Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Quick Notes #6

1.  FM2 and FM3 have returned to their usual price at $3.99.  I only saw about a 20% increase in sales and when you consider I gave up $2.35 in profit for each one to drop it down to not only a lower price but a lower royalty percentage for me...well, we won't be doing that again.  It is however nice to know that once readers get hooked on the series with FM1 that the price point of the next book has little impact on whether they pick all of them up.

2.  Continuing with some interesting business side stats for those of you that might be Indie authors yourself one day, I gave away about 2k worth of books this month and saw a 5% pickup rate of those possible readers becoming "fans" (people who go through and buy the second latest book in the series; since the newest book has old fans returning even this late in release it usually isn't a good idea to use it as a measuring stick ever).  This is very different from people who end up picking up FM1 during a new release period, where I see 40 to 50% of them carry on through the series, which shows to me that releases are far more valuable than the vast majority of internet advertising you can do (Bookbub probably being the exception).

3.  That being said...The Betrothal will be free on Amazon from October 1st to October 5th.  So if you're interested in checking out the first book I ever finished writing and about exploding cushions and how exactly a hippo takes a crap, grab it then.

4.  Still working on King Henry Short Pack Two.  I'm pretty excited by it.  It's not a full Foul Mouth book, but it has quite a bit more weight to it than a normal short has in the past.  I really hope that when it is released next year, that more fans try it than usually do with the short stories, because you'll be missing out if you don't.  It's three interconnecting novellas on the same day, two weeks after FM5, so calling it FM5.5 isn't really wrong to do.

5.  That being said, it's not as awesome as FM6 is going to be, cuz I mean...wow...FM6.  Just you guys and gals wait until you read it 5 or so years from now.  Dang, what an epic book.

6.  Haven't worked much on Gush, which is bad of me.  Me not working on Gush is kind of Gush's history though.  Eventually...one day we'll get there Ullie and Merr.

7.  Foul Mouth Survey of the Month:  Which of King Henry's "villains" do you HATE/DESPISE/ICKY-POO  the most?

Monday, September 14, 2015

Quick Notes #5

1.  Fuck cockroaches and black widows.  Yes, the drought in Fresno has just made everything lovely with every water-seeking pest on the planet.  Please, El Nino, rain, floods, whatever, just don't go Noah on our parched asses.

2.  I've given away over two thousands copies of FM1 this month thanks to advertising promos, let's hope this means more super fans for you lot to play and argue with.

3.  King Henry Short Pack One is selling better than I thought it would for an anthology of already released short stories, nice to see people who have stayed away from the shorts finally join the club.

4.  I've been focusing on writing King Henry Short Pack Two for the last three weeks.  It's about a third done, all three novellas have been started and are partially complete.  As usual with my shorts (even if they're way longer than the older ones) my goal is more slice-of-life and holiday special than an epic, twist-filled adventure like with the novels themselves.  Lots of world-building, lots of POVs you don't get to see when everything is from King Henry's viewpoint, more flesh and less blood.

5.  Even if I finish King Henry Short Pack Two in the next month, don't expect it before 2016.  I will not be stopping to edit it, but will instead be continuing the hard work on Gush and will start in on FM6.  After months of real life and my brain being mush I am finally into a decent (if not amazing) writing groove this month and don't plan on interrupting it with Edit Hell.

6.  Watching Netflix's Narcos (amazing series btw) while T-Bone and Vicky are in the middle of the Coyote Compound is great mood synergy!

7.  Foul Mouth Survey of the Month:  Who is your favorite non-KH character in the King Henry Tapes?  Bonus Points for saying why!