Filed under: Amazon, Connections, Failure, Feedback, John Lennon, Kindle, Marketing, Music, Predictions, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, Writing stuff | Tags: Amazon, blogging, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, free, jim downey, Joe Cocker, Kickstarter, Kindle, literature, music, predictions, promotion, Science Fiction, St. Cybi's Well, The Beatles, video, writing, www youtube
What would you do if I sang out of tune,
Would you stand up and walk out on me.
You’d certainly be entitled to do so, though my wife assures me that my singing isn’t nearly as bad as I usually make it out to be.
The truth is, singing is something I have always wanted to avoid, because it generally implies a public performance aspect. And, frankly, I find that frightening enough that I usually try and limit it to things I feel more confident about.
Lend me your ears and I’ll sing you a song,
And I’ll try not to sing out of key.
This is key: pleasing an audience.
That doesn’t mean always giving them what they want. Rather, I think, it means satisfying them that you have given them fair value. For their time. Perhaps for their money.
Long ago I learned that no matter what, you can never please everyone. But if you set your goal that you give them fair value — an honest effort, based in real training and preparation, generally people will be satisfied. I *haven’t* spent time learning to sing, or play an instrument, so I don’t offer those things to an audience with any expectation that they will pay any attention to me. I *have* spent a lot of time and put a lot of effort into trying to learn to write, so I am comfortable in offering my words in a public transaction of fair value.
Oh I get by with a little help from my friends,
Mmm,I get high with a little help from my friends,
Mmm, I’m gonna try with a little help from my friends.
We’re in the closing hours of the Kickstarter for St. Cybi’s Well. It’ll end tomorrow evening.
And I don’t know whether it will achieve the funding goal. Right now, it doesn’t look promising.
But that doesn’t mean it would be a failure. Hardly. For each and every person who has stepped forward and made a pledge to back the Kickstarter, that is an affirmation that my efforts at writing have been judged successful. That means more to me than I can ever convey.
Thank you.
Jim Downey
*Yes, The Beatles. Though Joe Cocker also did a great cover of it. And thanks to my friend ML who suggested this song a couple days ago in a comment. And remember, tomorrow Communion of Dreams will be free for download all day – spread the word.
Filed under: Amazon, Connections, Failure, Heinlein, Kindle, Marketing, movies, Music, Predictions, Preparedness, Promotion, Publishing, Religion, Robert A. Heinlein, Science Fiction, Writing stuff, YouTube | Tags: Alan Parsons Project, Amazon, blogging, Buckaroo Bonzai, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, free, gambling, Heinlein, jim downey, Kickstarter, Kindle, literature, movies, music, predictions, promotion, Science Fiction, St. Cybi's Well, video, writing, www youtube
* * * * * * *
I liked “The Day After Tomorrow.”
No, not the movie. Gah.
Rather, I’m talking about the initial name for the Heinlein novel we now know as Sixth Column. I always figured that the trick of inventing a religion (one of the major plot devices of the book) gave L. Ron Hubbard inspiration. It’s not one of Heinlein’s best works — hardly — and you have to understand the blatant racism in the context of when it was written. But it’s decent pulp science fiction.
* * * * * * *
RAWHIDE:
Look, uh... we've got the overthruster,
but somebody shanghaied the Professor
right from the press conference.
BUCKAROO BANZAI:
Ohhh... the deuce you say.
Gotta love Buckaroo. Text from here.
* * * * * * *
And they think it will make their lives easier
For God knows up till now it’s been hard
But the game never ends when your whole world depends
On the turn of a friendly card
No the game never ends when your whole world depends
On the turn of a friendly card
Two days remaining. It ends the day after tomorrow. $7,781 to go. Bluff, or fold?
Jim Downey
PS: Oh, yeah, the Kindle Edition of Communion of Dreams will be free all day on the final day of the Kickstarter. Let everyone know. Thanks.
Filed under: Amazon, Failure, Feedback, Humor, Kindle, Marketing, Predictions, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, Writing stuff | Tags: Amazon, blogging, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, free, humor, jim downey, Kickstarter, Kindle, literature, promotion, Science Fiction, St. Cybi's Well, writing
This is what it said on the ‘$1 Reward’ for my Kickstarter:
Amnesty: Did you download “Communion of Dreams” for free? Assuage your guilty conscience and/or show your appreciation for a great book by pledging just one dollar. And if you haven’t gotten a download of “Communion of Dreams” yet, do so!
That, friends, is why I usually leave the comedy writing to the other Jim Downey, the one who has a more mainstream sense of humor. I was trying to have a little fun with the standard $1 Reward you find on most Kickstarters, where it says some nice but fairly generic thing about “thanking you for your support.” I should know better. The joke fell flat.
Since you can’t change an offered Reward once someone has claimed it (which is only fair), I’ve just closed that Reward and added a more typical one at the same contribution level:
A digital thank-you for your support, as well as notification when “St. Cybi’s Well” is available to the public!
So, lesson learned. Again. You’d think I’d know by now to leave the humor to the other guy.
Thanks to those who *did* make a contribution to the Kickstarter yesterday! That amounted to $365 towards the goal — very much appreciated! And there were another 167 downloads of Communion of Dreams through the day, as well!
Onward & upward.
Jim Downey*
Filed under: Amazon, Feedback, Kindle, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, Society, Writing stuff | Tags: 50 Cent, advertising, Amazon, blogging, Communion of Dreams, design, direct publishing, editing, free, jim downey, Kickstarter, Kindle, layout, literature, promotion, publishing, reviews, Science Fiction, St. Cybi's Well, thanks, writing
Wait, what? How can something free be priced for $1.00 ?
Easy: today Communion of Dreams, which normally sells for $4.95, is completely free for anyone to download. Please – go get it, if you haven’t already. In fact, if you have already gotten it, delete that one and go get it again anyway. Why? Well, it’ll help my rankings if you do.
But I’m doing this today to help promote the Kickstarter for my next book: St. Cybi’s Well.
Currently the Kickstarter is just a bit under halfway over. It is also just a bit under halfway to the funding goal. So far, so good.
The thing is, though, that only 28 people have backed the project so far. Now, I love the level of support from those backers, and greatly appreciate the contributions. But so far this year over 20,000 people have downloaded Communion of Dreams for free. And the previous version of the novel had been downloaded over 35,000 times.
If each and every person who got the book for free just this year would kick in $0.50 — fifty cents — no, not him — we’d surpass the Kickstarter goal and I could concentrate on getting St. Cybi’s Well finished and published.
But that is unlikely to happen. So I’m asking for those who see this to do two small things:
- Go over, kick in a buck on my Kickstarter. Just $1.
- Tell others about it. Word-of-mouth is excellent promotion — it’s how some 60,000 people have heard of Communion of Dreams. Now, let’s convert some of that into support for my Kickstarter.
Self-publishing is incredibly powerful. But it is also damned tough. There’s no ‘advance’ from a publishing house to allow me to concentrate on writing the next book. There’s no budget for advertising and promotion. There’s no design department handling the cover and book layout. There aren’t editors to go through the text. There aren’t copy editors to pore through the proofs. All of that has to be handled by me, one way or another.
Communion of Dreams has gotten praise from people around the world. And not just for the story. Also for the professional quality of the text. That takes a lot of hard work and attention to detail.
I don’t mind that. I take pride in the finished product. But I could use your help. If you got Communion of Dreams for free and enjoyed it, please help me out today. It’ll help get St. Cybi’s Well out that much sooner.
Thanks!
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Art, Book Conservation, Connections, Feedback, Guns, Kindle, Marketing, Music, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction | Tags: Amazon, art, BBTI, blogging, Bob Dylan, bookbinding, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, firearms, free, guns, jim downey, Kickstarter, Kindle, Legacy Bookbindery, literature, music, promotion, Science Fiction, St. Cybi's Well, video
Well, well, well. Some things to share.
First of all, thought I’d go ahead and post here the promotional video we made for the Kickstarter project. For those who might be curious about what I look/sound like, and who have yet to be tempted to go to the Kickstarter page:
A brief word about the Kickstarter’s progress so far, one week since launch: things are going well. We’re over $2,000 on pledges so far, from 20 backers. People have been contributing at levels from $5 to $500 — much appreciated! I’m a bit surprised that no one has just contributed at the $1.00 level so far, since that’s usually something which gets attention on Kickstarter projects where people just want to say “thanks” for some previous efforts or lend a bit of encouragement for a favorite author or artist. But that’s OK, if people want to pledge at higher levels, I’m not going to complain.
Somewhat related to this, there’s a special drawing which may be of interest to those who are ‘into’ firearms — all the details are over on my BBTI blog.
I also want to give a head-up: Next Sunday (Sept 30) will be another promotional day for Communion of Dreams, when anyone will be able to download the Kindle edition of that book for free. You don’t even need a Kindle – they have emulators for just about every mobile device, reader, or computer system. Tell your friends! Spread the word!
Jim Downey
*With apologies to Mr. Zimmerman.
Filed under: Amazon, Book Conservation, Connections, Feedback, Italy, Kindle, Marketing, Music, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, Society, YouTube | Tags: Amazon, appreciation, art, blogging, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, free, Grateful Dead, Italy, jim downey, Kickstarter, Kindle, literature, music, promotion, reviews, Science Fiction, St. Cybi's Well, video, www youtube
An interesting launch.
First, we had 2,215 downloads of Communion of Dreams yesterday (and even one from Italy!) Yay!
Thanks to all who helped to spread the word, and to everyone who downloaded a copy of the book. I didn’t stay up until the end of the promotion, but the last time I checked the stats CoD was ranked #6 in the Science Fiction category of the Kindle store, and was #142 overall.
Over on the Kickstarter for St. Cybi’s Well, it was also quite a good day, with a total of $1,260 pledged. And already a couple of people have claimed this reward:
Pledge $500 or more
2 Backers Limited (3 of 5 left)Mmm, Leather! Double Set: Get a personally handbound leather hardcover copy of *BOTH* “St. Cybi’s Well” and “Communion of Dreams”. The books will be numbered, also signed & inscribed to the recipient. Binding will be in full premium calf with a nice embossed label spine. Your choice of leather color and endpapers. Also includes download copy of both books. (For international shipping, please add $20.)
Est. delivery: Dec 2013
Which is very cool, and very much appreciated. I will enjoy doing all the hand-binding work on these and the other premium rewards.
But while it is important for the funding goal to succeed, running a Kickstarter isn’t just about generating money. It’s also about building community and raising awareness of a project. So *all* contributions are important to me, and in some ways a person who just “pre-orders” the novel for $5, or who enjoyed Communion of Dreams and shows their appreciation with a $1 contribution but then goes on to share news of the Kickstarter with others is more important than someone who happens to be in a financial position to invest in a custom binding.
Seriously, think about it — if each and every person who has downloaded Communion of Dreams during a promotion this year kicked in a buck, we’d already be past the first ‘stretch goal’. And each time someone shares the Kickstarter page, or tells people about my writing, or puts up a review, they help to generate more interest and eventually more financial support which allows me to do more writing.
So, thanks to *everyone* who took the time to pass along the news at any stage of this process. Even though I’m more than a bit of a curmudgeon and an introvert, you — everyone in this little community — are extremely important to me.
And if you haven’t yet checked out the Kickstarter, or told others about it, please take a moment and do so. It helps — it *really* helps.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Art, Book Conservation, Brave New World, Connections, Feedback, General Musings, Kindle, Marketing, Predictions, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, Writing stuff | Tags: Amazon, art, blogging, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, free, jim downey, Kickstarter, Kindle, Latin, literature, promotion, Science Fiction, St. Cybi's Well, Wikipedia, writing
Well.
The Kickstarter has launched:
St. Cybi’s Well – a prequel to Communion of Dreams by Jim Downey
Prequel to the popular novel Communion of Dreams. Get an early release download or a hand-bound copy in your choice of cover material.
I was surprised a bit yesterday when one of my friends — an artist, even — asked what “Kickstarter” is. I guess I’ve been so wrapped up in paying attention to it for the last year or so that I had just assumed that it was something commonly understood. But if you’re not sure, here’s the basic description from Kickstarter:
What is Kickstarter?
Kickstarter is a new way to fund creative projects.
We believe that:
• A good idea, communicated well, can spread fast and wide.
• A large group of people can be a tremendous source of money and encouragement.
Kickstarter is powered by a unique all-or-nothing funding method where projects must be fully-funded or no money changes hands.
There’s a lot more there on the site. But basically, it is a way to crowd-fund a creative project. In my case, I’m trying to use it as a substitute for a traditional “advance” from a conventional publisher by generating advance sales of my next novel. But since I also have a fairly unusual set of skills as a bookbinder, I’m also able to offer something fairly unique: a limited edition of hand-bound books. This edition will be printed differently, in a manner which will allow for me to fold and then sew actual signatures rather than relying on machine ‘perfect binding’ as you typically find in paperbacks. These book will also be in hardcover, with a variety of different selection of covering material and design. The full information is there on the Kickstarter page.
This is a big deal for me. I’ve been thinking about doing this since early this year, as I watched the response to Communion of Dreams. It was clear that many people enjoyed that book, and one of the most common things which showed up in reviews and discussions was when/whether my next book would be available.
There are many challenges for me here. One is just seeing what the actual level of support for my writing is, which to some extent is expressed by how successful the Kickstarter is. Another is pushing me to actually concentrate on completing St. Cybi’s Well, and proving to myself and the world that Communion of Dreams wasn’t some kind of fluke. Doing the bookbinding won’t be a problem, but it still needs to be attended to. And there are the ongoing promotional matters which require time, energy, and the willingness to engage as something of a public person — no small feat for someone who is as much an introvert as I am.
Yesterday I said thanks for helping me get to this point. And I mean that, most sincerely. Any further help you can give by sharing news of the Kickstarter would be greatly appreciated. And likewise, anyone who wants to kick in some money on the Kickstarter will earn my personal gratitude above and beyond whatever ‘rewards’ they choose.
Now we’ll see how the game plays out.
Jim Downey
*Full explanation here. I choose this version rather than the more common one precisely because in this instance it isn’t a matter of a single roll of the dice being cast, but rather of the game being started.
Filed under: Amazon, Brave New World, Connections, Failure, General Musings, Kindle, Marketing, Preparedness, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, Writing stuff | Tags: Amazon, blogging, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, free, Heidegger, jim downey, Kickstarter, Kindle, literature, predictions, promotion, Radiolab, Science Fiction, St. Cybi's Well, volcano, writing
Tomorrow we’ll launch the Kickstarter for St. Cybi’s Well.
* * * * * * *
I listened to the rebroadcast of the Radiolab show “Emergence” this noon hour, as I had a nice salad. From the show description:
What happens when there is no leader? Starlings, bees, and ants manage just fine. In fact, they form staggeringly complicated societies–all without a Toscanini to conduct them into harmony. This hour of Radiolab, we ask how this happens.
What it’s investigating is the phenomenon of emergence; that is, of self-organization or spontaneous order from a chaotic or non-ordered system. A lot of people think that intelligence and consciousness are emergent properties.
* * * * * * *
Since the beginning of this year when I launched Communion of Dreams, almost 20,000 people have gotten a copy of the book. In the years before that, as I was working to try and get the book conventionally published, between 35,000 and 40,000 people downloaded the earlier version of the book.
And all along I’ve benefited from the help of many people in getting out the word about CoD. Thanks. This has quite literally been a case of being outside of my control. The wisdom of crowds, indeed.
* * * * * * *
From Communion of Dreams (first shows up in Chapter 9):
“That which emerges from darkness gives definition to the light.”
* * * * * * *
Tomorrow we’ll launch the Kickstarter for St. Cybi’s Well.
It’s been a very long slog through a range of mountains, with highs and lows. I’ve seen a lot. I’ve learned a lot. Some of it I have shared. Some of it I still need to come to understand.
And this last bit has been like climbing up a volcano, one I’m not sure is actually active, though I have seen signs of life in it. I’m almost afraid to look over the rim and down into the crater. Yet I am drawn to the heat, to the light, to the power of the thing.
Tomorrow we’ll launch the Kickstarter for St. Cybi’s Well. As part of that, Communion of Dreams will be free to download all day long. If you haven’t downloaded it yet, please do. And tell your friends to do so.
Thank you. Thanks to all of you. For helping me make it this far.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Brave New World, Failure, Feedback, Kindle, Marketing, NYT, Predictions, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, Society, tech, Writing stuff | Tags: advertising, Amazon, blogging, Communion of Dreams, David Streitfeld, direct publishing, free, jim downey, John Bourke, Kickstarter, Kindle, literature, money, promotion, reviews, Science Fiction, St. Cybi's Well, technology, writing
That’s the title of a NYT article a friend sent me. It’s long, more than a bit depressing, and probably something that every aspiring author should read. More than that, it’s probably something that every book consumer should read. Because if you’re going by book reviews listed online, well, you might be reading nothing more than “artificially embellished reviews” in the words of one former business owner who brokered such reviews for authors.
Why do people do this? Money. From the article:
In the fall of 2010, Mr. Rutherford started a Web site, GettingBookReviews.com. At first, he advertised that he would review a book for $99. But some clients wanted a chorus proclaiming their excellence. So, for $499, Mr. Rutherford would do 20 online reviews. A few people needed a whole orchestra. For $999, he would do 50.
There were immediate complaints in online forums that the service was violating the sacred arm’s-length relationship between reviewer and author. But there were also orders, a lot of them. Before he knew it, he was taking in $28,000 a month.
And why do authors seek such services? Same reason. Gaming the system to have a bunch of fake reviews posted helps to boost sales, building the dynamic which leads to a self-supporting “best seller.” People love the idea of being part of something successful. This is why marketers of all sorts seek to create “buzz” — that kind of attention is the Holy Grail of selling anything. Again, from the article:
One of Mr. Rutherford’s clients, who confidently commissioned hundreds of reviews and didn’t even require them to be favorable, subsequently became a best seller. This is proof, Mr. Rutherford said, that his notion was correct. Attention, despite being contrived, draws more attention.
So, what to do about it?
There’s no easy answer, for either a writer or a reader. Ideally, you should be able to read a review and tell whether the person actually read the book or not. But you can’t trust that. Believe me — I wrote advertising copy for several years after college and before grad school, and I got to the point where I could convince almost anyone that whatever product I was writing about was *FANTASTIC* whether or not I had ever even tried the product, let alone whether I liked it. Any competent writer could churn out ‘reviews’ for books they’ve never read by the dozens.
So, what then? Because reviews really do make a difference — having a solid body of honest reviews has helped others decide to give my books a try. That’s why I keep asking people to do them: it helps. A lot.
But what I think helps even more is word-of-mouth. Well, the internet equivalent of it, anyway. Which is people — real people — posting their thoughts/recommendations about a book on their favorite forum/blog/twitter/Facebook wall. I haven’t hit this mechanism nearly as much as I probably should since the initial launch of both Her Final Year and Communion of Dreams, but that’s because I hate bugging people.
But I’m going to swallow my pride and ask when it comes time to kick off the Kickstarter Project for St. Cybi’s Well that I keep mentioning. In fact, I can pretty much guarantee that the Kickstarter will either succeed or fail according to how much promotional support it gets from people who have read Communion of Dreams.
So if you read that book, and enjoyed it, and would like to read another component in my over-arching story — be ready to help spread the word.
Thanks. In advance. There will be more tangible expressions of my appreciation coming soon.
Jim Downey
PS: Editing (Sept. 3) to add another link addressing this problem: RJ Ellory’s secret Amazon reviews anger rivals
Filed under: Alzheimer's, Amazon, Art, Babylon 5, Ballistics, Book Conservation, Connections, Feedback, General Musings, Italy, J. Michael Straczynski, JMS, Marketing, Predictions, Promotion, Publishing, Religion, Science Fiction, Survival, Travel, Writing stuff | Tags: Alzheimer's, Amazon, antiquity, art, Babylon 5, ballistics, blogging, care-giving, direct publishing, firearms, free, guns, Hades, Italy, jim downey, John Bourke, Kickstarter, Kindle, Lake Avernus, literature, love, memoir, predictions, promotion, Rome, Science Fiction, travel, writing, Z'ha'dum
I mentioned the other day that my trip to Italy had kicked loose some writing blocks I had been struggling with, and that it had given me ideas for additional stories and novels. It did. It also made me think hard about some decisions I needed to make. Not just about writing. Also about how I spend my life.
Simply put, I have several things I still want to accomplish before I die. Things which I won’t accomplish if I keep putting them off, putting time and energy into things which really don’t matter. Like arguments. Like writing fluff which other people could write, just in order to earn a little money. My time — my life — is more valuable than that.
I think that it was the experience of seeing so many incredible accomplishments from Classical Antiquity still around some 2,000 years later which made an impact on me.
Now, I have no illusions that anything I do will last that long. Nor am I going to give up ‘living in the moment’ and trying to enjoy my life and those I share it with. But I am going to reshuffle my priorities in some very concrete ways.
One of these will be much less time dinking-around in social media. Oh, I will still participate to some extent, still maintain connections with my friends and fans. But I am going to be less self-indulgent in that regard.
Another change in priority will mean writing fewer reviews and articles. That means a loss of income which has made a difference in recent years, and I have to find a way to replace that. After all, I still have to live. The result of this will be a Kickstarter campaign which will be formulated and announced in coming weeks — plenty of people have said that they are looking forward to seeing what my next novel is, and this is one way for them to help make that a reality sooner rather than later, a chance for them to put their money where their mouth is.
(And speaking of Kickstarter campaigns, some friends of mine just launched one to expand their artistic repertoire which I highly recommend — you can find it here: Ancient Metalsmithing Made Modern, or Perfecting Pressblech )
I recently turned 54. And I have accomplished a number of things of which I am justly proud. I have friends and family I love. I have a wonderful wife. I have written books and articles which have brought joy, knowledge, and solace to others. I have helped to preserve history in the form of books & documents. I have created art, sold art, made my little corner of the world a slightly better place. I’ve even helped expand the pool of ballistics knowledge a bit. Frankly, I’ve lived longer and accomplished more than I ever really expected to.
But I have more yet to do. Time to get on with it.
Jim Downey
*Yes, a Babylon 5 reference. In this case specifically to the episode “Conflicts of Interest” in which Sheridan makes the following statement:
I’ve been doing a great deal of thinking, Zack. There are several hundred unpleasant things I’ve been avoiding doing since I got back from Z’ha’dum. Now with Delenn gone I don’t have any excuses. I have to start taking care of them.”
Appropriately enough, one of the places I got to visit while in Italy was Lake Avernus — which the Romans considered the entrance to Hades. Yeah, I’ve been to Hell and back. It’s given me a new perspective.
Communion Of Dreams 