Well then

After a wild ride yesterday where some 1000 people downloaded my book while it was in free status (and a special nod to my 26 friends in Denmark!), today was, er, disappointing. You see, today is my second day of free downloads before it goes into pay status. So I was anxious to see if the novel could match yesterday's excitement. And the answer is?

I have absolutely no idea.

You see, according to the Kindle Author boards, there seems to be a glitch in download tracking so I really have no idea what the novel has done. (Shakes fist at sky) Ahem, of course, it has bounced around a bit in the Top free contemporary fantasy charts (from #4 to #10 to #8 to #6, etc.) so I'm thinking that's good but, really, what do I know? At the moment, not much.

Tomorrow will be interesting and we will see both if the report 'glitch' is fixed and if there is any effect from two days of freebies.

Regardless, I love my book and I hope those who downloaded it enjoy it as much as I did writing it. Of course, finding the last golden ticket would be pretty sweet as well.

A few interesting things...

I've always been a "bullet-pointer." Know anyone like that? I like to put bullets in my emails to keep things organized and easy to read. I also like to keep things short. If you've read The Solstice Treaty, you know that I like relatively short chapters (Helps those who only have time to read in short bursts and finishing a chapter can give you a good sense of accomplishment!) and short(ish) paragraphs (I can't stand paragraphs that go on and on - I get lost!). So, bullet points help when I have multiple things to say. So, here's some interesting stuff that happened in the last few days...

1. My first shipment of books arrived. Pretty fun going through the box and even though the book is out digitally, it was sure something to see it in print. Pretty happy about that. I'll put up a photo after this post. I sent a half dozen to Judy (my LA agent) to see if she can drum up some interest in la-la land.

2. I decided to sell my book at this big book shindig called Virginia Festival of the Book. It's in March so I wanted to ensure the print copy was looking good. Saw a few things I want to change but I have enough time. On a similar note, it looks like I'll be interviewed on the local radio station a few days before I sit there begging people to buy one :)

3. I've decided to make my digital book exclusive on Amazon for 90 days. It's not that I have anything against Nook owners but I have heard good things about the KDP program Amazon offers and, TBH, the vast majority of folks downloading the beast use Amazon. So, we'll see how things go. If you found the book through this promotion, welcome to the Shade :)

Finding an agent

Sooooo, now that I had finished my first draft and then edited it to the point that I felt comfortable sending it out, I started down the path of finding a Lit agent.

Now, something you should know about me is that things have always gone relatively smooth as far as my career goes. I had published dozens of games from the Apple II and Commodore 64 to SNES to DVD to massively multiplayer PC games. I figured with this would be no different. Why should it be? I had a cool book and a cool background.

Sheesh.

I had heard all the horror stories about finding an agent and for me (for the most part) that was true. You see, the market was in major shift when I started looking. Borders closed down. Big deals for books went by the dodo. Men are disappearing from the book landscape and vampire romance is in full swing. Finding someone to represent (let alone publish) an urban fantasy with a WWII twist was a tough sell. And it was. I sent out dozens and dozens of queries (all very professional), created a killer website, illustrations and book trailer. I did get some folks interested in reading partial manuscripts and fulls but that ultimately didn't work out.

Friends were gracious reminding me how JK Rowling was snubbed as well and I understand all that. Still it was tough as I felt (and do feel ever more) that the novel can stand on it's own against any other urban fantasy.

On the other side of the coin, I found a wonderful LA agent (Judy Coppage) who liked the novel and has been great in helping me get it ready to be pitched in Tinsel Town. I met Judy through a friend and she has been very supportive. So, we will see where that goes.

More later :)

The first draft

It didn't take me long after writing "book 1" or part 1 of the book to finish the first draft. It was definitely nights and weekends for about 4 months. It's amazing how different the draft was from the way I had initially sketched out the chapters. Because I was open to it, I found that some characters I thought would be prominent ended up less so while others (like Grace or Elijah) ended up having a more central role.

So a few years ago I saw this 20/20 thing where there was a symphony-writing prodigy who thought that the music he wrote the first time was perfect and didn't need to be altered (even though the greatest composers ever constantly altered their works). I thought the kid has a lot to learn. Fast forward to my rough draft - I thought it was brilliant and wouldn't need much editing.

Hahaha.

I have edited this novel dozens of times. Basically, I stopped editing about a week ago. So that means that I basically edited it for 2.5 years. Of course, the thing I learned that worked best was when I would step away from it (sometimes more than a month at a time) and then return and look at it with fresh eyes.

So, there you have it. I wrote the first draft then edited for years while I tried to find an agent.

Oh, boy. Let's get into that next. :)

Holidays and all...

So, the holidays put a bit of a quash on blogging so I'll get back into more of how I went about creating the book tomorrow. However, last week I came back from a trip to Kentucky to find that my proof of The Solstice Treaty was here! I used Lightning Source to print it and while the experience of laying out the book and the cover was not nearly as fun as I had hoped, the final product was pretty exciting to see. I did spend time finding some typos and a few friends gave me some comments on a few plot points but other than that it looked fine (except the cover which is too dark. Sometimes going from RGB colors to CMYK colors can make the art look dark.)

So, I've lightened it up, made my edits and submitted the changes to the printer. Why do I need physical books you ask? Good question. It's because I plan on sending them to reviewers who only accept hardcopies. I also am planning on attending and selling the novel at the VA festival of the book which happens here every year.

Anyway, here's a pic and I'll do some more posting this weekend.

"Book 1"

Well, now that I had secured my editor, I took to the serious task for writing the book. I had already completed the rough draft for "book 1" which contained the first 5 chapters. In these chapters I really wanted to show that five events took place that were all somehow intertwined. I knew that jumping back and forth between 1940's Europe and modern day might be a little jarring but I wanted to introduce them as quickly as possible so I could get into the backstory of Mark and Tess and then spend most of "book 2" building them up. It's funny. I thought that I would never have to go back and touch these chapters. I thought they were perfect. Hahaha. I ended up later pulling a lot of bits out of Chapter 2 simply because it became unwieldy. Anyway, I made book 1 (which is really just part 1) shorter because I loved how it ended with the phone call from Tess. It seemed like a great stopping point.

Anywhere, Anytime

I am posting this from a bus filled with football fans. The fact that I can post from my phone reminds me that inspiration can strike at any time. I've mentioned it before but keep something close to you at all times- whether it's your phone (send yourself an email with an idea, make a note, record it) or a pad of paper. Trust me, if you have a great idea for a chapter or maybe even a single word you want to use and you think you are going to remember it when you wake up, you're in trouble. You're welcome :)