Marketing – Page 15 – Teel McClanahan

Cheating, Death – chapter 2

I’ve just finished writing chapter 2 and posting it to Smashwords. For the 5 of you who had already downloaded chapter 1, please just grab the most recent copy – you’ll see 3 updates in quick succession; I was just trying to get all the formatting right. It should only take 1 try for future chapters, I think I’ve got a workflow that will give consistent results.

Did you need a synopsis? It’s only ~4500 words so far, and it’s still completely free; just go read it. And then tell me what you think.

Go read Cheating, Death now.

Cheating, Death – chapter 1

Go read Cheating, Death now.

Yesterday, I finally started work on my new novel, Cheating, Death. As I’ve been working toward, as soon as the first chapter was done, I got to work getting it set up on Smashwords. My idea is to write the book “live” on Smashwords; to make the rough draft available to readers as it unfolds. The first few chapters will be free, and after a certain point I’ll gradually start increasing the price so that by the time the book is fully written, the eBook will cost full price. Because of the way Smashwords handles versioning and rights, once you’ve paid for an eBook you have access to it no matter what the price gets updated to or how many times the text is modified – in fact, you actually get to choose which version of the book to download, if it’s been updated since you purchased it. So whatever price you pay, whenever you purchase it, you don’t have to pay again and you get access to all future updates, including the final one.

I plan to update the book on Smashwords every time I finish a chapter (or if I’m on a roll, at the end of each writing session with any completed chapters). I expect to finish the book by Halloween at the latest (because NaNoWriMo starts at midnight on Halloween), and perhaps as soon as the end of next week, if the story really flows out. (One time I wrote a book over a long weekend, so there’s no telling, maybe I’ll be done by Monday.) Your feedback on the novel-in-progress is appreciated. Feedback on the content, the grammar, spelling, the unlikable characters, whatever – anything is welcome. I’d like to get the thing in as good a shape as possible while I’m writing it.

I plan on doing as much of the back-end work as possible while writing it (plus I’ve already got the cover almost finished, and I’ve just put together several pages on modernevil.com for it) so that within a couple of weeks of finishing the first draft, I should have the paperback in hand. Then, with any luck, I’ll start podcasting the audio version of the novel on November 13th – one week after Untrue Tales… Book Three is finished on the Modern Evil Podcast… which should give me podcast content until around mid-January, 2010.

Continue reading Cheating, Death – chapter 1

Cover for ‘Cheating, Death’

I’ve just been working on the cover image for my next book, Cheating, Death. You can see what I’ve come up with, below. This version of the cover is for the eBook, for now – I haven’t written the cover copy yet, assigned ISBNs, et cetera, but I want to publish this book as it is being written, so I needed a cover before I started writing. I’m very nearly through with my zombie “research” -which in this case means reading a bunch of zombie books- and expect to start writing it soon. I’ve actually also been doing a refresher on adultery, since it’s one of the most obvious elements of the book, right after the whole … zombie outbreak thing.

Anyway, your feedback on the cover image is appreciated, if you have any.

Cover image for my upcoming novel, 'Cheating, Death'

Art Fair in N. PHX, 9/12/2009

I’m showing my art & my books this Saturday (tomorrow!) at:

Angel’s Serenity Art Fair
Saturday September 12, 2009, 10:00am – 4:00pm
4839 East Greenway Road (look for Safeway)
Scottsdale AZ, 85254

Please join us!

In addition to myself and other artists, there will be activities for the kids, a free workshop in the back room and a free raffle. The setting is much more relaxed and family friendly than my normal First Friday Art Walk, so you really have a chance to take your time to see everyone’s art, speak to myself (and the other artists) about the art, the books, and more. A few more details:

Free Workshop
Lisa will be providing a free workshop on interpreting your Angel Cards. You’ll find her in Angel’s Serenity’s Backroom from 3:00-3:30pm

Raffles
Stop into Angel’s Serenity and enter to win a Tie Die T-shirt.

Artists
Our artists will include Authors, Painters, Jewelry, Crafts and more!

Activities
There will also have free activity table for the kids including Creating Peace Flags.

Join us!
So, come one out with the whole family and enjoy a day of art, activity and just plain fun!
We hope to see you there!

Thanks!

eBook experiment ending

As you may or may not remember, back near the beginning of June I started an experiment re: eBook pricing. From then until now, all my eBooks have been priced under $2 each. The reduced pricing ends after today (so if you haven’t grabbed your copy of any of my eBooks, today is the last day to take advantage of these reduced prices)…

There are a couple of reasons for this; the main one being what I’d discussed at the outset of the experiment: I wanted to see whether volume of sales would increase with reduced prices. I’d even decided that overall sales volume is more important than overall profit, such that if enough copies were selling at the reduced prices to equal (or improve upon) the amount I was earning before the experiment, I’d keep the lower prices. Sadly, the rate of sales remained about the same at reduced prices as it was at my original pricing.

There’s another important reason, and it relates to some recent news from Smashwords. Starting soon, all eligible eBooks available through Smashwords (all of mine should be eligible) will also be distributed through Barnes & Noble’s eBook channels (including fictionwise &c.). This is great news, puts my books in front of even more potential readers, but it does come with an important caveat: sales through the B&N channels will be subject to the normal retail price cut that booksellers demand, so while Smashwords still pays authors 85% of revenue, for sales through the new channels, that’s probably 85% of 50% of list price. Getting close to the kindle cut there, actually.

Finally, and this isn’t something I’ve already got the answers to, I’m thinking more and more lately about the idea of the value of a book. Regardless of format & delivery method, whether it’s hardback, paperback, audio CDs, an MP3 CD, a PDF, or a .txt file – the thing in common between all of them is the book itself, the IP. So, what’s the value of that IP? What is the value of the book? I’m not sure, and I’m not sure how a proper conception of the value of the book will alter the pricing landscape of the various editions and formats it’s made available in, but for right now I’m leaning in the direction of a “maintaining the value of the IP” position & I want people to know that the value of the book, the IP at the core of whichever format they’re buying, is more than $2.

So tomorrow I’m going to raise the prices of all my eBooks, on Smashwords and for the kindle, back to their full (1/2 paperback) original prices. And soon I’m going to put together a video clarifying why I’ll always offer my books for free.