Shameless Plug - My New Novel



  • Look at me! I wrote a science fiction novel! And it's hopefully the first of many!

    This is one of the reasons I dropped off the radar for a while, I've been spending a lot of my energy and free time on this and I finally self-published it as an eBook on January 1st. The plot follows the leader of a mercenary company who takes a few starships on a very risky mission to rescue someone from his past in hopes of discovering clues about his lost homeworld.

    https://www.amazon.com/Rescue-Waverly-Thaddeus-Marcell-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B078QX95NH/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1515002393&sr=8-1&keywords=tj+mott



  • @mott555 The Waverlies was one of my least favorite sci-fi short stories.

    That has nothing to do with your book other than the title kind of resembles it.

    Just sayin'.



  • @blakeyrat Waverly is actually a small town in my area. I named a star after it because I figured nobody would make the connection and it would seem somewhat original. Oh well.



  • @mott555 The Waverlies has nothing to do with a town; it's the nickname they give to mysterious radio-based space aliens that eat all radio waves, and yes that premise is as stupid as it sounds.


  • Impossible Mission - B

    I thought it was a place full of wizards.



  • @blakeyrat And the entire plot of a megaman spinoff series. That not even I liked the games of.


  • Considered Harmful

    @mott555 Just finished chapter 1. Enjoying it so far.


  • kills Dumbledore

    Doesn't seem to be in the UK Kindle store. Either that or the search in the Kindle app is useless



  • @jaloopa I can see it on amazon.co.uk using the item id "B078QX95NH"


  • đźš˝ Regular

    I'm a luddite on ebooks and would like to buy it to read on paper. I expected there would be endless services that once you bought the ebook would print-on-demand you a book, Google says if you're the author you can set this up with a load of services but not the other way round.
    I'll read it on the computer if I have to but if anyone knows of something that does print kindle files for you that would be very handy.



  • @cursorkeys The Kindle publishing system has print-on-demand but I haven't set it up. I really need to get a proper book cover made before I let them make paperbacks of it. And that means finding an artist and paying money.

    I too prefer real paperbacks, but it's far easier to get into eBook publishing.



  • @mott555 said in Shameless Plug - My New Novel:

    @cursorkeys The Kindle publishing system has print-on-demand but I haven't set it up.

    FWIW, my wife is using it for her books, and apart from some UI elements that would be welcome here (judging from her rants when she's using it!), it seems to work OK.

    I really need to get a proper book cover made before I let them make paperbacks of it. And that means finding an artist and paying money.

    Or just both something together... their print-on-demand thing has some pre-made templates and wizards for that, I think, so you can make something reasonable quite easily. Of course it won't have a nice illustration, but at least you'll get a paper version.

    Anyway, congratulations, and I'll add that to my reading list!



  • @remi I live right across the street from a Michael's. Just bought some painting supplies the other day and I'm going to attempt to paint my own cover. 🤣


  • area_pol

    @mott555 Congratulations on completing such a big project :)

    Looks interesting but I have no reason to trust that Amazon will give me the actual file if I pay them (the file, not some "kindle" stuff).
    But if I could pay directly to you, then I would be interested.



  • @adynathos That would violate my agreement with Amazon. For a time, at least, I'm not allowed to distribute outside of anything but the Kindle store.



  • @adynathos said in Shameless Plug - My New Novel:

    Looks interesting but I have no reason to trust that Amazon will give me the actual file if I pay them (the file, not some "kindle" stuff).

    No, they just take your money and laugh at you. That's how they got so popular.


  • Considered Harmful

    @hungrier But they won't give you the file. They will give you a non-shareable, immediately revokable license to read the file through their app. Since otherwise you might copy the file and distribute it.



  • @pie_flavor If you use the desktop reader app you'll get the file and you can do whatever with it.


  • Considered Harmful

    @hungrier It's still licensed, though. Same as all your game binaries reside on your system but are only licensed to you.



  • @pie_flavor Right, but if that stops you from converting it into a DRM-free epub for your Kobo you're not trying hard enough



  • @hungrier But then how would you bitch for 40 posts about DRM OMG it's so evil!!!


  • area_pol

    @pie_flavor said in Shameless Plug - My New Novel:

    @hungrier But they won't give you the file. They will give you a non-shareable, immediately revokable license to read the file through their app. Since otherwise you might copy the file and distribute it.

    That is why I will not give money to Amazon


  • :belt_onion:

    @pie_flavor said in Shameless Plug - My New Novel:

    @hungrier It's still licensed, though. Same as all your game binaries reside on your system but are only licensed to you.

    Just import it into Calibre with the DeDRM plugin. It's not that hard.



  • @mott555 said in Shameless Plug - My New Novel:

    @remi I live right across the street from a Michael's. Just bought some painting supplies the other day and I'm going to attempt to paint my own cover. 🤣

    This is harder than I thought. I thought I had something passable, but it looks terrible when scanned in. Oh, I'm supposed to varnish it first! Hmm, okay, let's give that a try...

    Now I see why people usually hire artists.



  • @mott555 Hey so I just finished this and it's pretty good! The 2nd half in particular is a real page-turner, I'm looking forward to the next installment!



  • I finally got professional cover art done, I just couldn't come up with anything passable on my own and had to hire it out. I'm also in the process of setting up an on-demand printed paperback through Amazon, still waiting for a proof copy. The paperback is going to be expensive, though. On-demand printing is pricey, expect the customer's cost to be around $12 for a 350-page 6" x 9" paperback. But at least I don't get stuck with 10,000 copies and have to sell them myself.

    0_1524444197069_Rescue at Waverly Amazon advert size.jpg



  • @mott555 said in Shameless Plug - My New Novel:

    On-demand printing is pricey, expect the customer's cost to be around $12 for a 350-page 6" x 9" paperback.

    Just FYI, that’s less than I would expect to pay for an English-language book like that in a bookstore. (But that’s due to different pricing models in different countries, as well as import raising the price, I expect.)



  • @mott555 If you don't mind sharing, how have sales gone? Better than expected? Have you had any feedback from within "the industry" rather than user reviews?



  • @boner said in Shameless Plug - My New Novel:

    @mott555 If you don't mind sharing, how have sales gone? Better than expected? Have you had any feedback from within "the industry" rather than user reviews?

    Not great, but then again I'm terrible at the marketing side of things. Believe it or not Amazon doesn't give me a straight breakdown of things...extrapolating from charts, I think I've had about 12 paid ebook sales, about 40 free sales during promo periods, and some random-looking number on Kindle Unlimited that I have no idea how to turn into total reads or number of readers. The only user review I have is from one of my best friends.

    I've been running ads on the Kindle Store which so far have netted me one sale. I'm trying to push things out to various ebook promo sites that send things out via other ads and social networking, but it's really hard to tell what sites are legitimate and which are scam/spam schemes.



  • @mott555 So I've got most of my story arc plotted out now. This is the first in an arc of six novels. Maybe things pick up when I start releasing sequels, and I can do a ton of free promos on the first one as a loss-leader type thing.



  • @mott555 said in Shameless Plug - My New Novel:

    I finally got professional cover art done, I just couldn't come up with anything passable on my own and had to hire it out.

    I'm curious ... how did that work? Like, what did you tell the artist and how much of the final cover is based on your ideas/input? How well does the end result match your expectations?



  • @cvi said in Shameless Plug - My New Novel:

    @mott555 said in Shameless Plug - My New Novel:

    I finally got professional cover art done, I just couldn't come up with anything passable on my own and had to hire it out.

    I'm curious ... how did that work? Like, what did you tell the artist and how much of the final cover is based on your ideas/input? How well does the end result match your expectations?

    It was really hard to find an artist. The Internet is full of scam schemes and two-bit indie artists. Eventually I just flipped through pages of google search results on "Sci fi cover art". Eventually I found an artist site that although the website itself belongs here on TDWTF, his artwork was amazing. So I contacted him, sent him some really rough sketches of what I had in mind along with a detailed description, and he said he'd do it. I paid a down payment, he came back a few days later with a low-res preview, I had him tweak a couple things and then it was all done.

    I only sent him a description/sketch of one of the starships (the one on the left). The other two were his design. While it didn't quite fit with the image I had in my head, that's to be expected since I didn't do the artwork myself. (My sketches mostly included ovals that said "Ship goes here" or "Explosion here" :smiling_face_with_open_mouth_closed_eyes: )

    This was his site: http://www.howarddavidjohnson.com/


  • đźš˝ Regular

    @mott555 said in Shameless Plug - My New Novel:

    two-bit indie artists

    0_1524751992198_ec5b3be4-70e2-44e7-b0cc-e2d3704fd78f-image.png



  • @mott555 said in Shameless Plug - My New Novel:

    While it didn't quite fit with the image I had in my head, that's to be expected since I didn't do the artwork myself.

    This was the point I wanted to get at.

    Like, I usually end up having an image in my head (well, I've never written a book, so I've not spent quite as much time and thought on that stuff), but it can be really hard to get it across to somebody else. I'm not much of artist, so putting it on paper/digital media/3d models hasn't exactly been successful (I've had a lot of fun trying, but mostly the end results were not really worth keeping around).

    But ... are you happy with the end results? Did this affect the images that you have in your head?

    Heh. To be fair, if they've really been around for 22 years ... the page really looks like an authentic 1998-era web page.



  • @cvi said in Shameless Plug - My New Novel:

    Like, I usually end up having an image in my head (well, I've never written a book, so I've not spent quite as much time and thought on that stuff), but it can be really hard to get it across to somebody else. I'm not much of artist, so putting it on paper/digital media/3d models hasn't exactly been successful (I've had a lot of fun trying, but mostly the end results were not really worth keeping around).

    Yeah, I actually spent a lot of time trying to teach myself how to paint in acrylics, but I just couldn't get what I saw in my mind into the real world in any format. I started a blender project to do some 3D art, but that ended soon because you don't just jump into 3D modeling. In the end I was able to draw up a side sketch of the Caracal (the protagonist's flagship) and decided to leave the rest to chance.

    @cvi said in Shameless Plug - My New Novel:

    But ... are you happy with the end results? Did this affect the images that you have in your head?

    Yeah, I'm very happy with it. It looks slick and professional and my ad click-rate has already gone up just by having artwork. Sure, it could have been better (it has a few minor errors because the artist got some of my details mixed up, and I'm not too keen on the catamaran-looking thing), but it's way better than anything I tried to draw up and I'm not one to ruthlessly pursue perfection. It doesn't affect the images in my head too much, because he did a great job on the main ship which was the most important detail to me because it's going to be a somewhat common model of starship in the series. The other two ships aren't seen again in the sequels so image/continuity just doesn't matter there.

    I really liked how he made the ships look beat-up and used, which was one of my instructions to him. I told him these are pirate/smuggler/merc ships. They're going to be hastily repaired, dirty, and patched-up. Functional, without being complete piles of junk, and without being brand-new fresh-off-the-assembly-line either.

    I'm definitely going back to the same guy for any future cover art. I already have the next cover in mind--a landscape of that story's main world. Grassy plains with a small city in the background. The protagonist and a new character are standing in the foreground, watching from a distance while his gunships do a laser strafing run on part of the city.


  • area_pol

    @mott555 said in Shameless Plug - My New Novel:

    For a time, at least, I'm not allowed to distribute outside of anything but the Kindle store.

    Is that time over?



  • @adynathos said in Shameless Plug - My New Novel:

    @mott555 said in Shameless Plug - My New Novel:

    For a time, at least, I'm not allowed to distribute outside of anything but the Kindle store.

    Is that time over?

    I think I had to wait six months before I could change it, or something. I'm not planning to change anything for ebook distribution, because if I do that Amazon cuts my royalties way down. A dirty play, but I'm too small to go against the system here.

    However, the DRM-free paperback version will be available soon. The first proof was pretty messed up because I had the page size wrong. The trim size is also not what I expected, it's a bit larger than all my paperbacks, but oh well. I should have the next proof by next week, and if it all looks good I'll make it live.


  • BINNED

    @mott555 said in Shameless Plug - My New Novel:

    However, the DRM-free paperback version will be available soon.

    Have added to my wish list and will keep an eye out for it in physical form. It's been a while since i've read a real book and not e-book. Time to treat myself.



  • Oops, I accidentally a Wordpress.



  • @mott555 You know anybody could just type "Science Fiction Author" after their name.

    Blakeyrat | Science Fiction Author


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @blakeyrat So you're a Science Fiction Author now? Does the scope of your talent know no end?



  • I don't think I'm a fan of Amazon's paperback publishing stuff. The artwork looks fine in their previews, but it's way too dark on the proof copies. And each proof after I adjust the cover art brightness costs me money and takes almost a week to arrive.

    0_1525209586497_20180501_161221.jpg



  • @mott555 At least now you've got a bunch of copies to give away to family members who are too cheap to buy one (or other "good" reason such as "it's your book, don't you have a copy of it?" or "I don't do Amazon") but pester you all the time to get one.


  • kills Dumbledore

    @remi if he ever makes it big then those proof copies of his first book will be worth millions. He should keep at least one



  • @remi said in Shameless Plug - My New Novel:

    @mott555 At least now you've got a bunch of copies to give away to family members who are too cheap to buy one (or other "good" reason such as "it's your book, don't you have a copy of it?" or "I don't do Amazon") but pester you all the time to get one.

    Lol some of the formatting is solidly screwed up, too...

    @jaloopa said in Shameless Plug - My New Novel:

    @remi if he ever makes it big then those proof copies of his first book will be worth millions. He should keep at least one

    I'll keep the final proof. Any old ones are getting shredded or lit on fire. I mean, you don't keep around failed software builds, do you?


  • kills Dumbledore

    @mott555 You would have burned the first Penny Blacks with the upside down printing too, wouldn't you? One offs are collectable gold



  • @jaloopa said in Shameless Plug - My New Novel:

    @mott555 You would have burned the first Penny Blacks with the upside down printing too, wouldn't you? One offs are collectable gold

    The first one has odd-sized margins, chapters that begin mid-page, incorrect page numbers, and a few blank pages randomly inserted for no reason I can discern. The second one just has cover art too dark to see.



  • @mott555 said in Shameless Plug - My New Novel:

    Lol some of the formatting is solidly screwed up, too...

    Doesn't matter, old Auntie isn't going to read this "sciency-physician" stuff anyway, she just wants it to put on her coffee table and brag to her friends that one of her nephews is a "renowned author".



  • @thegoryone I've gotten decent "sales" whenever I do a free promo, but I think I'm shooting myself in the foot with that. I'm going to hold off on any more free promos until I'm ready to release the sequel, and I'll put in a sample of book 2 at the end of book 1. Then hopefully the free promos can help drive people towards buying the sequels.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @mott555 said in Shameless Plug - My New Novel:

    I mean, you don't keep around failed software builds, do you?

    If I didn't then what would we deploy?


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