Wholly Shake Up!

Had a slightly sour experience this past holiday weekend, one which led to a valuable lesson. However, it will mean an even further delay to the launch of season 2 of The Adventures of Pigg & Woolfe.

After a single denial to post on a particular FB book promotion group because the graphic on my cover didn’t meet the admins’ definition of “professional”, I did a little marketing research. I have to admit that cover art is not really my forte. As proud as I am of the cover I did for The Girl Who Fell from the Sky, it really does scream “self-published/amateur.” I’m better equipped to do illustrations and portraits.

A friend has supplied me with links for some better fonts, and I have a design in mind which I believe will look as good as anything put out by a large publishing house. I just need to find an affordable artist with the correct skills and digital tools to pull it off.

I’m also planning to do new, more detailed B&W illustrations for the book’s interior, when I get the time. I am keeping the pipework frame from the current cover for the new illustrations. I will probably enhance the line art for the current cover with more shading and insert it a splash page in the front of the second edition, as well.

In the meantime, I will leave the current first edition up on Amazon. I will pull it maybe a week or two before releasing the second edition. This will allow me time to get everything just right as well as get and look over a galley proof of the new version.

I have not decided on a design for the individual ebook covers, but they will be uniform and without illustrations. That being said, yes, I will be issuing second editions of the first 12 episodes with new covers and a bit tidied up. There are some errors I’ve spotted since original publication that need to go away, after all.

Oh, and I am changing the publishing name from Steele Rose Press to Steele Rose Publishing. There is a winery with the name, and I don’t want any legal issues to crop up.

Heads Up

The second season of The Adventures of Pigg & Woolfe will debute January 2020. I had hoped to have Episode 13 out this year, but I can see that life isn’t going to make that very feasible for me. My current plan is to go ahead and get the episode cover art for the entire season prepped before publishing the next episode. My work schedule is slated to change once again at the start of the year, so this seems like the smarter play to me.

In the meantime, the season one omnibus, The Girl Who Fell from the Sky, has sold a whopping three copies. I would like to get a little more traction with this book before rolling out the second season.

You know a book makes a great stocking stuffer, and $12.95 is CHEAP for a paperback these days. (I’m old enough to remember when paperbacks cost about what they charge for comic books these days, and when comic books cost about 35 cents.)

Also, I know it’s still over a month away, but come this Christmas break, remember to vote for The Girl Who Fell from the Sky in the critters.org Preditors and Editors Readers Poll in the Steampunk Novel category.

Don’t forget to come see me at Chattacon January 24-27 at the Double Tree by Hilton in beautiful Chattanooga, TN. I will have copies available as well as my remaining copies of my Waves of Darkness series books.

Hopefully I can start getting them back on the market next year with fresh new covers AND added internal illustrations! Of course, what would really be great would be to get them released as audio books as well. I have had interest in entering that format with the series over the past few years.

Your Attention Please

First: The Girl Who Fell from the Sky: The Adventuires of Pigg & Woolfe Season One is now available to purchase on Amazon. This volume will be a print-only book, as the individual episodes are ebook only. Inside, you will find episodes 1-12, an in-between-the-episodes vignette which is a bit …steamy, a world building monograph on ghosts-of-the-sky, and the line art of the original episode ebook covers offered as coloring pages.

List price is $12.95 USD.

PLEASE buy one for yourself and another for a friend!

Second: A brain hurricane hit me Wednesday on how to flesh out the final third of Hunting the Dragon, Waves of Darkness book 8. Naturally, the ideas came flooding while I was WORKING and unable to write them down, or begin incorporating them. Still, they are fresh in my mind, and the weekend is ahead.

Third: I am researching character details for a potential illustration commission. I still have to touch base with the person who proposed this deal to work out some specifications and the actual contract. For now, that is all the info I’m willing to divulge. I don’t want to jinx things.

Thank you for your attention.

Holding Pattern

I am currently awaiting my galley proof of The Girl Who Fell from the Sky. I expect it to arrive Thursday.

I’m sure I will have to make a formatting revision or two, then I can publish. I plan to have it live on Amazon by next week. Retail price will be $12.95 USD.

State of the Author

Tired. Frustrated. Tired of.

I admit I’m not having a good morning. I’m frustrated with my lack of progress on my writing and publishing projects. Although I don’t have as much overtime to work as I did earlier this year, what overtime I do manage to get is more physically demanding.

Now I’m finding myself struggling to meet monthly expenses; working harder for less income. It can be disheartening , to say the least. What downtime I get has to be spent literally to rest.

I’ve also found I have a harder time concentrating lately. I don’t know how much of that is due to exhaustion, both physical and mental, or to the hormone changes which accompany perimenopause.

I had hoped to finish the print formatting for The Girl Who Fell from the Sky this past weekend. I didn’t even work on it. Hopefully next weekend. We’ll see.

Thanks for your patience.

Slug

That’s me. Had a 4 day weekend and didn’t do anything related to my books or this site. Nor do I have Dragon*Con as an excuse. Can’t afford to go. My mortgage and expenses eat my paychecks alive.

To be honest, I haven’t done any work on the print formatting for The Girl Who Fell from the Sky for the past 3 weekends. I am an unmotivated slug. Lately I seem to spend more time napping on the weekends than anything else.

I am going to try to get the book ready to go up soon. Just have to apply some self-discipline.

To all my friends and followers of this blog who DID attend D*C, I truly hope you had an epic time. Maybe one of these years I’ll get back to that convention. (Only attended once back in 1989. Anne McCaffrey was there, and I’m a huge fan. One of my goals is to one day maybe approach her world building and characterization skills.)

Cover Reveal and Update

I finally finished the cover for The Girl Who Fell from the Sky. I still have to format the manuscript and other interior design features. This is the first print book I’ve done on my own, so it will be a learning process. I also have to compose a blurb for the back cover.

Thanks for your patience.

In other news, I am renewing my efforts to self publish the Waves of Darkness books.

I also may have an art commission coming up. I plan to contact my potential customer this week to hash out details. This came about because of the Pern fan art I sold at LibertyCon.