Generic writing blog update 23/9/16

It’s been a while since I posted a blog update, and I apologise for that, but things have been quite busy for the Moseleys recently, and not just because we’ve all been playing “No Man’s Sky” since it came out.

My eldest son has just started secondary school and because of his ASD this has been a bit of a thing for the last few weeks. He’s been adjusting well, but it’s still a strain for him. He’s not entirely happy with things like being streamed into sets, as it means he is not having the same teachers every week, yet. Also he’s travelling for an hour to get to school and back each day, which is a bit of a strain on his parents with earlier starts for us all.

Meanwhile, I’ve been working on a first draft for a couple of new books, Cyberpixies and The First Seal, but I’ve now finished the first drafts and need to start working on second drafts.

Unfortunately, my laptop seems to have almost completely died now, it takes it forty minutes to boot up (throwing hardware errors as it goes) and isn’t entirely stable after that. So I’ve got to build myself a PC for editing. My mother-in-law has given me some bits and piece (her old office machines), and I’ve been donated a monitor, or two, by a friend, but I still have a few components to gather together (like cables, keyboards, mouse, and so on), and need to find a space in our tiny house to set one up as a workstation (possibly with a poseable arm so I can work from the sofa, near my reference library).

Sales slump

I, like most Indie authors, have noticed a reduction in book sales over the last few months. So I’m planning to release these coming books mostly for Kindle. I believe Kindle Unlimited is where most Kindle readers are spending their money these days (or using rolling email addresses and free trials to steal from the multinational corporation).
I do have a trickle of downloads of my Free book (Anomaly), but that hasn’t been helping sales of the rest of my books (especially Ironmaster — which is a real shame as I thought it was a lot more commercial than the Paradox Wars, but if it doesn’t get read, it won’t get discovered).
So, I’m going to look at streamlining my future releases to focus ebooks towards Kindle Unlimited, where I’ll at least have a better idea how many readers I actually have out there (and get an idea of their reading habits). I’m not sure if I want to remove ebooks from iTunes, Google, Kobo, and Nook stores, but I see much fewer sales there than Kindle. I may move Ironmaster to Kindle exclusive (possibly serialised with maybe a story per ebook, so I don’t have to remove the original book from other stores). I could also release a Kindle Only Paradox War Omnibus ebook. What would you do? Keep the spread of potential sales points, or focus on Unlimited readers?

I’m also going to look at alternate funding streams to support the buying of computer bits, paying my bank charges, and continuing to write and release books Andy blog posts, so I plan to join Patreon to raise my monthly cash flow between book releases. I do actually have a holding page set up, but need to create a better video before I put the page out there (so to speak). If you are determined you might find it there, but you can always donate me some cash via PayPal, or go and buy one of my books (also available on Amazon).

Meanwhile at the TTN

In other news, I’ve been writing posts over at the Time Travel Nexus, where I’m writing a series called “Popcorn Paradoxes” which are the spiritual successors of my Science in sci-if posts (which I still have to find time to do more of). I’ve written two so far (on Superman and the Back To The Future Flux Capacitor) and there’s a third post (dealing with the rest of the Paradoxes in BTTF trilogy) almost ready to go. Go check out the Nexus for loads of time travel book reviews and news.

What’s next?

I don’t hear anyone asking, but am going to answer anyway.
My world-building T13 game has stalled out a little, but we’re hoping to try next Friday, and get it back on track. The world-building has been going great, and I’m thinking that I might start the first of the post-apocalyptic YA book soon.
I really want to be able to get “Cyberpixies” edited and out for kids to read, and then plan to release the first book of the “With Strange Aeons” Cthriller series, but I’m still waiting for my Beta readers to complete their readings and tell me what is wrong with them.
Speaking (well, typing) of which, if anyone wants to sign up as a Beta Reader and read my first drafts before most people (and while the crazy is very much still in place), please contact (DM) me on Facebook or Twitter and I’ll grant you access via your email address.
I’ve got a few other irons in the fire now, planning direct sequels to the Paradox War series (Paradox Warriors) and to Ironmaster and Other Tales, so if you want to get early access to those when they happen, then let me know.
I’ve also got a few short stories that I want to get on this site, and if I can get a PC running maybe a short story collection on Kindle in the near future.

Let me know what you think about it all in the comments or on social media.
Meanwhile, I’ve got work to do…