Deception of the Magician, Soon in Paperback

The mother of one of my close friends is now nearing the end of the first book in the Waldgrave series.  She does not own an ereader, and is likely not planning to get one in the near future (or ever, because she is hardcore old school).  That being the case, she has set her daughter on me to get out Deception in paperback.

Draft cover.  Enjoy.

Al

Becky Raymond's Review of Secrets of the Guardian

Hey All!

Yesterday, Becky posted her review for Secrets of the Guardian.  You can find it at her blog here: http://inquisitivehippo.com/2012/01/19/book-review-secrets-of-the-guardian/

She also gave it a full 5 star rating on Goodreads (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13415660-secrets-of-the-guardian), which has been especially exciting for me.  Becky is the first person to ever do full reviews of all of the Waldgrave books, and for that I am extremely grateful!

Every time I go and look at my book pages on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Goodreads, or anywhere, I am always appreciative for the readers that take the time to tell others (and me) what they thought of the book.  Reviewers truly serve an important part in the lives of indie authors.  Reviewers are the guides that help readers find our books, and without the readers, the stories would never leave the page.

Al

To KDP Select, or not to KDP Select....

All right, writing buddies, I have a question.  And a bit of a moral dilemma.

So, Amazon has put me in a tight spot with it's KDP Select program.  If an author opts in, their book will be included in the Kindle Lending Library (sweet!), but as a condition of opting in, the book must be available exclusively on Kindle for at least a 90 day period (major bummer).

I don't think I would do this with my Waldgrave series.  Some of my earliest fans are Nook owners, and while I don't think any ereader is inherently better than another (we're all book nerds here, after all), it seems wrong to screw over any of my fans by removing my books and business from any platform.  Somehow, it feels a little dirty of Amazon to use an exclusivity clause in that manner.

After some consideration, I'm still not sure if this is something I want to try with a new title or not.  However, it did get me thinking about doing a free book promotion now that the Waldgrave trilogy is out; I've heard a lot of people are interested in the series, but not quite ready to take the plunge of paying the $0.99.  A publishing friend told me I might have more success if I *raised* the price of the books to $2.99 (seriously, what's up with that?).

So, what I'm thinking is that I might drop the first book to free and raise the other two...this seems fair, because my early fans would still have gotten a great price (three books for $0.99/ea vs. three for about $6), and the first book free would kind of serve as a sample to the series.

I don't know how any of this will play out.  It's a Thursday night and I'm avoiding the chores I should be doing, so I will probably decide something this weekend.

Al

Nervousness about the End

I had a conversation with someone about this a while back; in the weeks leading up to the release of Waldgrave 3, I was incredibly anxious about whether or not people would be satisfied by the ending.  I've been told that this is common behavior for both hobbyist and professional writers--there are times when you feel like an absolute genius, and others when you feel like an awkward loser wannabe.  I accepted long ago that the truth lies somewhere in between (and some days better than others), but publishing Waldgrave was a new experience for me on this front.  

I wrote Waldgrave as one long stretch of story, and not as three distinct books.   (I consider marathon story telling one of my weaknesses as a writer, because my stuff always ends up too long for one book--the total word count for the Waldgrave trilogy is more than 260,000 words--and then the book breaks feel a little forced.)  I always knew that the ending would fit for this reason, but I guess I was worried that it wouldn't be what the reader wanted.  As a reader, I hate it when I am cruising through a series, and then hit the ending, and have a horrible moment of "That's it?"

Well, I held my breath, and released the book, and (outside of the drafting error in my previous post) most people loved it.  I smiled because they were happy, and I got to feel that I had become a successful storyteller.  It was pretty darn amazing.

...And then I got off the cloud, and continued working on my next book.  Redemption is rolling along nicely, despite the many revisions it has seen in its lifetime.  Waldgrave fans need not worry...there will be more Waldgrave books.  If you want them sooner, be sure to tell all of your friends how great you think the series is.  : D

There's nothing like a raving reader to say how great a novel is, and word of mouth is the best advertising.  And this indie author will love you forever for sharing your opinion, good or bad, online or in conversation, with your friends or total strangers.

But for now, I need to find a good pair of walking shoes that are good in the snow.  My day job has me walking quite a ways to and from my bus in Denver, and I was nearly taken out by the sidewalk slick from the storm we got last week.  Wet socks all day, and my desk is in a cooler part of the building.  (And on that note, my weather station claimed it wouldn't be an event--"just 1-3 inches".  Apparently the weather folks and I are in the same business of fiction...)

Al

What comes next?

I have no idea.  Likely, it will be the Redemption series.

My timing has been horribly off lately, as noted by early readers of Waldgrave 3.  I'm not sure exactly how it happened, but parts of the book had rampant errors.  It underwent the same editing process as the other books, so I can only conclude that somewhere along the line I must have gone through making corrective changes and then the document didn't save, and then I went through and did more, resulting in the patchy product.  

For this, I apologize to the early fans.  I have already corrected the most glaring errors, and continue to work on it.  (Note: the mistakes I am correcting are spelling/grammatical, not plot.)  I am very sorry this happened.  If anyone needs to go on a miffed rant at me over email, I encourage you to do so.  I dropped the ball.  I was bent on getting Waldgrave 3 out before the end of the year, even though I was rushing the editing due to the holidays.  I live within two miles of my parents, siblings, nieces, nephew, grandmother, and in-laws, so it gets a little crazy around here certain times of the year; I should have given the book one more read over before posting it.

Let's suffice it to say that the embarrassment has encouraged me to not let it happen again.  

Blushing, onward I go.  The next series I work on will likely be Redemption; however, I wouldn't be surprised if there is another Waldgrave book in the works before 2012 is out.  For this, people can thank my earliest editor, who one day, about a year after I had written the series, asked me when I was writing more on that story.  I told her I had planned it just being the three books, but had started entertaining a sequel set ten years in the future.  She looked at me, and said something along the lines of "sometimes, I find myself wondering what's going on in their lives now."

And then we had a good laugh about how we both knew we were wondering about the events in lives of imaginary people.  However, that was when I started to wonder myself, and an immediate sequel to Waldgrave was born.  It's about halfway written; I don't know how many books total it will eventually be.  Might be the birth of a wonderful and ongoing story.  Might be just the one book.

I typically get the bug to write more in the early fall, and it keeps on until the snow gets slushy in spring.  This year I threw my schedule a little by doing editing all fall and into winter, and now I am once again trying to pick up and write, even though the first few books of Redemption are essentially done.

Redemption is a longer series--six or seven books, from what I'm planning now.  I haven't even named the series yet; Redemption is just what I had titled the first book.  I usually like to have a series completely written before I show it to people, but since it's January and my brain is shifting into editing mode, I might make a go at editing the first three books now, and writing the last 3-4 later this year.   

Al

Secrets of the Guardian, Waldgrave Part 3: Now Available!

It came right down to the wire, but I got it done!  Check it out on Nook or Kindle now!  I will be working on the second and third Waldgrave books in coming months to make them available in paperback, on Smashwords, and on iBooks in the coming weeks and months.

Enjoy!
Al