I just made progress on Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites! So far I’m 92% complete on the Writing phase. 8 Weeks remain until the deadline.
Kind of a “small” update, because this was a second pass on a 65-page section for a writer’s group. Took me longer than it should have to craft this, largely because both an action sequence and a deliberately awkward love scene were giving me difficulties.
At the moment, I’m looking into advertising, as I’ve about exhausted the free avenues. Particularly, I’m considering paid reviews—not paid Amazon reviews, which are a no-no, but paid reviews from services like Kirkus. I’m gathering my info before I open my wallet; there’s an active debate on the internet over whether paid reviews are legit, or worth it, or whether the formerly respected Kirkus still deserves its reputation.
Publisher’s Weekly, which nobody reads except librarians, reviews indie titles; they formerly had a paid service, but now do it for free, but also reject around 90% of submissions. I think it’s worth it to go for it (considering it costs nothing but time), but the ironic thing is that I may be ineligible because I actually have a publisher, whereas their indie reviews are apparently focused on self-published titles. At least as far as they are concerned, I’m in a sort of no-man’s land between the Big Three and the self-pubbed.
If nothing else, Twitter and Facebook ads are likely to make enough of a return to pay for themselves. I’ll probably prepare something on that front, at least.
I’ve not been too active here lately, I realize. I’m trying to figure out some things on the book promotion front. I’m new to this, and arguably behind, as there were probably more things I should have done before the publication, but this isn’t something I’ve done before.
Anyway, author John C. Wright was nice enough to give Jake and the Dynamo a plug. You can see it here. He also showcases some of the art by Roffles Lowell.
Speaking of Lowell, he informs me that he just finished the book himself, which he didn’t have the chance to read in its final form before publication. He writes:
I’m really blown away, man. I’ve been itching to see what you did in terms of revision, and while I’m only halfway through as of the time of this writing, I want to commend you. The improvement I’m seeing blows me away.
It’s funny, reading it the first time around I never said to myself, oh, this is a problem, or this seems amateurish, etc. But you really brought this to the next level. The pacing is tighter, the characterizations are sharper, the banter flows more naturally. I like how organically you integrated the exposition into each scene, so that all the intricacies of the setting fill themselves in gradually, never making you feel like you’re pausing for a history lesson. I especially like the way you worked up the relationship between Jake and Ralph. Ralph’s family being fleshed out further really gives a good feel for what normality in this world must be like. It gives you a better sense of what goes through Jake’s head when he sets himself up like a surrogate brother to Dana, despite her behavior towards him. …
… I really like how you brought out the Faust elements more explicitly here than in the serialized version. The ambiguity wasn’t fruitful, I think, and now things are much punchier. It’s like you confront postmodern magical girl nihilism head on, and then move right along into subverting it.
So there you have it. If you do read the book, be so kind as to leave an Amazon review. I don’t ask for a good review, of course, but do leave a remark. It helps us newbs get noticed.
And remember, only you can change that!
Er, wait …
The latest:
I was grinning throughout. I always like when the potential for an interesting premise is taken advantage of. This is well done here. Lots of room for laughs and an over-the-top running gag added to this. What I really liked was that this novel could be hilarious while also making fighting scenes meaningful. There are consequences and you come to care for the characters. This is something I rarely see. The battles are not just plot points.
Managed to squeeze in some slight advancement on the book in between other things tonight.
So far I’m 88% complete on the Writing phase. 11 Weeks remain until the deadline.
Our Tumblr page is, admittedly, mostly a mirror of the WordPress blog, though there will probably be at least a little more activity there in the near future. If you’d like to see it, take a gander, and if you prefer it to WordPress, remember it’s an option.
I’m in the process of revamping things over here. My Patreon account was previously all but dead, mostly because I had made the transition from writing a web novel to writing a for-real novel.
I’m not going beg my readers for handouts, but it seems kind of dumb for creators not to have Patreon and PayPal accounts these days, since they’re so easy to set up. Links to mine are both in the sidebar.
Since I’m no longer producing a web serial, I have changed my setup on Patreon from per-product to per-month donations. When I did that, I noticed that it automatically switched existing patrons to the new plan, which is kind of a jackass thing to do, so I sent a message off letting subscribers know about the change. I was just going to drop existing patrons—well, patron, in my case—and start over, but I couldn’t figure out how to do that.
I have this new book progress widget in the sidebar, and it allows me to generate progress posts automatically.
I have arbitrarily set the novel’s “goal” length at 90,000 words, with a deadline in three months. There’s actually no hard deadline from my publisher, and I have freedom on the book’s length.
But in any case, the novel now stands at 77,385 words, which is where I’m stopping for the day, because I have other things to get done. I managed, at last, to unite together some chapters I had written separately, so everything currently in the draft is continuous from one end to the next. I’ve little doubt that everything I wrote today requires substantial editing, but such is life.
I just made progress on Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites! So far I’m 84% complete on the Writing phase. 11 Weeks remain until the deadline.
I’ve added a couple of features to the blog; it remains to be seen if I keep them, as this blog is already heavy with add-ons.
You’ll notice a new option in the menu at the top, one for “books.” This will take you to a book table that hosts individual pages for all my books including laudatory quotes, links to online stores, cover art, sample chapters, and so forth. There’s only one book in it right now, of course, but that will change.
There’s also a new widget in the sidebar to track my writing progress on the sequel. I’m hoping it will serve as a motivator.
I’m 75,000 words into Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites, the sequel to The Wattage of Justice. It looks as if the second book is going to be considerably longer than the first one, as there’s still a lot of story to deal with.
Both books are similar in that, at least from the author’s perspective, it’s all about trying to get the characters to a certain place. The writing of the first novel was driven entirely by my desire to get Jake and Dana to a restaurant. The second is driven by my desire to get them to a rock concert.
