The Divine Wheel comeback and the 3rd Nexus

Now I’ve thought a lot about this, so I changed the name of my first book from “The Last Disceptarix” to (its original title) “The Divine Wheel”. I know, I know, that’s a shitty move, but it’s a sensible move because the word Disceptarix is so alien to people, and in the past I had more sales with it.

And I don’t know if it was just coincidence or someone that viewed my last post gave pity on me, because I had a sale immediately when the title has been changed. Weird huh? I don’t know but I’m thankful. Maybe it was from Kboard—*shrugs*.

Also, I’m releasing the next installment for Trinity Nexus this month. Its past title was “The Unbecoming of Deaths” but I changed it to “The Grim Articles” because of its aesthetics on the cover.  And I’m going to reveal it here side by side with the first installments. So feast your eyes imaginary readers!!!!!

Failures of an Indie Author

This isn’t completely about that, this is about being proud of our failures so we can smile at our little successes. Why am I writing this is because I have so so much failures recently that I thought of myself as less, and we all have those days, when that darkness creeps in and take all the things with colors. We always put a middle finger up to those days, forget about them like a bad break-up.

But those people we are seeing, those who already succeeded, failures are just dusts to them, they just swipe them away. That doesn’t mean that they do not care about their work, it only means they take it as a lesson and nothing more. It isn’t personal it’s just lesson; a noun you could improve on once you used it over and over again.

So let me tell you about my failures of a generic indie author that only makes coffee money out of his writing:

• I earned 2.88 dollars this month in all channels my book is available. Do you know why? Because I don’t advertise. I trust that people will see me, I trust the word of mouth. The lesson here is for me (or to any indie author) to start that spark before the fire, to advertise, to put that book in front of the eyes of people who care. The other lesson (which is effective in the long run) is write fast. Don’t think about it, just write fast.
• I have two harsh, and I mean harsh reviews. The first one was justified because I’ve accidentally put out an unpolished work. The other one is just mean, you know those people who get high on shitting on someone, that kind of person.
• I have no sales in Amazon in months! Seriously, they are all free downloads, and oddly, I’m happy with it. They’ve found my book even though I’m not advertising. But see, free download has the possibility to be not read, it think, I have no experience in this so I’m just assuming with my crystal ball.
• No one is reading my blog about writing (this blog). I can go with that, it’s like a not-so-serious diary, it’s like my special thing. And also I have no followers. I dig that too. Same reason.

That’s it? Seriously? Yes that’s it. And I think, us, indie authors with no sales think of this too much because life is very long, day after day we watch that flatline of no sales. And it hurts, it definitely do, because it’s long, we obsess over this damn thing of not being heard of what out babies (books) have to say.

I have success in writing, yes, but telling it here would make me look like an asshole. They balance my failures in being and indie in someway. But we are about our failures, and how to embrace them by just admitting them and just do some-fuck about it. Yes, “some-fuck” is my word. Mine!

To finish this nonsensical post off, here’s a quote from an inspiring man:

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.

-          Henry ford

Changing Covers

How many times have I changed the cover of my books? Too many is the answer to that, and, lo and behold, once again I’m doing it one more time.

I’m not satisfied on the covers, and whenever I’m like that, there’s this voice at the back of my mind that keeps telling me “change it, there’s something lacking, you can do better.” I’m doing this because I can. Professionally made covers are very expensive and sometimes (for me) unrewarding.

I can’t believe that there are some covers that not at par with some great indie covers. Sometimes in my genre I see a cover digitally made that still has the round edges of the brushed used on the cover-art, as in it was obviously there and hasn’t been smudged to at least make book look well prepared and not ill-prepared.  

I’m not that great in doing covers, I have many more lessons to have, but I’m trying to make it professionally done.

Right, so anyway, I’m now in the process of changing the Trinity Nexus series (for the preparation of its third installment), the Trinity Legends, and the Gamer. 

Branching out of Amazon

Not getting out, Amazon is still the main site for me. But recently, I have more sales outside Amazon and they only have about two titles that aren’t free. Amazon, I must say, isn’t giving me much love nowadays. It could be because of the summer slump we actually experience every year (which I hate, I think all authors hate). But yes, I’ll be branching out once KDP select agreements on my books are done. I like to see what these other sites would offer me.

What I’ve heard from some of the experts in self publishing is that one needs to value publishing in different online books stores for the exposure. Because apparently, exposure is gold. So I’ll be experimenting on this if it’s true, and I hope it’s true.

Also, I’ll be putting out the prologue of my book one of these days, a teaser of some sort.   

I'll be changing The Bounds cover, it looks like erotica (-_-).

What a Prawn has to say: AMAZON vs HACHETTE

Just today, amazon sent me a letter of request. It's a little bit long and I know you might already know about it, but if you don't here's the jist of what they're asking me to send to Hachette CEO, Michael Pietsch:

- We have noted your illegal collusion. Please stop working so hard to overcharge for ebooks. They can and should be less expensive.

- Lowering e-book prices will help -- not hurt -- the reading culture, just like paperbacks did.

- Stop using your authors as leverage and accept one of Amazon's offers to take them out of the middle.

- Especially if you're an author yourself: Remind them that authors are not united on this issue. 

This is about the "lower the ebook prices" by Amazon towards Hachette. And I'm still having second thoughts about this "sending the email" thing. Here's what I posted in Writer's Cafe.

I don't know what to think about this. There are various parts of my brain and each one of them are shouting something (I think they're my conscience). 

1st part: Let writers write. I'm a fracking writer, not a business man. SHEESH! 

2nd part: Yes you're a writer but you never heard of Hachette because its name hasn't reached your country until this corporation wars. You've only heard of Amazon. 

3rd part: Let Hachette do their thing, you know the sayings: 'adapt or die' & 'survival of the fittest'  

4th part: Most of your income comes from Amazon. And you never heard of Hachette, right? (until this... this dispute) Stand for amazon, have some balls and do what they requested you to do! 

5th part: Let the readers decide, like what 3rd's said: survival of the fittest. 

6th part: But do readers care about this? I mean... do they? If I'm a reader I don't care if they shoot themselves on the foot. 

7th part: Remember Henry Ford who proved his cars are better against the company who had patented automobiles. Stand for something, I don't care what something, just stand.  

I think I'm on amazon on this... 

History does repeats itself, maybe in another form and in another way, but it does repeat itself. Remember the Dark ages and the printing press.

Why have I mentioned Mr. Ford? I've just recently watched History Channel that's why. He stood for something that would benefit all. I'm not completely with Amazon all the time but I'm with them in this. Amazon is a corporation, a business, and they don't care about me a single prawn. But they are made of prawns, they care about that.

Many authors, I know, won't care. But at least I should.  
  
Maybe I'll send Mr. Pietsch a quote.

Free: Synthetics

It's free to keep the algos up. LOL. hopefully. 

Enjoy!

They called it a bio-technical revolution when the scientists have succeeded in developing a complete artificial DNA. That was in 2010. 
Humans since then can reprogram life itself, able to create new organisms from viruses to bacteria…. 

Since then we are still alive… 
… We still wake up… 

But that’s going to change… 

Disceptarix

1

He is the last of them…

A voice said; a voice that came beyond every logic and every known thing that could be explained. It came from one of two beings that communicated (and always be communicating) in the form of meaning. Not words, not language—but meaning itself, plain and direct. Who they were? Well, they weren't alive, they were not dead either, they were nothing but eternal, those who existed in time before ours, before creation, before faith, before all emotions and before the knowledge of the opposites. But this is not a story about them, at least not yet. This is a story of the “He” who was the last of the other “them”. And who was this “He”? Who was this individual that the Eternals took the trouble in looking at? It was only a boy, a plain old boy who was, in the moment, sleeping on a mattressless bed. There was nothing extraordinary about him, nothing appealing, and nothing you could route for.

Well…

At least not yet…

Are you sure?

Yes I am. 

So it begins…

The Gamer

So, I’ve finished my fourteenth title and I’ve just posted it on Amazon. It’s titled “The Gamer”, it’s a scifi, and I don’t know what it is other than that. It’s a story about simulated gaming worlds and all of its complications and consequences.

Yes, it’s free for a certain period of time (in this case, five days). So if you’re reading this and have a kindle, go check it out. Here's the link: The Gamer