By the Campfire with Stuart

With most of the pre-publishing work now behind me for Extra Credit: Loyalty!, I can put some thought into the lessons I've learned (or had reinforced) along the way. The first draft of the story dates back to November of 2012, and it's been a slow and often-delayed journey getting it to the point where I can finally release it. Rather than worry about all the things that writers typically worry about when their books head out the door to the general public, I'll distract myself with some analysis. For now. I'm sure the worry will come in later! Read on if you'd like to learn from my most-recent publishing venture.

You could buy a Kindle, but why do that when you could win one instead? I've had a brand new, unopened Kindle sitting on my desk, waiting for me to give it away as a prize. A prize, for what? For joining me in my book launch party for Extra Credit: Loyalty! Speaking of which, you can pre-order this new novel for the low introductory price of 99 cents—or get a copy for free if you donate a Tweet or Facebook/Tumblr post by joining my Thunderclap. But let's talk more about prizes!

I'm not asking for money, but if you would donate a Tweet or a post on Facebook or Tumblr I would sincerely appreciate it! This month I decided to use Thunderclap to try to spread the word about the release of Extra Credit: Loyalty! and I need to get 100 supporters before the release date for the Thunderclap to go out. Would you be willing to help me announce my book release? If you join the Thunderclap you'll be eligible for an e-book copy of my new novel, and you'll also be eligible (if you're in the US) to win a print copy of both books in the series.

When a company has a monopoly, they don’t have to worry about providing good service. Anybody who wants or needs what they provide will go to them, there is no competition. Over the past week, I’ve found out how that relates to publishing as I’ve dealt directly, for the first time, with Bowker, the one source of ISBNs in the United States. (Other “sources” such as CreateSpace and Smashwords just provide a different way to get ISBNs from Bowker.)

I’ll detail my experiences with Bowker below, but I want this to be an informative blog post more than a complaining one, so I will share with you some important information that you should know if you are interested in self-publishing your work. Read on to learn these six important facts about ISBNs.

As I mentioned to my patrons earlier this week, I decided to take a short break from other work to start a 3D modeling project that I've wanted to do for years now. For a variety of purposes, I've been interested in building models of various scenes in a fantasy series I'm working on. This week I tackled an important castle. The image attached to this blog post is a rendering of the castle in a scene that doesn't match the story but at least it's more interesting than just looking at the castle with no setting. For an even better look at the castle, watch the "fly-around" animation on YouTube. Read on for a little more history regarding this modeling project.