Shades: the Reboot of an Ebook

Over a year and a half ago I released my collection of short stories as an ebook under the title SHADES: Sixteen Startling Stories

Here's the original cover:

I designed the cover myself and thought it was serviceable, but not really eye catching. After all this time, I decided I'd revamp the book with a brand new look. Here's the cover by artist Carl Graves:

It's a far more powerful cover. The character on the front reminds me of the woman in the short story titled Fairytale. And, as you can see, I've changed the subtitle to: Tales of Fear and Wonder. I find that a more interesting subtitle.

So this is the official reboot of the book! Let's see if it grows new wings, or legs, or...whatever it is that books grow.

It's available now on Amazon, Amazon UK, iBooks, Nook, and Kobo.

Cheers,

Art

The Island of Doom is released to the American Colonies!

Here Ye! Here Ye! The United States of America (formally known as that place with all those colonies and such) has just opened its gates and its ports and its mailboxes to the fourth and final novel in The Hunchback Assignments series: The Island of Doom!* Yes, that's my long winded way of saying that today is the official release day of the novel in America. Here's the cover:

"IS that the Island of DOOOOOOOM?"

Here's the official description: After previous assignments in London, the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, and the Australian rain forest, this final adventure in the Hunchback Assignments series finds our hero, shape-shifting, masked spy Modo, on his most personal quest. Along with fellow spy Octavia Milkweed, they search for Modo's biological parents. But when the Clockwork Guild find Modo's parents first, Octavia and Modo chase them across Europe and North America to the Island of Doom. Joined by memorable characters from the first three books--some loveable, and some who are terrifying and evil--Modo and Octavia dash towards a thrilling conclusion.

Here are the accolades. Err, well accolade (this is the only review so far--ahem--of course the book is only a day old): "By turns touching and pulse-pounding, this conclusion will leave fans fully satisfied." Kirkus Reviews

And here's what all the books look like together. One big happy family!

It is so very odd to be done this series. What will I do with my time now? And all my steampunk outfits? I'll figure out something.

I'm very proud of how the whole story turned out. And--sniff--and now they're all grown up and out there in the world. Have fun with them America! Watch out for Hakkandottir!

Best,

Art

P.S. Yes, the series is over. It's done. Sorry that it had to end. I won't be writing another one, alas...well, then again I did have this idea of putting Modo in the wild west and....hmmm

*Island of Doom should always be said in a loud voice so as to attract the most attention possible. And please carry the vowel sound in doom. Like this: "ISLAND OF DOOOOOOOOOOOOM!" Also, set off a few firecrackers and maybe a roman candle or a blunderbuss. That'll really add to the overall impression.

Gazillions sold: 1 1/2 years of peddling eBooks

First, let me define gazillions. It is not as high as a bizillion. And yet not as low as umpteen. There, now that we have that out o' the way, here are my latest stupendously interesting eBook sales findings.

You may or may not remember that my last posting was at the one year mark where I was basking in the glow of selling 1785 books in a month. Here it that post: click these highlighted words and be amazed.

A lot has changed since those heady days. In fact sales have slowed to a factor of umpteen dozen. Here are the books I have for sale (with clickable links because, well, we live in a highly clickable world):

 

Aren't they pretty? Don't they just say purchase me and save the universe? Anyway, things have gone downhill since my last update. This can be illustrated in a very fancy chart:

Okay, first thing to notice is that nearly 8000 books have sold since I started this experiment. That's a big Woo Hoo! Second thing to notice is that those little columns that represent monthly sales are getting smaller and smaller (that's a big sniff sniff). September of 2011 and January of 2012 are my two biggest sales months. The reason for that is I used the "free" method. That's where I'd give away a book for free on Kindle. Then when I switched it back to "paid" status it would rocket up the charts (DUST made up most of these sales...it's the blue colour in the columns). Alas, that "free" method is mostly dead. Due to several changes in Amazon's algorithms books don't tend to get the same bounce after being free. It may be helpful if you have a very specific genre novel that has the name Shades of Grey Throney Games, but otherwise the free method is not so helpful. Also it used to be if you sold a .99 cent book or a 9.99 cent book they "weighed" the same on the charts. But now the higher priced books get a higher placing on the charts. So it's not just numbers sold but it's the price of books that makes a difference in where you end up in the rankings. Why not price all my books at 9.99? Well, because then there aren't as many sales. I'm still trying to find that happy medium.

Hey speaking of sales, here's what they were for the last six months:

Wow, there is a downward trend. Part of that is timing. People buy more books in the Fall, not so many in the Spring and Summer. So I do expect sales to pick up starting this month. And generally I'm making about $200-300 a month from books that were out of print or weren't being sold in foreign markets. Since I make the majority of my income from my traditionally published books this eBook income is still a nice stipend to receive every month. And I don't seem to have to do that much more work to get that $. Someday I hope to do no work and receive trunkloads of money, but that's not happened to me yet.

So, there's my update. Live long and prosper, everyone. Or is it party hard and prosper? Hmmm.

 Art

P.S. I've also gone back into the vaults and released two of my unpublished novels. But since they were written for a "grown up" audience (swearing, sex, and well... gore) I decided to put them out under the name Stephen Shea. I published them totally to satisfy my own curiosity about how these novels would be received by an audience that didn't know me. I have touched them up a bit, but tried to keep them as true as possible to the writer I was back then.

Damage was written in my Stephen King phase. Much later I took the frame of the story and turned it into Draugr.

And The Not So Simple Life was written during my Tai Chi/Martial Arts/Comedy stage. Doesn't everyone have one of those stages?

Anyway, I have been having fun with the books. And I was particularly pleased that Not So Simple Life has received a few great reviews. From people I've never met before and they aren't even related to me!