Kangblabla! beta copies are traveling across the country right now and should be arriving at my place of residence any day now. As soon as they are in, it’s editing time!
Beta copies are always fun because it’s my first opportunity to see the book in its physical form. This one should be especially interesting since it not only has an entirely different look to it, but because it is also my first time publishing the book through KDP Services instead of Createspace.
The beta reading process hopefully won’t take too long. Like when I beta-read Cassidy, I’m going to do the whole process myself. While having a lot of eyes is helpful for longer books, I feel like it isn’t quite as needed with shorter books. And in this case, about 50% of the book’s contents have already been published before, so it’s already had a lot of eyes on it.
As soon as I approve the paperback version of the book, I will make it available for sale. Potentially that could mean Kangblabla! could be available to purchase by the end of next week assuming there are no drastic problems to deal with. Then I’ll release it on Kindle shortly thereafter.
All in all, progress is moving quickly.
Speaking of quick progress, I’ve already begun writing my next sci-fi book, Battle Planet. The book is very exciting and it has been a blast to write. I am already 25,000 words into the first draft!
One thing that really excites me about Battle Planet is my ability to advertise it more easily. Iris has proved difficult to advertise to new readers and a lot of that has to do with its vague title and difficult to describe premise. Right now I only have one ad running for Iris that seems to garner any success, but the ad itself contains spoilers about the story’s plot – something I want to avoid.
The good news is that if people can get into Iris, they often return to purchase the next two books in the series. So book 1 sells book 2, which sells book 3. The problem is getting them to book 1.
With Battle Planet: The Champion of Earth, the name already tells the audience a lot about what they’re going to expect. It will obviously take place in space and have some sort of competition. That already tells the reader a LOT. The title Iris on the other hand tells the reader nothing. In addition, the premise to Battle Planet will be really easy to describe: Five humans are chosen at random from across the world to compete in a gladiator-style competition on a faraway planet. Boom! Easy to explain.
It is my hope that folks who read this book might then learn about my other books, which could potentially lead readers from Battle Planet to The Color of Water and Sky. I know I, for one, am always curious to see what other books an author has written if I like something of theirs that I read.
I will let you know more about how Battle Planet comes along, but for right now progress seems to be coming very quickly. All in all, I would say you can expect a great deal of new stuff released in the next several months.
That’s all for now! Have a great day!
The color of water and sky 