Emerald Gate Progress Report

What's this? A progress report on Book Five before Book Four has been published?

That's right. That's exactly what you're getting.

With each of my previous novels I've waited until after the novel has been published before starting the next novel. With Eternal Knight I was waiting for the massive success of my international bestselling novel to motivate me to write a second novel. After all, I'd put years of effort into a first novel. Why would I write a second if the first wasn't a huge success?

I didn't know much about publishing back then. Especially indie publishing. I didn't know that having a hugely successful first novel was about as likely as getting hit by lightning AND an meteorite on the same day.

Well, I sort of knew it. I was still hoping it would happen to me. The huge success part. Not the lightning and meteor.

The path to success is writing good books and following them with more good books. And you need to do this as quickly as possible. Indie readers don't want to wait around for a next book. They want it YESTERDAY.

It has taken a little while for this to sink in. However, I think I have the message now.

I finished writing The Dromost Gate forty-two days ago. I'm forty-two days into writing The Emerald Gate. Forty-two of the most productive days I've ever had as a writer.

I've once again gone back to my practice of keeping a spreadsheet of my writing. I find it highly motivational. The "start" and "end" numbers are my daily word count for The Emerald Gate. As of today I'm 63,481 words into a planned 120,000 word novel. Just yesterday I passed the halfway mark and my critique partner is still reading the first draft of The Dromost Gate. 

It is very likely I'll have finished writing the rough draft of The Emerald Gate before The Dromost Gate is published. I think this is very exciting. It means The Emerald Gate will be published just months after the previous novel. 

What will I do the day after I've finished the rough draft of The Emerald Gate? I'll start writing my next series. That will have to wait for another blog post. 

On Writing Goals

My dad works hard. Really, really hard.

He worked hard as a student. (Ha, ha, that part isn't true. He wasn't a very good student.)

He worked hard for his father doing construction work.

He worked hard as a baseball player.

He worked hard as a teacher.

He worked hard as a coach. (He's in the Pennsylvania Hall of Fame as a wrestling coach.)

And when he left teaching to become a financial planner... you guessed it... he worked hard.

When he made that switch (from teacher to financial planner), it was a REALLY big move. He was going from something very safe and secure to a job where his family would depend on his production alone. His income would be entirely based on sales.

My father read a lot of books to prepare him for this transition. Many of these books were self-help and motivational business books. I was only fifteen at the time, but my father would pass some of these books on to me and I would read them.

One of these books was Rhinoceros Success, by Scott Alexander.

In Rhinoceros Success, Alexander teaches you to charge after your goals like... you guessed it... a rhinoceros.

The book is cheesy. Parts of it are silly. There are religious elements to it.

When I was in ninth grade I loved it.

One of the best elements of the book was the lesson in goal-setting. Alexander tells you to write your goals on a 3x5 card (one goal per card) and place them on the night stand next to your bed. You write your goals as if they have already been accomplished and every night and every morning the first and last thing you do is to read your goals and visualize them.

The visualization part is really important. You have to picture yourself already accomplishing your goal. So I did it. I wrote a goal out and put it by my bed and started visualizing success.

I had just finished reading the book, so only had one week to visualize my goal before the first track meet of the season. It was the spring of my ninth grade year at Unami Junior High School. I decided that my goal was to break the 5 minute barrier in the mile run (1600 meters for you modern types).

To make my visualizations more specific, I wrote out my quarter mile splits for the four laps.

1:08
2:25
3:42
4:54

And what happened when race day arrived?

First quarter - hit my split.
Second quarter - one second slow.
Third quarter - one second fast.
Fourth quarter - well, check out what my dad wrote in the bottom corner of my goal card...

I hit my goal on the nose. I ran 4:54 and broke the school record for the mile! Here I am doing it...

By the end of of the season I'd run a 4:45 mile and took second place in the league championships!


Why am I sharing this with you? Because it's time for me to become more goal oriented with my writing. If I want to be a successful author, I need to first define what success is, and then I need to set the goals to make it happen.

Wanting to be successful is different from doing the things necessary to make it happen.


Signing off. I need to get a 3x5 card.

Final Countdown

Well, just days to go before I push the send button and Shadow of the Knight goes live.

Here's a look at the full cover...

Today's the day for final edits and proofreading. It will be a marathon, but hopefully, by late this evening, I'll have the final manuscript ready to go. I'll hold off for a couple of days as I have a couple of Advanced Reader Copies out there and would like to hear back from the readers before I publish.

I have high hopes for this book. So far everyone who has read it has said that it's their favorite book yet.

This is a short post, but I have to get back to work!

On Going Exclusive

Before I get to the main topic of this post, I thought I'd share the new Child of the Knight cover with you...

The artist, Dallas Williams, once again did a standout job creating this cover. Next post I'll reveal the Shadow of the Knight cover.

Now on to the main topic of this post... going exclusive.

A few weeks ago I made the decision to exclusively distribute my books through Amazon.com. Now I know that Amazon brings out very strong (and mixed) emotions in people. For me, as an independent author, Amazon has been an incredible, positive force. I'll go as far as to say that I wouldn't be an author without Amazon.

It was Amazon that happily opened their doors to the independent author, democratizing the publishing process and allowing a whole new legion of writers to become published authors. With the gatekeepers bypassed, anyone who wanted to could publish their work. Now, to be honest, some of that work was awful. And the market place punished those authors. However, some of the work (passed over by agents and publishers) turned out to be wonderful. And the market rewarded them.

Having said this, I didn't go exclusive in order to reward Amazon for the opportunity they provided me. I'm doing it as a business decision.

By going exclusive my ebooks are now available to people who have signed up for the Kindle Unlimited program. It's a program that allows subscribers who pay $10 a month to borrow unlimited numbers of books enrolled in the KU program. I get paid for each of those borrowed books.

More importantly, each of those borrows counts as a sale towards my Amazon rankings. And this is REALLY important. Just as with any other best seller list, being higher on the list gets you noticed, and when you get noticed, your books are more likely to get purchased.

If you're really lucky, you become so big people start buying your book just because other people are buying your book.

There's a second benefit to going exclusive. By concentrating all of my sales in one market, I further push my way up the Amazon rankings. If people split their purchases of my books between Apple, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and others, I gain little traction in each of those markets. By focusing all of my sales in one market (the biggest bookseller in the world) I further boost my visibility.

Do I fear that I'll lose sales because I'm not in the other markets? Not particularly. Just about any device can load a Kindle app, allowing people to shop for my books on Amazon. If you really want a Matt Heppe book, you'll be able to get one.

Will I stay exclusive? I'll give the economist's answer: it depends. The more successful I become the less likely it is that I'll stay exclusive. If I'm generating enough sales to sustain myself on the top 100 lists for my sub-genres, I'll "go wide." Until then I imagine I'll stay with Amazon.

Enough business talk. There's more editing to be done on Shadow of the Knight. I'm also deep into the outlining of book four, The Dromost Gate.

See you soon,

Matt

Shadow of the Knight progress

Hi All,

I know I haven't written a post lately, but I've been very busy. Time I spend blogging is time I don't spend writing, and I've been doing a lot of writing lately. (Well, there's been some D+D playing in there as well, but that will wait for another blog).

Mike Shultz (my critique partner) and I have been hard at work on the manuscript of Shadow of the Knight. (My friend, Kemp Brinson, has also given a helpful hand with the first several chapters.)

I cannot stress enough how important it is go have a good critique partner, and Mike is a great one. So far we've...

1) Revamped a very rough chapter one. In Shadow of the Knight I am introducing a new major character, a new part of the world, a new culture, and a new magic system. This all appears in chapter one. It's a lot to get across to the reader without pulling a massive info-dump. After a lot of work, chapter one is in great shape.

2) Mike helped me re-arrange the chapter sequence to make the story flow better. This was done in two different points in the novel.

3) We found a way to tie two major plot elements together, instead of leaving them as separate story lines.

4) We took out a scene that very little tension and gave it a lot more zip. It also makes a lot more sense now.

I'm about 50% finished my edits based on Mike's critique. It will take me another week or so to finish it up. After that the novel goes to my beta-readers for another round of refining before a final proofread. I'd hoped for an early June release, but that probably won't happen. I'm looking at early July right now, and it seems like a solid bet.

Right now Shadow of the Knight is sitting at 142,000 words. Eternal Knight was 115,000 words and Child of the Knight weighed in at 117,000 words when they went to press. I don't think Shadow will lose much weight at this point.

As a final note, all three of my novels will be getting new covers. Here's a sneak peek at the rough draft of the Shadow of the Knight cover:

 

 I'm extremely excited about the new covers. I'll reveal them all in the weeks before publication!

All my best,

Matt

Writing Archery Don'ts

Have you read the following scenes in a book? Or maybe seen them in a movie?

A company of archers stands ready on the battlements of a castle as a horde of (vikings, orcs, Frenchmen) charges towards them. The captain of archers shouts, "Nock! Draw! Hold it! Hold it!" as the enemy approaches ever closer. Finally, at the critical moment the command is given... "Fire!"

Or maybe an archer/sniper is hiding behind a tree, bow at full draw, waiting for a lone horseman to approach.

Or an archer has a bow at full draw, holding an enchantress prisoner.

To all three, I declare... BALONEY!

Hold it, hold it, hold it!

Bows all have a draw weight. This is the pounds of force necessary to hold the bow at full draw. Any bow fit for war is going to have a draw weight of at least sixty pounds. English warbows of the Hundred Years War and later would have draw weights of eighty pounds or more. How long can you pull and hold eighty pounds? Not very long!

Every second you hold it you hand creeps forward to lesson the strain and your arm starts to shake. The two make for weak, inaccurate shots. 

What would happen in reality? On command, the archers would draw and loose the arrows in one smooth motion. No hold it, hold it, hold it.

And... you don't FIRE a bow. You SHOOT it, or LOOSE an arrow.

Unstring that thing!

Archers in books and movies are almost never described as unstringing their bows. Uh-oh!

Keeping a wooden bow strung for long periods of time is extremely harmful for the bow. The wood cells become compressed and the bow loses its strength. A self-bow (a bow made from a single piece of wood) should not be kept strung for more than a few hours at a time. A composite bow, such as a Turkish or Mongolian bow, can remain strung much longer (maybe a week or more). Composite bows are made by laminating horn, wood, and sinew, and can recover their strength after "resting" and/or being heated.

Modern wheely-compound bows are a different matter. But who would want to shoot one of those?

Wow! That was an amazing shot. Again.

An archer in a wildly popular young adult novel is praised for her ability to always shoot squirrels in the eye, and by doing so not ruining the meat or the pelt.

Right in the eye? Really? A squirrel?

*edit* As a commenter pointed out, small game are also hunted with blunt arrows, killing the animal with concussive force.

Archery scenes would be so much better if writers took the time to actually loose a few arrows. Not only will they discover that impossible shots are, well... impossible. They will discover that repeated impossible shots are ridiculous.

*edit* It was also pointed out that trick shot specialists are capable of pretty amazing archery. True, but I still maintain that much of the combat archery you see in books and movies defies belief and breaks the willing suspension of disbelief.

Taking the time to carry a real bow teaches other things as well. You start to realize how encumbering a bow and a quiver are. It isn't like what you see in the movies!


Two arrows at the same time? Bah, how about three?

Two bad guys at the same time? No problem! I'll just nock two arrows.

While this might make for a good performance at the county fair (shooting at balloons ten feet away), it is not going to do much good in the real world. Arrow velocity and accuracy at any range are going to suffer terribly.

Oh, and pulling off the fletching to make an arrow curve around an obstacle? Sorry, it doesn't work.

A whack upside the head. 

Uh oh, the enemy is too close to shoot. I think I'll bonk him in the head with my trusty bow.

Sure, a heavy longbow is quite a staff. It is going to hurt. It might hurt you as well. Strung bows are under a great deal of stress. Whacking someone with it will just put it under more stress, and might result in an explosion.

Yes, bows explode. I just had one blow up on me a few days ago. Luckily I wasn't hurt. (No I wasn't whacking anyone with it.)

An unstrung bow would make a better weapon, but don't put any cuts or nicks in it. Those nicks could cause a bow explosion when the bow is next strung.

Armor works. (Except for Storm Troopers)

Armor that is contemporary to the bow in question will usually protect the wearer from harm. It's kind of the point of wearing armor.

Seriously, armor works. You had to shoot A LOT of arrows at a knight to take him down. The closer the range, the better the chance the arrow has. The arrow is at its maximum velocity, and you are probably shooting heavier arrows. Long range flight arrows have a much harder time penetrating armor.

There is always the arrow with "eyes". The one that finds the gap in the plates, or the slit in the visor, but too many lucky arrows makes for poos suspension or disbelief. 

If you want your archery to be more effective, get your opponent out of their armor!

Spoiling your fun.

Excellent. Now when you are reading a novel (or watching a movie) with archery in it you too can sigh with disappointment when one (or all) of the above occur.

Sort of like when police officers watch crime shows, or doctors watch hospital shows, or lawyers watch court shows.

But if you are a writer you now have a few more arrows in your quiver!

Progress Report

Just stopping by for a quick progress report.

Things have been going great on the writing front lately. I have written 25,000 words in the past 20 days, which is really terrific progress for me. By the way, 1,000 words is approximately 1% of a 300 page novel. I fit my writing in from 8:30 to 10:00 PM, as well as a little late afternoon writing if Amelia is involved in an after-school activity.

Here is a (probably overly hopeful) timeline of what is coming up:

28 days: Finish this draft of Child of the Knight as well as my revisions.
28 days: Time for my critique partners to read and comment on the manuscript.
21 days: Make revisions based on critique partners' comments.
21 days: Beta readers read and comment on the manuscript.
14 days: Make revisions and format the manuscript. Order proof copies.
14 days: Proofreaders read and make corrections on proof copies.
7 days: Correct proofs.
14 days: Final proofreader reads proof and tells me that everything is perfect! Right...
1 day: Launch Child of the Knight.

I have no idea how accurate the above timeline is. I just want to give you an idea of what steps I see in the process ahead. In my next blog post I'll write about the roles of my critique partners, beta readers, and proofreaders.

By the way, the free ebook giveaway has been terrific. I'm glad so many people have downloaded and read Eternal Knight. If you've read it, please tell someone about it! Nothing helps a book like word of mouth. And if you want to keep your author super-motivated, I love hearing from readers. Every nice note I get motivates me to go just a little bit further. 

Best,

Matt

Holy Smokes

Ok, people like free stuff.

Apparently they REALLY like free stuff.

In my last blog post I mentioned that I had set the ebook price of Eternal Knight to free. On Tuesday I took a look to see how many downloads there had been.

In ten days 2,100 people had downloaded Eternal Knight on Amazon. WOW! In the month of December I had one (1) $.99 cent sale on Amazon.

I tried to figure out how they learned about it. I'm still not sure. If you sort Amazon books (Fantasy) by price (low to high) and rating (high to low), Eternal Knight comes out pretty high on the list. Do a lot of people do that? Or is there a website that automatically promotes free ebooks? Or is something else going on?

In any case it is pretty exciting. Right now all I want is for people to read Eternal Knight. As many people as possible. Hopefully some of them will write reviews. Hopefully many of them will tell their friends how much they liked it. Word of mouth starts big things rolling.

In my last post I also mentioned that a lot of downloads would light a fire under me.

Mission accomplished.

Eternal Knight ebook is FREE

Hello!

Yes, I am a bad blogger. What have I been doing? Being a dad, teaching, reading, making bows, some gaming.

Bad author.

Time to get back in the saddle again and finish off Child of the Knight. To get me fired up I've decided to set the ebook price of Eternal Knight to FREE. So if you know anyone who recently received an iPad, Kindle, or Nook, let them know about Eternal Knight.

An uptick in sales (can you call them sales if they are free?) will definitely light a fire under me.

Best,
Matt