Project Overload

Well, we have passed the midpoint of Nanowrimo and I have very little to show for it. Oops. I do have a number of new story ideas that I would like to pursue. But until I get Phoenix Triumphant finished and the Baltic Gambit done, I will not start other projects. No, really. I promise I won't.

One item that sidetracked me was pulling Hunting Season out of KDP Select. I have tried to clean up the formatting and run it through ProWritingAid again and will be uploading it soon. Maybe even today. However, PWA is crashing on me today. I think it is due to an acute caffeine deficiency and the computer equivalent.

Edit: Yep, Hunting Season is wide now.

Well, back to writing.

The Phoenix Gambit

Well, thanks to Rukia, I had a pretty good launch for book 5. I will leave the book up at .99 until this weekend. Like all good things, that must come to an end and the price will go back up. I am thinking of keeping it in line with the other books and putting it at $1.99.

Book 6 -Phoenix Triumphant is coming along nicely. The book has taken some turns that have surprised me as I am going along. We shall see the return of a pair of characters that have been absent for a few books. I am playing with cover ideas earlier in the process and may have something to show later this month.

Anyway, back to writing.

CSS Appomattox 4th Anniversary

I just checked and it has been 4 years since I first published CSS Appomattox. It doesn't seem to be that long ago. In honor of the anniversary, I did a bit of polishing on the book (minor edits and some layout changes). This is the 3rd real edition of the book since I first released it. The most significant change is moving the world description to the back of the book and letting it start with the story. In several of the reviews, I had received complaints about that. Hopefully, this will help.

I am also doing some work on the third book in that series (Black Sea Peril). I think I will commit to a February 2019 release date. At this point I have 1/4th of it written. The story is progressing nicely but it is fighting for space on the writing desk with the New Glasgow War series which just may turn into a 9 part instead of 6 part series.

Anyway, I just wanted to take a moment to celebrate the anniversary of the book. October is just one of those months that I seen to release books in. With The Phoenix Gambit being released this month and a year ago, I released Out of the Ashes.

Happy reading everyone.

Stellar Service Recognized - Rukia

I have done a number of book launches with Rukia publishing. I added their logo on the right hand side of the page. Every time I work with them, they tirelessly promote my book, build my mailing list and look for new ways to get the word out. I am terrible at the advertising side of things. But they are really good. Has my book hit in the top 100 rankings of Amazon with their help - no, but I don't think they every will. But they sure do try to make that happen.

I have grown my mailing list by nearly 200% since starting to work with them and it is still growing. The books always get a good bump in sales and I now have all sorts of followers on BookBub that I didn't know I could have. All in all, it is always money well spent. Of all of the services that I have tried, I always have a positive return on investment with Rukia. Give them a try, you will be glad you did.

DriveThruFiction

I have been using one of their sister sites for years. DriveThruFiction is something I tried a few years ago and am giving it another go again. All five books of the New Glasgow War series are live there now. https://www.drivethrufiction.com/browse.php?author=CN%20Stoesen

I am a fan of the site and will be looking into porting a few more items there over time. Swing on by and take a look at their site.

Online Retailers for E-Books

I was just curious as to which online retailers that you use for books. I am conducting my second experiment with putting some books wide. Thus far I am concentrating on my science fiction series - The New Glasgow War.

Besides Amazon, I have also put books up on:
Drive Thru Fiction
Google Play - Which their search engine is not returning anything on the books they claim are live today.... hmmmm.
Barnes & Noble
Apple
Kobo
Scribd
Tolino
24Symbols
Playster
OverDrive
Bibliotheca
Baker & Taylor

Most of the above I am doing through the Draft 2 Digital service. It is pretty handy as I would not be able to upload to Apple without them. Are there other services that you use? Do you use any of the above? I'd love to hear back from you as to your favorites.

Personally, I use Amazon, Google Play and Playster.

Phoenix Gambit is Live

Phoenix Gambit went live on the 22nd of October. It is off and running.

Book 6 of the series is well on its way. I am 1/5th of the way through the first draft and look to have it released by the end of November. The working title is Phoenix Triumphant. That's right, I actually have a title well before the release. Next up is a cover. I have some ideas on that front as well.

For the Thomas Devareaux fans out there, fear not, I haven't forgotten about the series. The next book, Black Sea Peril is in progress. I am making steady progress daily on it and look to have a release by first quarter next year (2019). No cover ideas yet. I am thinking of something involving the Ottoman Navy circa 1890. We will see what I can find.

Anyway, back to the keyboard. Until next time, take care.

Help Wanted - There are Free Books Involved.

I love that iconic image. Uncle Sam pointing his finger out at you asking for help. Well, I could use a bit of help. Most importantly, I really could use some reviews on my books. If you have done a review on one of my books and are interested in doing another, please think about enrolling in my Advanced Review Copy group. I created a sign up form for it here: https://goo.gl/forms/GYp2OjK0NiTpbZbJ2

Please consider it. I would really appreciate it.

CSS Appomattox on Sale

CSS Appomatox is now on sale at Amazon for only $0.99 from now until September 14th.

Check it out today.

Cover for The Phoenix Gambit - Book 5 of the New Glasgow War Series

I finally found an image for the cover that I like. The artist goes by Algolonline on Deposit Photos. This was put together by Phil McClimon for me as a cover. The editing will hopefully be completed by the end of this week for a release date in early September for the book.

I think I may your more of this artists work going forward.

GDPR Frustrations

Well, I am not certain what I need to do to protect myself from the repercussions of this. I am going to suspend the mailing lists until I figure it out. Until further notice, I will not be taking more subscribers to my mailing lists.

Phoenix Rising out on Amazon

The release day was officially yesterday. I am happy to report that it went off almost without a hitch. Of course I found a spelling error in my description on Amazon and it was too late to fix until the book went live. That is now sorted out and looking better.

If you are interested, the book is still just $0.99 in the kindle store until next week.

I have started work on Book 5 which as of yet is untitled. I am still trying to sort out some things but it is starting to come together. If you had a chance to read through Phoenix Rising, I would love to hear from you. Please let me know what you think.

Phoenix Rising is Availible for Pre-Order

Phoenix rising is now out and availible on Amazon. Just taking a moment to breathe a side of relief before jumping into Book 5. Duncan is calling for me to keep her story going.

Please let me know what you think about the new book and cover.

Updates

I have now officially sold 1000 copies of CSS Appomattox. Thank you all.

More importantly, for the short term, I have a cover for Phoenix Rising: A Story of the New Glasgow War. A friend of mine, Phil McClimon made for me. I really like it.

Hopefully, this is going to inspire me to finish my editing quickly.

Milestone Almost Reached

I just checked my book report settings. I am one sale away from having sold 1000 Kindle copies of CSS Appomattox. Now that is not a big deal for many folks as I know of authors who are selling that many per day. But for me, it's pretty cool.

The series has done pretty well. The second book in the series has not done nearly as well. Once I finish the third book in the series, I will be looking at repackaging the series to try to get more exposure for it.

In order to celebrate the milestone, anyone who reaches out to me that has not received a copy of Honor Restored, I will send you a PDF of it right away. It occurs immediately after the events of The Last Airship from Khartoum and resolves Almond's story.

Anyway, I just wanted to celebrate for a moment, even if it is prematurely. Now back to editing.

Fighting Through the Editing

I am fighting my way through the editing of the New Glasgow War book 4. I actually have made good progress the past three days. Hopefully I will be able to complete the editing within a week or so. The challenge will be to come up with a cover as good as the previous three.

I should hit the halfway point by tomorrow at the latest. Onward and upward.

Phoenix Rising - Book 4 of the New Glasgow War Series

I just completed the first draft of the book. I started editing it right away. I am trying to release in early February. The story continues with Duncan and Dietler engaging a new enemy. The book is twice as long as any of the first three in the series. I hope to have it availible for beta readers next week. We will see how that goes.

I still have to come up with a cover though. I am trying to decide on one. I am trying to look for something interesting.

The New Glasgow War Omnibus is live on Amazon

I sent out an announcement earlier about the omnibus edition but was a bit too early. It seems Amazon didn't like the paperback cover and it took me four tries to get it right. But now, it is live on Amazon.

Aaron did the cover for me again with the image from Book 3. It was my favorite that he has done so far. So far the kindle version has done rather well. It is $2.99 and includes books one through three of the series.

I am hard at work on book four of the series and have now expanded it to embrace nine total books in the series. The plan it to release monthly. I suspect that plan will fail at some point in this process. it means that I need to have a finished draft of book 4 before the end of next week. And for it to have a cover that I haven't talked to Aaron about.

Anyway, progress is being made. For the Alternate History fans out there, don't worry, Thomas Devareaux will be back. I am working on finishing book 3 of the series by this summer. In the fall, I plan on launching a new Alt History series based in the Seven Years war following a freikorps.

Anyway, Happy New Year to one and all. I hope 2018 treats us well.