It's been a week since I've released 'Containment,' so this seems like a good time to do a short retrospective based on the reception it's gotten so far, as well as to talk about my future plans.
In general, 'Containment' has been doing quite good in sales, but 'Sky Trained' has exceeded my expectations. Of course, 'Sky Trained' has been released for longer, so that doesn't really mean much.
I haven't gotten any feedback on either novel, so pretty much all I have to go on is sales to tell me what people are enjoying. If anybody has anything they really like in particular, do let me know, as it's the only way I have of knowing what part people enjoyed the most! Otherwise, I'm just muddling around in the dark here.
Pricing
After seeing how it's been going for my new novels, I'm confident in saying that I'll be pricing my stories in this way going forward:
$2.99 - Shorts, anything less than 30K words
$3.99 - Novellas, anything between 30K-70Kish words
$4.99 - Novels, anything longer than 70K words
That seems fair, given the relative amount of work I have to put in to get these released.
If I had to make a time estimate, it takes a minimum of an hour to produce 1K words, and to be more realistic, on most days, I would say it's about two.
For editing, I can get through about 10 pages per hour, if I'm not working quickly. During editing, I read everything aloud to ensure that it sounds more or less natural, and to ensure that I catch as many mistakes as possible.
Assuming a 70K word novel, that's about 140 hours for writing, and about 18 hours for editing. Once you calculate out how much a novel of that length can make, you're definitely not hitting minimum wage.
Of course, I'm not doing this to get rich, but it's getting more and more obvious that I won't be able to quit my day job to concentrate solely on this.
I will say that the advice 'release often' is definitely the way to go, and I suspect that I would generally do better if I could release more shorts. It's unfortunate that I tend to be so wordy, but my stories simply tend to spiral out of control when I'm working on them. I can't help it!
Oh well. But I'll definitely produce a short at some point, see if I don't!
Trancemaker
My next story is titled 'Trancemaker,' which I'm packing full of gothic goodness.
Cybergoths, leather, neon lights, lipstick, nail polish, the whole shebang.
Never mind the fact that I've never belonged to a gothic subculture or dressed as one. I simply find the work that goes into it and the end product to be super hot.
Because I'm writing for fetish purposes, I'm sure to get everything wrong about these subcultures, but I do hope I'll at least produce an entertaining story!
Mixed into this stew is a good jolt of paranormal romance and fae lords etc, with a lot of slavery and fun brainwashing. I'm fairly pleased with some of the hot scenes I've written so far, and there's quite a few more to go.
This currently sits at 25K words, and I'm estimating there's at least 4 large scenes left to write. If I had to guess, that will make this novella length, almost certainly coming in around 40-50K. I doubt it will be a novel, as the plot simply isn't that intricate. Unless something very cool occurs to me, I suspect this guesstimate will be fairly accurate.
Here's the cover for this novella, which I've already finished:
I also just made an attempt at putting together a synopsis, which of course is subject to change between now and release:
"Kai quit her high powered job as a lawyer to become a full time live-in slave for her Master. However, she doesn’t remember how she acquired this Master, and she still isn’t sure what the purpose of the tattoo being inscribed on her belly is for.
Her cybergothic friend might help her to discover these answers, but there’s a cost - she’ll be required to visit her club and be dressed as a goth herself. That is the only way she’ll be accepted by the Pathwalker and shown her possible futures.
The difficult path does not guarantee success, but failure will ensure that she becomes a jewel slave to one of the fae.
Embracing her new gothic style might be the only way for her to navigate the shadowy paranormal world which mirrors our own."
