CSS Appomattox Update

I am closing on five months since the book has gone live. I changed my relationship with Amazon and am no longer exclusive on Kindle. This had a dramatic impact on sales. I think they have dropped by half. Putting the book up on Kobo, Google Play and Nook have gotten me no more than a handful of sales each. Google Play has been better than the other two so far but its only been a month since I changed that.

Still, I am closing in on 900 copies sold. I have not done any more advertising and will not until I finish getting the book professionally edited. So far I am very pleased with my editor. She is doing a fantastic job. Once she is done, I hope I will have a draft of the sequel to throw her way as well. It has been a slow process but I think it has been very good.

In terms of what an author has to work with, I really like the simplicity of the Kobo and Nook author interfaces. They are simple and straightforward. Amazon's are very good and offer much deeper details. Google Play is surprisingly the worst of the bunch. To find out your sales, you have to run a report and open it in Excel. There is not a web interface to show you your sales for the day. There are three reports to choose from.

My attempts to go live on iTunes has been a complete non-starter. In order to upload a book you have to have a mac and their publishing software. It took longer to get to the point where I could (if I had a Mac) upload than any of the others. Amazon by far was the simplest and easiest to get up and going with.

The other site that I originally had the book on was DriveThroughFiction. It is great in terms of reporting that is available. Definitely more cumbersome than Amazon, Nook or Kobo but still better than iTunes. I just brought that listing back alive today.

The Border Crisis

I dipped my hand into an attempt at writing science fiction. If you are interested, the first chapter of The Border Crisis is now up on WriteOn. Swing by and take a look. Feel free to make comments or suggestions. I would really like to hear your thoughts.

Thanks.

UK Reviews, WriteOn and ramblings

I just noticed that I had picked up my second UK review. The first was not so good but his point about the editing of the book was fair. I edited it myself and I am not good at editing. However, I hope to have the book professionally edited soon. (Thank you Allison!)

I have actually been making some progress writing the past two weeks. I have fixed some problems in what I had so far for the sequel and fleshed out another chapter. I think I have the first draft about a quarter of the way done. Then I got side tracked. I am about 2000 words into a science fiction story now. Its is a space opera type of story beginning with a young midshipman leading his first boarding group on a friendly vessel that is not responding to their ship's hail. I am debating putting this up on either the blog or on the Amazon WriteOn site.

Have you heard of WriteOn? Its a cool concept where folks can put up their short stories. A buddy of mine has a story up already. Head on over and check out his story One Night Only. The web interface for mobile devices is not so good yet as it gave the impression of a second page when there is not one. Its a quick read. Stop by and let Phil know I sent you.

Anyway, let me know what you think. Should it be posted here or on WriteOn or save it up till its a full book and pop it up on Amazon?