Back in August of 2014 I posted plans to follow the Liliana Nirvana technique or more so thoughts to do so... The idea of this is to release multiple works at once followed by another work approximately 30 days later. The idea here, in brief, is rapid shot exposure of your name and books hopefully taking multiple spots on the Amazon Hot New Release list and stoking the ever-burning mysterious fires of the Amazon algo system to hopefully propel yourself into decent sales...

... but I didn't do it and here is why.

1. I wasn't ready

I was still learning the ropes of Indie publishing. I was new to Twitter and I knew nothing of Facebook ads (actually I didn't have a Facebook page). I also did not have my covers and considering Saints of Wura was my first trilogy, I was still learning about WRITING AND EDITING a trilogy. I'm not going to get into it now but consistency is king and sometimes that consistency gets dethroned inadvertently causing plot issues.

2. Book Three was not in a concrete state

I still changed stuff... not small stuff either, fairly large plot-centric ideas that I've warped a bit from the original forms. Heck, I was missing a whole sub-plot that developed in book two. This is really an experience issue more than anything. Thankfully, I'm not new anymore. :)

3. Financial Issues

The mere costs of pushing 4-5 books at once is prohibitive to this for *most* new authors. I've struggled for a myriad of reasons just to deliver book three and finish out the trilogy. I feel this technique is best employed once you have a few books out or if you have that one hit wonder that shoots up the lists and you then have the income to work on that many books at once.

SO? What is the point of this you ask?

As I close out this year I will have one complete trilogy. (YAY!) But I'm already on book three of a *new* 5 book series set in the same world as my first three. I am strongly considering attempting this (The Liliana Nirvana Technique) again, perhaps even with crowd funding to help financially support it. But my reason is one that I didn't have before... my readers.

I didn't have many readers back in August of 2014. Now I do and I am beyond thankful for them! I don't want to make people wait. I want to provide an escape into a fantasy world just as quickly as I can write it and deliver a story that delivers everything that readers expect. I don't want to give you one book and make you wait 6 months. I want you to have a new set of books. This aspiration may seem strange but the truth is there are a lot of much more well know indies producing a novel a month. This isn't an impossible feat and it is one that I aspire to because of my love of creation. 

3 years ago the world of the Saints of Wura was merely a snowy mountain, an assassin, and a vampire lord. Now, that world has grown to five novels, numerous short stories, and at least three additional novels that are in the plotting phase... and to think, it all started off as a simple sentence.

We will see what 2016 brings. :)

Interview of Slatnichor, a dwarf of Harrodarr.

The door opens proceeding the heavy clumping sounds of iron rimmed boots. The chair scoots out and above the height of the table I can barely make out a scruffy face. At the table now is Slatnichor, a dwarf of Harrodarr.

Me: "Welcome, sir dwarf. May I get you a drink? I know your journey was a long one."

Slatnichor: "No, no. If you can only direct me to where I can get you a drink. I will get it for you. I am thankful to have journeyed to your world for but a time. Never have I read of such an occurrence in all the books of the Estate! At least not the ones Brethor has for me to read!"

*the dwarf scuttles off, finding a nearby pitcher of water before pouring each of us a glass*

Me: "Well now that my thirst is quenched, let us talked about you. Slatnichor dwarf of ---"

Slatnichor: "Call me Slats. It is what they call me at Elinathrond."

Me: “Slats. Got it. So tell me how a dwarf has helped the city of Elinathrond. What defenses against outside forces have you taken part of? Any smithing?”

Slats: “Smithing! Ha! Now there is an assumption I would expect! I love to take a hammer and pound out some roasting hot ore but alas, this dwarf has not done such a task in some time. I chop wood and if not chopping wood, Cusis has me making pies aside from my normal servant duties. Although, I dare say I am any good at pie making.”

Me: “So you are a servant, pie-maker, woodsman?”

“Wood-dwarf. I am no man. I do not care for many men, nor does the elf. She and I had quite the ordeal the last time those bastard men of the Legions were near us. A lot of good dwarves and elves died.”

Me: “You speak of the tragedy in Taria. I believe readers of this will learn soon of that travesty.”

Slats: “That is a sad memory and I wish not to remember it right now. There is already too much sadness in the city to think of what happenings were before our time. Elinathrond was suppose to be safe. I digress from our topic,  of much history I do enjoy and of lately my reading has taken me to the subject of wine-making.”

Me: “Are you preparing for the arrival of the new winemaker?”

Slats: “Yes, I am. I am to be their assistant.”

Me: “Have you been an assistant before?”

Slats: “I have had interest but Loria, the previous winemaker, had a less than patient times with dwarves. He was of the old thinking, he fought against the dwarves many times. I am too young to remember such happenings but I know of them. He was a good elf but stubborn, if I can say without dishonoring him.”

Me: “I understand he died in a fire?”

Slats: “Died is one wording of it, Cusis and I believe he was killed but we are not sure who did it. I am wary of being in the winery for that reason no doubt!”

Me: “Wine in the north, an odd choice don’t you think? Grapes that far north? Is Elinathrond not very cold?”

Slats: “You must understand that our wine is much more than a fine drink. I dare say it is a life-force, and one that has run out--- oh dear, I must get going!

*Slats leaves the table and head towards the door*

Me: “Wait! I had a few more questions!”

Slats: “Sorry dear sir, come to the estate and we will share some wine and talk of it! I must hurry, I left pies in the oven! Cusis told me not to burn the pies again! He is going to kill this dwarf!”

*The door slams shut and I am alone again*

Another interview with a character from Winemaker of the North is available! Click here to meet a mage and decide yourself if he is for good or ill.

Read more of Slats and the city of Elinathrond in the sword-and-sorcery novel Winemaker of the North!

Feel free to share this post via Facebook and Twitter  below!

Call it an unfortunate happening, a heap of bad omens, or simply life, but I will be pushing off the release of Saints of Wura Book One: Winemaker of the North. Unexpected and significant financial issues have made it impossible for me to meet my 2014 release target.

The good part of this is that when this book is released, the sequel will be released at the same time! I am working to finalized my edits of Saints of Wura Book Two and will publish them together as soon as I can. That is the plan, at least!

It honestly saddens me that I cannot meet this goal like I had planned but with Book 1 and Book 2 sharing a release date of early 2015, you can look forward to Book 3 not too long afterward. Who knows, maybe it can happen sooner? I will see. If by a some act of the Heavens it is possible, that will make a happy blog post!

Take care for now and don't worry, blog posts will still be coming as normal and I am constantly adding to my WIPs! 2015 should be an exciting year!

As I sit here looking over the soon-to-be finalized cover for Saints of Wura Book 1, I look at my mailing list and am happy that I have had such interest! With that interest, I feel more than that may be needed. But not from them, but from myself!

I am an unknown, in a sea of even more unknowns, swimming beneath the shadows of lesser unknowns, and finally the household name authors on the surface of the ocean of books who have fans far and wide. The fact is, those whom have expressed interest this early in my publication process without much more than a blurb and a stock photo, have found what they've read to be something they want to read more of.

What more could I want?

I want to do something for those on this list ahead of the actual publication. I will be thinking of what this is. If you are one of those on my mailing list, thank you! If you are new and want to know what all this talk is about, head here to read of Winemaker of the North, my upcoming novel. You can also head here to see my current release.

 For a reader to go out to a bookstore and buy a book from a well known author is one act, but to take a chance and show interest in an unknown indie author, it is quite a different act altogether.

Thank you all for reading!




J.T.

*NOTE: As of 12/13/2015 I wrote an updated post about this subject. You can read it by clicking here.*

Liliana Nirvana: I happened over this great post by Hugh Howey recently and it has stuck with me. Check it out here at his blog.

The essential Idea is to publish multiple works all at the same time, specifically 5 works, with 1 additional book ready to go a month later. As these are being read and discovered, write your next one and continue on. Almost like a pseudo backlist....

First, I very much like this idea. As someone whom is standing on top of multiple nearly done works. (i.e. lacking editing and covers but otherwise complete) it is a publishing strategy I very much might explore.

As an essentially unknown indie author, I could go from one published book to six and then seven a month later. If someone likes one book they *might* go look for another and rinse and repeat.

Potential Pitfalls

Crappy work- This is saying someone lacks the actual patience to write quality stories and just mass publishes cheaply done boring plots that do nothing but scream "I lack the ability to actually write this fast and don't care about my reader."

This is no good. It reminds me of when I see a cheap cover or read a blurb and see not only typos but numerous glaring mistakes in the grammar. With so many free grammar/ spell checkers, why is this even happening?

Cost- As with any business investment, you need funds and sitting on any novel while your work to write more can be difficult. One thought would definitely be crowd funding through Kickstarter or GoFundMe but if that method falls through or if your muse takes a hike. there isn't too much you can do about it secondary to saving up your money a little bit at a time.

Failure- In the end, there is no guaranteed path to success, no golden road, or obvious glaring flashy neon sign of which way you should go. If you think this might work for you, do it! In a world of instant gratification and immediate *more, more now* such as binge watching a full season of your favorite show on Netflix, (we've all done it!) appealing to your readers with a massive show up with a list of titles is like throwing chum into the water followed with a bucket of fish.... get 'em coming and then you'll get a feeding frenzy! At least, that's the idea, right?

But that leads to a last thought that I haven't mentioned yet, you must write quality stories and it would likely help if they were at least loosely related. In my own case, I have three novel length works forming a trilogy, a related novella in progress, and some standalone similar genre short stories.

Will I do this? I'm not sure. I'm exploring it. It seems viable but we will see. I know for now, Saints of Wura Book 1 is due out by the end of the year. Book 2 will follow early next year, perhaps, I will use this strategy then.

Until next time,

J.T.

Good morning everyone! I'm happy to reveal the cover for my upcoming short story collection Raven's Requiem! I'm working the last kinks out of the formatting but it should be available by the end of the month! I've updated the Release page and if you would like, send me a message and I will let you know when it is available! Those of you on my mailing list, please check your e-mail!

Thank you for your support! I'm happy to share this with you!




If you are interested, my cover was made by The Cover Collection!

Good evening,

I hope this post finds you well and without a moonlight shrouded squawking Raven outside your door. If that is the case, peace be with you, I doubt you will finish reading this....

.........Okay...... awkward, so to whoever is still with us congratulations, you have continued life but I dare you to read more of this murderous Raven and perhaps in the end it will not seem so deadly in itself.

In case you do not know, my first short-story collection, Raven's Requiem, will be released soon. It will be my first released work and I will even be giving away free copies to select readers! It is one of multiple tales of the macabre that I am excited to soon share with you.

Join my mailing list to get up-to-date info on this as well as Winemaker of the North, my first novel! 

For more information on Raven's Requiem, head here!

So between writing a new short story based off of Hunter's Reckoning, awaiting my editor to return my short stories for me to go over, perusing covers at thecovercollection.com, and continued editing of Winemaker of the North, I feel I've been quite busy! (at least in my mind!)

Perhaps the most exciting part of the recent week has been my email inbox receiving messages from those wishing to be a part of my eventual novel release! I have a ton of thanks to give out to each of you! Thank y'all. Seriously! If you are interested yourself about it go here to take a look!

I am still thinking late June into early July for the release of the short story collection. Look for updates and the (eventual) cover reveal!

Off to edit a bit now.....I promised my kids that they could get to hear one of daddy's stories tomorrow night but I defineitly need to make sure it sounds good. Little critics like none other. :)

So if you follow me on Twitter you may already know this, but I spotted my muse running in an open field. With a well aimed arrow I crippled the fleeing bastard and dragged him kicking and screaming to my cave. I used two chains this time....

I wanted to turn Hunter's Reckoning into a first person short-story that is actually something I would want to compile into an e-book. Following an exhaustive few hours, the end result was a horrid but complete almost 8000 word short story. Not too shabby for a much shorter "outline". In the end it is a first draft and has permission to suck!

It was mostly painless. I added to the plot a bit and assured the story came full circle in a believable way. The most difficult part of this ordeal was changing from my typical third person point of view past tense to a first person present tense .

Example:

My normal: The hunter looked at the barmaid, she smiled at him but he was not here to be cordial and he turned his glare away as he took a seat.

The change: I look at the barmaid. She smiles at me and I avert my eyes, walking pass her to seat myself.

Not too hard in that very simple, rough sample. But getting into the flow of writing and switching into first person past tense was too easy. I continually had to work to keep myself in the right mindset and using the correct words.

I found an interesting site that talks more of first person present tense here. I agree that it puts the reader in the story and literally in the action, but as a complete change from my comfort zone, it does not make the writing process any easier!

Has anyone else tried their hand at writing in a drastically different tense than their norm? Do you have any tips to switching from one way to the other?

Let me know in the comment section below!

So following the blog series Hunter's Reckoning, I have decided that while I still work on Winemaker of the North, it is time to get an e-book out to the world. The odd fact is that while my novels are of the fantasy genre, it seems my first short-story and short-story collection will deal primarily with the macabre and paranormal. Quite a differing branch of fiction than my typical!

Thecovercollection.com will likely be the place I purchase my cover from. (I have technically picked it, but I am deciding between 2 or 3 right now.) The process seems easy as far as purchasing and having it made, but I will be sure to further review them here after I use their services. I am excited!

Pricing is still up in the air. But I will likely follow my own advice as I wrote it a few weeks ago here. 

I hope you will try a sample when it comes available. I will post further information on Twitter as it is appropriate as well as announce it here, as soon as it is available!

Good morning!

I recently completed a short-story blog series titled Hunter's Reckoning and was happy that not only did I have some retweet and favor the link on Twitter, but that in general I had consistent site visits on each day that I posted a new part of the tale.

THANK YOU to all that took the time to come read as well as to return and read the consecutive parts!

I did hope to get a few comments (good or rightly negative if was the opinion of the reader!) but knowing I had readers was enough!

I enjoyed providing a short work of fiction for potential readers that cost them nothing and hopefully provided some entertainment. Obviously, it was not enough material for an actual book and I would never try to make someone pay for such a small story.

But could the "Hunter" continue into a full fledged novel? Yes. But I do not feel forcing a story that is not novel material into 60,000 words of filler. Why waste the time writing something that doesn't hold the potential to stand on its own?

I know as I move forward I will want to provide free-to-read type content as a supplement to future novel length works like Winemaker of the North. I think of the appendixes of Lord of the Rings as a partial inspiration to this. It was extra content, not plot centric, but interesting to someone whom had read the book. It helped finish up the "curiosity" of the reader. How many people *just* reading the book itself actually knew that Legolas and Gimli went into the West in the times after the end of Return of the King?

"But who cares Jeremy? I watched the movies and read the books and I didn't really care THAT much about it."

That's fine. That is why I will not make someone pay for it, or pay extra for it, per se. It very well might be included  within an e-book but I want to make it to where additional tidbits will be available here. I enjoy learning more about the "world" of fantasy be it within novels, games, or even movies. Look at Elder Scrolls V Skyrim, the writers and developers of that game created an entire world that you are free to explore and do as you wish with separate "sub-plots" some completely unrelated to the main story arc, and people love it. There are even in game books to read telling of the lore and histories!I am excited to create this fantasy world and share it with you. In the future I will post of the cultures that inspired some of my races and peoples as well as develop a map of the world in which Saints of Wura Book 1: Winemaker of the North takes place in.

In the meantime, be sure to read the first-person tale, Hunter's Reckoning.

Thank you for reading!




JT