Chion now in three local bookstores

Just a quick note to those living in and around Portadown. Chion is now in place, on the shelves of our three local Eason stores: in High Street Mall, Meadows Shopping Centre, and Rushmere Shopping Centre.

(Sadly, Jeffers newsagent, which was responsible for selling a fabulous 80 copies of Ulterior a few years ago, is no more.)

Self-publishing: Avoiding the pitfalls

The following might conjure up feelings of nostalgia in some readers (others will just be plain confused):

It’s dark. You can’t see a thing.

What now? inventory

You are carrying a box of matches.

What now? light match

The match flickers into life.

You are in a dusty cellar. Cardboard boxes are stacked against the west wall. A rickety staircase leads up to a door. On the bottom stair, a huge rat stares balefully at you.

What now? up

The rat bares its fangs and hisses, startling you into retreat.

What now? open box

You open the box. It is full to the brim with books, each one stained with blood.

What now? take book

You pick up a book.

What now? examine book

What you thought was a bloodstain is actually part of the book’s cover art. The cryptic word Chion is printed along the centre.

What now? light book with match

You hold the match under the book. Fire begins to consume the pages.

What now? throw book into box

Who remembers the likes of the above? I’m guessing you’re over thirty and you probably owned a ZX Spectrum computer (or similar) in your youth. The above quote is a made-up example of a style of game that I once found quite stimulating: the text adventure, or interactive fiction, as it is more commonly known today. The reason I’m drawing attention to it is because back in the late 1980s there was something wonderful that happened in the computer games industry which forms an interesting parallel with what I’m doing today as a fiction writer.

Most text adventures were written in one of three programmining languages: The Quill, GAC (Graphic Adventure Creator), or PAW (Professional Adventure Writer). These languages were a lot simpler than Z80 assembly language, enabling the average Joe with good grasp of logic and an imagination to produce competent games. Aged only fourteen, I spent many an evening coding in GAC, and even produced one full game, entitled Alien Complex (sadly now lost). Many of these games were released by well-known publishers such as Incentive and Firebird, but many more were self-published by the programmers themselves under their own publishing name. One of the most prolific of these home-grown publishers was Zenobi Software. To order one of these games, you would send a cheque or postal order directly to the author, and you would receive the game from him on a typical Memorex/BASF/Sony cassette tape with a home-made black & white photocopied inlay card. The reason these games were successful was because the popular computer games magazines of the day (Crash, Your Sinclair, Sinclair User, etc.) supported the enterprise. These magazines had adventure game columns, such as YS Adventures by Mike Gerrard, and the columnists treated the homegrown games with the same respect as the commercial games.

Sometimes I wish I had been slightly older during the 1980s, because it would have been a joy to be active in the homegrown adventure publishing scene. But I’ve just realised: i’m actually living out that same dream today in the arena of self-published fiction. In observing a parallel between then and now, here’s an interesting question or two: what is it that made those games sell? And why is it that so much self-published fiction today fails?

I can see two reasons why the games sold:

1. They got publicity, in particular publicity where it counts: reviews by respected reviewers in popular magazines.

2. They were cheap to buy, commonly £2.50 + postage.

By those standards, the self-published author today has a lot a lot going against him. On the issue of publicity, I don’t even read magazines with book reviews in them, and I don’t know anyone who does. In fact, I don’t buy magazines, period. The internet has replaced all that for me. This may initially seem like a blessing, since anyone can set up a website for next to nothing. But things look different when you consider the sheer amount of websites that are clamouring for the public’s attention. The best advice I can give is, make the best of it. Produce a good-looking website; offer free examples of your work; use any means you can think of to get visitors coming. Offer your book to popular review websites. Sell signed copies on eBay.

On the money side of things, you’re also in trouble. Most self-published authors use firms such as iUniverse, Lulu, Authorhouse, to publish their work, and these firms invariably put high retail prices on the books they publish. There’s a reason for that, and it’s not necessarily to do with bad business practice, just the way the pie has to be sliced: printer, publisher, wholesaler, bookseller, author. What I have to say on how an author can keep the retail price of his book low is an entire blogpost in its own right, so I’ll hold my tongue for the moment. Suffice it to say, I’ve managed to price my novel Chion at £3.99. In my experience, I consider that figure to be the sweet spot. We’re nobodies, we self-published authors, and unless we can offer bargain basement prices, few people will take a chance on us.

Self-publishing is a journey fraught with pitfalls. I think a lesson from how things were done in the homegrown games arena of the past might help us avoid the dangers. “Those who forget the past are …” No, I won’t say it. I’m a geek, but not a cliched geek.

Eason backs Chion

Northern Ireland’s biggest bookchain is Eason, with over thirty stores across the province. Yesterday, I received word back from the Head Buyer, authorising the sale of Chion in all the stores. The next step is for me to contact each branch individually and ask them how many (if any) copies of the book they will accept. With Ulterior back in 2002, some stores took as few as five copies, while others wanted as many as twenty; I sold over three hundred books in one day! Hopefully I will have the same experience with Chion. And this is where I realise that I should have thrown caution to the wind and ordered five hundred copies from Lightning Source, instead of two hundred and fifty. But no matter; I can order more as and when required.

A few hours after hearing from the Eason Head Office, I was delighted to receive an email from one of the local stores, asking for ten copies. It was a really nice surprise for a bookshop to ask me for my book before I’ve even had a chance to approach the bookshop. That’s the beauty of having done this before: awareness of my identity already exists, to some extent.

Online sales are also going well. All in all, I’m having a great experience thus far.

Last ever copies of Ulterior

I’m aware that some of those reading Chion haven’t read my first novel Ulterior, so I thought it was worth mentioning that the last ever copies of Ulterior are those still in stock at the American online bookstore Shocklines.com. When I say “last ever,” I mean that I have no firm plans to bring the book back for a second edition. The first edition sold over 1,000 copies before going out of print. The fact that it hardly ever shows up on eBay (despite numerous copies being sold by that means) is testament to how well liked it was.

So, if you’re in the USA and you’re enjoying Chion, there’s an opportunity to purchase Ulterior at Shocklines.com for $11.99, while stocks last.

Appended 1 Feb 2007:

UK fans needn’t despair. I forgot all about the fact that there are a few copies of Ulterior listed on Amazon UK’s Used & New section.

The arrival

Well, now, what’s a boring old photograph of cardboard boxes doing on my blog? It means the shipment of books has arrived, of course … one day early. Good ol’ Lightning Source. Looks like I’ll be busy with the bubblewrap and Sellotape this evening, folks.

My thanks to all the regular posters, whose comments created a great sense of excitement and anticipation on the blog. I’ll do my best to get all the existing pre-orders on the way in tomorrow’s post. UK buyers can expect their book in Wednesday’s or Thursday’s mail; shipping to USA normally takes seven to ten days.

Fiction podcast: An excerpt from Chion

To help promote the new novel (and for those who can’t wait for their dead tree version to arrive), here’s a podcast of the first twelve pages of the book (25 minutes worth of listening, somewhat longer than the text excerpt I released last year). The audio recording comes in two flavours: 128kbps version for the connoisseur and a 32kbps version for the bandwidth-challenged.

This is the first try-out of my new microphone, the MXL Desktop Recording Kit. The acoustics in the room could be slightly better, but the mic still has a nice rich sound. As is my custom, I’ve featured carefully chosen snippets from the excellent music of Mike Andrews for the scene transitions. Enjoy!

[ Download Podcast ]

Chion is here!

The proof copy of the novel arrived today, and I’m thrilled to see it in actual book form. As well as the photo on the right, here’s one of the back cover and one of the inside text. Lightning Source did a great job.

So, I’m now accepting orders. The price of the book is £3.99 + postage: £0.70 for the UK; £1.80 for the rest of Europe; £2.50 for the USA, Canada, Australia, and everywhere else in the world (if you wish to use US dollars as your PayPal currency, the total including shipping is $12.99). When paying by PayPal, send to my email address as quoted on the sidebar. If sending a cheque or postal order, email me privately for my postal address.

I’ll be placing a large order with the printers tomorrow morning, so you won’t have long to wait.

A book cover experiment

Locus is featuring a gallery of science fiction artwork from books and magazines published in 2006 - 528 works in total. Since we had a recent discussion on the blog here about what makes up an effective cover, I’d be interested in doing a little experiment with you folks (if you can spare ten minutes).

Take a good hard look at the list from top to bottom, and make a note of any cover that makes you want to lift the book off the shelf to find out more (the quickest way to do this is to right-click on the image and save it to your computer). You will be impatient and quick; that’s okay (it’s the artist’s fault for failing to grab your attention). I want this to feel just like it would if these were all titles clamouring for attention on a bookshelf. When you’ve finished, narrow your list down to the ten most likely to make you lift the book/magazine, and email this to me privately (address on sidebar). I’ll correlate the results and see if there’s anything to be learned.

Having done the experiment myself, I tried to make my choices on my gut reaction of the artwork. The book title can also be a factor in your choice, but don’t choose based on author; try to pretend you don’t know who wrote the books. That’s essentially the position we indie authors are in. We can’t sell based on fame.

A new toy: the Dell Axim X51v

I’ve had a fascination with mobile computing for a while now. It started when I first got wind of the homebrew software scene surrounding the Nintendo DS. I loved the idea of playing old ZX Spectrum classics on a haldheld, as well as being able to surf the net, and do other bits and pieces. But I had very little interest in the machine as a modern games platform. It occurred to me that what I should really be on the lookout for was a Pocket PC with a decent spec. For a while now, I’ve had my heart set on the Dell Axim X51v. It has a 624 Mhz processor, which by modern desktop PC standards is poor, but puts it on par with a mid-range PC from around the year 2000, which is pretty amazing for something so small. The TFT is 480×640 pixels, just like an old-school monitor. Video looks beautiful on those tiny pixels, as you can sort of see from the photo. It’s not my intention to watch videos on the TFT too often (maybe on sleepless nights), but the unit can accomodate a VGA cable for attachment to monitors or projectors.

There’s no shortage of software for the Dell Axim (which uses Windows Mobile 5 as its operating system), even a BitTorrent client. But the real beauty of the device is the built in 802.11b wi-fi internet. Although I don’t have the internet at home, I had a wander through the neighbourhood yesterday evening, and occasionally I heard a bleep in my headphones, indicating that the device had picked up an open wi-fi network (i.e. a home internet connection belonging to somebody who hasn’t bothered to switch on encryption). It was rather amusing being able to check my email and RSS feeds whilst on the move.

I’m not sure what additional uses I’ll have for the Dell Axim yet. Skype is something I want to get working on it (Chris, are you listening?). I may also use Pocket Word to edit my fiction (although certainly not to write it).

My friends Chris and Andy are shaking their heads in despair at this point: “Another Sloan whimsical purchase.” Did I need to buy this? No. I concede, it’s a toy. But heck, I’m having fun.

On Chion: it’s 2.00 p.m. and the courier hasn’t showed up yet with the proof copy. Assuming it arrives today, I’ll be back on the blog later.

The Lightning Source experience

As planned, I submitted the digital files for Chion to the printers on Monday. It’s only Thursday, the book has already been processed and the proof copy is winging its way to me in the post.

In 2002, when I printed Ulterior through ColourBooks in Dublin, I had a nightmare of a time. Here’s a list of the problems I had:

1. The company didn’t tell me I had to send a CMYK cover image until after I designed and submitted an RGB version.

2. I had numerous hiccups in understanding exactly what they were asking from me, resulting in me having to send numerous CD-ROMs to Dublin using time-wasting snail mail, because the company was too backward to stay online for a 20-minute download (even though I was hosting the files myself).

3. They didn’t think it necessary to tell me the spine-width until I asked (so that I could construct the full wrap-around cover accurately).

4. They encountered loads of missing characters when processing my book-block PDF, even though every version of Adobe Acrobat on every computer I tested it on displayed it perfectly.

5. They tried to charge me an extra £150 because the next fincancial year occurred between the generation of their original quote and the start of the job, thus changing the value of the euro against the pound (even though they had originally quoted me a fee in pounds).

6. They didn’t print the amount specified (1000), but exceeded it by 70 copies and invoiced me for them (although, to be fair, they gave me those extra ones dirt cheap).

7. They didn’t send me a proof of the book (only the cover) before printing and shipping all 1000.

8. Almost all 1070 copies possess a tiny dirty mark on the page edge near the bottom corner (take a look at your copy). It was as if there was something dirty on the conveyor belt at the packing stage.

In contrast, I have to give a major thumbs-up to Lightning Source thus far. The company has been very friendly, with prompt responses to emails, and extremely quick processing time for the book. Their website tells you exactly what you need to submit, and what parameters you need to adhere to. I have had a zero-hassle experience and thoroughly recommend the company.

I’m really looking forward to getting stuck into selling this book, and I’m not nearly as nervous as I was with Ulterior. With the first novel, I was standing all alone, shouting for attention, whereas now I’ve got tons of email addresses of past-purchasers on file and an existing relationship with the Library Board and the Eason book chain to exploit. Should only be a matter of days before we get rolling. If the proof arrives tomorrow and all is well, I’ll get the big order underway the same day.

Chion off to the printers

Tomorrow is the day when I submit the digital files for Chion to Lightning Source. I had to sit on the files for a few days, just to make sure I didn’t want to make a few last-minute amendments (and I did). The wonders of print-on-demand technology means that there won’t be a long wait for publication; the book is simply a digital file waiting for orders to come in. The first order will, of course, be mine. I’ll order a couple of hundred, to qualify for discount. Although the book will be available from Amazon.co.uk, I would urge any interested parties to purchase it directly from me, as it will likely be cheaper (and signed, if desired). Details to follow. For now, I’d like to share with you the teaser from the back cover:

First came the snow. Then came the screams.

Six hundred and fifty pupils, confined to their classrooms, waiting impatiently for the break-time bell to ring, eager to rush outdoors for a snowball slugfest. But when the first foot crosses over the doorway to the playground, something goes terribly wrong: the boy is strangely powerless to prevent himself from falling … and then screaming.

If the pupils thought being restricted to a classroom for half an hour was hard, all of them are about to get a lesson in the real meaning of the word “confinement.” No one can leave the building. Not now, not when school’s over, not tonight, and not tomorrow. It’s the same story all across the country, in every school, every workplace, every home, every vehicle: death is waiting outdoors.

No one knows whether the phenomenon is a freak weather condition, a chemical weapon, or a divine curse, but what’s lying outside is not snow. And unlike snow, it is not melting away.

Tensions escalate as the dreadful reality dawns. What will happen when our food runs out? How can we be rescued if we’re merely a handful among millions? How can the rescue services function when vehicles can’t use roads and aircraft have nowhere to land?

How will anyone anywhere survive?

I spent the rest of the Christmas holiday writing part of the script for a new movie that Andrew Harrison and I intend to make in 2007. Actually, I spent very little of the holiday doing that. I put in a lot of time gaming, working right through Half-life 2 and Land of the Dead. The latter wasn’t great, but since it’s zombie-blasting, you can’t help but love it. The former was terrific. I’m currently investing my leisure time in an extremely nerve-wracking and difficult game called Splinter Cell: Double Agent.