Blog
Galactic Mage Book Two – Cover Art Underway
So, because I am the luckiest bastard on the planet when it comes to cover artists extraordinaire (took me three stabs to spell that, oh you cursed squiggly red line you!), I can now officially announce that cover art is underway for Rift in the Races (book 2 of The...
My Take on Indie Publishing – 90 Days After Releasing The Galactic Mage Book One
Well here I sit, exactly three months since putting out my book, and I am completely blown away. I cannot believe how unfathomably cool readers are, how cool people who read ebooks in particular are. The completely mind-blowing acceptance of indie authors in the...
A Technological Assault on My Science Fiction Sales: The Ghost in the Gears at Amazon
So there I was, minding my own business—literally, I mean, selling books is my business, and I mind when they don’t sell—and poof, books just stopped selling all of a sudden. The Galactic Mage has been blowing off the e-shelves for weeks, and, Tuesday morning I got up...
Music for Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction
The topic of “music while you write” came up the other day, so I thought I’d write about it briefly from my experience and then share what songs I've been writing to. In a perfect writing world for me, absolute silence would prevail. I would count the crash of surf or...
Update on The Galactic Mage Sequel
I've been getting inquiries about the sequel recently, so I thought I’d post a status update here so it’s easy to find. Hopefully this will answer some of the things people are asking for, particularly those who email at night (fantasy and sci-fi readers are such...
Fantasy and Science Fiction Book Reviews: A Matter of Industry Respect
Getting book reviews is hard. That’s what I have learned after having my book out for the last two months. And since I’ve spent most of my life in sales and marketing, I know how valuable marketing is. You can write an amazing masterpiece, but if nobody ever reads it,...
The Galactic Mage Climbing Amazon Top Ten Lists
What an amazing ride this has turned out to be. What was just a leap of faith has turned into a wild ride that is fun and fascinating. I keep waiting for the bottom to fall out; in fact, I have been afraid to say anything or do anything for two weeks now, so sure that...
Auction Yard: A New Novella by John Daulton
My new novella, Auction Yard, is up for Kindle and Nook. I debated making a paperback edition available, but I think I’ll wait until I have a collection of three novellas at least. I think there’s way too much time and expense involved in the paperback version to make...
Starting the Sequel Requires Going Back to the Future. Seriously.
One of the coolest things about writing for profit (or at least, writing in hopes of not losing too much) is that, in rare moments, you get to do things that make it feel like you actually get one over on The Man. You know, stuff that makes it seem like you might...
Selling Science Fiction and Fantasy on Amazon: Flying Blind When It Comes to the Details
Well, the book is launched and it’s selling far better than I had hoped, so I am very happy. My first sales goal was to try to get to 1000 copies sold before November (the earliest possible date for the sequel), because having that number—based on what I’ve read—is...