Yeah, yeah, yeah, waffles

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

No, I honestly am not abandoning, Rogue Magic, but it might be on hiatus another couple of weeks, simply because I need to do reconciliation stuff, and halfway through another book, plus dealing with the onset of the holidays (which is much like a fever) I haven’t had time to.

So, I thought I’d give you a really quick update on the state of the writer, which you can sort of scan, as you run off for your black friday shopping.

First, No Will but His keeps selling and selling and selling, even though I don’t yet have my own paper version out and you have to dig to find it.  This is good and bad: good because of course I like making money.  Bad because it means in 2014 I’ll need to take a month or a couple of them and do refresh-research and write the other wives of Henry VIII, for my very own little mini-series.

I wonder if the reason it sells so well relative to everything else is that it’s tangentially romance (I mean, she does lose her head!) or because of reflected interest from the Tudors series (which I loathed, but never mind.  I’m not a TV person.)

Plain Jane the book I wrote under a house name about Jane Seymour is still selling too and has now paid me as much in royalties as the initial advance (or more, I haven’t paid attention recently.)

So, there is a strong impetus to write dead queens.  It should also be easy, since I know the time period fairly well.  It’s just more work on the slate.  OTOH maybe five of those, this time new and without a “mainstream” edition will allow me to hire an assistant and help resolve my fatal time deficit.  It’s worth a try.  (This one is only making me about $100 a month.  Not sneezing at it and not bad given its handicap, but you know… I hear these things are exponential, and maybe 5 books will mean $1000 a month. Worth a try, right?  So, on the slate.)

The musketeers are selling fairly well too, and I need to get sixth book finished.  Am not sure how to relaunch the series, so I might as well throw it out there for those of you like me who are sitting around and doing all your shopping (the little there is) electronic.

Should I just issue the book as I do my old ones, or should I bring it out with fanfare and send out ARCs for reviews, or just drop it out there and let the fans find it?  The chances of its getting a review in one of the mystery mags are — I think — low, but maybe Forbes will review it?

The same goes for Witchfinder.  Given my double plus ungood — and widely vented — opinions, let alone working for PJM I suspect my chances of getting a review in Locus, or even PW, are slightly less than a snowball’s in hell — and I don’t even mean a GOOD review.  OTOH this is the first “real” novel I’m bringing out indie, and part of me is insisting I should go ahead and send out ARCs (which means that those who advance-paid would get e-arcs before Christmas, btw. And then the book later, of course.)

I have the cover in hand and the edited manuscript, so I just need time to go through it, and to get the cover lettered.  So … at the rate things are here, two weeks are about right.  But that would delay the “real book” release to March, as opposed to bringing the book out before Christmas.

Is the ordering I’ll get from bookstores for the paper book worth it?  How many fans find books exist via the trades, as opposed to having my name on perma-search, as I have Pratchett and F. Paul Wilson?

I honestly don’t know.  I work in isolation from the trades, but I wonder if there is a significant bump?  Sound off on what you think, and not just “I want a book for Christmas, you ‘orrible, ‘orrible, teasing writer.”

Other things — I’m working on Through Fire and having issues not making Simon unsympathetic.  He’s twisted, but really, he’s fighting for (his own) survival and has pretty much always been.

And later on today I’ll put up subscriber content and hopefully upload a new novella to the sales channels.

Right now, I’m going to find an iv for caffeine and try to figure out how to pass for human, so I can get to the point where I CAN write.

 

 

66 thoughts on “Yeah, yeah, yeah, waffles”

  1. Is it possible you could get a temporary unpaid assistant through a local college or community college? It would be VERY good for the assistant (if he or she doesn’t cost more time than he or she saves you), and there’s often credit available.

    I just think you’re about to take off on so many fronts – and the kid might be able to help – for school credit.

    Just a thought – the care and maintenance of an assistant is non-trivial. Design assistants might help with covers and formatting, though.

    Alicia

    Like

    1. The issue is a) finding someone. All the kids’ friends are STEM. And I’ve proven over years I have an unerring ability to hire problems. (As in, why I don’t have a cleaning woman.)
      b) the training time, yeah.

      Like

  2. Is a review by Locus et al anywhere near as good as a review from the Instapundit? Maybe if you slip the good prof a bottle of something local and yummy in the box the book arrives in, it’ll do you more good than chasing after the old guard.

    Like

      1. Check out Chicagoboyz, too – (I … umm … was invited to be a contributor there a couple of years ago, in spite of never having been to Chicago or being a boyz.) Two of the guys there have a book out. Now and again we get requests to do book reviews, and they have been more than kind enough to review mine.

        Like

        1. OT: Celia, I bought two of your collections off Amazon back in May (Deep In the Heart & Only A Paper Star) and only now discovered I never downloaded them (or if I did, they went to Download Purgatory and may never be found.) No problem, Amazon let me download afresh … and I discover that Only A Paper Star came DRM and Calibre won’t convert it for my Nook. (Or, if it will, it won’t do it for me.)

          Knowest thou if there is any way around that, or will Beloved Spouse be forced to read it on Kindle for PC? As BS is recovering from abominable surgery sitting at PC is ill advised.

          Any advice on this from others than Celia is welcomed; mockery will be tolerated and placed in the “Reasons I Prefer Dead Trees” file.

          Like

            1. That did it, thanks. Plug-in installed, tested and files converted. Now all I need to do in future is remember that I have bought an e-book and open the Kindle PC to fetch it. Keeping up with where it stashes the books on my PC (and how it names those files … ah well, I’ve already learned the Kindle files can be renamed to match the book title) is a whole other thing.

              Oh – correction to above: Deep in the Heart S/B The Heart of Texas. I will have to check with Beloved Spouse to be sure we have the former. Sigh. Once was a time I knew everyone of the thousands of books I had bought or read, now I can’t find my glasses when they’re parked atop my head.

              Like

          2. Damn … I specified non-DRM for both when I loaded them… I went and checked, just to be certain … and they’re supposed to be lendable. I don’t know what to tell you, other than to pitch a modulated fit at Amazon customer service. Today they might be a titch overwhelmed, though…

            Like

            1. I strongly suspect I inquired of you before purchasing, if only as reminder to prominently advise of the DRM-less state for prospective buyers. So apparently the fault is with Amazon, which I note does NOT inform purchasers of the DRM status (unless that is what the advice “Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited” means — in which case they D-well ought be clearer.)

              SEE ALSO: Response to Drak Bibliophile

              Like

        3. You might send one to Lars Larsen also, he likes to read and occasionally does book reviews/author interviews of books he likes.*

          *He states that he gets books sent to him all the time, and only when he finds one he really likes does he share it with his listeners.

          Like

    2. Not necessarily just Instapundit. I’d see if you can get other bloggers who are sympathetic to you such as Vodkapundit, Dailypundit, Classical Values to allow you a blog tour promo post or review it or at least mention it. Along with the various indie book review blogs.

      I strongly suspect that these sources plus word of mouth will get you more of your potential audience that PW or Locus.

      Like

      2. I agree with Francis. I’ll see if I can find the numbers I saw on Locus the other day (may have been Business Rusch, my brain is swiss cheese right now) but they were ridiculously low – like 1200 readers or something. I suspect that this blog tops that by an order of something. PW… well, you can pay your way in, and why. LibraryJournal will do more to get you into most libraries, as will patrons walking in and asking for your book. That was the number one way we used to order – to make our people happy. Huns? Who’s up for an “ask for Sarah” expedition? Shouldn’t cost you anything but time if you plan it with other errands… LOL

        Like

    4. Instapundit links to most of Sarah Hoyt’s new releases. Today there was an “In the Mail: From Sarah Hoyt, Darkship Renegades” blurb with a link to Amazon. It may be because Baen is just good at sending out review copies to widely read blogs that fit their target market, but then again, I suspect that Glenn Reynolds doesn’t offer guest blogger spots to the entire set of Baen authors (though that would be a blog I would read religiously).

      On the other hand, Instapundit links to new releases by writers like Charles Stross (who is proudly marxist) who’s politics don’t come close to those of Professor Reynolds.

      Like

      1. Glenn will link to anyone who asks basically. He linked to my friend Patrick Larkin’s books as an example (I know that Glenn is not the evangelical that Patrick is … )

        Like

        1. He also linked to mine last week – well, at least the most recent book, The Quivera Trail. I sent an email, politely asking for that favor. I think he is slightly more apt to do it if he has heard of you, or ‘knows’ you as a blogger or commenter. Also – send the request no later than mid-morning. YMMV

          Like

            1. I had actually urged Patrick to make the request.

              Mentioning you, Sarah, will carry weight with Glenn obviously. Cedar will hopefully not mention me ;-)

              Like

  3. Tudors are very “in” in history too. The public library has a waiting list for several new Tudor history books, and the older ones have been seeing heavy rotation, just going by the recurring holes in that part of the 900s. And earlier queens as well – Eleanor of Aquataine [sp] seems trendy (if one would dare use that term to describe her!). IMHO, Marie de Medici will probably never be “hip,” unless you are looking for an ambitious woman who was also a slow learner. Diane de Poitiers, on the other hand: smart, athletic, good business sense, patron of the arts . . .

    Like

      1. Margaret Beaufort and Katherine Swynford for the win? (Two ladies that would probably make modern femynysts quake in their vegan clogs.)

        Like

  4. I second the motion to get Prof. Reynolds to mention your book. I think that he’s the best of the new guard

    Like

  5. Speaking of authors getting paid for their work, I have a question. I’ve looked at your Goldport press site and I’ve noticed that you have links to buy your stuff from Barnes and Noble. That’s where I buy from because I havea Nook. Do you get paid more if I link off of your site? I have a written list that I’ve been checking off so I don’t need it for that and if there’s nothing in it for you I can go straight to their site to shop. OTOH if there’s something in it for you I can go to your site first.

    Like

  6. You ask:

    My answer is dated but maybe any answer is dated? Seems to me fan is the key to any useful answer.

    There are a very few writers I follow – in the traditional sense – so I know the books are forthcoming, the books are here, the books have passed the peak and secondary market prices are falling – I’m interested and may beg for an ARC or buy an eARC from Baen. Though I’ve been annoyed at clumsy errors in the ARC’s I’ve been just as annoyed at clumsy errors in the definitive editions.

    There are more I follow – in the modern sense – so I get some notice if I care enough to read the news release or posting or email – more often to stay current with conversation than to buy the book.

    Folks of my generation, by observation, will have a copy of Locus available and read it for industry gossip in connection with cons and meetups. These people will take accidental and incidental notice when there is a cumulative effect – doesn’t all advertising depend on cumulative effect? A very few aging semi-pro types, be they bookstore or library folks read Locus as a trade journal – maybe for meetups around the water cooler. Maybe a combination of nostalgia and habit.

    I don’t see the store produced half size genre related printed material once found in racks adjacent to the genre anymore. Science Fiction Chronicle, RecArtsSFwritten and a myriad of former entries to the field are dead or dying. Seems to me for a first impression then that going to great effort for a mention in Locus of the new this month variety is likely not worth great effort effort. On the other hand if a mention can be broadcast across all the still existing if not vital media to get a cumulative effect that would be a good thing. On the gripping hand spamming RecArts this and that is likely to be as effective as any other spamming – not helpful with any intended audience.

    Like

  7. (1) I’m not going anywhere on Black Friday.
    (2) As a complete unknown, my print sales probably have no relevance to yours. But in my brief experience, I don’t make enough in sales to be worth the time and effort involved. Since you have a shortage of time, this may be something you need to study. Do you sell enough to be worth the lost writing time? You have to experiment to find out, but do you tip toe in or leap?

    Like

    1. “(1) I’m not going anywhere on Black Friday.”

      I hate shopping, why would I fight my way through a mob to go do something I hate anyways?

      A friend of mine did call me at six this morning and inform that Sportsmans Warehouse had 22 lr in though, so I had him pick me up 2500 rounds.

      Like

      1. I stayed home and ordered tea. Her Felinity did go to the cat spa, though, and came back a pound lighter (and much louder and damper).

        Like

      2. The only time I spent time in a mall on Black Friday was the year that I was working in the sales floor in a large department store, and sweet jumping jeebus, never again. The Daughter Unit and I had our family Christmas shopping done by 9AM this morning … on line.

        Like

        1. Who doesn’t? .22LR, .22WMG, 9MM, .40 & .45 are denominations we all need a little more of…

          that, and I need some more .50 minnie balls, but now that muzzleloading season is over for deer hunting, that’s no longer quite so urgent as more .30-30

          Like

      1. Well… we bought me three shirts at the thrift store ($6) because I tend to stain my shirts, cleaning, and we got Robert a caster for his office chair (he inadvertently broke one. Oh, and this was because I needed to go out to the doctor. (Ear infection. Shush.)

        Like

        1. Gah.I hate ear infections. If I catch them quickly enough, I can treat my own at home with Clove Oil, but it has to be early enough that it will get into the ear canal far enough to do some good.

          Like

          1. Wayne, I’ll repeat what I told Sarah earlier. Unless you have a broken eardrum, nothing you put in your ear is going to help a lot. Taking an anti-inflammatory to help keep the eustachian tubes open is most likely the best option to allow them to drain and take away the stuff for the bacteria to grow in.

            Like

            1. Open eustachian tubes is why I specified “early enough”. Clove oil is both antiseptic and slightly analgesic, but if it can’t reach the area where the infection is, it won’t do much good, except for the analgesic effect reducing pain. I have a LOT of close, personal experience with ear infections, though, and I may detect it in myself much earlier than other people.

              Like

  8. I like to shop Black Friday, just to see the decorations and officially kick off the season. Speaking as a (slightly!) older reader, I like to read on Kindle, but I haven’t figured out how or whether to gift ebooks, so missing the gift season would make less difference to me. My kids know how I read, though, and I haven’t gotten an ebook present from them, so maybe the younger ones don’t do that either. Just my thought.
    Honestly, I use the bookstores as a browsing place, and go home and order it for my Kindle. It was either that or let the books take over the house!

    Like

  9. “So, there is a strong impetus to write dead queens.”

    I have to say the first thing that popped into my mind was a zombie or vampire Freddie Mercury…

    Like

          1. Could be worse! I woke up with “Pharaoh Sails to Orion” by Nightwish playing in my head and dang if I have any idea what triggered that.

            Like

    2. There is a unconfirmed rumor that the character played by Roger Daltrey in _Highlander: The Series_ was originally intended for Freddie Mercury.

      So. Freddie *isn’t* dead; he’s just assumed a new identity, and is still out there, taking heads (you thought all that whipping-around of the mike stand was just show? >:) ).

      Like

    3. A vampire Freddie Mercury could make for an interesting story, but I think his death is still to recent for it to be in acceptable taste.

      Like

  10. Sarah you cannot stop writing anymore than you stop breathing. Do what you can and we will be here waiting patiently.

    Like

  11. Given that the Game of Thrones is widely noted as “War of the Roses done as fantasy”, that is undoubtedly fueling some of the interest in the Tudors.

    On other tangents, I would certainly encourage looking at your target market and spending some effort advertising there. For the musketeer mysteries, not only do you have the Odd not-so-little fanbase that’ll spread it among the generally-conservative internet public (instapundit being a great example), but where in the wide world do mystery fans of any political or non-political stripe hang out?

    Goodreads has made a reputation of being author-unfriendly unless very carefully managed, but it is a way to get to avid readers of many genres. Who here reads mysteries, and where have you seen a recommendation for a good one lately, or an ad that perked your interest?

    Like

Comments are closed.