As the title says, I’m way behind.  Way behind in digitizing the written chapters I have, and way behind in dropping an update on here (in general and Chapter 8).  So!  Onto the good stuff.

Pages: 71

Word Count: 25462

I’m officially beyond the 33% mark of my word count goal.  Well, typed anyway.  I’ve got three chapters sitting in my notebook that have yet to make it to the binary world.  Chapter 9 is relatively short, maybe even shorter than 8.  That’s also the one I had some difficulty putting to paper.  After I finally finished it, I took a week or so off from writing to let my brain recharge.  Chapter 10 doubles the page count of 9 (at least written) and took me less than half the time to write.  11 appears to be about average chapter length so far.  I think I’m going to catch up in the typing before I continue.  I already know who Chapter 12 will be focused on, and how it ties them to the current goings-on in the book, so picking it up shouldn’t prove difficult.

I hope to have the remaining three chapter digitized within the next month.  About a month from now, I’ll be heading to Indianapolis for Gen Con!  Wil Wheaton and Nicholas Briggs will be there as well, along with some other media stars!  I’m looking forward to it again this year, as I do every year.  A shout out to my brother, John, who will have to miss it this year due to his tour in Afghanistan.  As someone who missed one from Iraq, it’ll be even better than you remember when you get back to Gen Con in 2013.

Peace Out, Rock On.

Wanted to stop by with another chapter update.  Finished typing up Chapter 7 the other day, after it’d been sitting in the notebook for a bit.  Work and stuff.  Anyway:

Word Count: 22758

Pages: 63

A quick little teaser to add in, I’m nearly finished writing Chapter 8.  I may take the time to finish it tonight even.  It may take another hour or so.  Good thing too.  Going to pick up the new Ghost Recon: Future Soldier before work tomorrow…or at least I’m going to try.  We’ll see how the schedule works out. 

I (and some of my readers) could still use a few more people sharing their thoughts on my previous entry, so if you can, check that out as well.  Thanks for stopping by.

Peace Out, Rock On.

Hello again, all.  I can say ‘all’ now and feel like it actually pertains, thanks in large part to twitter.  I recently joined a group called World Literary Café that has this great program called Tweet Teams.  Each author posts a couple tweets linking their book(s) and/or website, and agrees to tweet one of the tweets for each of the other 9 authors on the team, and they’ll all do the same for you.  Thanks to this, my website hit record high views last week.  Even more important is the amount of new twitter friends I’ve made throughout the process.  I’d say a rough estimate has me at around 40 new followers.  Do we all chat all the time?  Of course not.  But I’ve had conversations with a number of them; it’s more than just a mutual follower who RTs for me and I for them.  (These RTs are outside of WLC, btw.)  If you’re interested, check out #WLCAuthor on twitter; you might find a book or two you really like.

Thanks to everyone who has followed me and retweeted for me over the past week and a half, and for all of you in the future.

Now, to get into the part where I need some help.  A little background first: I self-published my book at the beginning of 2010.  At the time, I only really knew of the one way to self-publish, and I went with what I knew.  I’m starting to think I was wrong.  Now, as I said, I didn’t know of any other options back then, but now (thanks again twitter, tweeps, etc.) I know of a number of what I can only describe as better options.  There are websites available where I can publish books (or republish, as I’m currently considering with Eternal Retribution) for free.  This is over a grand less than I paid out originally.  What’s more, with these new options, I get to set the price.  (DISCLAIMER: Xlibris does offer a ‘set your own price’ option, but it costs extra.)  However, I get to set the price at a rate that doesn’t scream ROADBLOCK at potential buyers.  The kicker?  The royalty percentage is a lot higher.

I don’t write for the money (I can’t seem to find a journalism job to save my life).  It may sound like that with all this talk of higher royalties, potential buyers, more sales…  But really, I write because I love to write.  I want to contribute to the literary world, and hope I have a positive effect on readers.  I’d be lying if I said getting paid for doing something I love isn’t part of the draw, but it is by no means the lion’s share.  All the positives to the things I listed (financially, at least) are really just icing on the cake.  At the lower prices, I can get my work into more readers hands (or e-reading devices).  I write what I want to write, not what someone tells me to write.  Everything about my story and future entries remains my decision to make.  Why have it any other way?

Okay, so now to get into the part where I need some help. This is mostly directed towards others indie authors, but any other reader who wants to do research and weigh in is more than welcome. The question comes down to this: Go with Kindle Select, which is through Amazon and I’ve been told and read holds the majority of ebook sales for indie authors, but holds exclusive ebook publishing rights for each 90-day period you’re enrolled, or don’t use Select, but still have Amazon coverage, and also go with Smashwords who do ebook sales for the iStore, B&N, Sony, etc.

There ya have it.  I hope to hear back from some people with their thoughts.  Thanks in advance, and for stopping by.

Peace Out, Rock On.

As the title says, I’ve finished chapter 6.  I finished typing it up late Sunday night, and haven’t had a chance to get this update done until now.  Now, for the info you’re all waiting for:

Pages: 56

Word Count: 20110

It was a large chapter, comparatively.  It was also the one I had the most trouble with, despite its quick start.  Had some characterization issues crop up, which I will admit were rather disheartening.  But, I pushed the notebook to the side, got a scratchpad, and worked out the issues in a couple hours.  I was back to writing that same night, feeling confident again.

My one book per chapter rule seems to be helping me out quite a bit, now that I have a more of a chance to see the results.  I started working on chapter 7 last night, and it’s going well so far.  Despite the ‘forced’ aspect of the writing (since I don’t allow myself to read another book until at least a chapter is finished), it doesn’t feel like I have to force myself into it, which can really hamper the quality.  It’s almost like both the reading and the writing parts are each other’s rewards.  It feels good.

I’ve also been looking into some other options recently, and if I choose to go through with them, based on what I can tell, Eternal Retribution might be off the market for a month or two.  That’s all I’ll say about that for now; gotta give you some reason to come back, right?

As always, thanks for stopping by.  Any questions, comments, critiques, drop me a line.  Also don’t be afraid to post reviews.

Peace Out, Rock On.

Well, I’ve finally finished digitizing chapter 5, so as mentioned the other day, I’m back with an update.

Word Count: 16572

Pages: 46

I’ve also managed to get a good start with chapter 6, putting down 4 notebook pages yesterday.  It seems to be progressing much faster now that I’m in the swing of things. I hope to have this one knocked out by the weekend, and maybe even digitized also if things go well.  However, The Avengers comes out this weekend, and I hope to see that as well.

It seems the reading/writing sanction I placed on myself is off to a smooth and prosperous start.  When I finish up with chapter 6, next on my list to read is Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut.  I’ve wanted to read that one for a while now.

I’ve recently become a member of the World Literary Café website (www.worldliterarycafe.com)  They’ve got a nice array of resources over there for indie writers and self-publishing.  I joined my first “Tweet Team” today, which is a type of cross-promotion WLC runs, where groups of 10 authors post tweets on the page, and the authors re-tweet the other nine tweets from their Tweet Team to help spread the word about their book and generate a buzz.  I can’t accurately speak to the results yet, but perhaps later in the week I can have a better idea of the outcome.

Thanks for stopping by, and don’t be afraid to comment or drop me an email.  Also, please share using the handy links below!

Peace Out, Rock On.

I put the final words for chapter 5 to the page this morning.  However, I’ve not yet had the opportunity to digitize the chapter, so therefore I don’t yet have a new page or word count.  I hope to be able to get that remedied by the end of the week.

On a side note, to help keep me current with my own words, and keep me writing, I’ve decided to put a sort of sanction on myself.  Last week or so I finished burning through the currently available offerings of Michael Grant’s Gone series.  (It’s rather fantastic, and it sucks having to wait reportedly around a year for the next, and I believe final, entry in the series.)  I love reading as much as writing, but need to put a bit more focus on the latter.  So I’ve limited myself to one book read between chapters; I read a book, I can’t read another until I finish at least a chapter.  So far it seems to be working for me.  With how quickly I read, it should really be at most three days between work on chapters.

I’ll drop by again later in the week with another update on Homecoming’s statistics.  And possibly some info on Chapter 6.  I’m already halfway through Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep so it’ll be Wednesday at the latest that I start on that.

Thanks for stopping by, and feel free to comment and especially share the entry.

Peace Out, Rock On.

Hey all, just wanted to drop by and give a quick update (as noted ^).  My computer has been out of commission for a couple weeks, but it’s finally up and running again.  Got a new job that’s going well so far.  Also, making my way steadily through chapter 5.  Had a nice ‘aha’ moment last night while writing,though that was slightly tempered by the ‘oh shit’ moment when I realized a good portion of chapter 5 was breaking continuity of things said in the previous four chapters.  Gotta make sure I re-familiarize myself with my own words if I’m going to come back to it after a break.  It’s all good now, a few changed words, a couple added sentences, and we’re back on track.  Hopefully the chapter will be finished by the end of the weekend.

As always thanks for stopping by. 

Peace Out, Rock On.

So, yeah, didn’t get this posted the same day as the other update (obviously).  However, I did finish digitizing it that night, and I’ve got some new numbers to share.

Pages: 38

Word Count: 13,747

It’s looking like I’ll definitely be able to surpass my goal of a higher word count for the sequel.  I’m hoping to increase it by at least 50%.  To do that, I’ve been expanding this one to better fit the 3rd person omniscient POV.  The last one had some in there, of course, but it was mostly focused on around following the main character.  This should also have the nice bonus of bringing the supporting cast more to life, to let the readers get a bit more invested in them.  I find when I’m invested in characters I’m reading about, it brings more to my experience when I feel I can share in their successes, or failures.  I’m hoping to give a bit of that back to my readers.

Still piecing together chapter 5 in my head.  Not sure exactly where it’s going to go yet.  While some new characters have been introduced (teaser!) a few of the returning characters haven’t been brought to light yet, and some intended loose ends from Eternal Retribution that could use a bit of tying up.

Also still, wondering about the ‘personal’ blog entries.  Maybe later, maybe not.  I haven’t yet decided.

Thanks again for stopping by.

Peace Out, Rock On.

Wanted to drop by with an update.  I have finished up writing chapter 4 of “Homecoming”.  I’m going to be taking some time today to digitize it, and I should have an updated word/page count later this evening.  That follow-up post may also be where I test out the not-quite-story-related updates as well, though I might save it for its own post.  Haven’t decided yet, but at least there’s still time before I need to worry too much about it.

Thanks for stopping by.

Peace Out, Rock On.