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 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.

I’ve got a guest post up at the Qwillery, where I talk about my personal soundtrack for Geekomancy and more broadly, my relationship to music for writing.

http://qwillery.blogspot.com/2012/05/guest-blog-by-michael-r-underwood.html

Copy edits have arrived, which means that in addition to trying to get words down on the new novel, I’m going through the copy-edited manuscript of Geekomancy and approving the changes I like, STETing the ones I don’t, and making tweaks as needed, so that the novel is as most-amazingly-awesome-tastic as possible when it goes to the production team to be turned into an eBook.

For those not in the publishing biz, STET is used when a writer or editor wants to indicate “leave it the way it was”. Adam noted ‘STET phase’ or ‘STET neologism’ several times throughout to tell the copyeditor to not change my whacky language.

I’ve used the STET-hammer a number of times myself, but the most fun in copy edits so far has been pulling out my DVD of The Empire Strikes Back to fact-check the number of antenae on an Imperial Probe Droid from the beginning on Hoth (2).

I wanted to bring more attention to the Crits for Water part of the Charity: Water effort, which helps provide safe, drinkable water to impovrished communities around the world.

I raffled off a query critique last week, and this week, I’m offering a critique of the first 10K and a query letter for a SF/F manuscript. This one is being auctioned, so I’m hoping we can bring a bit more money in for the charity.

http://critsforwater.katbrauer.com/2012/05/14/auction-critique-of-10000-words-plus-query-by-author-michael-r-underwood/

If you’ve got a writer friend looking to take their manuscript up to the next level, please consider pointing them at this auction or another one from Crits for Water.

Thanks!

Since my official contract is in and signed, I was able to finish up my paperwork and am an official active member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America! SFWA is the host/executor of the Nebula Award, and as a professional guild, it offers a great number of resources for writers. Recent efforts by SFWA leaders like John Scalzi and Mary Robinette Kowal have, in my opinion, done a great job of showing how important the organization is and what it can do for SF/F writers.

Joining SFWA has also been a professional ambition of mine for quite some time now, so it’s a great step along my Writer’s Journey.