My new superpowers book, Rough Passages, has been available for sale in paperback for several days now. Just an FYI.
I realize that announcement lacks the proper new-release pep, but I am fresh out of enthusiasm for touting books people go out of their way to ignore. (OMG THE EXCUSES. FRIENDS, PLS STOP WITH THE EXPLAINING WHY YOU “HAVEN’T READ THEM YET.)
Promotion makes me feel more like Gus from the Simpsons than an author with a social media circle packed with readers waiting to discover me.
So I won’t be touting the imminent ebook release or asking for reviews. It’s there. I’ve posted tons of links barely anyone clicks. It’s out. I’m done.
I have to cut the cord at some point. Showcasing things no one wants is too painful. I can’t keep clinging to hope my worlds and characters will ever appeal to anyone who hasn’t found them already.
All five Rough Passages tales have been collected into one big, happy edition with extra world-building material, stunning interior design from RuneWright LLC and a gorgeous cover by Quincy J. Allen.
And here’s a peek inside at the dedication pages, interior decorations and a few pages of text: Rough Passages sneak peek
**NOTE** It’s a PDF, so it might download instead of opening online, all depending on your choice of browser & platform.
Now, by popular demand, I am adding my list of easy ways for current readers to support my campaign to sell a gazillion copies of the new book. Because OF COURSE you want to help.
The best part: these suggestions are totally transferable. Think Rough Passages is total dreck and not worth your time? Great! Read these ideas anyway, then take your wrongheaded perfectly valid opinion and go elsewhere to support the new release of some other extra-awesome author.
If you’re a fan & on Goodreads, help the collection find new readers. Give a rating to the book’s Goodreads entry now.* You don’t even have to review. GR allows naked ratings. Also put it on your GR “want to read” list if you can.
*Yes, this is totally legit even though the book doesn’t release for a couple of weeks. LEGIT, I SAY. NORMAL. Many authors release bundled works or repackaged novels etc. People get review copies. People read drafts. Whatevs. If you’ve read these stories already, you should go forth and scatter stars freely.
Pre-order a Kindle copy ASAP (if you do Kindle.) Get your friends to do the same. Multiple same-day orders boost the ranking tons higher than the same # of orders spaced days apart. HIgher rankings = higher visibility for other potential readers.
Ponder writing a ten-word review for Amazon. You have weeks yet to dash off a line or two to post opening day. I will be putting together a deli-sandwich-style guide to writing quick&easy reviews. Yes, I will post it to this blog.
Spread the word! In person as well as online. Social media shares are great (and thank you to my many, awesome boosters!) but specific encouragements to friends are like gold dipped in gold with gold leaf wrappers on.
My best-ever score for preorders is 20. Pathetic? Maybe, but it’s still a goal. Rough Passages has already exceeded the historical low of 2 5 preorders for a past title not being named to protect the guilty. I am pleased to say Rough Passages met the initial challenge, achieved a total of “legal drinking age in the US” and heading towards “Same total as the number of pennies in a quarter.
If everyone who calls me friend or favorite living author (Multiple people have, I am not making that up) the total should easily exceed 10 might get as high as Existential Crisis. (that’s 30.)
Anyway, I have a win already but I want a BIG win. I would love to blast past the old high score. Aim high. Yeah. Call me a dreamer.
I skipped the parade this year; tempting though it was, I realized the vendor area would be most navigable during that period and headed that direction. On the way I got to check out the gaming area and found windows to get a few parade pictures. For posterity.
In Vendorland I bought a few gifts, checked on art progress (squee!) and took pictures of things I might buy online later. Then I headed back to the Hyatt for a tasty lunch, a couple of panels, and work shift in the Armory. Good times.
Creating an Alien: another crowd-sourcing brainstorming session, this time led by scientists & hard science fiction creators. Here’s a pic of a thing I might purchase online later. Within 10 minutes we have an aquatic predatory creature that flies via hydrogen floats like a dirigible and hunts by launching off waterfalls and hitching rides back upstream via an upstream species to which it provides some benefit.
And then it got really weird.
At one point it was a rocket-propelled manta-shaped dirigible flyer with filamentary trntacles, possibly one that excretes its skeleton from graphene and impales its prey on a spike and then envelops it… Oh, and it has a multi-stage life cycle wherein its earlier stage is prey for the adult. I will spare you the details of the digestive system and reproduction and life cycle….but they were amazing.
Also we developed how this creature’s evolutionary development and biological imperatives would affect the psychology and culture of a sentient edition. Have I mentioned how much I love being the stupidest person in the room?
The second program covered synopsis writing, and it will get its own post at some point. It was worthy, and Esther Friesner was on the panel. So. It was phenomenal goodness.
Work shift was great, with a visit from Paula my co-worker and her daughter Brittany, here for their FIRST DRAGONCON, a great docent lecture on the evolution of armor, and then some fab song-singing, snack eating and after-work relaxation in the Armory. Here, have some pics of all that:
Even if you want to know about the dirty filk song session, I’m not telling you. When next we meet in public, ask me about the dead monkey, “I helped” and “ta-dah!”
And that’s a wrap on Saturday.
Hey, look. Books. These can be bought for a song and some money. I’m still writin’ em.
