Monday, January 6, 2014

InGenre--Interview/book review of Planet Janitor

Couldn't resist this plug. Hope I don't bore you. I hate self-promo on a blog, but sometimes it helps out. Joe Konrath, I am not so there won't be dozens of book listings!

Strangely enough, this spotlight article is almost a year late! The owner/reviewer apologized for the tardiness of the article and review, mentioning unforeseen problems. Alas, it was a welcome New Years gift to my way of thinking since I'd completely forgotten about it. Oh, well, check it out if you'd like.
Real nice combo book review/interview at InGenre:

Space Faring Janitors Have All the Fun

http://ingenre.com/


Space Faring Janitors Have All the Fun

PJ Front_Cov
Captain Zachary Crowe and his crew deem themselves custodians of the stars. Their job: to clean up in the wake of natural disasters and human catastrophes on planets throughout the galaxy. Until now… Now they’ve been hired by Orion Industries to travel to a planet far, far away, in order to prepare it for human colonization. When they arrive, they discover a dangerous world. The climate is hostile, as is some of the wildlife. Meanwhile, the crew works to not only survive but to do the job they were hired to do while they wait for the first Orion ships to arrive.
Planet Janitor: Custodian of the Stars is a science fiction novel that includes humor, plenty of action, and a lot of heart. It also compares what a responsible colonizing species would do to that of a destructive conquering species. Someday soon, we will have the technology to travel to other planets. Before that day arrives, we should all begin asking some important questions: Can we colonize without disturbing the natural order of another evolving planet? How can we leave small footprints when we tread among the stars?
Author Chris Stevenson is here with us to answer some of those questions:
S. L. Wallace: Hello, and welcome to InGenre. Do you think humans will have answered some of these big questions before we are capable of traveling to and colonizing other planets?
Chris Stevenson: Thanks for having me! If NASA and the government don’t throw a blanket over our exploratory findings, we should get a pretty big reveal soon about life on other solar system bodies. The Disclosure Project is in full swing as we speak, headed by Dr. Steven Greer (check out YouTube). That’s deep planetary stuff, though. Our own planet and orbital satellite corridors are in need of some serious cleanup before we go gallivanting off into space. We have something on the order of 10,000 pieces of junk just outside our atmosphere that need to be rounded up and contained somehow. Otherwise, it’s a hazard to navigation, coming or going.
Wallace: You describe a lot of future technology in your novel. Did you have to do much research in order to prepare yourself for writing those descriptions? How did you make the technology believable?
Stevenson: By reading a lot of science fiction and spending hours and hours on YouTube videos, digesting science theories, systems, and basic physics. My space prep, flight, and propulsion system is within our technical grasp at the present, or very near future. The nuclear bang pod drive is doable—it’s been proposed to catch huge sails and power craft to the stars. I didn’t use the ion or warp drive for this book. Star Trek or Wars, this ain’t. It’s a gritty space adventure, so I went with what we now have in our tech manuals for relatively short hops, so to speak.
Wallace: If you could travel throughout the galaxy, would you? Why or why not? Where would you like to go? What would you most like to see?
Stevenson: I’d like to head out 39 light years from here via an anti-matter propulsion drive and check out the third, fourth, and fifth planets orbiting Zeta Reticuli 2. I have a message for the greys: Land on the White House lawn and stop mutilating our cattle. I’d go in a heartbeat, yes.
Wallace: Captain Zachary Crowe (Zaz) and his crew each have unique habits and characteristics. How did you come up with your characters, including their flaws and their strengths?
Stevenson: I thought of the most diverse characters I could think of, those who were the most unlikely planetary spacefarers, yet intelligent and competent in their own rights. The giant, the prostitute, the reckless munitions officer, a dumb robot, the cute scientist, the old and insufferable professors, the captain Boy Scout and the matronly navigation officer. Kind of a Journey to the Center of the Earth ensemble, if you remember Vern’s original version. I took some nasty hits for stereotyping, or going over the top. I dunno, they had to be different and recognizable. Diversity, that’s what I was after.
Wallace: You have written both non-fiction and fiction, including novels, short stories, and newspaper articles. Is there a specific genre or type of writing that you prefer over all others?
PJ short storyPJ short story 2
Stevenson: It would have to be fiction and I might say dystopian. However, I’ve had buckets of success with my three YA titles lately, especially the last two that have gone on to tiny bidding wars, grand prize wins, and film option negotiation. I do love my science, and I just finished a book for young readers, ages 5 to 9, about the wonders of the La Brea Tar pits.
Wallace: I wish you much success with all of your titles. Thank you so much for joining us here today.
Stevenson: My pleasure entirely and thank you whole-heartedly for the wonderful read, comments, editorial help, and the interview.
Contact Links for Readers:
Official Author Website
Blog (Guerrilla Warfare For Writers)
Planet Janitor Website with Artwork
The War Gate, a paranormal thriller on Amazon
WAR GATE COVER

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Social Media in 2014

Well happy New Year to everyone. Hope you're getting all your ducks in a row. I'm talking about book sales and social media, primarily. From all indications it looks like it's going to be a tougher nut to crack than last year. I say that because, as I write/speak, thousands of more books are entering the marketplace, and those books are coming from the self-publishing sector. They'll continue to come. There's nothing wrong with that, only it will make visibility that much more difficult for all of us. For once, Joe Konrath has agreed with me on one point that I predicted, as evidenced by words in his blog post below:

"5. Visibility will become harder. As more ebooks get published, and virtual shelf space expands, it is going to become harder to find eyeballs. Ebooks aren't a competition--readers buy what they want to, without limits, even if TBR piles become impossible to ever finish within a lifetime. So someone who buys my ebook will also buy yours; there is no either/or. But only if the reader is aware of both."

You can read the whole post here (It's the second one down):

 http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/

I predicted a bubble burst in self-publishing back in one of my later posts, but I'll have to redefine that as more of a stagnation or stall in sales. I'm seeing evidence of that all over the Kindle Boards, with the exception of some old timers who seem to be holding their own. I can't really tell you what works and will work in the future other than the standard updates on your blog, website, FB and Twitter. Goodreads and Librarything seems a pretty safe bet as far as interacting and tossing the word out. Book Blogs seems to be dead for me as far as sales. I interact like crazy with all of my writing groups, but this doesn't seem to have much of an effect. My sales have been stagnant for about the last five months. Others are reporting the same situation.

I can tell you, that from some long and serious investigation, that if you have a huge extended family--relatives, lots of friends and a huge employee pool at your place of work, that if you send out notices to all in sundry, your chances of hitting the top 100 bestseller's genre or category on Amazon are extremely good. This type of algorithm of great sales ranks will draw the curious in and boost sales even more. I think this initial friends/family/co-worker push is the most important tactic you can use to up your sales chances. I know this because I've asked dozens of writers. I've confirmed this because I have no extended family and no place of work. My friend list is confined to online contacts. My entire family is nearly deceased except for some cousins, nieces and nephews. I'm a sole survivor of my family name. So, in essence, if you have this type of personal crowd support, dear Gawd, take advantage of it right away and ask those persons to blog you, re-Tweet you, announce you and spread the word to keep up the momentum. The longer you stay in the top 100, the more exposure you'll pull which may translate to sales. Everybody likes a winner.

I'm experimenting with visiting all the YouTube videos I can at the moment. These YouTube videos are all in my space, science, ufo and physics area of study. They all tie into my science fiction book in some form or another. I truly love these topics and comment on them so frequently that I'm sure I'm becoming known as some type of guru or something. What I've done with each comment is add my own personal signature at the end of the comment. It looks like this:  Chris Stevenson, author--Planet Janitor; Custodian of the Stars.

I just started doing this and I'm getting a lot of comments back. Now whether this might translate into sales, I'm not sure. I don't leave a link to the book. Hell, they can Google the SOB. I don't really want to come off as a spammer, and I'm taking a chance as it is by doing this. You might try it and see what happens. What's your area of interest that ties in with your book? Research that and jump into the conversations on the YouTubes. Don't spam. Get involved. Watch dozens, and sig dozens. Of course, this also applies to any writing group you're in. Jump into your genre thread and have at it. Link in your sig line if you have that feature in your group. Start joining new groups and introduce yourself. Find your pet threads and get involved. 

I can't advise you to spend money on ads, whether they're banner ads, hard-copy magazine ads or whatever. A lot of you are doing it--some are met with success, some are breaking even and many are losing their asses. I've never spent money on ads. It's too risky, IMO. I stopped physical book signings years ago. It doesn't pay unless you have that all important family, friend, relative, co-worker support group who will turn out in droves and make the event worthwhile. I'm serious. And y

You'd better announce your book release beforehand. Start your marketing and promotion campaign three months before your book release. Put out blurbs, teasers and excerpts all over the place. Put a couple chapters up, no more than 10 percent of your book text total, on Wadpad and Booksie and see what happens. Do a countdown on Twitter, your blog and FB. Entice your audience. Go for the big reviews. Failing that, go for the smaller review sites. Offer to guest blog with your peers, with the provision you can link and plug your book.

Good luck. If you have any ideas that are working for you, I'd like to hear them. Share with the other readers and subscribers. We just might hit on something that will work for 2014!