Monthly Archives: January 2015

Crowd Funding

Well, I can say that the crowd funding process for my series, The Silver Ships, was a learning experience. For me, it was not very successful, only about 11% of the target was collected. These are the points I might share:

  • Don’t use crowd funding for writing unless you have an established history as a published author.  Crowd funding appears to work best for products, inventions, software, etc.
  • If you have a large established social network, this may make crowd funding for a fiction or non-fiction novel possible to a limited extent.
  • If you do decide to launch a campaign, you will receive dozens of offers to promote your campaign. The three groups that I invested in were absolutely worthless.

Fiction Stories: Human Puzzles

The other day, I was wondering why I was enjoying writing so much, especially since I was trying to solve a plot dilemma. Then it hit me. The story: plot turns and twists, characters and their relationships, and the unique and strange worlds is the ultimate puzzle.

I’ve always enjoyed puzzles. However, I was often unsatisfied after spending hours solving a complex one. Despite the effort, I felt nothing was achieved. It was just a mental exercise.

Creating a fiction novel, hopefully I will enjoy reading, seems to be the ultimate puzzle exercise. It’s a “human puzzle.” It’s wonderfully  complex and contains elements that can be combined in infinite variety.

The challenge is to weave the elements together in such a way as to create an enjoyable experience for the reader as the puzzle is unraveled page by page before their eyes!

ISBNs for Books

Bowker Identifier Services

Every book requires an International Standard Book Number (ISBN). In the U.S., the ISBNs are purchased from Bowker Identifier Services. As the U.S. ISBN Agency, Bowker is the ONLY official source of ISBNs in the United States.

What shoudl be noted for all first-time self-publishers is that every version of your book: eBook, softcover, and hardcover needs its own ISBN. Furthermore, if you update the book, essentially creating a new version of the book, it requires a new ISBN.  Conveniently, you can purchase groups of ISBNs from Bowker.