A “Cool” Science Fiction, Cyberpunk Read.

 

 

 

This week I have two exciting blogs to share. One compares 100k authors ($5000 per month) to Emerging Authors. ($500 per month) to see what makes them different. This is a study done by Ferol who is COO of Written Media, parent company to Freebooksy, Bargain Booksy and other ad sites. The survey covers responses from 38,000 authors. The findings are interesting. Here are eight takeaways from the survey.

1. The longer an author has been writing, the more money they tend to make. So if you’re struggling with just a book or two, have patience. Persistence is key. Keep writing.

2. Publishing Indie is a viable way to success. Of those in the 100K, 72% were Indie and 28% were hybrid. Although authors in the survey were more Indie authors than purely traditionally published authors (5%), none of the traditionally published authors were in the 100K pool. Realize that authors like James Patterson didn’t take the survey, so it’s skewed a bit to Indie authors. Those in the hybrid group had 28% in the 100K versus 17% in the Emerging Authors group.

3. “Going Wide” or limiting to KDP Select didn’t make a difference in how much money the authors made.

4. The 100K group spent more than $100 on professional looking book covers. However, none spent over $1000. Looking professional is key but you don’t have to spend a fortune doing it.

5. Also key is spending money for a professional editor. Ninety-six percent of the 100K group spent for professional editing. Half spent at least $250-500 while 20% spent $500 to $1000. Fifty-six percent of Emerging Authors spent up to $50 but realized how important it was to at least have another pair of eyes on their work.

6. As to marketing, in both $100K category and Emerging Authors, the author handles marketing. Even so, the authors that make more money often hire assistants to help with their marketing.

7. Don’t quit your day job. Sixty-six percent of Emerging Market Authors are supported by a day job by either themselves or a spouse. Twenty-eight percent of $100K have the support of a day job.

8. And finally… The more hours writing=more books=more payout. Emerging Authors write 19.8 hours per week while 100K spent 28.5 hours.

These are quick highlights of an interesting survey. For you number geeks who like more details, including graphs and numbers, go to:

https://www.writtenwordmedia.com/2017/06/07/100k-author

Next, check out Sandra Beckwith’s blog. Sandra Beckwith has been in the book business a long time offering advice through blogs and books. Recently at a convention, she realized there are five things she thought authors knew, but apparently they don’t. Here are the five. For explanations on each, check out her blog at :

https://buildbookbuzz.com/5-things-I-thought-you-knew/

1. A traditional book contract isn’t an option for most authors-to-be. Too many believe the myth of write a book, send to a publisher, and become famous. Unless you have a big following or are related to the owner of the publishing house, self publishing is a better option for the new writer.

2. Readers don’t care when your book was published, they just want a good story. This goes against the old ways when a book earned the most money at launch; then a few weeks later was abandoned. Now it isn’t so. I doubled my income in my second year and increased my income in the third year. Books don’t have a shelf life anymore. They can be available for a long time.

3. Even authors with traditional publishers have to promote their books.

4. If your book looks and reads like a traditionally published book, no one will know it’s self-published.

5. People will disappoint you. You thought your mother or mother -in-law or sister would jump for joy at your publishing a book. What you heard was, “I don’t read science fiction.” (true story) Find those readers who love what you write and don’t worry about friends and family…unless they love what you write. Then cherish them. (true story there, too)

Okay, great stuff here to help think through what it is to be a successful author.

On to this week’s book suggestion.

This week I found a fresh fun book in the cyberpunk, mystery, humor style. Think Blade Runner meets Dashiell Hammett with humor. Liquid Cool by Austin Dragon was free on an ad site with a great cover and intriguing title. It starts off slow. The first several chapters have different viewpoint characters.

And then there is an odd murder.

Once the story settles into Cruz’s steady viewpoint, the story takes off. A main feature of the book is the setting. It takes place in the future in a crowded megacity city where it constantly rains. (Portland?) Cruz repairs and builds classic cars, but can barely make ends meet. The society is rigidly structured with well-delineated areas, Uptop being where the richest hang out.

Easy Chair Charlie, one of Cruz’s friends, gets killed and the glib explanation that he started a shootout with police doesn’t ring true with Cruz. Cruz has a bit of ADD and is a germaphobe, which makes him quite the character. He is a bull dog who won’t let go when a puzzle confronts him. He begins to poke around, and soon is asked by his friend Run-Time, who manages a transportation service, to look into who killed Easy Chair Charlie.

Next thing Cruz knows, he’s being called a detective, given an office, and the case is getting more and more complicated. Although his life is threatened numerous times, he’s willing to continue for the thrill of it. Beside, he needs a steady job to impress the snobby parents of his fiancé, China Doll.

The names in the story are a hoot, and there’s quite a bit of humor along with the fast-paced action. Expect twists and turns as Cruz deals with crazy in-laws-to-be, a strong-willed girlfriend, and danger around every wet and slippery turn.

Science Fiction Marketing and Cyberpunk

Someone’s Clone just hit number #1 in Kindle’s free Books on Genetic Engineering and number #1 on Kindle’s free books on Time Travel. Wahoo! AANNDD…The day is not over, either. #28 in paid Kindle Science fiction. Exciting stuff.

But like my days as a stockbroker, sales change hour by hour, and today’s heady success is tomorrow’s tough struggle. Market on Indie authors.

However, today I’m thrilled. (A brief humble bow ensues)

Why the spike in downloads? I enrolled Someone’s clone in KDP Select for July 5 through July 9. It is one of my favorite books in the series and can be read as a stand alone. But since it is positioned at the end of the current series, it was languishing in sales as readers were picking up the earlier books. I figured anyone reading it for free, might become interested in the rest of the series. (which is happening) This is a limited time offer for this book, and will not often be repeated.

I’m also hoping that readers will like it and write a good review. (hint, hint)

I don’t know how other books get so many reviews. Some have big publishers behind them, and others become popular and get on lists that help sales. If a book is good, it deserves good reviews. I have no problem with that. I have not gotten involved in review swaps or traveled all over for book signings, but friends and family have often supported my books…honestly. Others in the family, not so much. “I don’t read science fiction.”

Now with Amazon’s new policy on reviews, it will be interesting to see if reviews change at all or continue along the the same path. I understand why Amazon is cracking down on reviews. Fake reviews and paid reviews have gotten out of hand so that the customer no longer trusts them. Amazon is all about protecting the customer, so they have stepped up to the plate and cracked down. I just think the process will be harder for the unknown Indie author who likes to write and is not such a strong marketer to get the reviews he or she needs.

As a friend of mine says often, “We’ll see.”

This week I am reading Cyberpunk. Normally, I like William Gibson, but I am finding his new book, The Peripheral, a struggle. So I switched over to Charles Stross’s Halting State. Both deal with virtual reality and events inside an internet game. Gibson is harder to piece together what is happening because of his constant point of view shifts. In both cases, nerd-tech language is used lavishly and often there’s an inside joke or innuendo. Also characters are not delineated clearly in Gibson’s book. I had to reread an entire chapter trying to find a name to pin to the person talking in the chapter and still couldn’t figure out who it was.

Finally, I read the summary which enlightened me to the fact that one of the main characters, Wilf Netherton, lives seventy-five years in the future. The story begins in an apocalyptic near future where jobs are scarce and money is tight. Flynne Fisher earns what she can by assembling product at a 3-d print shop. Her brother, Burton, tries to live on money from the Veterans Association since he is disabled, and often takes on online gaming jobs to augment his tight income.

Burton persuades his sister, Flynne, to take over a few observation shifts in a game for him, promising her that the game isn’t a shooter. Still, the crime she witnesses there is plenty bad.

Wilf is a high-powered publicist in a world seventy-five years in the future where reaching into the past is considered no more than a hobby. He is working online secretly as security in some on line games. Both Flynne and Wilf will soon meet and realize the impact each other’s world will have on the other.

Okay. Confusing in parts for me so far. But, I love most of Gibson’s other books, so I’m soldiering on. His Neuromancer is the book that began the whole Cyberpunk sub genre and won a Hugo.

Charles Stross is a Hugo winner also, so I picked up his book Halting State on a recommendation. Be aware that Rule of 34 is the second in this series.

Now in Stross’s Halting States, a crime also takes place inside an online game. Susan Smith of the Edinburgh police is called in on an unusual robbery where orcs and a dragon rob a bank inside the virtual reality land of Avalon Four. The company that owns the game, Hayek Associates, is a dot.com start up that just floated onto the New York Stock Exchange and whiffs of impropriety could crash the stock, affecting a number of powerful investors and worldwide financial empires.

This one was easier to follow, and not because of my stock broker background. Each chapter is titled with the name of the character in which point of view it is written. However, Stross uses second person which is a bit disconcerting, but is what the gaming world uses in their instructions. Stross also uses a lot of gaming technology and inside tech-nerd slang and information.  So far the story is edgy enough to be interesting, but I’m like investigator Smith, who wonders what is all the big fuss about? The more she investigates, the more complex and bigger the case becomes. Looks like a worldwide conspiracy is using Hayek Associates to funnel money around.

Sell your Bitcoins before it’s too late.