Friday, August 30, 2013

Paperback Worth $30...??? What is this?

In checking my numbers on Amazon, I look at my book, Soul Mates and find a used paperback for sale for $30. Really? I list the paperback for $5.39 and there haven't been a lot of sales. So where did anyone get 3 used paperbacks to sell for the ridicules amount of $30. I smell a scam and wonder if I should report this to Amazon?

Anyone ever seen this before?  What's going on here?


Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Short Stories on Amazon

     I have lots of short stories or stories that just never went any further than they did (if that makes sense). These are stories I feel are good and always wanted to do something with them. Now I see short stories up on Amazon so I'm thinking of going for it.
     The first one I want to put up is a vampire story. I've been working on it a while and I'm hoping it goes up this week. So now I second guess myself? Are vampires over? Am I wasting my time on this while I should be working on something more timely? Then I think, are vampires ever over?
     My daughter tells me to go back to the zombie story because they're popular right now, but my zombie story is really long and will take a long time to get ready. Because it's so long I needed a break and that's why I started poking around at the shorts.
     The one thing I did do with this story is I left an opening at the end. Meaning I can write a part two to the story if: 1. It sells well and I see readers might be interested in reading more about the character. 2. I get bored with another book and want to take a break.
     I like this vampire I created so the chance to write her again will be strong. I kind of want to know where she goes from here. How does she handle her new life as a vampire? What does she do about her maker's strange sense of humor?
     Do you do shorts on Amazon? How do we price these things? I really wish we could price by size or something because every piece of advice I read on pricing contradicts the other. I'm thinking 99 cents. It's about 60 pages.
     If you have shorts, how do they sell? Will you do more?

Friday, August 02, 2013

I Hate Editing...is that so bad?

      Working on Threshold to Midnight. I wrote this 500+ page book a few years ago and since going Indie I decided to break this into two books, part one and part two.
      When I look for a book one of the things I look for is length. I read a lot so I love a long book that takes me away. I think longer books take you further into the world the author was building and you get to know the characters better. I loved King's Under the Dome and read it before I got my Kindle. It was a b*tch to lug around but worth the read. Now with Kindles big books get easier.
     Unfortunately, I hear a lot of people don't like to commit to a long book. I really don't understand this at all, but it is what it is. So that's what led me to chop this book in half. As an Indie I also have to wonder if this would be more profitable? Getting the reader to come back for more?
      After cutting the thing up, I suddenly got an idea for book three and a 10 page outline popped out of my head. One problem...I already wrote books 1 & 2 and want to dive into writing 3, but I'm trying to restrain myself to get 1 & 2 edited and up on Amazon.
     I hate editing! I so want to just move forward. I'm all excited about the ideas for number 3 and getting the rest of this story out of my head.

     Then there's the break for playing with book covers.... MaWahhahahahaha! I don't know if I'm any good at it, but I'm having fun.

Any input on covers if greatly appreciated.

 Book One;
     Diana sat down to breakfast with a madman. 
     Eggshells, she thought. This is what they mean when they say walking on eggshells. This edge of your seat fear that the wrong move, the wrong word, will set him off.

     She chanced a glance toward her husband and saw it. Right there in those Robert Redford blue eyes was the mania. That touch of insanity that crawled into their lives a few months ago was shimmering in her husband’s eyes. Like a gleam of another dimension. A place where madness grew like wild flowers. Or maybe weeds. Weeds that set their roots down deep in Luke’s brain and mangled his thoughts. Tightening on his brain cells and twisting them with fear, anger and confusion. She knew if she could get him to some kind of mental hospital they would tell her the fruit loops in his box were doing the jig right now, trying to escape. 

Last Day of NANOWRIMO --- Oh No!

 Where did the month go?  Certainly not on the page. I have an outline, some character sketches but mostly I have a lot of research notes.  ...