January 2012 Sales

Charlotte Powers: Power Down – 41
Charlotte Powers: Power Play – 22
Charlotte Powers: Hidden Power – 26
The Undying Apathy Of Imogen Shroud – 7
Miya Black, Pirate Princess I: Adventure Dawns – 3
Miya Black, Pirate Princess II: Freedom & Responsibility – 3
Miya Black, Pirate Princess III: Fractured Lives – 0
Resonance Book One: Birds Of Passage – 16
The Boy & Little Witch – 4

Total – 122

Additionally, 18 borrows across titles.

So! Down a little from December but that’s to be expected. To be honest I haven’t been so interested in sales lately, I’m not sure why. Getting them is great, of course, and I’m happy to get over a hundred in a month, but selling books just doesn’t seem as important as hearing from people who enjoyed them—am I getting jaded? I guess because my numbers are pretty low compared to a lot of other people, it’s hard to get really excited about them. I appreciate every single sale I get and still get a little boost whenever I see a number go up, but … I don’t know. I guess also I’m concentrating on things that I can control, like actually writing, and sales do tend to take a back seat when I’m in that kind of mood.

Anyway! Goals for January were … actually I didn’t have any. The end/start of a year is always a low time for me, everything catches up and I spend most days just resting, but I’m coming back into myself now. Still taking it easy but starting to build some steam, Miya Black IV is almost ready to shove out of the nest, just a couple more proofs and I’ll be happy to publish it, and I’ve started actually writing Bright Battle Story: Tactics Heart as my #60KinFeb challenge (my principle fear with that one is that it’s just going to be so absurdly long, I’m only a quarter way through my outline for the first episode and it’s like 6,000 words already, if every episode is 20k then it’s going to be like 400,000 words long, eek). Resonance Book Two is slowly coming together, I’m almost in a place where I can finish the first draft of that. Charlotte Powers 4 needs more time alone, but it’s mostly written and I just have to figure some stuff out and maybe have an inspiration or two … in any case that’s for next month.

Actually, that’s a good idea, let’s sort out some goals:

February 2012 Goals
1 – Write at least 60k of Tactics Heart. (Which would be the first three episodes? Yeep.)
2 – Get Resonance Book Two first-drafted for the love of biscuits.
3 – Miya Black IV proofed and released.

The space I’m in right now, regarding writing … I have to admit that I feel a little distant from the whole publishing side of things. I feel like this is the time before anything has really happened, if that makes sense. Just preamble, prologue, the best is yet to come sort of thing. I am looking forward to getting Tactics Heart out there, I feel that it’s a really strong story with some great characters and that if it can find its audience it’s going to make people happy. Episodic structure is really fun, too, I actually found it hard to go back to a more traditional novel style afterwards.

Aaaaanyway, January was a slow month, but it always is. Plus I was in Japan for most of it, now that I’m back home I’m getting more settled.

As ever, onwards and upwards!

December 2011 Sales

Charlotte Powers: Power Down – 57
Charlotte Powers: Power Play – 46
Charlotte Powers: Hidden Power – 37
The Undying Apathy Of Imogen Shroud – 6
Miya Black, Pirate Princess I: Adventure Dawns – 29
Miya Black, Pirate Princess II: Freedom & Responsibility – 6
Miya Black, Pirate Princess III: Fractured Lives – 5
Resonance Book One: Birds Of Passage – 16
The Boy & Little Witch – 3

Total Sales For December: 206
Sales/Day: 6.8

Releasing Charlotte Powers 3 this month definitely gave my numbers a boost, but it was the new KDP Select program that really brought in the sales, especially making books free (I know, it’s kind of paradoxical but giving books away really does help sales, mostly because of the magic of also-bought lists). So, aside from those numbers up there I also had a couple of thousand free downloads, and around thirty ‘borrows’. Giving away books is fun, and when it leads to actual sales it’s even funner.

So anyway, I achieved my goal of selling more than a hundred books in a single month. In fact, I sold over two hundred! And this with higher prices, too. (My new pricing policy is $3.99 for first-in-series, $4.95 for subsequent books.) (Seems to be working so far!) While I’m happy about these numbers, mostly I’m just pleased that I got to release Charlotte Powers 3 and that people like it. Number four is proving to be a tricky beast–there’s just so much I want to put in it, so many things that I want to explore, picking and choosing is really hard. I might have to write book five (or at least thoroughly outline it) before I continue on four, they’re pretty heavily linked.

Anyway! Since it’s the end of the year I figure I’ll make this a kind of wrap-up post too, so here come some more numbers:

2011 Total Sales

Miya Black I – 74
Miya Black II – 23
Miya Black III – 16
Charlotte Powers: Power Down – 425
Charlotte Powers: Power Play – 90
Charlotte Powers: Hidden Power – 37
Resonance One: Birds Of Passage – 34
Undying Apathy – 77
The Boy & Little Witch – 10

Total Sales for 2011 – 786

I started at the end of February so it’s not really a full year but whatevs. More than seven hundred books sold, some really lovely reviews, nine books released and a lot of valuable lessons learnt, I think that’s none too shabby for my Year One. Looking ahead to sparkly fresh 2012, I feel outrageously optimistic. Back when I started this whole indie author adventure I was really pretty directionless—just writing books and putting them out there with the vague hope that they might get bought or something. Now I feel like I might actually know what I’m doing, that I have a much better idea of what sells and why, that I’m comfortable with my simplistic, hands-off approach to marketing/promotion, and that (most importantly) I’m a much better writer than I was at the start of the year. That’s really the big thing for me, I feel much more comfortable and confident about handling a story now, I’ve got a good handle on my process for developing an idea into an outline and then a first draft, even editing and proofing is less of a chore than it used to be—just a necessary part of things that takes a certain amount of time to do properly. I don’t regret the hours I put into it. Anyway, all in all I like where I am now, and I’m looking forward to where 2012 will take me.

Moving on, to something I’ve been thinking about recently. I have two main long-term goals; to have forty books published before I’m forty, and to be consistently earning more than $4,000 a month from book sales. At this point in time, I feel that I’m going to accomplish the second goal before the first. Overly optimistic? Arrogant, even? Let me up the stakes a little; I think I’m going to achieve this before the end of 2014, and here’s why: by that time I’ll have twenty books out (at the least), priced between $3.99 and $4.95. In order to earn my target of $4,000 per month I’d have to sell around 1300 books/month, which is around forty books a day. Spread over twenty titles, that’s just two sales per day per book—not unrealistic, I feel.

But anyway. This is normally the point at which I’d talk about what I accomplished during the month but actually I didn’t accomplish much, mostly due to being in Japan for most of the time—I did edit and proof Charlotte Powers 3 to a publishable standard at the start of the month and fiddled around with a few things, did some rewriting on a couple of different things and did an edit/total freakin’ overhaul of Miya Black IV and picked away at Tactics Heart and Resonance 2: Resonate Harder but nothing of any real substance. I’m on holiday! I’m just relaxing. January will be more of the same (which is what happened last year too, I seem to recall), but once I get home things are kicking into gear—building a website for Bright Battle, figuring out more episodic mechanics, finishing Resonance Book Two (currently a priority), working on Charlotte Powers 4 & 5, maybe even working on this new ‘promises and sacrifices’ story that popped into my head like two hours before I had to get on the plane (that always happens). Plus I still want to do my timey-wimey story and and and argh there’s just too much. One thing at a time, though, one thing at a time. I think I need a new paragraph to help me collect my thoughts.

In terms of 2012 goals I want to get Charlotte Powers 4 & 5 out to complete the series, Resonance Book Two released sometime in the next three months would be nice also. Bright Battle of course, that’ll be an ongoing thing for most of the year, then I’ll probably kick Miya Black IV and V out of the nest too, they’ve been bumming around for far too long. I’d like to have fifteen books published by the time 2013 begins, which means six books over twelve months, but considering quite a few of them are already mostly written that’s not such an unrealistic target. Miya Black IV & V are easy, I just have the edit the heck out of them. IV is mostly done, it just needs around 20k added to the middle, it’s already vaguely outlined … maybe near the end of the year if I’m in a piratey mood (and if the other books are selling). I have around fifty thousand words of CP4 done already, but I’m not sure if I want to use them. The story isn’t as strong as it should be. Resonance 2 is about ninety percent written, I just have to do the last bit then take a good hard objective look at it and make sure the way I’ve structured things is the absolute best way to tell the story, because I suspect it’s not. Let me just give you a little tip here, if you’ve got a book with four concurrent storylines featuring dozens of characters … look, just try not to get in a situation where you’ve got a book with four concurrent storylines featuring dozens of characters. Sorting it all out and making sure everything lines up and makes chronological sense is a real headache.

Anyway, enough rambling. Let’s wrap things up with … a score tally!

[2011 CLEAR]

Words Written: 762,000 ……… 762pts

Titles Published: 9 ……… 900pts

Books Sold: 786 ……… 786pts

Stars Collected: 167 ……… 167pts


UNCOMPROMISED PRIDE BONUS ……… 50pts

EFFORT BONUS ……… 25pts


Total ……… 2690pts

RANK ……… B+

Well seven. But they’re all really good.

—

Anime: Various
Song: Vanilla Sky – Umbrella

I’m not in love with the song for this one and I’m only vaguely familiar with most of the featured anime, but in the end I only really ask one thing of an AMV, and that’s that it makes me tingle. This one makes me tingle.

Best Selection: 2:30 – 2:36. Build-up, pause, release, tingle.

—

I’m not much of a shipper. When I do ship it’s usually for at least vaguely canonish couples like Mustang x Hawkeye or Tanis x Lauralanthalasa, but Kirk x Spock is a love for the ages.

(Actually, just writing that I couldn’t help but think, “Kirk x Spock IS a canon couple”.)

(Don’t ship Kirk and Spock? You do now.)

Best Selection: STAR MAPS.

—

I recently finished watching Puella Magi and, as expected, it tore me apart—not least because the way in which it tore me apart was totally different to what I was expecting. I cried all the way through the last episode then couldn’t sleep for thinking about it. Great series. Great series.

(By the way, this AMV contains some pretty big spoilers for a show that really shouldn’t be spoiled at all—I was lucky enough to go in knowing nothing about it except that it was something of a deconstruction of the Magical Girl genre. If you haven’t already I recommend you watch the show now—NOW—and then watch this.)

Anyway, I haven’t watched many AMVs for Puella Magi yet (spoiler avoidance, you know how it is) but out of those I’ve seen I chose this one because if you don’t ship Madoka x Homura then WHAT WERE YOU WATCHING?

Best Selection: do you know the regrets I paid / for all the times I saved

(Oh Homura.)

—

Anime: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
Song: My Chemical Romance – The Black Parade

he said son when / you grow up / would you be / the saviour of the broken / the beaten and the damned

It’s almost spooky how well this song matches the anime. Fantastic AMV. Just excellent in every possible way.

Best Selection: Kind of, sort of, basically all of it. Look, just the fact that it manages to make TTGL even more epic is incredible.

—

Anime: Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Song: Globus – Orchard of Mines

Another tingly AMV, although I felt the ending was a teensy bit weak—or just not quite as strong as the rest, maybe. I’m in the middle of re-watching Brotherhood now, and it’s amazing just how much I want to just keep going all the way through. That’s the mark of a truly great story, I think, even when you know what’s going to happen you still get pulled through so strongly.

Best Selection: Ed trying so desperately to reach Al with the music and the flashes of memory and excuse me I’ve just got something in my eye

—

Anime: Suzumiya Haruhi No Yuuutsu
Song: The Veronicas – 4ever

There are a lot of things to praise about this one, but mostly I like it because it reminds me of how much I like Haruhi, despite her faults (and she has her share).

Best Selection: Haruhi failing to throw grass in Kyon’s face was basically a perfect moment. I mean … it’s not really anything the AMV did. But still. Perfect moment.

—

Anime: Darker Than Black
Song: Darkwing Duck Theme

THE CONCEPT ALONE MERITS INCLUSION

Best Selection: DARKER THAN DUCK

After actually publishing something I usually feel a combination of satisfaction and emptiness, and this time is no exception. I really do put everything I have into my books, no corners cut however tempting it might be to do so—that final proof is a good example, how much did it improve the book, really? By one percent? Less? It’s the law of diminishing returns, the first edit might give a twenty percent improvement to the book, the next ten percent, then five, then three, then two, then one, but even that one percent improvement, catching another error, tightening up those final few sentences that are just a little loose, killing that ‘she said’ which isn’t really necessary, adding that single line of description that really sets the tone of a scene, all of these things really are just so important to me. Little details. Little details are important. After the last proof I did on the book my feeling was that doing another could possibly catch another error or two, would maybe turn up a few sentences that could be better, but in terms of story and polish, I was (and am) happy. I think part of being not just a writer but an author—and in a certain sense a publisher—is learning when to say ‘this is as good as I can reasonably expect to make it; it’s time to cut the cord’. That’s probably the single most important skill I’ve developed through this whole indie author adventure; learning to finish things, really finish them, not just outlining and writing a first draft that I come back to every so often mostly because I want to read that scene I’m particularly fond of, but focused crafting of not just a story but a book.

Anyway, I hope people like this one. The ending is even more difficult than Power Play’s (which was pretty bad, in that sense), but it’s all going somewhere. I’m not just throwing these things together, I have a definite end in mind and know just what has to happen to reach that end. So after Hidden Power there are going to be two more books, Rising Power and then Power Overwhelming, and that’ll be the end of Charlotte’s story. For better or worse. After that, I don’t know. I have other projects and other series but I don’t want to let go of Charlotte’s world just yet; there are stories still to tell.

Anyway, for now I’m happy with where I am. I was especially happy at the response to my pre-release announcements—that there was any response at all was amazing. It wasn’t so long ago that I was just writing entirely for myself, making these little stories for no grander reason than my own amusement, and now here I am, slowly but surely getting my books into the hands of people who actually want to read them—who look forward to the next in the series enough to say ‘yay!’ or ‘hurry up!’ when I announce it’s coming. These sorts of things might seem minor but they really do mean a lot to me, and I’m grateful to all my readers. The simple truth is that this wouldn’t be nearly as fun without you.

SO WHAT’S THIS ABOUT LGBT

LGBT stands for Lesbian Gay Bi Transexual, and it’s sometimes criticised for being a little exclusive (in the sense of excluding people). QUILTBAG does something to remedy this, standing for Queer (or Questioning), Undecided, Intersex, Lesbian, Trans, Bisexual, Asexual, Gay, and there’s the kind of fun but ever-so-slightly dismissive LGBTetc which attempts to include everyone. GLBT also exists as a variant and you can add on all sorts of acronymical letters and numbers to indicate various identities but really the point of it is to more accurately describe the increasingly inaccurately named ‘gay community’.

BUT OF COURSE YOU ALREADY KNEW THAT

Quibbling about definitions, although fun, isn’t the point of this thing. What I really want to talk about is the issue of LGBT characters in fiction. Let’s be frank, non-straight non-white characters are woefully lacking in all areas of western fiction—Hollywood movies are perhaps the worst offenders but just take a look at the fiction bestsellers and count up all the non-straight non-white protags. Not a lot there. Any present could be considered what I think of as ‘splendid freaks’ (a term I picked up from an interview with Alan Moore, where he used it to describe the (unexpected, baffling, wonderful) popular success of Laurie Anderson’s “O Superman”), very much the exception; far from the rule.

SO THERE’S NOT ENOUGH LGBT FICTION OUT THERE

There is FAR from enough LGBT fiction out there, ESPECIALLY genre fiction—and often what IS out there is overtly labelled and shuffled into what’s commonly referred to as the ‘gay ghetto’, a specific section put aside for anything that might offend more ‘normal’ sensibilities. There are arguments for and against this—if people WANT that sort of thing then they should be able to easily find it, and if people don’t want it they enjoy a measure of ‘protection’ if it’s segregated—

AH THAT’S A BAD WORD THOUGH

It IS a bad word. Well, not natively. But the implications are, I feel, not good. Segregation leads to marginalisation, it reinforces the notion that this is something different, that it is not part of What Is Normal but instead part of What Is Different and thus Not To Be Casually Accepted. To my mind this isn’t particularly positive.

OF COURSE THAT’S MORE OF A TRADPUB THING

It is, but in a lot of ways it’s even harder for indies—I’ve seen some tentative talk of using labels to identify books as ‘gay-friendly’ but there again, even just the word, ‘labels’—it’s such a tricky area. I don’t have a clear answer, except to suggest that with time and effort and everyone pulling together, it might end up not being a problem at all.

WHAAAAAAT

Here’s the thing, and I’m going to veer off a little here so, y’know, bear with me. As I said before, there’s not enough LGBT fiction out there, especially genre fiction. I want to see more diverse characters doing more diverse things. YA adventure is especially lacking in this area, I want more non-straight non-white characters.

SO WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO ABOUT IT PUNK

For a start, writing about LGBT characters for whom being LGBT is not all they are—and whose stories are not always about the conflicts that being LGBT might bring. Don’t get me wrong, I love an ‘issues’ book, and coming-out stories can be great. The hardships of being different in a world that celebrates conformity is a theme that is close to my heart, and any book that explores this in whatever capacity is likely to be one that I enjoy—and more than enjoy, take something away from. But as great as coming-out and issues and the-hardships-of-being-LGBT stories are, they’re just not what I usually want to write—which is more along the lines of conflicted but determined characters doing everything they can to protect those they care about in the face of overwhelming adversity, often with pirates and zombies and other such menaces, and in such situations sexuality does tend to take a back seat.

THAT DAMN BACK SEAT SEXUALITY

I think including characters who are LGBT or otherwise outside the norm but not having their sexuality (or lack thereof) define their character is absolutely vital. I also think it’s important not to make a big fuss about this—this may feel self-defeating, but there’s a certain cultural tipping point beyond which ‘tolerated’ becomes ‘accepted’, and once you’re past that you can move on to the far more important goal of ‘celebrated’. Because that is what is necessary; diversity needs to be celebrated.

SO THEN WHAT

The way I approach things is like this: my straight characters don’t make a big song and dance about their sexuality, so why should my non-straight characters? Sexuality is part of who a character (or person) is, but ONLY a part. If an author is listing ‘gay’ as a defining character trait, I would submit that they’re doing it wrong. Too often (especially in movies and on TV shows) we see characters for whom being gay IS their character, camping it up and doing nobody any favours. Not that there’s anything wrong with campiness, but if the sole purpose of a gay character is to be a big joke then, no, that’s not okay.

LET’S HAVE A POSITIVE EXAMPLE

One that immediately leaps to mind is Scott Pilgrim’s Wallace Wells. He’s gay, and this is shown not through fabulous fashion sense or camp mannerisms or a love of musical theatre, but mostly through sleeping with dudes. He’s very much his own character, one of the best (and most popular) in the series, and while being gay is part of this it’s absolutely not all that he is.

WHAT ABOUT THE HATERS

Yep, they’re out there. People who’ll slag a book (or whatever) off simply for daring to include something that’s outside their personal comfort zone. I don’t personally care if someone doesn’t read a book (mine or someone else’s) because of LGBT characters. That’s their choice. Well okay fine I DO care a little bit, but I’m not going to point and say “Oi! You! Read that!”. See above about the tipping point into acceptance. You can’t force people to change, it just doesn’t work like that.

I SAY THAT IN THIS LIFE

It might seem callous to say this, but the bigoted narrow-minded never-gonna-change types are (given time) all going to get old and become less relevant and eventually, inevitably, die. And those who come after them will (hopefully, with enough positivity, with enough cultural support) be a little more accepting, a little more open, a little more understanding, a little more compassionate. A little more accepting. A little more willing to celebrate that which is different. Things are changing, and it’s my feeling that they’re changing for the better. Perhaps slowly, but that’s okay. Gradual change is often the kind that lasts.

LET US NOT FORGET

So to sum up, I think that it’s important to include LGBT characters even in non-issues books, and especially in genres that are currently dominated by non-straight non-white characters (ie all genres). I think that it’s important not to let a character’s sexuality define them, no matter what it might be. More than that, more than being ‘important’ I just think it’s fun and interesting—and in fact I don’t have much say over the sexuality of my characters, it’s just something that I realise somewhere along creating them, “Oh, she likes girls, he thinks men are delicious, she’s not really a particularly sexual person”, these come up like hair colour or a love of apples or that their favourite colour is puce. Part of who they are; not all they are.

THERE IS HOPE

I think that things are getting better, but that every little bit helps. We all need to push together to get society over that ‘tolerance’ hump and into the valley of ‘acceptance’. From there, it’s a long but clear road to the ideal of ‘celebration’.

THERE IS HOPE!

I love works with LGBT characters. Love them all to pieces. Love experiencing different viewpoints than my own, love finding those new perspectives, love learning about struggles and hardships and conflicts that might never otherwise have struck me. The world is a huge and wonderful and spectacularly varied place, and the best thing about it is that there’s room for all of us, no matter who we are. Fiction that embraces this is always, always welcome.

Well, for one, because exclusivity often leads to complications. In a certain sense it’s a bet; Amazon is currently the biggest name in e-book distribution, but will that continue? What if something changes? What if the KDP terms are altered (pray I do not alter them further), what if royalties are cut in half? I don’t personally see Amazon coming out behind in any e-retail fight, but who knows what the future holds—and what they might decide to do should they achieve that elusive monopoly. I have a certain amount of trust in Amazon (or, to be more specific, in Amazon’s business sense; they know not to mess with a good, profitable thing), but things could always change.

Right now I certainly can’t say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to exclusivity because this is all still very much speculation based on rumour, although it’s a pretty solid one as far as rumours go. I don’t know the details of the contract involved or what Amazon might offer, and so a lot of questions are raised. Would this exclusivity be for a set length of time, or could one ‘opt out’ with a certain amount of notice? What, exactly, are they offering—the ability to make your books free whenever you want (attractive), the option to make a product page for your books before they’re released and take pre-orders (very attractive)? What if (as is rumoured) some manner of special promotional options were included (extremely attractive)? Does exclusivity extend only to other retailers, or would it prohibit selling through my website—or even giving away books for free? What if I offered ePub versions of my books through my website as a free download with a donate button nearby (as I have tentative plans to do), would that conflict with ‘exclusivity’? What if a situation came up like I had earlier this year, with Power Play not being available to buy (for two freaking months), would I be allowed to offer it as a free download, as I did then?

Lots of questions, but of course no answers. As mentioned, this is all based on speculation which is in turn based on rumour. Pointless? Well, I believe it’s good to start thinking about these things early. It’d be a big decision to make, perhaps one of the biggest as an indie author; do I want to trust Amazon to be my sole distributor?

As things stand I think my answer could be ‘yes’, but it really does depend on the terms of the exclusivity contract and the bonuses offered. With that said I feel that the benefits for myself could easily (and heavily) outweigh any negative points. There’s another aspect to this too, one I mentioned right at the start; as things stand, Amazon really is the only major distributor that does us indies any favours at all—from the ease of use and openness of KDP to the mysterious Amazon algorithms working in our favour (without ‘also boughts’ I doubt I’d have even the few sales I enjoy), there is the sense that they have a certain amount of respect for us (or at least for the money we bring in). I do feel an odd sort of loyalty to The Mighty Zon for that; for the opportunities Amazon has given me.

Although with that said if this does all come to be and I am faced with this choice, my decision will be based on reason rather than emotion. I’ll read the contract, consider the benefits, consult with my learned peers, think things over, and only THEN will I click “YES YES TAKE MY INDIE SOUL GIVE ME THE SHINY TOYS YES”.

As a final thought, pairing this rumour with ANOTHER rumour, that Amazon may allow formats other than Mobi (most importantly ePub) to be sold through the Kindle store, well … that would make things look even more attractive. In any case it looks like 2012 is going to be a very interesting year. Very interesting indeed.

Anyway, numbers!

November 2011 Sales

Charlotte Powers: Power Down – 58
Charlotte Powers: Power Play – 29
The Undying Apathy Of Imogen Shroud – 3
Miya Black, Pirate Princess I: Adventure Dawns – 1
Miya Black, Pirate Princess II: Freedom & Responsibility – 0
Miya Black, Pirate Princess III: Fractured Lives – 1
Resonance Book One: Birds Of Passage – 0
The Boy & Little Witch – 0

Total Sales For November: 92
Sales/Day: 3

So! It’s finally happened! Finally and definitively I can say that November 2011 is the first month in which I sold LESS than the month previous. Phew! It’s such a relief to have that out of the way. Also, it’s only by four books so it’s not a huge drop. As predicted, the release of the Kindle Fire has resulted in a huge increase of sales of, y’know, ACTUAL comic books from the Kindle store, which has had the effect of pushing Charlotte Powers out of the Superhero Top 100 almost entirely. I’m actually not that upset about this, it was a great little boost for a while but I was never relying on it to continue forever (plus I’m mostly being beaten by The Batman, impossible to feel bad about that). Technically the books shouldn’t have ever been in there at all (it’s the superhero comics section, after all) but it really is the best category for a superhero story (as there isn’t a prose superhero category) (ALTHOUGH THERE SHOULD BE) (zombies too, there are MORE than enough zombie books out there to fill out a category) (but categories are definitely one area where Amazon is deficient), and it meant the book got exposed to people who became interested in it and bought it (and possibly read it and maybe even enjoyed it). What I mean is that I don’t think putting my book in that category was hurting anyone, so I never felt bad about doing so. Anyway! The free ride’s over and consequently sales are down, but that’s okay. YA’s a tough sell no matter what little lucky breaks you get, I just have to hope that enough people liked the story enough to recommend it to friends. (And hope also that it’s still showing up on some also-bought lists.) It might be that next year I have to do some actual (gnngh) marketing, but on the other hand naaaaah. Anyway, although I predict a further drop in sales for Charlotte Powers now that the Superhero Top 100 cheat code doesn’t really work any more, my hope is that they won’t stop completely. As long as I’m selling something I’m okay, it’s when nothing is moving at all that I get a bit down, worried that my fate is to write lovingly crafted, well-reviewed books that sell about ten copies a year.

Anyway, in 2012 I’ll be focusing on my episodic series, that’s going to be VERY fun. I was looking through my notes for it today and it really has the potential to become something pretty special. Of course it’s easy to say that when you haven’t actually written anything, but I’ve got a really good feeling about this one. I think it strikes a good balance between what I want to write and what people want to read, more than anything I’ve yet published—of course, when I say ‘what people want to read’ I don’t really mean mainstream people, I’m more talking about my people, those trope-savvy, webcomic, anime and game-loving people who are always on the lookout for something new and interesting and depthy to latch onto.

Milestones for this month? Over five hundred sold, that’s pretty special. Half a thousand! Also, with Charlotte Powers 3 & 4 done for NaNoWriMo I have now written over eight hundred thousand words of fiction in 2011. I’m not sure if I can crack a million words by January 1st, but I’ve surprised myself in the past so, y’know, we’ll see.

Aside from the aforementioned Charlotte Powers 3 & 4, what did I accomplish in November? Quite an entirely surprising amount, actually! I did take a break from NaNo for a few days to work on an unrelated project, around 30,000 words that may or may not be useful (I just couldn’t help myself, I really got sucked into that thing almost to the point of obsession, although I’m still not sure if it’ll go anywhere). I also picked away at some notes and research for Tactics Heart, and even started doing the second draft outlines for the episodes (up to nine already and having a ball). Charlotte Powers 5 also called, said, “Hello, I’m pretty much definitely going to be the last book in the series and I’m kind of slightly just a bit epic, so keep that in mind, okay?”. I’m almost certainly going to have the entire Charlotte Powers series published by the end of next year, it’ll be nice to actually have something ‘finished’ out there. This seems like an ideal point to segue into:

GOALS FOR DECEMBER
1 – Tactics Heart. Lots of stuff to do there. Most importantly, writing up proper outlines for every episode (twenty-one at this point, in the first season) and lay groundwork for the website. Maybe write an actual episode or two.
2 – Edit, proof, polish Charlotte Powers 3.
3 – PUBLISH THAT SUCKER.

That’s probably enough, considering I’ll be in Japan for most of the month (and the next). This does mean that I won’t achieve my goal of having ten books published by the end of 2011, but I’d rather fail a self-imposed challenge than push things out too quickly. I guess I could publish Miya Black IV but considering the potential market for that is less than a dozen people I’m not really in too much of a hurry. It is pretty much finished, though, and having it out there wouldn’t hurt … well, maybe. I’ll see how things go. In any case getting Charlotte Powers 3 published is a definite priority—in time for Xmas! Maybe I should churn out a Christmas-themed novella too. Haha. Kind of half-serious about that.

In any case, NaNovember was (as always) both fun and productive. December is going to be busy, but I’m always happiest when I have a lot to do and deadlines to pummel into submission.

Next year will be, I predict, unusual and exciting. I’m looking forward to it already.

“And why not, exactly?”

“Or what?“

However, the good news is that the problem has FINALLY been fixed—just a few days ago, but still. Phew. I’m immensely relieved to have that out of the way, I feel free to move forward now. Looking at the positive side of the whole thing, I received quite a few emails and messages from people who enjoyed the first book and wanted the second, emails that I might not have otherwise received. Silver lining and all that.

But enough faffery, numbers!

October 2011 Sales

Charlotte Powers: Power Down – 69
Charlotte Powers: Power Play – 7 (pretty good, considering)
The Undying Apathy Of Imogen Shroud – 12
Miya Black, Pirate Princess I: Adventure Dawns – 2
Miya Black, Pirate Princess II: Freedom & Responsibility – 1
Miya Black, Pirate Princess III: Fractured Lives – 1
Resonance Book One: Birds Of Passage – 3
The Boy & Little Witch – 1

Total Sales For October: 96
Sales/Day: 3

The bump for Imogen Shroud came from Kindle Lovers, which was pretty nice. Sales for Charlotte Powers are down from last month—there was a stretch where I didn’t sell anything at all for about four days, and the resulting drop from the front page of the superhero top 100 proved difficult to recover from. Also I’m pretty sure Amazon is fiddling with their ‘also bought’ algorithms—just a feeling, but a strong one.

Milestones for this month? For a start, my first return! Also, over three hundred copies sold of Charlotte Powers: Power Down, and over four hundred books sold in total. With the ten-sales-in-a-day bump for ImoShrou from Kindle Lovers I also got above #10,000 in the Kindle Store for the first time, which was fun.

Edit: Some lovely lovely people bought books at the last minute and pushed my monthly total up to 96, which means that I have at the least equalled last month’s numbers. Adding in the downloads/donations for Power Play and, well, it seems that I could unambiguously state that this is NOT, in fact, the first month in which I sold less than the month before. I’m quite happy about this, as you may well have guessed.

Enough of that, what did I get done this month? My goals were fairly vague, mostly notes and outlining, and near the beginning of October I made the firm decision not to do any actual writing at all this month—take a break, so to speak. So mostly I worked on covers, I redid all of the Charlotte Powers books and I’m very happy with the results. I also made a teaser trailer for next year’s big project (more on which in a bit), which involved learning how to use Premiere Elements (conclusion: video editing is VERY fun). Aside from that I wrote notes and notes and notes and notes, mostly for Bright Battle Story: Tactics Heart. I also worked on Charlotte Powers 3—so much stuff to figure out with that, it got fairly exhausting at times. I love being in the middle of a series but it does mean there’s a lot more to think about. Anyway, I’m almost definitely going to do it as my NaNovel, so publishing before the end of the year is fairly likely. Goals? Goals!

GOALS FOR NOVEMBER
1 – NaNo~!
2 – NANO~!
3 – NANO~!
4 – Also finish outlining Tactics Heart.

Because Tactics Heart is, or will be, next year’s Big Project. I’m going to serialise it! Not on Amazon, that wouldn’t work at all, but instead I’m going to build a new website for it and put out an episode a week for like twenty weeks. All for free! Then at the end I’ll turn it all into a beautifully formatted e-book and slap it up on Amazon. I’m totally in love with the story and characters and setting of Tactics Heart and it just lends itself so perfectly to a serial format, so why not, eh? Why not! It’ll be nice to have something in the background, too, something constant while I’m working on other things.

So that’s the plan. Write Charlotte Power 3 in November, continue to prepare Tactics Heart for next year, and maybe proof-and-polish Miya Black IV for a late December release.

Onwards!

WITH THAT SAID

Chihayafuru
It took me a while to try this one, despite being pointed towards it from numerous angles. “It’s an anime about competitive karuta of all things,” I (foolishly, short-sightedly, bone-headedly) thought to myself, “how good could it be?”

But of course it isn’t about karuta* at all. It’s about friendship and loneliness and loss and dreams and unexpected connections and, really, all the sorts of things good stories are built around. The characters are engaging and likeable (especially Chihaya), the voice acting is decent, the art style is … okay, the humour is gentle but effective (when something can make me laugh with a soft line like, “He spoke!”, I’m generally going to like it), and basically it’s pretty great. Characters, you see? Give me good characters and I’m yours.

(Also Arata’s dialect is adorable.)

A young Chihaya quietly shows her worth.

* Karuta is a kind of poem card game thing. It’s not boring, actually, just not the sort of thing you would (perhaps) expect an entire series to be built around.

Fate/zero
I haven’t watched Fate/stay night, but I’ve heard a lot about it (enough to recognise the significance of the final line of F/z’s first episode). It’s one of those series that I would’ve watched given the opportunity, but said opportunity never came up. Anyway. In some ways this was the opposite of Chihayafuru; a concept that seemed to be exactly the sort of thing I love, but in execution it turned out to be somewhat unengaging. Nothing terrible, competent enough and with high production values, but it just didn’t grab me. Not sure if I’ll continue on with it—with the feast of excellent anime I have before me, ‘pretty okay’ just doesn’t cut it.

Even so.

Tiger & Bunny
Superheroes, anime style! I like the concept of this one, superheroes being awarded points for their actions on a kind of reality TV show (First To Arrive! +25 Points!) but the CG is a big turn-off. The hero sponsorship is fun (with actual CMs!), but the actual superpowers are fairly vanilla and dull—nothing surprising, nothing creative. With that said I always like the ‘heartless corporate sponsors calling the shots for the people who do the ACTUAL work’ angle, and it seems as if that could have some nice payoffs later—to be honest I’m in two minds about the whole thing, in general I liked it … it’s probably too early to judge in any case, I should give it a fair shot before leaping to any conclusions. Focusing on the positive, it has an enormously likeable lead in Wild Tiger. He’s a veteran super hovering around the middle for ‘power’ and near the bottom for popularity, large on enthusiasm and heart but a little short on actual, y’know, competence. Not the brightest bulb in the box either. It’s not just his underdog qualities that make him engaging, as he’s also struggling to do right in the face of cynicism. Also, he’s not ACTUALLY a loser (he’s a super, after all, and even being the least popular still means he’s out there) but just a little past his prime and without much to fall back on. Having the latest young hotshot superhero come in with the exact same power as him doesn’t help matters.

I mean, look at that face!

Look at it!

LOOK AT IT.

So. Good concept, so-so creativity, distracting CG, but an engaging lead, some nice moments, and the potential for a good story. I’ll be giving this at least a couple more episodes, with the hope that it goes in the right direction.

Also there's a cameo by a young Macaulay Culkin. Let's be honest, that's worth another episode just by itself.

Last Exile ~ Ginyoku no Fam
Last Exile ~ Fam, The Silver Wing
I watched the original Last Exile pretty much as it aired, although thinking back now I can’t really recall much about it aside from the steampunkish aesthetic (skypunk?). Still very much present here, although I couldn’t tell you if any of the characters are the same—a few looked familiar but it might just be the art style.

But anyway. Decent enough, but again with the distracting CG—I guess it can’t be helped but still, the clash between CG and animation is far too harsh, it totally drags me out of the magic. It’s a shame, too, because other than that the show is pretty darn gorgeous—just check out this scenery:

The music is excellent also, just straddling that line between ‘noticeably excellent’ and ‘fittingly subtle’. Story and characters are decent enough, at least they seem to be getting into the main story quickly but it’s clearly not an anime that revels in clever plans or interesting ways out of tight situations; pretty standard fare in the action scenes. In fact, my favourite part of the episode was just seeing the characters eating together and chatting, there was exposition and foreshadowing involved but that sort of thing is nice as an introduction—one of my pet peeves in fiction is when a story starts off in the middle of an action scene before showing me who the characters are, why should I care about them? I have no context.

Anyway, I’ll probably give it another episode or two, if only to find out who this is:

I'm just a sucker for calm, competent, silver-haired 'lady knight' types; it is a Thing with me.

Guilty Crown
Stylish, atmospheric, superbly directed. From the first minute my attention was caught—you know how I said up there, how I don’t like it when stories start in the middle of the action with no introduction? Add “…unless it’s done well” to that. Guilty Crown’s opening is excellent, and quality is sustained throughout the episode. That everything looks gorgeous doesn’t hurt, even the CG isn’t particularly distracting—properly lit and rendered in a style that’s not too incongruent with everything else. I also like the reversal of the common “In the future Japan becomes the dominant superpower in the world” trope; due to a plague-like virus, Japan now relies on the rest of the world for its continued existence. The climax was pretty fabulous too—you know what? I can’t think of anything bad to say about this one, I really enjoyed it and I’m looking forward to more.

Sarai-ya Goyou
House Of Five Leaves
Mmm. Morally ambiguous Edo-period samurai series with a distinctly beautiful art style. The odds were in favour of me liking this from the start.

Again, I don't have much to say about it except that it's good and I want more.

Deceptively well-paced; it doesn’t feel rushed in the least but before I knew it the episode was over. It’d take a lot to stop me from watching this one through to the end.

SO THERE YOU HAVE IT

Anime, anime, anime. I’ve got it bad, bruvva. I’ve got it bad.