09 Tuesday Aug 2016
Tags
Author, Author Tips, NaNoWriMo, publishing, writing, writing tips
Hi everyone,
As many of you may know, this last year (time wise, not 2016 wise) I participated in both NaNoWriMo 2015 (November) and Camp NaNoWriMo2016 (July). I’ve compiled my thoughts on the experience so you can see if NaNoWriMo is right for you! This is the first post, detailing how the programs are similar and how they differ. The second one will focus on what I like and what I think could be improved
12 Sunday Apr 2015
Posted in Iron Tribune
Tags
Hi all,
Just wanted to let everyone know that Iron Tribune is in the last Pre-editing stages. I’m revising it as we speak, and the good news is you’re getting a much improve project! I’m also excited to announce that, once Iron Tribune is done, I have found someone who will be going through both Brass Legionnaire and Copper Centurion with me to make a few minor tweaks, cleaning out some old errors and mistakes that get by the best authors and editors.
Other than that, many other things are in the works! I’ll have another update for you by this Friday!
Salve!
Daniel
02 Sunday Feb 2014
Posted in Self-Publishing
Hi all,
Antioch Burns has been sent to the publisher after several rounds of revisions and checks and what seems like an inordinate amount of time checking for everything. Woo! Now to move on to Iron Tribune. Just wanted to let everyone know :-).
As always, look me up on Facebook and follow me on Twitter for the latest information on the Steam Empire Chronicles. I’ve more active there than here!
– Daniel
03 Friday May 2013
Posted in Self-Publishing, Short Stories, Steam Empire Chronicles
Tags
Copper Centurion, novellas, publishing, self-publishing tips and tricks, Steam Empire Chronicles
Carpe Diem to new and old readers alike! Thanks so much for your continued support! Today’s post will be brief, I just wanted to let people know that Copper Centurion already has two five-star rankings! Woot woot! Both of my novels reached up into the low 40s on the Amazon steampunk rankings chart the other day, but I want them up into the first tier!
In announcements, I will reveal that I am going to be working with a small publisher to publish Antioch Burns, the next novella in the Steam Empire Chronicles. Working with a small publisher will help me defray editing and formatting costs, which are becoming a bigger expense now that I’ve bought a house. This is was originally a bonus reward for kickstarter backers, who will get it a week to two weeks ahead of time, but it is also going to be available for sale, hopefully by November or December – long term planning and all, but I still have Roma Aeronautica to publish, which will be coming sometime in July or August, methinks.
So lots to do! But Centurion Julius Caesar has a message for you.
Go forth, Roman Citizen, and claim your book. Read it, love it, and leave a review so we may share our ideas with others. For the Empire!
Copper Centurion is available for download on Kindle, Barnes & Noble, as well as Smashwords.
Boo-yah 🙂 Ciao!
28 Thursday Mar 2013
Hi everyone,
As many of you may know, Brass Legionnaire recently won the EPIC eBook Award for Best Action Adventure Novel. And I get an awesome new little award thingie to put on my blog and my book website! Yay! 
What I didn’t add earlier is that while at the conference, I was approached by an editor at a small independent publisher. She was very interested in my book, and the award made the series more attractive. She asked me to email her when I got home, so I did. She recently got back to me, and was very interested to read more, so I sent her the entirely finished first and second books of the Steam Empire Chronicles, plus Roma Aeronautica, the short story that I’ve been working on.
I’ll admit, I’m feeling a tad bit nervous. One of the best things that self-published authors have is control. Control over editing, cover art, interior illustrations, when to publish, even deadlines. With a publisher, any publisher, you lose that. I was also worried because of my Kickstarter. Companies don’t like it when you give their stuff away for free (although in this case, the people have ‘technically’ paid for it, and saved the publishing house money as they won’t need to spend as much time editing or revising the novel – theoretically). I’ve also been looking at some of their writer’s work on the computer, and while it has some good reviews, they don’t seem to have a ton of downloads, which worries me to another degree.
The end result is what to do? I’m not sure. I’m going to hold off posting this until I hear some feedback from her. Here’s what I’d love to ‘get’ out of this situation.
What I don’t want
Let me add some caveats – I’m not a control freak, not am I a crazy person to work with. Just ask my editor, cover artist, formatter, etc. I’ve very low maintenance, but I do want to be listened to and included in the conversation. I don’t want to be talked down to, but I am willing to listen to constructive criticism. I know that Self-Published authors get a lot of flak for being difficult to work with or unprofessional, but I think that publishers often think that their work is superior in all ways, and that they don’t have to listen to people. I’ve found plenty of typos in major publishing house’s work before, so that’s not an issue with just one publisher. I also don’t think the stereotypes about either side are true, as I met absolutely wonderful people at EPICon who would fit either of those categories. I’ve also been looking up and doing my research, and I noticed that this particular publisher was relatively low on the Alexa score rankings, (type in Alexa Rankings and you can type in any website and see their traffic information). So I’m still torn.
Of course, nothing has been offered and therefore this could all be moot!
Lots to think about I suppose.
22 Thursday Nov 2012
Posted in Awards, Self-Publishing
Tags
Happy Thanksgiving! I have a lot to be thankful for! First and foremost, I just learned that my debut novel, Brass Legionnaire, is a finalist in the Action & Adventure Category for the 2013 eBook Awards. The eBook Awards are done by the Electronic Publishing Industry Coalition, and is one of the very first awards for e-publishing. You can learn more about them here.
It’s a great honor to even be considered for the award. Honestly, when I submitted my novel, I truly never even thought it was going to make it. And at first, I wondered if it was going to be one of those ‘you applied and paid a small entrance fee, and guess what? Everyone’s a winner!’
But it isn’t. I’m one of the top three in an entire category, going up against two other more veteran authors with many books and novels out, including last year’s winner of the same category. Oof!
But like I said, I’m so overwhelmingly excited just to be mentioned. And I’ve decided I’ll be going to EPICon (The annual conference/awards gala) this year just to see what it’s like to be a published author at an event where everyone is involved with publishing in one way or another. The even is in March, so I’ll be able to update you then on what happened!
Plus, I can still hold out hope for an award! And I already know I’ll be submitting Copper Centurion this upcoming year. As always, it never hurts to have a second string in your bow.
Happy Thanksgiving! Be sure to eat well and help the cook clean up!
31 Thursday May 2012
Posted in Giveaways, Publishing Day, Self-Publishing, Website
Happy Brass Legionnaire Day!
As of this moment, folks, the first novel of the Steam Empire Chronicles, Brass Legionnaire, is published in all formats and available for purchase!
I’ve made a new page at the top of the blog that features all of the easiest ways to purchase my novel. You can also use the links in this post to purchase them as well.
What about signed copies, you say? Well, I’ve got TWO give-aways running. Each one has three signed paperback copies of the novel available for you to win! You can even enter both. (If you win both, I reserve the right to only send you one signed copy!)
So either comment on this post of mine from earlier,
Or check out my Goodreads Giveaway and sign up there as well!
You have just ONE day left to enter and win for both contests!
Here are the links below to each book.
Brass Legionnaire (Print edition and Kindle Edition)
Smashwords (all other formats)
If you aren’t sure about purchasing yet, download the first chapter for free here, or you can sample the first 20% of the book (For more Roman-Steampunky goodness) for free also at the Smashwords link above!
Thanks again for all of my readers and fans out there. The journey started because of me, but it really finished because of your encouragement and positive attitudes. I love you all, and I’ll continue to blog about my adventures in life and self publishing. And yes, there will be more Brass Legionnaire novels to come. Copper Centurion (Due out sometime next Spring) will be even longer and more chock full of airship flying roman legionnaires.
Thanks again! Be sure to subscribe to the blog, Like me on Facebook or follow me on twitter! I keep it pretty interesting, and don’t spam you with a million for sale ads. Hurray!
– Daniel
08 Tuesday May 2012
Posted in Formatting, Self-Publishing, Thoughts
Greetings all!
I’m trying to get into the habit of posting twice a week – Saturdays and Tuesdays. During the summer I’ll be able to post a lot more! I’ve got an update on Brass Legionnaire for everyone and I’ll talk a bit about my experience with the formatting process.
Just as a side note, I know that many people do their own formatting. For me, it was a simple look at the payoff versus work balance. As a full-time teacher, I don’t have much weekday time to pump out a solid amount of formatting, nor do I have time to check and double check. As everyone knows – you only make a first impression once – so when I was looking at cover art, I was fortunate enough to find a team that did my cover, illustrations, and formatting. Simplifies my list of outside consultants immensely. And I’m paying a flat rate, not an hourly fee.
As many people may know, Brass Legionnaire has been finished edit-wise for sometime. The illustrations/maps have just been completed as well, and now all that is needed is for the book to be properly formatted into ebook/smashwords/amazon style and print style. I’ve seen the first proofs for each one, and because they required minimal changes (More just a ‘what goes where’ type thing), and they are almost finished. So what have I learned from the process already?
1. If you’ve got acknowledgements, terminology, illustrations, etc, state exactly where you want them to go in the beginning. The Print and Ebook version will be a bit different, so think about how you want them to be. Here’s a checklist (not in any specific order)
2. Expect things to go a bit slowly. You want your work to be done well, correct? Which is why you didn’t pay for someone to do it in an hour. If you can do it in an hour, awesome! If you’re not quite so skilled, you can outsource it, but look around for the best deal.
3. Be confident in asking for something to be done. After all, it is your book. I myself accidentally sent my formatter (verb? noun?) off on a wild goose chase after mistakenly sending him two completely different instruction sets.
Whether finding a professional or doing it yourself, formatting your book takes time and effort, and is critical. People don’t want to have to fight your book in order to read it. You’ll lose readers and get negative reviews. Do it right the first time and you won’t have to worry about it again.
UPDATE #2 – I’m looking for a few beta readers for Copper Centurion, book two in the Brass Legionnaire series. If you are interested, shoot me a message here or on my twitter account. All I need is your email and a promise you will be honest with your criticism and not share my hard work with anyone (Need I say that?) I’d send you chapters as I finish them for your input on them, you’ll get mentioned in the acknowledgements of book two, and there might even be some cool swag in the deal for you. I’m looking for three to five people. Let me know if you are interested!
06 Sunday May 2012
Posted in Advertising, Self-Publishing
Tags
advertising, Books, Facebook, posters, promotional, publishing, reviews, self-publishing, Twitter
Greetings all!
It’s been a busy week. As a teacher, this time of year is always hectic with the myriad of responsibilities and in-school required activities that fight with your goal of teaching as much as possible until the end of the school year. Roughly 25 days give or take, but who is counting?! Anyways, onwards and upwards!
On the book front, I received the preliminary formatting for Brass Legionnaire and
noticed they forgot to put in a ‘social media’ page. This is a great addition Must Have for any ebook. It is especially important that you put it right at the end of the book. Why do you ask? Well, after you’ve poured all that time and effort into writing such a engaging, interesting, and thought provoking book, don’t you want people to simply read and forget now, do you? Provide a handy page with all of your social media information – Facebook – Twitter – Goodreads – (Anything else!?) plus the locations of your website/blog if the same or different.
Image via CrunchBase
Some authors use a subscription based service such as MailChimp to get readers as well. As I’ve also got a subscription component of the blog, I’m not sure if that’s quite what I want to do yet, but I’m probably going to set one up before the book drops.
Speaking of that, have you been promoting your book? Have you released a sample chapter of your story (Check out mine – you won’t be disappointed!) and started tweeting, facebooking, and generally talking up your book? This is the hardest for me. I’m someone who is generally talkative, but I feel almost embarrassed explaining the backstory of my novel. It’s not that I’m embarrassed by the book or the writing or the content, but rather that I don’t want it to sound boring, nor too wild, for the average person who asks me (That and the people who ask about it at work aren’t my book’s target audience!)
Another point – pick your audience and figure out how to reach them. I’ve got some free vouchers for use in google adsense and on facebook for my book, so I’ll look around for the groups and ages that are in my target range – young adults, 16-30, as well as older sci-fi and alternate history fans, and target the ads there. I’ll also look at fans of authors who write alternative history novels or steampunk novels, such as Harry Turtledove, S.M. Stirling, Cherie Priest, and others, whose audiences are similar to mine.
Finally, scope out some book blogs that may be willing to feature your book or review it pre-release. It takes some time for book reviews to happen, so doing this when your book is finished, but just awaiting minor things – formatting, cover art, etc – lets their reviews match your release date. You can also set up a discussion board at goodreads to give away a book or two for promotional purposes/review getting purposes!
Brass Legionnaire drops this May, 2012. Check out the book website for more information at www.brasslegionnaire.com
15 Thursday Mar 2012
Posted in Advertising, Self-Publishing
Tags
10 things, ads, audiobook, blog, book trailers, business cards, business plan, chapters, copyright, Cover Art, free, photoshop, preorders, publishing, synopsis, website, websites, wix
Hello all!
So it’s been about 4 weeks now since I sent Brass Legionnaire off to the editor. I’ll admit freely, once it was out of my hands, I sort of… blanked. I was truly faced with a ‘now what’ type of situation. So for the last couple weeks I’ve been trying to tie up other loose ends that I figured I might as well get done now. So in my free time (My day job and graduate school keep me fairly busy, so that’s rare right now!) I put together a list of a few things that you can do while waiting for the book to come back.
1. Get some nice cover art (Mine was handled by the great people over at Streetlight Graphics, but you can also check out 99 designs or deviantart and post a job offer on either one.) Alternatively, if you’re a great artist or have a deft hand on photoshop, hunt down what you like and tweak it in the best ways. Great way to do it on the cheap if you need to.
2. Set up a personal author blog or website (Like this one) or perhaps even a website just for your book or series. However, don’t jump the gun too early. I have my entire website ready to go on Wix – a flash driven site that is really quick and simple to use – but I haven’t gone live yet because I feel a bit silly doing it without a product to show! Since I can’t do ‘preorders’ I’m simply holding off until the book goes live, then I’ll probably buy one of the smaller packages just so that I can get my domain name (and not have to worry about having other stuff in my URL), but I’ll save my money until then!
3. Set up a business/promotion plan – How will you promote your book? What will you do? Will you advertise? if so, where? Who is your specific target audience? What is best for them? Text ads, picture ads? You’re going to have to do some hard thinking on this one. Don’t limit yourself just to facebook or google. There are a variety of other sites out there that host ads, so find one that is more likely to be frequented by the people you are targeting!
4. Create a free audiobook sample of your first chapter. A lot of people offer a ‘free sample’ of their book to entice readers in. Even if you don’t plan on doing a full audiobook, a sample chapter (read by you, or someone you know whose voice is better!) can draw in a whole host of new people. Make it free on iTunes, put it up on YouTube. The more exposure, the more likely you are to rope someone in who is actually interested! Personally, I’d want to make it a full audiobook eventually, but in the meantime, it’s another cool way to build some hits.
5. In connection to that, create a book ‘trailer’ all you really need is some basic knowledge of iMovie or another video editing program and some effects and definitely your cover art. Alternatively, you can pay someone to make a (probably better) product, but it will cost you. For example, a basic book teaser at Circle of Seven productions will set you back a cool $800. But if you’ve got the money to spend…
6. Make some business cards/bookmarks. One of the most basic things to do is make a nice business card with your name, email address (not your phone number!) website, and title (you are a soon-to-be-Author!) along with a picture of your cover art. Don’t have cover art yet? Set it up except for that one part. Then it’s a simple copy and paste situation. You’ll probably want to use photoshop for this, but you can pay someone to do it. Personally, I like the control (And also screaming at my computer when photoshop goes wacky!) Then, it’s a quick upload to vistaprint or Zazzle. Be even fancier, add a QR code to the back and direct it to your website! Integration baby!
7. Set a reminder to copyright your book when it is done editing. No really, you need to remember to do this! Click here to find out more. You can also pre-register your book if it is in the process of editing to get a bit of a head start on the copyright process – Another chunk of money you need to shell out, but you don’t want people stealing your hard work now, do you? I’ll be honest though, I’m not sure if the pre-registration is a good deal. Readers?
8. Make sure you’ve got an account on Goodreads, Amazon, Smashwords, and anywhere else you plan on selling your book.
9. Make sure you’ve got a well-written synopsis for your various book pages and a good blurb or two for your front page or inside cover.
10. Write your bio, your acknowledgements, then sit back and wait!
Anything I forget? Please let me know! (Due credit where credit is due 🙂 )
