Filed under: Alzheimer's, BoingBoing, Connections, Failure, General Musings, Genetic Testing, Health, Hospice, Marketing, Music, Promotion, Publishing, Science, Science Fiction, Society, Survival, tech, Violence, Writing stuff, YouTube | Tags: Alzheimer's, Amazon, blogging, BoingBoing, care-giving, direct publishing, free, genetics, health, hospice, jim downey, John Bourke, Kindle, literature, memoir, music, predictions, Queen, science, Science Fiction, technology, writing, www youtube
From BoingBoing here’s an embedded video of a long (90 minutes) but *really* fascinating discussion on the topic of why homo sapiens is the sole surviving member of our genus, and what that might tell us about ourselves. What I very much enjoyed was the way the different disciplines brought their own perspective to the question, and how each different perspective tends to reinforce the science of the others.
Today, we’re the only living member of the genus Homo and the only living member of the subtribe Hominina. Along with chimpanzees and bonobos, we’re all that remains of the tribe Hominini.
But the fossil record tells us that wasn’t always the case. There were, for instance, at least eight other species of Homo running around this planet at one time. So what happened to them? What makes us so special that we’re still here?
* * * * * * *
From Chapter 5:
Navarr turned and looked at Jon. “Any indication from the medical report what the genetic changes mean functionally?”
“No, not yet. The way that the genetic manipulation will play out is very difficult to predict, since that is a subtle and complex dance over time. They have simulations running now, and we may have an idea in a few days.”
* * * * * * *
I don’t want to give away too much, but there are other intimations in Communion of Dreams on this topic, since it is one which has long intrigued me. And while I am nowhere near knowledgeable enough to get too far into the molecular genetics, the current state of the science is such that there is room for plausible speculation.
And again, without giving too much away, I can say that this is something which will be one of the themes in St. Cybi’s Well.
* * * * * * *
Speaking of giving things away: next Saturday, June 9th, will be a Kindle promotional day for both Communion of Dreams and Her Final Year. As previously, the Kindle edition of each book will be available for free download all day, and you don’t even need to own a Kindle to get & read your free copy, as there is a free emulator app for just about every computer/tablet/mobile device out there.
In addition, I will be offering a signed paperback copy of each book as a prize — details to be announced in a couple of days!
Jim Downey
*of course.
Filed under: Amazon, Connections, Feedback, Health, Kindle, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, Writing stuff | Tags: Amazon, blogging, direct publishing, Habaneros, health, jim downey, Kindle, literature, lucid dreaming, Science Fiction, writing
There’s a new review up on Amazon.
* * * * * * *
I woke from a *very* strange dream about 2:00 this morning. It was a partially lucid dream, where the awake part of my brain kept trying to re-arrange the dream components to solve a problem.
The problem? How to coordinate and communicate with a very large workforce in the basement of a huge construction site. For whatever reason, the foundation of the building had been put into place, but there were huge piles of random junk all throughout the various compartments of the basement. Each time I tried to come up with a way to make sure that everyone did what they needed to do, and was accounted for (in terms of safety and actually working), the size of the basement grew, as did the piles of junk to be dealt with.
* * * * * * *
I’ve posted a fair number of items to the blog this week, but all of it has been quick links to videos I found of interest, or the sort of simple status updates I like to share about how the book is doing. There are all kinds of reasons why I post this stuff. It’s good to have these benchmarks noted on the blog for archive purposes, and people enjoy the oddball vids I come across. But these sorts of posts don’t require a lot of mental effort on my part, and when I post a string of them it usually indicates that something else is going on.
Sometimes I’m aware of what that “something else” is, sometimes it is only obvious in hindsight.
* * * * * * *
I’ve been fighting a sore throat for more than a week. Nothing too bad, started out as just an ache. I figured at first it was probably just due to allergies and a little drainage. Then I figured I had a mild virus (there’s always something going around). But it persisted. Yesterday morning I took a look in the mirror, and saw that my uvula was just about the size, shape, and color of a very ripe habanero.
Charming.
I had planned to ride out the weekend, then if my throat was still bugging me to see my usual doc sometime. Instead, I popped over to the clinic. Saw the doc on call. She took one look at my throat, prescribed antibiotics, told me to take it easy.
* * * * * * *
I knew that I was just spinning my wheels last week. I didn’t feel all that well. But I was getting some good work done in the bindery, and more or less kept forward momentum going on marketing & promotion, other things.
More importantly, I’ve been doing a *lot* of thinking about St. Cybi’s Well, the prequel to Communion of Dreams which I have mentioned often, but for which I have very little to show at this point.
It is hard to explain how this process works sometimes. But the conscious part of my brain recognized what was happening in my dream last night. How even though the foundation of the book may be laid, it is still necessary to get a handle on all the many different elements I need to work together to complete the thing. Oh, some of the details will sort themselves out as you go along — characters will take on ‘life’ and become real, a metaphor will become clear, that sort of thing — but you have to at least get the major elements in place, or you can never hope to build the book.
And just when you think you have things sorted out, you realize that the task before you is even larger than you realized. There are more factors to consider. More characters to understand.
It’s frustrating. And exciting. And exhausting.
* * * * * * *
There’s a new review up on Amazon. Here’s part of it:
I highly recommend this book. It’s exciting, thought provoking, and entertaining. I hope Mr. Downey continues to produce science fiction of such high caliber.
That helps. Thanks.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Feedback, Kindle, Marketing, Predictions, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction | Tags: Amazon, blogging, direct publishing, free, jim downey, Kindle, reviews, Science Fiction
Well, let’s look back at April…
All in all, it was a good month for Communion of Dreams. Perhaps the least impressive statistic is the number of visitors to the website for the book: only about 1,000. But that’s OK, because a lot more people went directly to the Amazon pages for the book (Kindle and paperback), and actual sales were right at 275 over the course of the month.
I just checked the numbers for May, and guess what? A total of 553 sales/loans. Didn’t break the 600 level as I hoped, but this is still twice the total sales/loans as April. Excellent! Thanks, everyone, for your support & reviews!
In terms of visits to the site, that number was just a tad under 1,200. A similar number of visitors to this blog over the course of the month.
I’m still sorting out the details, but there will be at least one promotional day this month — when anyone can download the Kindle edition of Communion of Dreams for free. In addition, I will hold some kind of drawing to send out a signed copy of the paperback edition — watch for details!
Happy June, everyone!
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Feedback, Kindle, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction | Tags: Amazon, blogging, direct publishing, free, jim downey, Kindle, literature, reviews, Science Fiction
No, not that 538. Though this does have to do with statistics of a sort: that’s the number of total sales & loans of Communion of Dreams so far this month. (Loans are included, since under the Amazon Prime system I get paid almost as much royalty for a loan as I do for an outright sale of the book).
Everything was plugging along just grand until the end of last week, when sales decided to slow down considerably. Went from about 25 a day to under 10, and the ranking slipped from about 2,000 overall to the current 12,427.
These kinds of fluctuations happen, and I’m not worried about the overall trend — but it would still be nice if we could break 600 total sales for the entire month. So I’m asking for a little help: if you know someone who might enjoy Communion of Dreams, but isn’t usually a science-fiction reader, give the book a plug. Reviews have consistently shown that it has appeal beyond just the genre, and in fact the formal review I linked to earlier this month summed up his recommendation this way: “A solid read that may have greater appeal to individuals who are not fans of the genre than by aficionados.”
Now, if someone’s in a bit of a cash bind, don’t bug them about buying the book. I’ll be running another “free promotion day” for the Kindle edition here in June, and they can get it then. But otherwise, please help spread the word.
Thanks!
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Art, Kindle, Marketing, movies, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, Writing stuff | Tags: Amazon, direct publishing, game theory, jim downey, Kindle, literature, reviews, Science Fiction, writing
Dear Agent-person,
Earlier this year I self-published a book. Said book sold about 100 copies in the first month. About 200 copies the second month. 300 copies last month. It broke that number in the first two weeks of this month. And the rate of increase is still growing. And that’s just with my feeble efforts to promote the book.
People love the thing. The reviews are excellent. Don’t take my word for it – see for yourself.
I’d love to get this book in the hands of a large publisher. With even a half-way decent promotional campaign this book could be a mega-seller. And I’m not talking within the confines of genre-fiction. Please note in those reviews that a number of people have said that they don’t usually read Science Fiction. This has mass-market appeal. This could easily be turned into a blockbuster movie.
There’s nothing that needs to be done to the book – it is finished, popular, and ready to be handed over to a large publisher. If they move fast, they can have the damned thing in stores before the holiday season.
Further, I have at least two more books in this series I want to write, and that people want to read. I can have the first manuscript done in 18 months, perhaps sooner. If I have a decent advance to live on so I can concentrate on writing it.
I’ve thought about doing a Kickstarter to accomplish that. And there’s a chance that sales will just continue to grow on their own accord. But I’d rather not have to mess with all of this, and concentrate on my writing.
Do you see where I’m going with this? I need an agent. Not just any agent. One with the right connections. One who can cut through the crap and land a package deal to turn this book, and then the others in the series, into best-sellers. So I’m contacting you. You’re not the only one I’m contacting. The first one who gets back to me and shows me what they can do for me gets to take their cut of the proceeds.
Don’t delay.
Jim Downey
* * * * * * * *
I must admit, that I’m seriously tempted to send that kind of a query letter out. No, it is not at all my personality to say or do such a thing, but I sold artwork long enough to know that sometimes, it’s all about attitude. Having the hutzpah, the brashness, to claim success long before the race starts.
And what the hell, it’s not like my previous efforts to get the attention of a decent agent were any more successful.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Alzheimer's, Amazon, Blade Runner, Failure, Feedback, Health, Hospice, Kindle, Marketing, movies, Promotion, Publishing, Ridley Scott, Science Fiction, Society, XCOR | Tags: Alzheimer's, Amazon, banking, blogging, care-giving, direct publishing, free, health, hospice, jim downey, John Bourke, Kindle, literature, memoir, Mother's Day, reviews, Science Fiction, TSA, writing
A couple weeks ago I quipped that I was thankful for the TSA, because they are always good fodder for a blog post when things were otherwise slow. Well, likewise, I’m glad that the big multinational banks are around to put my own mistakes in some perspective:
A billion here, a billion there
JPMORGAN, widely considered the best run of all the large banks in America, if not the world, on May 10th provided the kind of news that has become all too common in the financial industry: a $2 billion charge for errant trades. The markets responded within seconds of the opening on May 11th, sending Morgan’s share price down 9%, and its value by $14 billion. Late on May 11th, Standard & Poor’s announced it was downgrading the outlook for the company, and Fitch knocked down its ratings.
* * *
The bluntest criticism of Morgan’s failure came from the bank’s own chief executive, Jamie Dimon. He said the losses were the result of self-inflicted “sloppiness”, “poor judgment” and “stupidity”, for which “we are accountable”.
And the news this morning is that a number of the executives involved in the losses have ‘retired’. No, not in the Blade Runner sense. But in the sense that they’ll not be drawing a salary of more than a million bucks a month. Though I imagine that these people have more than a bit of savings and contractual retirement income to cushion the blow.
Anyway.
Yesterday’s Kindle promotion for Communion of Dreams wasn’t a huge mistake, but it also wasn’t a stunning success. A total of 1,571 copies of the book were downloaded. Chances are it wasn’t what was needed to kick us up to the next orbital level, but neither did it crash & burn.
What *was* surprising was that our care-giving memoir Her Final Year proved to be very successful, with a total of 3,112 downloads. Wow.
I find it hard to explain just how happy this makes me. As I had noted previously, I was very disappointed with the response to Her Final Year. Only recently have I come to understand that it was about more than just simple sales.
See, I have been very pleased with the response to Communion of Dreams. The sales are nice, and the income helps. The reviews and ratings are rewarding. But what really makes me happy is that the book has found an audience, a home in people’s lives, a place in their imaginations.
That Her Final Year hadn’t found such a home was what bugged me. Because I have a lot of faith in the book. Faith that it can help others, if they would just read the damned thing. But that faith had been betrayed by my inability to get any attention for the book. Or, rather, I felt like I had betrayed my faith – and the book – by my inability to promote it.
Now, just because 3,112 people downloaded the book yesterday that doesn’t mean that the book will be read. But it sure as hell is a lot more likely that it’ll be read than just having the thing sit forgotten on Amazon’s servers. We’ll just have to see.
But no longer do I feel like I have betrayed the promise of the book. That gives me a happiness, and a hope, which I haven’t felt for a long time.
Thanks, everyone.
Jim Downey
(Cross posted to the HFY blog.)
Filed under: Amazon, Art, Ballistics, Guns, Kindle, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, RKBA, Science Fiction, Writing stuff | Tags: Amazon, ballistics, BBTI, blogging, direct publishing, firearms, free, guns, jim downey, Kindle, literature, Science Fiction, writing
There’s a reason I’m self-employed.
It’s because while I can work fine with others, by and large I prefer to do things my own way, on my own schedule. This comes with trade-offs, of course, and it doesn’t mean that I can completely eliminate the need to conform to societal or even corporate rules. But I can minimize that crap and get on with my life.
One of the things I’ve enjoyed doing for the last year or so has been writing for Guns.com. For the most part I’ve just picked a topic, ran the idea past my editors, and then produced a piece of writing within the appropriate word-count range. Usually the changes they made to my writing were minimal, and everyone was happy. It didn’t generate a lot of money (free-lance writing in this day and age doesn’t), but during some of the lean times it was money which came in very handy.
Well, Guns.com has seen a remarkable growth in the time I’ve been writing for them (I got started with them very early on), and they’re now one of the biggest firearms-related sites out there. They’ve been very aggressive in gathering together a lot of talented people, and seeing that they have kept their content fresh & interesting. It’s been a lot of fun for me to be a part of that. It’s also taught me a lot (doing the necessary research to write a review or article is always a good education), and it has allowed me to keep my writing skills sharp.
Well, the other day I mentioned that I was making some changes in my usual routine, because of limitations of time and energy. And I’m giving serious consideration to making another such change – curtailing or even stopping altogether how much writing I do for Guns.com.
Now, partly this is just due to the natural pacing of things. I had set out to do reviews of most of the firearms we’ve tested for BBTI, and I have now submitted reviews for all those which Guns.com had not previously covered – there still some 30 or 40 such reviews pending publication (they like to spread them out). I also did a bunch of other reviews of guns which I had a chance to try recently which are a little more unusual than what most people ever try, and that was fun.
But there’s another factor here. With the substantial growth of the site, as well as the expansion of the number of contributing writers, Guns.com had to come up with some formal style guides for people to use. This is a common thing for any large site, and it is a mark of their professionalism that they put together a very good style manual more than 30 pages in length, complete with links of a lot of example articles. I was flattered to see that quite a few of those articles were ones I had written.
I find, however, that it presents a certain quandary for me: having to write to certain style rules.
That’s not my writing . . . style. I like to play around. Innovate. Feel my way through an idea, a topic, a story. If you’ve read my novel, or even this blog, you’ll have a pretty good sense of what I mean. While I am perfectly capable of writing within conventional rules, I’m much more interested in playing with the expectations of the reader a bit, challenging them by subverting those rules now and then.
In short, I don’t want the rules to apply to me.
In other words, I’m a prima donna.
But maybe that’s not a bad thing.
Anyway, we’ll see what happens. I like the guys at Guns.com, and I respect what they have accomplished. But I’m not interested in doing cookie-cutter writing – leastwise, not as a regular course of affairs. And besides, if I take the hour or two I spend on each article/review I write for them, and put it towards another novel, well I think that might be a better use of my time & energy. Particularly so, given the response so far to Communion of Dreams.
Speaking of which, remember that the Kindle edition is free today!
Jim Downey
Filed under: Alzheimer's, Amazon, Health, Kindle, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction | Tags: Alzheimer's, Amazon, care-giving, direct publishing, free, health, hospice, jim downey, John Bourke, Kindle, literature, memoir, Mother's Day, Science Fiction
So, the joint Mother’s Day promotion we had planned ran into some technical problems – unfortunately, John’s novel Sync didn’t get included.
But the Kindle editions of both my novel and our memoir are available all day today for FREE! As noted before, you don’t even need a Kindle – there’s a free emulator for almost every computer/mobile device.
So, go – download both books! I would love to see another record-breaking day, because I think that it really makes a difference in overall sales.
Thanks!
Jim Downey
Filed under: Alzheimer's, Amazon, DARPA, Feedback, Google Lunar X Prize, Government, Kindle, Marketing, NASA, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, Space | Tags: Alzheimer's, Amazon, blogging, care-giving, DARPA, direct publishing, free, health, jim downey, Kindle, literature, Mother's Day, NASA, reviews, Science Fiction, space
No, this isn’t about NASA, some secret DARPA project, the military, or even any of the private companies involved in space vehicle development. Though those are all things I pay attention to.
Rather, it’s about tomorrow’s Mother’s Day promotion, mentioned previously.
Huh?
Well, I’m just extending the “book launch” metaphor, perhaps too far. But it beats comparing it to a nuclear reaction, I suppose.
Anyway.
Sales of Communion of Dreams have not just been steady, they’ve been slowly climbing this month, with the result that the Amazon Kindle ranking has now been hovering around 4,000 overall, and in the low 30s for a couple different categories of Science Fiction. And more people are writing reviews which are very positive.
Each time previously that I ran a free Kindle edition promotion, there was a following surge in sales, with things then leveling off. The most recent promotional day resulted in this fairly decent level of sales we’re currently seeing. And I’m really curious to see whether this push tomorrow will kick it up yet another substantial, self-sustaining level.
And of course I’m hoping that it will also do good things not just for the memoir, but also for John’s new book (which I am looking forward to reading, myself!)
Keep your fingers crossed. Better yet, help spread the word. Thanks!
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Failure, Gardening, Health, Marketing, Music, Predictions, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, Survival, Violence | Tags: Amazon, David Bowie, Deathworld, direct publishing, gardening, Habaneros, Harry Harrison, health, jim downey, Kindle, literature, music, NPR, Pyrrus, Science Fiction, Thomas Jefferson, tomatoes
This ain’t Pyrrus.
* * * * * * *
About two weeks ago I mentioned this:
Oh, I know the reality of modern publishing well enough to realize that I would still have to do a lot of work to promote the book(s). But being able to hand most of that over to others would be worthwhile. And getting a sufficient amount of money in advance to take off some of the financial pressure of needing to earn money day in and day out would be a big help as well.
* * * * * * *
HATCH: For Jefferson’s to come out into this garden was sort of an affirmation of his vigor in so many different ways. And even at the age of 83, Jefferson read about giant cucumbers in a Cleveland, Ohio newspaper. And he wrote to the governor of Ohio and asked him for seeds of this cucumber, and passed them around to his friends in Charlottesville; grew them in his garden; typically measured how long each one was that came out of his garden. And Jefferson once wrote that although I’m an old man, I am but a young gardener.
* * * * * * *
It was a difficult year. A painful year. And while that pain has lessened over the months, it still causes difficulties for me in terms of limiting my energy and ability to focus on what I need to do.
I’m 53. Be 54 in July. Overall, I’m in much better health than I could be, as my doc reminded me at my recent annual physical. I don’t like to think of myself as being limited in what I can do. Oh, I have no illusions that I’m still 20 or anything, but still I find it frustrating that there is this factor which intrudes on my ability to accomplish things.
* * * * * * *
This ain’t Pyrrus. The gravity isn’t twice Earth normal. All the flora and fauna isn’t dedicated to the notion that it should kill me as quickly as possible, and I don’t have to be in peak physical condition at all times to just have a *chance* to survive each day.
That’s what most people remember about Harry Harrison’s classic novel Deathworld, if they remember anything at all. What is too often forgotten is that the real story was one of adaptation and learning to live with the environment of Pyrrus rather than just battling it in a forever war.
And out of necessity, that is the lessen I am going to attempt with my garden this year. Where for most of the last decade I have put a huge amount of effort into trying to keep the local critters out of my substantial garden, I just don’t have the time or energy for that now.
I’m scaling back the whole garden – yeah, a bunch of hot peppers, but other than that I’m just going to plant a half dozen or so tomato plants. Enough to provide us fresh toms this summer and fall, perhaps with some extra for a couple batches of sauce. But I’m not going to try and set up to can my usual 60 pints of chopped tomatoes and a couple dozen pints of sauce. And I’m not going to put down a double layer of landscape fabric to keep down weeds. Perhaps most importantly, I’m not going to set up a 200′ perimeter deer fence 7′ tall with a 2′ chicken wire base to try and keep out all the critters. I’ll take some other steps to try and keep the individual plants safe, but that’s it.
This is a big change for me. I really enjoyed gardening the way I have for the last few years. But I just don’t have the necessary energy to do it, given the other things I have to see to.
But everyone makes those decisions. You have to change, or you die.
Maybe this place is more like Pyrrus than I thought.
Jim Downey
Communion Of Dreams 