The True Winner of Game of Thrones

It's been a few months since Game of Thrones ended, I think it's time to point out who was the true winner in the end. We all speculated on who would win at the end of the series, and now we know who it was...

Books.

This series I think proved more than any other the superiority of storytelling in books to movies and television. It's evident through the way the story thrived while following the text, but then faltered and finally failed while on its own.

One might argue that the problem is not with film/television but with the specific writers, but the fact that D & D were the ones who got the job to do this series IS the problem. David Benioff had been the writer of Wolverine: Origins, a spectacular failure. Like so many in Hollywood, he failed upward. Hollywood is based more on who is well-liked and popular rather than who is the right fit. Book writers more often write to their passions.

So, if you want a good story, rather than just going on and on about how much you hate Game of Thrones or Star Wars (of which the GoT writers will now be taking charge,) go read a book. You'll have a better time.

Relic Worlds, Book 3 Will be in Three Parts

The third Relic Worlds book will be releasing the end of next month, but instead of coming out as one full book, I'm releasing it in 3 parts.  Part 1 will release March 23rd at Wondercon.  Part 2 will release three months later, and part 3 will release three months after that.  Then a paperback will be published with all 3 parts included.

The real reason for this, unfortunately, is because I didn't have book 3 as far along as I'd have liked it.  I found that I'd be rushing to get it done in time, despite having 2 years to complete it.  But then it occurred to me that I've always meant to do Relic Worlds as a serial; and with serialized stories doing well on Netflix and Amazon, I thought this would be a good idea.  So I'm releasing it in these three sections with cliffhangers and such.

This will have the added benefit of being spread out over time so more people can learn about it.  In the world of independent publishing, you want to remain in people's faces as much and as long as possible.  So the best thing for me to do is have material spread out over time.

We'll see if that works.  In the meantime, part 1 is now on pre-sale at: Relic Worlds 3, Part 1

My Book About the Vietnam War is Getting Delayed

I'm putting together a book about stories of individuals during the Vietnam War.  The original focus of the book was supposed to be South Vietnamese soldiers.  I then started learning the stories of some American soldiers and went those have to be reported.  And more recently I've learned of stories of civilians, in particular the boat people who tried to escape after the North Vietnamese took over.

As I've been learning these stories I've begun feeling a responsibility as an American and as a human being to put together this book.  It's not a book about the politics or whether or not the war was right or wrong, it's about the lives involved in the conflict, what they experienced, and how it affected them.  I really think people need to read about these things.

It's been hard for me to continue sometimes, however.  While I had great hopes for writing nonfiction and getting it out there to the public, after Two Gun's poor sales, my confidence has waned considerably.  It's not the story or the writing; everyone who talks about it loves it.  But despite their enthusiasm for the book, it's barely made any money.  I literally have to go out to Rotary Clubs and tell everyone the story before people buy it.

Added to this is the fact that I've learned over the past year or so that series are what bring in readers to independent books.  You give them the first one for free, get them on a mailing list, then sell them the rest.  You also get it into a niche audience toward which you can direct all your energy.

So I just don't have a huge amount of hope for the success of this book, or any other book that isn't part of a series.  I feel like I need to put more of my time and energy into Relic Worlds.  But this one is too important.

The reason for the Vietnam book's delay is not because of this discouragement.  I am doing it.  However, while I was in Lincoln, I made a bunch more connections, and I want to make sure to collect as many stories and do as much research as I can before putting it together.  When I do, I'll be going through InkShares.  I'll be very interested to see how that goes.

Using a Mailing List

As time has gone by I’ve been hearing more and more how important a mailing list is.  I disregarded its importance as I felt that emailing people was more of a nuisance to both me and the people I’d be emailing, and I didn’t see how it would be effective.  I figured that if someone was interested enough to give me their email address, they were already looking at my work, and they didn’t need me to bother them with reminders about it.

            However, I heard about mailing lists being important enough that I finally looked into it, and I began to see the value.  First, it’s really only helpful if you are regularly coming out with material.  So if you have a mailing list for you as a writer, then you need to regularly be coming out with books or other written materials.  If the mailing list is about a series, then you need to be regularly coming out with written materials for that series.

            The problem with the former is that your list will likely be made up of people who became interested in your writing because of one specific book.  So you’re going to need to stay within that genre in order to keep their interest.  If your newsletters become about a subject they’re not interested in, they’ll unsubscribe, even if you’re just taking a short break from that type of writing.

            So it’s best to focus on a particular series and collect names and addresses of people who want to follow along.  For me, that’s been Relic Worlds because not only is it a series, but it’s a series with a lot of ancillary elements.  There are short stories, games, a comic book, etc.  There’s something to talk about every month, and more material to release, so the newsletters have material and aren’t just empty ramblings of me saying, “something more is coming sometime, I promise!”

            I’ve found that there are two methods to build the mailing list that work the best, conventions and giveaways.  At conventions, you’re trying to get people to look at your books, but they’re not sure whether they’re ready to commit to buying or even reading them yet.  So a mailing list is a good way to get a taste without a commitment.  It’s also a way to remind them that you exist, as opposed to a flyer which will likely get thrown away once they’re home, no matter how interested they are in your product.

            Giveaways are the way to do it from home.  You need to get a prize people will want, and it’s a great idea to get something that matches what you’re selling.  In my case, I gave away a Kindle Fire and I included one of the Relic Worlds books.  That way they not only get a prize they want, they also have a means for which to read my books, and a starter.  But the real prize for me was all the email addresses that people had to give in order to enter the raffle.

            Now, I don’t want lists of people who won’t be interested in my series.  That wastes everyone’s time.  Even once I have their email addresses, when I send them a newsletter, they’ll just unsubscribe because they’re not interested.  Or, worse yet, they won’t unsubscribe and I’ll continue to send them information that’s useless to both them and me.  So I promote it on sites where I think my readership will go, and I make sure keywords are always included that have scifi, adventure, books, etc.

            I use Shortstack as my sweepstakes provider.  They help collect all the email addresses, and provide a means by which to make a good looking sweepstakes page.  I might switch this out as I wasn’t extremely impressed with their service considering the cost.  But it wasn’t bad.  They’re at: http://www.shortstack.com/

            I use Mailchimp to create and send the newsletters.  They’ve been fantastic.  They’re at: http://mailchimp.com/

What's Coming Out for Relic Worlds

Since I've been talking about Relic Worlds recently, I figured I'd describe what products will be coming out for it, and what I'm working on for them.

First, what already exists are the following:

7 short stories
3 Pick Your Path books
2 novels
1 comic book

Here's what I'm coming out with this year:

12 short stories
1 Pick Your Path book
2 games
1 novel

There will actually be one more Pick Your Path book that will come out at Wondercon, but that's technically next year.  Some of the short stories might also come out next year as well, depending on how quickly the magazines publish them, (if they publish them,) and whether I am able to stick to my schedule.

www.relicworlds.com