If you read fantasy for the magic, the world-building, and the occasional moment of dark humor—I write that. One urban fantasy series, one epic fantasy series, both set in the Fractured Arcana universe, with more coming. My newsletter takes you deeper into the worlds, the characters, and what's next.
Book 3 hype-up coming soon
Click here to read this on the web
Early Happy Birthday, to my little Craft Queen! Just for kicks, I thought I'd try throwing a video in the email, to see how well (or badly) it works. Since the video is almost pitch dark, I must explain - I was carting fifteen elevenish-year-old girls in the back of a truck, to look at neighborhood Halloween lights, celebrating my youngest daughter's birthday, and they broke out in Christmas carols. I enjoyed the insanity (as, I hope, my neighbors did).
Writing Updates
While a lot went on this week, I don't feel like I have much to report out. I added the pics to Book 1, the ones ya'll have been providing feedback on. I think the end results looks good, though I'm starting to think my print formatting is slightly off (1/4 inch), so I'm thinking of one more revisit to the format. The Barnes and Noble upload restricted the file size on print! So I had to downgrade the image quality. I thought that odd, since the Nook version lets you do whatever you want. So we can have massive downloads, but a one-time upload for good print quality is too much? 🤷♂️
I also watched a webinar on best uses of GoodReads, and I'm going to attempt to apply what I learned with the release of Book 3. Soooo, I set the release date of Book 3 to Dec 25th. The sketchiest part of that is, ironically, the sketches. They're falling behind. "Final" edit of Book 3 is underway (and don't worry, for those who haven't sent feedback on the early read yet, spot-check re-editing after I munge things is fine). Anywho, my point was that I set a release date on Amazon, and I'll start a GoodReads Giveaway about a month before, so roughly the end of Nov. Not sure if it'll be kindle or paperback or a little of both... trying to understand the tradeoff. Here's my vague plan:
- Start GoodReads Giveaway around Nov 25th (30 day Giveaway)
- Do "all the things" (as kids say today) - Notes on FB, IG, the Tweety thing... to advertise.
- Have a book tour through ByTheBook VBP. I'll have to cut some ARC copies of the book and send them out. But I hope those reviews will land during the GoodReads Giveaway, so that I can use them for more publicity.
- The Audiobook release of Book 1 should finish in that window. Exciting in its own right for me, but hopefully the timing of its release compounds the advertising effect.
o To-Do list for writing last week:
Email updates- Work with editor on Book 3
- Submit 2/2 remaining pictures for Book 3. It probably won't happen this week - work has piled up on the artist's side, and they're just not ready. Good problem for them!
- Incorporate Book 3 feedback as it comes in
Put pics in Book 1 and re-release - lots of button-clicking and staring at details. Oh, and this is stupid - I didn't realize that the kindle version actually allows you to click on links. 🤦♂️ I need to go back and update the end of Book 1 to point to Book 2. Does the narrator read that aloud? 😬 I've never noticed. "Aiche Tee Tee Pee Colon Backslash Backslash ... "
o To-Do list for writing this week:
- Email updates
- Continued work with editor on Book 3
- Still submit the 2/2 remaining pictures for Book 3. Again, waiting on the artist now, not me.
- Incorporate Book 3 feedback as it comes in
- Check on formatting of print copies of Books (1/4" off?)
- Write Blurb for Book 3 (and rewrite the Blurb for Book 2)
- Looks like the back cover for Book 1 is wrong on B&N - has an old version. Fix that.
Previous Newsletters
- Losing Faith, a Calyx Twins Story - 10/26/2021 📜 Losing Faith, a Calyx Twins Story.pdf
- New pics for Book 1 - 10/19/2021
- Happy Birthday, Middle Egg - 10/12/2021
- Age Before Duty -10/05/2021 📜 Age-Before-Duty.pdf
- Grundle's Hope - 9/28/2021 📜 Grundle's-Hope.pdf
Steven J Morris
If you read fantasy for the magic, the world-building, and the occasional moment of dark humor—I write that. One urban fantasy series, one epic fantasy series, both set in the Fractured Arcana universe, with more coming. My newsletter takes you deeper into the worlds, the characters, and what's next.
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