The idle musings of a former military man, former computer geek, medically retired pastor and now full-time writer. Contents guaranteed to offend the politically correct and anal-retentive from time to time. My approach to life is that it should be taken with a large helping of laughter, and sufficient firepower to keep it tamed!
Monday, March 9, 2015
The next book's taking shape
I haven't been resting on my writing laurels. It's not yet three weeks since the publication of my latest novel, 'Stand Against The Storm', but I've already written 75% of the second volume of the Laredo Trilogy, 'Forge A New Blade'.
It's a lot of fun having to switch mental gears, reverting to the setting of 'War To The Knife' and working out how the Laredo Resistance is going to establish a meaningful space-based combat capability. Steve Maxwell, my protagonist from the Maxwell Saga series, makes a couple of appearances and contributes some good ideas (of course). Readers of earlier Maxwell books will recognize some familiar names and places that reappear, as they will in future books as well.
I hope to have the latest book out to beta readers within a couple of weeks; then I'll be taking a couple of weeks off from writing while they send back their comments. I'll use the time to sort out our storage unit, which still contains boxes and bits and pieces from our move last year. The idea is to get rid of as much as possible, and keep only what can fit into our present small duplex. Over the course of the year we'll be deciding whether we'd like to stay in our present area, or move to be closer to our writing 'center of gravity'. Once that decision is made, we'll start looking for a home of our own. There's no hurry - I have to sell a lot more books before we can afford it!
I've been very encouraged by sales of 'Stand Against The Storm' so far. I'll be writing about its first three weeks on the market over at Mad Genius Club this Friday (I'm one of the guest bloggers there). This is my first book launch after Amazon.com launched its 'Kindle Unlimited' subscription library service. I've certainly lost sales to KU readers, and because KU pays authors only about half what they'd earn from a sale at my price point, it's cost me money to participate in the program. On the other hand, the volume of KU readers boosts one's sales rank in the Kindle Bookstore. In this case, it's pushed me more than 300 positions higher than I've ever been with previous books (the highest rank I reached, last week, was 503). That translates into higher visibility for the book, and greater sales . . . so what I've lost on the swings, I seem to have regained on the roundabouts, so to speak. It's a very interesting study in marketing data, and Miss D. will have more to say about it on Friday too.
Thanks again to everyone for your support.
Peter
I'm jealous. I'm a slow reader, and a slower writer, and between a new job (yay, a paycheck!) and kids, I've got precious little time to write.
ReplyDeletePeter,
ReplyDeletehow does it work when you have beta readers? How can they alert you to the various problems that occur, such as spelling, punctuation, doubled words, missing or out of order words, incorrect terminology, continuity, etc?
@Will: Actually, it works just like that. They read it with an eye to spotting problems like that, make a list of whatever they find, and send it to me. I then correct the problems. I don't have too many of them, because I put a lot of effort into finding them before I send it out: but there are always some. (To my chagrin, I've found two in my latest novel. I'll update the text shortly, once I'm sure there are no more.)
ReplyDeleteI just finished the Maxwell saga and now on to Laredo. The Maxwell saga taught me some new words. I am thankful for wikpedia.. lol. Keep up the excellent writing!
ReplyDelete