A frustration with marketing an Indie book

My Lunara series is an Indie book series. I am marketing it by myself with the help of some loyal readers. I have one frustration with my marketing that I think everyone must be having too. I can accept that it is little known and the confidence level in a new writer isn't high. It is human nature to see a rookie and pass them off as mediocre. My real frustration is the lack of confidence in the works of Indie writers in terms of editing.  If you have read a poorly edited novel, you understand the frustration. It is unreadable.

Ideally, I would love to be able to put a stamp on my covers that indicates that my book is 100% professionally edited and contains no errors. When you purchase my novels, you are getting a quality product. It just seems that readers are skeptical of any Indie novels if they have read a few editing nightmares and I would love for that to change.

I would propose a governing body that can authenticate a novel is professionally edited by reading several random excerpts from a manuscript and certifying it. Then I could confidently display it on my web pages and even have the big sellers like amazon, bn.com, and apple acknowledge it as well. If this exists, someone please show me. If it is just fantasy, it would be great for a strong core of Indie writers to start this venture up. You could charge $25 to $75 for an unbiased reading. The only trick is to make it industry approved and acknowledged. Because who would pay if it didn't help the writer and the reader out.

Any editing errors in this blog post should be treated as irony and not incompetence.

Parker and the Protector released

(click the pic to buy)

I am excited to release the next book in the Lunara series and the last book in the original series.  Parker and the Protector wraps up the initial story arc of the Lunara series and sets the stage for the next story, the Legacy duology. As always, Parker and the Protector is at a low indie price and available on kindle for now and eventually all readers.

This was a tricky book to write because it is the last book to wrap up the story arc. It is hard to complete a story and pull the sub-stories and the main plot together into one defined finish. Can't do it haphazardly or the story falls flat. I think I pulled off a solid finish and I believe it will surprise and give an understanding into the behaviors of the main characters.  

Go to Lunaraseries.com for a full list of the Lunara series books.

Lunara Series Books

Original Trilogy:
Lunara: Seth and Chloe (released May 2011)
Lunara: Gwen and Eamonn (released Nov 2011)
Lunara: Parker and the Protector (released Feb 2012)

The entire Trilogy under one cover:
Lunara: The Original Trilogy (released Mar 2012)  

Legacy Duology (20 Years later):
Lunara: Alexandria I (coming soon)
Lunara: Alexandria II (coming soon)

Sagittarius Trilogy (200 Years later):
Lunara: Untitled - Book 1 (coming later)
Lunara: Untitled - Book 2 (coming later)
Lunara: Untitled - Book 3 (coming later)

Above is my plan for the Lunara series books.  I hope to have the complete series released by the end of 2013.  The original trilogy will be released by Feb of 2012 (it is at the editor now) and should provide a great base for new fans as they can read an entire story arc from the series. The Legacy duology is in the final writing stages and if I can get enough capital from Original trilogy sales, I can release that series mid or end of 2012. I think this duology is fantastic and the locations are great. The Sagittarius trilogy is in the early design phase and I have some great concepts to provide the next generation of the series by 2013 at the latest.

I also have some ideas about additional side books for Eamonn Dalton to tell the tale of the revolutionary war as it is outlined in the original trilogy. Probably called the Eamonn Dalton Tales, but this is just knocking in my brain.  I could also do an early settlers trilogy or a single book, but this isn't even outlined yet.  It all depends on how well the series is received, which from the fans that I generated so far, it looks promising. Thanks to everyone who has read them.

Indie Authors are going to do it!

What publishing house is going to sell "quality" books for $2.99 or less? None of them are. They can't, they have too much overhead. We, the independent authors, are going to take over the publishing industry by 2020.

The following is what I think about and what motivates me to promote my Lunara series.

With the high quality of the self-publishing suites at Amazon, we have all of the tools needed to create the same book as a publishing house. eBooks, which overtook printed book this year, are so cheap and so convenient. The next generation of readers on their eReaders will propel eBook sales to over 80% of the market by 2020. That means that everyone will be searching for book collections on their kindles, nook, or iPads. They will be searching online or via eReader. Publishing houses, who can't lower prices due to overhead and margins (someone has to pay for the marketers, the editors, the coffee guy, and the CEO), are faced with an impossible task of competing with us, the indie author, who can provide interactive experiences with their readers through blogs, email, and twitter accounts (try getting Stephan King to reply to an email, whereas John Locke replies to everyone), and best of all, indie authors can provide a $.99 cent book like I do with my Lunara series and hundreds of other authors have low priced books too, Season Of The Harvest by Michael Hicks, The Concordances of the Red Serpent  by William Meikle, and The Rings of Alathea by Dan Moore to name a few.

Apple started this trend for us. Apps are 99 cents (Angry birds, Scrabble, or Monopoly). Now, everyone expects their apps and eBooks to be 99 cents...the publishing houses can't do it. We can! As a group, indie authors have enough momentum to take over 75% of eBook sales by 2020. How can anyone expect to pay $7.99 for an eBook? So many are $.99. Are those books 8x better? Because our books aren't 8x worse. (Thanks John Locke for that perspective)

As Indie authors, we have an opportunity to setup a business plan for each of us that can propel us to the levels of one million eBooks sold. Customers will stop paying $7.99 for eBooks when they realize that a $.99 cent book is just as good or better. Now mind you, the readers will still spend the $7.99, but this time, they will purchase 8 eBooks from perhaps 8 different authors. That is how we get multiple "Million Sale" indie authors. We have an opportunity to overthrow the publishing houses and provide hundreds of "Million Sale" indie authors by 2020 or sooner. Right now, there are only a few (two?) one million sales indie authors, but by 2020, there will be hundreds because of the price point we can provide. Amazon will be forced to showcase our books in the best seller ranks and push the publishing houses down the list.

Another reason that Indie authors have a huge advantage, sampling downloads. With two clicks, you can have a sample of a $7.99 publishing house book and a $.99 Indie book, you can read both samples and pick the one to buy. All things being equal, I would purchase the $.99 book and so would 99% of the population. I know the quality that indie authors provide. I have read hundreds of them. We aren't hacks. We are WRITERS! We have the passion because we struggle for the love of our books.

I am just starting out in this world of promoting my Lunara series, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and I encourage everyone else to see it too. I know it sucks to see low sales or the disrespect from a publishing house that doesn't even reply. But this is our opportunity to take over an industry. A band of rebels against the empire. Stick with it! We are just beginning the eReader boom!

Visit kindle direct publishing (kdp.amazon.com) or many other suites to start publishing today!

Contact me at lunaraseries.com and I can help set up your word doc for eBook conversion. I have done a bunch.

UFO versus Ghost sighting - Which would you rather see?

I was watching an old UFO Hunters the other day with my wife. She is an avid Ghost hunters fan, which I find absolutely absurd. As I got deeper into the show, I realized that I was watching the same thing but with UFOs and aliens. So I asked my wife a question that has me stumped.

I said, "Honey, would you rather see a ghost or a UFO? I mean a full friendly Casper or a Close Encounter of the Third kind."

"Ghost," she said rather quickly.

"Ghost!" I hollered, annoyed with her dismissal of my Sci-Fi obsession. She could have at least pondered a few seconds or faked it (aren't girls good at that?). "Are you crazy?"

She gives me a look. "So you would see a UFO?" she said rhetorically.

"Yes..." I muttered my obvious reply, but a thought rushed into my head that I had never thought of before. If I see a Ghost, that means that God exists and I can go to heaven (or hell), but if I see a UFO, then I know we are not alone and that humanity can someday explore the stars as these aliens do. What is better? The comfort of an afterlife or knowing that we are not alone and that the universe is filled with more wonders than we can see through our telescopes.

Now, I am not a religious man, and I don't dismiss the fact that God exists or doesn't exist. After all, so many believe and disbelieve. Who am I to judge these groups that are so passionate? But a ghost would make me believe 100% in God because a ghost means that an afterlife exists. Therefore, God must ascend people to heaven and I would have a grand old time in heaven with my friends, family, and my own personal holodeck. Yes, a holodeck is my heaven.

On the other hand, if I see that UFO, my dreams would become truth. I would know that life exists elsewhere and that humanity has chance to explore other species and planets in our universe. We would also have the chance to evolve into something greater. The great question of "are we alone?" would be answered with a resounding YES! Plus, if everyone found out, we would be that much closer to going to Mars...I want to see that in my lifetime.

Which would you rather see? Has anyone seen either?

A simple trick to save your eyes editing your novel or short story

After hours of editing my novels, hundreds of revisions, rereading and rereading again, my eyes were shot after six, seven hours of staring at the white background of a word document. Saving your eyes couldn't be easier though, simply switch the background color on your word document. Here is how... 

1a) In Word 2007, go to Page Layout tab > Page Color menu button> More Colors... menu choice
1b) In Word 2003, go to Format > Background

2) Set the RGB (Red, Green, Blue) to 251, 248, and 217.  This is a cream colored page...like reading a physical novel.  Click OK when finished.

Light Cream: RGB (Red, Green, Blue) to 251, 248, and 217 (recommended)

Medium Cream: RGB (Red, Green, Blue) to 247, 241, and 179

Darker Cream: RGB (Red, Green, Blue) to 240, 179, and 116

3) Voila! You can see in the screenshot of Lunara: Gwen and Eamonn, the cream is subtle but after hours of editing and rereading, your eyes will be less tired and you will be able to concentrate on writing...not fighting your eyes. Just try it for one day and I guarantee you will be hooked.

buy.lunaraseries.com

Launch of Lunara: Gwen and Eamonn

The Lunara Series welcomes its newest member, Lunara: Gwen and Eamonn.  It is available in print and on eBook.

Click here to buy a copy

How to format your Word document and keep italics...

For those writers who need to format your book or word document, but don't want to go through the hassle of going line by line because your don't want to ruin your italics.  I have discovered an instant way of doing this in Word.  This is great for fomatting eBooks and Print versions.

1)      First, back up your document.  All major changes should be backed up beforehand so go ahead and do that.

2)      Next, you must replace the italics with a special character(s) to surround words that are italicized. 

a) Enter, into the replace (ctrl H) command in word, exactly what is below.  

b) Make sure your replace command has the Font: Italics in the Find What: and that Use Wildcards is checked.

Note: the ~ character in the ~~\1~~ should be a character not in your document, such as ??\1?? Or ::\1::.  If you have a bunch of ~~ in your document, it will confuse the replace command.  Use a unique character to your document.

3)      Format your document as you want it formatted.  (You can kill all formatting, the next step will get your italics back)

4)      Finally, replace the special characters with the italics again.  Enter exactly the screen below to get your italics back. (Note: if you switched from ~, use your new special character)

a) Remember the Use Wildcards and that the Font: Italics is moved down to the Replace With: area.

     b) Replace All


Recap: The basics of what we did is that the (<*>) creates a variable for all of your italic words. We create a way to identify it later, then we find all of the special characters and replace it back to the italic version.  Simple as pie.

Note: It was pointed out to me that you can use (?) instead of (<*>) to get a character by character replacement of your italics.  This has its advantages if you use italics mid word or with special characters.  For most novels, either should work nicely.  This is also good if you plan to replace other formating other than italics.

New Short Story for the Lunara Series

The Lunara Series added a new member today. A short story called Lunara: Parker McCloud at North Tharsis.

The story tells the tale of Parker McCloud as he fights for the people of North Tharsis against the tyranny of a wicked Martian colonial leader. It is approximately 11 written pages so it is a quick read and gives a glimpse into the Lunara Universe.

Click here for a copy of Lunara: Parker McCloud at North Tharsis.

Click here for a  $.99 copy of Lunara: Seth and Chloe - a full length novel.

Lunara Universe Map



Elevation map of "Lunara Universe" Mars

Aethpis - one of the two main colonies in the Lunara Universe. Home of Eamonn Dalton and Jan Falloom.

Zephyria - the other main colony in the Lunara Universe.  Home colony of Gwen Arwell and the Zephyrians.

Trivium Port - the main trading center on Mars.  Neutral territory for Aethpis and Zephyria. Home of Parker McCloud.

Memnonia Sulci - the alleged rally point for the invasion of Lunara.

North Tharsis - a Mining colony where Parker undertook his first mission with the Military.

Click for a small history of the Lunara Universe here.

Get a copy of Lunara: Seth and Chloe for 99 cents FREEor in Print.

Olympus Mons - the tallest mountain in the Solar System.

Valles Marineris - the largest canyon in the Solar System, stretching nearly a quarter of Mars.

Utopia Planitia - is the largest recognized impact basin on Mars.