After the formatting comes the publicity...

So, there was me thinking that after 4 days fighting with html and Smashwords Meatgrinder, I may be able to get back to some actual book writing today, but no, apparently, I have to be creative in a different way today: I have to come up with a pile of tweets to advertise the Wittegen Press Giveaway Games Anthologies.

This is the bit I have to practice at: publicity. I would love it if our books would just magically get picked up by our readers, or even go viral, but, no, we have to work at selling them and that's a fine line between information and spam. We always do an intensive, one an hour or so, tweet campaign around launch time for any book. We've found one tweet an hour can be informative, but doesn't bother folks too much. We also have some lovely folk who regularly retweet us to spread the word, so here's a big thank you to them for their support. :)

We've also posted on all the other social media sites we use regularly, Facebook,  LiveJournal, Google+ and we have a newsletter mailing list for anyone wanting to subscribe to our updates, but I think I'm going to have to come up with an ad campaign before I can send out more than one message to those in a week. I'll have to have a think about that one, since marketing creativity is just not the same as literary creativity.

Ah well, I never thought of a career in advertising, but this self-publishing business means I have to be author, agent, publisher AND marketer, so I'm learning!

Wittegen Press Giveaway Games Anthologies Official Release Announcement

Wittegen Press is pleased to announce the arrival of 8 new anthologies.

In July 2012, Wittegen Press gave away a short story, or story part every day to their readers. Each story was only available for one day, but now the 28 stories from The Wittegen Press Giveaway Games have been gathered here into 8 different volumes.

If you would like to purchase all the stories in one volume at $3.99/£2.48 there is:

	Myriad Imaginings : All The Stories From The Wittegen Press Giveaway Games by Sophie Duncan & Natasha Duncan-Drake 2 writers, 31 days of writing madness, the result: 28 fabulously diverse stories for your reading pleasure, including horror, fantasy and science fiction, paranormal adventure, young adult and erotica. (http://www.wittegenpress.com/myriadimaginings)

If you are a particular fan of Natasha Duncan-Drake or Sophie Duncan and would like to purchase just their stories we have two options for you at $2.99/£1.92:

	Half of Everything: Stories by Natasha Duncan-Drake From The Wittegen Press Giveaway Games by Natasha Duncan-Drake Many genres, 14 exciting stories in this anthology of shorts and novellettes by Natasha Duncan-Drake. Whether you're looking for horror, Sci-Fi or something else, you'll find what you're looking for in this collection. (http://www.wittegenpress.com/halfofeverything)

	The Other Half of Everything: Stories by Sophie Duncan From The Wittegen Press Giveaway Games by Sophie Duncan Many genres, 14 exciting stories in this anthology of shorts and novellettes by Sophie Duncan. Whether you're looking for horror, Sci-Fi or something else, you'll find what you're looking for in this collection. (http://www.wittegenpress.com/theotherhalfofeverything)

If you would like to collect only certain genres of stories we have five volumes available at $1.99/£1.28:

Book Of Darkness: The Horror Stories From The Wittegen Press Giveaway Games by Sophie Duncan & Natasha Duncan-Drake Ghosts, zombies and haunted dolls are just a few of the disturbing creatures you will meet in this volume of short stories and novelettes. Sleep Of The Damned by Natasha Duncan-Drake BFF by Sophie Duncan Just One Day by Sophie Duncan The Crosses We Bear by Natasha Duncan-Drake Queen Of My World by Sophie Duncan Dead Not Dying by Natasha Duncan-Drake (http://www.wittegenpress.com/bookofdarkness)

Beyond Our Horizon: The Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories From The Wittegen Press Giveaway Games by Sophie Duncan & Natasha Duncan-Drake A thief discovering an affinity with dragons and a university professor being forced to confront his past are just two of the short stories and novelettes in this volume. Queen of Heaven by Natasha Duncan-Drake (Sci-Fi) To Life Reborn by Natasha Duncan-Drake (Fantasy) The Gift by Sophie Duncan (Fantasy) The Machine by Natasha Duncan-Drake (Contemporary Fantasy, M/M Romance) Song For A Soverign By Sophie Duncan (Fantasy) All In The Mind by Sophie Duncan (SciFi) (http://www.wittegenpress.com/beyondourhorizon)

Supernature: Paranormal Stories From The Wittegen Press Giveaway Games by Sophie Duncan & Natasha Duncan-Drake Discover the touch of the supernatural in this volume of short stories and novelettes. The Name Is The Game by Sophie Duncan Cleave To Until Forever by Natasha Duncan-Drake The Vampire Who Loved Me by Natasha Duncan-Drake Girl In The Mirror by Sophie Duncan Timothy by Natasha Duncan-Drake (http://www.wittegenpress.com/supernature)

Romantics: Erotic Romance Stories From The Wittegen Press Giveaway Games by Sophie Duncan & Natasha Duncan-Drake From a police officer working undercover to a commadore on a back end of nowhere space station, these protagonists all have sexy times ahead, with a heavy side of romance in this volume of short stories and novelettes. Incubus Shadows by Sophie Duncan (M/M/M, Fantasy) Undercover by Sophie Duncan (M/M, Crime Drama) God of Love by Natasha Duncan-Drake (M/M, Fantasy) All That Glitters by Natasha Duncan-Drake (M/M, Romance) Connections by Natasha Duncan-Drake (F/M/M, Sci-Fi) A Special Catch by Sophie Duncan(M/F, Sci-Fi) (http://www.wittegenpress.com/romantica)

Bright Young Things: Young Adult Speculative Fiction Stories From The Wittegen Press Giveaway Games by Sophie Duncan & Natasha Duncan-Drake Meet a university rock band with a lupine secret and an alien with cat ears and a tail, among other young protagonists in this volume of short stories and novelettes. Samling Born by Sophie Duncan (Paranormal) Lost Kitty by Natasha Duncan-Drake (Sci-Fi) The End Of The Journey (The Hidden War #1) by Sophie Duncan (Contemporary Fantasy) The Beginning by Natasha Duncan-Drake (Urban Horror) A New Path (The Hidden War #2) by Sophie Duncan (Contemporary Fantasy) (http://www.wittegenpress.com/brightyoungthings)

Wow, my head is spinning with html and formatting guides

Well, titles actually turned out to be not so hard in the end. Tash and I made use of Google Drive and a Google Spreadsheet and it only took a few hours over a couple of days to hash out titles we agreed on and thought fitted the anthologies. AND THERE WAS NO BLOODSHED! :D  I'd be interested to know what folks think of the titles.

So, at last, 8 anthologies - DONE! :D

On top of figuring out the titles, it only took four days of formatting and reformatting in MS Word with the Smashwords Style Guide at my fingertips at all times AND THEN formatting into html as well. MS Word has a nasty habit of sticking in hidden bookmarks when you're not looking and then has a great bug which means you have to unclick the 'hidden bookmarks' box and then reclick it to be able to see them so you can delete them! It completely messes up the Meatgrinder for Smashwords if you leave them it, so I checked and rechecked all the links and bookmarks in the documents to make sure Word hadn't managed to include some more about half a dozen times (not that I'm paranoid or anything).

Ironically, the html for Mobi Pocket Creator to create the prc for the Kindle upload was much simpler. It's precise html, rather than relying on .doc+Meatgrinder to get it right; I could control everything in the document. I may try out the new epub upload facility in Smashwords next time I do a book, because I can generate the epub from the html version, but it will be with a smaller book. There were just too many anthologies for me to try it out this time.

I'm super excited about these anthologies, they're a real cross-section of the genres Tasha and I like to write, plus some challenging genres for us (neither of us had written much horror before). We've also put into words our thoughts around the origins of the stories via author's notes at the beginning of each story, which we've never done before and they'll hopefully provide some insight into our mental processes.

Seekrit Message: We don't officially launch the books until Monday, in order to give Amazon loading a chance to happen, but just between you and me, we now have available on Smashwords all 8 variations of the stories created for The Wittegen Press Giveaway Games :). 

I think Tash has done a great job with the front covers. We wanted them all to recognisable as one collection, but also be able to have different symbolism on the covers, so we went with words creating the different pictures. Personally, my favourite is the howling wolf and moon for Supernature, the paranormal anthology.

We've also tried to put the stories together in variable collections that will appeal to different folks. It was time consuming, but we thought some folks wouldn't want erotica and ya, or they might not be interested in horror. Hence the 8 anthologies.

Some may want all the stories, so we have:

Myriad Imaginings: All The Stories From The Giveaway Games

2 writers, 31 days of writing madness, the result: 28 fabulously diverse stories for your reading pleasure, including horror, fantasy and science fiction, paranormal adventure, young adult and erotica. Each story was only available for one day, but now all 28 stories have been gathered here into 1 volume where you can meet: a spy who becomes a vampire; a young professor with a mental gift beyond his intellect; a zombie cat and many more enthralling characters.




Others may want to pick by author, so we made two anthologies, one of Tasha's stories and one of mine.

Half of Everything: Stories by Natasha Duncan-Drake From The Wittegen Press Giveaway Games

Many genres, 14 exciting stories in this anthology of shorts and novellettes by Natasha Duncan-Drake. Whether you're looking for horror, Sci-Fi or something else, you'll find what you're looking for in this collection.

The Other Half of Everything: Stories by Sophie Duncan From The Wittegen Press Giveaway Games

Many genres, 14 exciting stories in this anthology of shorts and novellettes by Sophie Duncan. Whether you're looking for horror, Sci-Fi or something else, you'll find what you're looking for in this collection.






Then we thought some folks might just go for one genre, so we split the stories down into the 5 genres we aimed the stories at during the games: horror, sci-fi and fantasy, paranoraml, erotic romance, or young adult.

Book Of Darkness: The Horror Stories From The Wittegen Press Giveaway Games

Ghosts, zombies and haunted dolls are just a few of the disturbing creatures you will meet in this volume of short stories and novelettes.

Beyond Our Horizon: The Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories From The Wittegen Press Giveaway Games 

A thief discovering an affinity with dragons and a university professor being forced to confront his past are just two of the short stories and novelettes in this volume.

Supernature: Paranormal Stories From The Wittegen Press Giveaway Games 

Discover the touch of the supernatural in this volume of short stories and novelettes.

Romantics: Erotic Romance Stories From The Wittegen Press Giveaway Games 

From a police officer working undercover to a commadore on a back end of nowhere space station, these protagonists all have sexy times ahead, with a heavy side of romance in this volume of short stories and novelettes.

Bright Young Things: Young Adult Speculative Fiction Stories From The Wittegen Press Giveaway Games 
Meet a university rock band with a lupine secret and an alien with cat ears and a tail, among other young protagonists in this volume of short stories and novelettes.







Thus, all these will be available on Amazon by Monday and then hopefully Apple, B&N, Kobo, WHSmith et al in the next month, since it'll take a lot longer to reach them via Smashwords premium catalogue.

Now I'm going to go fall in a heap and wait for the automated publishing processes to finish! O.o

Titles, titles, titles

Well, this morning will be spent with a blank sheet of paper, a list of short stories and a headache (probably)! That's because it's title time and I have eight (count 'em) yes, I said 8 anthologies to name and since they're going to be published in the next week or so, I can't put off the title wrangling any longer.

I am not alone in the title search, thank goodness, since my sis, Tasha, is responsible for half the stories in the anthologies and is therefore 50% responsible for the titles. However, she's busy creating the front covers, so I think I owe her to come up with some titles. Our process for working on titles together is really very simple:

• I (or she) sit and think for a long time, scratching scalp and grinding teeth
• Eventually, some ideas are thrown down in an email and winged off to the other party
• By return of email comes 90% of them shot down in flames, laughed at or just politely ignored, but maybe one or two are going in the right direction
• Then there follow ten to twenty emails where those possibilities are followed down blind alleys, thrown away entirely and even lead to jumps of literary logic that only a twin could understand.
• Eventually, after a few discussions where everyone's darlings are swatted out the way, we'll finally settle on something both of us feel fits.
• Then we sit on it, change our minds and go over it again.
• Finally, after much gnashing of teeth, one, two, three or four words drop out the other side of process.

Having broken it down, maybe the simplest way to describe the process would be, we argue a lot ;P.

So, now I just have to start the process for all 8 anthologies - now, I wonder if I should go with 8 separate emails, or one big email. Maybe a spreadsheet....

Formatting E-books - wow it takes a long time!

We're just about ready to publish the anthologies from The Wittegen Press Giveaway Games now, having spent a few months editing the short stories that went into the month-long games. Sooo, that means it's formatting time and I have just spent a day doing just that.

31 days in July meant there were 32 (yeah the last day had two stories) stories or story parts to compile into different anthologies. We thought we'd do more than one anthology since the stories are in a wide variety of genres and we wanted to offer different purchase options. Thus, there are 8 different anthologies:

• The complete anthology for those who want all the stories
• Tasha's stories in case there are some folks who are just ready Tash
• My stories, as above, except reverse it :)
• Horror stories - these are real horror stories, ghosts, gore, monsters and mayhem.
• Science Fiction and Fantasy stories - yes we grouped sci-fi and fantasy together and we could call it speculative fiction I suppose, but not everyone knows what that is.
• Young Adult stories - we have a mixture of genres in here, but they're all focused around teens.
• Paranormal stories - vampires, wereleopards and ghosts feature in these stories 
• Erotica stories - the title speaks for itself, these are explicit romances, some m/m and some m/f.

I'm currently compiling the first anthology, since all the others are just subsets of that one with some titles being changed. We've added in author's notes at the front of each story to give our readers some background on how we came up with the ideas, which we hope will be interesting, and with those added in, the full anthology is running at 250K wds. Thank heavens for word macros to help with the inserting of html tags (and the check list my sister wrote the first time she created an ebook, which I always check)! I've finally finished the formatting of the html version, which is the one we use to generate the .prc file for Kindle, but now I have to do the word document for the Smashwords version. The only pain is the table of contents, because word does enjoy inserting bookmarks when they're not needed.

After that, I'm just waiting on the covers, which Tash is creating (I have one that Tash did as proof of concept and it is great, sneak peak below) AND coming up with titles - Horror Anthology and the like do not really inspire someone to open a book, so we want to come up with titles for each anthology. Anyone who knows me knows I have issues with titles, so this may take a while!

Anyway, onwards to Smashwords formatting! :)

Back to Writing - Again!

Having spent most of December coding for the Wittegen Press website and yesterday upgrading my laptop from Win 7 to Win 8 (which went rather well actually, except it took me a while to discover how to find all the installed programs through the Search Charm), I am finally getting back to the last fifth of the sequel to Death In The Family.

I know I'm going to have to do some re-reading to get back into the flow today since I tried picking up the last scene I was on before coming to a halt and I came up empty. I think, looking back, I was struggling on those last few scenes, they need a lot of rework and a short break has done my inspiration good. Still, I want to get this first draft finished in a few weeks, so it's time to put my head down and get on with the job! :)

Happy New Year!

A Happy and Prosperous New Year!

So 2013 what's in store:
I'm looking forward to 2013. :D

I have a pile of reading to do now that the bustle and joy of Christmas is over. I'm already part the way into Fragile Bones by T.D. Green and then I have Planet Word to read by J.P. Davidson and then The Ghost Story 1840 - 1920: A Cultural History.

I'm working hard on my writing projects too:

• finishing the sequel to Death In The Family so that it should be out in early 2013. 
• expanding the novella Bonds of Fire into a full novel.
• developing book 2 of The Haward Mysteries with my sister, Tasha. Remy and Theo will be getting into another mystery in the first half of 2013.
• developing a new series of m/m erotic and romance short stories for lovers of lovers in sci-fi and fantasy called Fantasy Boys XXX.

As well as writing, I've been doing a little revamping of the Wittegen Press website. It's mainly back end work making it more maintainable, but the consequence is the book and author listings have a new look and feel with some extra information. You can now check out our authors' blogs right there on their author pages.

So, it's all go in 2013!

I hope everyone has a great year!