The print book cover art
My debut novel, Inconstant Moon is complete. The entire story is told, and it has all been posted here, serialization style, one day at a time.
That’s why it says ‘The End‘ at the bottom of Chapter 140 which was published yesterday.
I’m very proud of the fact that I was able to accomplish this, and I’m learning a lot about self publishing. The idea is that I’ll share what I have learned/am learning about self publishing in the new Libreleft Books blog.
[Since I’ve no intention of stopping self publishing any time soon, it seemed clever to spring for the Libreleft.com domain name.) Right now the new Libreleft site is a place holder; I expect to have it up and running properly before November 1st.]
special features
Over the next while I’ll be building on the special features already begun here.
Still to come are special character pages for the whole cast, articles about the setting, the writing, the illustrations and so on. I will link or reprint any reviews on the BUZZ page, and answer any questions. If you’ve read Inconstant Moon and want to write a review I’ll be happy to publish it here as well.
There are also bits of a book trailer floating around in my head… we’ll see how it goes.
I plan to publish a new special feature page every Thursday until I’m finished.
If you wish to be notified when the new pages are posted, you can subscribe to this blog or watch for my announcements on Identica &tc.
At this point I don’t intend to write a sequel. This book is not part of a series, although I will not rule out the possibility of any of the characters appearing in future books.
I hope to get the first draft of my second novel, which is a lot more noir, ‘The Girl In The Blue Flame Cafe‘ out to beta readers, again, before November, because I plan on beginning to write my third novel as part of NaNoWriMo 2011. If you’re interested in Beta reading, drop me a line at laurel.l@russwurm.org.
reading the novel
The original eBook cover art
Meanwhile, this blog isn’t going anywhere. Anyone can start at the beginning and read Inconstant Moon online here at any time.
While preparing the serialization segments, I’ve been doing final-final proof reading of Inconstant Moon. This absolutely final version will be uploaded anew to CreateSpace, as soon as the good eBook versions are available. I’m also considering releasing Inconstant Moon in other print formats as well; we’ll see how it goes.
Right now my priority is mastering eBook formats so I can make it available in as many formats possible.
If anyone wishes to attempt a translation into any other language, let me know, and I’ll furnish you with the text in whatever format you like. I’ve just done a redesign of the ebook cover, since I’ve managed to take a better photograph of the moon.
the cost of free
A lot of people think that the best way to get people reading your novels is to charge them a low price for the ebook.
Even discounting the fact that eBooks should be inexpensive because digital copies are cheap*, when I look at how I became a reader, it was through reading things for free. If not gifts, books were borrowed from friends or libraries; the books I read were free. That’s how I learned what books and what writers I liked. As i got older, the other way I discover new books, or come to like new writers, has been through buying cheap print books on spec.
Book store remainder tables, used book stores, and fund raising book sales, and private yard sales, are all wonderful places to get books by a writer I’d not heard of or never read. You can take a flyer on a book if you like the cover art, or an interesting blurb on the dust jacket. I’ve paid anywhere from a few pennies to a few dollars to try out a book. But even trying a book on spec cheaply takes an investment of time.
Back when I was working in the film business I was always thrilled when free tickets to theatrical movies came my way. Yet I remember one film so incredibly awful that I not only walked out in the middle, to this day I resent the time I wasted sitting in the theatre — hoping for it to get better — more than twenty years later. And reading a book requires a greater investment of time than watching a film.
So my thinking is this; even if I only pay a couple of bucks for a book I’m not thrilled with, I’m unlikely to do so again. Even if there are good things about the book, even if it’s well written, if the story doesn’t engage me, or if I don’t connect with a character in that book, that couple of bucks is the only chance that writer gets at me. I probably won’t risk even that next time.
On the other hand, I’ll give a writer more than one chance if the book is free. And sometimes it takes more than one book to decide if you like the author, particularly if the first book you read is atypical of that author.
So. Read the novel here. If it’s not your kind of book, perhaps the next one will be. And you aren’t out a nickel, only as much time as you decided you were willing to invest. If you decide at some point that you like my work well enough to want me to continue, when you can afford it, you can purchase a copy of this or another of my books, for yourself or someone else. And if not, that’s okay too.
Please note: If you are considering purchasing Inconstant Moon as either a print book or eBook, I suggest waiting a few days until the final version is ready. I will announce it on Identica, Twitter, Facebook and here.
Inconstant Moon
The newly redesigned eBook cover art
I began thinking about this book in my head in the 1980’s. There were themes I very much wanted to explore, but they were like puzzle pieces; I had no idea how to put them together. The day after I decided — at the last minute — to participate in the 2009 NaNoWriMo, I woke up with the key to unlock the story. When I began outlining I decided it had to be comtemporary. Since the technological revolution which occurred since my own college days, setting it now added to the challenge.
Writing Inconstant Moon has been an adventure for me, as well as a valuable learning experience. I’ve learned an extraordinary amount, both about writing in novel form and self publishing. For me, the technical details of self publishing are by far the more difficult of the two. It doesn’t come at all naturally for me, but in today’s world, it is the only reasonable option. But I do know that the lessons I’ve learned on this one will make self publishing my next books easier.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this as much as I have enjoyed writing it; and I hope you’ll pass the link it on to someone else who may enjoy dropping in to visit the Christie Campus.
licensing
As I writer, my primary goal is to have people read my work. Although it would be fabulous if people were to buy the odd copy, that is a secondary consideration.
I’m afraid that copyright law harms creators rather than helping, particularly in Canada, which has some of the strongest copyright law in the world. I know will be blogging more about this in the days to come, particularly as the Canadian government is considering passing a so-called “modernization” of copyright law called Bill C11 (a revival of the unpassed Bill C-32) that could very easily be used to suppress independent self publishing. Naturally, I think this is a bad thing.
If anything, I think copyright terms should be shorter, and the public domain needs strengthening. Besides serializing Inconstant Moon here and for five years it will be licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Canada License.
At that time, I intend to change the license, to release the novel into the public domain in 2016.
* “digital copies are cheap” — making a digital copy doesn’t cost more than making a copy of an email, or any file on your computer. Producing the book (or movie, music, software, art, etc.) can cost money, but the real cost of both producing the copies and disseminating them online is very nearly free. Printing and distribution of books is what made print books so expensive.
