S.B. James's Blog

I recall back in January of 2017 I decided to challenge myself to reach a goal I'd been trying to achieve for a long time: re-read the entire Wheel of Time series.
Unfortunately, I did not reach this lofty goal at all. I started off fairly strong and got through The Eye of the World quickly enough so that I could keep that pace and possibly read the rest of the series in 2017, but I realized I'd trapped myself into a bind by doing this. Inevitably, there were other books by other authors I would like to read, and I didn't want to wait until I was all done with the entire Wheel of Time so I could start reading them.
So I'm making a new New Year's Resolution, and I think this will be the easiest one I've ever kept: I'm not participating in the 2018 Reading Challenge. Instead, I'm going to stock up my Want-To-Read shelves with all kinds of books that catch my interest, and I'm going to just keep logging the books I read as I read them here. I lose track otherwise. I actually read more than 15 books this year, but I don't remember all of them, and there were also books I started that I did not finish. I've already dealt with those books, and I'm simply placing them back on my Want-to-Read shelves because they are still books I'm interested in reading, for the most part.
The Traitor's Son has been released, and now I will be shifting focus to another genre for a little while before starting work on The Rebel's Son, so there will not be all that much extra reading time anyway.
I hope everyone has a Happy New Year!

Hi, everyone! I've made a couple of changes to my primary series, The Inventor's Son . The most important change I've made is that I've delisted The Inventor's Son: The Beginning from all sales channels. This is because it was always meant to be a companion book that readers of the series could get for free if they signed up for my mailing list. It is also available in The Inventor's Son Collection Books 1-3, a collected digital boxed set that remains available at all the main eBook retailers.
The next most important change is the imminent release of Book 4, The Traitor's Son! I'm excited about the direction the series is taking as Ethan's quest to find his father takes him ever deeper (literally) into the underworld that is making ready to take over the world above.
After that, it's NaNoWriMo time (again)!

I suddenly got ill back in December, but working with my doctors, I seem to be on the mend now.
I'm working hard on book 4 of The Inventor's Son which will be titled The Traitor's Son. I'm looking for an early summer release for this book, which is another reason you might not be seeing as much of me in the coming weeks.
Camp NaNoWriMo is around the corner, but I will not be participating this time, because I've already got this project in full swing. Just about all the writing I did during NaNoWriMo in November needs a lot of revision. And what I'm coming up with is very exciting. Here's a sneak peek (some spoilers here for people who haven't read through to The Explorer's Son):
-Professor Colbourne is villain #1 in this book, but he's got some unexpected competition for the biggest foe that Ethan must face this time.
-You will be seeing a lot more of Theodore, and you will also get to know Ethan's other cousins Gerald and Virgil much better in this book.
-Uncle Malcolm also has a stronger presence in this book. He may or may not be one of Ethan's biggest allies.
-Christopher Hodges and his father Daniel also return, along with Greta Lambright, whom all played a role in The Scientist's Son.
-Master Hardwick's plans for Ethan suffer a major setback. You'll get to see how he deals with it.
Don't forget to visit my website for more updates!

Every year, we get a chance to create a new reading goal. For 2017, I am setting a new and rather difficult one: I am aiming to read the entire Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan!
Let me admit right away that I had started the series a long time ago, so some of the books are going to actually be a re-read. But I never did finish them all. I have all the books in paperback or hardcover waiting on the shelf. I always figured I'd get back to them, and this is the year I'm going to make that happen.
So I'm clearing the decks, putting all the books I have open at the moment back on "want to read" status (which really means "want to finish" status, but I don't think Goodreads has that status). I will blogging about my venture here, leaving new reviews as I finish each book, and I'm going to set up my new reading goal for 15 books, to include all the volumes of the series.
I will be starting with The Eye of the World, even though there is a prequel, New Spring available. I do not thing that New Spring was intended to be read before Eye of the World, so I'm going to be reading that one later on, perhaps even last.
If you are wondering why I have decided to take on reading epic fantasy instead of one of the many fine Steampunk series available, my answer to you is simple. The Wheel of Time had just about as much impact on my writing as the Harry Potter books had. I had started reading the series just after The Great Hunt had been published to paperback, and I waited for each book to become available ever since. So not only did it have an impact on my writing, it brings back a time when I was first learning to venture beyond historical fiction or romances.
Wish me luck, and follow along if you wish!

The paperback versions of The Scientist's Son and The Explorer's Son will be available at many online retailers very soon.
The Inventor's Son paperback can be found on the Amazon, CreateSpace, and Barnes & Noble online stores.

Just a quick note to let everyone know that I am in the process of making The Inventor's Son free at all sales channels! I'm very excited about this change going into the Fall season, and I'm also working on those paperback versions of all my books.
Another thing I wanted to mention is that my books are available on Scribd and 24Symbols, both sites that offer subscriptions like Kindle Unlimited. The one difference for me is that they do not make you keep your books only on their platform, the way Amazon does with Kindle Unlimited. I will also look into getting the books into Overdrive and some of the other eBook distributors to library systems so that my work will be available to people who prefer to borrow books.

There have been times when I've pondered putting The Inventor's Son Series into Kindle Unlimited on Amazon. This would require me to remove them from Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iBooks, Google Play Books, and other places where eBook readers can get my books. It is based on the sales of my books on those other sites, along with the problems that Amazon seems to be having with the Kindle Unlimited program, that makes me think twice about it and leave things as they are.
I wonder about a few things:
1) How many Kindle Unlimited subscribers there really are.
2) How many of my potential readers would have liked to read my books but they were members of Kindle Unlimited and can't access my books through that program at present.
3) How much more visibility my series might have on Amazon if they were in the program.
4) How quickly Amazon can tackle the problems they are facing with a declining reader experience and loads of books in the program that do not belong there (for more on this topic, please read this excellent post about the kind of trouble going on with Amazon lately).
What do you think? Would I be better serving my readers by enrolling my books into KDP Select, and making them available to Kindle Unlimited borrowing? Or would you rather borrow them through your local library (which could soon be possible through Overdrive) or through Scribd and 24Symbols, where the books are currently available? I'd love to know what you think!

I'm getting around to reading some of those must read books for indie publishers, including the Indie Author Power Pack, of which I have started the first book in the pack Write. Publish. Repeat.. Not so much "started," more like "diving right in." I've listened to the podcast on and off over the past two years or so, but this book is shaping up to be far superior. My only quibble it that it might need a bit of an update, though it is true what the guys say in the book; most of the advice in the book is evergreen. I'm hoping that the other two books, are just as good, and based on the reputations of the other two books, I shouldn't be disappointed.
I'm also going back to read some of Chris Fox's writing books, which are shorter and cover narrower topics than the Indie Author Power Pack.

I've been shifting out of reading a lot of fiction lately, moving toward some more books about writing craft and how to be a more productive writer.
Long ago I read Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within and I intend to re-read it soon. It's a writing book I keep referring to others and keep recalling as a must-read for learning how to shake the words out of yourself.
Much more recently, I finished Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative and it's another one of those books you didn't know you needed until you needed it (if you're an artist or a writer, at least). The book has even got me started with drawing again, which is something I thought I wouldn't be able to go back to doing until I retired.
I'm also in the midst of re-reading APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur. How to Publish a Book because, frankly, I am a publisher at this point, and it's time I started thinking of myself as one.
Of course, producing content (a great euphemism for writing, guaranteed to turn off just about anybody, IMO) to publish is very important. Therefore, I've just finished the short but brilliant 2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love which underscores the importance of knowing what you're going to write about before sitting down to type.
Now, Rachel Aaron's book might tout 10,000 words a day as an ultimate goal (which even she admits she doesn't hit all the time), but I find myself having giddy thoughts about being able to write 5,000 Words Per Hour: Write Faster, Write Smarter. I've heard some things about this book, mostly that it concentrates a lot on word sprints. Now, during NaNoWriMo, I tend to do the word sprints on Twitter. I've also used the Pomodoro method (writing for 25 minutes and then taking a 5 minute break), all to good effect. But I've really never gotten more than maybe 1200 words out per hour, even with the sprints. Can I get 5000 words in one hour? Can my keyboard even keep up?
Another book on my to-read list is Take Off Your Pants!: Outline Your Books for Faster, Better Writing. I'm a reformed "pantser" myself (NaNoWriMo cured me of that) but every so often, the "outline" thing just makes me leery. I'm eager to see if my outline-phobia can be cured once and for all!
Some more books for indie author/publishers? Give a look at Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing (note: a fair amount of the material in this book is featured on Dean Wesley Smith's website) and the follow up, Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Indie Publishing: A WMG Writer's Guide. I read these two series at a time I really needed to read what I read.
I've also been concentrating on formatting my ebooks, creating print books, and getting my website up and running at long last. The Lost Sigil eBook Editor Manual This book has been very helpful with using Sigil, a free program that will aid in formatting cleaner EPUB files for e-books. And Robin Nixon's CSS & CSS3 Crash Course has been invaluable with helping learn (finally) how to do Cascading Style Sheets.
It's a lot like I'm going to summer school this year...

I just took a few of those vacation related polls on Goodreads, asking about all aspects of reading on vacation!
What kind of books do you like to read? I had picked "books that bring out your inner Sherlock" but I was surprised to see that the vast majority of readers want to be "taken to another world altogether!"
But...But... Aren't you already in another world altogether while on vacation? Just saying...
Also another interesting finding from the results I saw from the poll about what format those books people bring on vacation come in. Now, I remember "the good old days" (pre-Kindle) when readers loaded up the beach bag with their battered old paperbacks and hardcovers from the library. Nowadays, though, it seems like people are, in equal amounts, bringing their paperbacks AND/OR their e-readers of choice. You have to admit, especially when traveling, the e-reader has to be more convenient.
Here's something else I discovered from the polls: more people read in bed while on vacation than at the pool or on the beach! I'm not sure why I'm surprised about this, but I just figure poolside reading seems more, well, vacation-like than reading in bed. I figure I can do that at home!
Well, with the variety of formats and devices available, there's definitely something for everyone and every situation. Enjoy your summer reading!