Hello, all!
A few things have happened that I thought deserved a bit of an update. We’ll start with the newest thing I’ll be checking everyday, Kindlegraphs. I’ve had a few people express interest in getting autographs from me. This is mind-blowing for me, because it means that there are people out there who consider me at least a minor celebrity. (To give you an idea of my glamorous celebrity life, I received the last email that mentioned the word autograph while I was trying to clean dried pancake batter from the top of the stove in my apartment.) Currently I don’t have any physical items to autograph, but I learned about a thing called “Kindlegraph” a few days ago, and it seemed like a great way to fill the need. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, Kindlegraph is a site that allows you to request an autograph from any book an author has signed up for the service. In time, that author will receive a notification and deliver a personalized PDF to your kindle with the cover of the book and an autograph. Neat, huh. There is some fine print regarding delivery charges if you receive the kindlegraph in a certain way, but otherwise it is free. The website is www.kindlegraph.com, and my author page is right here.
Next, over on the right side of the page, you may have noticed a nifty little Facebook widget, which at the time that I am writing this is hovering around 183. That, predictably, leads to a Facebook fan page for The Book of Deacon Series. I’ve been posting a few questions over there, regarding where you good folks would like me to focus my literary energy and artistic dollar next. For your edification, the questions I asked are as follows.
Pretty soon it will be time to start writing another Book of Deacon story. I’ve got a few ideas, and at least one partially written tale, but I’m interested to see what you folks think, so I’m going to ask some questions to see what my Facebook fans would like to see. First up, if you could read a book focusing on a single character (or perhaps a small group), who would it be? It can be anyone, minor or major, past, present, or future. (Please try to keep spoilers to a minimum, and if you can’t avoid them, label them.)
And then…
Okay, I got some great responses to yesterday’s question. Feel free to keep contributing, by the way. Today I’d like to talk about art. As you can see from my gallery, I’m a big fan of getting art made for the books. There are images of Myranda, Deacon, Lain, Ether, Jade, and Halfax already. I’ve got a piece of fan art on my site featuring the reader’s vision of Leo, Myranda, and Myn, too. What sort of artwork would you like to see made for the series? Characters, settings, a map, commissioned work, fan art, etc. (As before avoid or label spoilers.)
Well, far be it from me to deprive visitors of my site but not my Facebook page of a chance to weigh in as well, so feel free to comment below. In fact, here’s a sneak preview of the question I intend to ask tomorrow. As you know, right now I only sell digital goods. If you could pick something you’d like to see me offer in the way of merchandise, what would you most like to see? Posters, paperbacks, hardcovers, figurines, plushes, etc. I don’t know the first thing about providing any of these things (except one), but if you people are anxious to see something, I’ll do my best to make it happen.
As a minor aside, I’ve gotten a report of spam coming in with a bookofdeacon.com address on it. I’m looking into this now, but if you’ve had this problem, let me know, so I know how widespread the potential problem is.
Last but not least, I’d originally intended to do one massive round of updates and price adjustments on the same day I published Unstable Prototypes. Unfortunately, for reasons beyond my control, a few of the intended updates won’t be able to happen according to schedule. (I’d go into detail, but some of it is very hush hush, and some of it is a huge long shot that isn’t likely to pan out. I promise to let you know just as soon as I’m able.) As a result, I’ve decided to break them up. That means that Jade, my short novel, is now finally sporting its brand new cover, and is available at Smashwords and Amazon at the brand new price of 99 cents. This isn’t a sale, it is the new permanent price, and it should be trickling out to Barnes and Noble, Apple, et al in the next few weeks.
In parting let me just say that I may have something minor, but pretty neat to show off in a week or so. Until then, thanks for reading.