Keith Robinson's Blog

The 16th book in my Island of Fog series is complete and will be published on March 2nd, 2023. Before then, I'm giving fans of the series a chance to get an early read. I'm posting Box of Fables on my website as soon as each chapter is fully edited. If you're keen, you can read each fairly polished chapter the moment it's ready, about 2-3 chapters per week.

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Think of it like Patreon, where you subscribe for premium and exclusive content. This won't be everyone's cup of tea, but several readers have prompted me to do this, and I've resisted until now. It makes sense, though. If I'm writing the book anyway, why not let readers in on the process?

Go to my patron page if you're interested in a $3/month subscription to read Box of Fables as well as some other exclusive content. The lineup includes:

Access to ALL currently available and future chapters of my current work in progress (which right now is Box of Fables). This work will remain available to you after it's finished (during the edit and proofreading stage) for at least a month before official publication.A free copy of the final published ebook.For long-term subscribers, there's always a strong possibility of characters or creatures being named after you, as well as a mention in the acknowledgements.My weekly journal about writing progress, daily life, and general thoughts.Direct communication with me about my ongoing work.Unlimited access to any other work I add here.Occasional free ebooks by other authors.My grateful thanks for your support!AND -- I'll post another entire novel for you. The Secret of Gromble Gorge is my first ever finished book, even before Island of Fog, but was never published. I looked at it recently and thought, "Hmm, that's actually not half bad." It needs some editing work, but not as much as I thought.

See you inside!

The 16th book in my Island of Fog series is about 75% complete as I write this, and I'm looking ahead to its launch sometime in the first quarter of 2023. And I'm giving fans of the series a chance to get an early read.

I plan to post Box of Fables on my website as soon as each chapter is edited. The book isn't due out until February or March 2023, but if you're keen, you can read each fairly polished chapter the moment it's ready, at about two chapters per week.

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But this early access won't be free. Sorry. Think of it like Patreon, where you subscribe for premium and exclusive content. This won't be everyone's cup of tea, but several readers have prompted me to do this, and I've resisted until now. It makes sense, though. If I'm writing the book anyway, why not let readers in on the process?

I won't be using the well-known Patreon service because I have my own similar setup on my website. It should be ready to go live on December 1st, so drop me a line at keith@unearthlytales.com and let me know if you're interested in a $3/month subscription to read Box of Fables as well as some other exclusive content. The lineup includes:

Access to ALL currently available and future chapters of my current work in progress (which right now is Box of Fables). This work will remain available to you after it's finished (during the edit and proofreading stage) for at least a month before official publication.A free copy of the final published ebook.For long-term subscribers, there's always a strong possibility of characters or creatures being named after you, as well as a mention in the acknowledgements.My weekly journal about writing progress, daily life, and general thoughts.Direct communication with me about my ongoing work.Unlimited access to any other work I add here.Occasional free ebooks by other authors.My grateful thanks for your support!AND -- I'll post another entire novel for you. The Secret of Gromble Gorge is my first ever finished book, even before Island of Fog, but was never published. I looked at it recently and thought, "Hmm, that's actually not half bad." It needs some editing work, but not as much as I thought.

So, that's that. Email me in advance if you're interested (no obligation) so I can add you to my list and let you know the moment it's ready for access.

In this post, I'll be showing you what kind of sales you can expect from using sponsored ads on Amazon Marketing Services, which you can access directly from your KDP Dashboard. I'll also be mentioning the fantastic tool known as Publisher Rocket, which generates thousands of keywords and phrases in a very short time.

(Here are some really simple tutorials in case you've never seen Publisher Rocket in action.)

With millions of new books being published every year, it's very difficult to get your work in front of eager readers. It's become a "pay to play" game, and there are only a few options when it comes to advertising your books on a pay-per-click platform. Facebook is one, and this works well for some authors. BookBub is a possibility; they have a sponsored ads program as well as their mammoth Featured Deals email newsletter.

But if you're published on Amazon, where readers are already trawling the categories trying to find their next favorite book or series, you really need to be using AMS (Amazon Marketing Services).

The great thing about AMS is that you're not likely to lose a ton of money by accident, unlike with Facebook. In fact, you'll probably end up wishing you could spend more. When you find the right set of keywords, and your book cover and book blurb are just right, you can definitely make sales and turn a good profit. I advertise in both the the US and UK, and you can see from this "lifetime" screenshot that it's kind of a no-brainer:

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Just to clarify, the "sales" figure shown here is before Amazon has taken their share. If these were all ebook sales at 70%, the actual sales amount would be more like £16K. Since it's a mixture of print books and ebooks, the sales figure is less still.

However, I usually just ignore the sales figure. What's more important is the number of orders and what each order is worth. The majority of ad-generated sales are for Book 1 of my 15-book Island of Fog series, and that's where good old read-through comes in. If every person who bought Book 1 also bought the rest of the books in the series, that would (over time) earn me something like £45.00 ($55.00) from each reader. But that's generally not the case, because not everyone buys the rest of the books. Also, some people might read three or four books and stop. Who knows?

What I do know is that, going by the number of Book 1 sales and the total revenue earned on the entire series, each sale of Book 1 yields about £18.00 ($23.00) on average. So, that's the "value" I've attached to each Book 1 sale.

But wait. Let's be extra cautious here and say that each sale of Book 1 yields a "measly" £5.00 ($6.00), which might be true if you have, say, five or six books in your series. Going by the numbers in the screenshot above, 3,272 orders x £5.00 per reader still equals about £16,360 ($19,632) in revenue. And that's double what I paid on ads!

I always heard that "1 sale in every 20 clicks" is what you should be aiming for, or perhaps "1 sale in every 30 clicks" if you're in KU. The above screenshot works out at about 1 sale in every 14 clicks. The UK in particular has been great for me, albeit driven in part by Covid's lockdowns in 2020 and 2021.

By the way, my books are in KU. Those figures are not shown above. You'll just have to imagine how many more people click on the ads and read via Kindle Unlimited vs. an outright sale. That's extra income not really included in this quick analysis.

Also, the above sales are only those generated directly from Amazon ads. There are plenty of other sales that are more indirect. For instance, if my ads keep showing up, a reader somewhere might eventually search for my book without actually clicking on an ad. And just the fact that ads are boosting sales means that my books are higher in the charts, which in turn leads to organic sales:

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But you can't just throw up an ad without research. You'll probably waste money that way, or not spend any at all. Here's the thing...

With AMS, it's all about keywords!

Strong sales on AMS are only possible with a lot of great-performing keywords (as well as a strong book cover and blurb, of course). You may think you can simply write a list of keywords and phrases and cover all the possibilities, but let me tell you, every person in the world who goes on Amazon to search for a particular type of book, or their favorite genre, or books that are similar to ones they've read, are going to come up with search terms you never would have thought of. And if you don't include those search terms in your keyword list, then you're missing out on potential sales.

You can gather keywords in a variety of ways, such as by studying other books in a similar genre:

Look at the "also boughts" on your Amazon book page. You don't always see these, but if you do, it's a hint as to what other books readers buy in addition to your own. If someone likes your book and also likes this and that book, make a list of those books and their authors, as they're usually a good target audience.Also look at authors and books that are in the same categories as you. If readers chance across those books first, you should make sure your own books show up somewhere nearby, like on that other book's page. Maybe your cover is better and grabs their attention. If so, you've just snatched a sale!Drill down into each of the above lists until you've found as many similar authors as you can. If your book is about goblins, your book ad absolutely needs to show up on product pages of other books about goblins.Think outside the box. Readers who like goblins probably like centaurs as well. Look for books heavily related to yours in any feasible way.

When it comes to actual keywords, there are the "obvious" lists and the "not-so-obvious" lists. An obvious list for middle-grade fantasy readers would include the following:

fantasy book 9 12 agefantasy for kidskids books about fantasyebook fantasy for girlsfantasy series boys age 11

...and so on.

Compiling this list will likely drive you nuts, because there are endless variations to include. The majority won't even get impressions, let alone clicks, but you don't know what will work until you try various ads with hundreds or even thousands of keywords and phrases.

Whatever you come up with, the AMS platform has a section that lists actual customer search terms that generated impressions, clicks, and sometimes sales, such as:

biggles kindle booksbook harry potterbooks for 10+ year old boysbooks for harry potter fansbooks girls age 8books with a magical element1950s childrens fiction

Some might belong on the "obvious" list, but I never would have thought to include "biggles" or the specific phrase "with a magical element" or "1950s childrens fiction." Still, somehow these search terms brought my books to the readers' attention, so it's best to study and possibly include these kinds of phrases in your curated lists. (Note that you can't use "kindle" and similar brand names in your lists.)

Believe me when I say that making keyword lists is like walking into a labyrinth. I think it's why so many authors I talk to have either failed at AMS sponsored ads (because they didn't take the time to generate lists) or why they never got started in the first place.

If the idea of generating thousands of keywords threatens to overwhelm you, don't worry -- there's an amazing tool designed exactly for this task:

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Read About Publisher Rocket

I'm sure you've seen this app before, but for good reason -- it's brilliant. You can gather long lists of actual Amazon search terms in minutes rather than hours. I thoroughly recommend it. I own a copy of the software and have used it extensively.

I find it's most useful for initial wide-net trawls, literally spreading your net far and wide to see what little fishes you end up with... Well, you get the idea. Then you can fine-tune your lists from there. But here's what seems to be the four key areas:

Best Keywords for your bookWho your Competitors are (so you can learn from them)Best Categories for your bookBest Keywords for your AMS ads

As reviewers have said, "With this tool, I stopped guessing what keywords I should be using for my books, and instead was able to find keywords that were actually typed into Amazon’s search bar by real shoppers."

Some more blurb that I find true:

One of Publisher Rocket’s most powerful features is its Competition Analyzer that lists the books that rank on the first page of Amazon for a particular keyword. This feature also allows you to see how well any of your competitors' books are performing and in what categories their books are currently enrolled in. 

Publisher Rocket also lists all of Amazon’s 11,200+ categories and subcategories, along with how many books you would need to sell in order to be the #1 bestseller. So instead of sifting through all those categories ourselves, this tool does all this for us.

Anyway, that's that. Sales pitch over. The software costs $97.00, a one-off fee that includes all future updates. You get a 30-day money back guarantee. If you're about to try Amazon Sponsored Ads, or even if you've been doing it a while, I would just suggest you try Publisher Rocket and see what you think. I get a referral fee if you click one of the links on this page, and I only recommend the software because I believe in it.

It's time!

I've mentioned this before, and I've had a banner at the foot of this website for months, but the day has finally arrived! (Well, tomorrow anyway.) Check this out:

And this:

These aren't the only silly videos we've done, but you can find out more on the Next Chapter Con website.

So what's it all about?

I'm glad you asked! Basically, every time we authors go to conventions, we end up just a teensy-weensy bit peeved that artists and vendors get so much of the attention. You see, authors are special snowflakes. We believe our work is a hundred times harder to sell than an artist's, because when a customer walks up to an artist's table, that customer knows within two seconds whether the work is any good or not. An author's work, however... well, it could be fantastic, or it could be absolute rubbish, so there's always a lot of doubt.

It's takes effort for authors to sell books, and we're jealous of artists who sit there doodling while customers watch in admiration. If an author sat there at a convention writing his next book, it would just look rude.

Anyway, wouldn't it be great if the convention was ALL authors? That way, the people who show up are bound to be interested in BOOKS and not silly pictures of Superman or Thor!

I hope you realize I'm only kidding. Well, half kidding.

If you're local to Ringgold in northwest Georgia, come along and see us at The Colonnade between 10 AM and 4 PM on Saturday, September 7. Admission is just $5, and $2 of that goes back to local schools and libraries. Anyone 12 and under gets in for free.

I'd love to see you! And if you're not interested in seeing me, then come and talk to the other authors. There are over 40 of them in one place!

Talk about creative energy in the air...

Well, hello!

I expect (and hope!) you've been wondering where I've been these past few months. The truth is, quite a few things have got in the way of my writerly life. Projects have been delayed, blogging has been at a standstill, sales have been up and down, and so on.

Here's a quick recap on stuff...

Sleep Writer

In my last post (back in May!), I was excited about serializing my Sleep Writer series. Now, a few months later, I've unpublished those episodes.

Why? Various reasons, but mainly because I started to realize how hard it would be to get reviews on each short novella, and what a mammoth task it would be to promote the serial at the same time as the main series of novels. Basically, I figured out I was diluting my time, reviews, and even my sales rank by offering two different ways to buy the books.

So that project is over. But it was fun while it lasted, and I loved coming up with the covers and titles. It was actually a pretty rewarding experience in a lot of ways. A huge thanks to all those who bought the mini-books or downloaded via Kindle Unlimited. And never fear -- you'll get to continue the series with the newest book due out soon.

Speaking of which...

Aliens Undead (Sleep Writer 5), was originally due out August 16 (ie. tomorrow). Note that I said was. I'm afraid that won't be happening now. About two thirds of the book are completely finished and proofread, but the last third is not done, and the book won't be fully ready until mid-September. I feel bad about it, but (sigh) time has just gotten away from me this year.

It'll be worth the wait, though. Fans of the series will understand when I say that Liam, Ant, and Madison can't keep their alien events secret forever, and the proverbial poop hits the fan in this latest installment. Aliens Undead features giant bugs and, perhaps not surprisingly, zombie aliens.

I actually have Book 6 mapped out too, though this one will be an early-2020 project.

Island of Fog

Journey of Magic (Island of Fog 11) is due out later this year. I've written a few chapters already and am very excited about it. It features a bizarre island at the edge of the world full of creatures inspired by folklore from East Asia. I thought my books already contained all the popular mythical creatures, but when you look to the horizon, there's a long, long list of monsters I haven't even touched on yet. In Japan, most of the supernatural creatures that pop up in myth and urban legend are known as yokai, a sort of umbrella term that encompasses them all. And what a menagerie of ghouls they have!

I can't wait to explore the land Hal and his friends visit. As I said, I've written a few chapters already, and the shapeshifting gang has already sailed over the edge of the world with a crew of goblins. That's where the journey of magic starts.

Space novel rattling around in my head

Since I have so much time on my hands (because a website design job, a bit of construction work when I can fit it in, proofreading, editing, and writing my own books isn't quite enough, and sleeping is overrated anyway) I have plans to write a comedy space romp. I think it'll be a novella, and if it works out, I'll expand it into a series of some kind.

I have partial ideas. One involves an annoying time loop, and another a visit to a skyscraper where time travel is needed just to get around the building.

All my books are in Kindle Unlimited now!

Yes, that's right. Sales on other platforms like Nook, Kobo, and Apple have been okay this past decade, but these days it's just so... meh. So I decided to take all my books off those platforms for a few months and try Kindle Select, which means going exclusive with Amazon and allowing my books to be borrowed for free (with a Kindle Unlimited subscription).

So, this is big news indeed. Is it good news? That depends on you. Not everyone likes Amazon, and I get that. But this is something I have to try.

Next Chapter Con

I'll post more about this later, but an author friend is hosting a convention! After going to numerous sci-fi and fantasy conventions, Kenyon T Henry got the idea in his head to host a convention of his own, only this one would be geared mainly toward authors. It's being held at the Colonnade Center in Ringgold, GA, on September 7, and we currently have 40 authors along with a voice-over artist, cover artist, and more.

I say "we" because I somehow volunteered to help. At first I was reluctant, knowing it would take a lot of time. But I couldn't resist offering to help out with things like the website, ad graphics, and so on.

The buzz is buzzing, and it should be a really good first event. If you happen to be local to the area or passing through Georgia early September, come on by and see us. It's only $5 for entry. I'll be there with my books along with many others.

Check out the website at Next Chapter Con.

I'll post again soon, I promise.

3 new books? Yup. That's pretty normal for me. But what's not normal is the extra 18 ebook novellas I'm putting out in 2019. And I haven't thought much beyond September yet.

It's been up and down a bit lately. No complaints, just a LOT to do, which has got in the way of writing. But I'm back at it, and I'm excited to share that I'm progressing nicely on the next Sleep Writer adventures.

Not a fan of Sleep Writer? That's okay, but stay tuned, because there's a bit of news about Island of Fog coming up in this post as well. :-)

A quick announcement: April 24th 2019 was the 10-year anniversary of Island of Fog being published. Ten years! In that time, it's been downloaded by 200,000 readers, sparked interest from TV and movie producers, and spawned nine sequels, a bunch of short stories, and a spin-off series. Not bad for a book I self-published just to scratch an itch!

I haven't taken such a long break from writing since... well, since I published my first book in 2009. I published my last book, Death Storm, on November 15. Then I stopped to deal with a huge website job, which actually turned into TWO huge website jobs, both due by December 31st. I got both done for the most part, and then I had to catch up, yada-yada-yada... The point is, I didn't start writing again until March 1st. A three-and-a-half-month hiatus!

I wrote a 20,000-word novella called Target Earth featuring our intrepid heroes Liam, Ant, and the Sleep Writer herself Madison. If you've been following the news about splitting the four current books into a serial (see this post), you'll know that this new novella is Part 13 of the Sleep Writer Journal. I wrote it in 2-3 weeks. I then planned to start Part 14 on April 1st... but I didn't. Because I was BUSY. (Sue me.)

Anyway, on May 1st, I finally got started on Part 14, Frozen Demons, and I'm already at 16,000 words, so only 4000 more to go. No sweat. Even allowing for a good edit, that'll be no more than 2-3 weeks total. I've finally got into the habit of writing in the morning and doing websites in the afternoon, and that's going to work nicely for me.

At this rate, and keeping the momentum going, I'll be starting Part 15, Stasis Error, around the end of May with a goal to finish it before June 9th (when I head to the UK on vacation).

Since the Sleep Writer Journal serial is currently being released every two weeks, the schedule looks like this:

Feb 1st through July 5th -- the first 12 parts of the Journal

In other words, this is the existing four novels split into three parts each. They're remaining as novels, but I'm serializing them as well -- perfect for KU readers.

Then...

July 19 -- #13 Target Earth August 2 -- #14 Frozen Demons August 16 -- #15 Stasis Error

And if I stick to the plan, there will also be...

August 30 -- #16 Murder of a King September 13 -- #17 The Ghost Realm September 27 -- #18 Droid Flux

See more about this, and all the covers, in my post Sci-fi episodic serial fiction -- free for KU Kindle Unlimited readers and on the main Sleep Writer page.

As soon as Target Earth, Frozen Demons, and Stasis Error are published in serial format, the three novellas will be combined as a novel as well, for those who prefer novels. And the same again for Murder of a King, The Ghost Realm, and Droid Flux.

I then intend to take a break from the serial and resume in 2020 with a new "season" starting at #19.

A quick call-out to Sleep Writer fans, if I may? The serial episodes could do with some love in the review department. If you've read Sleep Writer, that means you've read the first three parts of the serial and could, in theory, add ratings and reviews on Amazon. Same with Robot Blood and so on. Someone did post a nice review of the first part but only gave it 3 stars. Anything you can do to help would be GREATLY appreciated!

Sleep Writer Series Page (Amazon US) Sleep Writer Series Page (Amazon UK)

I see these adventures as very Doctor Who-like in that our heroes travel about the universe dealing with all manner of menaces. This particular batch of six parts will see a change in that Liam, Ant, and Madison will find it hard to resume life as normal. Basically, stuff happens that is impossible to hide from their parents, so they're ready to face them and say, "Yes, okay, we travel through wormholes to other planets..." Only it doesn't work out that way, because they suddenly find it very difficult to get home.

These novellas are incredibly fun to write! But I'll tell you something else that's fun to write...

A new Island of Fog adventure on the horizon!

No pun intended, but -- well, actually, yes it is. In the newest Island of Fog book, which I'm hoping to have ready by the end of August, the shapeshifters will be traveling to the edge of the world. You've all heard of legendary stories about ships falling over the horizon? Well, those stories are true! In Fog #11, Journey of Magic, the shifters will find a world they never knew existed.

Book 10, Forest of Souls, has had very strong sales since its release in November. I had feared that it would languish far behind, but it seems old Fog fans have shown up in droves to buy it. In terms of read-through sales, it's doing way better than expected. This is because it's new, and there's a lot of catch-up to do, but when all settles down, read-through will end up right on par with the rest of the books.

This is why I'm happy to write Book 11. It would be different if sales had dropped off like... well, like a ship going over the horizon. But everything's looking good, so I'm green-lighting myself to go ahead. :-D

See more about read-through below where I talk about diminishing returns. But first...

Ridiculous writing schedule?

You may have noticed that I'm biting off a lot to chew. But if I finish the third Sleep Writer novella before June 9th (highly doable), and then start on Journey of Magic straight away and write while I'm in the UK, I might possibly get that done and published by the end of August. But I'd have to write hard.

Why the rush, though? Because Amazon offers a writing competition that says (to paraphrase): "Publish a book (or books) between May 1st and August 31st and enter it as part of the competition, and the winner will receive a grand prize of 20,000." So I'd like to push hard to get Journey of Magic out between those dates.

If I can do that, I can then get started on Sleep Writer #16, Ghost Realm, for its publication on August 30th, and so on.

Let's see, then...

1 brand new Island of Fog book 12 pre-written Sleep Writer Journal novellas 6 brand new Sleep Writer Journal novellas 2 Sleep Writer books (using 3 novellas in each)

So after a lazy start to the year, 2019 might just end up being one of my most prolific. Without counting the serial, 3 full novels is normal. But with the serial, it's... well, it's just plain silly. :-)

Diminishing returns

Thinking of horizons earlier reminds me of a fellow author who commented recently about "diminishing returns" in business, the point at which it's no longer good business sense to throw money at something. It got me thinking. In farming, you can spend money to fertilize a field and perhaps see a 20% increase in crop output. That's money well spent on fertilizer and labor! If you get all excited and pay the same money to fertilize it again in the hope of another 20% crop increase, you'll be disappointed when it only yields 3%. This is diminishing returns.

But does it apply to writing books? I'm not sure. I guess it does in a way, but it depends how you look at it. Book 1 of a series will always sell more than Book 2, and Book 2 will sell more than Book 3, and so on. This is true of all my series without any exceptions.

So, for the sake of argument, if someone had a trilogy and was wondering whether or not to write Book 4...

Book 1 yields $2000 a year in sales Book 2 yields $1500 a year in sales Book 3 yields $1000 a year sales ...then Book 4 might only yield $500 in sales

So is it worth writing Book 4? Well, it might if you consider it's $500 every year. If everything remains consistent, that $500 a year for Book 4 over 20 years would be $10,000. That's quite a nice retirement supplement when you add it to the other books in the series. It could be $4500 a year, or $5000 a year. The more books, the better.

And if Book 1 suddenly spiked and started selling like hot cakes, it could earn $10,000 a year... and suddenly Book 4 would be worth a lot more, perhaps $2500 a year. And then it's worth writing Book 5, Book 6, and Book 7...

Since "diminishing returns" (to me) means throwing money or time into something that doesn't yield enough to make it worthwhile, I don't think it applies to books -- because books could theoretically keep earning forever, thus the profit over time would be enormous. It's all relative. If Book 1 does poorly, then so will Book 4. If Book 1 sells well, then so does Book 4. So if you're wondering if Book 4 is worth writing, the answer is probably more to do with how well you can sell Book 1.

This other author I was talking to suggested that, instead of writing another book in the same series and suffering from diminishing returns, it might be better to write Book 1 of a brand new series. This is all well and good, but consider this:

After number-crunching my own sales, it seems that writing Book 11 of my Fog series will still yield a little more than Book 1 of my Legacies series. The Fog series just sells so much better than all my other work. But the Legacies books are catching up, and so are Sleep Writer books.

So, Book 1 of a new series isn't necessarily going to sell better. In fact, you're starting over with a new fan base, which makes it harder. On the plus side, it's easier to promote a Book 1 than, say, a Book 4 or Book 11. If I advertised Book 11, readers would be like, "Huh? I ain't starting there! I'll give this other book a shot instead. It's the first of a new series..."

All this tells me I should mark Fog Book 11 as "An Island of Fog Adventure" instead of "Island of Fog Book 11." And make sure it's a completely standalone story. Then I could advertise it and maybe draw new readers in.

But look here. I can't get any writing done if I'm conjecturing and pontificating about stuff, can I?

Until next time...

It's all well and good writing a book and being told it's "a ripping tale" and "highly recommended" and "totally engrossing entertainment"... but none of that matters if the majority of potential readers don't pick it up in the first place. And why would they? The book's cover, title, and blurb all missed the mark.

The Old Cover

As I briefly mentioned in my previous post, this is all started at a sci-fi and fantasy convention early in 2018. I was sitting there at a table with my books spread out, and it seemed quite a few people (mostly female) were drawn to the cover of Unicorn Hunters. That's good, right? Yes, and some people bought it based on the cover and my own spoken description. But others didn't. One young girl didn't like the idea of unicorns being hunted. An older woman said she didn't approve of anything remotely harmful towards horses. So those were lost sales -- because of the title, and because there are hunters on the cover.

At this year's convention, the same discussion came up again, and I found myself saying, "Well, yes, there are hunters, but the point of the story is that the hero, a young shapeshifter named Travis, saves the unicorns from the hunters, and saves a bunch of other creatures too!"

But no amount of explaining will change the minds of those who are already turned off by the image of men with rifles standing over dead unicorns... and who can blame them?

Let me just say this up front: No unicorns were harmed in the making of this book.

After running ads over the last six months for Island of Fog, Fractured, and Unicorn Hunters, I noticed that Unicorn Hunters rarely converted to sales. I decided it was finally time to do something about this. First, I posted my cover and description on a Facebook group dedicated to critiquing those very things. The response was very helpful -- and made me wish I'd done this years ago! Let's take a look. First, my blurb (book description)...

A magical fantasy adventure with shapeshifters and creatures from myth and legend. Suitable for all readers 9 and up. Parents, read this with your children!

It's been twenty years since Hal Franklin and his friends arrived in New Earth as full-blooded shapeshifters. It was inevitable that Hal and Abigail would end up together, and sure enough, now they have a child of their own -- young Travis, now twelve himself and wanting to follow in his father's footsteps as a shapeshifter dragon.

Of course, even though the Shapeshifter Program is available to any approved young person, Lady Simone can't allow just anyone to be fearsome beasts like dragons! Not even the son of Hal and Abigail. So Travis chooses a wyvern, which is technically a dragon but small enough for Lady Simone to bend the rules for.

Meanwhile, the old soothsayer on the hill predicts a spot of unavoidable trouble ahead. Does it involve the recent spate of hunters coming through into New Earth and terrorizing the wildlife? Travis is about to find out when he transforms for the first time and jumps into action to save a unicorn...

This is the first in a series set in the ISLAND OF FOG universe but with a new generation of characters. Each book is a self-contained story following the adventures of Travis and his friends. Good, clean, sometimes scary fun for young readers but suitable for adults as well.

Okay, so with that out of the way, here's the gist of the responses...

You have your call to action where your hook should be. If the book is about the son why even mention the parents in the blurb? On the cover the tale is odd.

I think the title is a bit off putting. Unicorn Protectors would probably be more appealing.

No hunting Unicorns!

Your blurb is more like a book summary and I am confused by it. I am not sure if this is a mg/ya or adult book. Who is the main character? What is the main conflict of the story? If it is a spin off from a series fine but the blurb needs to stand on its own. Be careful trying to tell too much rather than intrigue your reader to find out on own.

I would choose a new cover to appeal a middle grade audience and rework blurb focusing on the twelve year old hero and the conflict of the story. As I agree it doesn't have that MG feel right now.

Read your first chapter. It's MG. Based on the first chapter, I'd go for a wyvern on the cover. :)

I think your first line should be something along the lines of: "Twelve year old Travis wants to follow in his father's footsteps as a shapeshifter dragon."

It's a beautiful cover but it doesn't really look like mg to me. Just looking at the cover with the title it gave me the impression that it was about adult hunters and not a twelve year old boy saving the unicorns which like you said could be off putting.

Don't tell PETA. I like it a lot. What I don't like is the shadows seem to be young kids with automatic type weapons (no expert by any means) which might not fly on school shelves if you are MG. Honestly even as a parent I'd read that first because my sons have autism and take some things very literally.

Lots of comment on blurb (I agree too long and all over) the title too as the MC should be hunting then. My BIG hang up is the three soldiers (military grade weapons, tac vests and helmet scrim) sorry long serving member here. Those hunters should be kitted out as hunters not operators.

The one thing that popped out for me in the blurb was this line: Parents, read this with your children! I didn't know if it was an order or a warning or a suggestion though it came off as either the first or second. It was pretty off-putting.

I don't have cover wisdom, but the title brought to mind a scene I still have flashbacks about -- Voldemort drinking unicorn blood in the first Harry Potter book. My first thought was "If unicorns were harmed in this book, I don't want to read it."

I agree. Unicorns are one of those sacred animals. And, so assumed this was a fantasy novel, so the guns threw me off.

So, with all that being said, I immediately set about changing things...

The Title

No more "hunting." I think it's normally fine for the title to reflect the menace or danger in the novel, to hint at whatever it is the main character has to deal with. But unicorns are off-limits. I've seen plenty of adult horror movie posters depicting men or women in states of terror or torture, and horror fans eagerly watch them... but if you saw a horror movie poster with a dog or literally any kind other animal being harmed, it would be a complete turn-off. So it makes sense that even mythical creatures -- and especially unicorns -- should never be the subject of harm.

Now, if it were an evil unicorn, and the menace was that thoroughly repugnant unicorn, then it might be acceptable... but even then, who wants to see a nasty unicorn?

And then there's another aspect I hadn't even been aware of until recently. Apparently, "unicorn hunting" is a term used for couples who want to, er, make things a little more interesting... You can go look it up if you want to. I had no idea! But I definitely don't want my kid-friendly books sitting on Amazon's book shelves alongside stuff like that.

I could have changed the title and cover so they were utterly different, but I opted to keep the "Unicorn" part so it's a little clearer that Book 1 of the Island of Fog Legacies has just been renamed and not completely rewritten. So I went through a few ideas and settled on Unicorn Rescue. Not the most inspiring title in the world, but accurate, and at this stage I wanted to go with absolutely clear rather than clever. It completely reverses a buyer's perception of the plot, saying "this is about rescuing a unicorn from peril" rather than "hunting a unicorn." Furthermore, the use of the word "rescue" suggests that a rescue actually does take place; there's no question about it.

The Book Cover

There were a few unicorn images I could have chosen from, and I tried them out as mockups. Note that these include a possible new series title, "The Shapeshifter Program," but that's for another day...

The second one struck me as the best, and from the feedback I've received so far, it was a good choice. So here it is with the new, streamlined and more focused blurb...

The New Cover

If you could transform into a creature of myth and legend... what would you choose?

This is the dilemma facing 12-year-old Travis on his first day as a shapeshifter. He's ready to use his new ability to go on missions like his famous parents, to save people from menace and danger, to be a hero just like them. And since it's against the rules to be a dragon, his next best option is a wyvern.

When hunters cross into his world and snatch a harmless unicorn, Travis is quick to transform and fly into action. Perhaps too quick. Who could have known he'd stumble across an illegal private zoo filled with exotic creatures, run by a man with a witch at his side?

So begins the first in a series set in the ISLAND OF FOG universe but with a new generation of characters. Each book is a self-contained story following the adventures of Travis and his friends -- a magical fantasy with shapeshifters and creatures from myth and legend. Good, clean, sometimes scary fun for young readers and suitable for adults too.

Comments from the Facebook group about the new cover:

I like that cover!! And the story sounds interesting.

I think the new cover is really beautiful :)

Waaay better

Love the new cover.

Ah. I like this one much better!

Updated on Amazon, Nook, Apple, and Kobo

This new version -- the exact same story but with new packaging -- is now live in the major stores. Mostly it was a simple case of changing the title and cover for the ebook, but Amazon was a little trickier because they also print the paperback edition, and, as Ned Stark in Game of Thrones might have said, "One does not simply change a paperback's title." No, paperbacks have ISBNs, and certain things like titles and trim sizes are locked forever. So I had delist the old book and start a new one with a new ISBN.

It's all done, but the thing about delisted/unpublished paperbacks is that they never truly go away, so the old Unicorn Hunters version is sure to loiter for a while yet. If you have one -- keep hold of it! It will be worth a fortune one day when I'm as rich and famous as Ms. Rowling. :-)

Check out the new look and the fab new page banner on my Island of Fog Legacies page. And don't forget I now have a brand new Box Set with all five books in this series.

And by the way -- did you know young shapeshifter Travis gets to ride a unicorn? It's a very cool scene. :-)

Conventions, book signings, promotions, advertising, creating book covers -- I've been doing all that and more lately along with some writing as well. But it's not all Author Stuff. In the meantime, Ordinary Life and The Day Job continues to chug along in the background. Ordinary Life is great, and The Day Job is okay, but something happened this month that was downright horrible. We'll call it Frosty Attack.

I'll say up front that she's fine today, well on her way to recovery. But we weren't sure for a while there.

This is Frosty:

We have four cats. Biscuit and Treacle are 18 years old, which means they're pensioners. Twiglet is middle-aged. And Frosty is the youngest. She's lovable and mischievous, the sort of cat who puts up with toddlers yanking her by the ear. Of all our cats, Frosty is by far the most expensive. We rescued her when she was a kitten, and she broke her leg soon after, which meant vet bills and a cast and a special cage that I built... and a couple of weeks ago, she got her butt ripped open by a pack of dogs.

It was serious. They have a cat flap in the laundry room in the basement, so all four cats have access in and out of the house at night). Our small dog is down there too. He started barking early one morning, and I went down to find... nothing. All was quiet. I told him to shut up, and I went back to bed. Not long after, he started barking again, and I was too sleepy to care.

I wish I could travel back in time and do this differently.

When I came down in the morning, I found blood all over the laundry room floor. All the cats were agitated. I assumed they'd killed a bird or chipmunk or something, although that was a lot of blood... Meanwhile, Frosty limped her way up the stairs behind me. When I went to check on her, I saw ruffled, wet fur but no obvious signs of injury. But when she sat down and got up again, she left behind a small pool of blood.

Then it was panic-stations. I woke the wife and told her Frosty was hurt. We both got down on the floor to check her over without picking her up. Yeah, it was bad. So off she went to the vet. She had serious, deep puncture wounds, and the dog had shaken her so bad that her skin on her back end, though intact, had become detached from her body -- ugh, I don't even want to describe it. It's a common thing in shaken animals, though.

When she came home, she had fur shaved off and a drain sticking out of a hole near her butt. She also wore a collar to stop her pulling the stitches out. The bill was $1100.00. All seemed okay for a few days, and she continued leaking fluid from the drain, but then the fluid got really smelly, so back she went to the vet for a thorough "clean out" and a 14-day antibiotic. Another $350 later, she came home again... but the vet had given her the same antibiotic as before, and it didn't seem to help, so back she went again for another clean out and a session in a hyperbaric chamber. That was another $350, but what an improvement! She went back for another session in the hyperbaric chamber, and since then has been improving rapidly -- no more smells, no more leaking, stitches out, collar off, and just a simple pill once a day (in a pill pouch).

She's back to her usually happy self, and she can jump up onto the back of the sofa again where she belongs (to sleep).

She's now our $2000 cat. And that doesn't include when she broke her leg as a kitten.

The thing is, those dogs are still out and about. A week before attacking Frosty, they attacked my brother-in-law's cat -- and killed her. But we all thought that was an isolated attack by a coyote or something. On the night Frosty was attacked, my brother-in-law's other cat was also attacked (injured but not too bad). At this point we knew it was the three dogs that come from the woods across the road.

Two are probably fine on their own. The third, a white dog with black patches, is a biter. In a pack, I think it's probably teaching the others bad habits. We called the pound, and they came out and investigated the houses down a lane where these dogs lived, and they warned people there to keep these dogs inside or risk being prosecuted. Then, a few days ago, those dogs went crazy again and were barking their heads off at a kid waiting for the school bus at 6:30 AM. I heard a woman yelling at them. I think she must have called the pound as well, because it seems that white dog has gone, and maybe one of the others too.

All this has got me building a "cattery" or a "catio" out back where the cats can get outside at night but not really outside -- protected from dogs and coyotes and even owls (we're pretty sure an owl attacked one of our cats years ago). So... that's another $250 easily.

But they're worth it, right?

Helping to Build a Book Convention

A total change of subject now. After going to several sci-fi and fantasy conventions and wishing people came for authors rather than artists, to buy books rather than cool superhero paintings, the idea of a new convention came about -- one that's geared around books and authors.

Actually, it wasn't my idea at all. It was a friend of mine. Young adult urban fantasy author Kenyon T. Henry got it into his head that he'd like to establish and host a books and author convention in our local area, and so Next Chapter Con was created. It'll be held in Ringgold, GA, this September and will feature a pretty large bunch of authors and panels. More on that as I develop the website -- and yes, that's my contribution, since my day job is a website designer.

Does Unicorn Hunters Need a Different Title?

I've struggled with this one for a while, ever since I heard a girl at one of these sci-fi and fantasy conventions glance at this book on my table and say, "Ooh, I love unicorns! But I don't want to see them being hunted." She quickly moved on, and I thought, Hmm, maybe that title puts people off.

Then a woman came by and made a similar comment, that she loves horses and can't stand the idea of harm coming to them. I tried to explain that the whole point of the story is for the hero, 12-year-old Travis, to rescue the unicorn and a load of other mythical creatures from captivity, and it's a story of adventure and magic.

But if the title doesn't suggest that, then it's a problem. So I'd like to ask you, anyone who's reading this, what you think. If you haven't read Unicorn Hunters, does the title put you off in any way? If you have read it, what would work better? Unicorn Rescue? Something else?

(I may have asked this question before. But it's come up again after doing some recent ads and finding them to be ineffective. The read-through on this book is great, in that people who read it immediately buy the second and the third and so on... but getting new readers to pick it up is proving difficult.)

And finally...

I Just Published My Biggest Ebook Yet

Yep. Speaking of Unicorn Hunters, I now have a box set containing all five Island of Fog Legacies books, the entire series so far. This book will keep binge-readers busy for quite a while!

It's available for USD $19.99 on Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and Apple.

But NOT on Amazon.

Why? Because Amazon has this silly little bee in its bonnet that limits book prices to $9.99 at the standard royalty rate. Above that, and the royalty rate drops to a pitiful 35%. Seriously? So, if you're an Amazon reader and want a copy for your Kindle reader or app, you can get one at good old Gumroad. Same price, exact same book.

That's all for now, folks!

I meant to post a couple of weeks ago to say, "Hey, if you're in Chattanooga on the weekend of February 22-24, be sure to check out the Con Nooga Multi-Fandom Convention!"

But I didn't.

So, for those who live locally, I'm sorry I never got around to letting you know that I was there doing author panels and selling my books. You might have been itching for the chance to meet me and get my autograph, and I let you down by failing to give you advance notice. (Okay, maybe you weren't itching to meet me, but...)

Anyway -- so I went to Con Nooga and did pretty well with my books. I also did eight author panels, half of which were well attended. To my pleasant surprise, the biggest audience was at 10 AM Friday morning, a panel devoted to mythical creatures and how unlikely they are. This panel came about after my discussion with fellow author Kenyon T. Henry, a friend of mine in nearby Ringgold. We got talking about the internal structure of a centaur, trying to figure out if it had one heart or two, how it could possibly function, whether it was a vegetarian or not, and so on. I find it amusing that a centaur is half-human but three-quarters horse, yet it still makes a whole. Math at its most illogical!

Most of the other panels were about publishing and the writing process, and those were not so well attended but still fun to do. There was a time when the idea of doing a panel -- sitting at the front with two or three other authors and talking to the audience as if we're experts -- filled me with horror. But after going to Dragon*Con for four years and attending a mixture of panels with famous and not-so-famous authors, I started to realize I might know a little about what they were saying and could possibly match their wisdom. And as it turned out, I found I could waffle on quite easily and sound halfway knowledgeable.

I had a table filled with my books, and I sold more this year than last. One particular customer bought Island of Fog and both Fractured books, which I thought was a good result... but then she came back the next morning after reading part of Island of Fog and bought Books 2-10 in that series PLUS the five books in the Island of Fog Legacies series! That's 14 books in one go. My very best sale of the day, and I'd like to say "thank you" again to Mary if she happens to be reading this. (And Mary, to our dismay, we realized you'd walked off without your $10 change, so you actually paid a little more than you were supposed to. Let me know where to send it!)

I love Con Nooga. A great atmosphere, and a great venue, not to mention close to home. It's literally 30 minutes from my house to the convention center, and the parking is simple and under cover, a bonus since it rained the whole weekend. This was my second year, and I intend going again.

But where will I be next? Announcing...

The 2nd Annual Local Author Fest

I went to this last year as well, and it was great! Looking forward to it. This is a much simpler event, a collection of maybe 20 authors with their books on tables. Short and sweet. You can find us here:

Dalton-Whitfield County Public Library
310 Cappes Street
Dalton, GA 30720
Saturday, March 23, 2019 at 10 AM -- 12 PM

And now, introducing...

Next Chapter -- a Books and Author Convention

The friend I mentioned above, Kenyon T. Henry, decided a little while back that he'd like to start and host his own convention. And he's not only doing it, but he seems to be doing very well getting things off the ground. He has the venue booked -- The Colonnade in Ringgold, GA -- and it's scheduled for September 7 this year. It's primarily an author event with panels, but I'm sure he has a few fun things up his sleeve, and he mentioned artists as well.

I'm pleased to say I'll be creating the website, since web design is my day job and the single most meaningful contribution I can make to this worthy cause. I have a quick temporary page up for now and will be working on the site in the background and making it live sometime in April.

https://www.nextchaptercon.com

More on this event later.

From Glossy to Matte

Seeing so many authors over the Con Nooga weekend, along with their wares, made me realize how much I wanted to update my glossy book covers to matte. Seems like a silly thing to worry about, but books just look that much more professional with a matte cover. Plus, they don't curl up as much.

So, with that mind, I've already changed the Sleep Writer covers to matte, and also the cover for the first in the Island of Fog series. I now need to change all the other Fog books. There's not much to it; I just go into Amazon's publishing dashboard, select "matte," and republish. But still, there's a process of waiting for files to "prepare" and then proofing them and so on.

Anyway, this is just a heads-up to anyone halfway through the series and planning to buy the rest of the paperbacks. You have a couple of days to do so if you want matching glossy covers. Otherwise, wait for the mattes!

New Cover for Caleb's World

I got sick of looking at that old Caleb's World cover. I've hated it for a long time. Now, after coming up with new covers for the Sleep Writer Journal serial, I decided to combine two of them to produce a new one for Caleb's World. You can see it already live on Amazon here:

Caleb's World (Sleep Writer Book 3) on Amazon US (or on UK | AU | CA)

"Crazy imagination, fun to read, really good pacing, kept my sons interest right 'till the very end."
—Ken Zacharias

The boy on the front is perfect for the role of the young, magical, and terrifying Caleb.

And finally...

Three Down, About Fifteen to Go

I now have three Sleep Writer Journal ebooks online, at $0.99 each or free for Kindle Unlimited readers. Three more are on pre-order. As part of this process of serializing the Sleep Writer series, I've been re-reading the books and making a few small edits here and there. I have to say I'm thoroughly enjoying them! There are always bits and pieces that I might frown upon, which is always the way when an author looks back on previous work, but there's nothing I would change.

I've finished the first three books and am about to start reading the fourth, Warp Giants. Each book is being split into three, so by the time I get to the end of Warp Giants, I will have 12 parts of the serial completed. After that... well, that's all new material, and it's my very next project starting in March, with a goal to publish these brand new parts of the serial from July onward.

See my previous post for more information about this episodic sci-fi serial.

And that's all for now, folks. :-)

Looking for a fun, action-packed science fiction serial that might just bend your mind a little? My Sleep Writer adventures are available in episodic form on Amazon -- free to Kindle Unlimited readers, and dirt cheap to everyone else.

A serialized sci-fi adventure with aliens, monsters, wormholes, spaceships, and time travel!

Everything changes for twelve-year-old Liam when a girl moves in next door. Madison is fifteen, pretty, and much weirder than she seems. Sometimes when she's sound asleep, she scrawls a message on a notepad by her pillow. She finds these cryptic words when she wakes the next morning -- a time and a place. But for what? Liam and best friend Ant join her when she goes hunting around a cemetery late one night, and life is never the same again...

Introducing the bi-weekly sci-fi serial...
Sleep Writer Journal

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(And more as they're added.)

Get started now on Amazon with Part 1, Into the Wormhole

The original novel, Sleep Writer, has done the rounds for a few years now, with strong praise for the quirky characters and twisty-turny plot:

"...one of the best novels I've read regardless of genre; it haunted me for several days after I read it. Read this novel regardless of your age; I doubt you'll be disappointed, and your mind may be stretched a bit. The final ten percent blew me away." -- Piers Anthony, New York Times bestselling author of the Magic of Xanth (full review at HiPiers.com, July 2015 newsletter)

In fact, these adventures started out as a short story called "The Cosmic Ark." It then evolved into a collection of isolated alien events that eventually became a complete novel, Sleep Writer. I wrote two full-length sequels, Robot Blood and Caleb's World, and a fourth book, Warp Giants, containing three novellas.

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It was when I wrote Warp Giants that I decided the adventures needed to be standalone but interconnected novellas, or what you might think of as episodes in a TV show. This is why the adventures are now available in fully-serialized, episodic format. Each episode is novella length, somewhere between 7-15 chapters, plenty to get stuck into.

So this is science fiction?

It's science fiction suitable for all ages from 9 and up. There are aliens, wormholes, time travel, monsters and ghouls, spaceships, robots, and more -- anything goes! Part of what I love about these books is that I can throw my characters into any kind of situation I like, whether it's an Earth-based alien incursion, a surreal paranormal experience, a trip to another planet, or even a glimpse of the future.

Is it best to read from the beginning?

While you might read every episode from the start and enjoy a continuing story, there are plenty of jump-in and -out points for casual dippers. Think of it like Doctor Who. Most episodes are standalone 1-part stories. Some are 2- or 3-parters. And there's usually a continuing arc throughout each season.

How many of the Sleep Writer Journal episodes are more than one part?

The adventures start with a triplet of 3-part stories (forming Parts 1-9). After that, each adventure is pretty much a standalone piece, though with a long-reaching arc and light cliffhangers. You'll never have to wait for the conclusion to the serial, because there isn't one; if you get tired of the stories, you can stop pretty much anywhere.

How often are these novellas released? How long do I have to wait between each?

A new episode will be released every two weeks. I expect to take a break each winter and return for a new "season" in the New Year, which will allow me time to plan and get ahead.

Give the first episode of the serial a try on Amazon. It's free for KU readers, or $0.99 otherwise. (More info)

Enjoy!

Keith Robinson
Sci-Fi and Fantasy Author