Steve R. Yeager's Blog

After not posting here for almost a year, I’ve decided to close my blog.

Turns out I’m a really bad blogger. I haven’t posted for weeks and then here I come and post about nothing interesting at all. Sigh. I guess I should probably apologize, but that would imply that people actually read this blog. For those of you who do, I can tell you that I do have a lot going on. Not only do I have book 3 of The Raptor Apocalypse in the works, but I have three different fantasy stories that I keep bouncing between and one straight up thriller. My main focus, though, is to get the third and final Raptor Apocalypse book completed. There are just so many loose threads I want to tie off and I’m excited about doing so. I wrote the original ending back in 2010/2011. It has just taken a long time to finally get there.

One other bit of news. I am working with an editor now and revising the first book in the TRA series. Depending on the results of that, I’ll probably clean up book 2 and make sure book 3 is rock solid before release. Up until now I have not worked with an editor (and it shows). This has led to some grammar errors that make me cringe when I go back and reread the original text. But never fear, the books are getting cleaned up and republished.

Thanks for stopping by. Perhaps I’ll have another entry in the next few weeks.

On December 26th, I released the second book (Red Asphalt) in my three book series, The Raptor Apocalypse. To help kick things off, I did a KDP promo of book one in the series and put it on a free run for the weekend. Following, are the results.

The free lists on Amazon are populated by a combination of perma-free (books always at $0.00) and promotional books that are temporarily priced at $0.00. That meant the book would be up against books that had been on the list for some time, along with others that were offering a similar promotion.

My expectations, based on a previous free run of my Short Tales collection, was to give out 100-200 or so free copies and maybe get it onto one of the best seller lists at Amazon at some level. I also did not do any advertising aside from a Facebook and Twitter post.

I’m not a well-known author. I’m probably less than well known, if there is such a classification. So, I had zero name recognition going for me. What I did have: a recently updated sales blurb, a re-edited first chapter, and a new cover that more clearly expressed the theme of the book. I also have both books in KDP at the moment, which means I’m exclusive to Amazon.

The results?

First off, they wildly exceeded my expectations.

Things started slowly, but gained momentum. The book went on sale Saturday at 12:01am, and by 1:30pm (a little more than 12 hours later), it had made it to #1,528 on Amazon and #4 on the Genetic Engineering bestseller list, and number #15 on Post Apocalypse. That was when I started paying attention to the numbers.

By 3:30pm, #866 in store, #2 GE, #3 PA.

By 5pm, #654 in store, #2 GE, #3 PA

By 7pm, #523 in store, #1 GE, #2 PA

By 9pm, #456 in store, #1 GE, #1 PA

Then it stayed #1 on both lists until about noon on Sunday when the Bookbub advertisement came out. A Post-Apocalypse book was in the ad and rocketed to #12 on Amazon in about 2 hours, knocking me out of #1. So, the lesson here: Bookbub really can push a free book up the charts quickly.

But Raptor Apocalypse kept selling. At 4:40pm on Sunday, it was #1 in GE, #2 in PA, and for some odd reason started showing up in Literature & Fiction/Action & Adventure/Science Fiction… at #2. The overall sale’s rank at the time was #229. Then suddenly the link to that list disappeared from the book’s product page; although, I did still see the book at #2 in that list through Sunday night. I guess that was some weird quirk of Amazon.

I checked one last time, and around 7pm, the book was #204 on Amazon, #1, #2, #2 respectively.

The total number of copies sold during the promotion was: 2321 worldwide.

Now, a free promotion doesn’t mean jack if it doesn’t help promote another book. Well, since the promotion, I’ve sold a couple of copies of the Raptor Apocalypse book. The second book sold a dozen or so copies (Sat/Sun) and has shown up on the GE list at #56. So, the results have not been stellar in terms of helping with book two’s sales, but the first book does have links to the new book, and I’m hoping that some of those people who downloaded the first book for free enjoy it enough to buy the next one when they finish.

There are lessons to be learned here. I thought of sharing those lessons as I saw them, but will refrain from doing so and let you draw your own conclusions from the results. Although, if you have any, please feel free to share. There might be some lurking negative lessons coming, too. But that will take days, if not weeks, to fully understand the impact.

All in all, it was a pretty amazing experience. I started writing more for fun than profit, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t an exciting weekend spent watching something I wrote (and did the covers for) rocket up to #1 for a little while.

With The Red Asphalt now in the hands of half a dozen beta readers, I find myself suddenly with more time. This book has been a long haul to get done, but I really like the story and can hardly wait to share it with all of you.

I’ve had one beta reader finish already and recommend only minimal changes, for which a great brow mopping has occurred. Another is halfway through the text and enjoying it. So that must mean the others will have to make up the slack and pan it accordingly.

Since I have time to work on things other than The Red Asphalt, I started working on an Author Foreword that I plan to release with the book. What I’m posting now is only the first draft, so it might not show up this way in the final draft, but the meaning will be the same.

Perhaps in a week or three I might also post the book’s opening chapter.

The Red Asphalt

AUTHOR FOREWORD

“Get your hero in danger—and keep him there.” — H. Bedford-Jones.

That’s a quote I often take to heart. Old Henry Bedford-Jones was one of the great pulp influences of the time. Today, that quote should be updated to add “her” to the sentence, but the meaning is essentially the same.

I learned this simple, yet deep concept from a writing instructor of the 60’s and 70’s, Dwight Swain. Few, it turns out have heard of him, but almost everyone has been influenced by him.

In an age where vampires rule and romances abound, I find my comfort in the simple heroes who do what heroes should be doing—getting into danger and trying their darndest to find a way out of it.

I enjoy my thrill rides with the comic superhero likes of Spiderman, Batman, Iron man, Superman, and Aquaman. Well, maybe not so much the last guy.

But, these superheroes would not exist if it weren’t for the pulp stories that came before: The Shadow, Doc Savage, Tarzan, Conan, John Carter, and many more.

Then there are the fantasy heroes: Bilbo, Gandolf, Elric, Corwin, Belgarion, Rand, and oh so many more.

Finally, there are the others, the so-called “classics”: Gilgamesh, Beowulf, Odysseus, Hercules, Robin Hood, Sherlock Holmes, and the zillons of daring tales from every ancient religion and folklore to have ever existed.

Then, we add in movies. Who can’t remember the first time they watched Luke Skywalker blow up the Death Star, or Indiana Jones crack his whip, or even some other iconic movies of my day: Robocop, Terminator, Alien, Mad Max, Ghostbusters, The Thing, and Conan.

Finally, for flavor we add a smattering of Dean Koontz, a dash of Stephen King, a taste of Lee Child, and a pinch of Brandon Sanderson.

And what do we get?

All the stories and people I need to thank for making this book what it is.

***

In this tale you will not find a literary masterpiece, nor will you find a totally accurate mirroring of reality, nor will I ever pretend it is something it is not.

What I do hope to provide you with is a couple of hours of entertainment for a bargain basement price.

Nothing more. Nothing less.

Now let’s go get those heroes in danger.

For today’s interview, I’d like to introduce you to one of the nicest guys I know, Buddy Gott. With a name like that, how could he possibly a bad guy?

I met Buddy a few months ago through various podcasts we share in common. I was also a recent guest on his writing show on Youtube. In return, Buddy agreed to be interviewed on my site.

Click Here For Interview

For this week’s interview, on Halloween even, I’d like to introduce you to fantasy and paranormal author, Crissy Moss. I’ve known Crissy for only a few months, but she’s impressed me with her writing skills, her balancing presence on the Self Publishing Roundtable podcast, and her willingness to share and give back to the writing community.

Click here for the interview 

For this week’s interview, I would like to introduce you to Karen Blakely. Karen’s first book, “Secrets in the Dark” came out in 2012 and is available on Amazon. 

Click Here for Interview

For this week’s interview, I’d like to introduce you to Nicholas Kahler. Nick is a man of mystery who has chosen to keep his actual identity confidential, which only adds to his mystique.

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For this week’s interview, I’d like to introduce you to Rien Reigns. Rien has recently published his first full length novel, The Chrono Inquisitor, this past weekend. Quite an accomplishment.

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For this week’s interview, I would like to introduce you to the perfect mixture of humility and strength, Andrea Stewart.

I’ve know Andrea for a couple of years. In that time she has been a real friend. She’s always been there with words of encouragement and wisdom.

She’s a fantastic writer (and artist) and it is only a matter of time before she breaks out and becomes a well-known name.

Click Here for Interview