The 12 People You Will Meet if Selling Books at Comicon

As a writer, I try to do a lot of sales at comic conventions (I write mainly SF/F/H genres). After you’ve been to a few you begin to see certain trends in the sorts of people you will meet as you try to pitch your books. Here are twelve of them.

1. The Grandparent – This person looks like they have no idea how/why they are here. They are just being supportive for someone they love and when they see you they light up. “Oh! Books! Yes, I’d like something normal, please.” Will they buy a book? Could go either way.
2. The Overly Serious Cosplayer – You’d danged well better know who they’re dressed as if you choose to engage him/her in conversation. You can always tell regular cosplayers from the Overly-Serious variety by that glazed look in their eye… they’re not sure if they’re at a convention in real life or if the plot of the hero they love has need of something at this strange gathering. This is why method actors shouldn’t do drugs—this is basically the end result. They are superior to you in every way and can’t believe you don’t love X as much as they love X. In fact, why are you even here? Will they buy a book? No. It’s not going to fit with their super-authentic costume (even though they don’t see a problem with the Adidas backpack slung over one shoulder.)
   Pro tip. Do not talk to a Deadpool cosplayer. Ever. Trust me. (You’re also taking heavy chances with anyone dressed as Jared Leto’s Joker).
3. Your New Fangirl/Fanboy – you don’t know if they’ve somehow heard of you before or if something in your pitch connected with them, but they are really into what you’re selling. “Are you married? I mean, I see your wedding ring, but is it serious? …ok, but would you consider adopting me?” You’ll probably see this person a lot throughout the day/weekend. They may or may not stick it out and start your new fanclub on Facebook Groups after the event is over, but until then they are basically Madmartigan dosed by pixie love dust and you are his/her “sun and moon and starlight sky—without your book I dwell in darkness! I love you.”
   “Excuse me. Wut?”
   “I meant I love ramen… um. I’ve got to go. See you in two minutes. I’ll miss you.”
   Will they buy a book? If they have any actual money they probably will. If you accept payment in hugs, then definitely.
4. Other Vendors – don’t assume that they will buy it. They are probably talking to you in order to network or invite you to the kind of top-secret after-hours parties I never get invited to. Lucky you. Only pitch them if they ask about your books…it’s just a courtesy, and you may see them again at a different event and don’t want to seem like a pushy person. Chances are, if they are located nearby they have already heard your pitch and want to know you rather than your book. Will they buy a book? Maybe—but they may be more willing to barter for it with items from their table. “I’ll gladly trade you one signed novel for that Sword of William Wallace autographed by Stan Lee.”
5. Really Bad Genderbender – I’m not sure I’m comfortable with Sexy-Overweight-HarleyQuinn-with-a-5’oclock-shadow. He/she isn’t always comfortable with it either and might refuse to make eye contact with people. If he/she does make eye contact, prepare for a long, cold stare of death as they rush up to tell you “cosplay is not consent, you pervert!” or “stop judging me you arrogant cis-male!” You didn’t have to say a word… somehow they just knew with a sense about as reliable as a frat-boy’s gay-dar. Will they buy a book? Not even after you listen to their unsolicited political rant about gender equalities.
6. Blind Bartimaeus – This person knows the deal and refuses to make eye contact with anyone at booths as if they were a circus carnie. They know the deal: they have money and you want it. Often discriminating, they are usually at a con’s merch area for specific things… if you saw them buy something at a different table, it might indicate their interests and open a door—if you can get them to look at you. Will they buy a book? Very unlikely. I settle for just getting their attention and an opportunity to pitch it.
7. Ernie the Klepto – while you are pitching your novel and convincing him to buy he says, “It sounds really interesting,” and then walks off with it. If you manage to stop him he’ll respond with, “Oh, I thought you were giving these away for free.” Will they buy a book? Probably not…turns out it wasn’t that interesting.
   
8. Empty Promise Girl – she’s able to convince you of her love as easily as a boy at the Junior prom post-party. It’s just as real too… and just like Brock, the all-state running-back, you’ll never see her again after she leaves. “This book sounds amazing! I’m definitely coming back to buy this… I’ve just got a thing, first.” Will they buy a book? No. You may spot her later walking on the far side of the aisle, trying not to look at you. She knows what she did. (And by this point you’d probably give her a book just to relive that hope that it would get read.)
9. The Reporter – They may be writing for a blog, a paper, or (most likely) their diary but they want to know every detail of why you are here, how much you make, where you live, your booth cost, where you ate lunch, if they can get a photo—preferably with no hat and looking forward, like at the DMV, say for a fake ID. “Identity Theft? Hahaha, wut? Noooooooo… I’ve got to go k bye.” Will they buy a book? Maybe, but you’ve got to connect it to something they already like.
10. The Perv – Often found wearing “Free Hugs” shirts and smelling like BO (perhaps thinly veiled under a sweaty sheen of too-much Axe body-spray.) They will stare at your boobs/biceps or butt/junk during your book pitch and probably won’t listen. These are not limited to just gross boys—there are plenty of women, too. Pro tip: use your table to keep a barrier to prevent unwanted conduct. “I know they’re free… but I have a medical condition.” Some of these folks need to know that “Cosplay is not consent.” Will they buy a book? If they are a greasy and gross boy—no. If it’s a “bad grandma” type she might just be happy to have had a conversation and buy it anyway.
    Sidenote: if it’s an anime-heavy convention, No is always the correct answer to anything involving “tentacle monsters.” Trust me.
11. The Collector – he or she is usually here for one of two things: to meet industry celebrities to acquire an autograph or photo or to get free stuff from those tables that lure people over with salt water taffy or free pencils. Will they buy a book? Maybe—although they will be confused at the concept of purchasing at first, so be gentle… they are usually easier to sell to if you can convince them that you will be the next big author. “I met AUTHOR X at comicon back when they were a nobody!”
12. The Actual Customer – These are difficult to find. They might look like a normal in a sea of weird that can often be a con… they might also look exactly like numbers 1-11, so you’ve just got to pitch everyone: cast a broad net and hope for the best.
    You, to Really Bad Genderbender: “Hey! I, uh, really like your Sailor Moon with a beard thing.”
    Him/her: “Oh thank God for an adult to talk to—I’m here doing this for my daughter who’s a huge Sailor Jupiter fan…did you write these? They look interesting.”

Hopefully you get the point: pitch everyone, and you should do it well. Just have some humor about it. I don’t think that it’s just because I’m a sci-fi/fantasy author that I enjoy selling at comicons. The people are fun and there’s never a dull moment, or a more immersive place to engage with genre fiction fans. Just make sure you attend prepared and have taken every opportunity to be your best before you spend money on booth fees. I highly recommend you read my more article with some more serious and practical advice. 10 Important Things When Pitching Books at Conventions, Festivals, Trade Shows, etc.

Did I miss anybody? What funny stereotypes have you always seen at conventions?

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State of Writing

There sure are a lot of ugly people out there… not in a physical way, but folks are just being nasty. I’ve never been real political on this blog because it’s a writing and author forum, not a political one. But I can’t hardly work on my platform when all social media has been steam-rollered by such blatant hypocrisy and hatred. I can hardly write or edit when previously good-natured friends have depleted my mental energies. I can’t help but gear the words of John Coffey (the character from Green Mile) in my head. “I’m tired, boss. Tired of bein’ on the road, lonely as a sparrow in the rain. Tired of not ever having me a buddy to be with, or tell me where we’s coming from or going to, or why. Mostly I’m tired of people being ugly to each other. I’m tired of all the pain I feel and hear in the world everyday. There’s too much of it.”

Please stop being nasty to each other. I don’t care who you like or dislike politically, but I’m not seeing anything that represent logic or rationality. People are rioting and being nasty because they have hate in their hearts and refuse to look at a larger worldview beyond their personal microcosm. End Rant.

I didn’t get much done. I was pretty tired all week (see above). Except I did manage to complete storyboards and descriptions for my pencil artist. I’m collaborating on a short prequel comic book that leads into Wolf of the Tesseract. I plan to use Wolf of the Tesseract: Taking the Prime as a promotional tool to sell more novels. So far sales are pretty sluggish (like, I don’t know that it’s sold any copies except the ones I’ve purchased to give away or resell at cons.)

How Not to Get a Book Review

Welcome to a special edition blog post: how not to ask for a book review. What a Mr. Eric Reese did was the exact opposite of all the pro-advice I posted before from top level book reviewers.

As a reviewer, I was asked by the author for read and review online a few months ago. I declined because it wasn’t my style book. I got email blasted again by the author. I said,
“I’m quite certain that you didn’t not read my submissions guidelines. If your copy/pasted review request is supposed to be a one-sized fits all approach you will need a new approach.” I often provide feedback as to why I reject a query.

rather than let it go after committing a gaffe, the author responded “Copy and paste.  I’m not sure what you mean by that statement.  However, the intent is only for you to ask you for a review of my book series which I will ask you again.”

me: “no. firstly, you CCed me on a larger email and so this went out to multiple reviewers. that’s a big no-no. you have no idea about my site or what i want and gave me a type of book that I don’t read/review and mentioned you saw I was actively looking for it. At this point, your query is an obnoxious noise that makes me want to leave a 1 star review and then forward the message to other reviewers I know as a warning. Either follow reviewers sub guidelines or be prepared for a ton of negative responses.”

He responded with a nasty email titled IDGAF: “First of all sir.  If I Bcc’ed you, what’s your issue?  If you are going to be an asshole, who need’s your review?  I’ll take your one star and spam comments as a way to make more money.  You sound like a spammer anyway and I have about 20K followers that will blast your ass out the water.”

If this guy is writing motivational stuff, perhaps you’d reconsider what he’s saying. His books are about dealing with bullying and yet he’s trying to bully me into a positive review. I also don’t think he understands what spam is since he contacted me. I also don’t believe in his power to motivate twenty thousand keyboard warriors to somehow hatefully “blast me” for his mistake and continued belligerence (as if sending 20k new people to my book review website/blog would somehow harm me).

All I can say is don’t work with Eric Reese or review his There and Back Again series. He obviously doesn’t practice what he preaches. The guy doesn’t seem to understand how the system works at all (and, by his own admission, he welcomes this 1 star review and will somehow profit off of it.)

I hate bullying. I do, and respected that he’d been bullied as a kid–but after our email exchange I wondered if that’s all in his head and he’s just been getting the negative responses all his life that he’s been begging for. Rule #1 of life–you can’t be a dick and have it not come back to you.

Blog Tour: The Remnant

I reviewed this book a few months back when it was still in Advanced Review. It launches in a couple weeks, so check it out and signup for the free giveaway!

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One nation, without God…

           Colton Pierce apprehends Abberants—those who display symptoms of faith—and quarantines them on a remote island to ensure public safety.  Years prior, the government released a genetically-engineered super flu that destroyed the genes believed to be the biological source of spiritual experience in an effort to rid the world of terrorism. As an extractor with the Center for Theological Control, Colton is dedicated to the cause.

          But Colton’s steadfast commitment is challenged when he learns his own son has been targeted for extraction. An underground militia, the Remnant, agrees to help Colton save his son in exchange for his assistance with their plan to free the Aberrants on the island.

          Colton is faced with the most important decision of his life. Remain faithful to the CTC? Or give up everything to save his son?

William Michael Davidson lives in Long Beach, California with his wife and two daughters. A believer that “good living produces good writing,” Davidson writes early in the morning so he can get outside, exercise, spend time with people, and experience as much as possible.

A writer of speculative fiction, he enjoys stories that deal with humanity’s inherent need for redemption.

For more on Davidson and his writing, connect with him on Goodreads, Twitter, Facebook, and Amazon Author’s Page.

This is a tour-wide giveaway for two (2) print copies that are available to those living in the U.S. only and one (1) eBook copy available international. The giveaway will end at 12 a.m. (EST) on Sunday, Feb. 26. You can enter to win at each stop of the tour.

◊THE REMNANT
◊by William Michael Davidson
◊Release date: February 7, 2017
◊$15.95, 6×9 Trade paperback, 242 pages
◊Science Fiction (FIC028000) / Christian Futuristic Fiction (FIC0402020)
◊Print ISBN 978-1-939844-29-3
◊eBook ISBN 978-1-939844-30-9
◊Order through Ingram, Follett, or from the publisher
◊$4.99 eBook available in all formats

THE REMNANT is available to order in eBook form at the following sites:

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
iTunes

The print format of the book is available at these sites:

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Chapters-Indigo
Book Depository
Foyles
Mediander
Fiction DB

Why Use Amazon Associates? Pt. 2—who wants to be a trillionaire?

Like Gandalf once pointed out while discussing Amazon.com with his fellow author, Saruman, “There is only one lord of the ring and he does not share power.” On second thought, that was probably Stephen King to George R.R. Martin. Anyhow, Amazon is more like Voldemort. He’ll share a few things with you: Death Eater decoder rings, the back of some dude’s head, or a bathroom urinal as long as you promise not to cross the streams. You probably won’t make a cool trill… or even a million… but you could certainly make some real cash from their system—you’re not going to put them out and make more money than Amazon, but the Associates program is a way to get even more money off every book you sell when you promote your book as an Indie author. If you are an indie author you really ought to be using this program (even despite the difficulties chronicled in Pt.1).

Using Amazon Associates is kind of like filing taxes when you’re poor. If you don’t file, you are leaving money on the table. This may be my political libertarianism coming through and disdain for our tax system, but if you don’t know how taxes work here it is in a nutshell: if you are middle-class or below and have taxes withheld from every paycheck you have essentially given the government an interest-free loan which they pay back during tax time the following year. If you don’t file you are essentially “leaving money on the table.” Yes, it’s a little work, but it can really pay off.

You even get paid on “not-books” like this

Here’s a breakdown on the dollars and cents for a hypothetical book. Let’s say we can sell about 50 copies in a month: 20 paperbacks, 20 Kindle, and 10 audible, making 4.50, 3.50, and 3.00 each, respectively—you may be way lower or higher, but it’s a good starting place for many indie authors. For the sake of the argument let’s say that each sale came from a FB ad you purchased and every sale went through your affiliate link. The total is $190 profit. Let’s say it takes about 800 hits on a FB ad to make those 50 sales but you’re paying .09 per click on average (see my other blogs about setting this up). That was $72 spent on ads (you made $118! Yay!) An affiliate account gives you an advertisers commission on anything you sell: at this number it would be about 6.5% off net, which in our hypothetical book’s case is about $500 giving you an additional $32.50 which really helps offset that ad budget—it’s money left on the table that Amazon will just keep if they don’t pay that commission.

The commission is already built in to Amazon’s pay structure. Our hypothetical book in the above scenario is retailing at $15 and costs about $4 purchase as the author via Createspace. You’re making $4.50 and it costs about $4 to make, so what about the other $5.50? they’ve built into their profit margin at least an extra buck and half into that commission setup (Amazon Associates cap the ratio at 8.5% provided you sell and ship 3,131 items or more per month.)

Yes. It actually exists. It’s probably awful, but if you buy it I get $0.12

I know that I hate spending money with no or little return and it always makes it difficult for me to venture my hard earned money to pay for internet ads. Here’s something to help you breathe easier. Let’s say someone clicks our ad for hypothetical book and isn’t really into it but sees on the product listing, “Customers who viewed this item also viewed…” and they decide instead to purchase Fifty Shades of Gandalf for $25 (because I assume that book would really necessitate being read in hardcover.)

Your Associate’s account will record a $25 sale but you won’t get commission on it until it’s paid for and ships. Let’s say our hypothetical customer (an aging Kindergarten teacher with a vanilla marriage and a sketchy past—she really know which states do thorough background checks before giving out either teaching or bounty hunter licenses,) doesn’t check out just yet. She leaves the browser open and decides her husband (his name is Jack and he’s got his own history: as a high-stakes Magic the Gathering player who really needs to win the pot at a back-room game at Wizardcon or else he loses the house!) could really use a Black Lotus proxy card for another $15. That would also go on as another purchase from you. (I know, you can’t buy proxies on Amazon, but I didn’t want the scenario to be too realistic.)

The nice thing about the Associate link tag is that you get credit for all of the purchases made within that browsing session. A customer you sent to Amazon might not buy your book, but get distracted and decide to do some regular shopping and you earn a percentage off of those items!

It may be new territory for you as a writer, but indie authors have to be their own sales staff, promo team, and wear a million other hats as well. Take some time to learn the system and work it to your advantage. It’s in your best interest. It may feel like you’re betraying your call as a writer to spend a bunch of time on other non-writing aspects of being an indie author, but as Chuck Sambuchino says in his writing conferences, “It’s called getting paid.” Sometimes we do what we must in order to do what we want, and this is something you can add to an existing promotion structure to make it pay off just a little more.

Don’t leave your money on the table. Someone else is bound to keep it.

 

 

Review: The Awakening – Dragon Knight Chronicles book 1

So much about this book reminded me of the Eragon series, although it is perhaps a slightly easier read than Paolini. That’s partly because the world building is a little less intense… not that Wichland’s world is somehow lesser, but the writing feels more approachable—as if the author were more mindful of his audience (which feels YA and would be appropriate for some MG readers). I might be comparing it to Eragon more, though, for the plentiful use of familiar tropes, than for the type of world (and inclusion of dragons, etc.) although there is certainly a parallel there, too.

I was pleasantly surprised by the tightness of the writing and although there are a few moments of “as you know bob” those are fleeting and not a huge concern provided they don’t wax overly passive and these didn’t drop me out of the narrative… they are also to be expected in a world with so much history but written in a book that’s so short… weighing in at only 120 pages I didn’t really expect the end when I arrived (I had the ebook and so didn’t have a tactile reminder of the length.) I normally have a bone to pick indie authors who put “book 1 in an epic series with an interesting hook” on the cover page (usually because of the rarity of those arcs being completed) but I think it’s appropriate in Dragon Knight Chronicles—it certainly needs a follow-up, especially given how it ends, and Wichland signals to his readers that it’s underway by including an advanced snippet of book 2.

I received the book for free in exchange for an honest review.

You can check it out on Amazon by clicking here

State of Writing

I feel like I haven’t done much all week–even though I know that’s not the case. I have stuff making me upset. I want to complain. I won’t.
Just going to drink coffee and pray for sunshine, this week.

Why Use Amazon Associates? Pt. 1—my trip on the strugglebus.

I’ve discovered that most of struggles in writing comes from love-hate relationships with services, systems, and programs run by others… relationships soured by misunderstanding. At least, that’s the norm—and usually it’s my fault. Not always, but more often than not. I recently floundered my way through the Amazon Associates program—got kicked out for a third time—and then realized two things. 1. How to fix the hiccups and 2. Indies really need to take advantage of this program. I’ll break it down.

As mentioned, I got kicked out of the program multiple times. The first one is no big deal—it’s an old account I had opened with them back when the program first started in the early 00s and I was doing occasional reviews on my early website (I’m talking about 12-14 years ago.) Obviously it lapsed into inactivity over a decade ago and I’d never made any money off it—plus the account terms and conditions had changed significantly. It really has no bearing on the topic accept to point out that it caused some confusion since all the old account info is still there and never goes away; Amazon archives it for tax purposes—even closed accounts. Watch out for that in case you’ve got an old account with them and make sure you’re logged into the right account.

Okay, so moving forward, here’s how I got kicked out the next couple times. I wanted to monetize my website (well, kind of.) I wanted to put up a dedicated book store on my Author’s Website where I carried my titles through an online cart-based system. There are a number of pay-for services, but I wanted something automated where I wouldn’t have to carry any stock and orders would be shipped and processed by Createspace, Amazon, etc. Nothing really fit my needs (I wanted to sell via Createspace since the commissions are waaaay higher than Amazon) that was free but the Astore system came close enough. (On my Createspace note: their “storefront” sucks. It’s atrocious. I’ve looked at it a million ways but there is no free alternative—they make it bad on purpose, knowing that authors will send shoppers to amazon instead. It’s that unappealing.) So I signed up for a new account, put in a few hours to build links, and put my Astore into my website. 3 months later my account is killed by Amazon citing inactivity—if you don’t make a sale they shut you down. The account cannot be reinstated. I was a little miffed that there was no warning, but I did know that there was a 3 month period going into it. My bad, though a warning really would’ve been nice—I mean, Amazon is a pretty big outfit, you’d think their fancy algorithms could find some time to say, “Dear Human, in a few days we will close your account unless you feed me those delicious internet hits.” Whatever. Account closure and a few hours lost.

Second verse, same as the first. I made a new account, this time I put more attention and effort into it (I even made sure to complete all of the IRS reporting info) and was a little excited because Christmas was coming, my book sales had been increasing, and I realized that I’d really been using the program wrong. I do Facebook ads pretty regularly and had never set my links to be affiliate ones (links I’d make money off of) from the ads. I went through and changed all my advert links after building them through my affiliate account. I was excited and wanted to check them and see the affiliate tracking program at work and so I used my own affiliate links to purchase a few books as Christmas gifts.
WORD TO THE WISE: Don’t do that. I was basically just testing it out, but those fancy Skynet Algorithms flagged me for account violations. Apparently they find accepting your money from a product from an ad that you paid to place on their behalf to be an egregious violation. (Truthfully I understand why they don’t want you to do that, but it shouldn’t be cause for immediate account cancellation! I’d spent hours and hours rebuilding links and advertisements!) In case you didn’t know, Amazon is very Third-Reich about you participating in their programs… but that’s probably because it’s run by the heartless tin-man and all its employees have had their souls removed by Cybermen in order to improve efficiency and absolute adherence to their rule of law. Especially Corey.

“Amazon support, life didn’t work out like I wanted. How can I pretend to help?”

I was a little miffed at this point and went to the helpline/chat for associates where I met a Dalek named Corey who was useless to me. Their helpline was rubbish and Corey was downright rude (I saved the chatlog) and he dripped of condescension. He was a jerk and kept sending me to the TOS and even claimed to have read every TOS agreement he ever entered and in great detail—so he’s either a robot or a liar. Anyway, he told me that I listed my social network sites on my Associates application and when I got flagged for giving Amazon my money to see how the nuts and bolts of it worked their internet gremlins found that I didn’t have “enough” followers on social media to list it. I lost hours of work because I had a Facebook account… which is pretty much par for the course if you have a Facebook account.

 

Corey’s Sphincter Scarves are available now on Etsy.

Even though Corey was a real sphincter scarf about the whole thing and refused to tell me what arbitrary number of followers is required and he didn’t care that my social media account wasn’t the site I had listed as my website. So here’s the takeaway—DON’T LIST ANY SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT ON YOUR AMAZON PROFILE UNLESS YOU’RE A CELEBRITY.

I pumped Corey for information, but he kept sending me the TOS. I was like, “Bro, I’m not a lawyer—just tell me if I’m better off with or without listing only my main author site.” He actually left the conversation and refused to talk to me anymore. So I don’t put much stock in the helpline.

I was a little gun-shy to try it again, but waded in slowly a few weeks ago. This time I entered only the bare minimum of information. I listed only my author website and built only one link for my most popular book—I only risked wasting time to alter one Facebook advertisement that way. In fact, I still haven’t updated my tax records (which you must do for every account with Amazon).

If you want to read a little guide on how to not meet Corey (the little things that get you booted from Amazon Associates) I found a nice article here: https://marketever.com/mistakes-get-banned-amazon-affiliate/

Low and behold, the program began to work. Sales started coming in and my account was approved. I also made some very surprising discoveries that make me glad I endured all those hours trapped in Amazon.purgatory/Corey.is-a_jerk …but more on that in Part 2.

Review: Finding Molly

I have a certain fondness for comics—both traditional superheroes as well as graphic novels. Those with any affinity for the format knows that there is so much more to it than mere ka-pow, action, and fisticuffs. There is an art to the pacing—to telling the story in frames and boxes instead of paragraphs. Finding Molly: An Adventure in Catsitting does the job superbly well. I especially appreciated the art style which didn’t feel the need to give everybody six-pack abs and one-size fits all CW body types. There’s also a sense of continuity through the panels as the number of bandaids from kitty scratches accumulates and the MCs relationships develop. The content is certainly relatable and has a great YA feel (although, again, not the CW kind churned out by every media company expecting that everyone is involved in some sort of complicated multi-directional love tryst,) and the relationships are both realistic and also engaging. Molly struggles with all the trials and insecurities that any young adult does and she has a sense of character that makes you want to root for her as sort of an Everyman. I don’t have any qualms about recommending this one (even if I’m not typically the guy who pushes “cat stories.”) I’m not even a cat person, but I’m telling you to pick this one up.

You can check it out on Amazon by clicking HERE

State of Writing

I felt productive on all fronts–even if it wasn’t largely visible in any particular areas. I had a phone call with publishing company that was interested in John in the John… it doesn’t mean anything in particular except that they do have some interest and have editors looking at it. I have a revised draft of it about 1/4 completed and I’m looking into some copublishing options as well in case I don’t have any strong leads by summer.

I’m also getting excited to write Wolves of the Tesseract Book 2: Through the Darque Gate of Koth (I finally nailed down a title.) The outline is completed and I wrote like six pages of storyline notes, descriptions, etc. to help sculpt and guide the book.

I laid some groundwork for marketing ideas, too. Collected about 200 email addresses from indie bookstores and set a few calendar items for the future (a signing at Barnes & Nobles, added a small comicon in Minneapolis, and applied for another big event I’m hoping to attend with books).