It's Alive!

Zegin's Infection is on Amazon

It's finally published!  Zegin's Infection is now a real eBook on Amazon.  This is my first self published eBook and will be the beginning of many more.  But it's not the end of the blog postings.  Now that I've revealed how much I've invested I'm going to be posting how many sales I get.  Since this is a short story (33 pages) it's only selling for $.99.  However it serves multiple purposes:

• I gathered an education on the whole process from beginning to publishing.
• I now have a pretty good idea of the cost and effort required to have a quality book published.
• It introduces me and my fiction writing to a new market, thus getting my name and style out there.
• It opens the door for more Zegin's Adventures stories.
• And by the time I get my full length book done, I hope to have an established fan base.

And let's not forget that I get to blog about the ongoing process as well. ;)

I will say the formatting and submission process was a significant education.  I'm pretty geeky when it comes to the use of computers and software.  But there were some frustrating moments when I just couldn't get it right with Microsoft Word.  Seems I was taking a step backward when I copied from Scrivener to Word and thus saved as HTML.  I learned if I just keep everything in Scrivener and save into eBook format for Kindle, it's a much smoother process.  I'll soon be discussing this whole process via this blog in the near future.

I'm keeping it short and sweet for this posting.  Being the proud author of my first Amazon release, I have to give myself a blatant plug:

Check out Zegin's Infection!  It's only .99 cents, it's a cool sci-fi technology story, and it includes a bonus short story called Jezi's Delima.  You can't go wrong for only a buck!  All you have to do is click here.

[Set blatant plug off]

I would love to hear any feedback.  It's okay. I can take it!  No, really, I can.  And if you're itching to write a review and submit it to Amazon - I'll be eternally grateful.

Check back in a few days and I'll give you all an update on my social marketing statistics and how the new book is doing.

Keep reading and writing!

We Have Ignition!

The Submit Button

I just hit the submit button less than 15 minutes ago!  Whew.  What a journey this has been.  The past week has been full of formatting and layout for the final submission up to Amazon.  If there's one single most important thing that I learned this week that is worth sharing - it's "Be sure to set up your Styles in MS Word before doing anything."  There's a great thread on the Amazon KDP Support forum for this.  It was a little hard to read through (and I'm tempted to re-write it to make it easier to follow) but it was well worth the effort.

If I consider the end of the Edmonds Writers' Conference as the beginning of my goal of getting this story published, I'm looking at 4 months of activity.  It has been a great education and it has given me a lot of confidence in the process.  But it doesn't end here.  I can't just sit back and wait for the royalties to pour in.  It just doesn't work that way.  Now comes the promotion (without nagging and spamming), completion of the next Zegin story, and the ongoing writing of the full length novel.  The work is just beginning!

Zegin's Infection Audience?

Someone asked me recently who my target audience was.  That question really made me take a long pause.  Basically, science fiction is the easy answer.  Some would call it hard sci-fi since I try to deal with technologies that are feasible.  More toward the Star Trekish side of science fiction.  I love Star Wars too.  But, I'm not one for delving into fantasy type forces as a writer.  While my stories deal with a lot of technology, I'm very sensitive to not detracting from the characters.  I feel that if the technology gets in the way of the reader trying to relate to the characters then I've failed.  There are two books that I recommend for describing how to do this:
- The Craft of Writing Science Fiction that Sells, by Ben Bova
- Characters & Viewpoint, by Orson Scott Card

Thus, the audience?  Technology sci-fi with strong characters and story lines.

Waiting

So, now I wait for the conversion and publishing process to be completed.  One of two things is going to happen.  One - I'll like the result and will start promotions.  Two - The layout will stink and I'll go back and re-do it.  I guess I won't know for another 12 hours.  Humm, that would put me at around 4am.  You might see me tweet around that time. ;)

Socializing Progress

Here are the latest figures for this milestone event:

Klout Score: 50 (+1)
TT.com Page Loads for the past month: 1276 (+35)
Twitter Followers: 1217 (+148)
G+ Peeps Following: 360 (+46)

These are good numbers for this week.  That extra Klout point was a tough one.  But I feel that it was a good hurdle to jump.  Twitter is making a nice climb.  Page loads are pretty steady.  And Google Plus is taking a nice jump.

Most likely I'll be blogging again in the next couple days to discuss what is happening with the story release.  Thanks to everyone who has provided me with feedback about my very open discussion of my progress.  If anything, I hope it'll help others who are wanting to make the jump.

Keep writing.  Check back soon!