Number Crunch

Firstly, I want to announce we have a few more followers to this blog! I bid you welcome, come and sit, indulge yourself by reading my nonsensical uttering and forget about your crazy day for a moment. Thank you to all my Dear Readers and Good Followers, your involvement and support keep me pushing onward.

Secondly, I just want to keep you in the loop about a few things. Rebellion of Mars is progressing well and I hope to have it ready for proof and copy-edit soon. Once that is done there will be a reckoning with my Azhov novellas, which I have published mainly as Journeyman work but now could use a tidy up. I apologise to anyone who grabbed the paperback versions, but even books, like software or terms and conditions, go through revisions. If you have the digital copy, it should update.

I’m still on the cusp of Journeyman, but we have all travelled so far Dear Reader, that we’re now in the realm of proper Authorhood.

And this is where we get to the meat of the post.

I have no formal qualifications for writing. The highest standard of English certification I possess is a GCSE in English and English Literature, (I do have a Degree in Law, but I digress). Many people have espoused the axiom that ‘we learn by doing’ and this is true. I was so hell-bent on becoming an author and I was in such a position that I had to do something, that I hit the keyboard.

Last year, I wrote 439,000 words (give or take a hundred).

My total written wordcount however, stands at (approximately): 700,000 words.

Let’s compare that. A long-running science fiction saga that’s now a major TV show runs to something like 5 million words over 12 books. More to the point, it’s a single author name, but there’s actually two of them, which means they’re at 2.5 million words each.

The numbers theory works folks, it just does. I look at what I wrote before and the style is still there, the imagination is still there, but the format and function have improved drastically. Every time I work on something or get editor/proofing feedback, I improve.

Every time I don’t get a review, I work harder. Every time I check my sales figures on Amazon, Kobo, whatever, and see no movement, I’m more determined.

This is the second instance in my life where I wanted to do this for a living.

I don’t know if I can make it a reality – but the numbers don’t lie. It looks like I have a few keyboards to wear out!

Have a good day adventurers! 🙂

Read all about it!

I’ve been advertising my book through Amazon and have been consulting my Marketing Book about marketing my book. I think I’m going to have consider stepping it up a notch and getting a website. I’ve got the domain registered through WordPress already, but we’ll see.

So far, the advert for Children of The Glyph has appeared 571 times on Amazon US and none at all on Amazon.co.uk. I find this odd, but the whilst the numbers have not translated into sales, we’re in a bit of a slump all over at the minute and a lot of bestsellers have piled out.

I’m oddly happy with it.

There’s a lot more work to do and I’m trying to expand my social network a bit, since I am a quite independent and it has taken me a long time to reach out to people using the tools at hand. I think Social Media will be my secondary avenue of marketing though, instead, reaching potential customers through advertising campaigns and expanding my catalogue as quickly as I can.

The advertising pitches I’m running will also inform me about the word-matches I’m using, the similar products and what is feasible on a limited budgetary campaign. It’s interesting, if somewhat disheartening, but I’m reasonably sure it will take a while – I didn’t expect to be top of the shop overnight.

Anyway, back to the grind adventurers 🙂

What Time Is It?

Now I may wear a polo-neck and artistically recline on my Chaises-Longues, but this is not Marcel Proust and any kind of Research into Temps perdu.

This is, instead, generally my reaction when I look up from the keyboard and realise that it’s gone dark outside and I have the evening chores to do, but that’s not why we’re here today.

When starting a novel, I just tend to go into it, depending on what it is. As I sometimes write contemporary thrillers, day and age doesn’t really matter and world-building is a drip-feed process, blending with what we all know and experience every day, throughout the book. We know, mostly what 19th Century France looks like, we have that expectation from movies, games, paintings and other books. That culture is established. Kind of.

Sci-fi/fantasy novels are bigger (generally) than contemporary fiction/sweet romances/vampire surfing comedies, because when you’re making worlds, you have to make that history up as well. Take Tolkien for example – he hated allegory and wrote the Middle-Earth Saga as an alternative history, inventing the people, places and times, their songs, Kings and Queens, the lot.

I think, when you’re writing Science-Fiction, especially the far-flung stuff, (I like working in the 31st Century), and when it’s a series, this approach is bread and butter, because you need to know what happened twenty-five years before the protagonist straps on their sword/gun/plasma disintegrator, whatever, because his daddy was killed by someone else’s daddy and now it’s a reckoning gosh darn it!

I’m very familiar with certain popular sci-fi franchises who take this approach as well, and I love the minutiae of a timeline. It’s especially important as I have ambitions for Rebellion of Mars and the Nine Worlds (yes Pluto is a planet, my fiction says so, but I digress) and we need to know when battles happen, who was there, what the outcome was, what caused it and the fallout and – what technology advances happened.

It all fits together to provide the world that the writer must know, for the reader to enjoy. If the reader wants to delve, give them enough to let them.

Remember, that the When is sometimes just as important as the Who (Whom?), because the Who may be characters in the story, but the When is the character of the story.

So plot your timelines!

Anyway, those are my ramblings for today Dear Reader, did they make any sense? And why is it dark outside?

Have a good day adventurers! 🙂

Up and Running

For over ten days, a lot of authors have been stuck in limbo by Amazon Kindle Publishing because a lot of e-books were seeking to profiteer from the COVID 19 with spurious or shoddy material.

Everyone was caught in this backlog, including me, but my paperback, as you’ll know if you’ve been following, was published.

Now, my E-Book has gone live as well!

Rock and roll daddy-o!

You now have the choice of Ebook or Paperback. (US Amazon Versions, but they’re in UK, Canada, Japan, France and Germany too.

Alternatively, Kobo, Nook, Tolino, Scribd and the like can scratch your e-book itch.

Happy trails adventurers! 😀

Reach

I’ve gone and done it.

In order to get the word out and connect with more potential readers, I’ve launched a twitter account. There’s not much there at the moment, but it will expressly be for me to interact with potential readers who want to join we few, we happy few, we band of cover-to-covers in the journey onwards.

Here’s the twitter feed? (I think it’s that, I’m new here!)

https://twitter.com/ArronOwenWriter

Feel free to follow along, I’ll be bouncing most of my thoughts and ideas here though, to keep you entertained – there’s only so much a person can put into 140 or so characters and most people say I’m full of much more…;)

Have a good day adventurers! 🙂

The Next Steps

Congratulations to all of us! We’ve hit fifty subscribers!

WordPress calls them followers, and I say ‘Good Followers’ but really we’re just travellers on the road, pilgrims heading for Canterbury, just sharing our tales to pass the time, the stories and laughter eating up the miles until it’s time for us to take our leave and go our separate ways.

For joining me until then, I thank you.

Now, the next tale!

I’ve been beating my head against work again – once you get a book out, it seems, that you’re only as good as your last one – or maybe that’s boxing. (But I digress).

I’ve got two more full sized novels that need serious polishing and I’m going to try and do that now. Rebellion Of Mars (I really need a better title – I must dwell upon it from my Chaises-Longues) and now that Children is out of the way, I need a break from grim and dark – incidentally, if you like Warhammer 40k, you’ll love the Glyph book/s.

An ad campaign for Children of The Glyph will be starting on Amazon on Monday, so if you see it, please let me know! The Kindle edition is still stuck in a log jam, which according to KDP forums has been quite widespread, Amazon is prioritising other things, rightly, but it seems I got lucky even getting my paperback released!

In these times, I’ll take that!

Children is released in digital format on Scribd and 24 Symbols now as well, along with all the others, Kobo, Tolino, Apple Books, Baker & Taylor and of course, the Barnes & Noble Nook.

You can flick through sample chapters on most of these services.

Well, a bright future is calling, somewhere in 3060 AD or later, because far-future and all that 😉 and it’s time to hit the trail.

Have a good one adventurers! 🙂

Online.

Paperback version – digital artwork by Creative Covers Ltd Copyright Arron Owen 2020

Alright everyone! Firstly, happy VE Day!

Unfortunately, Amazon is dragging it’s feet over my Kindle E-Book, but the paperback is out and ready for purchase Amazon UK or Amazon US.

Alternatively, it’s also on Kobo, Apple Books, Tolino and Barnes & Noble, Baker & Taylor and now Scribd, with others to follow!

Huge thanks to my cast and crew, Polly, R.J, Ian, Adam, Alex, and all the others – acknowledgements in the paperback and kindle book do you justice where I can’t – I hope.

I’d also like to publicly thank Monica of “tinytotspoetry” for reblogging my initial statement and helping to get the word out. Please do check out her blog – her haiku game is strong! It’s like nano-fiction for poetry and is well worth the time to read.

Well, what are you waiting for! Go forth and read!

#DeathtotheSong

Have a good trip adventurers! 🙂

Going Live

Children of The Glyph, will (barring all incidents), be going live in 72 hours on Amazon in both paperback and e-book for Kindle.

It will also be going live on Draft 2 Digital on Friday 08th May 2020 (VE day) on the following platforms: Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple, Tolino, Scribd, 24 Symbols, Kobo Plus and libary services Overdrive, Bibliotecha and Baker & Taylor.

I’d like to thank everyone for reading and wishing me well with this blog and this project. I hope you’ll consider purchasing the book and leaving a review!

If not, worry not, stick around for more thoughts and ramblings from a man who thought a joke about Jetpacks and Machineguns would make a good book!

Happy trails adventurers! 🙂

#DeathtotheSong

Cover Me (Part 2)

First things first.

Our little group has picked up a couple of new followers! Welcome to the club, I appreciate you, and everyone here who has supported me by reading, following or making a comment.

Salutations!

Now, to business!

Ken Dawson, over at Creative Covers, has been working with me on a few tests for Children (yes, I’m doing shorthand now, it’s what artistes do when we’re trying to be all clever and funny on our Chaises Longues) and you should check the guy out, he’s been a real trooper as I am fickle and demanding 😉

Here’s one of the tests. I have asked for a fiddle-about with it so it may end up looking different. I was unsure about the split tone and will most likely follow my instinct that I should abandon it altogether and move to a split cover (front and back different tones etc).

Here it is.

Thoughts are welcome of course, but this isn’t final and the longer it takes, the more time I have to polish the wordy-wordy (a technical term used by artistes, from our…you get the idea) 😉

Anyway, I’ve managed to build the book back up to 96,000 words and they’re all on track and mostly in line with Editorial guidance, which means I’ve recovered 12,000 words overall.

Launch will be on Amazon for both E-book and Print book, as well as Draft 2 Digital for E-book, as I’m not an Amazon exclusive and I need the opportunities provided by Barnes & Noble, such as Nook and the other distributors out there.

Launch date is another matter, as I am fighting the formatting demons, but it’s close now. Really close. I wasn’t lying about touching distance and I’m almost a bit scared. The book prints to about 330 pages in 6×9 format and 450 pages in 5×8, so it’s a chunky brick.

Either way, hope you had a great day adventurers! 🙂

#DeathtotheSong.