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: Flu, NYT, Predictions, Science Fiction, Writing stuff | Tags: bison, buffalo, flu, jim downey, literature, New York Times, News, Science Fiction, writing
Got a note from a friend, with a link to an article. The note said “Yet another shade of Communion of Dreams.” Here’s the start of the article:
As Bison Return to Prairie, Some Rejoice, Others Worry
WOLF POINT, Mont. — Sioux and Assiniboine tribe members wailed a welcome song last month as around 60 bison from Yellowstone National Park stormed onto a prairie pasture that had not felt a bison’s hoof for almost 140 years.
That historic homecoming came just 11 days after 71 pureblood bison, descended from one of Montana’s last wild herds, were released nearby onto untilled grassland owned by a charity with a vision of building a haven for prairie wildlife. Some hunters and conservationists are now calling for bison to be reintroduced to a million-acre wildlife refuge spanning this remote region.
This is from the first page of Communion of Dreams:
He could see four or five thousand buffalo, one of the small herds. They stretched out in a long line below him, wide enough to fill the shallow valley along this side of the river, coming partway up the sides of the hill, not fifty meters from where he stood. The sky was its perpetual blue-grey, as clear as it ever got at this latitude, though the sun was almost bright. Late winter snow, churned into a dull brown mass by the buffalo where they trekked along the valley floor, nonetheless glinted along the tops of the hills. Weather forecasts said more snow was coming. It was Friday, April 12.
He leaned on the railing, looking down, the windows of the research station behind him. He liked the solitude of the open sky of the National Buffalo Commons. Though he had many painful memories associated with these plains, they could fill the void inside him in a way that no place else could. He had grown up not too far away, back when people used to live out here. Now there were only the stations – small shelters where scientists could study the herds as they migrated, or where people with enough connections could escape for a few days.
The Commons had been borne of the fire-flu, with so few people left out in the great northern plains after it was finally all over that it was a relatively simple matter to just turn things back over to nature.
Every writing instructor or book out there will tell you that the opening sentences/paragraphs of a novel has a huge job: to establish the set and setting, introduce tone, and intrigue the reader enough that they want to keep reading. I think the opening page of Communion does that.
And so does the release of two small herds of bison.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Babylon 5, Connections, Gardening, Kindle, Music, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, Synesthesia, Writing stuff | Tags: Alan Parsons Project, Amazon, augmented reality, Babylon5, Crusade, direct publishing, gardening, Habaneros, jim downey, Kindle, literature, music, Peter Woodward, Science Fiction, Twitter, writing
Ah, Spring.
Got my pepper plants last night, unboxed them and set them out in the sun this morning. Six each of Bhut Jolokia, Red Savina, and Naga Morich.
Yesterday was good in another way: had some 50 downloads of Communion of Dreams. That’s about 4x what daily sales of the novel have been this week. No idea why. I can’t find anything which would explain it – if you know, please clue me in. Today things seem to still be running a little ahead of what passes for normal, but not as busy as yesterday.
And lastly, someone “followed” me on Twitter. OK, that isn’t too weird – while I don’t do a lot with Twitter, it is a promotional platform I use and part of that is following people and being followed in return. But this came out of the blue, before I had followed this person or had any contact with them. Who was it? Alan Parsons.
Actually, further digging indicated that it was the account for the Alan Parsons Project. I’m not sure who administers the account. It might be Mr. Parson, or it might just be some flunky.
Now, I have referenced music from the Alan Parsons Project here a couple of times. I’ve always had a lot of respect for their stuff, as well as Parson’s work as a sound engineer in his own right. But what I haven’t mentioned previously is that instrumental tracks from the Alan Parsons Project pretty much were the ‘soundtrack’ behind writing Communion of Dreams. As in, almost without exception, that is the music I put on when I was writing. It was energizing without being distracting, and helped me get into the proper mental zone to work on the book – a kind of induced syneshtesia.
So it was more than a little weird to have APP follow me on Twitter, regardless of who handles the site. No idea why.
Which leaves me with a lot of more-or-less happy confusion, and hope for the future.
Jim Downey
*Galen, of course. Whom I have mentioned previously.
Filed under: Amazon, Feedback, Kindle, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing | Tags: Amazon, blogging, direct publishing, free, jim downey, Kindle, literature, Science Fiction, writing
Thanks in part to the almost 6,000 people who downloaded Communion of Dreams last Sunday, there are more followers of this blog and the associated Facebook and Twitter accounts.
So I just wanted to take a moment and say “welcome” to everyone. I don’t do much song & dance here (or anywhere for that matter, and if you heard me sing or saw me dance, you’d be thankful for this), but I do ramble about a bit, and you can never be entirely sure what I might write about next. Because I’m never quite sure.
I would invite any and all who have had a chance to read Communion of Dreams to please write a review or “Like” the book over on Amazon. It may not seem like it, but this helps me a great deal, and I would really appreciate it if you took the time to do so.
I would also appreciate any word-of-mouth promotion of the book. That could be in a formal setting like Goodreads or on your favorite forum, or informal discussion with friends in whatever venue.
Lastly, feel free to contact me directly by email, Twitter, or through comments here or on Facebook. I’m usually pretty quick at responding, depending on how many other things I am juggling at the moment.
Thanks. And Welcome!
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Bruce Schneier, Kindle, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction, Society, Writing stuff, YouTube | Tags: bruce schneier, direct publishing, free, game theory, jim downey, Kindle, Science Fiction, writing, www youtube
The other day I posted a video clip which nicely demonstrated one particular aspect of “game theory” and mentioned that it tied in to Communion of Dreams, though I wasn’t explicit how (nor did I explain what I found so interesting in the clip). Partly this was just due to my being preoccupied with the Kindle promotion that day, and partly it was because I like to leave people to figure things out for themselves.
Well, yesterday Bruce Schneier, whom I have mentioned here a number of times, posted an excellent explanation of what was so interesting about the clip (which has been making the rounds). Here’s the gist of the explanation:
Think about Nick’s strategy. He can’t trust that Abraham will split. More importantly, he can’t trust that Abraham will do what he said, because it’s in Abraham’s best interest to say one thing and do another. So he changes the game. He offers to split the pot outside the game — set up a meta-game of sorts — and removes Abraham’s incentive to lie.
Read the whole thing – it’s only a couple of paragraphs long, and nicely goes over exactly why this strategy works.
And that is also why I thought it had such a strong connection to Communion of Dreams: because in one very real sense, the whole book is about what happens when you unexpectedly ‘change the game’. The character of Chu Ling is the key in this regard, both literally and metaphorically, and that is why I had to have her as a game theory prodigy.
Just thought I’d share that.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Feedback, Kindle, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction | Tags: Amazon, direct publishing, jim downey, Kickstarter, Kindle, literature, Science Fiction, writing
I mentioned yesterday “Stay tuned for further developments.” Well, what I’ve had kicking around in my head for a while was trying something . . .
That something is this: seeing if now that Communion of Dreams is starting to show some real traction with readers, perhaps I can attract a conventional publishing deal.
See, while the self-publishing thing seems to be working, it is taking a *lot* of time and energy (which I expected). And frankly, I would much rather put that time and energy into writing another couple of books. Because I have at least two more books in the Communion of Dreams ‘universe’ which I have been wanting to write for a while. Both of those are actually prequels – then there is also the matter of whether or not I want to attempt a sequel to Communion.
Were I to land a conventional publishing deal favorable enough, I could contract for another two or three books as part of the package, and turn over at least a substantial chunk of the time spent on promotional efforts and bookkeeping to the publisher. Chances are, they would even have some money for advertising, not to mention getting the book into conventional bookstores.
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.
I’ve also considered doing something like a ‘Kickstarter’ project to get advertising money and something akin to an advance check, but I don’t think I’m to the point where that is a viable model. But going to a publisher with proven stats of 14,000 downloads in the first three months, as well as the very positive reviews, might be viable.
So I am giving this serious consideration. Thoughts welcomed.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Art, Arthur C. Clarke, Astronomy, Carl Sagan, ISS, Kindle, Marketing, movies, Music, NASA, Promotion, Publishing, Science, Science Fiction, Space, tech, Writing stuff, YouTube | Tags: 2001, art, aurora, direct publishing, free, jim downey, Kindle, music, NASA, predictions, science, Science Fiction, space, technology, video, writing, www youtube
From Chapter 3:
Wright Station was one of the older stations, and its age showed in its design. The basic large wheel structure, necessary when centrifugal force simulated gravity, was still evident, though significantly altered. The station hung there as they approached, motionless. The aero slowly coasted toward a large box well outside the sweep of the wheel, connected to the wheel by an extension of one of the major spokes. This was the dock, and it was outside the AG field.
Sound familiar?
Though I do think that were someone to film Communion of Dreams, this scene would more closely reflect this reality, taken from the ISS:
Still, it is fascinating that we have already so deeply connected music with space imagery. And that what is seen as a pale blue dot in the distance is, up close, a living world with a thin sheath of atmosphere – a wisp, glowing green.
Tomorrow is a promotional day: the Kindle edition of Communion of Dreams will be free for any and all to download. Share the news.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Feedback, Kindle, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction | Tags: Amazon, direct publishing, jim downey, Kindle, literature, Science Fiction, writing
… feet, er rank.
That’s where Communion of Dreams has been hovering most of this week: #30,000 or so in the “Amazon Best Sellers Rank.” Sometimes it’s a little better, sometimes a little worse. Just now it was #28,088. Yesterday afternoon it was 34,000-something.
You might think that this would be somewhat disappointing to me. Actually, I’m pretty happy with it.
That happiness comes because it does seem that people are actually enjoying the book. Yeah, sure, I would love for it to suddenly skyrocket to the top of the best-seller list. I could certainly use the financial boost which would come with that. Just as I would love it if everyone raved in their reviews about the book. But being realistic, the book has only been available for about 10 weeks now, I haven’t spent any money on advertising, and the response keeps growing. Over 8,000 people have downloaded the book in the Kindle edition, and so far this month over 100 people have actually paid good money to do so. That tells me that enough people who have read the book are telling others about it, recommending it.
And when you think about that, it’s really one hell of a compliment. Because the amount of time taken from other things people can do with their life to read a book is pretty substantial, and represents a significant investment which makes the $4.95 price fairly insignificant by comparison. So, thanks, everyone. Keep it up!
My participation in the KDP Select program comes up for renewal next week, and I’ll be able to schedule another promotional day shortly thereafter. Stay tuned for an announcement about when that will be.
Jim Downey
Filed under: Amazon, Failure, Feedback, Kindle, Marketing, Promotion, Publishing, Science Fiction | Tags: Amazon, direct publishing, jim downey, Kindle, literature, Science Fiction, writing
So, as mentioned early last week, I planned on doing a “make-up” free-Kindle-edition promotion on April 12, in recognition of this first paragraph of Communion of Dreams:
He could see four or five thousand buffalo, one of the small herds. They stretched out in a long line below him, wide enough to fill the shallow valley along this side of the river, coming partway up the sides of the hill, not fifty meters from where he stood. The sky was its perpetual blue-grey, as clear as it ever got at this latitude, though the sun was almost bright. Late winter snow, churned into a dull brown mass by the buffalo where they trekked along the valley floor, nonetheless glinted along the tops of the hills. Weather forecasts said more snow was coming. It was Friday, April 12.
Well, as of noon today, it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. But this time, it’s not my fault – I did the requisite hoop-jumping to get Amazon to provide my promised “make-up” day. But you know how it is with corporate bureaucracies – my submission seems to have been lost somewhere in the dreaded depths of customer service. I even sent a follow up two days ago, asking about the status of the submission, and was promised a response within 48 hours. You can quess how that turned out.
So, from what I can tell, tomorrow will not be a “free-Kindle-edition promotion”. Sorry about that. Here in a couple of weeks the calender will start anew for my participation in the KDP Select program, and I’ll have more promotional days available. And I’ll schedule one right away.
In the meantime, do feel free to continue to tell others about the book, or to get your own copy. I’ve sold almost 100 so far this month – YAY! And the feedback has continued to be very positive, though some more positive reviews would be very welcome so the most recent thing isn’t the fellow who found it “A bit too Insubstantial for me.”
Stay tuned!
Jim Downey
Communion Of Dreams 