Geekomancy makes a guest appearance on the fabulous Sword & Laser video show, during the Calendar segment of episode 7.
Linkage! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHW8kzc1dmg&feature=g-all-u
If you don’t want to watch the whole episode (you should watch it anyway), you can see the novel at 15:45.
And now back to the happy author dance.
Anton Strout, gentleman and scholar and host of the Once & Future Podcast, has posted his latest episode, where he and I talk about Geekomancy, our shared love of GenCon, why he and Patrick Rothfuss should fight like Pokemon in the writing arena, and much more.
http://blog.antonstrout.com/2012/07/05/of-podcast-ep-38–michael-r-underwood.aspx
It was a blast talking with Anton, and I learned a lot about how to arrange my thoughts when doing author interviews on the phone and how that’s different than in person or via email.
Enjoy!
I have two pieces of business to share, and they are both awesome.
Tor.com, the website and blog for genre fiction powerhouse Tor Books, has posted Chapter Two of Geekomancy to help spread the word:
http://www.tor.com/stories/2012/07/geekomancy-excerpt
And secondly, this Tuesday I got a box from Simon & Schuster containing an awesome surprise:
Actual dead-tree copies of Geekomancy! These are simple tape-bound copies, and are even more basic than normal paper ARCs, but it’s a book! A real, paper book with my cover and my name on it and my novel inside on pages I can turn and smell and that I can hug and hold up like a power-up in Zelda!
I’m a little excited, as you might be able to tell.
This means I can give a copy to my parents, keep one on hand to refer to while writing Celebromancy, and still have a few left to do other cool things with (I got 10 copies). My editor has another 30 or so, which he’s taking to San Diego Comic-Con to try to pass out to appropriate VIPs to help get more exposure.
Dear Felicia Day, Wil Wheaton, Team Unicorn, Team Sword & Laser, and anyone from Mutant Enemy — Please visit the Simon & Schuster booth at SDCC and talk to Adam. He has something fun for you. 🙂
The interview I did with My Bookish Ways is now live! I talk about one of my favorite lines in prose, the fun of writing my different characters, and more:
http://www.mybookishways.com/2012/07/interview-michael-r-underwood-author-of-geekomancy.html
Also, we are now exactly one week out from the publication date for Geekomancy. This means that the blog here, and my life in general, is becoming a verified Self-Promonado (A tornado made from self-promotion? Yes.) Posts will become more frequent, and you’ll get to hear every bit of the rollercoaster experience of being a debut author, with special features such as:
My Book is at Comic-Con and I’m Not But People Out There Are Seeing It!
Will Mike Read His Reviews and Freak Out?
Sales Ranking Divination
Introduction To Bookstore Event Skills
and more!
Julia at All Things Urban Fantasy has posted the first professional review of Geekomancy (as in not from a blurbing author, family, etc.)
http://allthingsuf.com/2012/06/early-review-geekomancy-michael-r-underwood.html
Thanks to another great Saturday last week and diligence writing during lunch, my wordcount total for this week was 6123, almost 1K better than week one. Total wordcount for the sequel stands at 26,053.
The story is really heating up, and I found the right time to bring back my favorite secondary character from Geekomancy — though his and Ree’s dynamic is now quite different than when it started. Writing this sequel is much harder than writing the first one, as the stakes are higher, but I’m also a better writer now, and I’m expecting more from myself, while still allowing the first draft to be a first draft.
Also, we are now 10 days out from the Geekomancy pubdate. Get ready for a promotion explosion, folks. It’s going to be awesome.
My friend, screenwriter and Hollywood insider Megan Christopher interviewed me about Geekomancy for her blog. While you’re there, you should check out her delightful web series “Quest for Comic-Con.”
http://meganchristopher.net/the-power-of-nostalgia-interview-with-the-author-of-geekomancy/
I’m very happy to have three bookstore events scheduled so far, where I’ll be doing readings, signings, trivia contests, and more.
“But Mike, this is an eBook? How will you sign copies for people?” you might ask. I know I did. But I think I’ve got a pretty good solution cooked up. My tablet lets me take snapshots of pictures and then draw on them with a stylus, so I can create images of the Geekomancy cover, sign them to readers, and then send them by email. It’s not quite the same as a signed paper book, but I think it’s pretty cool. I have also made up book plates (aka business cards), which I can sign with a sharpie. I will also sign other things, as requested (character sheets, RPG books, T-Shirts, etc.) because hey, why not?
The Official Book Launch Party will be on Saturday July 21st, at my friendly local Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Bloomington, IN. I’m very happy that the Bloomington B&N is hosting the launch party, since I used to work at the store, and my time as a barista and bookseller was the start of my career in publishing. I’ll be doing a reading, signing (see above), and hosting a geek trivia contest and a Geeky T-Shirt contest.
I’m also very honored that a couple of my independent bookstore friends will be hosting me for events during my traveling season for work this summer.
Here’s the current list of events!
July 13th, 7:00 PM at CoffeeTree Books in Morehead, KY. Postponed for now. Stay tuned for details.
July 17th, 7:00 PM at McLean and Eakin Booksellers in Petoskey, MI.
July 21st, 6:00 PM at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Bloomington, IN. Facebook page for the event is here.
Thanks to a strong start last Saturday, my wordcount for week one of the 2012 Clarion West Write-a-Thon is 5217, more than half of my overall 10,000 word pledge.
I’m hoping to continue this success and keep up the momentum for another five weeks. 5K a week for these six weeks would be phenomenal, since I’m at just over 20K words in the sequel to Geekomancy. Keeping this level up would get me to 45K by the end of July, way ahead of schedule.
I’ll be putting in another afternoon of writing today, so I’m crossing my fingers for another 2K+ Saturday. The fingers will of course have to be uncrossed to type, otherwise I’d have to type quite slowly.
My publisher, Pocket Star, has approved a very cool offer for Geekomancy. Starting with the release day and going for a couple of weeks (exact time frame to be determined), Geekomancy will be available for a special sale price of $1.99! That’s a 66% cut for your benefit! The idea with the sale price will be to get more attention for the book and make it very easy to hand-sell at San Diego Comic-Con. If food and drinks cost as much at SDCC as thy do at BEA, then you should be able to buy two copies of Geekomancy for the same price as a Coke Zero. I mean, two bucks! My book will be cheaper than a pack of Magic: The Gathering and give more entertainment hours than two movies (depending on how fast you read).
For a new author, exposure is nearly as important as raw sales (though sales are always important), and this is a great way to get more attention for the book. I will be waving the flag for the sale a great deal, as will Pocket. Getting a lot of sales in a limited time pushes a book up the sales rankings and gets it in front of a lot more buyers as they browse casually, which leads to more chances to sell and more chances for those readers to recommend it to other readers.
For those of you who have already pre-ordered the book (thank you!), you should get the book at the special price rather than the normal $5.99. Your early adoption will be rewarded, as is only proper.
When I know exactly how long the promotion will last, I’ll be sure to post that as well, so we can do everything possible to give people the chance to get in on the ground floor with my first novel.
Quick Made-up FAQ:
Q: But Mike, what will this do to your royalties?
A: I will get the same percentage of sales, but the revenue will be lower per sale. Since eBooks don’t get returned from shelves, there is less of an impetus for an eBook to sell OMG ALL THE COPIES RIGHT NOW!!! like there is for paper books placed into physical bookstores. Simple math says I’ll need to sell 3x as many books at the sale price to make as much in royalties, but since it is a limited-time offer, all sales after that introductory push will be at the normal price ($5.99), barring other promotions that Pocket might decide to run.
Q: Where can I buy Geekomancy again?
A: Geekomancy is available on Barnes & Noble.com, Amazon.com, iBooks, and will be available on other platforms like Google eBooks.
Q: I don’t have an erader. Can I still enjoy Geekomancy?
A: Of course! Most of the eBook platforms have downloadable programs to read their books on a PC/Mac/Laptop.