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Last post Author Topic: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!  (Read 431540 times)

wraith808

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Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!
« Reply #650 on: July 31, 2013, 04:49 PM »
I mean, that's fine -- great, even, I suppose. Bloggers need subscribers, right? I'm just surprised at how quickly -- that's averaging 9 new members per day. I emailed Perry to see if he could help me on another issue. I have a few people wanting signed printed copies of my book. I spent two frustrating hours on CreateSpace the other night. Everything was fine but I could not get the cover image for the jacket to suit them.

The number of subscribers that you have isn't really worth much IMO.  The number of engaged subscribers is the more relevant statistic.  And if these are spammers/bots, then they'll never be engaged.

kyrathaba

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Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!
« Reply #651 on: July 31, 2013, 04:52 PM »
So, Akismet is probably hiding the spam from me, and some of these are probably bots... Mmm... sounds about right.

kyrathaba

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Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!
« Reply #652 on: July 31, 2013, 05:42 PM »
It's early-on in this authorship adventure. Only ten days since Kyrathaba Rising went live on Smashwords (it went live at later dates on several other sites). As is typical of new authors (and some not so new), I really need reviews. If any of you have read my book, please consider writing a review on one or more of the following three sites: Goodreads (1st preference), Amazon, and Shvoong. The Shvoong review can be up to but not exceeding 900 words. I expect a review to be coming in by the end of the week from published ebook author Shane Etter, so that'll help.


wraith808

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Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!
« Reply #653 on: July 31, 2013, 05:47 PM »
So, Akismet is probably hiding the spam from me, and some of these are probably bots... Mmm... sounds about right.

They could also be probes.  What happens is they see if they can register... then after a while, the bots come back again and see if they are still registered and then post as users that are not new.

kyrathaba

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Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!
« Reply #654 on: July 31, 2013, 06:19 PM »
We'll see. Nothing that can't be dealt with if that occurs. I'm backing up the blog to a "Online Backup for Wordpress" via plug-in, and downloading files weekly via FTP.

kyrathaba

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Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!
« Reply #655 on: July 31, 2013, 07:10 PM »
I'm in negotiations with a professional voice-over actor/producer about having him make an audio-book version of Kyrathaba Rising for a split of royalties.

4wd

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Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!
« Reply #656 on: July 31, 2013, 07:18 PM »
How's it look now, 4wd? The contact slide-out form is at the very top-right, where it won't block written content.

Much better, still seems to be a bit wide than it needs to be for my browser window but the amount of content obscured is a lot less than previous.

If it could be moved closer to the right border it probably wouldn't obscure the main page content at all.

I probably should have mentioned it earlier but my normal browser window width is 1024 if you want to test at that resolution.

2013-08-01 10_08_56-Landing Page - William Bryan Miller - Pale Moon.png

I'm in negotiations with a professional voice-over actor/producer about having him make an audio-book version of Kyrathaba Rising for a split of royalties.

Better look at the last lot of comments on GDocs then  :P

kyrathaba

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Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!
« Reply #657 on: July 31, 2013, 07:28 PM »
Check the page now, 4wd. Adjusted offsets and narrowed form's width...

4wd

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Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!
« Reply #658 on: July 31, 2013, 07:29 PM »
 :Thmbsup:

kyrathaba

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Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!
« Reply #659 on: July 31, 2013, 07:33 PM »
^ Good deal!

rgdot

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Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!
« Reply #660 on: July 31, 2013, 08:09 PM »
You also probably need an easier method or link (via menu) for visitors to access your blog posts instead of just seeing the latest 5 in the sidebar?

kyrathaba

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Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!
« Reply #661 on: July 31, 2013, 08:10 PM »
I confess I'm not yet conversant with Wordpress features and nuances. What do you recommend, rgdot?

rgdot

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Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!
« Reply #662 on: July 31, 2013, 08:27 PM »
I think it would be good. WordPress has its own odd ways. When a 'static' page is set to be the front page then the link to blog posts is not readily available.

If you decide to do it:

Add a new page and give it a title ("Blog"?) only with no content, publish it
Go to Settings, Reading and set the Blog page to "Posts Page" (already using the 'static page' and 'Front page' settings)
Finally need to add the page to the menu. Appearance -->Menus, click the page and add it to menu

kyrathaba

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Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!
« Reply #663 on: July 31, 2013, 08:44 PM »
How about this:

this_okay.jpg

rgdot

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Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!
« Reply #664 on: July 31, 2013, 09:31 PM »
Looks good to me  :Thmbsup:

4wd

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Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!
« Reply #665 on: August 01, 2013, 01:31 AM »
OI! Projected release date for book two is 30th October.....OMG!

kyrathaba

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Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!
« Reply #666 on: August 01, 2013, 07:05 AM »
If I get to return to work, like I'm hoping, I may have to push that back till Thanksgiving.

kyrathaba

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Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!
« Reply #667 on: August 01, 2013, 08:30 AM »
^ to be honest, I'm about 2/3 of the way through the mandatory Book 1 Recap (for those weird individuals who aren't sticklers about starting a series from the very beginning book). Next, I'll do an extensive outline, chapter by chapter, for the entirety of book 2. I'm going to write this book in WriteMonkey using Extra Markdown to produce HTML versions of each chapter. These will be formatted with bold and italics where I want it, and will be easy to proofread. Only near the end of revisioning will I import the HTML chapters into Jutoh to compile epub and mobi ebooks.

kyrathaba

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Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!
« Reply #668 on: August 01, 2013, 06:21 PM »
Got a wonderful review on Amazon today (4 of 5 stars were given). Here's an excerpt:

Kyrathaba Rising is a taut, well-written novel. What I liked most of all, though, is that it is unique. The author has explored new ground, taking at least three genres and intertwining them together into an exciting new tale of danger, hope, and resilience. I look forward to the sequel.

See the full review here.

kyrathaba

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Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!
« Reply #669 on: August 01, 2013, 06:28 PM »
I'll post it in its entirety since it also brags on Perry and 4wd's proofing job (emphasis added):

Kyrathaba Rising is a new take on alien/post apocalyptical fiction. The earth has been devastated by an alien attack, leaving perhaps 60,000 humans left to carry on the species. This is pretty standard fare in the genre, but what makes this different is that the aliens are not actively in attack mode; the mothership has moved on. But they have left a caretaker force, so humans cannot merely go about their efforts to repopulate the planet. When you throw in a gaming aspect, the book stands alone in the plot and storyline. It is unique and rather compelling.

The story revolves around a group of less than a thousand people living in an underground complex simply labeled A3. As increased radiation starts taking its toll on the people, four people try a new approach, beyond the physical realm as we know it in order to keep the substance of humanity alive.

Overall, the book is well-written. The character voices are appropriate and believable. One particular shift in the voice was quite well done--we didn't need to have it explained when one character had a significant life-altering experience. We could read it in his voice. The action scenes were well-developed and painted a good picture of what was happening.

Editing was good. There were no big problems in either copy editing or proofreading that interrupted the flow of the story. The reader is pulled along for the ride.

The ending left me hanging a bit. I would have liked to see a more conclusive reason for the end of the book, but it certainly left me wanting to buy the next volume. I have a vested interest now in the story, and I want to see what happens next.

Kyrathaba Rising is a taut, well-written novel. What I liked most of all, though, is that it is unique. The author has explored new ground, taking at least three genres and intertwining them together into an exciting new tale of danger, hope, and resilience. I look forward to the sequel.

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book to review.
« Last Edit: August 01, 2013, 06:43 PM by kyrathaba »

kyrathaba

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Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!
« Reply #670 on: August 01, 2013, 07:35 PM »
Editing was good. There were no big problems in either copy editing or proofreading that interrupted the flow of the story. The reader is pulled along for the ride.

By contrast, the book I'm reading for a fellow aspiring author was "professionally edited" by Hercules Editing and Consulting Services (www.bzhercules.com), and yet I am finding numerous typos. Mind you, the story is good, and I think the guy is a good author, but whatever money he paid those people, he deserves a refund. So, it serves to make me all the more aware of what a fine job of proofing you two guys did, Perry and 4wd. Kudos to the two of you!

4wd

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Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!
« Reply #671 on: August 01, 2013, 11:28 PM »
So, it serves to make me all the more aware of what a fine job of proofing you two guys did, Perry and 4wd. Kudos to the two of you!

Aw shucks  :-[

Stop it or else (NSFK)
1238157980_scanners_-_head_explosion.gif

EDIT: What happens when you get too much praise.

« Last Edit: August 02, 2013, 02:19 AM by 4wd »

kyrathaba

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Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!
« Reply #672 on: August 02, 2013, 01:13 PM »
I should have 3 additional reviews coming in, in the next few days. Possibly four.

wraith808

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Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!
« Reply #673 on: August 02, 2013, 02:24 PM »
Some G+ groups that you might want to consider joining:
Science Fiction Writers: https://plus.google....07050163381285462290
Writers' Corner: https://plus.google....03081619947922397754
Speculative Fiction Writers: https://plus.google....12515101312869340641

40hz

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Re: Sci-fi novel now available from DC member kyrathaba!
« Reply #674 on: August 02, 2013, 02:34 PM »
@k - liked that picture of you over at Columbia Magazine.

My GF said to say she thinks you look like John Cusack in the movie The Italian Job. :Thmbsup:

italianjob2003.jpg

High praise indeed. She likes John Cusack. 8)