I really need to do this more...

I really do need to start posting here at least twice a week. If nothing else, so you all know I'm still alive and still writing!

So, I'm back on writing 'Present Tense' the sequel to 'Past Tense' which is the first book in the 'Days of Future Past' trilogy. Audio book sales on that have really been amazing, over a hundred copies sold in less than a month. I hope the sales keep up strong, because I want to see the sequel made into an audio book as soon as I publish. The folks I work with work on a royalty split, because I'm not rich enough to pay upfront :-(  So, it has to sell a certain number of copies before they'll do another one.

At this point, I'm about 16K words into the book, a lot of things came up last week, and as I've mentioned in the past, this is a rough time of the year for me. At least that seems to have moved on.

As for coming attractions, well I finally plotted out the submission to Castalia house. I need to now write the first chapter of that story (the second chapter is already done, because this is an idea I'd been camping on for years). I'm hoping they like it, and that they decide to buy it. We'll just have to see where that goes. I've put enough time into it at this point, that if they don't sign it, I'll probably end up writing it anyway.

Once I finish with 'Present Tense' I will start writing Portals of Infinity #8. I have a good deal of it already worked out in my head. I just need to tweak a few plot points and that will get done. I do want to write #9 this year as well, so we will just have to see how my year goes.

I also want to write a sequel to "The King of Las Vegas' as well as the next book in the Hammer Commission series as well as the last book in the DOFP trilogy.

Oh, and as if that wasn't enough work already, I'm going to start on the sequel to 'Interregnum' at the end of the month. HOWEVER that is going to be done differently than how I usually do my writing. I will post one chapter a month of the story to my Patreon page, visible to anyone and everyone who contributes at least a dollar or more. That does mean it will be slow going, however at least it will get written. Sadly my Children of Steel series doesn't sell very well. And I get it, 'Furries' don't read scifi, and being branded as a 'Furry' story tends to kill most things if it's not all about sex (and it isn't at all). However I wrote the original book before I even knew such a thing as 'furry' existed. And I'm a bit attached to the story. So I'm going to try and wrap up that story arc.

If enough people sign up for it that is.

So, right now I'm looking at another five to six books I want to write this year, after this one comes out. Hopefully my sales will do better than last year, they were okay, but I have some expenses coming up this year, plus I suspect I'm going to owe the government more than I expected (don't we always? Self employment tax sucks - that you have to PAY extra to be self-employed is stupid).

Oh, anybody going to see 'The Musical Box' in SF on the 23rd of Feb? Thinking of going to see them again. Yeah, it means driving into SF, but they really do put on a great show, if you like classic Genesis.

So, just things in General

I'm thinking I'm going to start posting here a little more often, at least for the upcoming month. January and early February are always a bit rough for me, not as bad now as when I lived further north, but SADD (or whatever it's spelt like) does effect me, and while December is always busy with family and holidays and such, January isn't. So things do set in.

Probably the biggest side effect for me in this is that it really slows down my writing and my productivity at creative pursuits. So starting a new book at the beginning of the year is a difficult task. Add to that, that I am always slow in the first few chapters and it's been a bit rough getting started. I'm barely through chapter two in the new book, but at least I've got a lot of the later chapters already scripted in my head.

Now I just have to get there.

On the other side of things, it does bother me that the sequel to Interregnum isn't going anywhere. It's low priority simply because I know I'm going to lose money on it. It's more of a 'passion' book than a money maker, and when all of your work needs to bring in a decent return, it's hard to justify something that you know you will be losing money on.

However, I may have hit on a way to make it pay. Simply put, I'm thinking that I will write about a chapter a month in that story, and I'll put it on my patreon page. I'll make it available to everyone who pays at least a dollar a month to read. Yes, that means that it will probably take close to two years to write, but at least it gets written and people get to read it. Then, when it's done I'll just put it up for sale on Amazon for everyone else who might be interested.

I would of course still be making my weekly posts of my current projects, this would be something separate. Anyway, it's an idea that I'm thinking about. I'll float it by a few places and see what people think.

Also we've started to look for a new house. California is really too expensive for a writer to live, and while the increasingly 'hard on gun owners soft on criminal' laws have been pissing me off (along with the ever increasing tax burden) the whole 'banning' of all shopping bags really just put it over the top. There were no reasons to do that, well no scientific or logical ones, and it just proves that morons are running the show here, and it's time to go before they ban toilet paper (you laugh, but it's coming, that or something equally stupid, trust me. The power hungry never are satisfied and once they start with the stupid shit, it always goes downhill fast).

Nevada is looking promising. I'd like to go further east, but there are reasons to not go so far (namely my other half has been told that their employer will continue to employ them if they move to a particular area in Nevada). Plus we like to go to the air races every September and there are a few other things we go to Nevada for as well (and no, not gambling).

However, I really hate moving. Selling and buying houses is a nightmare, and I honestly hope I never have to do it again. I also am really tired of moving. I have moved a lot since I left college, and I have lived all over the country, and I've had to travel a lot for work. Part of why I was happy to quit my day job and go to full time writing. I got tired of spending weeks at a time away from home.

Back on the work front, I'm trying to learn how to do marketing. Most of my sales success had little to do with my appalling lack of marketing ability. So now, I'm trying to expand my readership and reach new people by actually engaging in advertising. The problem is, I really don't know where to do it, or how to best reach my target audience. Hopefully I'll learn. I'm also trying to push the audiobooks, because I've been told that they won't do another one until sales hit a certain level. And the people who did them did such a nice job, I want them to make money too.

I really need to learn how to market better :-)

And for all of those who have responded to me, either here or by email, on the cover question, thank you!

Cover Questions

I'm thinking of redoing a few of the earlier covers for the Portals of Infinity series. Primarily books 1, 2 and 4. But I'm really not sure of how to change them. I like #1, because I think it gives a good clue to the series, but others have said that the quality of my covers needs to improve. #2 I've grown a little unhappy with, and I've had a lot of people neg on #4. I do like #3, but if I change the others I may change that one as well.

As for the style, especially the style of #1 and #2, I was aiming for the 'forgotten realms' vibe when I commissioned them, that rough kind of artwork that they used to use. And it seemed to work very well for me.

But the question I have is: If I redo the cover early covers, which ones should I do?
Should I go for a similar style, just a more refined version?
And what do you think the covers should show?

I've got some ideas on all of this, but I don't want to put them up, I'd rather hear from my readers first. I won't be changing them anytime soon (end of February would be soonest, I have quarterly taxes do this month, and those will be eating up nearly all of my royalties), so you can give it some thought if you want. But I would like to hear any comments you have on the covers, positive, negative, what you liked or didn't like, and any suggestions for better scenes to put on them.

Thanks everyone!
-John

Review copies of my Audio Books, would you like one?

If you would, please do the following: Open an account on Audible, if you don't already have one. Then tell me which book you would like a copy of, and send me your email address that the audible account is linked to (I need that to send you the book via Audible).

I have a limited number of free copies I can give away, and would like to give away the more recent books (Days of Future Past - book 1, and Wolf Killer) over the older Portals of Infinity (Books 1 and 2) but I do have some codes left for those two books as well, if you are more interested in them.

All I ask is you consider giving me an honest review. I don't expect reviews from everyone, just hopefully enough to be helpful.

Thanks!

Days of Future Past, book 1, Past Tense is now available on Audible: http://www.audible.com/pd/Sci-Fi-Fantasy/Days-of-Future-Past-Audiobook/B01MZ6FI3I/

Audio Books, Days of Future Past, book 1 coming out in Audio version soon

So, book one - Past Tense of Days of Future Past, is coming out in audio format on ACX/Audible here in the next few days. Along with that I get a number of free copies to give away for the purpose of reviews. So if anyone wants a free copy of any of my audio books, in exchange for an honest review, please drop me a line (vanstry@gmail.com) and I'll send them out.
I don't get a lot of these, so please only ask for one if you will listen to it and write a review. I want to keep my current voice actor and studio happy, so they continue to do books for me! It will also help with my quest to get VA's for book 3 and on for the POI series.

Thanks,
-John

Where do I find audio book customers?

So, I was talking to the man who is currently doing my audio books today, as they'd just finished Past Tense, book 1 in the Days of Future Past trilogy (look for it on Audible in about a week, unless Christmas slows them down) and I wondered:

Where do I find people who like audio books?

I wonder about this, because I want to try and go and advertise there. I want the audio books to do well, because I want the people who are making them to make money. So they'll make more of them. Which is a nice simple logic. The problem is, I don't know much about the audio book business. I don't listen to them, and I really don't have any friends who do. So I don't know how to go about finding audio book customers.

So if you know of a good place for me to go and advertise, please let me know!

Oh, and here is the link for the Wolf Killer audio book on Audible:
http://www.audible.com/pd/Sci-Fi-Fantasy/Wolf-Killer-Audiobook/B01N07TDK2/
It can be found on Amazon and iTunes as well.

Thanks!
-John

Now in Paperback and on KU (for a limited time only)

Loose Ends is now available in Paperback, on both Amazon and CreateSpace.
It is also in the Kindle Unlimited program, but only for the next three months (which is the minimum term for KU). So if you want to read it in KU, don't wait too long! Once it has completed the 3 months, I will be taking it 'wide' to the other ebook stores (you can't do that if you're in KU) and I will be doing that with my other books as they time out of the KU store as well.

As always, here's a link
http://amzn.to/2hxrc6J

Loose Ends is now available

Loose Ends is now available on Amazon in ebook format, the print version will be coming soon. It will also be available on other ebook stores soon, once I get those accounts restarted.

Coming Soon

Pulling out of Kindle Unlimited

I think I'm pulling out of Kindle Unlimited. Why? Well, it's really hurting me. I lose one third of my royalty on every book sold via KU. Because so many of my readers have moved to KU, the loss in income for me has been close to fifty percent.

That's a lot of money.

So my choices were, either raise the price of my books on my non-KU buyers, artificially pad my ebooks with stuff to inflate the word count and increase the KU rate (which would only work if people actually read the inflated stuff), or pull out of KU.

Also pulling out of KU will allow me to sell my books in places other than Amazon, and while I don't think I'll see a lot of sales via the other markets, if I see a one third increase in sales on my paid (non-KU) sales, I'll be making just as much money as I am now. If I see a 50 percent increase (which means I keep only half of my KU readers) I'll see an increase in my income, to last year's level.

Honestly, I'd rather not pull out of KU, but financially, KU is killing me. I just can't afford it anymore. Yes, this move could do me in as a full-time author, I'm sure I will see an initial drop in my sales. But I won't know until I try. I know the books coming out of the publishing houses are never in KU, however they seem to do just fine on their sales.

If Amazon was to offer more than half a cent per page, I think I would stay with them, the problem however is just that the KU program has been very successful for them. But not so much for me.
I hope I don't lose any of you in the process, I think my price of 3.99 is a bargain, I honestly think that even at 4.99 I'd still be a bargain, but I'm committed to try and stay at 3.99 for as long as financially possible.

Thank you all for your patronage,
-John Van Stry

The first draft is now complete for the next Hammer Commision novel

Just finished the first draft of the next Hammer Commission book: Loose Ends. A hair shy of 80K words. I suspect it will grow a bit more in the first re-write as there are two chapters I need to drop into it. Short ones, but they've still got to be added.

Now to commission the cover while I get it ready for publication. I'm aiming for the 15th. Let's see if we can hit that target.