Wednesday 28 August 2013

Primae Noctis available for free on Amazon.com: August 29-31

In case you missed any of the previous promotions, Primae Noctis will be available for free on Amazon.com from August 29th through 31st.

Friday 10 May 2013

Wishful thinking, and dreaming of how I wish technology would work for me...

So, the free previews of Primae Noctis are done with... all up, well over a thousand copies out worldwide to interested parties at no cost during the KDP promo period.  For a first novel, thousands of copies + no cost + interest = motivation to try again, despite reviews or profitability.

I am very pleased that at a $0 dollar or euro value proposition that the novel earned enough attention to interest people visually or by description for them to bother to download it.  Downloads were proportionally higher in the Amazon Germany (Amazon.de) market, which serves most of Europe, than anywhere else.  I thank the Anglophile German market for their good taste in branding, but it is a matter of time to determine if they think that my ideas are worth the effort to read.

To receive a #1, even on the European Amazon free promo chart for Fantasy/Science Fiction, certainly makes one feel like its worth it.  Is it the fact that potential European readers have a better understanding of the double entendre  of the title, thus, get the more nuanced meaning of what I've put on offer?

My next steps are to wait patiently and to see if providing free product garners actual sales and recommendations to merit further interest.  With The Technology of Dreaming coming out next month, and with a more politically-prescient theme to it, I guess that I will need to adopt these learnings relatively quickly.  But I am now convinced that an Amazon free promotion (on principal release) is certainly worth an initial effort, even though I waited 6 months to  realise it.

Stay tuned, dear reader, and I will let you know soon if all was for naught or gain.  But it is a hell of a mule ride...

Tuesday 7 May 2013

All or Nothing! Primae Noctis free ebook promo days through May 9th on Amazon!

Due to the early success of getting folks interested in the free Amazon promo for Primae Noctis, I've expanded the free days through the 9th of May.

In the six months since the novel has been release, I've waited for some sort of critical event to get the pot boiling under my promotions of the novel.  The free event on Amazon has been a boon, and I'm hoping that for every ten people that get a free copy, I might be lucky to receive one paid recommendation for the ebook.

If you've been waiting for the opportunity to get your hands on some free, hard sci-fi, here's the link:
http://www.amazon.com/Primae-Noctis-Future-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00A67A93A

Tell a friend!

Saturday 4 May 2013

Get Primae Noctis for free on May 6th, 2013!

As I continue to expand the audience for Primae Noctis, I've chosen to work with KDP and offer the novel for free to Amazon Prime members and offer it for free.  This Monday and Tuesday, 6th and 7th of May, you can download a free copy of the Primae Noctis ebook on Amazon, for one day only.  There may or may not be additional free promotion days to follow, so take advantage of the deal before it expires if you'd like to read my novel for free!

Get the Primae Noctis ebook for free, May 6th and 7th at:

Tuesday 2 April 2013

What's going on...?!?!

There are plenty of things going on in my life right now,  a new full-time role, a recent trip to Guam and Micronesia, but the most important thing remains the upcoming release of The Technology of Dreaming.  I've had to push the release back to May 2013, due to editing and other concerns with concurrent projects, but it promises to be a significant departure from Primae Noctis for most readers. 

More details to come over the next few weeks!

Sunday 24 February 2013

Dreaming of Aboriginal characters and a future Australia

Whenever I find myself deep in the development and completion of a project, I tend to let go of secondary concerns to have single minded focus on my top-level goal.  This has been the case with my blog, as I have been completely engaged with finishing up The Technology of Dreaming over the past few weeks.  Completing this work has been particularly difficult, as the plot and subject matter center on Aboriginal Australians in a mid-21st century Australian Republic. 

My primary concern has been to develop and present a fictitious group of Indigenous people with traditions that pay homage to the many individual cultures across Aboriginal lands without causing offense.  Inference to or mention of the specific knowledge of a real group of people could be deemed offensive by some, and would go against the spirit of what I have tried to create.   Thus, the names and locations of the lands of the tribe at the core of the story are purely fictitious.  Although the Ceremony and Laws of a fictitious group of people are presented in the story, what is presented is an amalgam constructed from research across a wider group of cultures in Australia and neighboring states.  I attempt to portray these subjects with sensitivity, but with purpose.

Ceremony and custom are of paramount importance to Aboriginal identity, as is their special relationship with their lands.  These are some of things I most admire about their cultures, in addition to their resilience and willingness to share their stories with others.  As they are the protagonists in my work, I wanted to showcase these values to a wider, global audience who might not be aware of them.   Finally, it would be an understatement to say that Australia's historical relationship with Aboriginal Australians has been difficult; there are yet many serious and real issues that remain unresolved to anyone's satisfaction.  This real conflict in identities and crossed purposes is at the core of the plot.

The Technology of Dreaming contains a detailed account of the future Australia itself, with particular reference to how it arrived to its predicament in relation to the politics of today.  This is also a tricky subject to deal with, as an effective cautionary tale must be both earnest and frightful at the same time.   Having a good depth of knowledge of the true history of a place can help to develop a thematic bridge to a realistic, but bittersweet future.  Economic prosperity and illegal immigration are real themes that lend credence to this story's thesis, but also set the stage for some of other stories in future volumes of Altstralia: A Speculative Republic.

The Technology of Dreaming will be available on Amazon.com in April.

Sunday 3 February 2013

News on Primae Noctis, Tempus Belli, and The Technology of Dreaming

Primae Noctis continues to receive some pretty good reviews and sell progressively more copies, especially after the decision to discount the eBook for a limited time.  Review copies of Primae Noctis continue to be on offer to reviewers with a literary blog or other sci-fi genre related stop on the web.  It takes a while for word to get around about an independent genre author, so I need to continue to remain patient and carry on with new projects.

Groundwork continues on the next novel in The Once and Future Lords Trilogy, titled Tempus Belli.  Although a continuation of the storyline, the novel will have a substantially different tone and pace due to the events within the greater continuity of the Trilogy.  At present, the novel remains largely in outline / waypoint form.  I find myself wanting Primae Noctis to gain greater readership before I commit myself to the extended campaign of fleshing out the draft, due to the significant time investment involved.  Also, there's the need to see bills paid while concurrently pursuing my emerging vocation.  I expect that Tempus Belli will continue to see release in 2014.

I have dedicated my present writing and editing hours to a mostly-completed novella, unrelated to the world of the Trilogy, with the working title of The Technology of Dreaming.  I feel passionately about the subject matter and themes in the story, and have desired to see it published it for a while. 

The Technology of Dreaming examines the intersection of politics, technology, and traditional culture in a mid-21st century Australia.  This work was originally envisaged to be part of a larger collection of speculative fiction short stories set in Oz.  I have chosen to set aside the other stories from the collection for now to be able to get my favorite to readers on an accelerated schedule. Now seems to be the right time to move forward to get it out, with the eBook available on Amazon by the end of March / early April 2013.

Thanks again to all of the people who have kindly supported my writing so far, and I hope to bring you another update with progress soon!

Thursday 24 January 2013

Discounting and awakening the Amazon giant


This week, I’ve temporarily reduced the price of Primae Noctis for a limited time to $2.99 US across all vendors.  I’ve received a few questions from fans and friends regarding the decision.  Here’s why:

This weekend is my “Big Reach” weekend.  I’m reaching out to all of my friends, colleagues, and fans who have indicated interest in the novel over the past few months and encouraging them to purchase a discounted copy of the novel on Amazon.com.  It is a matter of getting the giant to take notice of a mote of a pebble beneath its foot.

The most important thing right now is to spread word about the novel.  Without word of mouth, especially amongst genre readers, the novel is virtually invisible.  This is especially true for Amazon, as the vendor’s sales algorithms not only rate how frequently a book sells but also considers how many reviews and ratings every book receives in relation to sales.

If enough people buy discounted eBook copies on Amazon, the vendor will finally begin to recommend the book to readers that are browsing the science fiction section and the book will have a chance to sell itself.

The reviews are an ongoing part of the novel’s success as well, as they give insight into the quality of the work for potential readers.  So if you’ve read it, please consider submitting a review or at least rating the novel on Goodreads and Amazon.

Thank you for your continued support, and here's the link:

http://www.amazon.com/Primae-Noctis-Future-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00A67A93A

Saturday 5 January 2013

Calling #indie #scifi fans and backers: lend your support to Primae Noctis!

The battle to get Primae Noctis in front of a larger audience is continuing.

A number of early reviewers have gotten hold of the novel, and the reviews have been overwhelmingly positive.  The greatest challenge right now is to get larger distributors, such as Amazon, to provide much needed free promotion and recommend the novel to readers.  The finished novel is more than 650 pages in print, and has been fully edited and published using Amazon's print-on-demand, CreateSpace platform.

This is where I still need your help.  If you are able and willing, it would be immensely helpful if you would visit Amazon and purchase a copy of Primae Noctis for $5.99 USD.  Every sale of the novel helps to get the novel attention within Amazon's search and recommendation engines, as well as gets Primae Noctis to a more desirable place on the sci-fi charts to get more reviews and sales.

Here is the link:  http://www.amazon.com/Primae-Noctis-Future-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00A67A93A

Again, thank you for your support up to this point, and thank you for continuing to support this effort to bring my creative vision of the future to life.