Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Exhileration

Pulling a trigger, loosing an arrow, flattening a gas pedal --- they are equally scary and exciting. Joining those moments is the mouse click that posts a book for sale on Amazon.

 https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=kathryn+berck

(And no, dear Amazon, the clicker did NOT mean to find Kathryn Back!)

Then there is what follows, which includes postings to reader-specific sites such as Goodreads. And on Goodreads, a sort of lottery: offering five books as prizes in a random drawing that already, only ten hours later, already has fourteen people hoping for a copy of a totally unknown writer's first volume:

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/261586-the-hostage

Sunday, October 22, 2017

Confusion Wins - For a While

Mine, of course. Encouraged by Eva Pohler, I took the plunge and ended up in shallow water. But it was my own fault, nothing to do with her. Call it over-eagerness, or whatever you like, but it is slowly sorting itself out.

On her excellent advice, I finally pulled the trigger - although didn't hit a perfect home run.
Yeah, I know. But it's finally kinda sorted out.

My Amazon author page is up, the paperback and ebook versions of "The Hostage" - which is part one of the four-part "Peryton" - are up, although I've had to scramble to sort them out. There was even cover trouble, as you might notice if you look at them in the next couple of days. Don't order them until they settle down, but don't forget to order them then.

The paperback should be $11.97 until the release of the ebook in January. Then the paperback will go up to $13.97, while the ebook will be notably less expensive but with an even cooler cover. In any event, it's still a pretty cheap cheap thrill!


https://www.amazon.com/author/kathrynberck

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Bad Dogs

Sent Warrior's first hundred-page section - Part One, Salamina - to my esteemed editor just for his overall impression and commentary. Conclusion: he hates the opening: "Way too dark. ... vignette is too horrific and also too revolting to use—ever, probably—regardless of how accurate it is. But it can be toned down, made less graphic, and could then work."




 He hasn't blinked before when characters did their worst: barely turned a hair for the no-blinking-allowed scene of Akhaïdes and Philaios alone. But dogs doing what dogs do made him wince. This process is going to be even more interesting than I thought it might. 

Picture by McKinley Massacre

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Joining the Big Leagues

After checking pricing with several developers whose fees were much farther into four figures than I care to travel with my modest needs, I tried my hand at making my own and am pleased by the result.
www.kathrynberck.com

Total cost: domain name $30.34 for two years, site itself $194 per year but can be free if the user doesn't mind ads. It took me about three hours to set it up, learning on the way, then spent the afternoon fiddling with about a hundred thousand tweaks and rechecks. Edits are both unlimited and almost immediate. Very gratifying.

No, you don't need to know WordPress, which some inexplicable people inexplicably love, but to me is as opaque and user-hostile as iTunes. And there are bajillions of all kinds of options to use; you can do pretty much as you please.

A note: I have learned that it's important to know that your page will be useable and intelligible on a handheld device as well as a normal big screen, so whatever process you choose to use, make sure to crosscheck that before pushing the buy-it button. Learned that here: http://www.novelmarketing.com/103/