Anyway, here is the cover so far:
I feel like Bob Ross and his painting. (yeah, I'm dating myself) All that detail, then "Get brave" With putting the text on top. (You should have heard me whimper!) It worked out okay though. I was tempted to move the Second Chances down above my name. lol (another couple of easter eggs there)
I was going to try to paint in some more plants and use a crowd generator but I decided to just go with what I've got. :) I lost count of all the animals. lol
Mike and Thomas have both finished reading the story and given me their feedback. I need to integrate it with what Poon has sent so far and then send it on to Tim and whoever else wants a crack at it. I'm still on track to publish it sometime in August... I think.
Oh, forgot, I bought the Genesis Gorilla and started playing with it. I did 2 character pieces.
In other news, I started puttering around with To Touch the Stars. I've added my notes to the main manuscript and a couple scenes. I doubled the page count yesterday. The story plot is still soft, I need to go over the notes and outlined plot and integrate them with what I've got so far and where I want to take the story. Plus I've got all sorts of tie ins to the short stories to be aware of. That's always fun to try to keep in mind.
And finally... I haven't forgotten the FB group Character Contest. I'm opening it up to the Beta's to help the judging even though there are only a couple of entries. We shall see how it goes.
EDIT: A couple of the Betas complained about the ground, so I tried to add some grass. Here is the result.
I am still sick, though I am getting better. Dad too, though he backslid a bit last night. Neither one of us got much sleep last night. I'd say I'm at about 80%.
I'm still poking away at To Touch the Stars. The plot is evolving from my treatment. Since I've been bored I spent some time reading up on hyperspace theories, drive ideas, etc. (Making Starships and Stargates by James F. Woodward is currently on my desk) I also got around to reading an old scifi book I'd hoped would inspire me.... and was frustrated when I finished it. :P It stunk.
I've just been warned I'm being invaded around noon so the brat pack can swim and eat me out of house and home while tearing the house apart. So, I better get back to writing while I can! :)
Yeah! First to comment. But nothing really to say. Keep up the good work. Love your books. Don't stop writing or die from your cold.
ReplyDeleteWell nice work Chris looking forward to BS2. Hope u are getting better it's not nice feeling crappy while looking after others.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHey Chris, here's hoping you and your dad are getting over the nasties. We need medical nanos invented soon!. I enjoyed seeing the high electrified fence mentioned in BSC1. Also seeing the animals and the purple trees was very neat. I got a kick out of people ridding dinos. Although I winced looking the they guy riding the spiky armadillo dino without a pad. Ouch! How goes the draft and release time for BSC2? Get well soon!
ReplyDeleteHi, thanks.
DeleteI'm better, dad's still coughing. Definitely need nanos... or more vaccines.
Cover: Thanks. A couple of the Betas are after me to remake the cover to BSC1 since I'm going to have Goodlifeguide go through it and clean it up before I release BSC2. I'm debating it.
Kids can ride all sorts of things. Yeah, a bit bumpy though! lol
BSC2 is in the hands of the betas. 2 have finished with it, 2 are almost done, and 2 others haven't said boo for a while. I need a stick to give them a poke or 2.
I've learned the hard way not to drive on a flat. Or at least hopefully dad has. Ugh. He hit something on the way to Subway yesterday, then insisted on driving around to different tire places... which destroyed the tire. I covered it but it's laying havoc to my budget and planned schedule. (The schedule's up in the air anyway since it's summer and we've both been sick) Fun.
I'm up to 65 pages for 'To Touch the Stars. A lot of weaving stuff going on. Going to be fun keeping it straight. I know a lot of references will go over people's heads until I release the short stories...lol
Anyway, I'm debating Jack Lagroose's wife's name. I'm thinking.... Aurelia....
I am glad to hear your better. I am sorry to hear your dad is still coughing. That part takes the longest to go away. I hate being sick myself, which means I try doing alot of vitamin C drinks, B+ stuff, etc. BSC1 cover redo? well, I like the scene your doing, but I must admit the first time I saw it, I really didn't see the dino or the robot. In fact, the feathers on the t-rex looked like distance long neck dino's at first, lol! However, being a twilight scene, I know its hard to define things. How goes the beta reads on BSC2? Need to poke them along lol! Flat's... need to get that tire that claims you can drive 50 miles on it. Congrates on the work so far with 'To Touch the Stars'. I like the name Aurelia. It was the name of several of my favorite book characters. Back on BSC2.... definitely need to move along the beta's lol!
ReplyDeleteI'm back to 100% despite the heat. Dad's still coughing though. It's that tickle he can't get rid of. And he refuses to suck on cough drops.
DeleteBSC1 cover redo... I dunno. I'm still up in the air over it. I re-rendered it once after I learned some new tricks, that is why it is a whole lot brighter than the 1st version.
I'm not sure how BSC2 is going, I got an e-mail from 2 of the guys saying they were about done then nothing.
Tire: Don't get me started. He drove about 2-3 miles and rim cut the inside of the tire's sidewall all up. It couldn't be saved.
To Touch the Stars: I'm now 1/2 done the 1st act. (a bit more than that, but that's the official finished chapter count) Aurelia it is!
I'll poke a few people in a bit. I'm being invaded by the brat pack today since it is going to be 100+ here and we've got the pool. I dunno how much writing I'll get in... sigh. I was hoping I'd get the 1st act done...
Oh! I need sales to pick up. So, I was thinking (I talked to Mike about this too) about asking the community. I'm asking for honest reviews. (Neutral, fair, good, great, whatever) I was thinking about tossing a carrot out. If I see 10 or more new reviews I'd post a snippet of one of the 3 books in the pipeline... Maybe 1 for every 10? Hmmm...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteChris, your biggest asset is you current series of Wandering Engineer books. I understand that a lot a readers look for authors with a published series of long books that they can hook straight into, but they won’t buy the remaining books unless they like the first one. You even see a lot of authors these days offering the first book in the series for free or at a very low price. Unfortunately a lot of potential series readers will be put off by the mistakes in New Dawn. Let face it, it's a great story line (except maybe the corny costumes the Io crew initially wear), but the lack of proofreading sucks. There are only so many people who will put up with that. I remember being very hesitant about even continuing after the first couple of chapters.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to increase your reader base, I recommend that you need to go back and fix New Dawn, re-publish and possibly even drop its price. Once people get into the Wandering Engineer they are more likely to buy your other books.
I'm sure that there are plenty of people who read your blog who would be happy to edit it for you if you divided it up and sent everyone a few chapters. You can count me in.
I've been editing the books with corrections from time to time, both from people who go through Amazon as well as input from the betas. My plan has been to have Goodlifeguide go over them starting with Bootstrap Colony 1 this month to really clean them up. (That book has been cleaned up 4x) Then Bootstrap 2, then New Dawn (proofed 2x) and then through my books as I can afford it.
ReplyDeleteThat plan has hit a snag though when sales plummeted and I got hit up with bills I didn't expect. :P (Life always finds a way to get in the way)
I'm going to keep plugging, that's all I can do. I'm not sure about the editing. Right now I don't want to be distracted, despite the heat and family I'm starting to hit my stride with To Touch the Stars. I'm almost done the 1st act. 2 more chapters to go!
Thanks for the input, I'll like look into it. Maybe float it by the betas again or something later.
From what I've seen, self publishing is about steady out put. Focused output is even better of course.
ReplyDeleteThe Multi-verse book was just too disjointed. I ended up skimming a lot of it.
I was thinking about it a bit earlier, but Plague Planet was a bit of a throw away book. It didn't really bridge anything and it didn't really move the story forward. The series would have been better off going to Pirates Bane.
All water under the bridge. Keep plugging away, it's all you can do and you're doing okay.
Colonization, Multi Dimensional travel, Space Opera and Fantasy scifi isn't getting a lot of traction of late. What's selling is Alien invasion. If Raymond Wiels Slaver Series can succeed like it has, I can only imagine what you could put out.
It might take away from the Federation Series, but a writer's got bills to pay as well.
Yeah, steady output is definitely the in thing with self publishing.
DeleteMultiverse: Sorry to hear that. I did try to stick to a core with the Metalwar stories.
Plague Planet: In a way it was filler, but there is always a method to my madness. Expect ET to come up in future books.
Alien invasion: I did that with Afraid of the Dark. It is a different take on an alien invasion story, a more... biological one. Sales have been horrible for it. That is why I stopped writing Alive and switched to To Touch the Stars.
What is touch the stars about?
ReplyDeleteTo Touch the Stars is the sequel to First Steps and is the second book in the Founding of the Federation. There are a lot of tie ins to short stories (sorry Chris Kazianka below) which will follow up later. You are going to see... not full detail but a lot of stuff about the creation of the Neos, mankind's first starships, Lagroose industries, espionage, politics, a bit about the exploration of the Rho sector, more on the Irons family, and the beginning of the first AI war. A lot of stuff. Tons and tons. With, like I said, more linkages to the short stories which I've been jotting out in treatment form for the past couple of years. :)
DeleteI'd have to disagree with John. Focusing on chasing the trends isn't the way to go, unless you happen to do a book a month. You'll always be chasing the trends that way and possibly missing them since amazon [guessing from his series types he's talking amazon lists] users are generally fickle as hell. Imo, it's better to focus on a genre you like and produce quality work in that genre. Never know what will hit big.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that short stories collections aren't attractive to me as a reader. Personally, I prefer the long series that build towards end goals and have series long arcs. Just can't get attached to the characters in shorts, and if one does click I'm disappointed there isn't more content with that character. I've bought your Federation short story collection and made it only 10% through before I lost interest.
As for Afraid of the dark, might be a marketing problem. To me it sounds horror, which I'm not very interested in. Now that you say it's basically an alien invasion story I'll possibly check it out. Not sure though, it's not a series... Like I said, Amazon readers (me) are fickle lol. Might just have to wait for next Federation book.
I agree, I haven't been into chasing a trend, I just went where things interested me. I've tried to balance the Federation stories with other things so I don't get stale and bored or blocked.
DeleteShort stories: Sorry to hear that, there will be a lot of tie ins to those later. The same for other stories. (see above) I see them as a way to express a different POV while giving the reader more of an indepth look at some event that I was forced to gloss over in the main story. I also see it as a way to introduce new characters and events which will impact the main story at a later time. :)
AD was fun, and no, it's not a singleton. Well, right now it is, but only because I haven't expanded on it. My original plan was to build a game off the universe using the Unity or Unreal Engine. Unfortunately I don't have the time or team, and I know both engines can't support what I want to do. (terran modification and long MMO games with thousands of players) Maybe someday.
I did model some of the plants and animals, you can see them on the blog/youtube.
I have a sequel bumping around in my head but I haven't gotten around to jotting it out. Maybe someday...
Oh! My ISP buddy finally delivered on www.cyberforge3d.com my old domain. (long story) So, I and the betas will start moving stuff in and setting some stuff up when we have time. We'll let you know when the forums are up. Don't start pestering me about it or content until fall though please. :)
I dearly love afraid of the dark! It's my favorite just behind bootstrap colony. I should right a review for it on the nook. I feel that afraid of the dark is one of your most polished books to date.
DeleteSorry for the word crimes (thank you weird al) but I'm writing this on my phone...
No problem.
DeleteI put a lot of thought and effort into that book. It kept me up at nights until it was finished.
Yes please write a review. Honest please. Every little bit helps. :)
I think when it comes to the short stories I would stay away from any stand alone for now. Only publish ones that tie into major story line books and then add 2-4 at the end of the book as, here is a little extra to hold you over and expand the universe. Then I would up the cost of your main selling books by $0.50-$0.99 just try to stay under $4.00 dollars or you will start to price your self out. Use the extra money on advertising if you can. Also there are alot of blogs and online news groups that talk about self publishing and offer to do interviews, get your name out. Last I would highly recommend you or one of your people work on getting in connect with 2-4 other space sci-fi self publishing authors, get a plan together to share the cost of going to a major convention or gathering and get a booth for all of you as a exposé of self publishing authors, Will blow your mind what it can do for you. That's all the free advice I got for you. Anymore I will start charging. Good luck love your books, Thanks for answering all my questions.
ReplyDeleteSeveral of the short stories in Multiverse 1 I had intended as full on books. I may take the route Anne McCaffrey and other authors in the past have done, expand on them later if the mood and market warrant.
DeleteI tried upping the cost of the books briefly but the sales didn't support it so I dropped back to the $2.99 max. Once Rea is finished Bootstrap Colony 1 I'll up the price a bit. (Since it's costing me a lot to get it done)
Blogs and online news groups are interesting... if I can get out of writing and my own world to explore them.
Going to a con/event is out, I am super shy. (Moderate social anxiety disorder) I'd freak if I was at a booth. Pass. :)
That is a major weakness, a few people have called me out on it including a lady from Amazon. This blog is a start I believe, one step at a time.
No problem, I'll try to answer your questions when I can... as long as they don't give too much away!
I finished roughing out Act 1 of To Touch the Stars. I'm already digging into Act 2 but I'm trying to pull myself out before I get too deep to get some of these chores that have been piling up done. (like judge the FB character contest, set up the site, do more renders, model ships, model tech, etc) It's all good, or hopefully will be soon!