A New Launch!

I launched a new pen name, Nikki Blood, and my new line of XXX erotica, what I
consider nasty, naughty, dirty bad fun! Part Two of The Courtesan is up at
Smashwords, and once it is approved for wider distribution, you should be able to
find it a few other places like the iTunes/iBooks store, and a week from now, with
luck, Barnes & Noble.

I pumped up my samples at Smashwords to 20%, and now I need to get busy with
part three of this serial fantasy, with even more explicit boing-chika-wow-wow in
it. What to do, what to do. Yes I have a clue. I just need to get those ideas written
down, organize my thoughts, and get writing.

Now, even though I have a big beef with Amazon (and broke ties with Amazon), I
did approve these two books to be distributed to Amazon through Smashwords.
Let Amazon try to fuck over Smashwords, with Smashwords’ clout and cash for
lawyers. I dare Amazon to get caught cheating Smashwords out of their hard-
earned percentage of my book money. I dare them, because I’m sure that the fiasco
that continues to hurt indie authors (for the last seven months and counting), Mark
Coker is very much aware of the situation, and there are people on his staff that are
making sure Smashwords (and me) get every penny they (and me) deserve.

For every problem, there is a solution. Know your options.

I can say with complete confidence that right here and right now, I’ve made more
money than I did by being exclusive (this, the last year) to Amazon. One month
and counting. One fucking month, and I made more than I did this last year with
Amazon!

In the meantime, become a follower, show your appreciation and buy me a cup of
coffee, read my stories on Wattpad, vote, leave a comment, or just buy a book.
Find out how the story ends. Read me for free (14 of my books, out of 18
published) through your Scribd subscription.

Updates and a New Launch!

Warrior, the first revamped chapter, is up at Wattpad, with two more chapters to
go. I kept most of the verbiage, but by changing the POV (point of view) into the
second person, present tense, I basically changed the overall mood the story takes,
and it will allow me to define my own vision of what Grimdark means.

The thing about writing in the second person, it can force the writer to confront the
protagonist’s emotions. Delve a little deeper into what makes a man or woman
tick, for good or bad. Emotions, I learned many books ago, are delicate (yet
necessary) tools to weald.

Another thing I have to know is my character’s past. In each and every book I
write, each person has a past that has shaped their present lives. But, just like in
real life, you can sometimes share too much, too soon. I need to consider just how
much of their past I need to share, in order to make sense of what’s happening in
their here and now.

Baby Makes Three is coming along slower than I want to admit, being a real pain
in my ass at times, but I’ll get there. This isn’t the first time I’ve had problems like
that, and won’t be the last time. You just have to plow through it, one paragraph at
a time.

I did launch a new pen name, and my new line of XXX erotica! Nasty, naughty,
dirty bad fun!

Nikki Blood. The new me. You can read the first 10% of this serial fantasy with
lots of explicit boing-chika-wow-wow in it, with more to come, at Smashwords!
I’m working on part 2 even as I write this.

In the meantime, become a follower, show your appreciation and buy me a cup of
coffee, read my story on Wattpad, vote, leave a comment, or just buy a book. Find
out how the story ends. Read me for free (14 of my books, out of 17 published)
through your Scribd subscription.

Love Dark for Free

This is a chance to read Love Dark for free on Wattpad. The reason is simple: I need fans, and I don't write at the speed of wow. Since the novel is complete, I decided to post it chapter by chapter in the hopes of gaining readers who like my dark fantasy, my urban fantasy, and my grimdark fantasy.

Love Dark could be considered grimdark, for damn sure, when you factor in how the story is told. I didn't hold back. Actually, I never hold back when it comes to telling a story.

In the meantime, become a follower, sign up for my Rip’s Picks newsletter, show
your appreciation and buy me a cup of coffee, read my stories on Wattpad, vote,
leave a comment, or just buy a book. Read me for free (15 of my books, out of 16
published) through your Scribd subscription.

Forced Change

The deal with me opting out when it comes to Amazon still stands, which left me
reevaluating just about everything writing related. I needed a clearer picture of my
position, without my meds screwing up my ability to concentrate.

That medication thing was/is all-too-real for me, and had stalled me for the better
part of one month. Now that I seem to be firing again on all eight cylinders, I
discovered myself not in a good position. I’m not where I wanted to be. I’ve got a
lot of work to do to fix that.

With the people at Wattpad, I need to make up lost ground. I have a few followers
that might not understand why us old people can have problems, and might not get
how serious those problems can sometimes be. My meds made it almost
impossible to concentrate for any real length of time, so I did what I could,
knowing it wasn’t enough.

I am, after all, actually working on three completely different book projects, and
the storefront. Four different projects, plus wearing the marketing hat.

Baby Makes Three is my mornings, followed by business-related endeavors called,
I clear my mind by working on and marketing the storefront. However, I need to
pump up the social networking aspects when it comes to the store’s marketing.
That much I know. Only, how effective can I be in the shortest amount of time?
What are my choices, and how can I narrow those down and be more effective?

In the afternoons I work on revamping Warrior in the second person, because I
happen to love that story myself and want to see where it ends; followed by more
business endeavors. Research into what I need to do, and how to do it. Stuff like
what vendor can I use to get into the Google Play store with all my books, and
new stories. Right now I have one book up there, with fifteen more to go. I’m
waiting to see how my book two (2) epub file looks uploaded.

In the late evenings, I’ve been working on another project with another pen name,
and have about 10,000 words into it. It will be my line of hardcore XXX erotica.

Both Warrior and my line of XXX erotica will be serialized. Every 10,000 words I
hit the publish button. I’ve been designing the covers. I need to make sure when a
potential reader looks at the cover, they understand it's a serial novel. I need to
make that clear in the description and blurb. Then I need to price it right.

Here are my thoughts on all this right here and right now. Baby Makes Three needs
to be completed. I’ll decide from there if there will be a fourth book. Most of that
decision will be based on sales of the series first three books, after I do what I can
to market them. My marketing budget still sucks, but it is getting better.

I’ll see how my Bastard Black pen name does after I get Warrior up and running as
a serial. My erotica, same thing. Each 10,000 words gets packaged up, and
published.

Right now I’m in the process of going wide again, perhaps even wider with my
distribution nodes than I ever have before, maximizing my reach. The problems I
face are many, but nothing I haven’t learned, or am learning to deal with.

Every writer out there today needs a plan, needs to know their options, and adjust
that plan at a moments notice. It’s the only way to survive and grow.

Serial stories can do well, depending on what they are. Where they are. Erotica
always does well, once there’s an actual story behind the bump and grind.

The main thing is to relax, not get stressed out over being set back, and pluck
through each and every task as the day progresses. Some days will be better than
others. The main thing is, just do it.

In the meantime, become a follower, show your appreciation and buy me a cup of
coffee, read my story on Wattpad, vote, leave a comment, or just buy a book. Find
out how the story ends. Read me for free (14 of my books, out of 16 published)
through your Scribd subscription.

Amazon Just Got Dumped, and Why

I’m not going to pretend I’m doing the right thing overall, but it is the right thing

for me. What I’m talking about is, walking away from Amazon.com.

It’s one thing to sell books, but it’s another when you can’t trust, at all, the
distributor handling those sales to keep an accurate count, or to tell you the truth
on what was sold, how many people borrowed your books, and how many pages
were read, which is how us authors are paid when a book is borrowed. By the
page. $00.0046 per page per average.

It is a rather long story, and you can read all about it here.

You don’t have to join the Kindle Boards to read, the forums are public, but to post you
have to join (fake name if you so choose), and it takes a good while of reading to
get the full picture of what me and thousands of authors just like me are facing,
but the story is worth the time.

In order for me to counter this, to effectively take myself out of the picture, to
actually give me a fighting chance with my 16 e-books with the reading public,
and to get paid for all my hard work, I pulled all my books from Amazon.com.

It will take some time to get back up and on with other online vendors, but I can
wait. In the meantime I’m back with Smashwords.com (I can be bought right now,
today, with better prices, there.), who will then distribute me to all the online
stores around the world, including the Apple iBooks store, and Barnes & Noble.
There is another distributor for the Google Play store I’ll be using.

You might want to call it a glitch in Amazon’s reporting system, but I’ve been flat-
lined since I decided to give the (exclusive to and with Amazon) KU 2.0 program
a chance. And, I’m not joking.

Only thing is, I’ve been selling books, I have had borrows, and only discovered
through the thread link above, why I’ve been flat-lined. Oh, to be fair, I did show
some movement when Amazon adjusted things for everybody, and then I flat-lined
again.

That movement, their adjustment, was their mistake. It gave me a glimpse of the
truth.

They proved to me I had sales, and I had page reads, and nothing before or after
their adjustment (for all authors) had shown up on my sales and read reports. I did
get that one page glitch thing associated with Pageflip.

It hard enough to make it as a writer of genre fiction, without wading waist deep in
someone else’s doodoo.

You can still read samples of each book at the Smashwords.com store (links are up
on the books page, too), and soon to come, everywhere else. You can make up your
own mind as to purchase the book and see how the story ends.

In the meantime, I got another book to post, another to finish, more picks to get
up, and changes to make to my links. My online footprint.

I’m disappointed, more than anything else. All I wanted was a fair chance.

I do see authors like me, those with nothing to lose and everything to gain,
following in my footsteps.

It takes time to gain ground, to get your books in front of potential readers, make
no mistake about that, but going wide (again) will be worth it in the long run. I’ll
blog about this again in the near future. What steps I’m taking to introduce myself
to new readers.

Getting Up To Speed

No it's not easy. One of the hardest things to do is get back up and running the way you want, after a medical crisis. Hopefully you won't have to.

On the upside, this week will be a busy one. I've got a lot of work to do on Rip's Picks with monetizing me, two post up on that subject, with a third post to write.

I'll just have to work on my two books, Baby Makes Three, and the currently being revamped Warrior, when I can, with luck a page a day or more on each.

Become a follower here, and over at Wattpad. I need a little motivation. It's a money vs maybe money thing. I tend to pay more attention to the sure thing, with the maybe thing taking a back seat. I'm nothing if not realistic.

Medications, and How They Can . . .

With age comes wisdom, an extra layer of fat you wish would go away, the
occasional bout of constipation, and medications to screw with one’s head. I went
off my old diuretic, separate of my high blood pressure pill, and off my high blood
pressure pill, in favor of just one pill. One pill to do the work of two pills, without
either ingredient screwing with my potassium level.

Today is day four with my new medication, and I managed one full page this last
week on Baby Makes Three, and two blog posts over at Rip’s Picks. This is my
third blog post.

I’m not making any excuses, but telling you like it is. Life can and does get in the
way.

Right now, my books are taking a back seat to what life for me is. I can’t
effectively concentrate, and I still need to get more products up over at Rip’s
Picks, the one place that makes all of this possible. I did take most of yesterday
off, and loved it.

Physically, I’m just now getting back into my exercise routine. It’s like starting
over, in some respects. Twenty-five reps of everything, instead of a hundred reps.
It takes time to get up to speed.

I’ll post again in a few days.

In the meantime, become a follower, sign up for my Rip’s Picks newsletter, show
your appreciation and buy me a cup of coffee, read my story on Wattpad, vote,
leave a comment, or just buy a book. Read me for free (15 of my books, out of 16
published) through your KindleUnlimited subscription.