Here's an exclusive patron-only sneak peek at the cover of Broken Council, Book 10 of the System Apocalypse series! How do you like the cover?
Broken Council will be released on February 1st. Just a few short weeks away! We expect it to be up for pre-order around January 18th, so keep an eye out for details.
2021-01-06 18:01:01 +0000 UTC View PostBook 7 of Adventures on Brad series.
Updates on Tuesdays & Saturdays.
*schedule is subject to change*
Master, Legendary, and Heroic Class:
Advanced Prestige Class:
URL: https://www.mylifemytao.com/?p=3581
Password: THREESkillsGuild!098
2021-01-06 14:10:15 +0000 UTC View PostAlright people, we'll be posting more chapters tomorrow from AoB while I get working on the Second Sect from A Thousand Li. Won't see that one finished anytime soon, but you'll have a bunch of chapters to tide you over before I have ATL 5 ready for you all.
In the meantime, time to vote on the next short story I'll be working on.
No System Apocalypse this time. I've done enough of those shorts.
I'm writing this with a few weeks left to the end of 2020 but I can see the shape of the rest of the year already, so I figure I'll do it now while my brain is shot for other wording.
What can I say about 2020 that hasn't been said?
The Start of the Year
The year started with such hope for me. I had so many big plans. I even managed to get some of them done.
I went to a craft conference (the WMG Anthology Workshop) where I watched and liste...
2020-12-30 21:00:00 +0000 UTC View PostSo... I have about 20k of AoB 7 done. I can post it up here for you guys in lieu of the other work, since ATL 7 doesn't get started writing till later. It won't be finished though (so you'd literally be reading half a book) before I have to switch to ATL 7.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, the holiday month has been more of a holiday than I expected and less has been done. So AOB 7 isn't going to get done in time, which means it's just going to be worked on in-between the main serie...
2020-12-23 18:26:44 +0000 UTC View PostDirect Sales is what I've placed a number of potential sales options where you (the author) directly interact with the public and attempt to sell your work.
Examples of such distribution options include:
- talks or seminars you are able to sell your works
- farmers markets / flea markets / conventions where you have paid for a space
- your website and/or 3rd party websites that allow you to host your products (often for a fee)
- etc.
The main thi...
2020-12-23 17:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostWhen indie authors talk about being 'wide', they mean not being exclusive to Amazon. This is, unfortunately, due to Amazon's predominance as a marketplace in the US & many Western European countries.
The Wide strategy predicates upon a few ideas:
- firstly, while Amazon is the 300lb gorilla in the US and many Western European countries, it's dominance is significantly less outside of those markets. Google Play, iBooks, Scribd, Kobo, etc. can often contain a higher % of a local...
2020-12-16 19:00:00 +0000 UTC View PostSome quests require ass-kicking; others require clothing designers.
Here is the newest short story from the System Apocalypse Universe!
This one is free for all patrons. Grab your free copy from Bookfunnel here:
https://dl.bookfunnel.com/hvfizbtlkz
Happy re...
2020-12-15 20:52:41 +0000 UTC View PostHello~
Kate here. A Thousand Li: The Second Expedition has just gone live on audible! Woohoo!
Please let us know if you need a US or a UK code. (If you already did, about a month ago, you should've received a message from me by now.)
2020-12-09 17:16:19 +0000 UTC View PostThe Exclusive Option
Alright, you'll see this discussion a lot in author groups discussing going exclusive (or KDP Select, more commonly called Kindle Unlimited due to that being the front-end term) or going wide - meaning, using as many other distributors. The reason this discussion appears as often as it does is due to the restrictive policies Amazon has. The two major exclusivity options at this time are:
- Kindle Unlimited for ebooks
- ACX distribution f...
2020-12-09 17:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostWhoops!
Forgot to do the entire Place section before I started doing examples. That was a mistake.
----
Place or distribution as it may be is the question of how you're going to get your product to your target market. The methods and the locations, not in what form. So we have dealt with questions like whether to make audiobooks or print mass market paperbacks already, now, you're asking the question on how best to make sure it arrives in locations where your audience is. 2020-12-02 17:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi guys;
I'm going to have admit that I might not get the short story to you before the end of the month. I just didn't get enough of it written beforehand, it's sitting at around 6k or so and there's like 4 days left. With editing/etc, it's just not going to happen unless I dedicated the rest of my writing time to it.
And that can't happen because I have to get Broken Council to my editors by Dec 2 if I want it back for a Feb 1 release date. Which would be fine except...
I'...
2020-11-28 04:16:30 +0000 UTC View PostOne of the most interesting conversations that bounce back and forth between authors is that of the first book. Generally, it boils down to this:
Everybody's first book is crap.
There's often additional lines added to that, like 'those books should never be published', they should be tossed away or burnt in a dumpster fire, etc.
At the same time, there are some writers who are pretty insistent that their first book is fine, they published it and did...
2020-11-25 20:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
Whose your favorite?
I swear, stickers and merchandise will eventually be a thing. Already created for A Thousand Li, just need to get the rest of the site up.
If you are really impatient, you can buy all the merchandise now at https://www.mylifemytao.com/shop/
Just note - ONLY merchandise works. Everything else is kind of iffy.
2020-11-25 16:32:26 +0000 UTC View PostAlright, I'm sure I've mentioned this before about discussing wide vs KU. You can see how I went from being in Kindle Unlimited to going wide later on. There's a few reasons for that, we'll discuss the reasons and what data we can extract from this.
Page Reads
Hidden Wishes was written as more an urban fantasy Gamelit work, so I kept that in the back of my mind while writing it. What that meant was that each book is between 60-70k in words, a gene...
2020-11-18 22:00:02 +0000 UTC View PostHi guys;
So, I wanted to mention a few things. Firstly, Broken Council (first draft) is currently sitting at 22 Chapters and an Epilogue.
That means you should finish all the chapters (with a ton caught up and edited soon) by the middle of next month. I have a December 4th deadline with my editors for next year, so that should be perfect.
I've started on the short story Adventures in Clothing too, so I'm hoping it'll be good and posted by the end of the month. It should be f...
2020-11-16 16:14:47 +0000 UTC View PostHello,
Kate here. Tao put together something so exciting! You might've already read A Healer's Gift (Adventures on Brad book 1), but you're going to want this version!
The light novel edition has illustrations in it :o It's gorgeous. The book will only be available in print. However, Tao wanted to share the electronic version with you. Click here to download:
2020-11-13 18:41:46 +0000 UTC View PostAlright, we've talked about the financial analysis side of the series and why I hesitate to say things like 'failure' when discussing the series. But there are major issues in the series and one of the advantages of having written for a while is being able to tell what the issues are. So we're going to discuss the various ways I messed up this series and what I could have done better to increase sales.
Length between release Times
If you take a look at ...
2020-11-11 22:00:00 +0000 UTC View PostAlright, how did you all like the Questing for Title short? Did you enjoy it? Was it everything you wanted (or not?).
I had to be a little ingenious to work it around Trademark issues, so hopefully you enjoyed what I did there. If not.... sorry? It's there.
Anyway, let me know if I should keep doing these shorts. But also, vote for the next one!
2020-11-04 20:16:34 +0000 UTC View PostFirstly, make sure you go back and check out the previous post and also, pull out information for the post to review in-line with this discussion.
When I look at a series to see how well it's done, I look at a few different factors. The major ones to consider, in my mind are:
- Readthrough rates
- Net profitability (short term & long-term)
- Longevity of the series
Let's tackle each of these in turn.
Readthrough rates
W...
2020-11-04 19:59:59 +0000 UTC View PostHello,
Kate here. I wanted to let you know that A Thousand Li: The Second Expedition audiobook is now available. However, we have no idea when it'll appear on Audible.
There are currently two choices: get the audiobook now OR wait until it's live on audible and get a promo code then. Please let me know which one you prefer ;)
I've brought you a new short story today! It's set in the System Apocalypse universe.
Available to ALL patrons.
Enjoy! :)
2020-10-30 15:30:49 +0000 UTC View PostBeen seeing a number of posts about sales and launches and what constitutes a success or not and the like. And, while everything is a matter of perspective, I wanted to clarify some things about short and long-term trends.
The easiest way to do that is to showcase sales for a series, one that some people (and in some ways, I do too) would consider a failure. I say somewhat, but I'll explain later on.
The first post is going to be simple - just raw numbers. &...
2020-10-28 18:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostAlright, let's talk about Return on Investment for promotional spending. I'm going to look specifically at advertising / promotional cost, and discuss why it's difficult to know what is working and not, and methods to get around that.
Defining Return on Investment
Firstly, let's define ROI. It's pretty basic in terms of the equation which is = return (i.e. total income generated from the advertising) / investment (i.e. total advertising sp...
2020-10-21 19:00:03 +0000 UTC View PostHello, Kate here.
I'm so sorry! Tuesday went and I... I forgot to update. I'm sure you were looking forward to it... A new chapter of Broken Council is available for everyone now.
Next update on Saturday, as scheduled, I promise.
My apologies again about Tuesday!
2020-10-15 17:10:26 +0000 UTC View PostAlright, I was going to post about the business data about short stories with details about my sales not just on Amazon but wide, but when I poked into the details I realized that it didn't truly matter. So, I figured I'd just post the information. This is from Bookreport.
These are the sales as of early this morning (Sept 30, 2020). Pretty much 2 months of short sales. &n...
2020-10-15 07:00:00 +0000 UTC View PostTalking to another writer and thought this might be an interesting little topic.
One of the things about Amazon (as it is currently developed) is that much of the information we have about it, and what sells, is conjecture and analysis via results, rather than explicit statements on their methodology. Which results in some confusion about certain aspects.
Conversion Rates
Now, before I get into that, let's talk about conversion rates. Conversion rates ...
2020-10-07 19:00:00 +0000 UTC View PostSo, many of you who read A Thousand Li realise that Taoism (Daoism) in the books is a huge part of the book. One of the main reasons i wanted to write A Thousand Li was because I wanted to explore the idea of actual immortality as it built from understanding the Tao - stepping back into the original stories of Taoism.
If you don't know, some of the origin stories of Taoism discuss how, before man moved away from the Tao, in the time of the Yellow Emperor and before, immortality wa...
2020-10-04 21:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
So, I thought I'd commission some other art. This is a little younger version of Wu Ying.
2020-10-02 03:43:50 +0000 UTC View Post