Thursday, October 2, 2014

Decisions And Even More Decisions



I’ve been tossing and turning for weeks over some decisions that I need to make, and I’ve pretty much made them.

I spent the day on Wednesday with my dad and my daughter, and told them that I planned to release the novel that I’m working on under a pen name, just to see what happens.  “Why?” was the question I got asked by both.  I floundered a bit.  I’d like to see if people that don’t care for T. M. Bilderback will like this novel, I said  On the other hand, if it tanks, I’m not associated with it.  My dad actually offered some wisdom.  “So what?  If people like it or hate it, let them know it’s your story”, or words to that effect.  My biggest concern is this:  This novel was not inspired by a song title, or lyrics from a song…and it isn’t part of a series, it’s a standalone novel.

I’m not sure, but…it’s going out under my own “T. M. Bilderback” name.  The story (and it will be novel length when it’s done) is titled Empty Eyes.  I’m not giving anything away by announcing that, so there it is.  My website’s word count graph has been changed to reflect that title, instead of “Pen Name Story”.  Sink or swim, it’s my baby…and I’ll nurse it right to Amazon.

Which brings me to my next point.  I have been struggling with the issue of going with KDP Select again, which means that I would be Amazon-exclusive once more.  During the decision making process, I’ll be gung-ho for it for a while, then I’ll reflect on my stories being on Apple, or Kobo, or Scribd…and I’ll be against it for a while.  Many authors are doing great being Amazon-exclusive, and, I have to admit, I want to be part of Kindle Unlimited…but, to do that I have to be exclusive.

But, with the Kindle App available for every computer and smartphone out there, is that really a problem?  Unless you have a dedicated eReader and no cell phone, you Apple or Android users would still be able to access my work…and my dad’s, because I’ll drag him into Select right along with me.

Right now, many, many of my author friends are doing okay with Select, and the new Kindle Unlimited…and some are even doing better than they were before Unlimited came along.  I’m leaning very much toward Select again, and I will probably be there by the first of November for the reasons listed.  also, it would ease my mind about many things, since I would only have to look at one place for my English-language stories.

And "English-language" brings me to my last piece of information…I’ve signed up with Babelcube – I may have mentioned that before – to have translations of my stories done in almost any language that you can imagine.  Right now, at various eBook retailers, I have stories available in French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian…and I have one story being translated into Romanian right now!  These are official translations, with full credit given to the translator, and I’m tickled pink about them!  I’ve been working with some great people through Babelcube, and I highly recommend it to any author looking for foreign language translations for a split of the royalties!

But, wait, there’s one more little thing to share with you…I almost forgot!  My latest novel, Junior’s Farm – A Tale Of Sardis County is being produced as an Audiobook right now!  It’s being narrated by Stephanie Butenhof…and she’s gonna be great!  More on that as it gets closer to being done.

I’m grateful for my readers and followers on this blog.  It’s a great way to communicate with my readers, but I’d like to encourage you to go to my website and sign up for my occasional newsletters.  The signup is on the front page – all you have to do is scroll down to it.  It’s the best and fastest way to find out what’s coming up here in my universe, and it comes straight to your email inbox.  So, take a minute and go sign up – the link is under my name below.

Mostly, I just thank you for being here, and I hope you…

Keep reading!

Michael (T. M. Bilderback)



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