Spell Circles is now available for the Kindle (Amazon US, Amazon UK). Exciting!
Desperate magic worked in the face of terrible danger. An old house with a hidden secret. An interview with a zombie. A woman allergic to the twenty-first century. A necromancer with evil written all over his face. Literally.
Spell Circles contains twenty-seven stories of the weird, wonderful and fantastical originally published between 1999 and 2011 and now collected together for the first time. Stories range from the very, very short up to novella length.
This is the first volume in my Perfect Circles collection of short stories published over the last decade or so. Spell Circles contains fantasy (high fantasy, urban fantasy, magic realism, slipstream). The next volume - Eccentric Orbits - will cover SF, to be followed by Life Cycles, covering mainstream fiction. Then there will be Perfect Circles itself, collecting all the stories into one volume.
I hope to make all the volumes available as paperbacks and as downloads for other eReaders at some point - although my experience so far has been that sales through Amazon far outweigh all the other platforms. So, for now, my apologies to non-Kindle owners (although, of course, there are always the free Kindle apps for the iPad, PCs etc.)
So far, so good. But in this game, promotion is vital and that, dear reader, is something I'm crap at. Despite my previous experiments I'm pretty much in the dark about it all and it's something I need to get better at. Aside from the writing itself, a good cover is obviously important, and ratings and reviews count for a lot (assuming they're not bad), but other than that - where to begin? Blog tours? YouTube videos? Free giveaways? Community forum posts?
As a start, the book should be available as a free download for the next three days (January 1st to 3rd - assuming I've set it all up properly on Amazon), so if you have a Kindle and fancy a peruse, now is a good time. Any comments, ratings or "likes" gratefully received!
Fabulous, Simon. As for marketing you should have a look on Codex. There's quite a lot of chat there. I think it's under the thread, 'Notes on Kindle Production.'
ReplyDeleteAre you looking for feedback. I have feedback, already! Will e you if you want.
Deborah, thanks for the advice. I really, really must check out Codex! Any feedback gratefully received.
ReplyDeleteYou've uploaded the old cover, Simon!
ReplyDeletePublicity. I hate hate hate it. If you don't mind losing all your friends, be relentless - Facebook, Twitter etc. I must admit I hide posts from people who self-publicise too much. You don't want to keep targeting the same people.
Savvy Marketing on Facebook - ask to join the group - will give you lots of tips but you'll have to wade through all their own publicity! Have a look at Rebecca Emin's blog about platform building on my site: http://howesue.wordpress.com/2011/10/14/from-rusty-writer-to-published-author-importance-of-the-platform/
She manages to do it without pissing everyone off!
Sue,
ReplyDeleteThanks for that - correct cover now on the post!
Good advice. I know Rebecca's site so I'll remind myself of her advice. It comes down to time, doesn't it? I'd much much rather be writing that publicizing ...
Paperpack, paperback! LOL!
ReplyDeleteOoh congratulations Simon!! I have no idea about publicity - there are many who bombard all social media with selling their books as relentlessly as possible and it could get most annoying. I'm thinking a few ARC reviews? Get your star ratings on Amazon up and running? Good luck!!!! And well done you!!
Take care
x
How can I say no to FREE? =] Liked and loaded, sir!
ReplyDeleteFantastic, Simon. I am reading The Hobbit enhanced version on my iPad right now, but yours will be the next one I download - and I will pay for it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with howesue's comments about publicity. Some writers are relentless and it puts me off immediately. Word of mouth is what works for most traditional press authors and I think the same for e-publishing. Slow and steady, keep writing good quality novels and you'll get there.
Donna,
ReplyDeleteWise words. That sounds like the right approach to me, for sure.
An enhanced Hobbit sounds fantastic (I'm already excited about the film) - I must check that out.
Excellent, Simon! I like the synopsis/description of the book.
ReplyDeleteI'm not so good with publicity either - and I better start because I'm planning an ebook collection at some point this year!
What about some kind of interview or something over at W1S1 - it is about short fiction and some were published during W1S1 2011, right? Maybe tie it in to the section re getting paid for writing?
Madeline - thanks, and good luck with your collection. The W1S1 idea is interesting! I'll bounce it off the others ...
ReplyDeleteDownloaded and delivered to Krak, my Kindle. :)
ReplyDeleteI've uploaded it to my kindle. Good luck, Simon.
ReplyDeleteExcellent, Steph! I hope you enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks, also, Cate. Hope you enjoy it.
ReplyDelete