It’s been a while since I’ve uploaded a video blog post, but I received my print copies of “Stone and String” today (a day early!) and wanted to do the unboxing. So I’ve got a quick announcement about the Infinitas Publishing booth at Burg Fest, the upcoming dates regarding Distant Horizon, and the first look at the print copies of “Stone and String.” Check out the video below, and I hope you enjoy it. 🙂
Filed under Business Ventures, Writing
Do you have a blog? Want to take part in a cover reveal for Distant Horizon?
If so, head over to Lola’s Blog Tours, where sign-ups are now live! 😀
( http://www.lolasblogtours.net/cover-reveal-distant-horizon-by-stephanie-and-isaac-flint/ )
The cover reveal will take place on September 20th. 🙂
Distant Horizon is a young adult dystopian novel with superhero elements. It’s the first in the series.
The Community is safe.
Unless you have superpowers.Sixty years ago, a hallucinogenic plague annihilated half the world’s population, leading to the formation of the Community—an international government that promises its citizens safety, security, and efficiency. Every day, Community citizens swallow a mandatory pill to ensure their immunity to the plague. A year after graduating high school, they take the Health Scan.
Most pass, and continue with their lives. Others disappear.
Eighteen-year-old Jenna Nickleson hasn’t taken the pill since her senior year in high school. She feels more alive without it, and she hasn’t shown any signs of infection—at least, not until two days after a surprise Health Scan is announced and Special Forces arrive at her university campus.
Spurred by the recent string of hallucinations, Jenna searches for any inkling of what happens to those who fail the scan. Rumor has it that they’re sent away for treatment and, once cured, receive a menial job. But when she uncovers the cruel truth behind the plague, her ideal world is shattered.
Underneath the illusion of safety, Special Forces agents harbor a dark secret.
The plague is a lie.
In the meantime, Distant Horizon is available for pre-order at Amazon, and will also be available from Smashwords distributors, once it finishes the approval process.
Distant Horizon, by Stephanie and Isaac Flint, will be released on October 27th, 2016.
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Coming soon: I’ll be posting a blog about Isaac’s and my new co-author photo, as well as writing our usual monthly Infinitas Publishing Status report. There’s a lot going on during the next two months! 😀
Filed under Book Covers, Business Ventures, Writing
Remember that short story I was working on a couple weeks ago? Well, “Stone and String” is now available! 😀
Blurb
In the world of The Wishing Blade, everyone is born with two strings of magic. One strand is life, and the other is death. Very few can manipulate them.
Among the Cantingen Islanders, children are tested for this ability during their first rites of magic, a ceremony which determines what magic they have and their future as a mage. But when Edyli’s little sister, Akymi, dies in an accident before those rites can occur, Edyli does the unthinkable. She uses magic to return Akymi to the living. As a result, she finds herself in a land of web-like strings… the afterlife.
Edyli refuses to give up seeing her sister’s first rites. With the help of a mysterious immortal and sheer determination, she has every intention of seeing her sister once more, even if it means incurring the wrath of Madia, the goddess of the dead.
“Stone and String” is a short story based in the universe of The Wishing Blade series. Though the stories are related (“Stone and String” takes place at the same time as the events of Magic’s Stealing), “Stone and String” stands alone. While Magic’s Stealing takes place in Cirena, and focuses on ribbon magic, “Stone and String” takes place on the Cantingen Islands and focuses on string magic and word magic, with a healthy dose of the Cantingen language.
I’m currently testing out KDP Select, so the ebook is only available from Amazon. But since it’s enrolled in Kindle Select, that means it can be borrowed if you have Kindle Unlimited.
Enjoy! 😀
Filed under Business Ventures, Writing
Hello, again! I realize I’ve been silent for awhile, and I thought I’d give a quick update. See, I’m sort of between projects. Distant Horizon is being read by a proofreader, and I’ve gotten notes back for The Shadow War… and I apparently have a few plot holes that need to be addressed before I can make much progress. That, and I finally finished the beta-reading project I’ve been long overdue on!
But that left me in writing-limbo. It’s not like I don’t have a bunch of projects to work on. (Trust me, I’ve got plenty of rough drafts begging to be polished). But I didn’t want to start anything big until my two main projects were finished.
And, well, I’ve been reading a lot about short stories and the concept of short stories and then I kind of decided… why not write a short story while I’m waiting?
It started with edits to The Shadow War. One concern had to do with the numerous point of view shifts. There are two characters in particular who had scenes, but, upon second look, I realized might not add much to the story itself (Never mind that I thoroughly enjoyed them).
My first thought was to take one of those scenes (since I rarely delete anything, I copied them into a separate document before removing them from the book) and flesh it into a short story from the point of view of one of the antagonists or semi-antagonists.
Problem with that was two-fold. First… spoilers. All the spoilers. There would be no way around it with the scenes I wanted to write. Second… background details that I wasn’t ready to explore. There’s a highly-detailed world behind The Wishing Blade, and not all the details have been worked out. The ones pertaining to the main plot are mostly in place, but some of the ‘how did this character get here‘ have not.
So I pushed those ideas out for now (Someday I want to write a novel or novella that looks at the antagonists of the series. I could have so much fun with their stories).
Instead, I started looking at areas in the world which interest me, but have nothing to do with the main story. Or, well… are only vaguely related. In this case, the Cantingen Islands. Remember that word magic conlang I’ve been working on? It features heavily in the rough draft of the third book, but from an outsider’s perspective. But I’ve wanted to do more with it, and actually take a look at their mythology and culture.
Enter the short story idea for Stone and String (tentative title). My goal was to write a short story between 5,000 to 10,000 words, with a cohesive beginning, middle, and end. And that goal has been achieved, completing the story at 8,000 words!
The story takes place in the Cantingen Islands, around the time of Magic’s Stealing but not tied to any of the main characters. It explores word magic to a degree, but focuses heavily on their afterlife, as the main character is a young girl who trades her death magic for a chance to see her little sister after an accident kills her.
The story is off to beta-readers now, but I’m hoping that edits go smoothly and I can publish it here in the next couple months. Hopefully it will tide readers over until I can finish The Shadow War.
If people enjoy it, I may write more short stories following the particular character. If not… well, it’s a stand-alone, so it won’t leave anyone on a cliffhanger.
Now, the caveat is that I plan on releasing the short story through Kindle Select so that it can be placed in Kindle Unlimited. Which means, at least for a few months, it won’t be available outside of Amazon. I’m curious to see if it might bring new readers to the series.
But the main books will continue to be available through multiple channels, as I prefer not to have all my eggs in one basket.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this post! Have you tried using Kindle Select, or had luck writing stand-alone short stories? 🙂
Filed under Business Ventures, Writing
Time for the monthly Infinitas Publishing status report! (Doesn’t seem like that long since the last one, does it?)
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Distant Horizon: This has been handed off to our proofreader! The ebook edition has been formatted. Print book over-formatted (I’ll go back and make fixes after I get it back from our proofreader). I’ve been discussing marketing options and I have a plan underway. I need to complete the wrap-around cover, create a book trailer (I’ve been collecting the videos/images I need), and create promotional ads for social media. I’m also planning a cover reveal (details on that coming soon!) and have a tentative release date. Once I know for certain that date can be met, I’ll announce it. 😀
The Shadow War: Got feedback from a beta reader who pointed out a few major plot holes that need to be addressed. So… I’ve got to go back and make those edits. I’ve got a few ideas, though, so I’m hoping that won’t be too difficult. I’ve also got a good chunk of the rough draft for the third book written. Not complete, but it helps me see a few points in the second book that need to be adjusted.
The Multiverse Chronicles: Trials of Blood and Steel: Currently on hiatus. I’ve still been thinking about the blog series, but I’ve been focusing my attention on other projects.
SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: Finished another couple covers, and I’m about to continue work on a formatting project that was previously on hold.
Beta-Reading: Progress made! I’m nearly two-thirds of the way through.
Video-Blogging: I still plan to finish reading Magic’s Stealing aloud, but I want to finish the current beta-reading project first.
In other news, Isaac and I turned in an application for an upcoming street fair, where we hope to sell Phalanx and Magic’s Stealing, and promote our other products. More news on that soon if we get accepted. 🙂
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Don’t forget, if you want to stay up-to-date with our latest book releases and promotions, sign up for our Infinitas Publishing Newsletter!
Filed under Business Ventures, Writing
A month has passed since our last status report, so here’s the update!
The Shadow War: Currently being read by beta-readers. There’s a few edits I need to make based on the rough draft for the third book of The Wishing Blade series, but we’ll see how that goes. I’m working on that book for Camp NaNoWriMo, and I hope to have a rough draft for both the third and fourth books before releasing the second one, that way I can make sure the plot is smooth. I’ve also been developing the Cantingen word magic language for the books, which has been both distracting and fun.
The Multiverse Chronicles: Trials of Blood and Steel: Currently on an unofficial hiatus. The first fifteen episodes are available, but Isaac and I are working through some plot issues, and the last half of the episodes still need editing. A few episodes need additional scenes written. We plan to come back to this project later, but since there seems to be a lack of interest from readers regarding Trials of Blood and Steel, we’re focusing our energy on other projects. That being said, if you read and enjoy it, please let us know.
Battle Decks: Trials of Blood and Steel: Nothing new here, for the same reasons as above. Game development takes a lot of time, and since there doesn’t seem to be a sustained interest in the game, we’re focusing on other projects.
The Dapper Pigeon: I’m still posting to our steampunk curation twitter account, and every once in a while I’ll post about the Trials of Blood and Steel episodes and games. Check it out if you’re interested in steampunk stuff. 🙂
SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: Currently working on one formatting project and doing minor tweaks to another project. Continuing work on book covers.
Beta-Reading: Making progress! I’m aiming on reading at least a chapter a day.
Distant Horizon: Finished making notes about editing on the paper manuscript, and I’m now inputting those notes into the computer. Afterwards, I’m hoping to send it to a beta reader. I also did a few more edits on the prospective book cover.
Video Blogging: I still need to finish reading the last four chapters of Magic’s Stealing. I’m also considering reading/singing bits of the Cantingen language I’m creating, but I’m not sure about that. Anyone interested in hearing how the language sounds as it gets developed?
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Don’t forget, if you want to stay up-to-date with our latest book releases and promotions, sign up for our Infinitas Publishing Newsletter! (Which might include an upcoming sneak peak at the current Distant Horizon cover before I reveal the cover here) 😉
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Also, Magic’s Stealing is currently half-price at Smashwords when you use the coupon code: SSW50 at checkout. The offer is only available at Smashwords, and should be valid through the month of July. If you haven’t picked it up yet, now’s the time to do so! 🙂
Filed under Business Ventures, Writing
Now that a full year has passed since officially starting Infinitas Publishing, it’s time to compile the annual report. So, for those of you who want to see numbers, here you go. 🙂
Since starting the business, we’ve released 1 book, 2 games, and 15 episodes of a serialized novel. (Plus, we pulled in one short story and a collection of short stories that I had published previously)
We had 4 appearances. A book Signing at the Readers World in Sedalia (January 29th, 2016), Game Room at Stealth Con (February 13-14th), Vendor’s Booth at Old Drum Days (April 9th), and the Book Signing at Hastings in Warrensburg (June 4th).
Now for the sales stats:
Magic’s Stealing
Ebook (Released September 17th, 2015) ($2.99)
September:
- Smashwords: 1 Sale (Kobo)
- Kindle US: 3
- Kindle US (Pre-order): 5
- Kindle UK: 1
October:
- Kindle (US): 1
November:
- Kindle (UK): (1 Sold and Returned)
December:
- Smashwords: 1 Sale (Kobo)
- Kindle (US): 1 Sale
January:
- Kindle (UK): 1 Sale
February:
- No sales
March:
- Kindle (US): (3 Sold, 1 Returned)
April:
- Smashwords: 1 Sale (Barnes & Noble)
- Kindle (US): 1 Sale
May:
- No Sales
June:
- No Sales
Total Ebooks Sold: 18
Print Edition (Released December 1st, 2015) ($7.99)
December:
- No Sales
January:
- Amazon (US): 2 Sales
- Readers World (Sedalia) Book Signing: 5 Sales
- Readers World Sedalia (1 Prior to Signing, 4 bought by store after signing): 5 Sales
February:
- No Sales
March:
- No Sales
April:
- No Sales
May:
- No Sales
June:
- Hastings Book Signing: 6 Sales
- Hastings (Later Date): 2 Sales
Total Paperbacks Sold: 20
Total Copies of Magic’s Stealing Sold: 38
Ashes ($0.99)
Online Only (Short Story – Released prior to creation of Infinitas Publishing)
June:
- No Sales
July:
- No Sales
August:
- No Sales
September:
- No Sales
October:
- No Sales
November:
- No Sales
December:
- No Sales
January:
- No Sales
February:
- Kindle (US): 1 Sale
March:
- No Sales
April:
- No Sales
May:
- No Sales
June:
- No Sales
Total Copies of Ashes Sold: 1
1000 Words – A Collection of Short Stories
(Released prior to creation of Infinitas Publishing)
(Note: All but one of these short stories are available for free online through Smashwords)
Ebook ($0.99)
June:
- No Sales
July:
- No Sales
August:
- No Sales
September:
- No Sales
October:
- No Sales
November:
- No Sales
December:
- No Sales
January:
- No Sales
February:
- No Sales
March:
- No Sales
April:
- Amazon (AU): 1 Sale
May:
- No Sales
June:
- No Sales
Total Ebooks Sold: 1
(Note: I did not track sales of the individual free stories. If you’re interested in those, let me know)
Print ($11.99 – full color paperback)
June:
- No Sales
July:
- No Sales
August:
- No Sales
September:
- No Sales
October:
- No Sales
November:
- No Sales
December:
- No Sales
January:
- Amazon (US): 1 Sale
February:
- No Sales
March:
- No Sales
April:
- No Sales
May:
- No Sales
June:
- No Sales
Total Paperbacks Sold: 1
Total Copies of 1000 Words Sold: 2
The Multiverse Chronicles
(Prologue and 1st 3 episodes released February 5, 2016)
(Online Only – Free Blog Series)
6 Followers
Battle Decks: Trials of Blood and Steel
(Released February 12-13th, 2016)
Deluxe Edition: ($37.99 – Online Only) No sales
Basic Edition: ($24.99 – Online Only) No sales
Total: 0 sold
Phalanx
(Released April 9th, 2016)
Cloth Edition: ($25.00 – Local Only) 4 sales (3 sold in April, 1 sold in June)
Wooden Edition: ($75.00 – Local Only) 1 sale (April)
Board Game Edition: ($28.99 – Online Only) No sales
Total: 5 sold
I suspect that having the games be primarily online only is hurting chances of impulse buys, especially given that it is direct from The Game Crafter website, rather than a site people are familiar with (such as Amazon). For Ashes and 1000 Words, these are older works, so I rarely advertise them.
Marketing
Twitter – Every so often, I tweet for Magic’s Stealing on my writer’s account. Also, Isaac and I created a Steampunk-themed curator Twitter account, The Dapper Pigeon, from which we occasionally tweet about Battle Decks and The Multiverse Chronicles.
Facebook – We created the Infinitas Publishing Facebook page, and I tried running a short campaign ($10.00, from Feb 19th-20th, 2016) but didn’t see any sales.
Word-of-Mouth – We have poker card-shaped business cards and fliers with the first episode of Multiverse that we hand out at events.
Newsletter – We created the Infinitas Publishing Newsletter on June 3rd, 2016. At the moment, we have 0 followers.
Goodreads Giveaway – I gave away 1 copy of Magic’s Stealing in January, 2016. 893 people entered the giveaway, but there were no noticeable sales based on the giveaway (I can attribute the print sales that did happen to people I know personally).
Rafflecopter Giveaway – I offered up 1 ebook of Magic’s Stealing during the first giveaway and 2 ebook copies during the second giveaway. The first had 3-5 people entering, and the second had one.
Let me know if you have any questions. 🙂
Filed under Business Ventures, Writing
Me at the table I shared with Christine Gilbert.
About a week ago, I took part in a multi-author book signing at the Hastings in Warrensburg, Missouri. It was an after-event for the Writers of Warrensburg’s first writing conference, in which we had around thirty writers (from beginning to published) attended panels led by published authors. The panels covered everything from characters to marketing, and we enjoyed the scenic Cena’s Nook (a local bed & breakfast). Had a great time and learned some interesting tidbits (I was hidden most of the event, since Isaac and I were organizing the critique group’s entries), and chatted with several local authors (a few we had met before at a local conventions while wandering the vendor halls).
After the writer’s conference, several of the authors who had published books went to Hastings for the signing. The event ran from 4-6 pm, and the Hastings staff set up several tables for us (two authors per table). Most of us had already brought a copy of our books into the store for them prior to the event, that way they could get the information into the system and make it easier for them to print barcode stickers on the actual day.
Everyone getting setup for the multi-author signing.
For my half of the table, I included two business cards (shaped like playing cards–one had Magic’s Stealing info and the other had general publishing contact info). I had a bowl with cover-color-themed candy (the bowl is the same as the one on the cover), a newsletter signup sheet with QR code (no one signed up, though), a printed mount of the book cover, and a stand with the book (I used one of those receipt-spindle things with a plastic tip that I found at Office Depot when the local store had a closing sale). Behind the scenes, I brought a couple signing pens, regular pens, and a sticky notepad (in case I needed anyone to spell their name). I had extra books on hand, ready to have Hastings put a price sticker on if needed.
I went to the conference and signing in my pseudo-steampunk outfit (what I wore for my author photo), and brought Dragon (the stuffed dragon on my shoulder) along for the ride. (As a side note, Dragon sold me a book. It was at the end of the signing, and I had run out to the car to grab a couple things before I could pack up (I had carpooled with another author on my way to the signing, so we could get there early). On my way in, a Hastings customer asked what the dragon was for. I mentioned I was dressed up since I was selling my book at the signing that day. He asked about what I wrote, and I showed him the book (I was holding a proof copy of Magic’s Stealing at the time). He seemed interested and asked about having a copy, so I told him I could get him an actual copy inside. Signed him a book (with a tiny doodle of Dragon), and I hope he enjoys it. 🙂
Yay for conversation starters!
Hastings Sign for the Writers of Warrensburg Book Signing – Picture provided by Jason Meuschke
Overall, I sold six books. Three to people I knew, one to someone I met that day at the conference, and two to Hastings customers who happened to stop by that day. It was a lot of fun, and I’m hoping to do another signing once I have the next book available.
I hope you enjoyed this post. 🙂
Filed under Business Ventures, Writing
It’s that time again! Time for the monthly Infinitas Publishing status report. 😀
The Shadow War: I finished the first round of edits and I’m now in the process of smoothing out the story and polishing before sending it to beta-readers. Progress is definitely being made!
The Multiverse Chronicles: Trials of Blood and Steel: Slowed down a bit on releasing episodes (you can read why in this post) but we’re working our way through the second half of the first season. Isaac and I are debating taking a hiatus on releasing episodes so that we can get through edits on the rest of the season rather than trying to do a heavy round of edits each week, but we’ll see.
Battle Decks: Trials of Blood and Steel: Nothing new at the moment. Had to take a break from beta-testing since we were out of town for a few weekends.
SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: Finished two formatting projects, finished a couple book cover projects, and have one more major formatting project to go. Progress made!
Beta-Reading: Finally got started on this! Still moving slowly, but I’m moving a lot faster than I was before summer started.
Distant Horizon: Waiting on beta-reader feedback. Isaac and I also noticed a few scenes we want to tweak before we release it into the wild, but I’m excited to start working on it as soon as we have all our notes. Also, we now have a blurb!
Video Blogging: Once I’m caught up with formatting and beta-reading, I plan to resume reading Magic’s Stealing in audio format.
Author Blog: I’ve been writing a lot more writing-based articles lately. Let me know if there’s any topics you want me to cover. 🙂
In other news, we’ve just about hit the one year anniversary of Infinitas Publishing, so I plan to do an annual report later this month. I plan to go over everything we released, what we had planned to release (and didn’t), as well as sales. And I also want to touch on how we’re adjusting our original plan and what you can expect to see next.
And if you want to stay up-to-date with our latest book releases and promotions, don’t forget to sign up for our new Infinitas Publishing Newsletter!
I hope you enjoyed this post. 🙂
Filed under Business Ventures, Writing
After hearing a number of authors suggest that having an email newsletter was super helpful in marketing their books, I finally set up a newsletter.
Now, I’m not sure if it’s going to make a difference that the newsletter says “Infinitas Publishing” rather than “Stephanie Flint and Isaac Flint” in terms of personalization, but I wanted to include both Isaac and I in the newsletter, along with our books and our games (seeing as how they tend to tie together).
On the other hand, I wonder if readers would respond better to having a more personal touch, where it’s addressed directly from the author. We’ll see how this goes. If any of you have experience with that, feel free to chime in.
After looking between a couple popular mailing list services, Aweber and MailChimp, I opted with the latter. Mostly because it’s free for the first 2000 subscribers, and it seems to work for the authors that I receive newsletters from. Now, once the mailing list reaches a higher number of subscribers I’ll need to decide whether or not to switch services, but that probably won’t happen for a while.
When I first signed up, I was a bit confused as to how everything works. Actually, I still am, but after a bunch of clicking on different options and creating a test template, I finally figured out that you needed a “list” so that you can collect subscribers, from there you want a “form” so that readers can subscribe, and then you create a “campaign,” which is the specific email you send (‘regular’ for general purposes), and then use a “template” to drag and drop the specific content you want into your email.
Then you send the campaign, and it goes to all the people on your list (or whomever you selected when you first created the campaign).
That seems to be the basic gist of the service, from what I tinkered with tonight, but there look to be a lot of other features which may be handy later… A/B testing, options to have a welcome letter for people who have just subscribed, different “groups” of subscribers, tracking to show how well a particular email campaign worked…
I like what I see, and I suspect that after I send out a few emails… er, campaigns… I’ll have a better idea of what I’m doing.
It did help that I already have a PO box ready so I didn’t have to use my actual address (you’re required to have a physical address on bulk emails as part of the US’s CAN-SPAM act). Most of the other forms you fill out are relatively easy, though the fact that the password requires at least one special character did throw me for a loop when I tried to log back in a second time. Makes sense to require, given that you can send out mass emails through their service, but not what I’m accustomed to.
That being said, there is now an HTML link on the right of my blog (I’ve cleared up the sidebar a bit) and a link in the top bar of our main Infinitas Publishing page. Technically, free WordPress blogs offer a widget to include a MailChimp newsletter popup, but I’m not sure I want to add a popup just yet. I’ve tended to find them annoying, rather than enticing me to sign up for anything. But maybe that’s just me. I may test the idea later, if it seems to work. Have any of you found them to be effective?
That’s my experience with email newsletters thus far. If you want to subscribe to my newsletter to receive updates and special promotions regarding the books and games that Isaac and I create, please click the link below. 🙂
Filed under Business Ventures, Writing
