I’m about to do a final revision, tweak and polish before sending it for an edit. You might ask why I haven’t already done this. Well, I was working on book three. I had thought I had 50,000 words of the third book written. Gah! I did but the words were shit. They had to be rewritten and most of it chucked out. I was in despair. Somewhere around 70,000 words the draft felt like it was coming together. Now at 121,000 words I’m pretty pleased. It’s done. The story works…well for now .Beta readers may bash me in the head.

This probably doesn’t answer the question. Why work on book three when two was waiting for a revision? Because finishing book three allowed me to work out all the kinks and to see if it was going to work before I went back to book two. I could still change things in book two before I set them in concrete by publishing it. Rescue a character who had sunk beyond redemption, for example. Set up things in book two that I had brought to a head in book three. I guess it’s a form of cheating. But hey, it worked. This is probably why I’m advocating writing the whole series in one go. Why I wish I had. But my best advice is just write what you want, how you want. I figure this book three is better than any I envisaged say ten years ago. Totally much better. I’m a better writer than I was. Ideas just smashed together well this time.

This week and maybe part of the next I’ll be tidying it up ready for beta readers. Then I’ll be back on book two, Oathbound.Now I’m ready to push forward. I believe the next two books will come out pretty close together. I have the covers. I just need the edit. I do my own laying out and book packaging. The cover layout I get help with. Technically I could do that I just have to buy Photoshop!

Then I guess I’ll get serious about marketing. My main goal so far has been to get reviews of Argenterra while I’m working on the other books. Reviews will help me if I want to do some paid promotion, such as Book Bub. If you read Argenterra and liked it please leave a review somewhere. It helps!

What have I learnt so far? I already knew writing well is hard work. Self-publishing/indie publishing is hard work if you want to do it well, but it has bells on. I’ve been stressed. I’ve had sleepless nights. I’ve invested my capital in my indie publishing gig. I have not spent time in promoting or whatever magic these successful indie writers do. My hat goes off to them. But I will when I get these books out.

The other thing successful indie writers do is they keep writing and keep producing. It sounds exhausting. I mean I do that too, but it’s driven by what stories interest me and my own creative practice. Maybe I should be more business like in my approach.

three-books

 

Buy link for Argenterra, Book One-Silverlands

Print copy from Book Depository here

Amazon.com Here

Amazon.com.au Here

Kobo Here

ibooks Here

Print (Amazon.com) Here.

Print elsewhere. Available from Createspace and Ingram Sparks.

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The self-publishing highs and woes

Posted in Argenterra, Book cover, epic fantasy, fantasy, Hybrid Publishing, Indie Publishing, self publishing, Silverlands Series, Uncategorized, Young adult, tagged , , , , , , on August 31, 2016| 2 Comments »

It is still very early days in my hybrid/self-publishing venture for the Silverlands series. Book one is out and my main focus is on gaining reviews for the book. Why is this important? Bookbub. When I have all three books out I want to submit to Bookbub. You need reviews for that. Good reviews. So far so good. I don’t have a lot of reviews but what I have I’m very pleased with. There is a lot of retweeting of a review prefaced with How Not To Write Distopian YA. I thought that rather amusing. I wasn’t writing dystopian YA, but epic fantasy with a YA feel. Yet it might have some dystopian elements, of course. My main sin is a cliffhanger ending. Apparently cliffhangers are to cause people to buy the rest of the series. Hell everyone wants their readers to buy the next book. Mine wasn’t for that purpose. I started Argenterra when I was a newbie. I’ve thought long and hard how to move the ending…before the cliffhanger….after the cliffhanger…and nothing seemed to work. To top it all off, book two has a cliffhanger too. I guess I have to own that I’m evil.

My woes! Would you believe I have had the most difficult time with book 2? Firstly, I have to revise it a little and polish it before it gets edited. That’s sort of sitting there while I finish book three. Book three is totally rocking btw. However, I need to finish the draft before I go back to book two so I can align some things. Issues with agency, pulling back in some places so I can redeem a character in book three. The usual stuff.

The cover and the name of book two has been a real issue. I believe this problem crops up for authors in traditional publishing. I know I had to face it with Dragon Wine. Changing the name of the book (s). For example, in my original thinking there were three books in the Moon Fall Trilogy, Dragon Wine, Dragon Wing and Dragon Wane. Then Momentum took Dragon Wine. The editor wanted to split the book, call the series Dragon wine and I had to come up with two names for the first two parts. That was hard work and eventually I came up with Shatterwing and Skywatcher. It’s going to be a real bugger with Dragon Wing when I get around to publishing that. If I publish it in two parts what the hell and I going to call them. Barrahiem and Deathwings??? Your guess is as good as mine.

So back to the Silverlands…Book Two was called The Crystal Gate. Getting the cover together for this was proving to be hard. We tried a couple of combos but they weren’t working, particularly as I wanted the series’ covers to have some consistent feel across them. I’ve been stressed. I’ve been anxious. I’ve had sleepless nights. Then I realized I had to change the name of book two and think up a new concept for the cover. I tossed and turned and then it came to be: Book Two should be called Oathbound. That way I could have Sophy on the cover and used symbolism to denote the chaos of the oaths have brought round in the story, not just for Sophy but for others.

Yet I was so stressed because I was mucking the artist around. I like to be very straight, say what I want so all this indecision was like killing me. I know it’s a bit silly, but the responsibility for this is all mine. The cover, the content, the marketing…and I want it to be good, not crap…not just another ebook flung into the ether…I’m proud of this production. So there’s the woe. It is really tough.

I consulted with the lovely Aiki, who had beta read book two. She totally agreed with Oathbound being the best name for the book. I think I gave her a sleepless night. She’s arty, you know, not like me. She came up with the idea of binding or chains. You can find out about Aiki here. She’s multi talented and an author of an amazing SF YA story that’s coming out soon. Also she has been so supportive. High five, Aiki.

So anyway, I bit the bullet and emailed the lovely Les Petersen. I sent him my horrible sketch, some photos of my model with different expressions and he sent me this like within an hour or so.

Oathbound

I think this is amazing. I love it so much. It was just what I was picturing. Thank you Les for not sending the hit men after me.

Now I’m going to show you book one and two together. Les added the subtitle to book one (somehow I forgot that originally). Anyway, let me know what you think.

 

I should add that the cover for Book three is going well. Book three is called, Ungiven Land. I believe Sophy has a sword!

So if you are interested in checking out Argenterra. Here are the buy links. It’s available in ebook from your favourite ebook retailer.

Print copy from Book Depository here

Amazon.com Here

Amazon.com.au Here

Kobo Here

ibooks Here

Print (Amazon.com) Here.

Time to go back to work on the PhD. It’s creative project work today.

 

 

 

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