FM5 Question and Answer Session

Spoilers if you haven't read FM5, obviously.

Ask anything about FM5 or the series as a whole.

I reserve the right to RAFO you, but will try not to.

Don't be shy!

And don't leave me hanging!

Edit June 1st:  Taking a couple weeks off the net to get back into writing a little bit.  Will answer any more questions when I get back and also probably have an update on what I'll be working on for the next three/four/five months.

FM5 iTunes Link, Plus Update on Updates

The Mancy Martial Artist on Apple iTunes

Smashwords just finally accepted the book for premium distribution, so should be a week or two for the Barnes and Noble link to show up.  Other than that, I'm trying to move away from vacation mode and back into writing mode.  Started working on WHERE DO DREAMERS GO TO DIE? (WDDGTD? in all future mentions) last night and just having a bit of fun with it.

Looking to have a FM5 Q&A thread up this weekend so you can all ask any questions you have about that book or the series as a whole then and in a couple weeks I'll put a more in-depth explanation of the Long Wait Until FM6 and what I'm focusing on in the near future.  Check out the status updates for a hint on that.

Overall...pretty happy right now.  FM5 is going at double the rate of what FM4 did.  Starting to see FM1 do the whole loss-leader free trick to potential fans, with a 25% pickup rate of them buying FM2.  So, your numbers grow, use them responsibly!  Reviews are better than I thought they would be actually.  I wrote a character-focused bridge novel and people called it "epic" and "action-packed", not bad!  Wait until they see FM6...they'll die of excitement!

Edit: I lied!

The Mancy Martial Artist on Barnes and Noble Nook

FM5 is OUT!!! Happy Release Day!

IT'S OUT!!!

Still May 21st in King Henry's hometown of Fresno, but already May 22nd in most of the world, that's good enough for me and good enough for Amazon, who have apparently really sped up their publishing system.  What was once a 12 to 24 hour wait is now down to 3.  How about that?

Linkage:

The Mancy Martial Artist by Richard Raley on Amazon Kindle
The Mancy Martial Artist by Richard Raley on Amazon Kindle UK
The Mancy Martial Artist by Richard Raley on Smashwords

As always for my Nook and iPad readers, I distribute through Smashwords for Apple and B&N, so it takes up to two weeks to propagate into those systems and I will have the links for you when they show up.  Also I remind you that there's no DRM on my novels, so buying it through Smashwords or Amazon and then changing the file into whatever file type you want is perfectly fine with me as long as it's for your own personal use.

Other than that, everyone please enjoy!  It's a 600 page book, so take breaks, eat food, use the restroom, nod at your significant other or your parents when they ask you questions.  Also, don't damage your social standing or flunk out of school or lose your job while you're trying to read it as fast as you can.

Something important happens in the first chapter *gasp* better run and get at it!  When you finish, please think about leaving an honest review.

Why I Don't Let You Pre-Order and How You Can Be An Awesome Fan

Before last year I couldn't actually let you pre-order even if I wanted, but now that Amazon is allowing it, I'm still not giving you fans the chance.  So, why?

There are lots of small reasons but only one main reason and it all comes down to one word:  Algorithm.

For digitally published authors, the Amazon ranking algorithms and how to manipulate these algorithms and how to use these algorithms to your advantage take up a great deal of your thoughts and planning and even hopes and dreams.  Everything on Amazon is driven by numbers and every one of those numbers are connected.  Bigger number, more connection.  More connection, more eyes on your product.  More eyes on your product, more sales.  More sales, more fans.

You've no doubt noticed that every product on Amazon has a sales rank and that many categories have hot sales lists.  But there's also more.  The product emails Amazon sends to you, the "Also Bought" list under products, the "you might try" suggestions you get after finishing a book on your Kindle to name a few.  All of this is free advertising for an author...we like it...a lot.

But what does it have to do with pre-ordering?

It has to do with pre-ordering because magnitude matters in getting on these hot lists.  Which is why book releases are such a big deal for me.  50% of what I earned off of my writing last year came in the 3 months after FM4 was released.  Because of you fans.  You all ran out and grabbed the new book, spiking FM4 up into the top 5k of all kindle books and spreading it all over Amazon's site, leading new people to try the series, which then spiked FM1 through FM3 up the lists as well.  Incoming wave of fans.

BUT WHAT DOES IT HAVE TO DO WITH PRE-ORDERING, RALEY?

Magnitude!  Amazon for some strange reason has decided that your pre-order purchases don't accumulate as far as the algorithms are concerned.  Instead they just happen as sold.  Meaning instead of five hundred to a thousand of you super fans jumping at FM5 and buying it in the first week, I'd have some buy it over a three month period, then a smaller flash as the rest picked it up on release.

 This is a horrible plan!  I'd be sabotaging my own career if I let you pre-order.  Those three months never seem to last long enough anyway!  (Amazon has drop off points in the algorithms at 1 month, 3 months and also a penalty if you don't publish anything for an entire year--this last fact is the reason "Meet the Bonnies" was released just in case FM5 took until July)

So how can you be an awesome fan?  Buy the book on release weekend.  Make that release spike magnitude as large as possible.  Then read the book, it's funny.  Don't pee your pants.  If you do pee your pants then change said pants before continuing to read said book.  Also:  adult diapers, you might need them.

Then, after you finish the book and you hate me because you want FM6 and I haven't even started it yet, review the book so all those new eyes know how you feel about it.  Without all the hate and more with the "yay that was funny" though.  Maybe don't mention that you peed your pants either.

FM5 Really The Last Mini Tease, I Promise

I worked my jaw at those words, thinking on the deeper implications of the titles.  Lakeborn had to be the Lady.  Shadowknife was Samson.  Toymaker was Plutarch.  I was the King of Dirt or the Dirt King.

Better than ‘fucktard’ I guess.

“Got any titles for the rest of my class or am I just special?”

QUEEN OF FIRE.  DEAD PRINCE.  REDWIND.  FROZEN STATUE.  DOG ORPHAN.  THE EVERCHANGING.

“Not bad.  Make sure you call Pocket ‘Fern Thrower,’ he likes that.”

NOTED.

Next week you'll be reading the book at this time!

FM5 Last Mini Tease

"Ask away, little dog."

ONE WEEK!!!

I put release on Friday so you could all read through the weekend if you wanted by the way, aren't I considerate?

FM5 Mini Tease #5

“Snappy, but not so scary when I can see your ballsack thinks this room is getting a little too chilly.”

10 Days!

FM5 Mini Tease #4

Fucking women in my life . . . why they got to be so powerful and terrifying, every single one of them?

We are now officially in the part of the editing process where I'm waiting on the beta readers and starting to get weird "naked at school" nightmares about releasing the novel with huge embarrassing typos.

FM5 Tease #3: King Henry Drives

I hooked a turn into the parking lot with the rent-a-car and slammed on the brakes, barely even skidding out as we came to a stop.  GPS navigator said it would take sixteen minutes, I did it in ten.  Shows what the fucking computers know.  Maybe I went through someone’s yard a couple times to cut some street signs . . . it was an emergency!

Ain’t quite a motorcycle with two uzis and a chick in an American flag bikini on my lap, but at least I got to drive for once.  Rented car with a nerdy black guy, a patrician with a stick up his ass, and a dead woman . . . I’ll take it!

As the car came to a stop, T-Bone gave a little scream—not for the first time—unbuckled himself hurriedly, and rolled his way out of the car as quickly as he could.

Welf followed, swaying to his feet and steadying himself with his stupid ass cane.

Only the dead woman seemed to be in the game, exiting like a perfect lady despite the man’s suit she wore.

I unclawed my fingers from the steering wheel, twisting the keys to turn off the hybrid engine.  Didn’t use any electric cruising on that drive, no we did not!  I kicked open my door and stepped outside.

There was a new dent on the fender.

Wonder what I hit?

“We’re still alive,” T-Bone wheezed to himself.  “Thank God we’re still alive.”

Two weeks!

FM5 Release Date, Cover, and Blurb

Release Date:

MAY 22ND!!!!!

Coverage:

If it's yellow, let it mellow!

Blurbage:

My name is King Henry Price.  Yes, really.  You'd think you'd be over that one by now.  I'm the only freelance Artificer in the Western Hemisphere, crafting and experimenting to make objects of unique magical power.  I'm also a geomancer, means I'm good at breaking metal, glass, and all the other important parts that keeps that box-like house over your head and not crashing down on it. 

Few months back I told my mentor and the money behind my Artificer shop to get lost.  Told her I didn't need her any more.  Some actions have unintended consequences.  Got a new partner now, T-Bone I call him, even if he hates the nickname.  Electromancer, makes him good with computers.  Not sure what makes him good at business, probably being raised by an accountant. 

Rebuilt my shop again.  One little fire-bombing, no big deal, right?  Doing things MY way this time around, rebuilt it as a comic shop.  Even got us a geeky employee at the cashbox knows too much about pop-culture for her own good.  But that's just the front, the fake, the illusion.  Real work is in the back.  Selling artifacts to all comers now.  Vampires, shapeshifters, mancers, don't got no choice. 

Can't complain.  Business is booming.  Life is good. 

Except for those unintended consequences...

Once again:

MAY 22ND!!!!!