Indie Book Club discussion

Congrats to Jeff for squeaking out a last minute win for this months book of the month. As always please use spoiler tags when talking about important plot points. I look forward to discussing the book with everyone!

I'm thrilled to death my book was chosen, but damned if I didn't start getting nervous again! Lol!

Hope you guys like it!

Congrats, Jeff. The reading assignment will be an easy one for me this month :)

Thanks! More so for me! :)

Oh, good, this will give me time to actually finish Liberator's Ruin! XD

I am such a horribly slow reader, but yay, I'm excited to actually participate in active discussion this month!

I have no idea how this gets started, so I'll just say, hit me with your best shot!

Now taking any & all questions! To anyone that's already read the book, yes, Steve is me. Sarah is my wife (although not as nice - her words!!), and Annie is actually my wife's sister, Stacey. Tristan wasn't originally modeled after anyone, but since my sis-in-law started her 2nd marriage with the right guy, Tristan was modified to be Kevin, my new bro-in-law. Appearances, mannerisms, behaviors, they're all real people.

Interesting that you are using real people as the basis for the characters. Did people have reactions to these characterizations (beyond your wife's)? I guess that means that you can't kill off any main characters, right? ;-)

Lol!

Very true! No main characters are killed. The reactions I've received thus far from the people I've based my characters on have been very favorable. Still goes back to my interpretations of that family member / friend. So far I have apparently made them too nice. :) I was just told Annie is nicer than her counterpart, too. Although she doesn't have a big role in the first, she plays a main role in the 2nd.

Do you ever feel constrained by having this identification of the fictional characters with the real people? Or is it all good fun? Do you think you'll ever write a novel that isn't based on real life protagonists?

Never once have I felt constrained with the characters. When I first started book 1, the only base of reference I had was myself, so I deliberately wrote the character's perspective from my own pov. What would I do if I were presented with this situation? What would I say?

Then after I started, I naturally wrote the character with my background, namely a computer tech, married, no kids, etc. Then I wrote my wife in, and it escalated from there.

As for writing something that has characters not based on literal people, the book I have planned after I finish the BC trilogy will be just that. Something different. Light-hearted, all in good fun, but the characters will be different. The entire world will be different.

@Jeff: I think Hunter S. Thompson made a pretty good living using himself as the main character in his "novels". Seems like you could do some really fun things with the concept. I've never thought of killing myself off in a novel...sounds fun.

I've picked up your book myself. I'll gonna read it on my next call-free weekend.

B.

Jeff, I haven't read Book II yet, but do you cover whether you can bring technology through the portals? I seem to recall that cell phones made it across and worked but had no signal, of course. What about an AR-15 assault rifle? Grenades? Portable generators and Xbox360s? IPods?

Interesting question B. I could say a bit more but it would possibly ruin things for people. Although it is an idea inspired by the question not an answer to it.

I was playing the video game Portal 2 tonight, and it got me thinking...

Good question. To answer... (view spoiler)[yes, you can, but it isn't gonna do much for you. Steve brought his cell phone through, but without power charger, or even electricity, it won't do much good, let alone the fact there are no telecommunications satellites for the cell to talk to.

Long story short, our modern technology pretty much will only work (properly) on our world. You can bring things through, and they'll look nice & pretty, but w/o power, they're useless.

Portable generators could hypothetically provide power, so game systems, laptops, and any independent devices would work fine. Guns, machine, laws of physics, etc., are still in effect, even though the Lentarians don't know much about it.<\spoiler> (hide spoiler)]

Out of curiosity, can anyone add a title to their name or am I the only one looking like a dork with the words "Lentarian Fire Thrower" next to it?

How did you add your title? I don't see the option on my profile page.

To tell the truth, I've been trying to track down where it was, in case I ever wanted to change it or remove it.

One day the words "Add Title" suddenly popped up under my name in here, and for the hell of it, I added "Lentarian Fire Thrower". It's been there ever since. I've seen it a few other times where I could change it if I wanted to, but naturally now that I'm looking, I can't find it again.

As soon as I do, I'll post how I did it. Unless someone else in here knows how it's done?

I was wondering whether it has something to do with your librarian status?

Hmmm, could be. Then again, I thought that was to change book details. Still haven't found how to change mine or anyone else's yet.

Imagine that. The power to add titles to our members... Mwahaha!!! Whoops, sorry. That one got away from me. :)

To this day I still find mistakes in the book that make me hang my head in shame. *sighs*

If you find one, just look the other way. :)

I only noticed a few minor items. I wouldn't fret over it--it was well within my tolerance level and I've seen a similar level of errors in some "big publisher" books.

All of the questions I have more revolve around the second book so everytime I come here to add something I realize I can't because it will spoil stuff for other people.

Where does the word jhorun come from? I totally think I spelled that wrong but I just woke up so go easy on me lol.

Nope, you totally spelled "jhorun" right! Nicely done!

The only real answer I have for how I came up with that word is I wanted a word, not too unique in spelling, that wasn't used by anything else, or already existed in some other context.

Thankfully Google and Dictionary.com answered that one for me.

Hah! For those interested, I finally found where it lets me add/change "Lentarian Fire Thrower", my self-proclaimed title. :)

Go to the main page for this group, scroll down until you see the member list, and then click on the More Members link. You'll see a big long list of all our members. Find your own entry and see if you see something right below your name that says "Add Title".

That's how I did it. And I can change it, if I so desire. :)

Nope, no such link. Must be a librarian thingy.

And here I thought I was so clever in finding it. Damn. It figures. :)

*fist shake*

LOL! Thanks!

The title should really read "American Fire Thrower", but I like "Lentarian" better. :) And, if I had a choice, I'd rather be a teleporter, which was Sarah's jhorun (magic ability).

LOL! That's what I thought. One wouldn't think that coming up with names to things you've created would be that difficult, but for me, it's a PIMA. That's Pain In My Ass. :)

Then, once the names have all been created and assigned, then plotting out a map of said magical kingdom can also be a pain. Lucky for me I found a really cool program that computer programmers use for drawing maps for their games. Worked like a charm. Reasonable, too. $40, I think.

Gregory, check this out:

http://www.profantasy.com/products/cc...

It's called Campaign Cartographer 3. I just looked. $44.95. Absolutely fantastic program to create your own maps. I absolutely love it. You have "hand drawn" styles, and styles based on artists' works.

Campaign Cartographer...so cool.

Woo-hoo! Finally got Amazon make book I free for now! I just hope it isn't too much of a pain to get the price back to normal. LOL!

Watched a video tutorial from another author I'm friends with. In essence, you have to use the "Tell us of a lower price" link that's on every book's page. And you have to give them an actual URL where your book is cheaper, or in this case, free.

Easiest way to do that? Smashwords.

Bakkian Chronicles, Book I - The Prophecy is presently #175 in the Kindle store under the "free" category, and #6 in the science fiction genre.

Sci-fi? Really? I was hoping for "fantasy", but that's ok. Not complaining! Sales of book II have picked up as a result!

Congrats Jeff! Very cool to have your book ranked that high.

Thanks Scott! Was tickled pink! Even did the geeky thing and took a screencap of the numbers on my Amazon page. LOL.

Sometimes I think I need to get a life...

Wow. Up to #104 in the free section and #2 in the sci-fi section.

Clearly people love getting a free book!

It's working amazingly well. Up to #76 in the Kindle top 100 free ebook list.

Even if only a small percentage of the people who've downloaded the first want the sequel, I'll still be doing pretty good!

Wow! #76? That's a big deal! You really have an opportunity there. You should pickup a few new reviews from that number of people. What a huge score!

No doubt! I know I'm opening myself up for the strong possibility of getting some negative reviews, but that's ok. I think the publicity is worth it.

Let's see what it is now...

Gadzooks... It's at #70 in the Kindle free ebook store and presently ranked #1 in the Kindle general fiction sci-fi genre. I'm telling you, people love free books. I count myself as one of 'em.

Book II is selling well, too. Guys, seriously, if you have more than one book out there, give this a try.

Lol! That it is! I am planning on doing this promotion through October, but if the sales of book II stay like this, I might reconsider!

Now if you can find a gimmick for those of us with just one book (so far), please speak up! :)

Lol! I'll see what I can come up with!

I'm still floored by how many people have downloaded it in the past week. Book II has über-strong sales going right now. Best I've ever had!

Let's see... What gimmick would work for a single book? Hmmm...

That's the long term plan. For me, put book I free. Let it accumulate tons of free sales, then eventually switch to maybe $0.99. But for now, I'll leave it free. Book II is doing better than I could ever dream, so I'll see how it goes.

I'll do something similar when I release book III. :)

The free/not-free works with having multiple books. Those of us with just one get kind of hosed by the freebie culture. $0.99 worked decently. Looking for new gimmicks all the time though.

Jim, I think I have one. What about teaming up with other authors and maybe offering a "2 for 1" deal? People love getting free stuff.

Something like, if you enjoyed this book then you'll love this book as well, and for a limited time it's bundled free of charge! Or else use a coupon code from Smashwords, etc.

Right now, my book I is free, so if someone wanted to bundle mine with theirs, I'd totally be on board with it. Publicity is publicity, right?

OOooo, that's clever. I like it.

I think a lot more indie authors could benefit from teaming up and including a few sample chapters at the end of books similar to their own. If you have 1 or 2 book samples at the back of your book it doesn't really do anything bad for you, but if the authors who you are giving book space to do the same for you it's possible you could drastically increase the numbers of eyes that see your work.

I sense a new forum section/discussion approaching...