Filed under: Amazon, Art, Book Conservation, Connections, Feedback, Kindle, Marketing, Predictions, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction | Tags: Amazon, art, blogging, bookbinding, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, jim downey, Kickstarter, Kindle, literature, predictions, promotion, Science Fiction
First and foremost, allow me to extend best wishes to one and all for a great Thanksgiving (if you’re here in the US. Otherwise, have a great Thursday just ’cause.)
For long-time readers, you know the many twists & turns in my life over the last 5+ years, particularly those related to the ostensible reason this blog was started: to document and explore the process of getting Communion of Dreams published. And I want to tell you, and all the others who have joined us along this trek: thank-you for sticking with me. Communion of Dreams was downloaded something like 35,000 times in the earlier .pdf incarnation, and has been downloaded or purchased in paperback about 20,000 times this year in the current version. And I am grateful to everyone who contributed to make that a reality.
Last week I documented the latest amusing bit of the saga, how we wound up with printed sheets for a “backwards” book, which should have been the sheets for the limited edition handbound hardcover version.
Well, yesterday we got the corrected sheets. Here’s a shot:
Yay!
From initial checking, everything looks good to do the limited edition. And I want to mention that the printer did everything I could reasonably ask or expect to make right the initial mistake — which shouldn’t be unusual, but is all too often these days. So, thanks to the folks at PrintLynx for not only correcting the error, but doing so quickly and with zero hassle. I’ve used them for a decade or longer, and have every reason to continue to use them for the foreseeable future.
I have another big conservation job to focus on in the short term, but soon I hope to have some initial samples of what the handbound hardcover edition of Communion of Dreams will look like. And as for being ‘tempted‘, well, let’s just say that soon I also hope to have an interesting announcement to make. When life gives you lemons …
But for now, I want to again wish you and yours a great Thanksgiving. And to say that I am thankful for all my friends and fans, who have conspired to make this a wonderful year.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Art, Artificial Intelligence, Connections, Expert systems, Feedback, Kindle, Marketing, Predictions, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, tech, Writing stuff | Tags: Amazon, art, blogging, bookbinding, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, jim downey, Kindle, literature, predictions, promotion, reviews, Science Fiction, Scrivener, St. Cybi's Well, technology, writing
Just a few quick notes to share…
First is a new review up on Amazon. Here’s an excerpt:
The author deftly crafts a tale of a group of humans who endeavor to understand more about this artifact and in the process make some profound discoveries. The characters, both real and virtual, are well crafted and the story is well written with very few (I think I noted one) flaw in the text.
It is a mind-boggling tale with some tie-backs to present time.
As always, I’d ask anyone who has read Communion of Dreams to please consider doing a review, or at least rating/liking the book on Amazon, Good Reads, or elsewhere — honest reviews really do help.
A quick follow-up to Friday’s post: in case you didn’t see the additional note, the printer realized that they’d made an error with the job, and are going to do a complete reprint. It means a bit of a delay, but nothing serious — and I really respect that they’re going to make things right. So many businesses might try to weasel their way out of that responsibility.
I’ve decided that I like the Scrivener software, so am going to be using it for the bulk of the initial writing of St. Cybi’s Well. I’ll probably post further thoughts on it as I get deeper into the actual writing, but I really like that I can use it for collecting research as well as jotting notes/scenes in a way which is fairly intuitive and seamless to use. Not exactly like having my own Seth around to help me, but …
Have a good Monday!
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Art, Connections, Humor, Kindle, Publishing, Science, Science Fiction, Synesthesia, Writing stuff | Tags: Amazon, art, blogging, bookbinding, chaos theory, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, jim downey, Kickstarter, Kindle, literature, mathematics, science, Science Fiction, synesthesia, writing
Sometimes I feel like this bit from Chapter 17 of Communion of Dreams:
“It’s all right, Jon, I’m awake,” said the scientist, still not opening his eyes.
“Tops says . . . ”
“Probably that I’m acting a little strange. It’s true. I came to a little while ago, but my head has been spinning. Not with any sense of vertigo, but with ideas. Like some kind of wild holographic sculpture of equations, moving and changing, solving themselves and giving rise to new ones, flowing, growing, gleaming from within. It’s easier for me to keep my eyes closed, so I can follow all that they’re doing, I hope you don’t mind.” All of this came pouring from the small man at a pace so quick that Jon almost missed some of it. He continued, “I’m going to have to discuss with Duc whether this is how he perceives his artwork before translating it into a form that the rest of us can see. For me it is like for the first time having direct, conscious access to my subconscious. You know that the human brain is capable of truly phenomenal computational power, but it usually happens below the threshold of awareness. I feel like right now, for this time, I can witness the full glory of the mind at work. No matter. I wanted to see you because I have come to realize what was bothering me before.”
We just placed the order for the special edition printing of Communion of Dreams. And yesterday I ordered several hundred dollars of archival bookbinding materials to execute the cloth hardcover bindings. Exciting — I love these kinds of beginnings!
Jim Downey
*Chaos theory. The ‘scientist’ in the quote above is Robert Gish, a central character in the book, and something of an alter-ego for me.
Filed under: Amazon, Art, Connections, Feedback, Kindle, Marketing, Predictions, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, Writing stuff | Tags: Amazon, art, blogging, book art, bookbinding, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, feedback, free, jim downey, Kickstarter, Kindle, literature, predictions, promotion, Science Fiction, St. Cybi's Well, writing
So, yesterday’s promotion was a moderate success. Nothing stunning, but certainly not disappointing. We had a total of right at 700 downloads, all told, including 49 from Britain and one each in France & Germany. I’m still waiting for the first download in Japan …
Anyway. Those downloads pushed Communion of Dreams to #3 in the “High Tech SF” subcategory, to #13 in overall Science Fiction, and to #327 on the entire free Kindle store rankings. It may have even done a bit better, since there were another 100 downloads after I crashed last night.
Not bad. Not bad, at all. Thanks everyone!
Last month also saw a decent uptick in overall visits to the Communion of Dreams site, to some 1,200. That’s about a 30% increase over what is typical.
This afternoon I’m mailing off the bulk of the signed paperback copies of CoD from the Kickstarter rewards, and we’re waiting to hear back from the printer about the final tally on the Limited Edition copies. I haven’t made too big a deal out of that special edition here yet, because right now we’ve just got generic examples of my book arts work on the page — but once we have the actual pages, I’ll make up some examples of what the finished book will look like, so people will have a better idea of what they’ll be getting. However, it is not too early if you want to reserve your copy — there are at present only 44 copies remaining available.
And yes, I am now shifting the bulk of my creative energy over to thinking about St. Cybi’s Well, to exactly how I want to lay out the plot and all the characters/scenes/themes. As I noted last week, this is all really exciting.
Cheers!
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Feedback, Heinlein, Kindle, Kurt Vonnegut, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Robert A. Heinlein, Science Fiction | Tags: Amazon, blogging, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, free, jim downey, Kindle, literature, promotion, reviews, Science Fiction
As I write this at mid-day, Communion of Dreams sits at #5 in the ‘High Tech’ subcategory of Science Fiction, at #33 overall in Science Fiction, and at #919 in the Kindle rankings (all for “free Kindle store”). Yeah, today’s Trick or Treat promotion is going well. And if you haven’t gotten a copy of the book downloaded yet, you should be sure to do so.
But don’t take my word for it — there’s also a new review been posted this morning:
When I picked up this book, I had no idea what a treat I was in for. From the early chapters I was hooked, like when I was younger and first discovered Heinlein or Vonnegut. Futuristic high-tech gadgets combine with elements of mysticism and other worldly wonder in a sci-fi book that matches up with the best of them. Highly recommended!
Always nice to be favorably compared to some of my favorite authors.
So, don’t delay — go now, and get your copy!
Happy Hallowe’en!
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Connections, Failure, Kindle, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, Writing stuff | Tags: Amazon, blogging, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, free, Hallowe'en, jim downey, Kickstarter, Kindle, literature, promotion, Science Fiction, St. Cybi's Well
I mentioned a couple weeks ago that there was a case of ‘Bad Timing‘ in terms of having problems scheduling another promotional day for Communion of Dreams.
Well, in the whirlwind which followed with the success of the Kickstarter, I didn’t get back to this topic. Suffice it to say that Amazon took a few days to resolve the glitch in their system — it wasn’t just me who ran into it; they said that it was a “known problem we are working hard to resolve.” One of the rare occasions when I haven’t been happy with their system.
But now that the glictch is fixed, and I’m past the worst of the Kickstarter changes, time to go ahead and reschedule a give-away. So, it seems right to do it on this coming Wednesday. Yup, Hallowe’en.
No trick — just a treat: please download the Kindle edition of Communion of Dreams. You don’t even need to own an actual Kindle, since there are free Kindle emulators for just about every computer/reader/mobile device out there.
Happy All-Hallow’s Eve-eve-eve, everyone!
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Connections, Feedback, Kindle, Science Fiction, SETI, Space, Writing stuff | Tags: Amazon, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, feedback, jim downey, Kindle, literature, Science Fiction, space, writing
Got a nice note from someone on a forum where I’m a member. They had picked up Communion of Dreams recently, and just finished it. Here’s an excerpt from the note [spoiler warning if you haven’t read CoD]:
While I was reading, I started to think about the bubble as more of a womb. I was imagining some advanced civilization or group of civilizations who had sealed us off because we were not yet ready to interact with the rest of the universe.
Did I have that right? If so, why were we only able to access the healing energy through our own manipulation? Was no one watching us?
My response to that bit:
I *really* like your explanation of the ‘bubble’ as akin to a womb — an analogy I hadn’t seen anyone else mention yet, but one that gets to the essence of the idea very well. To extend your analogy a bit, you might consider that it takes children a while after birth to learn to walk & talk — there are lots of things a child is born with the innate potential to do, but which won’t manifest until later, and so aren’t looked for during pregnancy.
Just thought I’d share that.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Art, Failure, Feedback, Humor, Kindle, Marketing, Publishing, Science Fiction, Writing stuff | Tags: Amazon, art, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, humor, jim downey, Kindle, literature, reviews, Science Fiction, writing
New review up on Amazon:
Awful Cover, AMAZING Book
Okay, I’m guilty.
I nearly judged this book by its cover, but the premise of an alien artifact being discovered convinced me to give it a try. Imagine my delight when it also unexpectedly began taking accurate and well-described metaphysical twists I hadn’t known it contained! I love stumbling across “sleeper” hits!
This book was an amazing read with pieces of everything I love, (including the things I can’t tell you without spoiling the story!) beautifully blended and well written– I could not put it down. It felt like I was watching a long, epic movie.
I highly recommend this one!
Well, I appreciate the positive review, but can’t say I agree with the guy’s aesthetic sense…
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Art, Connections, Feedback, Kindle, Marketing, Predictions, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, Writing stuff | Tags: Amazon, art, blogging, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, jim downey, Kickstarter, Kindle, literature, predictions, promotion, Science Fiction, St. Cybi's Well, writing
I’ve mentioned it in passing, but I just wanted to drop a brief note and make it explicit: I’m really jazzed about St. Cybi’s Well.
With the unexpected success of the Kickstarter, it took me most of last week to recover from the shock and start to work through all the details of what happened. I’m mostly past that stuff, and have been in contact with all the people who had claimed as a reward one of the hand-bound books in order to allow them to choose their edition # (and if you were one such backer, please check your messages on Kickstarter and get back to me soon). In the next day or two we’ll be ready to open up advance orders to the general public.
But while it is important to deal with all that administrative stuff, what is really cool is that soon I’ll be able to concentrate on getting the book written, edited, and published. Something which I have been thinking about, working through, and giving deep consideration for years. And frankly, that is really exciting!
Now, it will mean that I won’t be posting quite as much here. And I’ll apologize now for that. But concentrating on writing a full-length novel takes a huge amount of creative energy and focus. I’m not going to disappear completely, however, and I will try and keep a schedule of posting a couple of times a week — to let you know how the writing is going, if nothing else. If you’re not already subscribed to this blog, you might want to do so, to get notice of new posts when they’re up.
Thanks again, everyone. For your support of the Kickstarter. For your purchases and downloads of my books. For your feedback and reviews. For just reading this blog over the last five years. It all makes a difference, and I value each and every bit of it.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Art, Book Conservation, Connections, Feedback, Kindle, Marketing, Predictions, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, Writing stuff | Tags: Amazon, art, blogging, book art, bookbinding, Communion of Dreams, direct publishing, jim downey, Kickstarter, Kindle, literature, predictions, promotion, Science Fiction, St. Cybi's Well, writing
So, I’ve been fairly quiet for a few days, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy.
After recovering from the shock of the Kickstarter succeeding, I had to re-think some of the plans I had been putting into place in order to insure that I fully live up to the terms of the Kickstarter. Mostly this is no big deal, but I am still finalizing some of the details with the backers.
Still, I thought I would offer a heads-up on what is in store. As I noted the other day:
And ways you can reserve one of a very limited edition run of both Communion of Dreams and St. Cybi’s Well and have those books bound the way you want — even reserving your edition number on a first come, first served basis. With payment plan options. Some of the higher-end premium ‘rewards’ will still be available, as well.
When I say “very limited edition” I mean on the order of about 50 hand-bound copies of Communion of Dreams, and about 100 of St. Cybi’s Well (please note that both of these edition numbers are smaller than what was offered on the Kickstarter). These are going to be a special print-run of each book, printed traditionally on sheets of high-quality paper which will be gathered into sections, then trimmed and folded, then sewn into a strong, long-lasting binding. Then you will have a choice of cover material: premium bookcloth, calfskin leather, or goatskin leather. You can see images of such bindings on the Kickstarter page.
The basic cost is $100 for one of these books in cloth. For calfskin leather the cost is $250, and for goatskin $350. With a $100 downpayment you can reserve your copy (and select your edition number from those available), and pay the balance due in installments. Each book will be inscribed as you wish and signed by the author/bookbinder (that’s me!) The cloth bindings will all be in basic black, but those who opt for leather will be able to choose the color of the leather (from those available from my suppliers — a pretty wide range). These books will be more like individual works of art than anything else you may have seen in a book.
I’m hoping that as soon as next week I’ll be able to place the order for the Communion of Dreams run, so that I can work on getting orders for those done over the coming winter. The St. Cybi’s Well run will have to wait until that book is finished, edited, proofed, and ready to publish.
So, something to think about and look forward to. I certainly am!
Cheers!
Jim Downey
Communion Of Dreams 