Filed under: Marketing, Press, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, Writing stuff
Time to close out the question/answer series. Been an interesting experiment, but I’m unsure whether I’ll repeat it in the future, presuming that this won’t be the last time someone wants to ‘interview’ me this way.
Anyway, here’s the last one:
>6. What other projects do you have on deck? Do you intend to do something similar for your next book project or would you prefer to do something wholly different?
A number of people who have read CoD have asked this, and I consider that a good sign. For a couple of years now I’ve been thinking about a prequel, to explore a critical moment in the ‘backstory’ of the current novel. And of course, a lot of people are wondering what happens after the closing revelations of Communion of Dreams, and that’s fun to think about. Partly which direction I go will depend on what the response is to this book – of course, I’d love for it to be a huge success, and for folks to be demanding that I revisit that ‘universe’. If not, I’ll see where inspiration leads me. I certainly have no plans to stop writing.
Perhaps more later today.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Kindle, Marketing, Press, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, Writing stuff
And in the penultimate entry of the interview Q/A series:
5. Give me a sense of both the pitfalls and encouraging moments encountered in process of publishing this book – there was a bit of a false start previously, right? You embraced several means of delivery – traditional ones but also free PDF downloads and subsequent Kindle editions. What benefits have you seen from using multiple platforms and how do you feel such an approach fits with the current state of publishing and the written word?
Twice this book was almost published in the conventional sense. The first time it made it through the submissions process for a large publishing house, to the imprint which handled some offbeat science fiction. At the very end of that process the executive editor told me she liked the book, but that they had decided to “go a different direction” in the coming year. I found out later that that meant the imprint had been shut down as part of the conglomeration which owned the publishing house consolidating the whole business in reaction to market conditions. The second time a small start-up “geek fiction” press wanted to publish the book, and just as we were wrapping up contract negotiations the publisher stopped communicating with me. Well, they went under – and the book before mine was the last one they published. In both those cases, I was elated to think that Communion of Dreams was going to be in print, and went through the whole process of preparing the manuscript and getting it ready, making changes requested by the publisher – only to have it fall through at the last moment through no fault of mine. That was hugely disappointing.
After the second instance, I just couldn’t face going through the whole process again of trying to get a conventional publisher. It’s a slog, with little or no predictability and huge delays. But we’d been through the experience of getting Her Final Year self-published, and I knew what was involved with that. I decided that since I had a manuscript ready which had been prepped for publication, that I might as well just publish it myself. I could not do any worse than the two previous near-publication experiences had been.
The free PDF downloads were a way to build a base of readers, and there were in total some 35,000 downloads of that version. Whether or not that would help or hurt sales of the Kindle edition (or the paperback one) is pure speculation. I guess we’ll see.
I don’t have a lot to add to that, but do want to note that the local paper is tentatively planning on running some kind of story related to this series of questions on March 11. It might just be a mention, or part of a larger piece, or possibly even a review or feature – we’ll just have to wait and see. When it runs, I will be offering another “promotional day” when people can download the Kindle version of Communion of Dreams for free – so keep your eyes open!
Jim Downey
Filed under: Art, Artificial Intelligence, Expert systems, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, Space
Heading out here in a bit for a weekend of mixed business and pleasure, so I won’t be posting until early next week. But a couple of quick notes before I go . . .
A reader passed along a note that the webcomic Questionable Content has been running a sequence for the last couple of weeks which includes a hologram-manifesting AI (actually, two different ones) very much like the ‘experts’ in Communion of Dreams. I really like the rendering, and it is exactly how I envisioned Seth and the other experts manifesting in the book. The sequence starts here, and is quite fun (I’m just a sporadic reader of QC, but enjoy it when I do get to reading it). Perhaps I should send J. Jacques a copy of the book and see if we can get a graphic novel of the book going . . .
Well, sales of CoD have finally gone from a trickle to drought. Haven’t sold any for the last couple of days. Not too worrying, since I have been busy setting up things for the next promotional push (hope to have some news on the scheduling of that next week). But still, if you’ve read the book, do me a favor and just tell a friend about it. Help get the word out. And take a moment to go ‘rate’ the book on Amazon, perhaps even write up a review (or say whether one of the other reviews were useful). Oh, and if you’re an Amazon Prime member, *please* take a moment and ‘borrow’ the book – costs you nothing, and helps me out in several ways.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Art, Feedback, Kindle, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing
Got another very positive review of Communion of Dreams. It goes over a lot of ground, but here’s an excerpt that’ll give you an idea what the author thinks:
One of the things I enjoyed most, as a science fiction fan of many decades, was finding little bits of reference to various other writers, either in a conceptual sense or, sometimes, in a name used or a place mentioned. So many science fiction novels touch on psychology, sociology, scientific and technological progress, philosophy, religion or just sheer adventure. This one has it all, and I do mean *all* of it. My mind was a whirl of ideas and thoughts, all intertwining as I read about the discovery of the artifact, watched different people react based on their perception and frame of reference, and saw their attitudes change over time as more and more was discovered.
Check out the whole thing, along with the other reviews so far, and vote whether the review was helpful to you.
I am very happy to see a positive review, of course, and hope that this helps to spread the word (hint, hint) about the book to others. But I am even more pleased to get the feedback that the book ‘works’ for the reader. That’s always a crap-shoot for any author or artist: you work to produce something (an artifact, if you will) which is then put out there for interpretation by each and every person who encounters it, and at that point it is out of your hands.
So yeah, it is very rewarding to get this kind of reaction. Of course, additional sales and riches would be nice, too . . .
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Feedback, ISS, Kindle, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Science, Science Fiction, Space, YouTube
Ah, fun with physics up on the ISS:
Very cool.
Book update: if you ordered a signed copy of Communion of Dreams prior to February first, you should have received it in the last day or two. The next batch of books will be going out the middle of next week – so there is time to get in your order!
Actual sales of the book continue to plug along as well, 3-4 per day. Not stunning, but steady. And I keep hearing from people how much they have enjoyed it – that’s always great, thanks! Please, if you have read the book, go write a review and help spread the word to your friends and any forums you participate in.
Sometime later this month I’ll probably offer another one-day promotion when anyone can download the Kindle edition for free – watch for it!
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Kindle, Marketing, Music, Promotion, Psychic abilities, Publishing, Science Fiction
A couple of days ago I wrote about another author’s experience in having his self-published work enrolled in the KDP Select program, which offers authors a chance to promote their Kindle edition book as a free download. If you haven’t read the original post by David Kazzie, I still recommend it, and you can find it here: How Amazon’s KDP Select Saved My Book
His blog post includes this tidbit:
“Now I had heard that the big sales bump for Free-to-Paid came about three days after it came off of Free status, but I didn’t know how accurate that was.”
And he goes on to explore how it actually worked out for him, and how he saw the sales of his book skyrocket.
Yesterday the ‘third day after’ for my promotional push offering Communion of Dreams for free last weekend. And sales did not rise again.
I’m not complaining. I learned things from this promotion, and from reading about Kazzie’s experience. I’ll put those lessons to work in future efforts promoting Communion.
But I am struck by how completely the book fell completely out of everyone’s attention, judging by the sales rank. Currently the Kindle edition is at #39,945 and the paperback edition is at #1,110,942. At one point last weekend it was at #641 overall in the Kindle edition and like #10,000 in the paperback. That’s an impressive plummet back into obscurity.
Will it stay there? No idea. Like I said, I have some ideas on how to handle another promotion, but we’ll see how things actually work out. Certainly I have learned to not trust to hope too much – just enough to keep moving forward. Things will work out however they work out, all we can do is try.
Jim Downey
*Al Stewart’s Nostradamus, of course. Here’s the relevant stanza:
Oh, I had a dream
It seemed I stood alone
And the veil of all the years
Goes sinking from my eyes like a stone
Which ties in to Communion of Dreams in several ways. First, I was a big fan of Stewart when I was young (and have enjoyed his work into adulthood), and really liked his story-telling style. Second, this was very much a metaphor for the creative process in writing the book for me, since in some ways it felt like I was just standing outside of time and watching it unfold into the future. And third, the purported psychic abilities of Nostradamus have always been of interest to me, but just don’t pan out in rigorous scientific testing . . . so I had to find a way to explain that. Which is in the book. And that’s all I’ll say so I don’t spoil any surprises for someone who hasn’t yet finished reading the damned thing. Which, if you have, means you should have an opinion on whether you like it or not, so you should go rate it or write a review of it on Amazon. Right? Right.
Via my friend Wendy, another take on the experience of offering a book for free in conjunction with the KDP Select program:
Good read. This is just Day Two for the end to my promotion, so perhaps I haven’t yet seen the kind of bump in sales I yet might. But this post, and my own experience, has given me some additional ideas about how to schedule and promote the next time I offer Communion of Dreams as a free Kindle download (or Her Final Year, for that matter.)
Oh, and if you have Amazon Prime, and haven’t yet downloaded Communion as a ‘loan’ – please, go do so. Thanks.
Jim Downey
Heard a particularly interesting interview on NPR yesterday, as I was quietly working away in the bindery. Here’s a bit from their website about it:
In the 1940s and ’50s the message to most Americans was: Don’t be shy. And in today’s era of reality television, Twitter and widespread self-promotion, it seems that cultural mandate is in overdrive.
Boy, howdy.
Yeah, it’s about introverts, and how our culture today considers extrovertism not only the default, but that there is almost something *wrong* with you if you’re not an extrovert. As I noted yesterday, just doing the online promotion of Communion of Dreams over the weekend was psychologically exhausting for me.
Because yeah, I’m an introvert. In taking the little quiz that NPR has up, all but two of my answers clearly point to my introvert tendencies. (Any guess which two I answered the other way?*) Which makes it all that much more difficult for me to step into the limelight and demand attention from the world – even though this is exactly what is needed to be a successful author in this day and age.
Which is part of the reason why I ask people for their help. For each and every person who tells a friend about the novel (or the care-giving memoir), or who posts a review somewhere, that’s one small straw I don’t have to carry, and makes life much more enjoyable. If you’re not an introvert, this may not make a lot of sense – but believe me, it matters a great deal, and is part of the reason why I am so appreciative of any such help.
And now I need to go get some writing done. Some nice, quiet, introspective, introverted writing.
Jim Downey
*7, 20.
Filed under: Amazon, Kindle, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction
. . . I’ve been on a three-day bender or something. Such was the heady experience of the ‘launch’ of Communion of Dreams.
Thank you. Together we managed to give away right at 700 copies of the Kindle edition of the book, as well as selling some paperbacks and getting orders for signed copies.
I wasn’t sure what to expect. But I have to consider this to have been a huge success, given the downloads and preliminary feedback about the book.
Now I would ask for two things from all those who got a copy of the Kindle edition: please, please, please tell your friends about the book. Seriously, your recommendation will help immensely.
And closely related to this is helping me out by going to Amazon and rating the book, perhaps even writing a review. Such reviews help others who may hear of the book make an intelligent decision about whether to get it. It doesn’t have to be long – just tell people what you think.
Thank you. Seriously. This has been a very long and difficult road, filled with more than my share of frustrations and disappointments. But you – each and every person who downloaded the book, told others about it – YOU have helped to make the journey worthwhile.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Kindle, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction
Well, the response has been pretty remarkable to the launch of Communion of Dreams. Over 600 copies of the Kindle edition have been downloaded, paperback editions sold, orders placed for signed copies.
And I’ve heard from a number of people who have dived into reading the book. So far, all the reports have been very positive. Here’s one from Jane, posted to her Facebook profile:
OK people. Really. I just spent the better part of the day sucked into Jim Downey’s book. You so need to go download it while it’s free! Great book Jim. Loved it!
And that prompts me to ask for something in this final day of the promotional push: Please, if you’ve read the book (or just part of it) tell your friends what you think.
This is the flip side of just getting the word out. I really appreciate everyone helping me out with the initial news of the book’s availability. But now I would very much appreciate your saying what you think about the book.
Today’s the last day of the free Kindle version promotion. And if you’ve been enjoying the book – if it has given you food for thought, challenged your expectations, or prompted you to consider prior assumptions – then tell others that. Share your joy. It doesn’t cost you anything but a few moments of time and a little effort. You’ll be helping me, and perhaps helping brighten the day for your friends and others who respect your opinion.
Thank you. It’d be fantastic if we can break a thousand downloads before midnight Pacific time tonight. That’s certainly possible – Friday had more than 450 downloads – if you’ll just take a little time to spread the word.
Jim Downey
Communion Of Dreams 