Not Your Regularly Scheduled Program

Due to a family medical issue (no cause for alarm, everything's fine), and final rough-drafting of the book I've been working on with Dr. Ryan Mattson, Inequality by Design: How a Rigged Economy Fractures America and What We Can Do About It, I haven't had time to put together a presentable blog post in my History of the Future series. 

But that's burying the lede a bit, isn't it? 

The lede. Not buried.

You read that right; Ryan and I wrapped up the working draft of a book set to be published by Upriver Press in spring of 2025! We still have a ways to go, with the line edits, proofreading and typesetting still ahead of us, but the book really has rounded into shape nicely. As the publication date gets firmed up, I will start posting about the book, and the topics it covers.

To put it briefly, we're writing about how economic inequality in the United States is much worse that one might think at first glance. Don't run away screaming though! While the subject of the book can get a bit depressing, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. And no, the light is not an oncoming train. I'm a firm believer in lighting candles rather than cursing the darkness, so we offer both diagnosis of the problem rooted in macroeconomics, and offer potential solutions for both people and policymakers.

When the History of the Future posts starts up again next week, we will go on a walk. Or more specifically, a wandering. A folk wandering, with the millions who, in the near future, will have to pack up everything and move to higher ground.

Hmm... Maybe not THAT light in the darkness....
Our book does come with a Lord of the Rings reference or two, though!

Advertising on Amazon

 As promised, I will blog not just about general writing and publishing topics, but I want to get into the nuts and bolts of what I'm doing.

Right off the bat, I ran into an issue I did not expect. When attempting to launch an ad campaign for my first anthology, the moderators at Amazon suspended the campaign, stating the following:

"Your ad contains content prohibited from advertising. This may include images and videos of weapons (including realistic and non-realistic firearms, swords, bows and arrows, etc.) that are shown in a violent, threatening manner, displayed in a gruesome way, pointed at a character, or directed out toward the customer. Please review section 6.4 Weapons under Book Advertising Guidelines and Acceptance Policies and update your ad."

See if you can spot the problem...

The moderators do a job, so I certainly don't blame them for suspending the ad campaign. I suppose a knife with blood on it qualifies as 'gruesome'.

Now, with the knife airbrushed out, the ad campaign went live. 

If you bought the paperback before this week, congrats! You own a rare early version depicting a gruesome knife!

Setting aside the specifics of a bloody knife, I suppose I should provide a bit more context. To come up in generalized searches on Amazon, one must buy ads which push your book up the results of any given query. For instance, if you search a general term like 'Black Mesa' you'll get a load of results. One of which is a vampire romance series involving werewolves. Fun.

So, if I run an ad campaign which outbids other advertisers, the algorithm pushes my book up the general search results, where it will, I hope, catch the eye of potential readers.

Amusingly, a friend messaged me, saying that even when he looked up the book by title and my name, the vampire romance series came up before my book. I chuckled. 

On a more serious-ish note, this is an aspect of self-publishing I wasn't entirely prepared for. I knew that running ads helps sell books. Shocker. But more to the point, I didn't realize HOW MUCH the Amazon algorithm favors advertised products in generalized searches. Again, I'm not shocked, just wearily disappointed at the ways Amazon makes money, not just off sales of the book, but on advertisements for the book. There's a reason Jeff Bezos is the richest (?) man on earth. God help me if anyone at Amazon bothers to read the book and notices the subtext of 'Summoners of Smith'.

One way to Cure Writer's Block

At a recent(-ish) event, I met another local writer who said she has trouble editing while she writes, and as a result feels she cannot get anything completed.

Hoping my response sounded witty, I quoted Mark Twain's saying: 

"Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the right words."

To be clear, I didn't try to pass it off as an original observation.

Anyway, I've never had much trouble with the first part. Crossing out the right words always seems to drag on. Delaying deadlines and publication becomes routine when you tell yourself, "Just one more round of revisions..." 

So, to keep myself on track editing the next set of novellas, I'm posting this calendar I put together in January. 

If you don't want to zoom in or try to read my handwriting, I'll throw out a few highlights:

1 - Anthology Two should be done and ready for publishing this July. 

2 - Anthology Two will include Part Two (of Three) of Black Mesa, and three novellas. 

4 - Anthology Three should hit the Amazon in time for Halloween, and will include the conclusion of Black Mesa, as well as at least two more novellas, maybe a third. We'll see how the brainstorming goes.

That's all I have to say about that. 

For now...