In today’s Journal
▪ Kristine Kathryn Rusch (one more time)
▪ Bundle time again
▪ Mentoring still open
▪ Almost had a minor melt down
▪ Topic: Boxed Sets
▪ Daily diary
▪ Of Interest
▪ The numbers
Kris added a second stretch goal and more rewards to her Kickstarter. Read about it at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/403649867/the-diving-universe/posts/2503773.
***
Yesterday I learned my Science Fantasy novel In the Siberian Fields (StoneThread Publishing, 2016) will be included in the forthcoming bundle, Gods Among the Stars. (grin)
When that one goes live, my work will be available in 10 active bundles. Woohoo!
To see the current bundles, visit https://harveystanbrough.com/bundles/.
***
I still have a spot or two open to mentor other writers.
As I was telling another potential mentoring client this morning, because of all that I share in the Journal, over time you can learn pretty much everything I know.
Especially if you read the Journal AND go back through the archives or cut to the chase and download The Professional Fiction Writer: A Year in the Life.
So why do I offer mentoring at all?
Because in mentoring, I can
▪ develop a program specifically for your needs in writing,
▪ focus on precisely what you need when you need it, and
▪ vastly cut your learning curve in both time and information.
I can mentor you in any aspect of writing, editing, publishing or any combination of those (or parts of those).
If you think mentoring might help, email me at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. Let me know where you are in the (writing, publishing, etc.) process and what you need help with.
Of course, any time you have a specific question, you can also just email me and ask. (grin) I’m pretty much always here.
***
Almost had a minor melt down this morning.
I was glancing through my New Fiction spreadsheet (it contains all 300+ titles I’ve published since early 2011) and noted that I had Blackwell Ops 6: Charlie Task scheduled for release on May 15.
Of course, that’s only five days from now, and I haven’t even heard back from my first readers yet (my fault, not theirs). Oops. Panic attack time.
So I hurried off to my D2D, Amazon and Smashwords accounts to double-check.
Sure enough, I’d actually scheduled it for release on June 1, not May 15. I’d simply recorded the wrong date on the spreadsheet. Whew! (grin)
Yeah, it ain’t easy bein’ me.
As an aside, you know I started writing and publishing in earnest in April 2014, right?
Just in case you wondered (I did, so I counted), I published only 53 titles – all short stories, collections, anthologies and nonfiction – from February 2011 through August 2013. Everything else came from April 2014 to now. (grin)
Topic: Boxed Sets
Because of a newsletter I received recently from Reedsy.com about boxed sets, I’m going to be putting together some of those soon. And I’m excited about that.
Why?
For two reasons:
One, because it creates yet another revenue stream from my books.
Two, because (according to Reedsy), readers who look for and buy boxed sets are not necessarily the same readers who read in a given genre. In other words, with boxed sets, I’ll be reaching a whole new audience.
I’ll probably put together at least one multi-genre boxed set that contains the first book of each of my series.
Then I’ll put together the Nick Spalding series in one, my PI/detective series in probably four or five different boxed sets (1-3, 4-6 etc. plus an omnibus that contains all 11 or 12), one or two or three for Blackwell Ops and so on.
Of course, putting series novels in boxed sets make perfect sense.
But if you have stand-alone novels that are in the same genre or are otherwise related, you can also put those in a boxed set. And I also have a lot of stand-alone novels.
I’ve been doing this for a long time with my short stories. Every time I write and publish ten short stories, I have ten new streams of revenue, right?
Wrong. When I write ten short stories, I actually have the potential for 13 streams of revenue: the 10 original stories, plus 2 five-story collections and 1 ten-story collection.
So why not do the same with novels? Especially since there’s a whole new audience waiting to be tapped?
Even if you’ve written only two novels, you can create a boxed set and have 3 revenue streams instead of 2. Unlike a dream, this is something that really is within your control.
How many people will buy them? Well, that’s the dream part. You have no control over that.
Except that if you don’t put them out there, nobody CAN buy them.
Food for thought.
Note: Just in case you received that Reedsy newsletter too, there’s an error in it.
Ricardo notes, “Important: you cannot publish a box set wide if any of the books in the box set is enrolled in KDP Select. Inversely, you cannot publish a box set on Amazon if any of the books in it are available on other retailers.”
In that second sentence, he meant “…you cannot publish a box set EXCLUSIVELY on Amazon if any of the books in it are available on other retailers.”
In other words, you CAN offer a boxed set in Amazon AND in other retailers as long as you don’t go exclusive with Amazon.
That’s a big difference.
Note 2: To read about the free Reedsy Book Editor (for typesetting print books) visit https://reedsy.com/write-a-book. I’m not specifically “recommending” it. I haven’t checked it out personally yet, but it’s there and it looks interesting.
***
Rolled out at 2:30, to the Hovel to write all the stuff above and look for items for “Of Interest.”
As almost always, DWS’ post helped me a lot. It validated something I’m up to right now. (grin) I expect today to be a good writing day.
At 5:40 I shifted gears yet again and did a little admin stuff, double checking the bundles I have listed on my author site against the active bundles listed on BundleRabbit.
To the house for a break at 6:10. Then a little more admin stuff.
Finally to the novel at 8:30. A LOT of cycling this morning, mostly moving segments from here to there, shifting things around, double-checking and correcting names and timelines.
During the rest of the day, I encountered more difficulties, but I recognize them now as part of the process for this novel. Every novel writes differently.
By the very nature of this particular novel (Wes tells tales in the cantina and then continues his life), the first tale he has to tell comes directly (though not word for word) from The Right Cut, the 10th novel in the previously written saga. Which I finished way back in July, 2016.
So there’s some copying and pasting involved, the previously mentioned double-checking of names and dates and timelines, etc. So the going on this one will be quick on some days, and it will drag on others.
Yesterday was a quick day. Today is a dragging day. Despite both, or maybe because of both, the novel continues to advance in its own way (again, every novel writes differently) and in its own time.
The chief attribute of this novel, once I stilled the critical voice, is that it’s a great deal of fun.
Talk with you again tomorrow.
Of Interest
See the Passive Guy’s take on Kris Rusch’s “Patreon, Copyright, and Personal Choice” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/patreon-copyright-and-personal-choice/. This is very important.
See “Update on My Stuff” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/update-on-my-stuff/. I was excited and hopeful to see this, and I wasn’t disappointed. (grin) Gems to be gleaned.
See “Reader Friday: Writing Goals” at https://killzoneblog.com/2019/05/reader-friday-writing-goals.html.
See “Adrenaline Rush – Writing Suspense 1” at https://terryodell.com/adrenaline-rush-writing-suspense-1/.
See “The Heroes of Friday, This Time, Includes You!” at https://www.leelofland.com/the-heroes-of-friday-this-time-includes-you/. Be patient. Good post.
See “Public Knowledge Wants to Solve the Misinformation Problem” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/public-knowledge-wants-to-solve-the-misinformation-problem/. Long but thoughtful and good.
Fiction Words: 1957
Nonfiction Words: 1310 (Journal)
Total words for the day: 3267
Writing of In the Cantina at Noon (novel)
Day 1…… 1538 words. Total words to date…… 1538
Day 2…… 2456 words. Total words to date…… 3994
Day 3…… 1876 words. Total words to date…… 5870
Day 4…… 1038 words. Total words to date…… 6908
Day 5…… 5807 words. Total words to date…… 12715
Day 6…… 1957 words. Total words to date…… 14672
Total fiction words for the month……… 14672
Total fiction words for the year………… 276142
Total nonfiction words for the month… 11150
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 123010
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 399152
Calendar Year 2019 Novels to Date…………………… 6
Calendar Year 2019 Novellas to Date……………… X
Calendar Year 2019 Short Stories to Date… X
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 43
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 7
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 193
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31