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
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, Kindle, literature, memoir, Mother's Day, Science Fiction
What’s special about that? Well, for one, it’s Mother’s Day here in the US. Yay! for all the Moms out there!
Even better, you can get THREE books for the price of NONE!
That’s right – get our care-giving memoir Her Final Year, which I co-authored with John Bourke, as well as my novel Communion of Dreams, AND ALSO John’s novel Sync, which he co-authored with J. Lee Dunn, ALL FOR FREE!
You can’t beat that. All three books in the Kindle edition for free. You don’t need a special code. You don’t even need a Kindle. All you need to do is go download them.
That’s this Sunday. Mother’s Day. Tell your Mom. Tell your friends. Hell, tell your friends’ Moms. It’s our Mother’s Day gift to you, to them, to everyone!
Remember – Sunday!
Jim Downey
(Cross posted to the HFY blog.)
Filed under: Amazon, Feedback, Kindle, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction | Tags: Amazon, direct publishing, jim downey, Kindle, literature, reviews, Science Fiction
Just a quick note: so far this month there are 4 new reviews up on Amazon of Communion of Dreams, and from what I can tell only one of these is by someone who has even a slight connection to me. Which isn’t to say I don’t trust my friends to tell the truth about what they think of the book, just that reviews coming from complete strangers carry an additional aspect of spontaneity. All four of the reviews are fairly short, but very positive – thanks, folks! And remember, if you read the book and find that you love it and want a more permanent copy, you can get a signed paperback edition off my website for just $15.
Cheers!
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Art, Feedback, Humor, Kindle, Marketing, Publishing, Writing stuff | Tags: Amazon, art, direct publishing, feedback, jim downey, Kindle, literature, reviews, Science Fiction, writing
I must admit that after my initial confusion, I found this rather humorous:
Reincarnation and Karma – An interesting framework for writing short stories with a common theme. Engaging, but a little repetitive at the same time. The medieval plague years were brought to life in one story, and I found that story the most engaging.
Sounds interesting enough, right? So why was I amused?
Because it was supposedly a review* of Communion of Dreams.
I mentioned it to my Facebook friends, who also seem to have mostly found it amusing, based on the comments and reaction to the review.
It also points up one of the problems with Amazon’s reviews, or any review, for that matter: pretty much, anyone can say whatever they want, and it just goes into the general pool of info out there. Permanently. For the most part I have had *very* positive reviews and reaction to Communion of Dreams, but there will always be some folks who don’t like any piece of writing or work of art. You’ve just gotta accept that, just as you can’t let praise be a distraction. In both cases you just have to take the feedback for what it’s worth, then get back to the work at hand.
Speaking of which . . .
Jim Downey
*Edited a couple hours later to add: Well, the review is now gone, so I deleted the hot link. I suppose the author logged into his account and figured it out. Or perhaps with it getting so many downvotes it was automatically eliminated. Still, it was pretty amusing.
Filed under: Alzheimer's, Amazon, Art, Feedback, Hospice, Kindle, Marketing, movies, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction | Tags: Alzheimer's, Amazon, blogging, care-giving, direct publishing, Edgar Allen Poe, free, jim downey, John Bourke, Kindle, literature, Mother's Day, Science Fiction, video
Lovely:
So, I haven’t discussed it a lot lately, but those who have followed this blog for a bit of time may remember that before I got Communion of Dreams self-published I was also involved in this other fairly massive writing project called Her Final Year, which was the result of being a care-provider for my mother-in-law (who had Alzheimer’s).
We’ve had some modest success with promotions for the memoir, and decided to try something to see whether we could expand on that a bit: another promotion this coming Mother’s Day. But this time it’s going to be something more: the chance to get three different books, all for free in the Kindle edition.
Three books? Well, yeah. Her Final Year. And my novel. The third? Sync, a brand-new novel co-authored by John Bourke, my co-author on Her Final Year!
That’s right, we’ve decided to do a little cross promotion – give everyone who is already familiar with one of the authors involved in these different books a chance to see some new stuff which is kinda-sorta connected. And the best thing is, that it is all FREE!
More details to be coming soon!
Jim Downey
*From Poe’s “The Premature Burial“, of course. Not that the story itself really has much to do with this post, but because the boundaries from one book mentioned to the next to the next are somewhat . . . fluid. They’re certainly interconnected. And I thought the animation was quite good.
Filed under: Amazon, Feedback, Kindle, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction | Tags: Amazon, direct publishing, free, jim downey, Kindle, literature, 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. Sales have cooled a bit in the last couple of days, and the ranking has slipped from a high of about 3,500 to about 8,000 when I checked it a little while ago.
Even better, the book has continued to get a fair amount of attention thanks to the Kindle promotional days. That has meant more mentions and reviews around the web (including a new one here at Amazon). In April, a total of 5,899 people downloaded the novel for free. As I’ve said before, I think that this is great, and helps to build more awareness and sales overall.
Which is why I’ll have at least one such promotional day this month. Watch for details soon.
So, thanks, everyone! I really do appreciate your interest and sharing your thoughts about Communion of Dreams with me, with your friends, with your readers/followers. If you’re on Facebook, pop by and “like” the CoD page. You can also follow me on Twitter for quick news/updates/links.
Cheers!
Jim Downey
* OK, damn, the WordPress software messes with the blog title. It’s supposed to be “MAYDAY” in Morse Code. Sheesh – try and be clever, see what happens? The story of my life.
Communion Of Dreams 