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Angela Korra'ti

Other People's Books

Starting off the 2015 book roundups

Dance 'Til Dawn

Dance ‘Til Dawn

Grabbed from Amazon:

  • Dance ‘Til Dawn, by Genevieve Griffin. This being a novella retelling the Twelve Dancing Princesses fairy tale, with the particularly nice twist that the heroine is not actually one of the princesses: she’s one of the seamstresses responsible for replacing their shoes. Lovely and lyrical and creepy. Author’s a friend (featured before on Boosting the Signal!) and I’ve read an earlier draft of this already; very pleased to get the finished product.

And, snagged from B&N:

  • Jacaranda, by Cherie Priest. Because I’ll pretty much buy any word this woman writes. Her latest in the Clockwork Century universe, another novella, which promises to deliver some creepy. And this has the same nun who was in Dreadful Skin–a very badass nun indeed, Sister Eileen Callahan.

This is the first book roundup of 2015! So far, two for the year.

February 6, 2015 by
News

On Google/YouTube–and Kindle Unlimited

Dara has a post up today with an analysis of Google/YouTube’s new music streaming service–and why its terms are a very, VERY bad idea for independent musicians. Her analysis, in short, is that this is aiming to make it utterly unnecessary for your listeners to come to you for any reason–because YouTube will already have all your stuff, and at a streaming quality that is essentially indistinguishable from CDs.

If you’re at all involved in independent music, you should go read what she’s got to say.

And if you’re an independent author, you should definitely keep an eye on this, too. Nick Mamatas reshared Dara’s link by noting, quote: “Imagine Kindle Unlimited if it weren’t optional and if Amazon were trawling physical libraries and scanning every book or story you’d ever written because you have one item up on Kindle.”

Because yeah. I’ve already seen reports that Kindle Unlimited is gutting ebook sales for participating authors–and may even be impacting sales for authors who aren’t participating. Dear Author noted on this post at The Digital Reader with reports to that effect, and links to further reading on the matter.

All of which, for me, continues to add up to deep reluctance to commit my work to any one channel. At the end of the day, I’m not seeing any evidence that signing up for KDP Select, for example, will do any more for me than distributing myself out to Barnes and Noble, iBooks, Smashwords, Kobo, and Google Play too–not to mention selling the print copies of Faerie Blood and Bone Walker.

John Scalzi has said repeatedly on his posts about Amazon and other big-name vendors of books that they are not an author’s friend. They’re there to make money, and if they think you can make them money, sure, they’re going to dangle shiny enticements in front of you to try to get you to commit your work to their exclusive systems. And anything that chokes off the due flow of money to you for your work should be treated with all due caution. I’m not saying indie musicians should never sign up for this new service, or that indie authors should never join Kindle Unlimited–but if you do, do it with your eyes open, and be aware of what it’s likely to do to your ability to sell your work.

In music and in writing, money should flow to the artist.

Read everything very carefully, and find out what will happen to that flow before you commit.

February 5, 2015 by
Publishing, Site Updates

Victory of the Hawk cover copy, site housekeeping, and SFWA

In the midst of all this HEY BONE WALKER IS OUT excitement, do not forget, Victory of the Hawk is ALSO on its way. And there’s official cover copy for it now and everything, so I have updated the official Victory of the Hawk page with it! AND, I have also found it up on iBooks for preordering goodness, so I’ve added that link to the page too.

I have also taken the time to update various high-level pages on the site to be current with the status of Victory and of Bone Walker. The About Me, FAQ, and Books pages have all been updated too with current data, including how to get print copies of Faerie Blood and Bone Walker by ordering via Bandcamp!

Likewise, I have made sure that the current main places to get all of my books are called out on the overall Books page. This includes the direct links to go to the Crime and the Forces of Evil merch pages on Bandcamp, where you can order the aforementioned print editions.

It ALSO includes a direct link to the Audible page for the audiobook edition of Valor of the Healer, which IS a thing that exists, let me remind you all. 😀

***

Last but not least, I saw the news break last night courtesy of James Nicoll’s LJ that SFWA has opened membership to self-pubbed and small press authors.

To wit, awesome.

I still don’t qualify for membership by the criteria they’re discussing, which are based around “how much income do you pull in from your writing?” They are setting that bar at a level that’d be the equivalent of what authors can get from an advance from a traditional publisher. And honestly, that seems reasonable to me.

Now, though, this changes my likelihood of ever joining SFWA from “well, THAT ain’t gonna happen” over to “possibly feasible, if I keep growing my available titles and sales”. And this does please me. So as I said on the comment I left on the post, I would like to thank the folks in SFWA for making this policy change.

Meanwhile, I am still very pleased that NIWA is a thing that exists, and have renewed my membership with them. The opportunity to be in an organized group of independent authors IS very valuable–if nothing else, the chance to team up to sell books at local conventions is very, very welcome. And I do recommend that fellow indie authors who aren’t yet at SFWA-qualifying levels of sales consider checking them out.

February 4, 2015 by
Bone Walker

BONE WALKER LIVES!

As of this morning Bone Walker has gone live on all the places where I’m selling it for digital readers–so now you can officially buy it on Amazon, B&N, iBooks, Smashwords, Kobo, and Google Play! And there are more links to buy, especially for international readers, on the book’s official page!

Most of my preorders were on the Kindle, and Amazon chugged through processing those last night, which did amusing things to my February numbers. Google Play’s preorder apparently still counts as a January sale. And I also had a preorder show up for iBooks that I hadn’t seen before, so yay! Many thanks to all who preordered!

If you feel inclined and want to help me out, please, please, please spread the word about the book being out now. Also consider leaving a rating or review–on the book’s Amazon page will have the most heft, but its Goodreads page is also now live, and reviews there will have some weight too.

And in honor of the release, I feel some character interviews coming on. Anybody want to wing a question at any member of the cast of the Free Court of Seattle? Leave your question and to whom you’d like it directed in the comments! There will be in-character answers!

ETA: If you’re on Twitter and are thusly inclined, here’s a tweet you can steal to use:

Bone Walker by @annathepiper now available! Come fling questions at any character in the Free Court of Seattle! http://bit.ly/1F26ykN

ALSO: Don’t forget, I’m running a giveaway over on Here Be Magic for a print edition of the book! The post is right over here!

February 3, 2015 by
Bone Walker

Bone Walker is ALMOST HERE

Conflikt proved to be quite delightful in general, but also in particular for selling copies of Faerie Blood and Bone Walker! I sold six of the one and three of the other, and the release concert went quite swimmingly as well. I made piccolo noises on a stage that contained ALL OF THE MEMBERS OF TRICKY PIXIE.

And I played all the notes I needed to play, in the correct order, and at the right times. WIN! I’m here to tell you, too: I am NOT used to performance adrenalin, and for a short while after that show was over, I was shaky!

Also WIN: two people I didn’t know coming up to me to ask me to sign books for them, which was pretty awesome. And mind-blowing, because at least one of those two people was (or so I was informed by well-meaning friends of said person) very shy about approaching me. I am not used to THAT, either!

But now that I’m home, I can return to the business of getting Bone Walker out to you all. Particularly my long-waiting Kickstarter backers, to whom I shall start mailing copies of the print edition this week.

Meanwhile, the ebook goes on official sale TOMORROW. I’m now up into two digits of preorders, so YAY and thanks to all who have preordered so far. I am also moving forward with deploying the book for sale up on barnesandnoble.com, since they don’t do preorders. And since it’ll take a bit for them to actually process the book, I elected to put it up TODAY, so hopefully it’ll be done by tomorrow and Nook owners will be able to scarf the book along with everybody else.

(And don’t forget, if you want to preorder the book today, all the places you can do so are linked up on the book’s official page!)

Last but not least: yesterday was my turn to post on the Here Be Magic blog, and I did in fact post about Bone Walker, right over here! I talk some about the magical importance of music in the Warder universe, and I’m looking for comments on what songs are magical to you. I’ll be giving out a print edition of Bone Walker to a randomly selected commenter, so CLICKIE!

February 2, 2015 by
Bone Walker, Victory of the Hawk

Tuesday news: New way to order print copies of Faerie Blood and Bone Walker!

THIS JUST IN:

Now that the Bone Walker Soundtrack is an actual thing that you can actually buy, Dara has taken the liberty of doing a really awesome thing: she’s set up pages on the Crime and the Forces of Evil Bandcamp page to include both Faerie Blood AND Bone Walker‘s print editions as merch associated with the music. WHICH IT IS.

And what this means for you, O Internets, is that now there is a way to order print copies of these books without having to come directly to me. Even more importantly, it means that all methods of payment Bandcamp accepts are now ways that you can pay for the book–including credit cards as well as Paypal.

You can go straight to the Crime and the Forces of Evil Bandcamp page’s merch section and order the books from there. The page for Faerie Blood is here, and the page for Bone Walker is here!

The official pages for Faerie Blood and Bone Walker have both been updated with this information. Moving forward, this will be the recommended way to order print copies of either of these books, since it provides the most flexibility for how to pay.

* * *

I mention all of the above, by the way, because tonight I got Bone Walker‘s FIRST TEST PRINT, and we’re moving forward with the printing, and so soon I will have COPIES TO SELL YOU ALL. SO EXCITING!

* * *

On a related note, although I’m now able to take orders for the print books via Bandcamp, I will still accept direct requests to buy the books in either ebook or print form.

However, since people keep asking me how to go about paying me for stuff, I have spun off a standalone Buying From Me page on the site that explains what things I can sell directly, what their prices are, and what methods of payment I can personally accept.

Please consider this the canonical reference source for how to order things directly from me. I’ll be updating my FAQ to point to it too.

* * *

And while we’re on the topic of that soundtrack, I have taken the liberty of giving it its very own page here on my site. Because it’s shiny, I’m proud of it, and I wanted to make sure new visitors to my site can find out about it. 😀

* * *

Last and OH MY assuredly NOT THE LEAST:

I have an official cover for Victory of the Hawk! \0/ I’m really excited about this cover, since a) it’s gorgeous, b) it’s dynamic, and c) it is a well and thoroughly proper fantasy novel cover.

Ladies and gentlemen, mesdames et messieurs, I give you Kestar Vaarsen, Knight of the Hawk, and baron of Bremany!

Victory of the Hawk

Victory of the Hawk

This cover will be getting added to Victory’s official page, and it’ll be added to the lineup of thumbnails on the homepage too!

January 27, 2015 by
Bone Walker

Bone Walker news for Monday!

Those of you who backed my Kickstarter will have already received this news, but for everybody else:

BONE WALKER HAS GONE TO PRINT! \0/

I am now working with Third Place Press to get the first print run done and dealt with. If all goes well we will hopefully have at least some initial copies to sell at Conflikt this weekend. I’m doing a print run of 100 copies, 44 of which will be going to Kickstarter backers. Of the rest, most will be used for selling at conventions, as well as for contributors’ copies to give to everybody who performed on the soundtrack, or who will be performing at the release concert this weekend.

If you don’t fall into either the “backer” or “contributor” categories and you want a copy of the book, talk to me about getting one. As with Faerie Blood, I have no mechanism in place for placing orders for this book. So if you want one, your options are in order of my preference:

  1. Paypal me to my annathepiper address on gmail.
  2. Credit equivalent to the price of the book on any online store where I can get ebooks. In order of preference that’ll be Barnes and Noble, Kobo, iTunes (US or CA, I have accounts on both), and Amazon.
  3. If you’re local to me, I’ll take cash.
  4. If you’re NOT local to me and can’t Paypal me, you may mail me a check. I do NOT recommend you send cash.

I ask $15 USD as the base price of the book. If I can hand-deliver it to you (i.e., if you’re local to me, if I’ll be seeing you on my next trip to Canada, or if I’m likely to see you at a convention), I’ll waive shipping costs so it’ll be a straight up $15 USD.

If you are NOT local to me and I need to mail you the book, I also ask $3 USD for the cost of shipping within the States (where I can send a book by media mail rates), $6 for the cost of shipping to Canada, or $8 for the cost of shipping outside North America. (Sorry about that, non-North-Americans, but American postal rates are quite stupid right now. *^_^*;;)

If you want to reserve a copy out of the initial print run, then do please make arrangements to pay for a copy if you haven’t already. I will confirm your reserved copy when payment is received. Since my initial print run will have only about 45 copies available and some of those are hopefully going to get sold at Conflikt, I will have only a limited number to sell to folks. So priority will need to be given to people who can reserve a copy via payment.

If you can’t claim one of the initial print run copies, fear not, another print run is likely in the latter half of the year when I prep to go to Worldcon!

MEANWHILE, DON’T FORGET:

The ebook edition of Bone Walker is now up for preorder practically all over the place, including Amazon, Kobo, iTunes, Smashwords, and Google Play! Nook users, it’ll be going up on B&N a week from today, so stand by on that. All the places you can preorder the book are on its official page!

AND, the soundtrack is available in digital form here, where you can also preorder the print CD! We have those CDs in our hands RIGHT NOW, so get ’em while the getting’s good! As with the print run of the books, these are available only in limited quantities, so we’ll be giving priority to people who can reserve copies via payment. Follow the instructions on the Bandcamp page to preorder a CD, or contact me and Dara to set that up!

Any questions? Let me know!

January 26, 2015 by