Thursday, October 25, 2012

Reviews & Ratings


I really appreciate all of you that have taken the time to leave ratings or reviews.  The iTunes users seem to be way in the lead with more than 350 reviews of Broken so far, but Kobo seems to have 200+ with a bunch imported from Goodreads :)

If any of you that are reading this haven’t done a rating or a review of one or two of my books, it would really mean a lot to me if you could take five minutes and do a review/rating or two.  Going into the Christmas season it could make a difference as far as how many readers decide to take a chance on a very unknown author like me as they start filling up their new e-readers, tablets and smartphones.

Here’s links to my author page on some of the retailers where significant numbers of books have sold:


Thanks again everyone.  I know that life can get pretty busy so I really appreciate all of you that have taken, or are taking, time to do this now.

--Dean

Saturday, October 20, 2012

October Status Update & Cover Reveals:


Wow, by the time that this goes live another three weeks will have gone by since the last blog post.  I’m putting off my Dropbox/Sugarsynch post because frankly most of you probably couldn’t care less and I haven’t had time to write it. I will eventually put a brief bit up there though because I a few of you might read it and decide it was useful information after all.  If I can save a couple people from a meltdown when their hard drives fail, that’s a worthwhile thing to do.

New Cover:
Since the last time we talked, Katie came up with a new cover for Frozen Prospects.



The original e-book cover we had done isn’t high enough resolution to do a print edition and I wasn’t able to get a response back from the original cover artist, so Katie whipped (because it’s that easy right ;) up another version, which I actually like better.  I think it’s a bit harder and more realistic than the original one and I like the sword better :)  You’re getting the full print, wraparound cover here which reminds me that I need to find a few hours to finish up the work still outstanding for the Frozen Prospects and Thawed Fortunes print editions.  I had to start back over for a few different reasons and they just haven’t been as high of a priority as getting new material written and edited.  I’m still hoping that I can squeeze them in before Christmas, but I expect that you’ll all have your shopping done by the time they finally go live.

Next Book:
The Reflections book that I’ll be releasing under a pen name is back from the editor and I’ve been trying to squeeze it in little by little at the end of the day once I’ve hit my word count goals.  It’s still a little ways off, but it's getting very close!

Lone Wolf:
Lone Wolf has a final name (Trapped) and it’s now off to an editor.  You’ll all be glad to know that despite Katie not being overly enthused about the original concept she’s now read the rough draft and she thinks that it’s a great addition to the universe.  Not only are the characters pretty cool, and the plot sprinkled with plenty of action and romance, I went back and filled in a few more tidbits about the shape shifter lore and legend.  I suspect that there are some of you out there not planning on picking this one up because it’s not directly about Alec and Adri.  All I can say is please at least go download a sample when it goes live.  I think it’s some of my best writing yet and it sets the stage for the next Alec and Adri book in some pretty fundamental ways.  When all was said and done, I went back and added another 10% or so to Trapped.  The scene that I was on the fence about went in and I juiced up a pretty important fight scene.


Broken Audio:
The audio book version of Broken is now live:

Every time I write a bit of dialogue for Dominic I now hear the narrator, Sandy Rustin’s, rendition of Dom's accent!

That’s the last of the audio books that are currently on the to-do list.  I’m sorry for those of you that really love audio books.  They are a huge investment compared to the return so far.  As they continue to sell I’ll happily revisit the decision :).

Pick it up from:
Amazon (US)
Audible
iTunes

Frozen Prospects Push:
 A few weeks ago I contacted a bunch of sites that feature free books.  The hope was that it would bring in some more readers and help make the release of Guadel Chronicles #3 even more of an event.  It’s worked, not as well as I’d hoped, but every little bit helps.  Those of you who haven’t tried The Guadel Chronicles out ought to go download it and see what you think.

The Next Alec and Adri Book:
As of Oct 18th when I’m revising this, I’ve completed just under 94,000 words over the course of 17 working days (20 calender days) and the rough draft is officially done! I have to say that I’m very pleased with how this one came together.  There are a lot of ‘breadcrumbs’ scattered throughout this one as far as important things, people, and events that will be happening later on in the Reflections universe.  I’d like to go on and on right here but I’d better stop.  Let’s just say that I really, really hope that this one blows everyone away.  We’ll see what Katie says, but I think that my writing has noticeably improved with this one and Guadel #3.

As always, thanks for all you each do to help spread the word!

--Dean