A "Found" Conversation

Here's a conversation I "found" on a bus heading for Toronto. Almost word for word.

(SFX: Cell Phone Ring).
Hello? Oh, yeah. Just riding the bus. Shift coming up.
(Pause) A stabbing. At a school. Been working at it for awhile, was off for a few days, now back on it. Have it all on security camera but no one will talk. Can't get them to. It's like we know you were there we see you on the camera, but they say they don't remember anything.
(Pause) Her? Yeah, she's trying to find a job. I guess. But she sent all the wrong cover letters with her application. I think she's just happy with a few shifts at the centre. And spending all my money. Our last credit card bill  was 3000 dollars. That's why I'm taking the bus. I figure it saves me $250 a month. But she just thinks she can spend that money, too.
(Pause). Out there. That must be nice. No. No holidays coming up. She thinks the parents should come down to babysit while she goes out. That's an hour drive for them and hour back so she can go out for an hour. That doesn't make sense. But I did get to come down and her and I went to a movie but when I came back there was a torn plastic bag on the floor. That stupid dog had been at it. My parents tried to hide all the evidence cause they know that I beat the crap out of it when it does that stuff. But I asked them what happened and they said it got up on the table and found the treat bag and ate all of it, even the bag. It's a stupid dog. How do you fix that? I figure I'll just put mousetraps on the table loaded with those little wieners, that'll show him. He won't go up on the table again.
(pause) Yeah, okay. See ya. (Click SFX).

It's quite the character study. Truth is always stranger than fiction...

Outselling Stephen King II: The September eBook Results

Well a few posts ago I told you how I miraculously sold more books than Stephen King (in a 48 hour period)!

Well, now I can report to you the amazingly stupendous results. Yes, this is breaking news folks! Last month DUST sold a whopping 1355 copies. Since the highest monthly total before that was 360 copies, I was bountifully pleased by this result. 

Now Dust was selling for $1.49 (that's .52 cents per book for me) for the majority of those sales and then I bumped it up to 1.99. (or .70 cents a book). The book has slowly dropped down the sales charts (from a high in the 600's) and seems to be levelling out at about 10000 on the sales charts in the US (and 4000 on the UK charts). That equals about 10 sales a day (but since I've bumped the price up to 2.99 I am making 2.05 per sale). I don't know how long it will hold at this level. What, you want to see an amazing chart? Here it is:

That chart shows dust jumping up from abut 160,000th place to 600th. Then slowly falling back down. Apparently what goes up must come down. Thanks a lot for the gravitational laws Newton!

At one point I had told myself I'd be happy if I made about $1000.00 in the space of a year. Since that goal was surpassed in the space of a month...well, I'm green with happiness. I don't expect next month's sales to be anywhere near the same amount as September. But if they continue at the level they're at today (about 10,000 on the charts) I'll actually make as much money through fewer sales (because at 2.99 I make a 70% royalty, at .99-2.98 it's a 35% royalty).

Here's the overall sales chart:

Isn't that pretty? And it has different colours, too. The blue colour represents the sales of DUST. But you can see that a few of my other books are starting to pick up a bit (in fact every book had increased sales over last month). The total for all books was 1467 copies sold.

So last month was a good one. And this month I now have all three of The Hunchback Assignments books available on kindle UK (in fact I'm giving away the first one to get my British cousins to try the series). We'll see if that strategy works.

Over and out,

Art

A Decade of Dust

I apologize for the maudlin post but Dust has been out for ten years now. I launched the book on September 21st, 2001 in Saskatoon's Western Development Museum: 1910 Boomtown. It was the first time I'd launched in such a big and perfectly-themed venue (I wish I could find the pics but they are in storage somewhere). Here's a pic of the museum interior.

I honestly had no idea how successful the book would become and am still surprised by its reception. It went on to win several awards including:

*The 2001 Governor General's Award for Children's Literature *The 2001 Saskatchewan Book Award for Children's Literature *The 2002 Mr. Christie's Book Award (this came with $ and cookies. Mmm) *Nominated for a 2004 Edgar Award.

Here I am with Adrienne Clarkson, once the Governor General of Canada. She's presenting me with a leather-bound copy of DUST.

There are a few things you may not know about the novel. Here's the first draft of the Canadian cover:

And here's the original American cover:

The American version is about 5 pages longer. Because it came out in 2003 I was able to have one more crack at the book and I fine tuned it a bit more and added a few smaller scenes, including one at the end that helped explain the townspeople's reaction to their "forgetfulness" about their children disappearing. It's a particularly poignant scene.

There have now been 13 movie companies that have shown interest in the rights, including 4 major Hollywood studios. So far no one has come up with the money to make the movie (or pay off my mortgage).

Work on a graphic novel was started with Christopher Steininger but, as of yet, it has not been picked up by a publisher.

The book continues to be popular in Canada and I've received hundreds of emails and letters about it. It eventually went out of print in the U.S. and was never sold to any other countries.

With the advent of ebooks I was able to re-release the book in the US as an ebook (and in the U.K., too).

So it is good to have the book come back to life. It was briefly the #12 bestselling horror novel on Amazon U.S. and the #2 bestselling horror novel on Amazon UK. If only it would stay in those positions I could finance my own movie! : ) It has been rather fun for me to see the book gain a new readership.

So there you have it. A decade of Dust. Happy birthday! Here's to another ten years....

Art

Nap Your Way to Fame and Fortune as Writer

The cornerstone of all good writing is the nap.

Don't let those nap naysayers try to convince you that naps are for children. That somehow it is lazy and unnatural for you to nap. Don't allow them to make an outcast of you. They are only jealous of your ubernap capabilities.

Yes, I say verily to you (and somewhat unverily) that you must take hold of your inner napper. You must celebrate especially the "power" nap (20 minutes). In that time you will descend into your subconsciousness and emerge from that dank, creative cave like a writing god (or goddess or demigod or mime, depending on your background) and return to your writing desks in the perfect frame of mind. You will be refreshed. More attractive! And more powerful! All the answers to all the plot and subplot and characterization problems will be solved by a nap (this works 100% of the time, though results vary by +-101).

Sons and daughters of nap! A day may come when the courage of those who nap fails, when we forsake our naps and break all bonds of napping fellowship, but it is not this day! This day we nap! By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you nap!

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZ

How I Sold More Ebooks Than Stephen King (for 48 hours)

We interrupt regularly scheduled blogging for an ebook update. To my surprise and delight my epubbed novel

has shot up the Kindle charts in the US and UK and is outselling Stephen King. Yes, that Stephen King!

I blame him and Ray Bradbury for turning me into a writer (and Tolkien and Frank Herbert and...). I'll explain how the sales jump came about in a second, first a few braggardly details: Currently the book is #680 on the Kindle US store and #158 on Kindle UK. It has made several bestseller charts including #15 overall on the Kindle US  Horror charts and #4 in Children's Spine-Chilling Horror (who doesn't love chilling the spines of those children?). In the UK the numbers are even higher (it's a smaller market): #1 in Children's Horror and #2 in Horror overall.

Actually, that #1 spot deserves a graphic:

Now let me attempt to explain how it was achieved:

I sacrificed an organic carrot to the god of ebooks.

Oh, wait that's not it.  Dust has been for sale as an ebook since February and has once before briefly cracked the top 1000. At the start of September I priced the book at free (who can refuse free?) on iBooks as a brief promotion. This was discovered by Amazon (okay, I told them) and since they have a price matching clause in their epub agreement they matched the price. On iBooks I had given away about 5 free copies. Amazon Kindle beat that in the first five minutes.  In the course of a week I gave away about 8000 books on Amazon UK and 11000 on Amazon US (that's a swack load of free books). The book reached #32 on the US free charts and #5 on the UK free charts. For me it was free advertising (the vast majority who have downloaded a free book likely won't read it...assuming they're hoarders like me). More reviews began to appear within days on both websites. I changed the price of Dust to 1.49 on KindleUS (Dust had previously been .99 cents and not doing well, so I chose 1.49 because...well...because Seth Godin's book was 1.49 and it was in the top 10). Then I chose .99 for the UK price (I chose the .99 pence for the UK because most of their top 20 bestsellers were in that price range...I have to sell 2 ebooks to equal the royalty I receive on a paperback). I changed the price to $1.99 on iBooks (anyone bored of all these geeky details yet?) and emailed Amazon to let them know that the book was no longer free on their competition's website. They changed the book back to the prices I had chosen.

And, blammo (that's an official epub word for wow), it shot up the charts. A real chart? Sure, I've got a chart for you:

This is Dust's kindle sales in the US over the last month. The lower the number the better the sales. Like golf. But more literary. Dust started at #849 on AmazonUS paid 48 hours ago and #736 on Amazon UK and has been climbing ever since (warning here are even more geeky details: it takes about 67 copies sold in the space of 24 hours to climb from #849 to #700. To add more perspective Dust sold 48 copies last month...so that's more sales in a day than the book had all month). I don't know exactly why when it switched from free to paid status it ended up in such a good position on the charts. Is it because several people downloaded it accidentally thinking that it was free (Amazon does warn when a books price is changing)? Or is it some kind of magical algorithmic kindly thing? That part is beyond my limited IQ.

I don't expect this to last. I think Dust is successful because it has been on Amazon for over ten years in one format or another and has 20 reviews that average 4 stars. This lets prospective buyers know that it's a good gamble. I think that the fact that it's for young adults and doesn't have a romance angle or vampires, will limit the audience in the long run. I just want it to find its happy "sales" place.

And I'm enjoying the ebook ride right now. Go Dust go!

Best,

Art

Mission Clockwork--gorgeous German Edition

Well, yesterday I received the author's copies of the German version of The Hunchback Assignments (which is called Mission Clockwork: Attack on The British Empire--love that title). They're absolutely gorgeous. Please accept my apologies because I am about to gush with authorial joy...

Doesn't that look like the mouse will jump right off the cover? And they books are shrink-wrapped, too (in recyclable plastic!). The Germans think of everything. Here's the spine.

And the cool back cover:

The awesome interior:

And the 3D amazingly triumphant cover:

They really went totally steampunk on the book. And it's a good look. Now if only I could read German!

Thanks for listening to my gushing.

Art

PS: Let's watch the trailer again, just for fun:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP_S6IMQBd0&w=420&h=345]