Thirty Days of Drabbles: Update

Still have four slots to fill folks.

1. aberranteyes: A minor AMoS character is actually an IN celestial.
2. ankewehner: I'd be interested in something about the dragon states, or the dragons.
3. scarfman: A Doctor Who/Girl Genius crossover.
4. chewipaka: Finding a babysitter in a post-apocalyptic world.
5. akaihyo: A swordfight between two rivals in an exotic locale.
6. seawasp: Daleks. Because everything's better with Daleks.
drakemagi: Novalis surprising Dominic with a redemption candidate who is ASKING for Judgement.
8. The Doctor wakes from a pleasant dream about any former companion.
9. sraun: The jaegers discover GURPS.
10. Mark Vorkosigan hires Agatha Heterodyne to build a special piece of equipment.
11. lilfluff: One of Tez's great-great-grandchildren seeks him out.
12. avanti_90: Aral Vorkosigan meets River Song. (EPIC FAIL)
13. drakemagi: Airwolf meets Dr. Who! Specifically, Dominic meets the Doctor.
14. mmegaera: Pym's point of view on Miles Vorkosigan's courtship of Ekaterin.
15. mjkj: Something concerning the Red Vixen
16. The Ferin manning a space-ship to seek out a planet for them
17. A continuation of the Dragon's companion
18. The Terinu crew ending up in another alt.universe
19. A continuation with Nan and Nez at the First One's sanctuary.
20. avanti_90: Daleks invading Barrayar.
21. allah_sulu: Something in the Yamatoverse.
22. chaypeta: Skyler's first flying lesson.
23. avanti_90: Starting a war for a very stupid reason.
24. chaypeta: An aurora borealis display has an unexpected effect on one of Tez's schemes."
25. Mark Vorkosaigan plans the perfect birthday surprise for Kareen and is having a hard time trying to hide it from her.
26. Nan runs into conflict on a trip to a human dominated world when she tries to do something nice for Terinu without his knowledge.
27.
28.
29.
30.

Smashwords: Sales Breakdown and Analysis

Just got a notice in my email letting me know that Smashwords has transferred my sales profits for this quarter to my Paypal account to the tune of $49. That means since starting this publishing venture at Smashwords at the beginning of the year I've made more money so far than I ever did at my dead tree site at Lulu.com. I strongly suspect the latter are looking at their business plan and wishing Amazon and their Kindle had never existed.


Conclusions so far:

1. I'm not surprised to find that Unexpected Diversions has been my most consistent seller. For one thing it's got the most professional looking cover, its length is significant compared to its cost, and as always Elfporn Sells. I'm a little more surprised by the profitability of The Dragon's Companion, but given that it's a compilation of three other stories, maybe people look at it and think "Bargain!" even though they weren't attracted to the individual stories before.

2. Kobo was a significant source of profit for my shorter stories. Hopefully the slack from its loss will be taken up by Barnes & Noble, my next biggest source of sales outside of Smashwords, but I'm not counting on it.

Edit: Rumors of Kobo's demise are apparently exaggerated. Nevermind.

3. Sony and Apple sales so far have been anemic.

4. Sales of Demon Eyes have been in the toilet, despite the nice cover by Wazzy. I'm not sure of the reason behind that. POW I'm less surprised by. The current cover is awful and the subject matter (furry erotica) is a little esoteric even by Smashwords standards.

5. I really need to get something new up soon. The last thing I published was back in April, which is far too long. I'm going to have to kick myself out of my funk and do some editing on Triumvirate with an eye getting it published before the end of September.

6. If I'm ever tempted to buy another ISBN from Smashwords, I'll be sure to punch myself in the head until I get over it.

7. The elephant in the room is going to be Amazon. Once Smashwords delivers my stuff to their Kindle store, I think the results are going to be significant. How significant is anyone's guess. There's an awful lot of choice there already and I may just be lost in the crowd. The question is whether I can get one or two sales there to start with and positive reviews to stir the waters a bit.


Problems for the Future

1. Cover Art. First impressions are everything and I need good cover art to make it. Unfortunately my own artistic and Photoshopping skills are terrible and given the sales on even my top selling items, I can't afford professional work. I might be able to trade art for prose with other artists like I did Wazaga, but I can't count on it.

2. Self-Promotion. I really suck at this and I don't know how to go about it without feeling like... well, a self-promoting ass. Nobody likes having commercials stuck in their face and the lower key stuff I've been doing like advertising on LJ and Facebook when I put something new out hasn't really been that effective. I might try and hit a Readercon or something similar to try and do a reading there. Other than that I'm at a loss.


In Summary: The Long Tail keeps growing...




( Breaking down the numbers behind the cut )

My tweets

• Sat, 16:02: Thirty Days of Drabbles - Day Twenty-One http://j.mp/oYuJJi
• Sun, 04:23: Thirty Days of Drabbles: Update http://j.mp/ncLNKc
• Sun, 04:46: Just got my first payment from Smashwords to the tune of $49! Go me!
• Sun, 06:56: Smashwords: Sales Breakdown and Analysis http://j.mp/qts1kC

Thirty Days of Drabbles - Day Twenty-Two

For chaypeta's prompt of "Skyler's first flying lesson"

The instructor hated training Ferin. You could never fault them for laziness, unlike some of the cublings he'd taught, but they just couldn't have the hunter's instinct that a true fighter pilot required. "All right, Cadet," he greeted laconically. "You go by a name or do I have to say 'Hey you' twenty times a session?"

"I'm Cadet Skyler, sir!" the purple haired Ferin said brightly, snapping off a salute.

"Okay, Skyler. What kind of aircraft are we looking at?"

"It's a Roanwing Aerospace TJ-16 atmospheric trainer, sir! It has two hydrogen fueled turbojets capable of 0.7 Kn thrust each with a maximum sea level speed of 430 kph and a range of 730 kilometers."

"All right, let's see you go through the take off checklist." They climbed aboard the small training craft and strapped in. The instructor listened carefully as Skyler went through the craft's startup procedure. The little grey fellow must have done his homework, for the engines started without so much of a cough of back burning hydrogen and he taxied it flawlessly to the end of the runway. "Very good, Cadet. Now what's the next step?"

Skyler turned his head back to face him briefly and grin. "We punch it!"

About thirty seconds later, once they leveled off, the cadet asked, "Are you all right, sir?"

"Just... revising... my opinion..." he gasped.