The Health and Safety novella is too short!

Alright, I've had a few people ask me if I would expand on Health and Safety. People seem to be enjoying it and those who I've spoken with would prefer it to be a full novel, as it has the plot potential. I've gotten three nice reviews so far, which have made me quite happy. It's nice to have somehow uncovered this hidden talent. So, yes, I will expand it into a full novel, but not yet.

Right now I'm working on another novel which hasn't been named yet, but it is a psychological-mystery-thriller. (These genres all confuse me.)  Once I'm done the first draft and send it off to the editor's, I'll work up the full length version of Health and Safety.

I've checked with Amazon and although those who have purchased an eBook are eligible to receive an updated version in some circumstances (minor edits, small additions, etc). This however, would not be one of those circumstances. When I release the full novel, I'll leave the price really low for those of you who have already purchased the novella, then I'll jack up the price to some ridiculously high amount, like $4.99 or something.

On another topic, there has been a bit of bad news from the editor in regards to The Connected: Origin of the Sleepers. It needs a lot of work. I'm thinking about doing a rewrite, as this was the project that got me started on the path of writing and I really want it to make it to publication. It's just not ready. But, that's why we have editors!

If you're an indie author considering going the self-publication route, get an editor. This is not an option. Your work will be released unfinished and people notice. If you can't take constructive criticism, you may be plagued to the bowels of the Amazon Kindle database where only the occasional eBook, if you're lucky, will sell.

And the reviews are in...

On June 18, 2012, I published Health and Safety on Amazon KDP. Just like I did with all of the little short stories about A Cat Named Mouse, I sent off a tweet, wrote a little blog post, hit up some forums - the usual.

But reviews have been slow across the board and that has been getting me down. I don't consider myself to be an author. I'm just some guy that puts a bunch of words together and hope they make a sentence. If I'm really lucky, those random sentences even form a plot.

I enjoyed writing Health and Safety and I ended it on a bit of a cliffhanger. It's really meant to be a primer to a much larger novel. As it stands, Health and Safety is just under fifty pages. Like the Mouse series, I wrote it while waiting for my pride and joy novel, The Connected: Origin of the Sleepers to be edited.

Today, after finishing my business cards, I checked the QR code on the sample card to make sure it would take people to the right book.  I noticed something. I had two reviews!

Here is the first one, titled: Funny, thought-provoking novella! 5 Stars
And the second review, actually made me cry. I literally cried when I read it. I needed that so badly after the week I've been having.

The title of the second review: More talent, creativity, and originality in under fifty pages than many authors present with an epic. 4 Stars


I'm still kind of teary-eyed after having read these reviews. Maybe I'm going through male-menopause....

Health and Safety

I've just published a new novella, Health and Safety for Amazon Kindle.  It will be free on June 20, 2012. Otherwise, it's $2.99.  It's about 45 pages or 12k words long.

The main character is Les (somewhat modeled after myself).  He suffers from anxiety that keeps getting worse and worse as time goes on. Wildly implemented rules and regulations are exaggerated for effect. There are some humorous little quips thrown in, but the theme of the story is how one person tries their hardest to follow all of the rules of society, but in reward, is gifted by endless amounts of ridicule, anxiety and the stigma of having a mental illness.

Enjoy the read and please review it (good or bad, honesty matters!)

EDIT: I've continued the free promotion until June 23rd!

A Cat Named Mouse - Prequel

Since I have opted to include all of my works in Amazon's KDP Select, I'm not able to publish them elsewhere (they're listed here).  Except this one. The prequel to the series. A Cat Named Mouse.

Enjoy.

I have lived here in this old farmhouse for many human years, but the memories of my early days are largely fragmented. My adoptive parents and their child had dubbed me Mouse. While I’m still not entirely certain why they had chosen this name for me, I do have my suspicions.

I'm getting old now and I don't have the energy to travel about like I once did, searching for life's meaning. The best that I can do is share my experiences, so that others who are seeking the truth may find some answers from the life that I have lived. With the help of Felix’s catnip, I try to tell these stories in the same frame of mind as I was in when the memories were being recorded in my mind. I must however confess; in my youth I was much more vulgar than I am now.

I have had many dreams and revelations during recent nights, which have slowly been unraveling the mystery of my existence. Felix has been doling out well-timed distributions of catnip and I still believe that I am going through a transformation; yet achieving my ultimate desires seems to be eluding me. My dreams are the only methods I have left that allow me to explore. Walking is difficult, my bones ache terribly. I'm plagued by endless exhaustion. Felix has aged more gracefully, not participating in the daredevil escapades that I have. I don't know what I would do without him.

When Felix and I were young, he was taken away from our family and I sunk into a heavy state of depression. The days became long and unbearable. I could only smell the scent of despair; the sweet aromas of pleasant reality would not return until months after my adoption.

For weeks, I would sit perched on the windowsill, fighting to see through the collection of tears, carefully searching for Felix to return, but he never did. My heart was broken and my love for life was torn apart as my best friend vanished from my realm of reality. Fate betrayed me; I thought we had an understanding and the pain I felt from the loss of Felix was unacceptable.

One by one, my brothers and sisters were each taken away by oddly-smelling strangers and their snotty-nosed kids. Each abduction jabbed a splinter into my being, spreading apart my naïve views on life and revealing a darkness over my understandings. Yet none hurt quite as much as the moment I watched helplessly as Felix was stuffed into a tiny cage and carried off. They even took my little red ball.

Time lagged on until it was just mother and me. She did her best to keep my spirits up. I would often awake to her grooming me, keeping me clean and warm as I spent most of my time in a depressive sleep. I would never be cared for like that again.

As the weeks ticked by, I fell into comfort knowing that my birth mother would always be there for me. Then, one cool spring night, as I dozed in and out of wakefulness, listening to the soft rain drumming on the roof, my world became smaller still.

I fought desperately, trying to avoid being stuffed into my own portable jail cell, while my mother hid away under an antique pedestal table, watching on as I too was being abducted. She never said a word. She didn’t even try to stop them from taking her last remaining child.

I have never cried as much as I did that night, as they took me away from my mother and my home. My cage was placed on the lap of a young boy as the three captors drove their truck away. I was so young and I had no idea where I was being taken to. Even today, I doubt very much that I could ever find my way back to my mother. I had decided in my mind that it is better for me to accept this and yesterday, I held a memorial service for her, finally letting go of all hope from any reunion.

I spent several weeks hiding from the humans in my new prison. Their dog, Jethro really got on my nerves, sticking his nose where it didn’t belong. When the family eventually gave me some privacy and free reign, I spent the time looking out the window, across the yard at their two pigs, Philly and Lilly, who were kept fenced in along the side of a big old red barn.

Behind the barn, over a dozen chickens played around in the hard dirt that was covered with chicken feed. My depression slowly subsided as I watched Jethro, in his daily ritual, hopping into the chicken cage, chasing them all over the place. His long tongue, hung out of his mouth, flapping around as he ran back and forth. He could never stick to chasing one chicken for very long, as his attention would be grabbed by other frightened chickens running by. They looked terribly afraid.

It had been a long time since I smiled, but my mood was forever tarnished by witnessing the repeated abductions of my siblings and by my own kidnapping. I would never forgive the humans, but that didn’t stop me from wanting to be one of them.

After a couple of months being in confinement within my new adoptive parents’ house, I was finally allowed outside. Their kid, Ricky, was the one who insisted on letting me roam free, but his mom decided I required a harness and a leash. Although embarrassed to be seen by the other animals under control of the humans, I reluctantly agreed to their degrading demands.

I laid in the grass, next to a stone bird bath in the front yard, I was invigorated by the thousands of different scents. It was so quiet, so peaceful. Everyone was happy, except me. I still had feelings of anger towards the humans, but if I wanted to return to my birthplace, I would need to gain their trust. This turned out to be more difficult than I imagined.

I was allowed outside with Ricky every day and after each excursion, I began to grow fonder of him and his parents. Jethro wasn’t so bad either; he stopped sniffing me so often, giving me a little bit of much needed privacy. I even got to meet Philly and Lilly. They were pretty much stinking idiots and mostly kept to themselves.

Our next door neighbor had an old farmhouse too. He was tall and old. His wrinkles filled up with dirt very quickly, making his face very dark. He spent a lot of time drinking whiskey on his front deck, with his dog named Doug. From what I understood by the other animals’ actions, he and his dog were to be avoided and even Ricky kept away from them.

One day, as I sat outside in the grass, Ricky got permission from Mom to release me from my confines of the metal leash. My heart raced as I was about to realize my newfound freedom. My eyes were opened wide. I perked my ears up to listen to the most optimal direction to flee. Then I heard the click and my harness relaxed around me.

I stood up, completely free, but I couldn’t run. I couldn’t leave another home. I kind of liked it here. Ricky was nice. I even called his parents, Mom and Dad. The other animals made me laugh, a lot and I really needed that. As much as I missed my birth family, I felt accepted here and I couldn’t betray my new family’s trust.

Weeks had gone by and I hadn’t seen the harness or the leash since the day that I sat outside and Ricky released it. I was lying outside alone in the soft grass. It had been a while since Ricky had mowed it last, so the blades of grass weren’t very prickly.

“Mouse?” said a voice in the distance.

I recognized that voice. My heart fluttered as I came to the realization of who it was.

“Felix!”

I ran up to him, catching his scent and verifying my assumptions. We rubbed up against each other. I can’t describe the feelings that I experienced as well as I would like, but having been so upset with fate over our separation, I finally felt relief that life was not against me.

“What are you doing here, Mouse?” Felix said.

“I live here. How did you find me?”

“I live down the road. My new parents are really nice. They let me go for walks on my own.”

“I haven’t left the yard, yet,” I said, holding back my tears of joy, “I missed you, bro.”

“I missed you too.”

We spent the morning catching up. Felix had a step-sister now. Her name was Belle and she was a bit younger than us. I couldn’t wait to meet her. His new parents had a couple kids of their own. Their oldest boy had gotten Felix addicted to catnip. I wasn’t too pleased having heard about his drug problem, but I never held it against him.

The weeks and months passed by, bringing us new experiences that we would never forget. As I grew older, I became upset with the rules and restrictions that my parents had placed on me. My attitude changed. My jealousy over their lives as humans propelled my own desires to transform once again, but that wish had seemed forever out of my grasp. Fate appeared to be teasing me.

Felix dropped by one summer afternoon as I was curled up on a heap of hay in the old barn’s hayloft, “Hey, Mouse. Did you give any thought to my offer?”

“Yeah, I’ll do it. Do you really think I’ll get some insight into the transformation?”

“Definitely. In fact, the memories of your past will become stronger.”

I had given it a lot of thought. Felix was kind to not pressure me and encouraged me to come to the decision on my own. I took a deep breath as Felix spread out some catnip on the floor of the hayloft.

“So what do I do?” I said, unsure of how to begin the process.

“Just inhale. Your body will do the rest.”

He was right. I felt my mind open up as reality became clearer. I couldn’t hold back the love that I had for the catnip. I dove into the pile as Felix watched, laughing. I rolled around. Pieces of catnip clung to my fur. Then the memories came rushing back.

“Was I really a Mouse?” I said.

“If that’s what your mind tells you, then it must be true.”

“Maybe I’m delusional, maybe I don’t really exist at all. What if life is just a dream and the catnip just brings me closer to understanding this reality?”

“You can’t analyze it like that. You’ll become paranoid, delusional and eventually, your realization of life will slip away and you’ll cease to exist. Just enjoy the trip,” Felix said, trying to comfort me and pull me back into a semi-lucid state of existence.

The feelings brought forth from the catnip persisted for hours. After the initial shock of losing control of my mind, things became startlingly obvious. My desire to transform, to become human, was eclipsed only by my wish to understand my past, my previous life as a Mouse. My name could not have been given to me for any other reason than to elicit the memories of my infinite transitions.

There must be some deeper meaning to life than only the persistence of matter changing from state to state, collecting into forms that allowed for the culmination of conscious observations by the universe as it experienced itself. My struggle for understanding ultimately led to my own demise, as the simple, day to day events that would transpire caused frustrations and the feeling that I was battling fate.

I fought back against my own mind in an attempt to maintain some semblance of normalcy. As time passed, Felix helped my change from a cat that wished to understand the meaning of life, to one that focused on achieving its desires. Months of catnip experiences trickled by, until one day I felt my life fading away during a period of heavy usage. Terrified that I would lose my chance to transform, I gave up the nip.

Now I am old. I continue to find myself jealous and resentful of my adoptive family. My attitude towards them has continued to strain our relationship. I am constantly frustrated by their habits. I had learned at a young age, that while I posses the ability to communicate, they either do not care or they cannot understand me. These stories that I share happened many years ago and chronicle my progression through life.

Felix, my brother and closest friend, has been with me throughout my struggles. While he may use nip religiously, I will never hold that against him. He has been supportive in my quest to change who I am and I don’t think that he has any idea how much he truly means to me. He is more than family. He is more than a friend. He is made up of the same matter as I am; matter that has been drifting through space, sent from the bowels of an exploding star and collecting together in this tiny part of the universe.

So why do I feel so alone?

Father's Day Results

So before Father's Day, my stats were sitting at a meager two sales and eighteen free downloads. Now, I've sold another nine shorts and 368 free downloads across my portfolio.

...but not one review.  This is the sad part. It seems like getting people to review the books, good or bad, is like pulling teeth. I've never pulled teeth myself, but I'm sure I'd enjoy pulling somebody else's.

The Connected: Origin of the Sleepers is still being edited. Man, what a process. Haven't even started collaborating on cover ideas. Best to be patient though, I want this book to be perfect (or as perfect as it can be.)

Summer is just around the corner and my wife and I will be traveling to Nova Scotia to take pictures of all of the old places where I grew up. Thinking about putting together some sort of then/now type book for cheap. Photo books are not easy though, especially since I shoot in RAW with my Canon 5D-MkII and would have to edit every single one of them.

I've got some crappy photos on DeviantArt if you every want to laugh. I'm getting better though! :D

Father's Day is Coming!

In honor of Father's day, I've set a few books as free on kindle staring Saturday, June 16, 2012. You can check them out here.
How to Swear Like a Pro will be free Sunday, June 17.
A Cat Named Mouse: Rescue, Vol. 8 is free Saturday and Sunday.
A Cat Named Mouse: Nine Lives, Vol. 7 will be free Saturday and Sunday.  This book is written in a backwards style, kind of like the movie Memento.
A Cat Named Mouse: The Birthday Wish, Vol. 6 is also free on Saturday and Sunday.
A Cat Named Mouse: Field Trip, Vol. 5 free Saturday and Sunday.
A Cat Named Mouse: New Toy, Vol. 3 also free Saturday and Sunday.
A Cat Named Mouse: Bad Doug, Vol. 2 Yup, free on Saturday and Sunday.

Non-free books are:
A Cat Named Mouse: Pig Hunt, Vol. 1 $0.99
A Cat Named Mouse $0.99 (A Prequel) Which can also be found here for free.
A Cat Named Mouse: Collected Works Volumes 1-5 $2.99 (Approx 13,000 words)

These free books are short stories, between 2500 and 6000 words. Quick 20-25 minute reads and perfect for a public transit commute to work or school, perhaps even great for a lunch time read.

If you like them, review them. If you don't like them, review them. Just be honest with your reviews. Some people really like the books, while others aren't quiet sure about them. You be the judge!

More volumes will be added after the summer months, as I've been working intently on a couple different genre novels.

Enjoy!

KDP Select - A New Self-publisher's Experience

I published my first short story (A Cat Named Mouse: Pig Hunt, Vol. 1) back on April 20th, 2012. I was actually curious about the KDP Select program so I started writing a few shorts - to practice the publishing process. I've been surprised at the reception of the books. Definitely not best sellers, but they're selling. I used a pen name, Nick James, as the style of writing is not reflective of what I would prefer to be associated with (Sci-Fi, Dystopian).  In fact, I've used more vulgarity in those books than I had in my 32 years of life.

I've since published ten more shorts and they have all been selling (8 more Mouse volumes, a collected works and a How-To book). The KDP Select program allows me the option of selecting five days in which to give the books away for free.  In return, I must make the books available through Amazon exclusively for 90 days.  I've enrolled all but one of the books in this program.  I've given away over 700 books so far this month.  I'm not certain if the freebies have resulted in any sales.  The majority of the books are sitting at around the 500k rank on the sellers list. The How-To book is around number 10 in the speech category and 80k overall, but it just finished the freebie promotion, so those numbers will unfortunately climb.

The one book that I didn't enroll in KDP Select was a prequel that I wrote in the beginning of May. I put it on a different site for free, to see if there is any difference in sales. You can find it here.  For the month of May, it actually sold the most (4 copies as of the 30th).

From what I understand, the KDP Select program allows premium users the ability to borrow books. I'm not entirely certain how it works, but from what I gather, they can borrow one book a month. Amazon puts up a fund of about $600k, then at the end of the month they tally up how many books were borrowed through the library and the authors get a share of the fund. I think the average amount that Amazon pays the authors for each borrow is around $1.50.

Of all my books, I received my first borrows on my most recent upload, How to Swear Like a Pro. Two borrows the day after it came off of a three-day free run. It actually had the most downloads of all my free giveaways too, at almost 300 in three days. (Not that I expect many people who have downloaded actually read it - there seems to be a lot of collectors).

Here is May's report so far:

Combating Low Sales

While having a book become a best seller overnight is probably possible, for the majority of us indie authors, it most likely will not happen. That doesn't mean that our books are all trash, but we really need to work at getting them out there.

I was pleased when I started receiving reviews on my books.  A friend actually reviewed one of my first books and I told him to not review any others as it didn't show up as a verified purchase. I had let him read a word file before I published.  While I have been tempted to pay for reviews, I have decided against it in order to see how far an indie author can go on as little upfront cash as possible.  So I just sat back and waited for the reviews.

After a while, it was nice to see a lot of five star reviews. I've had a couple four stars and a three star as well, which I'm actually pleased about. For a new series of short stories, when a potential reader looks through the reviews, they will see good, honest opinions and I think that matters more than just a bunch of five stars.

I would like to get a couple sales each day, so I've been looking at what I can do better for the books.  I've been tempted to top the series at ten, make a collected work of ten short stories and sell it at the cost of two shorts ($1.98), then only publish collections of short stories.  We'll see how that goes.

My titles were a little vague as well. Originally each book was titled: Mouse, Subtitle.  I've since changed them to A Cat Named Mouse: Subtitle, Vol. #.

I also noticed that my covers were causing a bit of confusion among some of the forums where I had posted them for critiques.

The first cover:

I did a search on Google for Photoshop Movie Poster Tutorials and sifted through hundreds of different styles before finding a few that I could use. The text for Mouse was done separately, the background was the most time consuming and the image was made by my good friend, Nancy.

The problem that surfaced the most was that people weren't sure what Mouse was. Was he a cat or a mouse? Also, the volume number was a bit small for their liking.

Instead of shoving aside their ideas, I went with their experience and made some changes - not only to the cover, but to the title of the book as well.




The new cover:

When I started writing the series, I wasn't writing them with any goal in mind, other than testing the waters of self-publishing.

I decided to clean up the cover and bring in the feeling of country life that the books were giving.  The new title, A Cat Named Mouse seemed to have an effect immediately and I made a few more sales. Although the title of each volume is still a bit too small for my liking, I haven't had the time to go through all of the covers to redo them as people have been pushing me to write more.

I've decided to slow down the pace of publishing and lengthen the shorts from 2500 words to 5000+ words.  Since the minimum price that Amazon allows is $0.99, I want people to get value for their money.

Marketing

So with the newly revised covers, I decided to do a bit of marketing.  I came up with a business card design that was cheap and simple.  I added a QR code with a small write up: Experience the world through the eyes of a vulgar cat named Mouse.

The code takes people to my author page on Amazon, where they can sift through my various works.

Handy for posters or business cards.









I also started a twitter account and have been following people with the various #followback hash tags.  Using bit.ly, I added my author page to my profile description and people have been clicking on it.  So far I'm maxed out at 2001 people that I've followed and I have about 1400 followers.  My tweets were promoting the free days for How to Swear Like a Pro and after the end of the promotion, I just went back to tweeting humorous quips, with a small bit.ly link to the book.  Seems to be generating some clicks.

I need to go through my followers and remove those who haven't followed me back, so I can get past the magic 2000 number.  I think there is a ratio involved, where I need around 2000 followers before I can follow more.

I've also started a Facebook fan page for the Mouse series which has 26 fans and in each of the books, I have links to the fan page as well as to the other books in the series.

Conclusion

While I had hoped that the books would sell a few copies each day, they are selling, which is nice to see.  If the books do not ever achieve a best seller status, having a lot of books might at least make up for it.  Time will tell.

My novel, The Connected: Origin of the Sleepers, is still being edited and I've been going over cover ideas with some graphic designers. I haven't decided on a price yet, but I'm leaning towards $3.99 for the ~80k word novel.  I'm not sure if people have been shying away from $0.99 books, having been inundated with poor quality reads from other indie authors, but only time will tell. Perhaps my short stories are part of the $0.99 problem?