boxed sets

Posts Tagged ‘boxed sets’

Posted in writing, tagged boxed sets, epublishing, fantasy, History, marketing, writing on July 26, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Not much progress to report today. I’ve spent most of my writing time wrestling with the boxed set, BY SWORD, TALE, OR MAGIC so I can publish it wide through Pronoun.

The formatting of this one is more complex than my other boxed sets, because this one has three unrelated stories, each with its own fonts and glyphs.

First, I had some stray fonts that didn’t belong. Then I realized all the images had mysteriously disappeared and had to put them back. Then I realized I had left in an individual call to action that hadn’t been updated.

And, of course, everything takes longer with a boxed set–saving the file, compiling the .epub, uploading, and checking–just because of its size.

But, I think I’ve finally got it right. And, hopefully, it will be worth it. The boxed set for DUAL MAGICS is currently my best seller on Pronoun

(which is still not much to brag about, but it’s only been a little over a month and I haven’t done any promos, yet.)

So, that project will nearly be finished. The only thing remaining will be to upload the newest versions of the last four books to Amazon after they figure out the glitch that was turning all my text red.

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Going Wide: Scheduling

Posted in writing, tagged boxed sets, fantasy, Learning, marketing, research, sequels, series, short stories, writing on April 12, 2017| 2 Comments »

So, one of the first steps in figuring out how to take my work back to wider markets is determining the schedule. And the first step in that is finding out when the various books, short stories, novella, and boxed sets can come out of Kindle Select. It’s the boxed sets that make this a little complicated.

The KS term for THE DUAL MAGICS BOOKS 1 – 3 boxed set ends on May 23, but the set includes:

THE SHAMAN’S CURSE, term ending May 27
THE VOICE OF PROPHECY, term ending June 1
BEYOND THE PROPHECY, term ending May 29
And, the joker in the deck, the short story “Modgud Gold”, term ending June 27

Apart from that “bonus” short story that I threw in, they’re all nicely grouped. I’ll have to pull the novels out of Kindle Select a month before I can do anything else with them. Not ideal.

On the positive side, WAR OF MAGIC, which isn’t in the boxed set, has a term ending date of June 23, so at least it will fall right in line when I prepare to take these wide.

On the negative side, I can’t do anything productive about these until late June, except start taking them out of Kindle Select.

But BY SWORD, TALE, OR MAGIC is even more interesting.

The boxed set KS term ends on April 17, but the contents:

FIRE AND EARTH term ends May 13
THE BARD’S GIFT term ends also May 13
DAUGHTER OF THE DISGRACED KING term ends May 6
And the “bonus” short story “Becoming Liones” term ends July 4

Obviously, the thing to do with this one is take the boxed set out of KS last since it’s next term end date would presumably be somewhere around July 17.

Which, at least coincides closely with DUAL MAGICS. Looks like I might be busy for a couple of weeks early this summer.

Then there’s my CHIMERIA series.

This and the two books included in it, BLOOD WILL TELL and BLOOD IS THICKER all have term ending dates of May 24. Easy. Except that I really don’t want to lead off with these. They were among the first things I published. I’ve been re-reading them and I seriously think they need a bit of work before taking them out to a wider world–and not just because my craft has improved in the meantime. These–and the handful of other short stories and one novella–will likely go last–which means late August at the earliest.

Well, at least I have plenty of time to research my options.

Meanwhile, I’ve got one more little scene to write and I’ll be ready to publish BECOME: BROTHERS

Brothers

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2016 Goals Results

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged boxed sets, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, Goals, revisions, sequels, series, world building, writing on December 28, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Time to see how I did against the goals I set for myself last year. (Results are in bold italics.)

WAR OF MAGIC: Complete first draft, revisions, get critiques, revise again, polish, and publish. Done.
Revise the already-published “Becoming Lioness” and publish the new edition. Pull together the tie-in short stories, “Hunter and Huntress” and “The Seeker”. Put them through the same revision process. Nope.
Publish a boxed set of the DUAL MAGICS series. Done, though I only included the first three books and one short story, “Modgud Gold”.
MAGE STORM: Rewrite this as an epic fantasy. Same revision process as above. Try to publish in 2016 or early 2017. MAGE STORM ended up being pushed back in favor of BECOME.
BECOME: TO CATCH THE LIGHTNING: Get a first draft done. Still working on the first draft.
Planning, world-building, etc. for some of the other stories on my back burner: Some planning, but no other progress.
1. Another story in the same world as DAUGHTER OF THE DISGRACED KING.
2. A set of fairy-tale retellings I’ve been playing with.
3. The prequels to the DUAL MAGICS series that explain how the world got that way.
4. The sequels to MAGE STORM.
5. My Weird Oz story.
6. The last novel in the Chimeria series.
I would dearly love to be able to get to a writers’ conference somewhere in there, but that will depend on both time and finances. Nope.

In summary, the most important goal was met. But it took longer than I’d hoped and basically pushed all the other goals back a bit. Still progress. I’ll take it.

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Multiple Projects

Posted in writing, tagged boxed sets, e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, Multiple Projects, rewrites, series, writing on November 20, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Progress on BECOME continues to be slow.

becomeblue

Part of the reason for the is just real-life stuff. But part of it is the pauses while I work out exactly what has to happen in the next chapter or two. For some reason, on this story, those pauses are more frequent than usual. Maybe I’m still just trying to refocus that part of my brain from DUAL MAGICS (which is complete now) to this story.

Dual Magics 1-3 Boxed Set

But . . . my creativity has this odd quirk. I only really get this kind of inspiration when I’m writing. So, I’m considering pulling out something else to work on during these pauses.

MAGE STORM (probably needs a new title) is a rewrite. The story’s all there, it just needs to be rewritten. Therefore, it shouldn’t usurp that creative energy while still letting me prime the pump for the first draft of BECOME.

Worth a try, anyway. Doesn’t always work.

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Print Version Available Plus a Sale.

Posted in writing, tagged boxed sets, e-publishing, fantasy, Multiple Projects, sequels, series, short stories, writing on September 11, 2016| 1 Comment »

First, the print version of WAR OF MAGIC is now available. (Yes, while the kindle version is still in pre-order.)

The two versions aren’t linked yet. That’ll take a couple of days. And yes, the cover is just slightly different. That’s because there are different requirements for how close the letters can get to the edges with a print book. Usually, I can manage to make the ebook cover within those confines. Obviously, I didn’t quite make that work this time.

In other news–and possibly more exciting, the boxed set of the first three books in the DUAL MAGICS series (plus the short story “Modgud Gold”) is on sale for only $1.99 today through Tuesday. You’ll never get a better chance.

Enjoy!

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Moving On

Posted in writing, tagged boxed sets, e-publishing, fantasy, Multiple Projects, sequels, series, writing on August 31, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Woo!

The final file of WAR OF MAGIC has been uploaded. The print version is under review. It’s done. Well, except for some promotion, but that should be sort of ongoing. (I just forget to do it while I’m working on a new story. I need to get better about that.)

The boxed set of the first three books, DUAL MAGICS Books 1 – 3, is available for sale now.

So, now it’s finally time for me to get back to work on BECOME.

Become 5

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Boxed Set

Posted in writing, tagged boxed sets, e-publishing, edits, fantasy, first drafts, marketing, sequels, series, short stories, writing on August 28, 2016| Leave a Comment »

I am now about half-way through the polishing edit for WAR OF MAGIC. Expect to have it done in the next couple of days. Meanwhile, this fourth and final book in the DUAL MAGICS series is now available for pre-order at a special, limited time price.

And, after a few formatting headaches (mostly surrounding images), the boxed set of the first three books, plus the short story “Modgud Gold” is now available, too. DUAL MAGICS Books 1 – 3

Now I just need to finish the polishing edit and format the print book. Oh, and schedule a few promotions. Then I can get back to work on BECOME.

Become 5

Busy, busy.

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Finish Line

Posted in writing, tagged boxed sets, e-publishing, fantasy, launch, marketing, sequels, series, writing on August 24, 2016| Leave a Comment »

And WAR OF MAGIC is now available for preorder.

The special preorder price of $0.99 won’t last past the release date of September 27.

Now, it’s on to completing the polishing edit. (I have until 9/16 for that.) And getting the boxed set of the first three books together.

Dual Magics 1-3 Boxed Set

And planning promotions around the launch. Oh, and formatting the print version, probably my least favorite task.

And then I can get back to work on BECOME.

Become 5

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Indecision

Posted in writing, tagged boxed sets, critiques, fantasy, revisions, sequels, series, writing on August 17, 2016| Leave a Comment »

So, in starting to format the boxed set of the first three books in the series,

Dual Magics 1-3 Boxed Set

I ran across another decision point. See, in the original–pre-critique–revisions, I’d changed the order of the early chapters. So, I need to update the excerpt of WAR OF MAGIC

WarMagicNew

at the back of the boxed set (which is currently the one found at the end of BEYOND THE PROPHECY.)

And now I’m not sure which order is really better. I’ll have to look at that after I finish this round of clean-up revisions. Shouldn’t be a major change even if I do decide to change it back.