Looking Forward 2016 #amwriting #scifi #romance

So here we are, 2016. Did you have a good holiday? Get any fun stuff? Looking forward to the year ahead? I had a super relaxing and quiet Christmas with my husband and three monsters, with the warmest December ever. Bearing in mind I'm in the UK, we spent the holidays with the heating off and mostly in t-shirts! That global warming is really something...

But with Christmas now behind us, this time of year I tend lay out aspirations rather than resolutions for the New Year. 2016 is a little different. Personal and publishing issues in 2015 have shifted my perspective. I'm facing the very real possibility of giving up my hopes of a writing career, or at least the hope it would pay me a living wage, for a full time job that will guarantee me a regular income. That may still be on the cards. Maybe not this year now, but in the not-too-distant future.

So I kind of have to prove myself in 2016. Right now I plan to release a novella length side story in the Redemption series (Reunion at Kasha-Asor, 21st May) the Rebecca finalist (working title Revived), a Travellers Universe novel June-ish, and possibly a trio of short SFR stories (if I ever finish them). I'm also waiting to hear on a short I submitted to an anthology. After that...well, there's book three for the Redemption series that I've promised for 2017, and I don't want to let people down. It's written. It just needs a huge, HUGE overhaul.

The majority of those are my editing/release plans. When it comes to writing... I have so many ideas. Over Christmas I thought out a prequel for my Inc-Su book Tethered. I also want to write a Colchester-based urban fantasy, a novel-length sequel to my short story Imprint, a kind of Edward Scissorhands meets Bladerunner mash up, half a dozen Travellers related shorts and novels... The list goes on. What I think I'll probably focus on is more work in the worlds I've already created. I've been asked for sequels to both Tethered and When Dark Falls, which I'd like to do but since neither book is selling well I can't justify them right now. At some point I also need to complete books four and five of the Redemption series.

So lack of ideas is not the problem. Lack of time is more the issue, and when self publishing that time gets eaten up a lot more by non-writing, publishing and promo type tasks. Not that I'm complaining! Well, not too much.

What I won't be doing
Draft2Digital--whom I use to distribute my books to B&N, iTunes, and Tolino--recently added 24Symbols to their partners. However, after learning that some of 24Symbols's customers discriminate against LGBT titles, treating them to the same lack of visibility and blurred covers as erotica, I've decided not to distribute to them. While I have no current published LGBT titles of my own, I won't contribute to a platform that chooses to censor titles (for the same reason I refuse to distribute to Inktera after the CleanReader fiasco).

For the foreseeable future, the books I already have in KU will remain there (When Dark Falls, Restless In Peaceville, No Angel, Reboot, and Hallow's Eve), while my series books (Redemption, the associated Travellers Universe books, and the Venus Ascendant stories) will remain wide. Some of my short stories will come down at the end of 2016 and be re-released as a set with my new ones (if completed), probably as KU exclusive initially before going wide.

Happenings
There's just two more days to enter the Goodreads giveaway for a print edition of Keir.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Keir

by Pippa Jay

Giveaway ends January 07, 2016.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Meanwhile the print proof for Keir's Fall arrived on Christmas Eve (what a wonderful present!), so I'll be running a print giveaway for that shortly. Don't they look so cute together!?

Keir will be going back up at NetGalley in February, with Keir's Fall going up in March (I thought it made more sense to offer book one again before putting up book two).

I have the Redemption side story to edit this month (releasing in ebook only in May), and I'm waiting on the edits for a Travellers novel I plan to release in June (ebook and print). Unfortunately my poor editor got her laptop stolen (grrrr!) so she's having to redo the edits. Shameful! I'm just thankful she wasn't hurt.

Keir has already won me me my first award for 2016 - a Standout Award from review site One Book Two. *beams* Nothing like starting the year with a shiny thing.


Pippa Jay, signing off...

A Thing About #Scribd #publishing

Last week I posted about leaving Kindle Unlimited (Amazon's book subscription service) on the 15th July, although not because of the new payment scheme. Instead, KU had failed to achieve my hopes for it in other respects. I was getting borrows at Scribd that paid me a set rate, and I'd just uploaded my titles to Oyster (another book subscription service where you can also buy the book). Things looked peachy.

The very next day, Smashwords and Draft2Digital sent out emails to say that Scribd were dropping pretty much all of the romance titles listed on their site. 

From D2D's CEO:

"As we all know, the concept of a subscription service for books is extremely new. There are several models on the market now for effectively monetizing subscriptions, and none of them exactly matches what we’re used to from traditional sales royalties. As the market experiments with different approaches, there are bound to be some missteps and false starts along the way. In fact, we should expect this business model to evolve even more in the near future.

Scribd took a significant risk putting in place a model that paid authors the same amount as a retail model for each book read by a subscriber. As we all know, romance readers tend to be incredibly avid readers. In trying to cater to this voracious readership while under this progressive payment model, Scribd has put itself in a difficult place. In a bid to better balance these operating expenses, Scribd is immediately slashing the volume of romance novels in its subscription service.

If you are receiving this email, then you are a Draft2Digital author who has published books in the romance genre to Scribd. This means that some or all of your romance novels are likely going to be delisted from their service today. (Books that are priced at free will not be removed.)

While a large number of romance novels will be removed from Scribd, it isn’t all of them. We aren’t privy to the exact guidelines Scribd is using to decide which romance novels will remain, and it’s our understanding that they remain in flux at Scribd. However, over the coming days, we will be working closely with Scribd to resolve the exact criteria and share them with you so that you’ll have the opportunity to restore all of your titles to the service. 

Please Note: If you write in other genres, understand that those books will not be affected by this policy change.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and assure you that we are working with Scribd to explore alternative solutions to this challenging problem, always searching for new terms that could restore our full catalog to their service. 

Believe me, this situation is just as difficult for Draft2Digital as it is for you. We also stand to lose a significant portion of our revenue due to this change. More importantly, we regret that we couldn’t give our authors more notice, but unfortunately we were informed quite late in Scribd’s decision-making process. It has been our highest priority throughout these discussions to preserve as many of your books in the service as possible, and we will continue to pursue that goal going forward."

You can also read a blog post by Mark Coker, CEO of Smashwords, HERE. His recommendation right now is not to leave Scribd. *snorts*
~
Of course, this isn't the fault of SW or D2D, who are also going to suffer as a result. Why has this happened? Because romance readers are voracious and Scribd are losing money over it. I don't think cutting the titles is a good solution (ignoring my own disappointment at losing a venue that was paying me a good rate, especially compared to KU). If they cut romance titles, the romance readers will leave. At the moment, none of my titles have been culled but since Scribd has since said they will 'rotate' romance titles, it could happen any time. I've now got to decide whether to leave things as they are, pull my titles as protest, or relist my romance titles without the R label should they get pulled, risking the ire of readers who don't like all those girl cooties and kissing, having lost my main audience (fortunately - or perhaps not - several of my stories have romantic elements rather than full blown romances). Problem is, my biggest seller was my time travel romance Keir. I can only assume that listing it as space opera has so far saved it.

But there's another issue. Many of my fellow authors found their paid titles being pulled, while their FREE ones remained. WTF?! So Scribd is essentially charging their readers to read books that are totally FREE through other vendors. Outrageous? Completely. Why the heck should you pay a subscription fee to read free books while being denied the full choice of a range of titles Scribd would actually have to pay for? That seems unfair on readers and authors both.



I understand that Scribd is a business and that the aim is to make money, and not lose it. But this seems such an extreme, knee-jerk reaction. I don't fathom the logic. Of course, one alternative is for them to stop paying authors as much, a tactic already employed by Amazon with KU and using a general fund, the division of which decides how much is paid by borrow (now complicated by their pay by page read scheme, which literally makes my head ache trying to work it out and another reason I'm just going to steer clear). It seems every time something of this nature happens, it ends up hurting authors. 

Once again, just as it seemed I might actually be able to start making a living wage from this writing thing, another door slams shut. Suddenly exclusivity at Amazon doesn't seem such a high price, with over 90% of my sales there and other retailers falling by the wayside. Just this week I tried dropping the price of my novella When Dark Falls to try and get it moving, but to no avail. It's enough to make me seriously reconsider if I'm ever going to get anywhere.

But as I've said before, I'm a stubborn woman, and publishing is in a constant state of flux. I'm still writing, still selling books, and still getting mostly positive reviews. I'm not going to let another set back...well, set me back, lol. Guess I'll hang in here a bit longer and see what comes of this latest upheaval in the publishing world...


You can also read Greta's post on the Scribd palaver HERE which also covers Amazon's latest (and in most people's view harshest review cull).


Update: As of this morning, all but one of my titles have disappeared from Scribd. I'm going to be removing that and all my links to Scribd as a result. I knew it was too good to be true.



Status update

Keir's Fall is still with my editor. Right now I'm taking part in Camp NaNoWriMo with a target of 30K spread across several short stories that need completing, including a superhero story and a fun space opera. Depending how it goes, I may also be finishing up a sequel to my paranormal romance short Hallow's Eve, and two unfinished SFRs that I really should have got done by now. The problem with not having a publisher and set deadlines is I start to drift. Camp NaNoWriMo at least gives me a deadline to work to.

Keir's term at NetGalley is over, and while I had no idea what to expect or what might be considered average, I was surprised and pleased by the results. Keir had 66 downloads, currently resulting in 13 reviews (with a range of ratings, but including one review at Geeks In Highschool where the reviewer totally got what I was aiming for. Love it!). I was also told that I'd had a good response and review rate. Again, I'm surprised and pleased by that news. My awesome cover by Danielle Fine also got 36 thumbs up and only 3 thumbs down. ^_^
At the moment I'm considering putting Tethered up there, but I'm not yet sure. When I have to decide whether to spend my budget on the possibility of reviews or putting it toward artwork/edits for another title, it's a tough choice!

Happenings

Next week Liza O'Connor is my guest here at Spacefreighters Lounge with her new and debut scifi release The Gods of Probabilities. You can read my review for it HERE. 

It's the final week of the SFR Brigade Summer Cafe, and we have our second and last round of Space Opera. Go HERE to follow along and enter for the grand prize bundle. 

I have less than two weeks before my not so little monsters break up for the seven week summer holidays. I'll be posting a few teasers from my books over those weeks, but you can also follow along on Tumblr from the 22nd July to see how I transformed a pair of Monster High dolls into my characters Keir and Quin - I'll be posting each Wednesday (providing I've figured out the scheduling correctly!). I'll also be posting my summer reads and reviews over at Critique de Book HERE every Wednesday from the 22nd.

Stay shiny!

A Thing About Kindle Unlimited #publishing #KU

On the 15th of July, my three short stories (Terms & Conditions Apply, Reboot and Hallow's Eve) will come out of Kindle Unlimited for good. Now, it's not because of the new payment system. No. I'd originally gone for KU in the hope of generating sales for my other non-KU stories. Because the KU payments were small, I wasn't tempted to put in longer works, but it was enough to tempt me to risk my three shorts. Since Amazon only pays 35% royalties on works under $2.99 (and no way am I charging that for something 10K in length or under), KU gave me a better payout and the hope that sales of my other works might follow.

They didn't. There was no boost to my other titles, and though I got paid more per borrow than per sale, I got fewer borrows than I had done sales, so it pretty much balanced out payment wise. Therefore it wasn't benefiting me in the way I'd hoped, and the exclusivity thing always makes me irritable. Unfortunately I forgot to untick the box to leave KU after 90 days, and so sentenced myself to a further 90.

The recent announcement of the uber-confusing changes to KU therefore didn't really bother me (confusing in that while I understand the theory of payment by page, the exact maths given to calculate that and the constantly fluctuating fund we get paid from means the amount per page remains unknown). I'd already decided to go, and the changes mean I have even less incentive to ever go back. I also don't plan to put in any future/longer titles since I'm selling on other platforms and I don't believe even the pay per page scheme with its incomprehensible maths and the uncertain value of the KU fund each month will be the better ROI (Return On Investment). I prefer to know for sure what I'm getting paid. It did, however, raise another aggravation I have with Amazon.

Returns. Now, although I've personally never returned a book, I know the 1-click thing makes it too easy to buy a book, and perhaps buy a book you didn't want. Or one you got charged more for than the advertised price. Or maybe someone read a bit past the sample they'd checked out on Amazon and decided the book wasn't for them after all. But there are certain people who buy a book on Amazon, read the whole thing and then return it, like Amazon is some kind of free library (and Amazon is fully aware of this). They get to read a book for free, without even paying a subscription. Sorry, but I think that's unfair.

So if Amazon can monitor how many pages of a Kindle book someone reads in KU, then why the heck can't they do the same for returns? If someone reads the entire book and Amazon can see that, then I feel it's simple enough for them to refuse to refund the book, or at least charge the reader something - perhaps the equivalent of the pay per page rate, as if the reader has used the KU system.

I totally get that sometimes someone will read part of a book and decide it's not for them after all. But if the book has been read in its entirety and then returned, I find it hard to believe there isn't something questionable about it. If I don't like a book, I certainly don't bother to keep reading to the end (life is too short to waste on a book I'm not enjoying, and there's plenty more books to choose from). I have no doubt that either way there will be unhappy authors or unhappy readers (no system is perfect) but I'd like to see more to discourage the trend of reading and returning rather than Amazon saying they do monitor for serial returners and penalize them.

In the meantime, you have just two more weeks to borrow my three short stories from KU before they come out forever (I believe there's no time limit on when you read them, just on how long they're available for you to click Borrow). My longer works are available at Scribd (where I know exactly what I'll get paid for each borrow), and my reclaimed short stories will be going up there once KU ends. Now that Draft2Digital has struck a deal with Oyster, I've put my titles into that too (I currently don't do this via Smashwords). With Oyster you can borrow or buy the book.

Will I ever use KU again? Unlikely. Even with the new pay scheme ensuring fairer pay on longer works, the uncertainty of the monthly fund and exactly what I might get per page read (and the system for assessing that isn't 100% accurate) and the fact it contributed nothing to my sales of other titles previously don't make it an attractive offer to me. The price of exclusivity does not give me a fair return on investment at this time.

Have you used KU as an author and/or a reader? What's your experience been?


Status Update

Keir's Fall, book two of Redemption, is still with my editor, with a possible November release date. I've been revising the side story (releasing early 2016) and a second Venus Ascendant story to follow Terms & Conditions Apply (as yet not scheduled for edits, but I hope to have that out in 2016 as well). I'm also working on three short stories for July Camp NaNoWriMo (starting tomorrow, eep!) for anthology calls all due for publication this year. O.O I still have two other SciFi romance shorts to complete as well, before I start revising book three of the Redemption series. I hope to have the Redemption series completed by the end of 2017, although books four and five aren't even whole drafts at this time. I do, however, know how they end...

Happenings

It's week five of the SFR Brigade Summer Cafe, and it's our Supernova serving - hotter than hot SciFi romance and erotica. Go HERE. Then there will be just one more week with another round of Space Opera before the Cafe closes for this year.

Since I only had two comments on my post for the Summer Cafe last week, I've decided to be generous and gift books to both visitors (see what you miss if you don't comment? Lol). Congrats to Riley and Carol, who receive the digital formats of their choice from my titles.

Today is the last day to enter the Goodreads giveaway for Keir. It's also the last day to pick it up from NetGalley to read and review (and to vote on the cover) HERE.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

 Keir

 by Pippa Jay

 Giveaway ends June 30, 2015.
 See the giveaway details at  Goodreads.

Enter to Win

My review of Liza O'Connor's first book in a new SciFi series goes live HERE tomorrow. If you're a fan of Douglas Adams you should check it out! Liza will be guest blogging about The Gods of Probabilities at Spacefreighters Lounge in two weeks time.

And in just under three weeks my monsters will break up for the seven week summer holiday, and I plan to take the whole of August off to read and spend time with my not so little ones. For anyone who was interested in my conversion of a Monster High doll into my hero Keir, a weekly post will be going up at my Tumblr blog HERE during the holidays, starting Wednesday 22nd July, and there will be an exclusive reveal of my second doll conversion too. I'll also be posting more reviews at Critique de Book as and when I can. Funny to think that this time last year I had two releases upcoming for July and August - my first with the now sadly closed Breathless Press. How things can change in a year!

Enjoy!

Mad, Marvellous May - Pippa's Journal #giveaway

Despite the humungous amount of work I had scheduled for myself for May, it has honestly been my best month ever. Probably my most stressful, chaotic, and overloaded as well, and for those reasons alone not one that I'd like to repeat. But the good stuff? Yeah, that's been great. My sales have beaten any and all previous records, though I'm certainly not hitting the NYT best seller lists or anything. Still not making even minimum wage. 

To recap, my publisher closed on the 1st May, taking down five of my titles with it - three novellas and two short stories, one of the latter barely a few days old. It left me with just one novel still with a small press, and two free short stories and three other paying shorts self published, none of which paid me more than a few cents a month. On a good month, I'd sell a title maybe every other day. ONE title. And with the shorts only earning me $0.52 each. >_<

A Science Fiction Romance Novel
Goodreads | Available from...
Amazon | All Romance eBooks
Kobo | iTunes | Scribd | B&N 
Google Play | Smashwords
Print available from... 
Amazon | B&N | CreateSpace

I'd already scheduled to re-release my debut novel Keir on the 7th May - I'd had the rights back for over a year, and this was to be the first full length novel I'd ever self published. But suddenly on top of that I had five more titles down that I wanted - and needed - back out.

If not for the generosity of my ex-publisher, I probably couldn't have done it. Or at least not for months, if not years. Between them allowing their authors to keep and use the edited versions of our books and selling us our cover art at a discount (publishing logo removed), and with huge thanks to my cover artist and editor Dani Fine, it's mostly been a case of time to restore four of my BP/LP titles. (Well, there were unexpected costs too, but it could have been worse). 

And I've done it. Five books back up at online retailers in less than five weeks. Well, Tethered is still awaiting upload at Smashwords and Google Play, but I was supposed to be on HOLIDAY last week. Between the 7th and 31st of May, I have done: two cover reveals, five re-launches, a print release, and organized a six week online blogging event for June/July. That included uploading five books to six separate retailers EACH, and a new listing on Goodreads with a free downloadable pdf chapter, plus organizing seven weeks of blog posts, inlinkz and rafflecopters, plus graphics, for over 40 authors.

Yes, I'm still sane. Mostly...

But the most marvellous thing about May has been the reception for Keir's return and the sales. While I don't get three figure sales per day like the really successful authors I see, I did hit three figures for the month, which I've never done before. Ever. In fact, I sold as many titles this month as I'd normally sell in a YEAR! Over 90% of them were at Amazon, and 80% of those were for Keir. A book I've re-released and that was my best seller while out. In a month, I've sold more than half as many again of Keir than I originally sold in the entire 19 months it was first out. And I've no idea why. Marketing has always been a mystery to me, even when I've tried to analyze and organize it. I'm still none the wiser.

And it drives me totally nuts that I still have NO IDEA WHY?! There are things I've done differently this time, but I've done no more marketing than with my other titles. I've been a few new places, wrote out a relaunch plan and schedule, but nothing that I can point to and say 'that did it'. In truth, I've probably marketed less (though I had some very awesome promo pics created by Dani Fine that I used to count down to release). Keir did get a new cover (though the old one was popular), a new tag, a new blurb, new editing, and gained an extra 11K. It also got new tags on the retailers, and Amazon now has a Romance>Science Fiction category that it didn't before. Perhaps ALL these things have contributed. I don't know. But I'm certainly not going to complain about it.

At least now I'm back on track for 2015, though with a modified schedule. Keir's Fall has officially gone to my editor this week with a possible November release (at last!). I plan to release a side story set between the two early next year, with a related story in June 2016. I'll be working on book three next year too (BTW, it's written and clocking in at 75K, but needs a huge overhaul). The planned five books of the series will be released over the coming years, and there may be more side stories. There will also be at least one more Venus Ascendant story to come, since my sales have provided enough for me to get edits and artwork for that on top of the other Keir books. 

So thank you for buying Keir. I hope you'll be happy to know you've helped hugely toward publishing the rest of the books in the series and made a lot of the recent traumas far less likely to leave me with nightmares. ^_^

While I make no promises for anything else - one thing this year has taught me is that any far advanced planning needs to come with caveats for potential disasters - is there something else you'd like to see from me in the next year? I'm open for suggestions as to what to work on for my November NaNoWriMo project...

Happenings

The first week of the SFR Brigade Summer Cafe kicked off yesterday with the Space Opera group! As well as recipes, excerpts and a grand prize giveaway each week, there are also a few prizes up for grabs on the individual blogs, so well worth visiting them all to see if you can pick up some bonus goodies. This week's offering is:

You can find out more by visiting the Brigade blog HERE.

Tomorrow is the second book birthday for my YA scifi adventure Gethyon. In those two years he's been a SFR Galaxy Award winner for Best Psychic Talent, and a 2015 EPIC eBook Award finalist in the science fiction category. ^-^

YA Scifi Novel
GOODREADS | Available from...
BURST | Omnilit | B&N
Amazon | Smashwords

And to celebrate the re-release of Keir in oh so beautiful print, I'm currently running a Goodreads giveaway for one copy, open until the end of June.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Keir

by Pippa Jay

Giveaway ends June 30, 2015.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to Win

Lastly, Keir is also available to request for review on NetGalley HERE. This is my first tine using NG, so I'm really nervous about it.


Next week I'm hosting a guest post here by the lovely Sofia Grey, and I'll be trading days with Laurie Green for the 22nd June, when I'm part of the Androids and Aliens menu for the SFR Brigade's Summer Cafe. Woo hoo!

The Books Are Back! Pippa's Journal

Hi, my name is Pippa Jay, and I like trying to achieve the seemingly impossible... >.<

Update

So, my main publisher closed on the 1st of May, taking down five of my newest titles with it, while I'd had the rights back to my debut novel Keir since January 2014. After deciding not to re-release the final book I had with Breathless/Lycaon (Zombie Girl) and having already scheduled Keir for re-release in May AND with three of the titles in contests that required them being available to buy, I set myself the challenge of re-releasing five books in the space of one month. That's less than five weeks, or more than one book a week. *insert maniacally laughter here* I was also setting up the six week SFR Brigade Summer Cafe event at the same time, trying to coordinate over forty authors in different categories, each with their own inlinkz and rafflecopter codes.

But I love a challenge. And so, here we are almost at the end of May, and I have achieved my goal! It wasn't all plain sailing. Between copyright issues with Amazon, the slowness of Kobo, the often mindboggling difficulties of Smashwords, formatting issues at D2D and the PITA that is ARe (one day I will get an upload right on the first attempt), there were days I wanted to reconsider the whole going indie thing.

Have I mentioned how stubborn I am, though? Yeah. I am not a quitter. Right now I'm still waiting for a few retailers to finish publishing my scifi romance adventure Tethered after the new cover reveal Friday and when I started uploading it as well, but otherwise all the books I've had the rights returned to me for are now available again at some, if not all online book sites. And as a bonus, they're all at a lower price than previously. Yay!

Better still, the print proof for Keir arrived on Friday...and it's perfect! Well, I wouldn't expect anything less after Danielle Fine's work on it. ^_^ And you can now buy it from the CreateSpace estore HERE, or it will be coming to Amazon shortly, then further retailers over the next 6-8 weeks.

Add to that all seven weeks worth of posts for the SFR Brigade Summer Cafe are also written and scheduled to go live, which leaves me clear to help with any technical issues for participants, checking links, pimping it, and picking winners at the end of each week. Yahoo! Once again total chaos has been tamed into organized calm. Well, mostly. :P

So what's next? As well as running the Summer Cafe over June/July in collaboration with the SFR Station, Keir's Fall - the sequel to Keir - will be off to my editor. I'm hoping for a November release for that, but after putting myself under a tad too much pressure to get Keir out on the date I set, I'm not making an official release date until we get close to the end of the edits.
For July I'll be finishing off a superhero short during Camp NaNoWriMo for a proposed anthology to promote the female superhero in response to Marvel's continuing campaign to cut its female heroes from the merchandising. Grr!
August is my proposed holiday - I'd love to catch up on my reading, and I have some awesome books waiting that I've neglected for far too long - and summer holidays for my three monsters.
In September I have BristolCon, where I hope to have three or four of my titles in print (Tethered and Restless are definites, though with their old covers, and I have Keir. I'm currently debating whether to add my superhero romance When Dark Falls to my print options) and I've volunteered for my first ever panel. Public speaking? Eeeep!
Come October and I hope to have Keir's Fall close to release, and will be starting edits on a novella set between the two Keir novels to release early 2016. I haven't decided what to do for the November NaNoWriMo yet, though the options are overhauling book three for Keir, or a sequel to either When Dark Falls or Tethered. Decisions, decisions...
And December? Well, I have a winter solstice SFR short I'd love to release in time for Christmas, or there's another Venus Ascendant novella to go with Terms & Conditions Apply. With my current sales for Keir, financing either of those shouldn't be a problem for a change, but instead time constraints are now the issue...
So I'm probably looking at those two last projects as 2016 releases, along with book three for Keir, and a secret project I'm starting on in January for a June release. That should keep me out of mischief, right? ;)

Happenings

This week is half term holidays for my three little monsters, plus my hubs has booked the week off and it was a Bank Holiday Monday. So I'm mostly off the internet this week. Next week I officially begin the edits for Keir's sequel - Keir's Fall - and on Monday the SFR Brigade's Summer Cafe begins! Check out the SFR Brigade blog HERE for more details of the sumptuous feast of scifi romance we're preparing for you!

Aftermath - Pippa's Journal

A Science Fiction Romance Novel
Goodreads | Available from...
Amazon | All Romance eBooks
Kobo | iTunes | Scribd | B&N 
Google Play | Smashwords

Status Update

So Keir has been out nearly two weeks, and I couldn't be happier with the reception so far. Yes, I know with a re-release of what was my bestselling title for my first 18 months as an author I should have had some confidence in it. But I had certain expectations. I didn't expect a re-release to have many sales, since surely anyone who wanted it must have bought it previously. I was so wrong! Keir has already smashed any previous monthly sales record I had, and looks set to hit three figure sales numbers for the first time in my career as an author. Stunned? Yep. Happy? You betcha!

On the 13th May, Keir also very briefly hit the Amazon top 100 bestsellers for Time Travel - again, another first for me! It remained there for a heady six hours, reaching a high of 88 before falling back down and out. Then it hit the same list once more on the 17th, this time at number 83. Again, it was only there for a few hours, but in the top 100 twice in less than a week? *Muppet flails* You can bet I took screenshots to remind me of my fleeting moments of top 100 glory. ^_^

And while I had mostly positive reviews the first time around and even some awards, I was under no illusions that it meant the new extended version would be immune from negative ones. So far, I haven't had any. Unfortunately because I ran so close to the bone on re-releasing Keir my ARC reviewers didn't get much of a chance to read before release and post reviews, but hopefully those will trickle in over the coming weeks. The old reviews on Amazon haven't reappeared, so another job on my to-do list is approaching those who reviewed it previously and asking them to repost. I took the precaution of saving a copy of them all that I can send back to the owners to make life easier. :)

No Angel and When Dark Falls also returned to Amazon with their adjusted cover art on Friday, and to other online retailers yesterday - well, Kobo is still processing them, but they're uploaded everywhere. Bizarrely, the old reviews for No Angel reappeared on Amazon, while those for When Dark Falls and Restless In Peaceville did not. Odder still when B&N even managed to restore them all and especially for Keir despite the slight title change. Le sigh. But a couple of emails to Amazon soon fixed that, and now all my old reviews are back, leaving my re-releases looking a little less naked, lol.

What have I learned from re-releasing all these titles? Well, one - formatting is key. Get that right and you'll (mostly) have no issues at any of the retailers. Two, a relaunch plan with tasks embedded into your calendar/smartphone really helps, although only if you stick to the dates you set. Three, don't upload books on a Friday. Four, I really, really don't want to be re-releasing five titles in a month ever again. One benefit of being self published now is that I shouldn't have to, plus I can easily update anything as and when needed. In the case of Restless, I ran into issues with Amazon twice rejecting it because they didn't accept that I had the rights to republish it. They didn't respond to two emails, but a third attempt to upload got Restless accepted. *shrug*

Meanwhile, Keir looks set to smash further records in my three year career as an author, I'm waiting on the print proof for approval for the paperback release, and I'm all set to begin edits on the sequel - Keir's Fall - next month. I'm finally going to be releasing book two!

Coming soon...

Happenings

Huge congrats to fellow Spacefreighters Lounge crew-member Greta van der Rol who will be on the Broad Universe board from the 1st June. Woot! Congrats also on being their first non-US board member.

On Saturday I learned When Dark Falls made it as a finalist in the RomCon Reader's Crown contest (Restless In Peaceville just missed out on qualifying for the YA category finals by a measly 0.1. Darn!).

The new cover for Restless In Peaceville was revealed on Friday to many compliments. ^_^ Kudos once again to Dani Fine for her stellar work! Unfortunately, Amazon decided to dispute my right to publish it on KDP for two days, although was available again at most other digital retailers. Le sigh. After a third attempt, Amazon finally accepted it, while it's still pending at Kobo.

A YA Zombie Novella
Goodreads | Available from...
Amazon | All Romance eBooks
Kobo | iTunes | Scribd | B&N 
Google Play | Smashwords

There will be an exclusive reveal for Tethered's shiny new cover at the SFR Station on the 22nd May.

And the 1st of June sees the start of a six week long Brigade event - the SFR Brigade's Summer Cafe! Each week featured a sub-genre of sizzling science fiction romance - Space Opera 1, Weird Science, Dystopia, Androids and Aliens, Supernova Hot, and Space Opera 2. Each week will see a group of Brigaders post about their books and some giving you a recipe connected to their works, plus there's a themed prize bundle each week. Stop by the Brigade blog for more details.

Ping Pong

Laurie, Donna, and Sharon - hope you had fun at RT! I am hideously jealous - envy is such an unattractive thing. :P

Pippa's Journal - MIA and What's Coming

Hi there, Pippa Jay checking in! First up, apologies for the two week absence without leave. School holidays with my three little monsters always takes a big chunk out of my online time, especially when it comes to blogging. And even worse, I decided to take on Camp NaNoWriMo this April, despite the two weeks of spring break meaning I'll only really have half the 30 days to work on my WIP. >.< Crazy, right? And boy, do I have lots to tell you about...

Status Update

ZG2 - 11776 words and counting...

Camp NaNoWriMo - This year I've decided to do both Camps (April and July) and the tradition 50K November event. After all the releases last year, I need to get some writing done, and the NaNoWriMo events are always good for giving me a much needed kick up the behind, especially since I have two remaining parts of a trilogy to write for my publisher! So, for April I'm doing Zombie Girl 2 (appropriate since part one releases this month in just over a week!), while ZG 3 is my project for the July Camp. I had planned to do a sequel to my superhero romance When Dark Falls for November, but with Tethered doing well I'm tempted to do the sequel to that instead. Decisions, decisions...

EXCERPT | GOODREADS
Available at... Breathless Press
All Romance eBooks | Bookstrand
Smashwords | Barnes&Noble
Amazon

EXCERPT |  GOODREADS
Available at... Breathless Press |
Smashwords | ARe | Bookstrand
Amazon | B&N
Print pre-order

I find the Camp versions easier since you can set your own word count (the only NaNoWriMo I've won was Camp last year by finishing off three short stories with a total word count of 20K) and I'm expecting ZG 2 and 3 to each hit the 20K mark. With my publisher now requiring a minimum 50K for all future submissions, this is the year I need to win the November NaNoWriMo. Wish me luck!

Sales and Kindle Unlimited - My March sales sucked, and so far April isn't looking much better. With a tough writing and release schedule set until August (when I plan to take the month off), I've not had time to devote purely to marketing (which isn't my favourite occupation anyway as many know). Since I'll shortly be touring for both Zombie Girl 1 and Keir, that'll have to count as most of my marketing until I can schedule time for more.

As for KU - I get paid more for borrows than for buys on my short stories. Sales of those dwindled to be replaced by the odd borrow, but overall I've had little if any benefit from being in KU. I plan to leave it at the end of the initial 90 days (which comes up in the next couple of weeks) and put my shorts back up on other venues. I will be testing it out again later in the year after Keir has been back out for a few months as I prepare for the release of the sequel.

Upcoming releases - Zombie Girl: Dead Awakened (part one of a YA dystopian romance trilogy) releases on the 22nd April. I'm also supposedly re-releasing my debut scifi romance Keir on the 7th May - my third year anniversary as a published author and what would have been Keir's third book birthday. I say 'supposedly' because right now we're still in 2nd round edits and I'm freaking out about it a LOT!

In June, the print release of When Dark Falls takes place, completing my definite releases for 2015. Phew! Since I'm taking part in Camp NaNoWriMo in July, taking a break for August (summer holidays for my monsters so a good time to do it!), then BristolCon in September and NaNoWriMo in November, I can't guarantee any other releases at this time. With ZG 2 and 3 hopefully done for the Camp NaNos, release dates for those will depend on being contracted by my publisher and their release schedule. Any self pubbed titles depend on my budget. I'm hoping to release my winter solstice SFR short for Christmas, but otherwise...

Big News
Over the spring break, I had three...no, FOUR...exciting developments. First up, my scifi romance adventure Tethered hit the number one bestseller at Breathless Press. Woot! I'm pretty excited! Not only about being a number one bestseller, but because I've done it with a science fiction romance! There are only 17 SFR titles on the BP site (Cyber), out of around 700 books, so to hit the top spot is extra awesome. And I took screen shots to preserve the moment for all eternity, lol. Tethered spent a whole week there before dropping to number 2, but is still the top seller in Cyber.

But that wasn't all for Tethered! It also got nominated for a RONE Award in the Novella category at InD'tale Magazine. Voting opens 4th-10th May. ^_^ (cute graphic made by one one of my fellow BP authors, Torie James).

And just last week, I had TWO of my titles nominated in the Love Romance Cafe's Best of Awards:
When Dark Falls for Best Fantasy Book, and my cute little teen zombie story Restless In Peaceville for Best YA/NA. Woot! Voting opens TODAY from 1pm EST and runs until the 18th. It goes without saying that I'd really appreciate your votes, but you have to be a member of the LRC yahoo loop. *flutters eyelashes* Yeah, I'm not above begging!

Events

The April Fools for Love event, sponsored by the SFR Station, is happening all month long and there are some awesome giveaways! Go take a look!

On Friday I'll be at Romancing the Genres talking about Hope for this month's blogging topic, and how it just isn't enough. Speaking of RTG, they're celebrating their 4th blogoversary with a huge Facebook party HERE. I'll be one of the hosting authors with a game, chat and a giveaway on the 30th April at 7pm BST.

The triple posting on diversity at Spacefreighters Lounge got a mention over at The Galaxy Express, where Heather Massey further adds to the discussion and gives a few basic suggestions on how to introduce a little diversity to books.

Ping Pong

My co-bloggers have pretty much summed up my thoughts and feelings on Clean Reader, and I've commented on both. At the end of the day, I put a huge amount of effort into the words I choose for my stories, and since I write for adults and YA, I feel I already cater to the need of my readers in terms of content. But my main objection was that the app creators and distributors did so WITHOUT PERMISSION from both publishers and authors. This breaches copyright as much as pirating does. I don't believe there would have been anywhere near half the outcry if they'd been upfront about the introduction of the app and at least given an opt out (better still, an opt IN, but definitely an opt out should have been offered). I hope those concerned have learnt something from the whole episode.

But even if an opt in version is brought in, I will not be making my books available through it. As a reader for more years than I've been an author, I can't even bring myself to highlight an ebook or bend over the corner pages of a print book (I can't stand watching my hubs and eldest do this to mark pages). Have I read books where some of the words make me flinch? Yes. Do I scrub them out? No. The author chose those words for a reason, and changing or obscuring them fundamentally changes the story they're trying to tell me. If I find a book especially offensive, I just don't read it. There are millions of other books out there, and the massive virtual TBR pile on my Kindle is proof that I don't need to go editing someone else's book in order to find something great to read.

Sharon, totally get you on the being a friend to yourself. Last year exhausted me with the constant releases and touring, and I resolved to get more savvy about the whole marketing thing. I've failed on that. But I've also learned that a lot of the things I spend time doing were actually a waste and didn't make any difference. I just felt I had to be doing them because everyone else did. So I've dialled back a bit, tried a few new things because I actually found them fun, and now take more time out to do the fun things and get back to writing. Because it's all about the writing at the end of the day.

Laurie, congrats on the release of the full version of Inherit the Stars, the reviews it's getting, and also on your and Greta's inclusion in the box set of Sing a Song of the Stars. I just know the good stuff will keep coming!
And re Clean Reader - I honestly feel too exhausted at the thought of providing varying versions of the same book in order to cater to everyone. I think sometimes we try too hard to please everyone - an impossible task. With YA as well as adult titles to my name, I feel I've covered enough bases, and I'm sure there will still be readers who refuse to be pleased by anything as much as there are readers who will adore everything an author produces. Somewhere we have to draw a line and say 'that's all, folks!'

Donna, loved the post on what you learned from reading other forms of fiction. I'm not a fan of advocates for 'read only in your genre' advice - I really believe that reading a wider range of fiction expands an author's mind to write better even if they stick to only writing one genre. And of course, it helps if you want to add another sub-genre to what you're writing.

Greta, on tweaking a book for re-release - I'm having to re-edit a book I got the rights back to as part of the reversion. I have to say not only am I glad to be re-editing from scratch, but to be including things that had to be cut as part of the previous publication process and building on areas I think were lacking first time around. I know I've improved in the five years since I first wrote Keir, and I wanted the re-release to reflect that too, as well as give some readers what they'd asked for - more of my villain, more of my hero...well, just more! And you're right - if film makers can do it with their extended versions and director's cuts, why not books?

I think where it becomes unfair on readers is when an author puts up a book that isn't actually finished/edited, then continually edits and reposts it based on reviews as they come in. I feel that using readers as critique partners in this way, when they have downloaded - perhaps even paid for - what they expect to be a finished product, is grossly unfair, disrespectful, and ultimately damaging both for the author concerned and all other authors. I think this is part of what has given self published books a bad reputation. Re-releases due to a need to update details about the book, change the cover, or where rights have reverted to the author or the book has been taken up by a new publisher are all perfectly fair reasons for a change.

Next week it's all about releases as I unleash Zombie Girl: Dead Awakened on the world and prepare to re-release Keir. Eeep!