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“Our Sam says that everyone’s going to be invited to the party, and there’s going to be presents, mark you, presents for all — this very month as is.”
Indeed, presents for all. This Wednesday. July 4th. My birthday, as it happens. In keeping with fine Hobbit tradition (though I am by no means a small person), I’ve scheduled that a promotion day — when everyone can download the Kindle edition of Communion of Dreams for free. My gift to you.
And if you can identify the speaker of the above quote (without cheating and looking it up) and send me an email, I’ll put your name in a drawing for a free signed paperback copy of Communion. Don’t post your answer in a comment — that’d give away the answer — just send it to me at jim@communionofdreams.com before July 5th.
If you would like to give a gift to me in return, all I ask is that you help spread the news of the promotion. I’d like to bump up awareness of Communion of Dreams before I leave on my trip. In spite of the many excellent reviews, sales and promotional efforts last month have slipped. I only managed to give away 2,351 copies of the book, and sold (or had borrowed through the KDP Select program) 259 copies. As a result, the Amazon ranking for the Kindle edition has hovered around 20,000 most of the month, and this morning was #21,932. It’d be great if we could push those numbers back into the low “a few thousand” range.
Likewise, Her Final Year only keeps plodding along, again in spite of excellent reviews. We managed to give away more copies of that book — 2,986 — but only sold 32. And consequently the Amazon ranking has largely been stuck around 200,000 most of the month. There will be a free promotion day on July 14 for HFY — in observation of the first anniversary, or ‘birthday’, of the book being published. Something else to look forward to!
So, happy July, everyone! Be sure to email your answers about the mystery quote soon!
Jim Downey
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I got a note from a friend earlier this week. She had just started reading Communion of Dreams, and was really impressed with it, and took the time to let me know. I thanked her for telling me.
And I was thankful — getting feedback from people like that is very affirming. Every author, every artist, likes it when their work is well received.
But I was also a bit bemused.
Why?
Well, because she seemed so *surprised*.
I can’t tell you how often this happens. You wouldn’t believe me. But it’s true. People who know me — friends, family — seem to be completely caught off guard by the fact that I’ve written a book which is actually quite good.
* * * * * * *
One of my relatives is pretty “old school” in the sense that he thinks that he should be parsimonious with praise. When I told him that I was going to grad school in order to study writing and literature, he said something along the lines of “what, weren’t you paying attention in college?”
When told that I was involved in the Ballistics By The Inch project, his reaction was that it was a waste of time, because “everyone knows the answer, it’s just 25-50 feet per second.”
I haven’t talked to him in years. I would bet that he considered the care-giving “woman’s work.” No idea what he would’ve made of the subsequent memoir. And Communion of Dreams?
Who knows.
* * * * * * *
A friend of mine used to always say: “It ain’t bragging if you can actually do it.”
* * * * * * *
There’s a new review up. Here it is:
As an avid reader, I go through many books quickly. I’ve read so much sci-fi stuff over the years, I have forgotten most or all of it. This book, however, is so wonderful and complex that I am certain it will stay with me. It brings in “hard” sci-fi in the Arthur C. Clarke tradition, marries it to cultural anthropology, sociology, psychology and all the other things I love. I was lucky to get this one for free for the Kindle during a promotion. However, it is well worth obtaining at full price. Downey has a flair for story telling and a firm grasp on even the deepest, most esoteric science and theoretical underpinnings. “Communion of Dreams” has been a joy to read. Highly recommended.
* * * * * * *
I got a note from a friend earlier this week. She had just started reading Communion of Dreams, and was really impressed with it, and took the time to let me know. I thanked her for telling me.
And I was thankful — getting feedback from people like that is very affirming. Every author, every artist, likes it when their work is well received.
But I was also a bit bemused.
Why?
Well, because she seemed so *surprised*.
I can’t tell you how often this happens. You wouldn’t believe me. But it’s true. People who know me — friends, family — seem to be completely caught off guard by the fact that I’ve written a book which is actually quite good.
This isn’t just about me. To some extent we all experience this. Hell, we all do this. A friend or a relative tells us that they’re writing a book, or a play, or a movie. Or that they are creating a work of art. Or that they are going back to school. Or that they are trying to lose weight. Or whatever. If we’re decent sorts of people, we make encouraging noises.
But when was the last time you actually considered engaging with that person? Actually *encouraging* them? I’m not talking about some bullshit “work hard, and anything is possible” line. I’m talking about asking about their project, their goal, their plans to bring it into reality?
I’m old enough, crusty enough, that I have pushed on to do things even in spite of lack of encouragement. Maybe that’s just because I’m a self-centered bastard who cares more about meeting my own goals than meeting the goals of others.
But think about how much better a world it could be if we really listened to one another’s dreams & plans, shared our enthusiasm, and our encouragement.
Jim Downey
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Mel, our new cat, has settled in nicely. Well, nicely as far as she’s concerned. Our older cat, Hil, has a different perception of the matter.
That’s because Hil has largely been supplanted by this young upstart, who is a bit bigger, a lot stronger, and somewhat more aggressive. Hil hasn’t taken to cowering, exactly, but she has kept a lower profile and tends to avoid Mel.
Mostly.
* * * * * * *
People keep saying things like this:
The storyline itself I would put on a par with some of the best SF I have ever read. I felt much the same at the end as I did 50 or so years ago when I finished “Childhood’s End”.
And this:
This book is an unapologetic homage to the “hard science fiction” style of writing and to Arthur C. Clarke himself.
* * * * * * *
It’s not surprising that people see this, since from the very beginning I have been pretty open about both my intent and source material. I mean, here’s what it says on the Communion of Dreams homepage:
Welcome to Communion of Dreams. You’ll probably find that it is closest in flavor to the works of Arthur C. Clarke and the late Carl Sagan, two authors from whom I draw inspiration.
And there’s this passage from Chapter 6:
“Here’s what our artifact makes me think of,” Ng laughed. Slowly the artifact image started to change in a more pronounced way, becoming taller, narrower, and losing the hexagonal shape. The mottling drifted away, replaced by a hard, black, shiny surface. It was the iconic monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
* * * * * * *
Things change. Last month I sold 550 copies of Communion of Dreams. As I noted a couple of days ago, this month it’s dropped off, and will likely end up somewhere around what the April total was (about 275).
Sure, I wish that the numbers had just kept climbing. They had been basically doubling each month. But these things have a natural ebb & flow to them sometimes. Right now other books are getting the attention, getting the reviews, getting talked about. I haven’t spent as much time & energy promoting the book this month, and next month will probably be even worse since I’ll be overseas for much of it.
Still, we’ll see. You can help, if you want, by contributing your own review, by spreading the word to friends and forums. We all need to watch out for one another in this world. Whether you take that as a warning or a comfort, I’ll leave that up to you.
* * * * * * *
Mel, our new cat, has settled in nicely. Well, nicely as far as she’s concerned. Our older cat, Hil, has a different perception of the matter.
That’s because Hil has largely been supplanted by this young upstart, who is a bit bigger, a lot stronger, and somewhat more aggressive. Hil hasn’t taken to cowering, exactly, but she has kept a lower profile and tends to avoid Mel.
Mostly.
See, Hil has long been comfortable going outside. For Mel, “outside” was a New And Scary experience (her previous owners told us she’d never been out). We started going out with her for short periods, letting her know that we were there and she was OK. And then progressed to leaving the back door propped open a bit, so that she could go out on her own, but come running back inside when she got overwhelmed. Finally, we started letting her out and then closing the door behind her.
But only when Hil was outside.
Because, for all that Mel seems to dominate inside, she wants to have Hil around outside. And Hil, with remarkable kindness, stays with Mel, watching over her. If Hil comes in, Mel does too. If Hil comes in without Mel noticing, as soon as Mel does notice she’s howling at the back door.
Context matters.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Feedback, Kindle, Marketing, Preparedness, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, Travel | Tags: Amazon, blogging, direct publishing, free, Italy, jim downey, Kindle, literature, reviews, Science Fiction, travel
Something of an update/status report…
The other day an acquaintance of my wife’s told her that her reading group was reading Communion of Dreams. I’ve heard from two other people locally that they are also in reading groups reading it. Two of the groups may actually be the same, but I’m pretty sure that not all three are.
It’s a bit weird to think that there are reading groups out there using my book as a topic. More than a bit weird, to be perfectly honest.
Sales keep plugging along, slow but steady, at about half the rate they did last month (but they’ll probably top April’s totals). Which isn’t bad, since I have been doing very little to promote the book recently — I’ve been preoccupied getting things ready for this unexpected trip to Italy in two weeks. There’s a new review up at Amazon, and obviously some people are still talking about it, but I would certainly encourage any additional reviews or ratings (hint, hint).
As noted, I will be gone July 10th through the 26th, but I’m going to dig back into the archives for some posts to re-run. The blog is now getting a lot more readership, and the chances are these older pieces will be new to most folks. If anyone has a theme or topic for me to work around, leave a comment.
Cheers!
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Feedback, James Burke, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Science, Science Fiction, Society, tech, Writing stuff | Tags: Amazon, blogging, direct publishing, free, jim downey, Kickstarter, Kindle, literature, predictions, publishing, science, Science Fiction, Seth Godin, technology, writing
Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions came out when I was only four years old, but the ideas it contained percolated through the culture I grew up with, having substantial impact on everything I read at a crucial point in my life. In many ways, the concept of paradigm shift was self-fulfilling, as it came to define and dominate a lot of the intellectual backdrop of my formative years. This in no small part will explain a *lot* of the ‘meaning’ of Communion of Dreams.
And, unsurprisingly, it still has a major influence on how I see the world. Which is why sometimes I am willing to try seemingly absurd things: not because I think that they will necessarily succeed, but because I am looking for an inflection point, a fulcrum, which will allow me to assess and perhaps change perspective.
One of those things has been playing with the idea of doing a Kickstarter in lieu of a conventional publishing deal, as I mentioned previously. Of course, I’m hardly the first writer to consider this, since it seems that Kickstarter-type crowdfunding of creative projects has started to take hold in our society.
Well, I just came across another one, something of a template by author Seth Godin. Here’s an excerpt from his blog about it yesterday:
My idea: Kickstart + bookstore + ebooks.
The publisher (my key to the bookstore) is only willing to go ahead with the rest of the plan if my Kickstarter works. No Kickstarter, no distribution, the stakes are high. (As you saw at the Domino Project, the ebook part is easy now, but the bookstore is still critical to reach the many readers who find and buy books in stores).
If the Kickstarter works, then all the funders will get to read the book before anyone else, plus there are bonuses and previews and special editions. A few weeks after the early funders (that would be you) get to read it, the book will be available to book buyers for purchase the traditional way (wherever fine books are sold in the US, including digital readers). Of course, the Kickstarter funders get a better price, get it first and get unique bonuses, plus the pleasure of being in early–and knowing that they made it happen. The only way this book becomes real is if my readers get behind it now.
This was outlining his project, basically starting it. For the experiment he set a goal of $40,000 on his Kickstarter, and had it running for four weeks to see if it was viable.
He met his goal in three hours. And it is currently funded at $194,873 – almost 500% of his goal.
Now, Godin is a published author and successful self-promoter. He has a real following. Most authors, myself included, have no where near his level of support going into such an effort.
But he has found his fulcrum. He has proven that this is possible, at least under some conditions.
Are there other fulcrums out there? Is it possible for other authors to succeed under different conditions?
Specifically, is it possible for me to do?
Your thoughts welcome.
Jim Downey
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So, yesterday’s promotion was a bit of a flop. Just 357 downloads of Communion of Dreams, and 230 of Her Final Year. But I am sure that all of those were *quality* readers downloading the books, so thanks! 😉
Seriously, thanks. I’ll need to spend some time pondering why this happened. Could have just been due to the holiday. Could have been too soon to run another promotion. Could be that we’ve now saturated the market we can reach using the different venues available to us through the free promotional tools.
And, honestly, as ‘flops’ go, I’ve had worse. And more painful. And more expensive. This was just a less-than-successful promotion. There have to be those now and again. Maybe the magic will work better next time. Perhaps then we can break those boundaries.
If you did download either book, or help spread the word about them to others, you have my sincere thanks.
Jim Downey
*Of course. Actually, some more rain would be welcome here – we’ve been in very dry, verging on drought, conditions.
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This man beside us also has a hard fight with an unfavouring world, with strong temptations, with doubts and fears, with wounds of the past which have skinned over, but which smart when they are touched. It is a fact, however surprising. And when this occurs to us we are moved to deal kindly with him, to bid him be of good cheer, to let him understand that we are also fighting a battle; we are bound not to irritate him, nor press hardly upon him nor help his lower self.
* * * * * * *
I tend to not be shy about what is going on in my life. I’m probably a little more open and honest about my emotional states, about the trials and tribulations, than most folks are. To a certain extent, it goes with the territory of being a writer. And it is one of the things which gives power to Her Final Year, as I keep seeing in the reviews and feedback on that book. People welcome the honest emotion, even if the rawness of it sometimes makes them uncomfortable.
It makes them uncomfortable because most people don’t wear their heart so much on their sleeve. I was rather forcefully reminded of this by something which happened with a friend. A friend who was in a great deal of emotional turmoil and pain, but who had been hiding their struggle until it almost consumed them.
* * * * * * *
This man beside us also has a hard fight with an unfavouring world, with strong temptations, with doubts and fears, with wounds of the past which have skinned over, but which smart when they are touched. It is a fact, however surprising. And when this occurs to us we are moved to deal kindly with him, to bid him be of good cheer, to let him understand that we are also fighting a battle; we are bound not to irritate him, nor press hardly upon him nor help his lower self.
That’s probably more familiar as this aphorism:
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
Yeah. It also pays to remember that you don’t have to fight those battles alone. If you’re hurting, if you feel lost, confused, reach out to a friend. Let them know. My recent experience has reminded me just how much of a compliment it is to be a friend to someone who needs it.
Jim Downey
(Oh, yeah, the Kindle editions of Her Final Year and Communion of Dreams are both free today. Be kind to yourself, and me, and go download them. Thanks.)
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Major “spoiler” warning further down in this post. Skip the rest of the section after the [] warning if you haven’t read the book. It’s OK to watch the video or read the concluding section.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tomorrow, with a little luck, we’ll break 20,000 downloads of the Kindle edition of Communion of Dreams, and could also break 10,000 downloads of the Kindle edition of Her Final Year.
* * * * * * *
This has been making the news the last few days:
Voyager 1 About to Become Interstellar Emissary?
NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft may be getting its first taste of interstellar waters beyond our sun’s familiar shores and, like the pioneers that first took to the oceans to explore seas unknown, the 34-year-old robotic spacecraft is about to make history as the first man-made object to venture beyond the known horizon.
This historic announcement was made on Thursday by the team keeping a careful eye on Voyager 1’s particle detectors who noticed an uptick in interstellar cosmic ray counts in recent years. That can mean only one thing: the mission is beginning to leave the outermost regions of the heliosphere — the farthest extent of the sun’s influence.
* * * * * * *
From Chapter 18: [MAJOR SPOILER WARNING.]
“Well, the two of them have been going over all the data coming down from the ship. In addition to the telemetry about the condition of the ship, they’ve had a flood of data about the communications broadcasts that the ship has been receiving since stopping.”
“Communications? I thought your report summary said that we couldn’t broadcast to the ship, that it was on the other side of some kind of barrier?”
“Correct. But on that other side is ample evidence that the universe is teeming with technological civilizations. Klee hasn’t been able to decipher any of the communications yet, but is certain that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of sources. Seems that we’ve been kept in the dark about all of them by this shell of artifacts that surrounds our system.”
* * * * * * *
Yeah, me too.
* * * * * * *
Tomorrow, with a little luck, we’ll break 20,000 downloads of the Kindle edition of Communion of Dreams, and could also break 10,000 downloads of the Kindle edition of Her Final Year. Downloads all day will be free to one and all.
Help spread the word if you can. It’s not like sharing it with an alien civilization or anything, but still it will be appreciated.
Jim Downey
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First, a reminder: Sunday, Father’s Day, will be a Kindle promotional day for both Communion of Dreams and Her Final Year. Both books will be free to download in the Kindle edition, and I would invite everyone to please do so! We’ve had some new reviews up of both books, and the word continues to spread about them.
Second, Phil Plait has an excellent (though too short) item up on the BBC site about prospects for human colonization of the Moon. Correctly, I think, he explains the likely reason that this will eventually happen, and why it’ll be essential for our future in space:
A critical aspect of this is being able to mine asteroidal material and process it, which Nasa and its contractors are studying. One line of thinking is that mined metals can be used to build structures in space that would be very difficult and pricey to construct on Earth and launch. Examples abound, including big spacecraft to use for crewed exploration of the planets, giant telescopes in orbit, space stations, and more. While the cost of the International Space Station (ISS) is estimated to be $100bn, much of that was simply getting previously-built components into space in the first place. If you already have those pieces in space, the cost is far less.
Smelting material in the near-weightless environment of an asteroid is one thing, but creating complex components of spacecraft is another. Manufacturing is likely to be easier in gravity, and the Moon is a perfect compromise for this.
Getting the materials to the Moon is not hard from an asteroid mining operation. And once built, getting even massive components off the Moon’s surface is far, far easier than it would be from Earth due to lower gravity and lack of air (it took a tremendous Saturn V rocket full of fuel to get to the Moon, but only the tiny Apollo ascent module to get back off). Building vehicles and other space-based structures on the Moon is vastly easier and less expensive than it would be here on Earth. From there, the rest of the solar system is an easy trip.
In Communion of Dreams I have references to Lunar colonies, and in St. Cybi’s Well, the prequel I am currently working on, the first colony is in the process of being built (as I’ve mentioned recently).
What I haven’t mentioned here much is another book which would also be a prequel to Communion of Dreams, set sometime in the 2030s, which would take place largely in such a colony. I don’t have a title for that book, and my thoughts on it are still very sketchy, but I think that it would be a really interesting one to write for exactly the reasons that Plait outlines. I don’t want to give too much else away about that (or commit myself to something I may decide to completely change later), but I am really interested in some of the artistic possibilities which working in a 1/6th Earth-normal gravity field would present.
Anyway, TGIF and all that. Remember to share the news of CoD and HFY being free this coming Sunday.
Jim Downey
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There’s been a lot of chatter about this, and several people have mentioned it to me:
Amazon’s markup of digital delivery to indie authors is ~129,000%
It’s a good article, all in all, as it goes into some of the nuts & bolts of being an independent writer trying to make a living self-publishing in some of the different electronic formats. And yes, according to his numbers, Amazon (through their Kindle program) is making a chunk of money for the transfer of his digital files.
Because of this, as I said, a couple of people have mentioned this to me, and have wondered whether it meant we were getting screwed the same way.
Nope.
The main thing is file size. I just checked again, and the cost to transfer the digital file for Communion of Dreams is a whopping 9 cents. And for Her Final Year it’s 17 cents. That’s because there are very few images in either book — they’re primarily just text.
And yeah, that does come out of our royalties for each book. But as you can see, it’s a small amount, and just a cost of doing business. I honestly haven’t given it a second thought since we set up to self publish these books, since I knew about the charges, knew they were going to be pretty small, and was used to having such expenses from having been in business for myself for 20 years now.
One more thing — we don’t have to pay these digital transfer fees for the promotional copies which are given away. Which is good, because if so I’d still be in the hole for the cost of giving away both books. All that it costs is a potential sale — but I think of this as just a form of advertising, necessary to promote awareness of the book. Yeah, sure, it’s a potential lost sale/royalty, and if that bugs you feel free to either go ahead and buy the book or send me a small donation, if it’ll make you feel better.
And speaking of free Kindle edition promotions, this Sunday — Father’s Day (here in the US, anyway) — will be another promotional day for both Communion of Dreams and Her Final Year, and both books will be free to download that day. Hey, we did it for Mother’s Day, and we don’t want to short-shrift the Dads out there. So even though we just had a successful promotion, we’re going to do it again this Sunday! If you’re someone who got a copy of either book last weekend, and you’ve been enjoying it, please tell others about this upcoming promotion!
Am I a nice guy, or what?
Jim Downey
Communion Of Dreams 