In a word: No.
I spent last night compiling data from 2011 thru 2013 for all of my book sales. I have done several of the Amazon Kindle Select giveaways for a few of my titles over the years, at -best- a giveaway will not hurt your sales. However I see no data at all to suggest that giving away a book will help sales of that title, and quite a bit of data that seems to indicate that it will actually -hurt- your sales of that title.
Note that I am not talking about 'loss leaders', which for example would be the first book in a series sold cheaply or for free in order to entice readers to buy the rest of that series.
I also have noticed that in the majority of cases all titles sold the most number of copies in their first year of release. Only in two cases was the peak year the second year of release.
It also is apparent that a new release does impact sales of already existing titles in a positive manner, so the old adage to 'keep writing' is a true one.
Every quarter I transpose all of my sales data for each title and sales channel to a spreadsheet, each year I start a new spreadsheet. It's a pain in the butt at times however it does help put things in perspective. My first year's sales were low, I didn't start publishing until April, and did not publish a lot of titles. My second year I saw my sales increase by a factor of ten, but I also published 12 titles that year, mostly novella's and two short story collections. While I published less in 2013 than 2012 I sustained my sales numbers for that year.
From a 'cost benefit' analysis, novellas and novelettes are the best bang for the buck, you can write them in a week (including editing), while a novel takes months to write and you can not sell it for all that much more than a novella/novelettes - say twice the price for ten times the work. I am giving a lot of thought to changing my approach on novels and writing them as a serial, releasing them in 10K to 12K segments. Current research by booksellers tends to indicate that 70 percent of readers -want- series type books.
What I have also found to be very interesting is that the majority of my readers have actually -left- amazon and moved to B&N or Kobo/Smashwords. Currently ~70 percent of my sales are on B&N, ~20 percent is Kobo/Smashwords, and Amazon accounts for only ~10 percent. This may be because I also write PNR novellas (under a pen name) and B&N has a bigger PNR audience after Amazon's 'erotica purge' which did drive quite a few PNR and Romance writers off of Amazon (and their readers by association), but that's another story.
I hope some may find this information to be useful.
Monday, April 28, 2014
Saturday, March 15, 2014
Writing 'the stupid'
'The Stupid' is something that probably has some fancy literary name, which I either don't know, or heard but forgot. But I like calling it 'The Stupid' because it really sums it all up rather nicely. Of course that doesn't tell you what it is, so I'll elaborate: 'The Stupid' is that thing in a book or story that you are reading that is blatantly, obviously, sometimes frustratingly, STUPID.
Sometimes it's done for 'all the right reasons' or even reasons that 'sounded good at the time', but you the reader know its stupid. Sometimes some of the characters know it's stupid and will point it out (and usually one of the stupider or more self-righteous - I know, there isn't much of a diff there - characters will do it anyways), and occasionally sometimes everyone knows it's stupid, but they do it anyway for moral reasons.
I hate writing 'the stupid' because I'm not stupid and I don't like writing characters that are stupid. But you have to admit that writing the stupid is necessary, because so much of human nature and politics embrace the stupid (especially these days). So I'm always impressed when I'm reading an author and he writes the stupid in a way that makes me want to scream, but you can't too much because you kind of understand why some people won't do certain things. I'm impressed more when the stupid, while bad, isn't as bad as it could have been (and the author leaves little teases to make you think he just might go 'The Stupid squared'). I'm even more impressed when 'The Stupid' is brought in rather boldly, and obviously, and they're all kind of stuck with dealing with the consequences.
Then when you think they're going to bring 'The Stupid' back at the end of the book and do it again, they learn their lesson and make 'the hard choice', which of course is always the easy choice because it means you get to live, and keep on living. Freehold, of the Freehold series by Michael Z. Williamson was definitely one of those books. I enjoyed a lot, and right now it's free on the kindle. I'd say pick it up if you haven't already.
Sometimes it's done for 'all the right reasons' or even reasons that 'sounded good at the time', but you the reader know its stupid. Sometimes some of the characters know it's stupid and will point it out (and usually one of the stupider or more self-righteous - I know, there isn't much of a diff there - characters will do it anyways), and occasionally sometimes everyone knows it's stupid, but they do it anyway for moral reasons.
I hate writing 'the stupid' because I'm not stupid and I don't like writing characters that are stupid. But you have to admit that writing the stupid is necessary, because so much of human nature and politics embrace the stupid (especially these days). So I'm always impressed when I'm reading an author and he writes the stupid in a way that makes me want to scream, but you can't too much because you kind of understand why some people won't do certain things. I'm impressed more when the stupid, while bad, isn't as bad as it could have been (and the author leaves little teases to make you think he just might go 'The Stupid squared'). I'm even more impressed when 'The Stupid' is brought in rather boldly, and obviously, and they're all kind of stuck with dealing with the consequences.
Then when you think they're going to bring 'The Stupid' back at the end of the book and do it again, they learn their lesson and make 'the hard choice', which of course is always the easy choice because it means you get to live, and keep on living. Freehold, of the Freehold series by Michael Z. Williamson was definitely one of those books. I enjoyed a lot, and right now it's free on the kindle. I'd say pick it up if you haven't already.
Sunday, March 09, 2014
SFWA, Stupidity, and Writing
I don't know if anyone reading this is at all familiar with the current bruhaha going on with SFWA, but it has turned into such a group of worthless leftist shrews and political commissars that I honestly can not understand why anyone would join it. Nor why anyone would even want a Hugo anymore.
I myself used to want to be a member, I even applied once. But you see I can't join. Because even though I have sold more books than over half of the members of SFWA, and made more money at writing than probably more than that, I'm not allowed to join. Because I write ebooks and self-publish them. So SFWA is really more like SFWAFPPBMPH (Science Fiction Writers Association For People Published By Major Publishing Houses), which means maybe half of the people selling SF&F are members. But I guess this is to be expected from an organization whose last president was a plagerist (I'm sorry, but his rewrite of H.Beam Piper's Little Fuzzy was plagiarism, you may put lipstick on that pig all you want, but it is still a pig), and which runs people out because of having politically incorrect beliefs, and who ran Jonathan Ross off of the awards ceremony, because people who will never win an award for anything were upset because in their fevered imaginations they believed they were going to not only win, but that they would then be mocked by him when they did. (sorry for the run on there, but I think you get the point).
And the vast majority of those complaining about all of this probably have less than one book in print, if even that.
And then there is the just pure stupid coming out of places like Tor, which if you are to criticize you are suddenly the worse person on earth. Check out Larry Correia, According to Hoyt, or the Mad Genius Club if you want to know more (and no I'm not giving links, use Google, I'm a lazy ass today). I had always thought that the purpose of SWFA was to support writers, help writers, and be like a trade union for writers - you know giving them access to things like health insurance plans and retirement plans, standing up to writers contract rights. I didn't know it was actually an old woman's garden club that spent all of it's time enforcing political beliefs and vilifying anyone who didn't toe the far left political line, as well as just a shill for the publishing houses (who have more control over SFWA than the writers do).
No wonder SciFi is going out of business, its biggest organization is trying to kill it!
As for me, well I'm still working on a new novel, the one I've been working on since the beginning of the year. I took a few weeks off to spin out a couple of cheap trashy romance novels because I need the money and women romance readers are rather generous with their money, so rather than insult them with politically correct diatribes and message stories I just give them what they want. And guess what? They appreciate the gesture enough to give me money.
I wonder if that's why the Romance industry is booming? Because it caters to the readers and not some 'gender neutral non-binary gender' bullshit? Gee, what a concept!
Still not sure what I'll write next after I finish this modern fantasy, part of me is thinking about writing another Romance novel, not just one of the little trashy fun pulp ones, because Romance readers are a more appreciative audience, and also because my sister just gave me a truly wicked idea about were-chihuahuas. I do worry that science fiction will get harder to write and sell because so many of the books winning Hugo's and being promoted as such are utter drek. The people who are writing the good stuff (like Larry C.) are almost creating their own category of literature because it's hard to look at what they write and then place it in the SF&F field, when so much of that field is going down hill. Hell I see more 'speculative fiction' in the Romance field these days than in all of SF&F, and that's just SAD.
But that's what happens when you let the perpetually offended rabid leftists who don't produce anything but shrillness into your organization. If I was a more motivated person I would start the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Guild. It would not EVER say ANYTHING about what the writers wrote, it probably wouldn't even give out awards. But what it would do would be the things that a guild is supposed to do: Use the strength in numbers that the membership gives it to get better medical plans, retirement plans, and legal advice about contracts to the membership. You know, the kinds of things writers can use.
But hey, that's crazy talk, right?
I myself used to want to be a member, I even applied once. But you see I can't join. Because even though I have sold more books than over half of the members of SFWA, and made more money at writing than probably more than that, I'm not allowed to join. Because I write ebooks and self-publish them. So SFWA is really more like SFWAFPPBMPH (Science Fiction Writers Association For People Published By Major Publishing Houses), which means maybe half of the people selling SF&F are members. But I guess this is to be expected from an organization whose last president was a plagerist (I'm sorry, but his rewrite of H.Beam Piper's Little Fuzzy was plagiarism, you may put lipstick on that pig all you want, but it is still a pig), and which runs people out because of having politically incorrect beliefs, and who ran Jonathan Ross off of the awards ceremony, because people who will never win an award for anything were upset because in their fevered imaginations they believed they were going to not only win, but that they would then be mocked by him when they did. (sorry for the run on there, but I think you get the point).
And the vast majority of those complaining about all of this probably have less than one book in print, if even that.
And then there is the just pure stupid coming out of places like Tor, which if you are to criticize you are suddenly the worse person on earth. Check out Larry Correia, According to Hoyt, or the Mad Genius Club if you want to know more (and no I'm not giving links, use Google, I'm a lazy ass today). I had always thought that the purpose of SWFA was to support writers, help writers, and be like a trade union for writers - you know giving them access to things like health insurance plans and retirement plans, standing up to writers contract rights. I didn't know it was actually an old woman's garden club that spent all of it's time enforcing political beliefs and vilifying anyone who didn't toe the far left political line, as well as just a shill for the publishing houses (who have more control over SFWA than the writers do).
No wonder SciFi is going out of business, its biggest organization is trying to kill it!
As for me, well I'm still working on a new novel, the one I've been working on since the beginning of the year. I took a few weeks off to spin out a couple of cheap trashy romance novels because I need the money and women romance readers are rather generous with their money, so rather than insult them with politically correct diatribes and message stories I just give them what they want. And guess what? They appreciate the gesture enough to give me money.
I wonder if that's why the Romance industry is booming? Because it caters to the readers and not some 'gender neutral non-binary gender' bullshit? Gee, what a concept!
Still not sure what I'll write next after I finish this modern fantasy, part of me is thinking about writing another Romance novel, not just one of the little trashy fun pulp ones, because Romance readers are a more appreciative audience, and also because my sister just gave me a truly wicked idea about were-chihuahuas. I do worry that science fiction will get harder to write and sell because so many of the books winning Hugo's and being promoted as such are utter drek. The people who are writing the good stuff (like Larry C.) are almost creating their own category of literature because it's hard to look at what they write and then place it in the SF&F field, when so much of that field is going down hill. Hell I see more 'speculative fiction' in the Romance field these days than in all of SF&F, and that's just SAD.
But that's what happens when you let the perpetually offended rabid leftists who don't produce anything but shrillness into your organization. If I was a more motivated person I would start the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Guild. It would not EVER say ANYTHING about what the writers wrote, it probably wouldn't even give out awards. But what it would do would be the things that a guild is supposed to do: Use the strength in numbers that the membership gives it to get better medical plans, retirement plans, and legal advice about contracts to the membership. You know, the kinds of things writers can use.
But hey, that's crazy talk, right?
Sunday, January 26, 2014
More Serials
Well the results are in and apparently 74 percent of all readers want serials. This is sort of news to me, because when I grew up, as a reader, there were very few SciFi and Fantasy serials. If you got a duo or trilogy that was a pretty big deal. Most people really weren't all that interested in serials, but apparently today that is the #1 for the vast majority.
So what does this mean for me? Well it means that when I finish the current novel (which is in an unrelated world and genre to the current ones), I'm only going to write sequels to 'The Hammer Commission', the Book currently in progress, or more stories in the 'Children of Steel' universe. The ones in the COS universe may not be serials at first, but you will see existing characters and there will be overlap, so technically those will fall into the 'serial' category, and apparently that is what people want.
I have yet -another- story in the works from yes -another- world, it's actually from the first world I ever created and is fantasy. It's also about half finished, but I'm going to shelve that for now. I may come back to it eventually and finish it, or maybe I'll just release the first half and turn it into a serial/series. Of course that would give me 4 simultaneous series going on, but if they were all selling that might be worthwhile. Hard to say. Then of course there is the PNR I write under a pen name. Most of that is sort of serial, but it's a side project that I only work on occasionally. But apparently some people want to see more of that...
So what I really need to do is develop the fortitude and discipline to write 8 hours a day. Then maybe I could keep up.
So what does this mean for me? Well it means that when I finish the current novel (which is in an unrelated world and genre to the current ones), I'm only going to write sequels to 'The Hammer Commission', the Book currently in progress, or more stories in the 'Children of Steel' universe. The ones in the COS universe may not be serials at first, but you will see existing characters and there will be overlap, so technically those will fall into the 'serial' category, and apparently that is what people want.
I have yet -another- story in the works from yes -another- world, it's actually from the first world I ever created and is fantasy. It's also about half finished, but I'm going to shelve that for now. I may come back to it eventually and finish it, or maybe I'll just release the first half and turn it into a serial/series. Of course that would give me 4 simultaneous series going on, but if they were all selling that might be worthwhile. Hard to say. Then of course there is the PNR I write under a pen name. Most of that is sort of serial, but it's a side project that I only work on occasionally. But apparently some people want to see more of that...
So what I really need to do is develop the fortitude and discipline to write 8 hours a day. Then maybe I could keep up.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
On Censorship
As some of you may have heard, about two weeks ago an internet web pundit was shocked! Shocked and stunned to find out that OMG!!! Amazon sells porn!
Well not so much porn as erotica, but to a guy on a small website desperate for hits erotica equals porn equals controversy, so porn it is. Then of course the Daily Mail in the UK picked up on this and had a huge Sunday spread complete with pictures and the outraged 'parent'.
But they didn't go after Amazon, they went after WM Smith, one of the largest book sellers in the UK (Aside: I notice that they DIDN'T complain about all those Fifty Shades of Gray (FSOG) hardcovers in the shop windows - porn in hardcover is AOK apparently). So what did WM Smith do? Why they folded like a cheap suit, and shut down their entire online ebook store. Yup, pulled the whole thing.
But wait! There's more!
Kobo, which rumor claims has been on the verge of bankruptcy for years now, supplied WM Smith with all of its ebooks. Erotica has been very good to Kobo, taking its sales from almost naught to a very large number over the last year. And that's erotica written by independent authors, not erotica being pushed by the publishing houses.
Well obviously the problem here isn't really erotica, it's independent authors! So Kobo unceremoniously pulled all independent authors from its online store in the UK. Not just erotica, all of them. In their next move of blazing stupidity they pulled all erotica authors from the rest of their sites worldwide, but again, not all authors, just those who are indies. So if you wrote something that violates the new rules, as long as it is published by a publishing house, you're okay. But if you have one piece of anything that may be suspect, your entire catalog got dumped.
So yes, a LOT of people are very upset. Understand none of what has been censored is illegal, all of it is 100 percent legal to write, read, and own. As to what was banned? Anything 'abusive', anything depicting rape, incest, and faux-incest. Faux-incest, for those of you who have never heard of it, is consensual sex between adults who are step siblings, or step parents, in short people who are not actually related to each other. In most parts of the world (if not all of it) this isn't even illegal! And in case you haven't noticed, bestiality is actually perfectly fine with Kobo. They didn't pull any of that - not that I care, but I think it shows the hypocrisy of this entire campaign. Especially when books like FSOG are suddenly garnering a lot of competition from indy authors - remember that FSOG started out as an ebook.
So is this censorship? A lot of folks claim it isn't, but in truth it is. Is it illegal? Well actually, yes in most parts of the free world it is, but not because they are refusing to sell works they find 'objectionable', but because they are applying these rules to one group of people (self-published authors) and not another (authors published by publishing companies). There are a number of laws that address that issue, and when this entire act really smells like something one of the publishing houses cooked up in order to cut down on the competition, well I'll be surprised if one of the bigger indies doesn't eventually sue. As there are a lot of indies out there pulling down 6 figure royalties, trust me when I say I suspect one of them is going to sue over this. As I've said before, an average indy author makes way more money that a good, or even great, publishing house author.
What bugs me the most however is the number of people (authors) who are willing to jump on the side of censorship because they don't like erotica. This is censorship, and it is unethical if not illegal. These books are perfectly legal and adults want to buy them. If this stands, what will they censor next? Romance has just as much sex, and I mean highly descriptive XXX sex, as much and as dirty as any erotica novel out there. Don't believe me? Walk into a Barnes & Nobles and pick some up. Women like their porn, and they like it a lot more than men do! And they get to buy theirs in book shops and grocery stores everywhere. That it is as bad or worse than men's porn is the best kept secret in publishing today.
And then of course, after romance, what gets banned next? Books that convey ideas that the establishment doesn't like? You know, books like Gulliver's Travels? Or maybe something by Rush Limbaugh or Jon Stewart? Censorship is a slippery slope and I'm embarrassed that so many people, especially authors, don't know this. Yes they always go after the erotica or porn first, but that is the canary in the coal mine. For people who actually read history, we have seen this before.
Here in the states only Amazon has signed on to this behavior, and it seems they're only banning faux-incest, (real incest, rape, and bestiality are already banned on Amazon). None of the other book stores seem to be getting involved (Apple already is pretty strict on Adult novels, but that seems to be something across the boards with them). Smashwords is trying to do what they can to help the authors, and Barnes & Nobles just seems to be ignoring the whole kerfluffle here in the US.
So support Smashwords, or B&N - go buy a banned book today!
Remember, if you don't stand up to defend the rights of others, no one will be left to help you defend yours when they finally get around to taking them.
Well not so much porn as erotica, but to a guy on a small website desperate for hits erotica equals porn equals controversy, so porn it is. Then of course the Daily Mail in the UK picked up on this and had a huge Sunday spread complete with pictures and the outraged 'parent'.
But they didn't go after Amazon, they went after WM Smith, one of the largest book sellers in the UK (Aside: I notice that they DIDN'T complain about all those Fifty Shades of Gray (FSOG) hardcovers in the shop windows - porn in hardcover is AOK apparently). So what did WM Smith do? Why they folded like a cheap suit, and shut down their entire online ebook store. Yup, pulled the whole thing.
But wait! There's more!
Kobo, which rumor claims has been on the verge of bankruptcy for years now, supplied WM Smith with all of its ebooks. Erotica has been very good to Kobo, taking its sales from almost naught to a very large number over the last year. And that's erotica written by independent authors, not erotica being pushed by the publishing houses.
Well obviously the problem here isn't really erotica, it's independent authors! So Kobo unceremoniously pulled all independent authors from its online store in the UK. Not just erotica, all of them. In their next move of blazing stupidity they pulled all erotica authors from the rest of their sites worldwide, but again, not all authors, just those who are indies. So if you wrote something that violates the new rules, as long as it is published by a publishing house, you're okay. But if you have one piece of anything that may be suspect, your entire catalog got dumped.
So yes, a LOT of people are very upset. Understand none of what has been censored is illegal, all of it is 100 percent legal to write, read, and own. As to what was banned? Anything 'abusive', anything depicting rape, incest, and faux-incest. Faux-incest, for those of you who have never heard of it, is consensual sex between adults who are step siblings, or step parents, in short people who are not actually related to each other. In most parts of the world (if not all of it) this isn't even illegal! And in case you haven't noticed, bestiality is actually perfectly fine with Kobo. They didn't pull any of that - not that I care, but I think it shows the hypocrisy of this entire campaign. Especially when books like FSOG are suddenly garnering a lot of competition from indy authors - remember that FSOG started out as an ebook.
So is this censorship? A lot of folks claim it isn't, but in truth it is. Is it illegal? Well actually, yes in most parts of the free world it is, but not because they are refusing to sell works they find 'objectionable', but because they are applying these rules to one group of people (self-published authors) and not another (authors published by publishing companies). There are a number of laws that address that issue, and when this entire act really smells like something one of the publishing houses cooked up in order to cut down on the competition, well I'll be surprised if one of the bigger indies doesn't eventually sue. As there are a lot of indies out there pulling down 6 figure royalties, trust me when I say I suspect one of them is going to sue over this. As I've said before, an average indy author makes way more money that a good, or even great, publishing house author.
What bugs me the most however is the number of people (authors) who are willing to jump on the side of censorship because they don't like erotica. This is censorship, and it is unethical if not illegal. These books are perfectly legal and adults want to buy them. If this stands, what will they censor next? Romance has just as much sex, and I mean highly descriptive XXX sex, as much and as dirty as any erotica novel out there. Don't believe me? Walk into a Barnes & Nobles and pick some up. Women like their porn, and they like it a lot more than men do! And they get to buy theirs in book shops and grocery stores everywhere. That it is as bad or worse than men's porn is the best kept secret in publishing today.
And then of course, after romance, what gets banned next? Books that convey ideas that the establishment doesn't like? You know, books like Gulliver's Travels? Or maybe something by Rush Limbaugh or Jon Stewart? Censorship is a slippery slope and I'm embarrassed that so many people, especially authors, don't know this. Yes they always go after the erotica or porn first, but that is the canary in the coal mine. For people who actually read history, we have seen this before.
Here in the states only Amazon has signed on to this behavior, and it seems they're only banning faux-incest, (real incest, rape, and bestiality are already banned on Amazon). None of the other book stores seem to be getting involved (Apple already is pretty strict on Adult novels, but that seems to be something across the boards with them). Smashwords is trying to do what they can to help the authors, and Barnes & Nobles just seems to be ignoring the whole kerfluffle here in the US.
So support Smashwords, or B&N - go buy a banned book today!
Remember, if you don't stand up to defend the rights of others, no one will be left to help you defend yours when they finally get around to taking them.
Friday, October 11, 2013
New cover!
Well I got a new cover for 'The Hammer Commission' done and it is going live as I type this.
I was never exactly happy with the original cover, and I ended up commissioning Rod Redux (http://coversbyredux.blogspot.com/) to do a new one for me.
I'm hopeful that this will draw in more eyeballs, so far everyone who has read the book seems to have liked it, I really haven't gotten any bad reviews.
But
I noticed that for all the traffic I was drawing in to look at the book's page on Amazon, I wasn't getting many sales. I suspect that the cover just wasn't grabbing them enough for them to read the blurb and maybe the first page or two of the story. In any case, time will tell and I'm hoping for better results now. Sadly I don't think most of my scifi readers will read this story, as it's paranormal/supernatural, but it was a story I really wanted to write. Now it is just wait and see if sales pick up.
I was never exactly happy with the original cover, and I ended up commissioning Rod Redux (http://coversbyredux.blogspot.com/) to do a new one for me.
I'm hopeful that this will draw in more eyeballs, so far everyone who has read the book seems to have liked it, I really haven't gotten any bad reviews.
But
I noticed that for all the traffic I was drawing in to look at the book's page on Amazon, I wasn't getting many sales. I suspect that the cover just wasn't grabbing them enough for them to read the blurb and maybe the first page or two of the story. In any case, time will tell and I'm hoping for better results now. Sadly I don't think most of my scifi readers will read this story, as it's paranormal/supernatural, but it was a story I really wanted to write. Now it is just wait and see if sales pick up.
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Cut/edited scene from my last novel
This is something I had written a while ago, it was part of something larger and was intended to go into the 'Hammer Commission', a little insight into Mark's personal character.
But almost all of it was cut. The basic scene is still there, but the detail was cut back, and the entire thing reduced to about a half page. It didn't really move the story forward to justify that much detail, and was a bit off track. Anyway, here it is for you to judge.
But almost all of it was cut. The basic scene is still there, but the detail was cut back, and the entire thing reduced to about a half page. It didn't really move the story forward to justify that much detail, and was a bit off track. Anyway, here it is for you to judge.
***
Opening the
choke fully he pressed the starter and twisted the throttle slightly, it took a
little longer than it should have to start, but the bowls were dry and the twin
fuel pumps needed a moment to fill them. He closed the choke slowly, keeping
the idle at a grand then put on his helmet. Carburetors were well out of vogue,
few if any sport bikes still used them, but the mighty Zed with four of them
outperformed most bikes with fuel injection made today, and nearly all of the
F.I. bikes made in its day.
Pulling in
the clutch he kicked it down into first and giving a little increase on the
throttle he let out the clutch and rolled out onto the street. He took the
first block easy, never crap where you sleep after all. Getting out onto the
main drag he quickly accelerated and turned the choke all the way off. While
the bike still was too cold to idle without it, it wouldn’t be seeing any revs
below 3K from this point on.
Revving the
bike once more as he turned onto the highway, he listened for any complaints
from the engine, there were none of course, and the temp gauge had come up off
the stop a little. Then it was full throttle, shift, shift, shift, shift, all
without a clutch, level off at 120 and shift once more. The highway was open
and fairly straight. The cars on it might as well be standing still as he arced
around them and sped through the night. One joker in a corvette tried to race
him, but down two and wide open throttle and the corvette quickly was lost
behind him as 160 almost instantly appeared on the speedo. By the time the corvette
got up to that kind of speed he’d be miles ahead. He never understood why
people in cars wanted to race bikes. Stock his bike did 186mph.
It was
definitely no longer stock.
After a few
more miles he rolled it back down to an even hundred, goosing it up every once
in a while. Police weren’t really much of a problem this time of night, they
couldn’t really track with a copter in the dark and there were few cars out
there to see him anyway. Any he might run into would be miles away before they
could even begin a chase. No, the road was open, and it was his. He didn’t get
to ride like this as often as he might like to anymore. It had been months
since he’d made any kind of real run on the bike at all, being stuck tooling
around on the small restricted bikes in Spain.
Six hundred cc’s just wasn’t enough for him anymore.
The miles
quickly passed by, he was up in the mountains now, dealing with the long
sweepers and having to downshift and occasionally slow for a few of the tighter
corners. In another half hour he’d turn around and head back, eventually
descending out of the mountains and back into the desert known as Sacramento.
But for now it was just him, the bike, and the road. The roar of the engine,
the air rushing past, white headlights and red taillights.
There
wasn’t much thinking at speeds like these, you mainly lived in the moment,
maybe a song ran through your head, repeating over and over. Pick your line,
ride it. Sort each car as a target and assign it a probability of doing
something stupid. Avoid those with visible signs of damage as much as possible.
Flip off those who hit their brakes when they saw him behind them as he passed.
Watch out for bow effects on the big trucks. Find the line, ride it.
And when
all else fails crack the throttle open just a little more. Speed is your life,
your life is speed. The more smash, the more control you have over the
situation, the faster you can react, the faster you can maneuver. The sad
little secret that they don’t teach you in driver’s ed or the official
handbooks, on a motorcycle your safety lies in your speed.
When he
finally pulled back off the highway and wound down through the secondary
streets, checking his mirrors just to be sure he hadn’t picked up any unwanted
company, he felt relaxed. Things were clearer now. Coasting into the driveway,
turning the bike off, pushing it into the garage and locking it all back up.
They
all had their little sins, their little vices. This was his.
Monday, September 16, 2013
And this counts as hard science fiction?
So, I saw this book on Amazon that is in the top 40 for science fiction, hard science fiction.
Now it wasn't a bad story, though one of the main themes was apparently how much sex a female android could have with other women in the future. Yes there was science fiction in the story, but it was listed as a hard science fiction story. It was more space opera than science fiction. The writing was okay and the story was okay.
But I think most people would agree that in the realm of science fiction, I'm a better writer. Because well, I actually write science fiction. And my stories do not center around sex.
But this story is outselling me by at least a hundred to one.
I think I do need to get better covers, which will mean spending more money. Don't need to work on writing skills, spelling, grammar, or even story. Cause I got most of the folks in the top one hundred tied or beat on that. Maybe I also need to put more sex in the stories too. Like say one good sex scene in each chapter? And maybe make almost all of it lesbian sex. Cause wow, even in science fiction lesbian sex appears to be more important than story, or anything else.
I guess I really have no idea what it takes to write an indie best seller, cause what is making the list these days in many cases just isn't all that good.
Now it wasn't a bad story, though one of the main themes was apparently how much sex a female android could have with other women in the future. Yes there was science fiction in the story, but it was listed as a hard science fiction story. It was more space opera than science fiction. The writing was okay and the story was okay.
But I think most people would agree that in the realm of science fiction, I'm a better writer. Because well, I actually write science fiction. And my stories do not center around sex.
But this story is outselling me by at least a hundred to one.
I think I do need to get better covers, which will mean spending more money. Don't need to work on writing skills, spelling, grammar, or even story. Cause I got most of the folks in the top one hundred tied or beat on that. Maybe I also need to put more sex in the stories too. Like say one good sex scene in each chapter? And maybe make almost all of it lesbian sex. Cause wow, even in science fiction lesbian sex appears to be more important than story, or anything else.
I guess I really have no idea what it takes to write an indie best seller, cause what is making the list these days in many cases just isn't all that good.
Saturday, September 07, 2013
My G2 finally died
And of course at a time when I really can't afford $300 or so to buy a new phone because I go on vacation in a few days.
To be honest, it was a pretty crappy phone. Had lots of problems and I had to replace it under warranty once, and the replacement phone quickly developed the same problems. HTC really doesn't make good phones anymore. The G2 was never as good as my G1, but because they keep changing stuff to force you to upgrade, I couldn't go back to my G1 (and I tried).
So now to figure out what to get next. I need a phone, my work depends on one as all of my work contact stuff is based on my cellphone number.
Ugh.
To be honest, it was a pretty crappy phone. Had lots of problems and I had to replace it under warranty once, and the replacement phone quickly developed the same problems. HTC really doesn't make good phones anymore. The G2 was never as good as my G1, but because they keep changing stuff to force you to upgrade, I couldn't go back to my G1 (and I tried).
So now to figure out what to get next. I need a phone, my work depends on one as all of my work contact stuff is based on my cellphone number.
Ugh.
Monday, August 19, 2013
It's that time of year again
Where the light outside in the morning has almost a kind of muted greenish tinge to it, from all the smoke from the local forest fires. It gets like this around august every year now.
What's interesting is back in the 80's when I first moved out here? This didn't happen very often. Now it happens all the time. I think I know why, but I don't know for sure.
What's interesting is back in the 80's when I first moved out here? This didn't happen very often. Now it happens all the time. I think I know why, but I don't know for sure.
I think it's safe to say it's a flop...
The Hammer Commission that is. When I did the give-away on it via Amazon I gave 380 copies away in fairly short order. Didn't get a single review out of that (that I know of, hard to tell with those giveaways). But after I put it on sale I got 5 reviews in fairly short order.
Which isn't bad when you consider I have sold only eleven copies of the book to date. Eight of those where in the first two months after publication.
So yeah, it's a flop.
I don't know if it's the story, for the most part everyone I've heard from (with one exception) liked the book. I have to assume they're being straight with me, I'd hate to think people were lying about that. So this makes me think that I need to advertise the book someplace other than the few places I had been. But I have no idea where that would be. Or if it is even worth it at this point.
But unless something major changes, I'm pretty much done with that genre and the stories in it. I had a few more I was planning on writing if the book sold. But it's not selling at all really. To be honest I'm thinking of maybe just sticking to sci-fi and the heck with everything else I have in the works. Cause that stuff is selling, and lately it is starting to trend upwards again. Not as good as the numbers were for last year, but it is getting better.
Course the Big Six are doing what they can to shut us indies down, and I'm sure that's not helping sales either. Amazon and Barnes & Noble seemed to have stopped promoting indy authors pretty much completely. I know many authors have taken a hit on their sales numbers in the last few months, but they're all still chugging away, and some folks are still doing rather well. So time will tell.
Which isn't bad when you consider I have sold only eleven copies of the book to date. Eight of those where in the first two months after publication.
So yeah, it's a flop.
I don't know if it's the story, for the most part everyone I've heard from (with one exception) liked the book. I have to assume they're being straight with me, I'd hate to think people were lying about that. So this makes me think that I need to advertise the book someplace other than the few places I had been. But I have no idea where that would be. Or if it is even worth it at this point.
But unless something major changes, I'm pretty much done with that genre and the stories in it. I had a few more I was planning on writing if the book sold. But it's not selling at all really. To be honest I'm thinking of maybe just sticking to sci-fi and the heck with everything else I have in the works. Cause that stuff is selling, and lately it is starting to trend upwards again. Not as good as the numbers were for last year, but it is getting better.
Course the Big Six are doing what they can to shut us indies down, and I'm sure that's not helping sales either. Amazon and Barnes & Noble seemed to have stopped promoting indy authors pretty much completely. I know many authors have taken a hit on their sales numbers in the last few months, but they're all still chugging away, and some folks are still doing rather well. So time will tell.
Monday, July 22, 2013
It's not just a game, it's an addiction!
Kerbal Space Program. That is my crack these days.
It all started quite a few months ago when a friend stopped by, we don't get to catch up much anymore and over the course of the night he told me about this new game he had bought on steam, it isn't even out yet, it's still in development! He also told me it is highly addictive and once you sit down to play it, the next thing you know is that half the day has gone by.
He wasn't kidding either. I'm an engineer by training, so anything that lets me build stuff is always dangerous.
So Kerbal Space Program (KSP), is basically this: You are on the planet Kerbal, you have these little green guys (Kerbals) and they have built a space center. There is a tracking station (to let you pick any ships already in space and do things with them), A Vertical Assembly Building (VAB) and a Hanger like assembly building to build aircraft and rocket planes (this portion still has the most development to do, so I haven't been using it).
You have a bunch of parts, sub-assemblies is more like it really, and you put them together to build space ships. Which you then launch and fly into orbit. Or to the Mun (Kerbal has two moons actuall, Mun is the closet). Or to one of the other planets (there are two planets closer to the sun, three or four farther out - many of which have moons, one of which is a Jupiter analog and has about six moons). And all of this is in relativistic space with full physics.
Oh, and there are no instructions, yet. A few tutorial videos made by those who have gone before us, but that's it. It's still in dev remember.
It took me a few tries to get a ship built that could achieve orbit and stay there. My BSEE included a LOT of physics courses, so I have an advantage over a lot of folks. Docking is an art form in that you have the most basic of computers and the camera angles can change at random and there is no 'cockpit view' which for a pilot like me makes it really hard. It took me literally weeks to master it. But I did it, and can still do it if pressed to (like last night), but one of the nice things about KSP is the ability to make modules for it, or download them. So I downloaded 'MechJeb' which is basically a flight computer, and a mod my friend wrote that contains a fuel cell powered by electricity.
MechJeb is great because I no longer have to fly my ship into orbit. Or land it. I just call up the 'console' that does it, program in the data and let it go. As taking off and getting into orbit takes about a half hour, you can understand how helpful this is. Same for landing. I can go do something else while that takes place and just take a look every so often to make sure things are progressing properly and don't need human intervention.
Docking especially so. Docking can take hours! I'm not kidding on that either. Even with the docking program running things it can still take an hour. Last night took me I think four, and I was using the autopilot on and off - the ship was too big and had some render issues apparently which was driving the autopilot crazy. But big ships move slow. So I would let the autopilot run it for a while, then jump on and make some corrections, then back to autopilot. Except for the last hour, that was all by hand. I'll come back to that.
So at this point in KSP I have sent probes to every planet, and landed actual people on every planet but two. I have had to rethink and build special landers to rescue stranded astronauts (asto-kerbals?) from planets that there lander could not take off from. I even sent a swarm of 22 rovers to Eve to try and blanket the planet for fun. Due to a bug in the program I have lost about a half of those on re-entry at this point. KSP doesn't handle MIRV'ed landers very well. If they spread out too far, they are automatically deleted in atmosphere. As it took me days in realtime to get the space ship carring all those rovers, it was a little annoying. You can speed up time in KSP, but when you have a ship that is made up of 1500 parts, well it chugs along really slowly. 10 rl seconds to make one game second. So speeding it up 10,000 times doesn't help all that much on a year long voyage. Especially when you have to do course corrections and delta V-burns in order to end up in orbit around your destination.
I tell you I have really learned a lot about orbital mechanics and insertion burns over the last month.
So at this point I have been to all the planets, have flags on almost all of them, and probes on all of them. I even have some automated fuel station satellites around some of the further planets and a couple of (now empty) rescue vehicles out there should I need to use them again. I may download one of the modules that has habitat stuff and start launching those into space and see about colonizing a few of the other planets, but we will see.
My current project has been to build 'stupid space ships'. One is a massive launcher so big that it can burn straight out of orbit on a direct flight without having to do a Holtzman's transfer or any other fuel saving activity. Of course half the time it blows up on ascent; with so many struts and parts on it, it only takes one failure of a linkage somewhere and the whole thing starts to come apart. A quick staging action will save the upper stages, but then you've still lost all that speed, so that sort of defeats the purpose.
The next 'stupid ship' was one that had the command module buried in the bottom of the rocket between the boosters and was one really large and interconnected tank with a loooooong probe boom off the top. Difficult to fly, but easier once you jettisoned the boom (which could be controlled remotely). The third stupid ship was a bunch of tanks in a cross pattern with a central tank that they were all attached to. I put engines out on the arms to counter the stresses they'd be seeing during ascent, and a lot of struts to keep the thing from tearing itself apart. Amazingly enough, it actually made it into orbit.
So I made it the hub of my newest space station, and I took my stupid rocket number 2 (actually two of them) and docked them to two of the four arms to start on making a truly large and ugly space station. I think I spent 10 hrs doing that yesterday, I'll see if I can't add a few pictures so you can see what I'm talking about.
So if you like building things and have an interest in space KSB is definitely something you might want to stay away from. Or you'll end up losing days of free time running your own little space program.
It all started quite a few months ago when a friend stopped by, we don't get to catch up much anymore and over the course of the night he told me about this new game he had bought on steam, it isn't even out yet, it's still in development! He also told me it is highly addictive and once you sit down to play it, the next thing you know is that half the day has gone by.
He wasn't kidding either. I'm an engineer by training, so anything that lets me build stuff is always dangerous.
So Kerbal Space Program (KSP), is basically this: You are on the planet Kerbal, you have these little green guys (Kerbals) and they have built a space center. There is a tracking station (to let you pick any ships already in space and do things with them), A Vertical Assembly Building (VAB) and a Hanger like assembly building to build aircraft and rocket planes (this portion still has the most development to do, so I haven't been using it).
You have a bunch of parts, sub-assemblies is more like it really, and you put them together to build space ships. Which you then launch and fly into orbit. Or to the Mun (Kerbal has two moons actuall, Mun is the closet). Or to one of the other planets (there are two planets closer to the sun, three or four farther out - many of which have moons, one of which is a Jupiter analog and has about six moons). And all of this is in relativistic space with full physics.
Oh, and there are no instructions, yet. A few tutorial videos made by those who have gone before us, but that's it. It's still in dev remember.
It took me a few tries to get a ship built that could achieve orbit and stay there. My BSEE included a LOT of physics courses, so I have an advantage over a lot of folks. Docking is an art form in that you have the most basic of computers and the camera angles can change at random and there is no 'cockpit view' which for a pilot like me makes it really hard. It took me literally weeks to master it. But I did it, and can still do it if pressed to (like last night), but one of the nice things about KSP is the ability to make modules for it, or download them. So I downloaded 'MechJeb' which is basically a flight computer, and a mod my friend wrote that contains a fuel cell powered by electricity.
MechJeb is great because I no longer have to fly my ship into orbit. Or land it. I just call up the 'console' that does it, program in the data and let it go. As taking off and getting into orbit takes about a half hour, you can understand how helpful this is. Same for landing. I can go do something else while that takes place and just take a look every so often to make sure things are progressing properly and don't need human intervention.
Docking especially so. Docking can take hours! I'm not kidding on that either. Even with the docking program running things it can still take an hour. Last night took me I think four, and I was using the autopilot on and off - the ship was too big and had some render issues apparently which was driving the autopilot crazy. But big ships move slow. So I would let the autopilot run it for a while, then jump on and make some corrections, then back to autopilot. Except for the last hour, that was all by hand. I'll come back to that.
So at this point in KSP I have sent probes to every planet, and landed actual people on every planet but two. I have had to rethink and build special landers to rescue stranded astronauts (asto-kerbals?) from planets that there lander could not take off from. I even sent a swarm of 22 rovers to Eve to try and blanket the planet for fun. Due to a bug in the program I have lost about a half of those on re-entry at this point. KSP doesn't handle MIRV'ed landers very well. If they spread out too far, they are automatically deleted in atmosphere. As it took me days in realtime to get the space ship carring all those rovers, it was a little annoying. You can speed up time in KSP, but when you have a ship that is made up of 1500 parts, well it chugs along really slowly. 10 rl seconds to make one game second. So speeding it up 10,000 times doesn't help all that much on a year long voyage. Especially when you have to do course corrections and delta V-burns in order to end up in orbit around your destination.
I tell you I have really learned a lot about orbital mechanics and insertion burns over the last month.
So at this point I have been to all the planets, have flags on almost all of them, and probes on all of them. I even have some automated fuel station satellites around some of the further planets and a couple of (now empty) rescue vehicles out there should I need to use them again. I may download one of the modules that has habitat stuff and start launching those into space and see about colonizing a few of the other planets, but we will see.
My current project has been to build 'stupid space ships'. One is a massive launcher so big that it can burn straight out of orbit on a direct flight without having to do a Holtzman's transfer or any other fuel saving activity. Of course half the time it blows up on ascent; with so many struts and parts on it, it only takes one failure of a linkage somewhere and the whole thing starts to come apart. A quick staging action will save the upper stages, but then you've still lost all that speed, so that sort of defeats the purpose.
The next 'stupid ship' was one that had the command module buried in the bottom of the rocket between the boosters and was one really large and interconnected tank with a loooooong probe boom off the top. Difficult to fly, but easier once you jettisoned the boom (which could be controlled remotely). The third stupid ship was a bunch of tanks in a cross pattern with a central tank that they were all attached to. I put engines out on the arms to counter the stresses they'd be seeing during ascent, and a lot of struts to keep the thing from tearing itself apart. Amazingly enough, it actually made it into orbit.
So I made it the hub of my newest space station, and I took my stupid rocket number 2 (actually two of them) and docked them to two of the four arms to start on making a truly large and ugly space station. I think I spent 10 hrs doing that yesterday, I'll see if I can't add a few pictures so you can see what I'm talking about.
So if you like building things and have an interest in space KSB is definitely something you might want to stay away from. Or you'll end up losing days of free time running your own little space program.
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