Pimp your own Stuff Thread

[Sketcz]

So how many did you sell in the UK to make the top 100 sci-fi charts?

Not sure how many you need to sell to make it onto that position, but if you look on a book's page near the bottom it says something like "number ###### in the Kindle Store", and then also the number for each genre if it's in the top 100. I listed it under Fiction / Sci-Fi / Adventure, and for a few days it was in the top 100 in that category, changing by the hour it seemed. As high as 60 at one point.

I think it's less to do with overall sales and more with how many that day, because after a few days it fell off the top 100 sci-fi adventures completely and now there's only the overall Kindle store position (which is pretty poor compared to what it was).

To be honest Amazon's algorithm for calculating this stuff is a bit of a mystery - if anyone knows the science behind it I'd love to know.

When I signed up to Amazon Kindle I think they said something about getting monthly sales reports. Need to check that.

[Nijo]

A quick scoot around found this:

http://www.rampant-books.com/mgt_amazon_sales_rank.htm

[Mr_Pie]

Congratulations on actually finishing a book. I've tried a couple of times to write one, but to no avail!

[Sketcz]

Beyond Aukfontein has its first review on Amazon.com. And it's good! A full 5 stars and an eloquent appreciation of the books different aspects.

Am slightly annoyed that reviews for .com and .co.uk are separate. Here's the Amazon UK link.

[chopemon]

I just put up a review for it and it should be up in 48 hours according to Amazon.

I really, really enjoyed the book and will definitely read the sequel or whatever else you do. I've been bored with the post apocalyptic genre for a while but this take on it really captured my imagination.

Spoilers:

->Open Spoiler<-

Since we last spoke about it, I love the Russo bureaucracy.

My only complaint about the book is that it sometimes goes too fast and events are over and done with too quickly. I especially thought this about the ending. Once the action was done the story wrapped up perhaps too quickly and I didn't feel like I understood Mik's decision to go it alone as well as I should have done.

[Sketcz]

Thank you! Yes indeed the review is up and makes some excellent points. I'm really glad you liked it, since up until I'd received these two Amazon reviews I couldn't be sure if the book wasn't terrible, seeing as only close friends and family had read it, and you tend to lose objectivity with your own work.

As for the brevity of some things, that's the result of multiple things. Different agents ask for between 90k and 110k words. They're very strict with that - in the end I didn't use an agent, but was reluctant to add more. If anything I shaved a couple of thousand words from the first three chapters, since they seemed a little word heavy compared to the rest. I'm sure I was also guilty of being keen to finish the book quickly after 2 years of writing. I would have liked to expand the vignettes detailing secondary characters backstories, for example.

Major ending spoilers:

->Open Spoiler<-

Would you believe the bureaucracy was actually based in part on personal experiences and also stories heard from others? Maybe not as bad, but such Kafkaesque nonsense really does go on.

Mik's parting decision I felt was based on having lost everything, especially Kimberly (which perhaps I should have dwelt on more). Rather than being ready to settle down he needed to just get away from it all, spend some time mentally healing and reflecting on what he'd done/gone through.

For what it's worth the unwritten sequel sees him meeting up with Doc again, who's settled down and married with children.

[Brad]

If anyone needs some mad photohop skillz I'm your man. Here's an example:


Grandmaster Flash and The Fast and The Furious 5 by bradleysmith, on Flickr

Don't get too excited, this isn't a real film, yet! I'm in discussions with the studio though.

[QualityChimp]

I finished reading Sketcz's book last week and I really enjoyed it.

At first, I found it really hard going because it felt like you were trying to put in a load of big words from your "word-a-day" calendar and the African setting meant that many words had another description in futurespeak, sometimes for something that was never mentioned again.

The shift of protagonist at the start of the novel really threw me too, but by the second or third chapter, I was hooked and was really into Mik's adventure. I'm not sure if the amount of futurespeak dropped off or if I just stopped noticing it as I was enjoying it so much, but the earlier issues were gone.

I read this whilst giving my baby his last bottle of the night and many times he'd finished before I wanted to stop reading!

Aukfontein was a great setting for a story, but I'm so glad it went beyond it as you painted a really vivid landscape and filled it with interesting characters. Mik's foolhardy approach to most things had me shaking my head, but looking forward to how he was going to get out of the scrapes he'd gotten himself into. I liked the final chapter and Mik's personality when he felt the thirst for revenge was really absorbing.

There's a section towards the end of the book had me wincing, but not as much as Mik probably was. I bet you wrote that just to make the reader uncomfortable, but again, not as uncomfortable as Mik!

Congratulations on a cracking read and being able to create such a vivid world for Mik and the people he meets to inhabit.

[prinnysquad]

http://thechivalrousinn.blogspot.com/

Kung Fu Movies and Kaiju shizzle.

[charlesr]

Looking forward to your reviews of Eagle Vs Silver Fox, and Ninja Vs Mafia.

[prinnysquad]

I've got Eagle vs Silver Fox on the shelf. It contains Hwang Jang Lee, which is WIN to start with!

[charlesr]

Is your copy 4:3 without pan and scan? The one I watched years ago on vhs had it nailed to the center, so there was a scene near the start where they were sitting either side of a table, and you coudn't see either of them heheh.

[prinnysquad]

Haha. No idea, it's the IVL dvd release, still sealed.



It looks tremendous.

[gordon]

Hello!

Time to resume my pimpage while I write another book.

I've cut the price of all my ebooks on Smashwords by a dollar, which in English money brings them under the ?2 mark for the first time (about ?1.90 at current exchange rates). That's less than the price of a cup of coffee (assuming you buy coffee at one of those swanky High-Street coffee places and don't just pour boiling water over a teaspoon of Nescafe)!

I've just made the price change today, which means it's immediate if you buy direct from Smashwords, but it might take a little longer to filter through to the various online bookstores. Details here: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/GordonHoughton and here: http://theburrow.zzap64.co.uk/novels/ebooks.html

Cheers!
g.

[charlesr]

Which one shall I go for? Maybe "Max"? I like Sci-fi
Also, I don't have an e-reader. What's the best option? I have a hacked DS, laptops and PC.