Yes, I’m still here.

I should probably be blogging more, given that my newest novel came out just last week, but I’ve been caught up in promotional tasks along with a major — although unexciting — backend project.

The print editions of many of my books are printed by a company called Lightning Source. There is some advantage to also having them printed by Createspace, an Amazon company. So I’ve been converting and updating the books for that purpose. It’s a task that requires detail work, and time, but I want to get it done as soon as I can so I won’t have to continue paying for a monthly subscription for the layout program I’ve been using.

Anyway!

What’s going on in the world of The Last Good Man?

Not enough, to be honest. The launch itself went well, and sales continued at a reasonable pace for the next few days, but have been dropping off alarmingly since then. I have a few small publicity ventures ongoing, and a few more in mind, but nothing major is on the horizon, so I’m concerned that sales will continue to lag. That’s what happened with The Red, despite the good reviews, so it’s starting to feel like “déjà vu all over again.”

On the positive side, y’all are fantastic! Reader reviews at both Amazon and Goodreads have been terrific! Thank you, and I’m so very pleased to know that so many of you have enjoyed The Last Good Man.

Of course, not everyone agrees. I did get a 1-star review at Amazon a few days ago, although the customer’s ire is directed at the price of the ebook’s kilobytes — one kilobyte being as good as another, I suppose — rather than at the story.

Two more online appearances since my last post:

Jeffrey A. Carver, author of The Chaos Chronicles along with many other novels, recently finished reading The Last Good Man and posted his thoughts on it. In short, his advice is, “Don’t miss this one.”

And over at Marie Brennan’s blog, I posted about the “Spark of Life” — that moment during the writing of The Last Good Man when the story felt as if it finally came alive. TL;DR — a technical change, likely of interest only to other writers, is what made the difference for me.

Onward.

I’ve been talking about it for months, and now The Last Good Man has launched. Print and ebook editions are available now. An Audible audio edition is on the way; I suspect it will be out around the end of the month or the first week of July. I’ll let you know!

Thank you to everyone who has helped spread the word.

If you read and enjoy The Last Good Man, I hope you’ll consider posting a review at Amazon or Barnes & Noble, and at Goodreads if you’re active there. It really does help!

Here’s the back-cover description:

Army veteran True Brighton left the service when the development of robotic helicopters made her training as a pilot obsolete. Now she works at Requisite Operations, a private military company established by friend and former Special Ops soldier Lincoln Han. ReqOp has embraced the new technologies. Robotics, big data, and artificial intelligence are all tools used to augment the skills of veteran warfighters-for-hire. But the tragedy of war is still measured in human casualties, and when True makes a chance discovery during a rescue mission, old wounds are ripped open. She’s left questioning what she knows of the past, and resolves to pursue the truth, whatever the cost.

And here are some blurbs to help persuade you:

“A new novel by Linda Nagata is always an event. The Last Good Man pulls us into next month’s headlines with a conviction and energy that makes for an extraordinary tale.” —Hugo and Nebula award-winner Greg Bear, author of War Dogs and Darwin’s Radio.

“…a thrilling novel that lays bare the imminent future of warfare.” —Publishers Weekly starred review

“…if you want a novel with pulse-pounding action, in which soldiers square off against the futuristic machines — a novel that you won’t be able to put down once the action heats up — [The Last Good Man] delivers with the precision and firepower of a tactical missile…not only a cracking good read, it is a novel driving first, and fast, down the road we are seemingly already set upon.” —Paul Weimer, Barnes & Noble SFF blog

“The Last Good Man is a compelling and subversive novel, told by unique characters, especially True Brighton: sympathetic, prickly, determined, all too human. Linda Nagata has impressive insights into technological advances and their potential effects. Not to mention some very cool invented AI critters…. It was a privilege to read TLGM before its publication.” —Hugo and Nebula award-winning author Vonda N. McIntyre, author of Dreamsnake, Starfarers, and The Moon and the Sun.

And vendor links:

☆ Amazon

☆ iBooks

☆ Barnes & Noble

☆ Kobo Books

You can also ask your local bookstore or library to order the print edition. Here’s the ISBN: 978-1-937197-22-3.

Well, I guess I should get back to work on the next book.

In my last post I promised to take a look at expenses versus income for my newest novel, The Last Good Man. The novel has been on preorder for several weeks. As of yesterday, preorders had been placed for 542 copies. I estimate the net income from those copies will be roughly $2,415, which I’ll receive in two to three months.

So what about expenses?

As the saying goes, time is money, and time is by far the biggest expense incurred in writing any novel. Suffice to say, this novel took most of a year to write. Other expenses include editing, cover art, copyediting, software fees, setup fees for the print edition, advertising, and postage. Right now the partial total of stuff I actually paid for stands at $3,627. Some of the postage was paid on a different card and I’m not going to track down the amounts right now. I’ll just note that the actual dollar figure for expenses is a bit higher.

Not all indie writers spend this much. I didn’t spend this much when I indie-published The Red. For that book, I had only one round of paid editing, I had a free copyedit, and free cover art from my daughter. But I’ve had a few years since then to realize the value of good editing, so I indulged this time, wanting to make this book the very best I could. I also wanted a copyedit consistent with standard practice in the American publishing industry. And I wanted a specific sort of cover art. I definitely got my money’s worth there.

I believe that The Last Good Man is well written and well laid-out. I believe it compares favorably to most traditionally published books and it’s already earned some enthusiastic reviews. But as you can see from the figures above, it’s got a long way to go before I can call it profitable.

Why am I publishing these figures? In part because it’s a glimpse into the industry that might be useful to other writers planning their careers, and in part because it’s an explanation of why I’m doing so much promotion. But it’s also because most articles about writers and their incomes focus only on the very successful, and that’s not most of us.

I’ve been in this business a long time, I’ve had many novels published, both traditional and indie, I’ve won awards and been short-listed for more, and my books have been well reviewed — yet my sales have always been tepid. Maybe The Last Good Man will change that. I hope so!

If you’d like to help out, buy the book! (I know most of you reading this already have. THANK YOU.) Ask your local library to order it. Post a reader review at Amazon and Goodreads. And do the same for any other author’s books that you’ve especially enjoyed. Writing is an art but it’s also business — and readers get to decide if we stay in business.

Just a few more days until publication!

To review for those new to my blog, I’m publicly tracking preorders on my forthcoming novel The Last Good Man. The novel has already earned a Publishers Weekly starred review, and several glowing endorsements from other writers. But it’s a crowded marketplace…

My goal was a modest 500 preorders before the June 20 publication date. And you know what? I made it! The print orders did it. There were a total of 153 as of this morning — VERY small potatoes in the grand scheme of things — but enough to let me reach my goal. Thank you to everyone who preordered a copy, whether ebook or print!

So what does this mean in dollar terms? After all, I need to contribute something to the family income…

The ebook is priced at $7.99. For most copies sold, I earn 70% of the list price less a few pennies, so let’s say $5.55 per copy. That’s a nice cut, much better than I’d get in traditional publishing. If all preorders go through, I’m looking to net around $2,175 from the ebooks.

By contrast, print — specifically print-on-demand — is expensive. So despite the $18 cover price, I’ll be netting only about $2 a copy for the preordered print books.

Adding estimated income from ebook and print preorders gives me a total of $2,415, which I won’t see until two or three months after publication. Not exactly high finance, eh? But it’s a start.

I’ll write more on income versus expenses in another post.

Find all related posts here.

Find preorder links and info here.

To review for those new to my blog, I’m publicly tracking preorders on my forthcoming novel The Last Good Man. The novel has already earned a Publishers Weekly starred review, and several glowing endorsements from other writers. But it’s a crowded marketplace…

My goal is a modest 500 preorders before the June 20 publication date — only eleven days away! This is the first week print preorders have shown up. Only 36 so far, but it’s a start. Thank you to everyone who ordered. This number has been included in the total below.

Details:
++ The 525 newsletter subscribers are a separate list, newly signed up via a recent promotion. It should be assumed that most are unfamiliar with my work.

Find all related posts here.

Find preorder links and info here.

I’m publicly tracking preorders on my forthcoming novel The Last Good Man. The novel has already earned a Publishers Weekly starred review, and several glowing endorsements from other writers. But how is it doing in a crowded marketplace? Not so great.

My goal is a modest 500 preorders before the June 20 publication date. During this past week I passed the halfway mark, and it’s possible the numbers are a little better than what I can show here. More on that below. First, the current statistics:

++ The 525 newsletter subscribers are a separate list, newly signed up via a recent promotion. It should be assumed that most are unfamiliar with my work.

I can’t see preorders at iBooks, and I didn’t ask my distributor for an updated count, but it’s unlikely to have changed much from the five copies reported last week.

The print edition is available to preorder and I know that at least two books have been ordered, but those numbers have not shown up in any report, so I’m going to assume I won’t see print numbers until the books actually ship. That means print is a big mystery, and the numbers above reflect only ebook sales.

By the way, both Barnes & Noble and Amazon are offering the print edition at a 23% discount as of this writing.

Find all related posts here.

Find preorder links and info here.

It’s June 1st! The Last Good Man publishes later this month — and it’s already showing up on some lists of summer books.

Barnes & Noble has included it in their “NOOK Press Presents” collection for June and July.

The Verge has included it in a list of thirty-nine science fiction, fantasy, and horror novels coming out in June.

Kirkus has listed it among a dozen science fiction and fantasy titles to “Kickstart Your Summer Reading.”

Both the ebook and print editions are available for preorder. Find links and more information here.

I’m publicly tracking preorders on my forthcoming novel The Last Good Man. The novel has already earned a Publishers Weekly starred review, and several glowing endorsements from other writers. But how is it doing in a crowded marketplace? Well, it’s not setting any records…

My goal is a modest 500 preorders before the June 20 publication date. Right now I’m closing in on the halfway mark. Here are the current statistics:

I can’t see preorders at iBooks, but I had my distributor check and they reported five copies sold there as of last Monday.

The print edition became available to preorder during the past week. It’s listed at both Barnes & Noble and Amazon. (BN has a 23% discount as of this writing.) But I haven’t seen any record of print preorders yet. It’s possible I won’t see these until they ship and the purchaser is billed. At this point, I just don’t know.

Find all related posts here.

Find preorder links and info here.

I’m publicly tracking preorders on my forthcoming novel The Last Good Man. The novel has already earned a Publishers Weekly starred review, and several glowing endorsements from other writers. But how is it doing in the marketplace? Not all that well, honestly.

My goal is 500 preorders. Here are the current statistics:

(?) Over the weekend and early in the week pre-orders were moving along slowly but steadily. My guess as to why is that Amazon may have begun including the title in their daily emails to potentially interested customers. But the pace slowed considerably after Tuesday.

**Around 350 subscribers have been long-time subscribers. The others are mostly new to my work, having signed on during recent promotional events. Only 39% of emails sent track as having been opened.

Find all related posts here.

Find preorder links and info here.

Over the years my books have won a devoted following and that’s been so very gratifying. Still, they’ve never sold well. Not when I’ve put them out myself and not when they’ve been New York published. Of course, there has never been a real publicity campaign behind any of my work.

With my forthcoming novel, The Last Good Man, I’m doing the publicity myself and I’m doing what I can, but this time around I’ve decided to stop pretending. A friend of mine once said that even if a writer isn’t doing well in the market, it’s important to try to maintain “the illusion of momentum” — that is, to give the appearance that one’s career is steadily improving. I’ve tried to do this in the past, but I’m not going to anymore. I’m going to share facts instead.

To start, I’m going to chart preorders here on my blog. I’ll update weekly. Keep in mind that my net on each ebook is at most 70% of the list price (exact amount varies by vendor and country) and that I’ve spent more than a year working on this novel while paying out-of-pocket for the services of editors, a copyeditor, and a cover artist. I’m not complaining about the expenses. A business requires investment, after all. But a business also requires enough income to cover expenses with something left over for profit.

So here are the current statistics:

My goal is 500 preorders. The publication date for The Last Good Man is June 20, just a little over five weeks away.

Visit this page to learn more about the novel. You’ll find a link to the Publishers Weekly starred review, blurbs from early readers, and the opening chapter.

More discussion of the reason behind this do-or-die push is here.

**Around 350 subscribers have been long-time subscribers. The others are mostly new to my work, having signed on during recent promotional events. Only 39% of emails sent track as having been opened.