Basic Steps outlining how to publish an ebook!
Salve!
Here’s a quick and dirty set of directions explaining how to Publish an ebook! Had to write this up for a fellow author interested in self-publishing, so here goes for you, hope you enjoy. Let me know if I left anything out!
Day 3 of the National Novel Writing Month Competition! Check out some of my writing today…
Better late than never! Classwork got me behind tonight. I’ll finish in about 25 minutes. Didn’t get to my full length portion tonight, but I’m still going! Here’s a sample.
1st Stretch Goals Reached in Iron Tribune! New Add-Ons! Check it out!
Salve!
There’s just 12 days of Kickstarter joy left for Iron Tribune! We’ve reached our 1st stretch goal – $1000! – granting everyone a free copy of Antioch Burns to go with their rewards. Now let’s see if we can get to the second set at $1250! I’ve also listened to the fans and will now offer additional discounted print copies of all my novels as Add-Ons. Here are the prices below!
Brass Legionnaire – $8
Copper Centurion – $10
Iron Tribune – $12
This is a great chance to get them cheaper than you would online, especially as every pledge over $10 gets a free copy of Antioch Burns too!
So what are you waiting for? Join my legion and pledge today!
Wow! It’s the end of day 1 of my kickstarter and we’re barely $100 away from my goal of $750! This is so exciting! Thanks to all my supporters, and if you haven’t thought of joining the effort, $10 gets you the novel, plus any digital only rewards! Click to check out the kickstarter here.
And since every dollar raised goes to adding illustrations, you get the benefit of the ‘stretch’ goals regardless of pledge level. The cost of an illustration for the book is roughly $100-125 per illustration depending on various things, so the money will net me around 5-6 illustrations and maps with support for the formatting. Otherwise, it looks like we’ll reach our goal comfortably this go around!
In other news, they’ll be a new post for The Border on Monday for those interested 🙂 What do people think about the series so far? I’ve been tempted to turn it into a novella, but I’d love to hear some criteria on it beforehand. You can read part 1 here.
April’s update for Iron Tribune.
Hi everyone, just figured I’d send out a quick update on Iron Tribune.
1.) Cover art is under way! (Yay!)
2.) The manuscript is at the editor’s, and thus is under way as well.
3.) Kickstarter plans are in the works. Nothing will happen until I have cover art to show people.
4.) Outlining on Steel Praetorian is going well! I’m seven chapters in already (outlining).
That’s it! Enjoy the rest of your April!
Just another brief update on Iron Tribune!
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
A Bonus Steamlit Interview with Author Ichabod Temperance.
Hail, fellow Romans! As my readers may know, I’m taking part in a wonderful Steampunk Author Promotion at the end of April, the Steamlit Extravaganza. As you may well know, I’m a fast reader, and occasionally, that means I do something silly! In this case, that silly thing turned out well in the end, as I scored not one but TWO interviews for you to peruse!
Continue reading “Bonus Interview with Author Ichabod Temperance”
50 ways to kill off a character in a novel or story.
By Daniel Ottalini
Need to kill off an annoying character? Already used a bunch of creative ways to eliminate super important people, and you’d rather not leave a boring person to die by lethal sword thrust? Here’s a slightly humorous, hopefully helpful list of creative causes of calamity for you callous creators of creative creations out there.
Putting my novellas on Smashwords for all to read! – Learn more inside this blog post!
Hi everyone,
I recently got an email from an avid reader the other day, asking if I planned to release Roma Aeronautica into print. I’ll let you read the email below.
Hey my name is Kody (Last name withheld to protect privacy). I really enjoy you’re first 2 books Brass Legionnaire and Copper Centurion, but I don’t have a e-reader or anything like that. So I was wondering you were planning on releasing Roma Aeronautica on paperback? Along with the rest of the books you’re planning on writing.
I’m very glad Kody asked me about this. In my recent posting talking about novellas, you may have noticed a comment I made in response to another author, talking about what I was planning with my novellas.
1.) I will eventually publish my novellas, Roma Aeronautica and Antioch Burns, along with additional unpublished novellas, as an ebook and print book once I reach a number that I consider economical to create a print book for. In essence, I need at least four to five novellas, perhaps even six, to make a print book viable, at least to my standards (note, my standards include illustrations for every book, a different cover, plus possibly maps or additional commentary.)
2.) As it stands, for the entire Steam Empire Series & associated novellas, there will be at least five novellas, one for each novel, providing me with a ready base of material to create a printed book.
3.) As a stopgap for my readers who do not have e-readers, I am putting my novellas onto Smashwords, where you can download them as a PDF, which will work on any computer. I understand that this is not the best manner, but you can also download nook and kindle readers onto any computer as well in order to buy your ebooks that way.
So thanks, Kody, for emailing me to ask! I understand completely that not everyone has access to an ereader, and I will strive to make my novellas as accessible as possible for all my followers.
Until then, Roma Nike!
My thoughts on Novellas & The Self Published Author
By Daniel Ottalini
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative normally longer than a short story but shorter than a novel. A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative normally longer than a short story but shorter than a novel.
There is undeniably something instinctively attractive about novellas for the self-published or small-published author. Think of it this way, a novella is faster to type, edit, format, and requires only an ebook cover, reducing costs and time in multiple areas, even with multiple checks and reviews.
So why novellas? Well, for one thing, exposure in this industry is key. You are more likely to catch more ‘browsing’ readers with five books out, even short novellas, than with two novels out. By reading one, you have a good chance of them reading more, especially if they are well done. You charge less, so people may be more willing to take a chance, especially on a 99 cent or free loss leader than on a $3.99 100,000 word novel. And they do work exceptionally well as loss leaders, bringing in new readers who, having identified the quality of your work, are willing to lay out money for your other written works.
But are they really worth it for a beginning author to write? As a self-published author, I’m struggling with this situation. First, time spent on novellas is time NOT spent on novel number three. Second, I am having a hard time mustering the effort to finish up the last leg of Antioch Burns. Having the cover ready (wow, that came faster than I thought!) has helped, but still, this hill seems extraordinarily difficult to climb. My first novella is only doing mediocre in sales. In some ways, I attribute this to the higher cost – $1.99 – rather than the more traditional $0.99 cents. I’ve also been forced to cut back on what little promotion I do, due to some other issues. I suppose that you must be prepared to offer your novella for a reduced price, or provide some other tantalizing tid-bit for readers in addition. Now these may be more personal components in some ways, but they are, in fact, a factor for many others. Burnout, exhaustion, weak story lines, all can reduce the effectiveness of a novella.
For example, the delay in Antioch Burns is actually a good thing at this point. This is the first I’m sharing with you, but the novella will be delayed until Spring, 2014. My publisher has some personal things to attend too, and currently I’m not quite happy with the novella. But this is good. Why? Because I can add that extra tid-bit into the novella, like the first chapter of Iron Tribune. Yes, exciting, isn’t it? Already, this is getting me into the mood.
So in the end, what’s my final opinion? Novellas are great, if you can commit to them and pump them out completely. In some ways, the smartest self-published author waits to publish book one until they have novella one or even book two. Just a thought, as I certainly didn’t begin that way.
What do you think? Novellas & Novels together? Novellas first? Or are they a waste of time?
Modern Papyrus 