A Four-Story Andrew Patel Collection?

My friend Jeff Baker, in an addendum to a guest post I wrote for him awhile back, said that in order to really get one's Kindle sales going, one should have 20-25 items available. Counting the new Spanish version of "I am the Wendigo," I only have eight KDP stories available at present alongside the professionally-published Kindle anthology that hosted "Coil Gun."

I do have another short story planned (although it needs more revision and so it'll be awhile), with another cover courtesy of Alex Claw. However, I do remember reading online somewhere that stories priced at $0.99 don't sell as well as more expensive offerings due to the theory they're not very good. I had "The Beast of the Bosporus" and "Picking Up Plans In Palma" priced at $1.25 for awhile (and "Beast" is still $1.25 on Smashwords) due to their length, but I think Amazon lowered the "Beast" price to $0.99 on its own and I lowered "Palma" to $0.99 to try to get more sales.

So here's the plan. I've got two stories centered on supervillain Andrew Patel ("Ubermensch" and "Needs Must") already available and ideas for two more stories focused on the further consequences of the events of "Ubermensch." I'll write both of those stories and package them with the first two in a four-story collection selling for $3.00 each. Although short stories aren't necessarily worth the time spent on them, this would be providing my fans something different at a somewhat higher price point. And the second two stories (tentatively titled "Actions Have Consequences" and "New Friends, Old Enemies") won't be available individually, at least at first.

Should this gambit succeed it might be worthwhile to write more stories following Andrew Patel, both a planned set of prequel stories involving a rival supervillain based on the Nuwaubian Nation and more stories set after the original tetralogy following the rivalry between Patel and the hero Silverbolt. And perhaps pricier deluxe editions of the original stories that've got illustrations of key scenes?

Hmm...that's an idea I could implement for all of my stories...

My eBook Experiment: Successes And Failures

Here's my third post on the e-publishing experiment I first embarked on in September 2012. Here are some lessons I have learned...

For starters, my initial hypothesis that I could earn more money by posting short fiction I have been unable to sell on Amazon and/or Smashwords than by sending it to print or online markets offering nominal fees (like $5 per story or $10 per story) has borne out so far. As of April 2013, I have been paid by Amazon approximately $24 with the four short stories I've got posted there. That comes out to be an average of $6 per story. This already covers the markets that offer only exposure or the lowest of payment.

(That being said, I have spent a large sum on advertising on both Facebook and Google that has eclipsed the revenue from the project, so I might not see a real profit for some time. Although this advertising in all likelihood played a role in the sales I did make, no money on advertising and only one quarter or one third of the sales equals profit, albeit a tiny one.)

Secondly, spiffy cover art does not necessarily translate into sales. Three of my four stories had cover art done for credit or for help on future projects and they have sold decent numbers, while Illegal Alien had a beautiful cover that I paid $45 for--and it's been the worst seller. Obviously you want to avoid the sucky cover art that plagues so many self-published works, but there is such a thing as overdoing it.

Thirdly, one way to generate sales of other product is to give some product away free. My Amazon sales have thus far dwarfed my Smashwords sales ($24 vs. $2.07) in part because I had all of my stories on KDP Select at various points. This allowed me to give stories away for free for several days at a time. In one specific case, I remember making my short story I am the Wendigo available for free for a time and making a few sales during this same time. Although my friend Jeff Baker has given away some of his fiction for free on Smashwords via the use of coupon codes, I never pursued this.

So beginning today and running until May 5, you can get "Illegal Alien" for free off Smashwords using the coupon code ND72T. Let's see if this generates any additional sales of my other Smashwords stories "The Beast of the Bosporus," "Melon Heads," and "I am the Wendigo."

Fourthly, self-publishing short fiction is something that will only make money in the long run. My story "Nicor" recently went online at Heroic Fantasy Quarterly and I will be paid $100. That's more gross income than my self-published stories will make for years at the current rates. No need to spend so much time marketing, playing with sales rates, etc.

The Strange Death of Sokullu Mehmed Pasha

From A New Look at Sokullu Mehmed Pasha, published at Miskatonic University.

The consensus of historians on the assassination of Grand Vizier Sokullu Mehmed Pasha on October 11, 1579 AD (or 20 Sha'ban 987 AH in the Islamic reckoning) is fairly well-known in our field. The Ottoman Sultan Murad III, alienated from the vizier who had served his father and grandfather so long and ably by his mother Narbanu Sultan and Venetian-born wife Safiye Sultan, took steps to reduce the vizier's influence on government. The vizier's allies were sent to faraway positions or assassinated. Ultimately, a mentally-unstable dervish talked his way into the vizier's office and stabbed him. This kind of intrigue was fairly common in the Ottoman Empire, especially during the period known as the Sultanate of Women.

However, some recent discoveries by Miskatonic University researchers of documents thought lost forever during the civil unrest that wracked Constantinople when the Janissaries were suppressed has shed new light on the circumstances of the vizier's assassination and an incident that took place in 1571.

These documents paint a far more sinister picture of the vizier. They include accusations of dealings with agents of Safavid Persia, with whom the vizier had counseled peace as opposed to the usual border wars, and even black magic. The documents accuse the vizier of, under the influence of an agent of Persian Shah Tahmasp I, acquiring a book of black magic from an Armenian merchant who had visited the long-vacant shrine of a corrupted Sufi order that had been destroyed by Turkish nomads not long before. The use of this book resulted in an incident in Constantinople that killed dozens of Ottoman soldiers, destroyed one war galley and forced the scuttling of a second, and caused significant damage to the Bayezit II mosque.

These accusations against Sokullu are not new, but have been long dismissed as the slanders from his political enemies. However, the mosque was damaged somehow, necessitating repairs by the famed Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan in 1573 and 1574. Furthermore, it is often said that converts make the best zealots. Safiye Sultan was a Catholic before she became a Muslim, while the most recent evidence suggests Narbanu was an Orthodox Greek from Corfu before her conversion. If Sokullu was involved in the dark arts, or was widely believed so, this could have provoked the ire of the Imperial women. They would not wish one so tainted to continue virtually ruling the Ottoman Empire in place of their son and husband. And the dervish orders might be willing to provide an assassin to dispose of the vizier, especially given his (tangential) connection to a Sufi order that had become warped by dark forces.

Of course, this is all just speculation. The documents describe how the soldiers killed in the incident were buried in a mass grave outside Constantinople that was given special attention by Muslim imams, Orthodox Christian priests, and even a Jewish rabbi, while the materials used by Sokullu in the incident were confiscated, burned, and abandoned in Persia. Should this mass grave or the dumping site be found, it would lend credence to the incident described in the documents.

So just why was the Grand Vizier assassinated, and is the author's theory about dark powers manifesting in Constantinople actually true? Read "The Beast of the Bosporus," available in the short story collection Flashing Steel, Flashing Fire.

Character Interview: Ian Barnes

Today we at The World According To Quinn have the pleasure of sitting with Ian Barnes, a junior at Ohio University.

Author: So, where are you from?

Ian: I grew up in the Huntsburg Township, in northern Ohio. My father helps manage the East Branch Reservoir there, for the city of Akron. My mother is a teacher in Cardinal High School. I graduated from there in 2009.

Author: Did you ever have your mother as a teacher?

Ian (reddens): Nope. Although I had friends who had parents for teachers, my mother was always careful to avoid that. Even if there's no favoritism--or overdoing it to avoid favoritism--it still doesn't look good to a lot of people.

Author: That's cool. How is school going for you these days?

Ian: It's going well. I'm now a staff writer for The Post, the Ohio University student newspaper. My beat is student activities, so I do a lot of stories on the Greek system, clubs, and the like. It's really interesting.

Author: That's how you met Sarah, right?

Ian (raises eyebrow): How did you...oh, wait, you talked to her already.

Author: Yep.

Ian: Cool. I was doing a story on the work they were doing for the local food bank. Every Saturday--and I mean every Saturday--a bunch of them go to the Southeastern Ohio Food Bank and help organize donations. I went along with them a couple of times to get a feel for the story, interview some of the girls, and talk to officials at the food bank.

Author: Did you start dating her then?

Ian (shakes head): Nope. When I first came to the school, I had a tendency to... (Swallows) Ask girls out too soon. Pouncing on someone I just met would just be doing the same thing I'd done before and likely get the same results. I think that's what Einstein called "insanity."

Author: Makes sense. So how did you end up dating?

Ian: Well, I'd taken some Advanced Placement classes and that allowed me to finish my core curriculum up a bit early, which in turn freed up more time to take interesting electives. One of them was folklore. I'd like to be a novelist, you see, even though I'm majoring in health communications. Guess who was in the class with me?

Author: Sarah.

Ian: I didn't want to be too eager at first, but if you see someone fairly often and get to know them better, that makes this less, well, "now or never." Plus she actually lives pretty close to me, so we can see each other during the summer.

Author: Awesome.

(Ian smiles.)

Author: So what about folklore interests you?

Ian: Well, I always did like urban legends. The class has a good bit of material on urban legends originating in Ohio, including some from my neck of the woods. It's always interesting to know where these stories come from and how they change over the years.

Author: Do you think any of those stories are true?

Ian: I'm sure some started out with a grain of truth, but the tale grows with the telling, you know. The "melon heads" story, for example. A bunch of hydrocephalic kids escaping a doctor who was abusing them? That makes sense. But them living out in the woods long-term and actually reproducing? Seems far-fetched, especially since I've heard hydrocephalus will kill without treatment.

Author: Makes sense. What kind of novels are you interested in writing?

Ian: Well, I've always figured I could write the Great American Novel, but let's be realistic--I need more life experience. In the meantime, I think I can write some good comedy. One writer I like is Christopher Moore. I really liked his vampire trilogy, at least the first two, while The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove and Lamb were pretty funny too.

Author: Have you started writing anything?

Ian: I've been taking notes for the last couple of years for a college comedy. Think Van Wilder, but not nearly as vulgar.

What will Ian do when he finds out the Melon Heads aren't just a story? Find out by reading "Melon Heads," available at Amazon.

E-Reader Publishing: Three Months In (UPDATED 12/29)

This post was originally published on 12/25, but due to a sudden problem, I felt the need to go back and revise. Read it and you'll see why.

On September 3, I self-published my story "Melon Heads" on Amazon.com for the Kindle, thus beginning my experiment in self-publishing for e-readers. September 20 saw the second coming of my previously-published story "I am the Wendigo" and November 16 saw my Lovecraftian tale "The Beast of the Bosporus." My most recent self-published story, "Illegal Alien," debuted on Amazon December 11. At some point I created a formal Amazon author page as well.

At first, I enrolled all of them in the Kindle Direct Publishing Select program, which allows members of Amazon Prime to borrow my stories for free (I still get paid through a fund set up for this purpose) and allows me to release my stories for free on certain promotional days. However, being part of KDP Select is conditional on not having the stories available online anywhere else.

KDP Select proved to be a mixed bag. The promotional days allowed me to move large numbers of copies free, which I had hoped would generate more reviews and build buzz, leading to more sales later. The increased number of reviews I expected did not come through (most reviewers are people I already know), although there's no way of knowing the long-term effects of having dozens if not hundreds of readers having seen my content for free. Maybe I'm creating a fan base that will pay off in the future when I have real books available. After all, I did once get some traffic to this blog from a Google search for "Illegal Alien Matthew W. Quinn." The number of free copies moved on the first promotional day tends to be significantly higher than the number moved on later days, and I recall only actual borrow.

So I bought some Facebook advertising for the short stories, remembering how successful it had been in attracting readers to my blog in the summer of 2011. This provided to be a major bust--I'd spent upwards of $70 on advertising, but gleaned few if any sales. This not only applied to my ads for "Melon Heads" and "Wendigo" that received relatively few views and clicks, but even my ads for "The Beast of the Bosporus" that received over 100,000 views and over 100 clicks. Paying $45 for a much nicer cover for "Illegal Alien" didn't generate much sales either. So far, "Illegal Alien" has made 1/4 of the sales "Melon Heads" made in its first month, although since it was published mid-month, I won't be able to make an accurate comparison even after four weeks pass.

This meant more drastic measures were needed. I turned off the KDP Select auto-renew for all four stories. The other stories were either still in their first term or I'd allowed them to renew for another term, but "Wendigo" would no longer be Kindle-exclusive come December 21. This would be especially useful because an ad I'd purchased for my Facebook fan page increased my fan count from 80 to close to 1,400 (as of 12/29), most of whom apparently are from Turkey or other Middle Eastern countries. As far as I know, people from these countries cannot buy from Amazon (except through tricky means like getting a UK e-mail address to access Amazon.co.uk). People from India can access the same Amazon as Americans, but that would exclude Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc.

On Christmas Eve, I made the leap to Smashwords, putting up "Wendigo." Soon afterward, I "greased the wheel" a little bit by paying $5.00 to "promote" the post announcing the story was now on Smashwords. The number of "likes" I've gotten from my Middle Eastern fans indicated the move was much appreciated. Within 24 hours, I'd sold ten copies of "Wendigo" in two batches of five. I figured Smashwords' sale of stories in multiple file formats (to allow people using different e-readers or not using e-readers at all) and not being limited by country had paid dividends.

Then when checking my Smashwords Dashboard, I noticed my royalties had been cut in half. I queried Smashwords and looked at the Excel spreadsheet and found that five of the ten sales had been refunded due to "fraudulent payment method." I wrote Smashwords and learned that thieves use Smashwords to either test out stolen cards or "max out" said cards. My remaining five sales were refunded as well for the same reason.

(Smashwords limits purchases to five at a time to minimize the impact of fraud--some poor author "sold" 1,000 copies to a fraudster and then had his purchases refunded.)

Rather than earning $7.85 in a day, I'd earned zero--and my royalties remained zero as of 12/29. I'm not going to complain too much, since it's just one short story and I've only been a Smashwords member for a week or so. Some discussion on LinkedIn indicates that "premium status" (which ensures one's writing is marketed on other sites) on Smashwords is where the real money comes from, and that's still pending. Before I pass judgement on Smashwords as a whole, I'll wait to see what happens with that. I might even buy a Facebook ad for "Wendigo," since it's much, MUCH less limited than Amazon KDP and that might have been a reason behind the first Facebook ad campaign's failure.

My strategy for the moment is to publish the three remaining stories on Smashwords as soon as their KDP Select periods end, which will be in February and March. Any future stories I self-publish will be on KDP Select for one term (to allow for one or two promotional days) and then placed on Smashwords. Maybe I'll post my stories on lulu.com as well.

Most-Reviewed Story So Far: "The Beast of the Bosporus"

My experiment in publishing short fiction for e-readers has entered into its third month. So far, although "Melon Heads" remains my top seller with a combined 200 sales and giveaways, "The Beast of the Bosporus" has gotten the most reviews on blogs.

Here they are:

Matthew Stienberg

Matt Mitrovich

Sean Korsgaard

It warms the heart to see my work so well-received, especially when Matt S. said I inspired him to blog and write.

However, blog reviews don't necessarily translate into large numbers of sales, at least at first. I've sold six copies of "Beast" so far and given away around 82 for promotional purposes. This is not to show a lack of appreciation for these upstanding gentlemen and the help they've provided, mind, but it is a lesson.

(Matt M. said his review got 19 "up" votes on the Lovecraft sub-reddit, so it might sell better in the long run. Things like reddit and StumbleUpon are avenues I've not really touched.)


At some point, I'm going to buy some Facebook advertising. When I did a Facebook ad campaign in the summer of 2011, it brought large amounts of traffic here, both as a result of direct ad-clicking and from people who'd linked my blog pages to the Starcraft Wiki, ensuring a continuous flow of hits (1,500-odd so far) from there. One of the downsides of self-publishing is that you've got to pay for advertising, not your publisher. I've run the numbers and I'd need to sell three copies (I get $0.35 per story sold as royalties) to justify every $1 spent on Facebook ads.

I'll keep you posted on how this goes.

"Beast of the Bosporus" Covers: What Might Have Been

One of the major hurdles facing would-be self-publishers is that they're responsible for all their own editing, marketing, cover art, etc. Between my own grammar-fascist tendencies and different writing groups I'm in, editing isn't a problem, and given my skill at networking, marketing isn't a problem either.

Cover art, however, is a different. I do like to draw with colored pencils, but other people can do it so much better. To put it in economics terms, comparative advantage.

For my third e-book, "The Beast of the Bosporus" I reached out to Alex Claw, who I know from my alternate-history message-board. He's done covers for former board member Christopher Nuttall and although his style is more cartoon-like than I prefer, he has been taking lessons to paint more realistically.

Since I believe in giving artists creative freedom, I sent him the text of the story and told him to come up with a cover based on what he read. Here's what he came up with:

I sent him back some suggestions, including removing Cthulhu (who is only incidentally related to the story), adjusting Sokullu Mehmed Pasha's face and fingernails a bit, and giving him a turban. After receiving my suggestions, Alex came up with this:

This cover is based on an actual scene from the story and the pasha is more distinctively Middle Eastern in look. I wrote "Beast" because I wanted to take Lovecraftian horror out of its typical rural New England setting and put it somewhere a bit more exotic.

(At the time, I'd forgotten about Robert E. Howard's short story "The Black Stone," which is set in the Balkans and includes Ottoman soldiers fighting an alien horror and its cult of rural inbred degenerates. It's a really good story, so if you want to read it, I recommend getting your hands on Nameless Cults: The Cthulhu Mythos Fiction of Robert E. Howard.It's awesome.)

Interview: don Joseph Nasi, Duke of Naxos

Today we'll be sitting down with Joseph Nasi, Duke of Naxos and a powerful court official under the Ottoman Sultan Selim.

(Nassi is tall and slender, with thin eyebrows above piercing brown eyes. He sits in a chair at a table rather than reclining on cushions as other Ottoman officials do.)

Me: So, Mr. Nasi, tell me more about yourself.

Nasi: Well, I was born in Spain in 1524. Although my family pretended to be Catholic, we secretly practiced our ancestral Jewish faith. Officially we were called "New Christians," but the more common term was Marrano. It's not flattering. We were always under suspicion and eventually found it a good idea to flee Spain to Portugal. That's why Mehmed always thinks of me as being Portuguese. He's not as knowledgeable as he likes to think.

Me: Mehmed?

Nasi: Sokullu Mehmed Pasha, the grand vizier. We have different opinions on foreign policy.

Me: What do you mean?

Nasi: He would have the Sublime State ally with Venice against Spain, in order to more efficiently prosecute the wars in North Africa. That is all well and good, but Venice controls Cyprus, right next door to us. Should relations take a turn for the worse, Venetian Cyprus would be a major threat to southern Anatolia, Syria, and Palestine. And although the Venetians paid us tribute to ensure Cyprus's security, they also shelter Christian pirates who have attacked pilgrims to Mecca.


Paying the Sublime State tribute all while harboring active enemies? Who have attacked Muslims on the Hajj no less? That's an extraordinarily bad idea. I thought the Venetians smarter than this. Of course, given how they mistreat the Orthodox Cypriots, I would expect short-sightedness. They clearly don't remember how Ottomans were welcomed in much of Greece because of how the Italian Catholic lords abused the Orthodox peasants.

(Shakes his head)

From an outside perspective, this feuding between the Catholics and Orthodox is absolutely absurd. It seems to me the Bishop of Rome has a massive ego problem. It seems much of northern Europe shares my opinion. Look at what my friend William the Silent is up to these days. There's more to the split between the Catholics and these "Protestants" than there is to feud between the Catholics and Orthodox, but I digress.

Me: You're friends with the prince of Orange?

Nasi: Yes. I have extensive trading contacts with Europe and we met through mutual friends. Mehmed thinks I'm too focused on Venice, but even though I don't share Mehmed's ideas of creating an Islamic version of Mare Nostrum, I recognize the threat Spain represents. These "Protestants" are quite useful for the Sublime State. The more Spain is kept occupied on its own borders, the less it has to spend on the Mediterranean.

Me: This is all very interesting, but didn't the Ottoman war with the Venetians over Cyprus bring about the Battle of Lepanto? That wiped out most of the Ottoman fleet.

(Nasi winces)

Nasi: That is true. I did not anticipate such a massive turnout by Catholic Europe in support of the Venetians. It was like one of the Crusades of old. Fortunately, the Sublime State was able to replace its losses in ships fairly easily. We also won the land war on Cyprus. The Venetians are still fighting, but if they keep this up, we can expand the war into Dalmatia. That would threaten Venice itself, not just its colonies.

(Nasi smiles)

Mehmed wants an alliance with the Venetians against the Spanish. Forcing the Venetians into vassalage and joining their fleet to ours just might get him that. On our terms, of course.

What consequences might the rivalry between Sokullu Mehmed Pasha and don Joseph Nasi have, especially once dark supernatural forces come into play? Find out in "The Beast of the Bosporus."

Interview: Sokullu Mehmed Pasha

Today we'll be sitting down for an interview with Sokullu Mehmed Pasha, the grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire.

(The Pasha, a tall man with a dark beard wearing a white turban, leans back on some pillows. A page enters bringing two cups of hot Turkish coffee, one for me and one for him. The page serves me first, then the Pasha.)

Me: So, tell me something about yourself, Pasha.

Sokullu: I was born in the Bosnian town of Sokolac in 1506, as you Christians reckon it. When I was ten years old, I was taken by the devshirme, the Padishah's levy of Christian youth from the Balkans. "Christian" for a certain value of Christian, given the pagan superstitions still prevalent at the time. I was introduced to the true worship of God soon enough.

Me: So how did you become grand vizier?

Sokullu: It took a long time. By 1541, I was Imperial Chamberlain and overseer of the squires of Padishah Suleiman, who taught me a great deal. After serving him in peace and in war, I became third vizier in 1555. That year did not start out well--I had to quell a rebellion by some lowlife pretending to be one of the Padishah's sons--but my brother from Bosnia did visit me and I made some improvements to the Orthodox Church in the area. I became second vizier in 1561 and the Padishah honored me greatly with a marriage to his granddaughter. In 1565, I became the grand vizier. That year began the war with the Hapsburgs, the war in which the Padishah died.

Me: Suleiman?

Sokullu: Yes. It was at a most inconvenient time, so I had to permanently silence the witnesses. It was not until over a month later that I formally announced his death.

Me: Why?

Sokullu: When an Imperial prince becomes a new sultan, he typically puts his brothers and half-brothers to death. The bowstring, to avoid spilling royal blood. That provides an unfortunate incentive for the other sons of the sultan to contest the succession. In the worst case, you end up with something like the Interregnum in which several sons of the Padishah fought for power. Better a few sons of royal blood get the bowstring than thousands die on the battlefield. Power comes at a price.

Me: Perhaps the sultan shouldn't father so many children.

Sokullu: And risk the spread of rumor that he is impotent? That would invite a challenge to his authority. If the Padishah favors a particular son, he will place him in a position where he can easily take the throne. This gives his sons incentive to work hard, to earn his favor. Enough of this subject.

Me: So you ensured Selim became the new emperor?

(Sokullu nods)

Sokullu: I did, although it was a rather touch-and-go process. Everyone was demanding favors, higher wages and the like. Eventually I tired of their insolence and broke some heads.

Me: How has the Empire fared since then?

Sokullu: For the most part well. The Padishah gives me a great deal of latitude to ensure the stability of the Sublime State and the victories of its armies. Unfortunately, the Latin states have recently inflicted on us a fairly substantial bloody nose, something it has taken a great expenditure of resources to repair.

Me: You're referring to the Battle of Lepanto?

(Sokullu smiles)

Sokullu: The very one. We just finished replacing all the ships lost in the engagement. Replacing the experienced sailors lost will be harder still. And the spice trade is beginning to pass from the land routes we control to the sea routes the Latin states dominate, which is threatening our tax revenue. Dealing with the situation may require...drastic measures.

Me: What sort of drastic measures?

(Sokullu tents his fingers)

Sokullu: One of my agents has recently made a suggestion I've found very interesting. I will look into it further.

Want to see what Sokullu's "drastic measures" entail? If so, check out "The Beast of the Bosporus."

Melon Heads Character Interview: Sarah Haley

Former member of my Lawrenceville writing group Malissa Thomas came up with the idea for interviewing characters in one's writing, which in her case is her serialized novel Finding Monsters. I've decided to borrow the idea, so today on the World According to Quinn, we'll be interviewing Ohio University sophomore Sarah Haley.

Author: So tell us, Sarah, where were you born?

Sarah: I was born in Cleveland, Ohio, but my family moved to Chardon when I was three. They wanted a place quieter than the big city. I graduated from Chardon High School in 2010.

Author: What was it like growing up in Chardon?

Sarah (toys with her dark hair): Well, it is a small town where people know each other a lot more. That can be boring sometimes, although Cleveland's not too far away. On the other hand, it's easier to be a big fish in a small pond.

Author: What do you mean?

Sarah: Well, it was a lot easier to get on the track and softball teams when I did.

Author: Two sports? That's impressive.

Sarah: Not at the same time! Track and field and softball are during the same parts of the year. I always wanted to do both, but eventually chose softball.

Author: Why?

Sarah: Well, I'd played softball when I was little, but got into youth track in middle school. I kind of missed softball. Also, playing softball still gave me the chance to run, but doing track would never give me the chance to throw, if you understand what I'm saying.

Author: Did you play in college?

Sarah (shaking her head): I'm sure you've heard of the expression "jack of all trades, master of none." I wasn't bad at either sport, but wasn't good enough to earn a scholarship in either. Besides, when I was in high school, sports took up all of my time. I never even dated anyone. I wanted to join a sorority and socialize more. I still do intramurals though.

Author: How did that go?

Sarah: Well, I joined Chi Omega. They're a wonderful group of girls and do a lot of community service. We also do mixers with the fraternities and some of the schools on campus.

Author: How do those go?

Sarah: You meet a lot of interesting guys that way. Some are real stinkers, but others are cool. My Big Sister just got engaged to a man she met at a mixer with the law school.

Author: Are you dating anyone now?

Sarah: Yep. A nice boy named Ian Barnes, who grew up in the Huntsburg Township. It's not that far away from Chardon, actually. It's easier to hang out when school's out. I met him when he was doing a story on Chi Omega for the school paper and when I took an elective focusing on folklore, guess who was in the class?

Author: That's pretty funny. What are you majoring in?

Sarah: Secondary education and teaching. I'd like to be a high school teacher and coach either track or softball.

Author: Those are worthy goals to have.

Sarah: Thanks!

What will happen when one of the "stinkers" Sarah refers to decides to take revenge on her and her new boyfriend? Find out in my short horror/dark comedy story "Melon Heads," available on Amazon.

Self-Publishing, E-Readers, and Markets That Don't Pay (Well)

I recently made the decision to self-publish my two short horror stories "Melon Heads" and "I am the Wendigo" on Amazon.com (for the Kindle) and Smashwords (for the other platforms).  "Melon Heads" is a piece I haven't been able to sell anywhere else, but "I am the Wendigo" was my first fiction sale back in 2006-2007.

(A now-defunct webzine called Chimaera Serials paid $20 for it. CS didn't last long after it published the story and after a couple of years, the website vanished entirely.)

I picked "Melon Heads" to be fodder for my self-publishing experiment because it's among my best stories, but I haven't yet found a publisher willing to pay professional or semi-professional rates.  "Wendigo" has a different problem--there aren't very many markets for horror reprints, at least those that pay much.

In the past, I might have been willing to submit to a market offering a low rate or even for free simply to get exposure.  However, the Internet and the rise of e-readers has changed that.  I could sell certain rights to these stories for a one-time payment of $5, $10, or $20, or I could put them on an e-reader.  My friend Jeff Baker has posted a few stories to Amazon and Smashwords and he's made more money than if he'd sold them to many lower-paying markets.

If this is representative of any kind of trend, it bodes ill for the lowest-paying markets. 

However, self-publishing short stories has its pitfalls like self-publishing a novel does.  I need to create my own cover--a recent article I read attributed one reason self-published books fail is bad cover art. The problem is, good cover art costs money. I doubt I'm going to make a whole lot of money once I put them online, at least in the short run, so spending a lot on cover art defeats the whole purpose. There's also the matter of editing, which I think my stuff won't have a problem with given how many times I've had friends and members of my writing group pick over it. And then there's formatting them properly for e-readers. I've downloaded the free e-publishing software Calibre, which should help me format the stories, but I haven't actually started using it yet.

That's a ray of hope for the lower-paying fiction markets. It's a lot easier to simply write and polish a story and submit it than to self-publish, even if the monetary returns are higher. After all, one's time has value. However, even if self-publishing short fiction for the e-reader market doesn't obliterate markets offering only a token payment or exposure, it will certainly make life more difficult for them.

"Melon Heads" Is Coming

I have recently made the executive decision to self-publish my short story "Melon Heads" on Amazon.com (for the Kindle) and Smashwords (for other e-readers).  One of my former co-workers has offered to illustrate it for me.  I might post the cover art here at some point when it's done.

"Melon Heads" began in 2003 or 2004, during my first semester at the University of Georgia.  I was looking around online and came across the Melon Heads on an urban legends website.  I can't find the original link, but the gist of the story can be found here.

I wrote a short story fairly quickly, since I didn't think anyone had ever made a creature-horror story about the Melon Heads, but was unable to sell it.  In retrospect, the early drafts of the story were far too bare-bones and lacked characterization.  The current version combines elements of dark humor with a straight-up horror tale.  Although there's now at least one direct-to-video horror film about the Melon Heads, that may be a bonus--people are now more aware of the Melon Heads and might be interested in hearing more.

I will keep you all posted on the progress of my plan.  Should this prove successful, there might be more fiction going up on Amazon and Smashwords.