Tag Archives: vote

The Veil: Feedback

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So we’re coming up on our third chapter for The Veil. It actually seems kind of amazing that we’ve already, yet only, been at this for a month now.

The views have been good, and the website’s traffic has definitely had a noticeable spike in activity, but the actual feedback has been silent. Thus, with this poll, I hope to see if we can gauge exactly how you all feel about the story thus far.

Go ahead and pick an answer that best suits you, and feel free to leave a comment below (or on one of my social feeds) about what you think of it. I’d love to know if folks are enjoying the story as it is, if they feel there are flaws that need fixing, or if there are other steps I should consider to improve the story.

Thank you for your time and attention,

~ James.

The battleplan is forming.

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Earlier on, we talked about the results of my recent poll. Now we’re gathering around to see what I intend to do with this information. So grab some alcohol, take a shot every time I say something ridiculous, and we’ll all be shit-faced before the night’s out.

If we focus entirely on what the numbers tell me, it’s that folks are either split between what type of content they want to see from me, or they just don’t care. That said, the consensus I also saw was that people want to see me try and make my way onto the Kindle marketplace.

If we look at the discussions that have been popping up in the comment threads every now and then, however, we get a better idea of what folks want. The overall theme was, simply, “Write what you want, but do it for what you feel strongly about.”

At first, this notion didn’t exactly break my old question of, “What, amongst my many ideas that I long to pen, do I feel people want to see first?” Then I read some more feedback and an idea clicked. So, below, I’m going to detail my plan of attack for what’s to come.

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1) Short stories. Let’s face it, people are busy creatures, so even if a novel from a newbie is horribly inexpensive, it’s a massive time commitment. Something that not a lot of people will chance for a fresh face. To counter this, I will be beginning a staggered roll-out of short material onto the Kindle marketplace. I currently have Echoes, Guns of Asgard, Salvaging Life, and the novelette Blood in the Machine in the editing or reserve line that can fill this role.

2) Novel work. Under a Falling Sky is on track now. The story feels solid, the characters feel tight and gripping to me, and the world feels fitting for the story to tell. Work will continue on UaFS, I will do a number of editing sweeps on the drafts, then I’ll likely solicit other writers for a mutually beneficial trade.

We read, comment, and attempt to edit each other’s works. This will help keep costs down, but also open the story up to a critical set of eyes that aren’t my own. As for artwork … we’ll see when we get there.

3) Free, promotional content. Susan Miles had a great idea that I had given little thought to. As it stands, there are two stories that are available for a free download here on this website. Looking back, however, I can’t help but feel that they’re … lacking. She had suggested offering up some free short stories for anyone to chance upon and read.

I’m thinking of not only going with this suggestion, but taking it a step further. Before I continue on, however, I want to stress that this is not concrete and is open to feedback.

I’m planning out the notion of creating a serial piece of content of unknown length and posting segments of it up on the website at set times and dates. The segments would all be hosted online indefinitely, so anyone at any time could come back and read over the old pieces.

My hope is that this would act not only as free promotional content, but also generate an increase in my readership and in traffic to this website. There’s also the idea of putting it all together, after it’s all wrapped up, and making an “enhanced version,” of it and offering it at the minimum price on Kindle (a buck) while still offering each piece for free on my website.

I’m still building the concept for the story and the logistics of how I could make such a thing possible, with what time-frame, ect. What I can say is that I’d likely see it as the means to bring the character of Alec Rho back and to tell his story in a more proper way than he ever had before.

For those unfamiliar with Alec Rho, likely all of you, his original story was about how he was a normal, every day guy who gained the ability to see and interact with Angels and Demons. From there, his life is stripped away from him as he is pursued not only by the Demons that fear being exposed by him, but also by an FBI agent who is trying to find the truth behind Rho and his seemingly otherworldly abilities while maintaining the law.

Alec’s tale was one I had written my first novel on, but due to my inexperience at the time, it didn’t meet my quality standards so I mothballed the entire thing. The idea of using a serialized piece as a method to rewrite and bring his story back has me rather excited since it has been a tale that I’ve never been able to get out of my head.

4) After the serialized piece’s conclusion and possible future post-completion, Under a Falling Sky would be released on the Kindle marketplace. This plan, then, effectively comes across as a serialized piece to catch some people’s attention and be free content for anyone, gets followed-up by short fiction on the Kindle marketplace to try and create a profile for myself there, then concluded by the release of a full-blown novel.

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This plan will be a lot of work and effort. It’s going to require that I apply myself to this harder than I have yet in order to be finished before we’re all old and gray. At the same time, it seems like not only the more logical of approaches, but also the most fulfilling to both current and potentially new readers.

That said, this plan is not entirely concrete yet, especially item #3. The details and planning still need to be smoothed out and fully mapped before I start truly bringing this idea to fruition. At the same time, I am also open to feedback on all of the points discussed here and in every facet.

Think waiting that long for a novel is dumb? Want even more short fiction? Despise the notion of having a premium collection of the serialized work while the story segments are free to read? Cool, let’s discuss it and I’ll hear anyone and everyone out on it.

For now, this is the course I am setting. Until everything is firmly set in stone, as far as the details go, this at least provides me with a rough direction to go in. As always, folks, feel free to leave your thoughts either below, in the comments section on your social site, or drop me an email. For now, I have some details to plan.

Some recent findings.

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I decided a few nights ago to share a poll to my readers in order to see what kind and method of content from me that they’d like to see going forward. The reason for this is simple, I have enough projects on my plate that I crave the chance to do, but I can’t decide on which one to buckle down on. So I took it to the readers to try and help cure me of my predicament.

First off, if you missed the link to the poll that was on my social feeds, it is right here. It’s still open, so if you want to contribute, just click the link and pick an answer.

So what kind of data have I been able to gleam from the results? Actually, there are three separate pieces of info I’ve been able to gather from the results thus far. First, let me detail what votes have been cast and where.

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A – Go for a novel – 3 votes.

B – Pound out short stories and submit them to magazines – 1 vote.

C – Write and assemble a collection of short works and release it on Amazon – 2 votes.

D – Write and release separate short stories, novelettes, ect, on Amazon – 2 votes.

E – Do whatever the hell you want, moron – 3 votes.

Now, these answers have provided some rather interesting pieces of data for me. Let me explain how I’m interpreting this info so you can see where I am coming from.

1) I’ve got 11 votes. While I haven’t been shoving this poll down everyone’s throats, I think this is indicative of a smaller audience. As far as the readers go, this isn’t a bad thing.

To me, however, it means that I should be looking into ways to expand the existing readership and start bringing in a newer crowd. This could include things like promotions, giveaways, ect. Who knows, but it is definitely something for me to think on. This might also tie directly into the next couple of points though, so we’ll see.

2) The magazine option only has one vote. Sure, we haven’t seen a terribly large results base, but this seems rather interesting. Is it that you all would rather see projects from me that are entirely independent from other publications? Do you lot believe my stories and their quality are able to stand up entirely on their own in the Amazon marketplace? Also, could moving independently into the Kindle store create more visibility and increase my readership size? It’s an interesting question.

3) The “Do whatever the hell you want, moron,” option is tied for the lead with the novel approach. This makes me wonder if there really is a preference amongst the readers about what sort of content that is desired. I had almost expected the short fiction or collection options to take the lead, not either a novel or whatever.

While the “whatever you want,” option doesn’t help solve my priorities question, it definitely raises my eyebrow. Does the notion that some viewers want to see a larger, grander effort while others don’t particularly care what they get so long as they get more actually ring true?

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So, do these findings raise my hopes or give me a sense of direction? Yes, in its own way, it does. It gives me hope at the prospect of moving into the independent marketplace, relying more on my own stories and their quality rather than a magazine and the other contributors to help sell it and possibly cast attention my way.

I’ll continue to watch the findings and see what further results or feedback might develop. However, if you want to make your thoughts on these questions heard, feel free to leave either a comment or email discussing your feelings on the matter.

In the meantime, I’m heading back to doing some editing for Guns of Asgard. I know the prospect of further work on that has at least a couple people rather excited, so I figure it’s time to get on with that. Afterward, it’s back to work on Under a Falling Sky. The foot is in the door, so now it’s time to capitalize on that.

State of the Crazy.

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It’s like the State of the Union address, except for the demented thoughts in my head!

In all seriousness, I thought I’d give an update as to what’s going on. It’s been a little while, some things have come up, and I’ve been working on my vanishing act for the last week or so. Needless to say, I owe you guys something.

First off, I’ve been trying to stay busy with the writing, though the day job is kicking my ass six-ways-from-sunday. I’ve been squeezing in my writing during the lunch breaks, but by the time I get home, I wind up crashing on the couch. Trying to fix this, and it should pass come the middle of next week, but it’s hampering me at the moment.

I have, however, not stopped on progress. I’ve actually – just recently – submitted a short story into Fireside Magazine. They ran a Kickstarter for their second quarterly issue – and beyond – but also recently opened to submissions.

Fireside’s been exclusively an invitation-only publication, featuring such writers as Chuck Wendig, Tobias Buckell, Ken Liu, and more. Needless to say, I feel like I’ve thrown myself to the wolves with this one. I wrote this entry with the intention of putting out a great story, but I’m keeping my expectations being picked quite low.

Because of Fireside’s submission guideline, as well, a welcome challenge was created. You see, with eFiction Magazine, the word ceiling is at 10,000 for a short story. With Fireside, however, it’s 4,000. Breaking my normal ceiling and working under the constraint having a limit that was less than half of my prior works was a rather exciting and fun challenge. I even managed to go under their limit, having the story clock in around 3,100 words.

Take that, adversity!

Secondly, are you familiar with King of the Web? Maybe you are, maybe you’re not, but hear me out. It’s essentially a popularity contest with internet personalities. It doesn’t cost anything to participate, but the rewards can be pretty substantial.

TotalBiscuit, one of the largest YouTube gaming commentators – if not the largest – out there, is currently running in King of the Web’s “Battle Royale”. Here’s the thing, he’s running with the intention of donating his entire prize to Charity: Water. C:W, in short, is a charity designed to provide clean water and wells to third-world nations and their people.

TotalBiscuit has a history with C:W, having already managed to raise and donate over $20,000 to them before with his earlier KotW campaign. I’m going to be voting for TB in this Battle Royale – and through him, Charity: Water.

If you want to help chip in with King of the Web, check out his campaign page. As I said before, it’s all free and shouldn’t take you more than a few minutes to setup and vote.

Personally, I’ve followed TB for a number of years and recall listening to him during the first run of Blue Plz! on WoW Radio. Seeing him willing to take on this contest explicitly for charity makes me happy, so I want to continue to support him.

Thirdly, progress for Crimson Sands. The word count is lower than I would have liked to be at, but I’m continuing regardless. Things are accelerating in the story and the characters are being fleshed out, so that helps. Introductions have never been my strong point, so here’s hoping it’s smooth sailing from here.

I am aiming to be sending it off for editing by the end of the year, so that’s my deadline that I’m sticking to. That means completing the first draft, getting some beta input, going over and fixing as many grammatical mistakes as I can find, ect.

Ideally, I’d love to be able to publicly release Crimson Sands next year alongside Under a Falling Sky, my planned NaNoWriMo novel. Let’s face it, it pays to come out of the gate swinging.

Fourthly, I’ve been having a slightly awkward moment when dealing with my social media feeds. It used to be that, back when I got started with writing seriously, I was actively searching for publications and magazines to try and submit to. Now, after having submitted to eFiction for some time and just having recently submitted to Fireside, it’s changed.

I’ve now noticed some publications and magazines seem to search for me. I now see multiple magazines and publications find and follow me. Just today I got followed by World Weaver Press over on twitter. Hell, I found out about Fireside Magazine simply because they followed me on twitter. There’s been a few more, but it’s giving me a strange feeling.

Oh the times, how they are changing.

Anyways, I’ll keep busy with the multitude of projects I have to work on for the moment. I’ll also keep you all as informed as I can – within reason, of course.

Now where did I put my straight-jacket …

 

The results are in …

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That’s right, the results of the vote for my next short story – one that will be available for free download from here – are in. What did they show me?

That I have an extremely silent readership.

All told, I received two votes: one from one of my most loyal of readers, and the other from one of my bloody co-workers. To say that I’d wished for a larger voting audience would be true, but there also used to be days when I’d have no one that would vote at all. With that in mind, I’m still happy with the outcome.

So what is the outcome, you wonder?

  1. Science Fiction: 1 vote.
  2. Western: 1 vote.

So,  a tie between some more SciFi and a Western. What does this mean? It means we’re gonna have another short story that takes place in the Dark Stars universe.

What do I mean by “another short story” from Dark Stars? Nobody’s heard that title before, so surely I must be blowing smoke out my bung hole, right?

Wrong.

You see, I actually created the blueprints and foundations for an entire Science Fiction universe that I could tell any number of stories in. My own sandbox, if you will. I planned for aliens, corporations, rural colonies in fringe worlds, ect. I then also wrote a short story that took place in this universe, one that I hope you’re all familiar with. Its name was Dawnstar.

That’s right, folks. Dawnstar wasn’t simply some little one-off short story that I popped out of nowhere (well it was, but hush), it was part of a much larger universe that I have in mind and notes. Here, with this new short story that will soon begin construction and formulation, we’ll see more of it. Where does the Western part come in? Well, you’ve only seen a tiny part of the Dark Stars universe so far.

So what process will this story undertake? Well, I’m currently planning and mapping out the idea of the story. I’ve got a couple concepts in mind, just deciding what to do with it. After that comes the writing part (obviously), followed by getting it cleaned up. Now what will the “cleaning up” entail? Well, hopefully it will entail a beta reader or two, and/or some time in a workshop. Don’t want to host some raw hunk of space-turd now do we?

Now I’m pretty sure that, if you’re still reading, the question that’s likely on your mind is this: “How will we get to read it?”

The answer is pretty simple. I’ve established a Box account, which is now currently hosting a .zip containing multiple formats (PDF, mobi, and epub) of “A Call to Arms”, a collection of my poetry along with some extras. With this, I’ll be providing downloads to the story in multiple formats (again: PDF, mobi, and epub). I’ll also be changing a couple pages of the website so that the “Poetry” tab will be changed to also have a link to said story, posted – in full – here on the website.

This story, along with the poetry collection, will all fall under Creative Commons. That, in layman’s terms, will mean you can download it, share it, print it out and use it as toilet paper, whatever. You can do all of that for free, with only the small request that (if you do share it) you provide either credit to my name or a link to this website. Seriously folks, it won’t be that bloody hard; it’s not like I’m charging you or anything.

So there you have it, folks! Completed contests, new stories on the horizon, and (hopefully) good times to be had by all.