I've been enjoying Bernard Cornwell's THE LAST KINGDOM, about a Saxon boy, the son of an Earl, who's captured in war by the Danes as they conquer Northumbria, and raised by a Danish nobleman. The kid is a fresh character, torn between his two identities -- he really prefers being a pagan Dane to having been an English Christian, but he knows in his heart that he's English and not Danish. The historical details really put you in another time and another place, and the people are true to their time, in all their honor and brutality. There's no magic, but I think if you like THE CIRCLE CAST you might very well like THE LAST KINGDOM. Check it out!
It was nice to see my book was a Staff Pick at the downtown Chapters in Toronto!
Right now my Kindle shows a random assortment of images when it's off. There isn't an easy way to change them unless you want to upload hackage into the Kindle, which seems not worth the trouble unless you are a hardware hacker and simply can't resist.
You know what would be fun? If it showed the cover of whatever book I was reading last.
I've been reading Charles Mann's new book
1493, the sequel, natch, to his awesome historical book
1491.
1491 was about evidence that the pre-Columbian Native American societies were far richer, more populated, and complex than we think of them -- that what is now the Amazon jungle was heavily cultivated by millions of Indians who were wiped out by disease before any but the very first white travelers saw them.
1493 is about the huge changes in the world after the New and Old Worlds became linked: how the tons of silver from the Potosi mine in Bolivia bankrupted the Qinq Dynasty in China, how the potato changed Europe, how corn allowed the Chinese to move into the hill country.
Until ships crossed the Atlantic, according to Mann, there was no malaria in the New World, and the most advanced cultures were all in the warm, wet parts of North and South America; after malaria, those cultures took a serious beating while the colder, dryer areas jumped ahead. Mann makes a convincing case that malaria was a chief factor in African slavery. Malaria was deadly to whites and Indians, but Africans were partly immune to malaria, from living with it for thousands of years. In the American north, poor whites from Europe could be counted on to do the dirty work, but in the American South, and in South America, they died in huge numbers, while African slaves tended to survive.
I love looking back at the past through the lens of a book. Often when we think about the past, it's hard to understand why people did the things they did. Kings make what seem to be idiotic decisions, entire cultures destroy their own lands... didn't they know better? But as you get to know the past better, it becomes clear how people always did what seemed to make sense at the time. There are always factors you don't know about.
I guess that's one of the things that drew me to telling Morgan's story. The canonical story makes her out to be an evil witch. But what's her side of the story? Why did she behave the way she did? What makes someone so vengeful that they're willing to pull down their whole world around their heads? What wrongs would have to have been done to a young woman to make her behave the way we're told she did. I hope I came up with interesting answers in the book.
I've had a bunch of nice reviews on YA blogs, as you can read further below. But the really glowing reviews have come from the straight press. I had that glowing review in the East Hampton Star, and in Historical Novels Review. I wonder if the book would do better as a straight novel, or just adult fantasy?
It's hard to say. My wife's book The Intrepid Art Collector got shelved under "collectibles" instead of under "art," although it had nothing for collectors, and was meant for art connoisseurs. I don't think that helped her book any.
Online it doesn't really matter because someone's going to search for "Morgan le Fay" or "King Arthur" or "Wicca" and maybe they'll find the book. But in bookstores, where something is shelved is hugely important. If you're looking for a fantasy book, you probably won't drift over to the YA shelves, although there's a lot of fantasy there. Likewise you wouldn't look under general novels, even though Doris Lessing has a few fantasy novels.
I'm a bit at my wit's end with the book. I can only track Amazon sales; bookstore sales won't come in until months from now. But it's not doing so well on Amazon, although it does have some Kindle sales. I'm frustrated because when people read the book, they like and often love the book. But how to get people to pick the book up?
Cynthia Leitich Smith was kind enough to interview me on her blog. Check it out.
Incidentally, I've moved some of my shorter and more private thoughts to my facebook page for this book -- see right. Think of it as Twitter, without the RT's.
Crystal of My Reading Room graciously gives TCC a 4.5 out of 5:
The Circle Cast was a fascinating look at what Morgan's life might have been like in the early years and I loved every minute of the book. Mr. Epstein's writing was great, he dove right into the mind of an adolescent girl in early Britain and brought out this marvelous story of her life as she traveled in a foreign country and navigated their customs as she fought for her life and plotted and schemed toward her own revenge and getting back to Britain.
Thanks, Crystal!
Meanwhile, on Patricia's Particularity, I talk about historical fiction and
what you owe to history when you write it.
You can find ebooks at your local library and download them, and you don't even have to go into the library!
I've guest-posted at Mission to Read about What Mythology Means to Me. I'm talking about how human beings are hard-wired not just to learn language but to see the world through stories, and what that means about our myths. You might find it interesting.
The Circle Cast is an Editor's Choice at The Historical Novels Review!
Epstein skillfully blends the coming-of-age, the fairy, the revenge, and the legend. Through the poetry of Epstein's writing, I could feel the power of the old magic that Morgan eokes when she goes "between the worlds," and I could taste the salt sea air as she sails between her two lands... Fans of Arthurian legend will love this book, and so will everyone else. Great characters, great writing, great story.
I've been wondering about where to set my Kindle Pricing. Friend of My Other Blog Paul William Tenny wrote in with some spectacular intel:
I suggest reading a few of the posts by Joe Konrath that I've linked
below. He's written extensively on publishing on the Kindle, including a lot of analyses on price points. I believe, based on what he's said and done, that the answer to your question is that you're almost certainly leaving money on the table (or rather your publisher is if they set the price) by pricing the eBook way too high.
The sweet spot seems to be $2.99, the minimum price where the 70% royalty rate is available. Anything cheaper and the rate reverts to 35%. Much more expensive and you start losing out on impulse buyers. The only reason to go below $2.99 is to try to push your book up the rankings to increase exposure (which is a damn good reason). People like to go as low as they can when they do this, down to 99 cents (~34 cents royalty) and then once they stop rising, they go back to $2.99 to take advantage of the higher sales.
Some people bundle novels together to get up to $4.99, but I don't know how well that works. Others -- Barry Eisler -- are selling short stories for $2.99 and doing very well, but I wouldn't.
Both Eisler and Konrath, selling at $2.99, have basically given up on traditional publishing because if their digital only success. Eisler passed on a $500,000 offer from his publisher, St. Martins, because he believes he can make more setting his own prices on the Kindle (and getting that 70% royalty) than he can in print.
John August is doing well with short stories at 99 cents as well:
Amazing stuff.
Here are some links:
When Konrath was putting his out-of-print back list on the Kindle and just beginning his experiment with pricing and self publishing. His back list and some assorted odds and ends made him $1250 that month before the 70% royalty option was available (I think), changing prices, settling at $1.59 per book. To show how much things have changed in such a short time, he wrote then that agents and publishers are necessary. Today he only writes original novels for the Kindle.
Konrath talks about the price of "free". Notes that he put eight books on Amazon that were also available for free on his website, and they still sell well. A little bit more on price experiments, settling on $1.99 per book. The List was the #1 book in the police procedurals category, 14 spots better than one of his books out by his publisher at $3.96.
Breaking down sales numbers, more price testing. Started his best selling eBook, The List, at $1.49. Changed to $1.89 to see if sales would slow down. They actually went up. Talks about things that matter more than price, like quality writing, book cover, description, etc. Decides to release a Kindle exclusive at $2.99 to see how it does.He's always experimenting.
Makes a big pitch for why selling eBooks versions for cheap isn't
cheapening the book, just adjusting to the realities of cheaper
distribution to get closer to the true valuable price of a novel,
versus a physical product like a book.
Hitting Amazon for the faults of the Kindle (he doesn't own one yet) despite making $3,000 in June on it. That increase in sales is less about price than the beginning of the digital boom, at that point.
Hired someone to do a new cover for
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