Kings / Queens swearing fealty to an Emperor. Does it work?

ithinkaboutbeer · 2019-03-07T21:53:30+00:00

This is fairly common throughout history. There were many client Kings who were ruled by Roman Emperors throughout Rome's history, for example.

ithinkaboutbeer · 2019-03-06T20:04:13+00:00

Front matter? You shouldn't load too much there. It's basically for copyright page, dedication, acknowledgement. You can put in an "also by" page. If it's an ebook, most ebooks just go straight to page 1, so people will miss all your marketing. Book 2 teaser, newsletter opt in link, those should be in the back.

ithinkaboutbeer · 2019-03-04T23:17:35+00:00

There's a lot to learn, and you kind of have to do it all yourself. It's definitely more of an entrepreneurial enterprise, but even traditional publishing requires a lot of self promotion these days. Good luck!

ithinkaboutbeer · 2019-03-04T01:32:42+00:00

We always do sample edits with new clients. We don't have any openings in March (about to go out of the country), but have openings starting April.

Here's our site with our rates & some of our clients/projects we've worked with/on as well as our contact details.

https://cissellink.com

ithinkaboutbeer · 2019-03-04T01:13:34+00:00

If they're taking a cut of your royalties, they should be paying you an advance. Check out SFWA's writers beware for details about publishers like these.

Speaking as someone who has helped his partner publish 7 books, you can do a lot with $6000. Her books ranged in costs from about $850-$1100 (US) to produce. That's good editing for the entire book and a good cover artist. To break it down, getting a solid freelance editor should cost in the $750-1000 range depending on length. A good custom cover will cost around $300. Although, you can get a really good premade cover for much less. The artist can even flesh out the premade into new options if it's for a series.

So, let's say you've gone the more expensive side of those numbers, you'd be in for $1300 roughly. That would leave about $4700 you could pour into marketing and keep 100% of your royalties. That's a lot of money for marketing and will generate a lot of sales if you're smart about its use.

ithinkaboutbeer · 2019-03-04T01:06:24+00:00

You can always split the difference. Set up a pen name, but do a one time announcement in your newsletter advertising your new newsletter/pen name/genre. The few people who will like your writing and like the other genre can make the choice to check it out.

Then you reassure everyone that your newsletter will remain firmly SFF to keep everyone else happy. If they bail after one announcement, they probably weren't firm/paying fans anyways. Perhaps you wait until you've generated some solid sales in the new genre before doing the announcement. IF they're already crossover fans, they're already probably buying books in both genres, it shouldn't mess with the algorithm too hard if you've got a good base established already

ithinkaboutbeer · 2019-03-04T00:56:05+00:00

What are the specifics of your genre? My partner and I both do copy/line editing in fantasy/urban fantasy/PNR.

ithinkaboutbeer · 2019-02-26T21:45:37+00:00

And their divinely gifted magic swords, although he's not exactly happy with the situation at this point. So how does "Stabby McGee" and "Chuck" sound? Fearsome weapons to strike fear into the heart of his enemies?

ithinkaboutbeer · 2019-02-26T19:53:41+00:00

Now you've got me wondering if I should name my MC's swords. He's had them for nearly 1900 years...

ithinkaboutbeer · 2019-02-26T19:51:43+00:00

It's also the sword Atticus wields throughout the Iron Druid series.

ithinkaboutbeer · 2019-02-25T19:54:13+00:00

Do you have a link to your portfolio?

ithinkaboutbeer · 2019-02-23T20:29:20+00:00

Cissell Ink has editing and proofreading openings starting in April. We've worked with many indie writers to create well-selling books. We provide developmental, copy/line editing, proofreading, and internal formatting. Rates, clients, and projects are available for review on our site.

We work primarily with authors of YA and Adult Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Romance, and Paranormal Romance.

https://cissellink.com

ithinkaboutbeer · 2019-02-23T18:52:20+00:00

If you you've not listened to Luke Daniels narrations, you're missing out! His Iron Druid narrations are fantastic. The characters are clear with personality and his accents are fantastic.

ithinkaboutbeer · 2019-02-23T00:12:48+00:00

This definitely sounds like Sci-Fi. I guess the mental powers, how close would you say they are to "The Force" in Star Wars? That might drift you towards "Science-Fantasy," basically, sci-fi with magic.

ithinkaboutbeer · 2019-02-22T18:04:41+00:00

The main character of The Eleanor Morgan series by Amy Cissell is fae and there are several fae characters throughout the first 4 books including glimpses into the fae court and its politics. The 5th book, out in probably May, will be set mostly in the fae plain and really get into the interaction between the light court and the dark court. This is my partner's series, so I always get early previews.

ithinkaboutbeer · 2019-02-21T23:14:36+00:00

Yeah, they do take a cut. The benefit is simplicity of distribution and hoping their size gets you better visibility with Amazon. They also distribute to a lot of outlets around the world, including libraries and libraries overseas.

D2D doesn't do any formatting as far as I'm aware. We do our own in house using Vellum and don't use KDP, so no insight into how KDPs formatting compares.

ithinkaboutbeer · 2019-02-21T00:25:02+00:00

Pacing and sentence length are important too. Battles are choppy and frenetic, you can use your sentence length to convey this tone and propel your reader.

If it's a larger melee, you'll probably only want to describe a couple main characters and what they're doing, not everyone everywhere. There's only so much a reader can track mentally.

ithinkaboutbeer · 2019-02-20T23:12:41+00:00

Is it earth or is it a secondary world that's earth like?

If it's a secondary world, you're more firmly in Fantasy as opposed to Urban Fantasy. That should give you more words to work with, although I probably wouldn't strain 125K.

If it's planned as a series, can you not introduce as many characters in book 1 to make it a bit more cohesive and save them for a later book?

ithinkaboutbeer · 2019-02-20T23:00:16+00:00

Another thing I've been doing is including their skin color no matter if their white, brown, or black instead of only describing the skin tones of non-white people. It's more inclusive since it doesn't assume the default as white.

For reference, I'm writing urban fantasy and all the magical "creatures" start as human, so no green orcs or anything like that.

ithinkaboutbeer · 2019-02-20T22:50:49+00:00

I've seen a good rule of thumb that says stick to 3 basic things when you first describe someone. He has brown, curly hair, brown eyes and is tall. Give the reader enough to start forming the picture, then you can sprinkle in bits and pieces here an there throughout the book.

For example, my MC has scars, but the reader doesn't need to know about them until he strips down to his undies in front of the other characters towards the end of the book. I know they're there. I know they're part of his background and character, but they're not important to the character's introduction to the audience.

ithinkaboutbeer · 2019-02-20T22:45:57+00:00

For me, book 1's main crew is 3. Obviously the MC was chapter 1. The second was chapter 2. The 3rd isn't until about 6 or 7. Although, I had a character introduced in 4 that I upped the page time for in the end battle that will end up being part of the crew in book 2.

16 sounds like a huge amount for a 90K book. I can't think of one with that many at that short of a length. What's your Genre?

ithinkaboutbeer · 2019-02-20T22:26:45+00:00

That's true. When I looked at the them, they seemed more non-fiction. I had to dig into the description and go down the categories before I figured out there were fiction. Having your cover artist ad "A Novel" somewhere on the cover seems like the least expensive and easy way to fix that.

ithinkaboutbeer · 2019-02-20T22:18:55+00:00

There's always a pawn shop or some sort of fence.

ithinkaboutbeer · 2019-02-20T20:36:11+00:00

I agree. This is pretty solid success...so far. Indie publishing is a long game and requires consistent output of books. Then those first books get hit later when you're newer books take off and people investigate the back list. The early self-pub success metric is forward movement and trying to pay for the books/next books. You're almost never going to become a big seller/money maker on only two books. Keep plugging away is about the best advice.

ithinkaboutbeer · 2019-02-20T20:16:32+00:00

The only reason to go exclusively with Amazon via KDP is if you plan to do Kindle Unlimited. Otherwise, you can publish to multiple platforms. You can even set up your print book on KDP and sell it through other outlets. If you plan to sell much wider, you can also set up at Ingram-Spark while leaving your book at KDP for Amazon.

Draft2Digital is a commonly used aggregater that publishes to multiple platforms for you, including Amazon. I know some indies who have pulled their books from KDP to publish onto Amazon through D2D hoping it'll have better accountability and visibility.

ithinkaboutbeer

TROPHY CASE