Update and Newsletter Info

Some update things...

1. Newsletter (Finally!)
If you received an email notification about this blog post, it's because you signed up to follow this blog via email. With the new European Union privacy regulations (GDPR) going into effect in just a few days, I'm going to be turning off that option and deleting the follow-by-email list, as I cannot verify that the Feedburner Thing is GDPR compliant, meaning this is the last email notification you'll receive.

If you'd like to continue getting email updates on what I'm doing, or if you'd like to start doing so, I invite you to sign up for my new newsletter, which will be sent out every month or two (or whenever I have news worthy of a newsletter). The sign-up form is on the right, in the sidebar and also on the Contact page. I promise your email address will not be used for anything other than sending the occasional newsletter to announce new releases and other news.

2. Falkrag (Wytch Kings 5)
Falkrag has been sent off to my beta team, and the early feedback is that it's looking pretty good, so I'm still hoping for a late summer release (late July at the earliest, but probably more like August). This is the story of Prince Shaine of Rhiva, who goes looking for a weapon to help the Northern Alliance win the war, and brings home something far more helpful. And of course, finds love along the way.

3. Renegade (Kingmakers 2)
I've begun drafting Renegade, the second book of the Kingmakers series. Renegade features Coryn and Kai, whose relationship will be difficult and fraught, and will likely require more than one book to document. The series will feature other romances as well, but Coryn and Kai will be the central characters for most of it. I'm hoping to draft this one over the summer, and have it out toward the end of this year or early next.

Read an Ebook Week Sale on Smashwords

I'm participating in Smashwords Read an Ebook Week sale, which runs from March 5 - 11. During this time, the following titles are on sale:

Psi Hunter (Guardians of the Pattern, Book 1), Gremlin's Last Run (Guardians of the Pattern, Book 2), and Leythe Blade, a stand-alone fantasy novel, are all 50% off using coupon code RAE50 at checkout.

Burn the Sky (Wytch Kings, Book 1) is 75% off using coupon code RAE75 at checkout.

Human Frailties, Human Strengths is free using coupon code SFREE at checkout.

While you're there, check out all the other books on sale here.

LGBT Fantasy Weekend!

LGBT fantasy author Olivia Helling has gathered together a group of authors of lgbt fantasy and science fiction and organized this awesome event we're calling LGBT Fantasy Weekend. We have a bunch of lgbt fantasy and science fiction titles available either free or for $0.99.

The sale runs from Saturday, December 10 through Sunday, December 11. We've got books by Jordan L. Hawk, Amber Kell, Gillian St. Kevern, Lia Black, Tricia Owens, N.R. Walker, and plenty of others. For this event, I'm offering both Psi Hunter (Guardians of the Pattern, Book 1) and Burn the Sky (Wytch Kings, Book 1) for $0.99. Check it out here.

Smashwords Annual Summer/Winter Sale

Today kicks off Smashwords Annual Summer/Winter Sale. For the entire month of July, you can get my M/M fantasy novel, Human Frailties, Human Strengths and my M/M sci fi novel Psi Hunter (Book One of the Guardians of the Pattern series) for 50% off using coupon code SSW50 at the checkout. Facing the Mirror, a short story which takes place in the Guardians of the Pattern universe and is sort of a prequel to Psi Hunter, is also available for free on Smashwords.

Taking it on the Road...

Today, I have been invited to Arielle Pierce's blog to talk about Psi Hunter and the Guardians of the Pattern series. Arielle doesn't live in a Swamp, but I'll be wearing my bright red wellies anyway, just in case I get lost. This map I have? It's got things like "east" and "west" and "left" and "right" on it... which always seem to get me into trouble.

Another Roadtrip!

Today I'm over at Adrian J. Smith's blog for an interview. We've been conversing via email for a while now, getting to know each other. She had lots of great questions, and we talked about writing and publishing in general, and a little bit about the process of turning the novella, Human Frailties, into a novel. Stop over and check it out! And while you're there, the giveaway is still running through January 16th. Enter for a chance to win a copy of Human Frailties, Human Strengths.

More Bloggy Roadtrips and a Giveaway!

I have a couple of cool things to tell you about. First is that I'll be visiting Brandon Shire's blog on Friday, January 10th, and you'll finally get to the see the awesome cover art Chinchbug has done for Psi Hunter and get to read an excerpt!

Then on Monday, January 13th, I'll be over at Adrian J. Smith's blog for an interview. Adrian is doing a giveaway on her blog right now, and you can win a copy of Human Frailties, Human Strengths or one of two books by Francis James Franklin by logging in here. The giveaway runs through January 16th.

Er... Tweet?

So I looked into opening a Twitter account because social media, right? And somebody I respect said that I had to make these tweet-things in order to sell books. During my research I discovered that there are all these Rules and Etiquette Things about how you can't even mention your book, not even casually, else it's Spam, which I thought was a canned meat product. Apparently not. Who knew?

Important Discovery Number One: In your marketing strategy, do not mention your book. Ever.

So how does one market if one isn't allowed to mention one's product? Further research revealed that you're supposed to send your minions followers something called Valuable Content, and somehow, through a Mysterious Process which I have yet to identify, this will translate into book sales.

Except? This Valuable Content can't have anything to do with your book because otherwise it's more Spam. Which... I still think of as lunch meat in a can, so go figure.

Important Discovery Number Two: Tweet Valuable Content, which has nothing, whatsoever, to do with your book.

Unfortunately, my research did not unearth any information regarding whose definition of Valuable Content I am supposed to be adhering to. And I'm pretty sure my idea of Valuable Content isn't even in the same universe as, say, my mother-in-law's idea of Valuable Content. (Although to be fair, I'm basing this supposition entirely on the not-even-remotely-amusing penis enlargement advertisements she keeps forwarding to me.)

Anyway, with all of these restrictions, and the lack of a working definition of the term "Valuable Content", I have come to the conclusion that the people who are using Twitter to successfully market their books must be using some kind of code.

Important Discovery Number Three: Any Tweeting that contains marketing should be done in code.

This code shouldn't be too easy to crack, otherwise people would immediately understand the message and as soon as they realized I was trying to market to them, they would Unfollow me, which is a Bad Thing. Near as I can figure, Unfollowing is the Twitter version of being sent off the playground for Not Playing Well With Others (story of my life, but that's a rant for another day).

Important Discovery Number Four: Your code should not be too easily broken.

On the other hand, the code shouldn't be too complicated, either. A quantum encryption algorithm, for example, might prove problematic because by the time anyone got it figured, most of my electrons would be entangled with electrons in some other galaxy, and I just can't see being too concerned about book sales at that point.

Important Discovery Number Five: Quantum encryption is probably not a good choice.

A nice, middle-of-the-road code, which obfuscates things just a bit beyond casual recognition, would probably be best. I decided to try a code based on a technique I remembered doing in a poetry class, where you take each letter of your name and come up with a descriptive phrase beginning with that letter. Except, instead of my name, I would use my very simple and clever marketing phrase, "Buy My Book", and instead of a list of descriptive phrases, I would use a list of some Valuable Content. A quick search of what passes for News on several internet news sites (which shall remain nameless) yielded a number of interesting pieces of Valuable Content that could be used:

B = Black Friday Deals on Canned Lunch Meat!
U = Underwear Mogul Decapitated in Freak Accident with Pink Thong!
Y = Yak Poo Removal Hints: Your Thanksgiving Rescue Headquarters!
M = Myopic Guinea Pigs Save Drowning Man!
Y = Yorkshire Terrier Attacks Bus -- 12 Dead!
B = Black Friday Fashion Hints!
O = Orange is the New Black!
O = Octopus Gives Birth to Kittens!
K = Kelp Brownies: A Holiday Tradition!

See what I did there? Clever and subtle, eh?

Before trotting this out for real, I decided it would be prudent to conduct a trial run. After all, if no one could figure out the code, what was the point? I prepared and sent a series of emails with the above titles to everyone on my contact list. Then I sat back and waited for the money to roll in.

Unfortunately, all I got was a whole lot of replies, most of which started with WTF, Jaye? Apparently, my code was a bit too clever. *Sigh*.

Frankly, I'm not convinced that Tweeting about yak poo is going to do anything for book sales.

Important Discovery Number Six: Tweeting is for the birds.