The Blog of the Empire - Page 40

Hi. This is a strange post, but I feel like I need to say something about this before things get any weirder. So right now on Amazon there is another author using my name who is writing erotica novels, and it can be confusing and may potentially seem like I am writing them. I am not. I AM NOT WRITING EROTICA OR THESE NOVELS. They were even showing up on my Goodreads account, but that issue has been resolved going...

Book cover design is a ridiculously important part of the self-publishing process. The book cover design is important to attracting readers. Readers, although they are named such, don't read the blurb or first few pages to decide if they want to read your book, they just look at the cover. I am guilty of this, so I am not complaining. It is just how we as Humans operate. Like anyone does not. Photo from Build a Dean Because of that...

If you have been paying attention you will have noticed that on the sidebar I have added a newsletter widget. That's right: I'm making a newsletter. I already have some ideas for it. Blog highlights, release details. Exclusive stuff. I'm not going to list it all: that is going to be in the inaugural issue of my new newsletter. I'll be launching it after I get a good batch of subscribers. Sign up and join the fun!

Book marketing is probably the most draining aspect of being a self-published author. Writing the book wasn't enough. Now you have to convince everyone else to bother reading it. Yay. I really hate marketing. It feels hollow and dishonest. But you know what feeling is worse? No one reading your book. Which, in this era of the book market being extremely oversaturated and increasingly so, is a real possibility. A serious one that you should consider. My life... So we,...

How to Stop Wildfire and the subsequent books are based on a non-omniscient third-person point of view. Certain characters get to color the narration. And some, the titular 'Trinity and the One,' have an accessible thought process. A stream of consciousness. I like to think of the POV as like a microphone that the Trinity and the One characters seize from each other. That is why POV can change within a page. It is a fluid prospect. But for the...

I was inspired and wrote a first person POV short story set in the same universe as How to Stop Wildfire. Asides from the universe there is not much connecting it. It is basically a monologue from a Shafien. You can read it on Medium or download it here. It is not much but I had fun writing it. The first-person was interesting for me because I usually do not write in it. And the character was someone wholly new...