Monthly Archives: May 2023
Well, That’s Pleasant
Crystal Blade Ep 24: The Art of Conversation is now live at Kindle Vella. Go forth and read.
In other news I just finished entering the Belaurient Press numbers for May and I am currently in the black for the year. Not by a lot, mind you, but even considering that the Amazon payouts run three months in arrears I’ve still taken in more money than I’ve spent (it helps that I haven’t paid for any courses or bought a membership to 20 Books to 50K. Yet). Still need to update the financials for Belaurient Arts but I’ll do that later tonight after I grab receipts from the garage. I know for a bloody fact that I’m in the black for that so I’m not fussed.
While I’m on the subject of Belaurient Press, you’ll be happy to know that Breaker Zone is currently churning its way through Smashwords and Google Play. I’ll be adding the new wide links to the Storm Season and Breaker Zone pages as soon as I have them. By Friday I should have Deep Water and Cross Current uploaded as well, and I’ll add the associated short stories as soon as they’re out of KU.
Then I do Trickster, Stealing Dmitri, and Behind the Iron Cross over the weekend, and the Two Thrones books next week. Mrgh. But once those are all uploaded they’re done (at least until I have to update the back matter, but that won’t happen until the end of June). At that point Nic is doing something nice for herself because she will bloody well deserve it.
I Am the Queen of Organization
I was serious when I said I’m going to start thinking like the small business owner I am.
I already have spreadsheets for my income and expenses so I just have to update those tomorrow with the month’s numbers. But I now also have three separate punch lists in Excel—one for Belaurient Arts, one for Belaurient Press, and one for general Belaurient business, all items with Due By dates and switches to indicate whether or not they’re done (and if not, what has to be done to get them finished. Because sometimes Stuff Happens™).
In addition to the punch lists I have a schedule for formatting books and setting them wide, and once that’s all done by the middle of June I’ll haul my recording equipment into the master bathroom closet and start recording audiobooks (yes, you’re finally getting audiobooks from me. I figure I did a podcast for years, did voiceovers for various training projects, and according to people who have listened to me at cons I give good reading so I may as well do them myself).
As for today, I formatted Storm Season, put it wide, and got started on formatting Breaker Zone (why oh why was I using such huge chapters back then? It is a puzzlement) before I had to run out and pick up some stuff, then make dinner. Once I post this I’m going back upstairs to knock out Friday’s episode of Crystal Blade for Vella, then at 11:30 PM I’ll publish tomorrow’s episode.
And I dunno if this mindset is impressing people, or I’m being rewarded by the universe, or what, but I have sold ten books just on Amazon in the last week. Since my series are no longer in KU and actual sales are the only way I’m making money on the ‘Zon, this is cheering.
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Belaurient Press
Crystal Blade Episode 23: Surprise, Surprise, Surprise is live at Vella. You know the drill.
I got my proof copy of Melanie’s short story collection Random Realities today (the print version really did turn out beautifully), and I noticed the colophon on the spine. That’s when I realized—I never explained how Belaurient Press got its name, did I?
Story time—back in college I used to play D&D occasionally, and one time I was working on creating a magic user character. I noodled around with some names and finally came up with Bel’orient (it was the mid-80’s, I apologize, I know better now).
One of my fellow gamers who was clearly ahead of his time suggested that I get rid of the apostrophe and change the name’s spelling. Thanks to the beauty of homophones, I adjusted it to Belaurient and thought, “Ooh, yes. I like that. My character’s name is Belaurient.”
She died in the next game. Fast forward to 2008 and I decided to set up an Etsy store to sell my jewelry and other wares. When it came time to name the store, Belaurient popped back into my head and I decided to go with Belaurient Arts.
Fast forward a little more to 2012 when I decided to bring out Random Realities and needed a name for my eensy publishing company that would produce the book. I figured, what the hell, I was a sole proprietor and could do what I liked, so I named the company Belaurient Press.
Of course, because I am a completist I needed a colophon (the little graphic that is the logo of the publishing house and is printed on the bottom of the spine) for Belaurient Press. I wanted something simple yet memorable, and after some noodling around in Illustrator I came up with the little juggler logo because 1) I am actually a juggler (learned it for a community theater production of Barnum), and running Belaurient Press requires a lot of juggling of assorted hats.
So that’s how my publishing company was named and its colophon came to be. Of course, once I start my LLC I’m going to have to come up with a name that encompasses both the jewelry company and the publishing company. Must think on that a bit more…
I’m Making an Executive Decision
I’m taking tomorrow off. And yes, I recognize the solemnity of Memorial Day so don’t @ me. It’s not like I’m throwing a pool party or getting hammered in Deep Ellum.
But it is a federal holiday and I need a day off. No, I deserve a day off. I’ve been working my ass off formatting books and getting them uploaded to Smashwords and Google Play, which is completely separate from the ad maintenance, record maintenance, writing, editing, cover design, and all the other tasks that come with being an indie author. Oh, and let’s not forget fulfilling various creative commissions, doing the food shopping, the cooking, the cleaning and laundry, looking after Ramón and the J Crew, checking in on various people who need it, and generally being Helpful Hannah to all and sundry.
I may not be able to afford a cruise right now, but I can damn well take one day off to rest, recharge, and see if I can recover just a smidgen of enthusiasm. So I am going to play around with my plasticine and investment and see if I can make this pair of amber and silver earrings I’ve wanted to take a crack at, then I’m going to catch up on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and then I may well crawl in bed early and read to my heart’s content. Luxury…
And Finished
All of the Melanie books have now been sent off to Smashwords and Google Play, so hopefully everything will be accepted at SW and sent off to Kobo/Apple/B&N later this week.
Which means I can return to Crystal Blade and get episodes 23 and 24 hammered out, edited, and uploaded to Vella for release on Monday and Wednesday, respectively. I also need to get on my stick and get the book finished ASAP because I no longer have a two week cache of episodes anymore and that makes me nervous.
I also really need to knuckle down and get the PayPal business account started this week so that I can add purchase buttons here. The thing that’s holding me back is that I would really like to have an EIN and a separate business bank account first, in order to keep the book money separate from my personal money. I’m just gonna have to get an EIN online, then go into my credit union and set up a new account. Ideally I would also prefer to have an LLC, but that will have to wait until I have enough money to file for one.
About That Side Quest
Episode 22: World’s Not Going to Save Itself is now live at Kindle Vella. Go check it out.
Okay, so, I have a new cover for Random Realities.
The problem with covering this collection is that it has SF, fantasy, one horror-adjacent story, and a Sherlock Holmes pastiche, and that’s only the original ten stories. How the heck do you represent all those on one cover? Well, back in 2012 I went with a “girl blowing bubbles with the bubbles representing different realities” graphic for the old cover.
But my graphics skills have improved mightily in the last ten years, and the SF/fantasy antho market has also changed. Gotta keep up with the times, don’t you know? Plus the additional ten stories I’ve added to this collection includes a steampunk novelette, so that’s yet another genre to add to the cover.
Which is how I wound up with the image at left. What I especially like about this cover is that with all the cool stuff visible through the door (a steampunk balloon, a dragon, a space elevator, and something that looks a bit like a wormhole/event horizon/timegate), the girl and her teddy are still looking off to the right like something even better is over there.
I think it gives a sense of hope and optimism for the future. God knows we all need that right now. I’ve ordered a print proof, and if it looks as cool as I think it’s going to I’ll order copies to be sold from this website and at cons.
Because I’m Not Busy Enough As It Is
As I’m slogging through all of this reformatting, it occured to me that it might also be a good idea to put my Melanie Fletcher books and anthos wide as well. Granted, the two FutureClassics anthos (Tales from a Lone Star: A Future Classics Anthology, Volume One and A Lone Star in the Sky: A Future Classics Anthology Volume Two) and my alt-history mystery A Most Malicious Murder were already wide but none of them were in Google Play, and my SF and fantasy short story collection Random Realities had just gotten out of KU so that needed to be put everywhere.
While my Nicola books are most definitely my moneymakers, I think I’m going to get these four titles reformatted and put wide before I do any more work on the romances because they won’t require nearly as much line reading, and I need a bit of a break from that. Plus I may even do a new cover for Random Realities—I’d published it in 2012 and cover requirements have changed significantly since then.
One thing—Realities has a 6×9″ trim, unlike all of my other books with their 5.25×8″ trims. And the printing price increases at Amazon will result in significantly higher printing costs for 6×9″ trim books, which makes it logical to take the trim size down to 5.25×8″. Thing is, the only way to change the trim size is to unpublish and republish the book with a new ISBN (since trim sizes are linked to ISBNs). If I’m going to do all that, I may as well add in a bunch more short stories that I’ve written since 2012, right? Bump up the number from 10 to 20 stories, shrink the trim size, and I should wind up with a book of a reasonable size (the old version of Realities is technically novella length so that’s one slim book).
Ramón is right. I do keep making rods for my own back.
Still Formatting
Crystal Blade Episode 21: I Have to Find What Now? is live at Kindle Vella. Go forth, read, enjoy.
So, formatting. I’m done with Shadow of the Swan and The Crimson and the Black so both of those are now wide, along with the Hidden Empire short story A Gentle Fall of Snow. I’m going to do Stealing Dmitri next, then I’ll just have the Olympic Cove and Two Thrones books to get through. My brain is also getting very, very tired with all of this, and my heart goes out to people who do this for a living. It requires greater mental strength than I possess, I fear.
On the plus side, since I have to skim every book that gives me a chance to refresh my memory on the Olympic Cove book plots and make sure any loose ends are taken up in High Tide. Yes, the Mad Nereid will come steaming back into town and we’ll get a chance to see what she’s been doing with her enthralled millionaire (i.e. nothing good). And the menage in this book will include a merman, a human (well, kind of) and—ta da—a satyr, plus a deeper dive (hur hur) into mer culture and some biases they hold. Because I can’t just make things easy for myself and write about hot guys having sex—I have to add social issues to my romance.
Slog, Slog, Slog
I am kinda kicking myself for not doing all of this reformatting weeks ago when I knew I’d be pulling the Hidden Empire, Olympic Cove, and Two Thrones books out of KU. But I had assumed that formatting a book with Vellum would be a matter of uploading the .docx file, going in and cleaning up any goofy pages, adding the Vellum-sized cover and appropriate links for a given ebook platform, and I would be done. Maybe an hour of work per book at the most.
I did not know that for whatever reason Vellum would hork on how Word formats the occasional italicization here and there and apply italics to the entire damn paragraph. Which means I have to upload a book’s .docx file, then start going through it and scanning for any out of place italics.
And you know that while I’m doing that I’m also keeping an eye out for spelling/grammar/punctuation goofs (because no matter how many eyes were on a given book there is always a handful of mistakes that got through the editing process) and fixing those. All of which takes way more time than a single hour.
No, I cannot hire someone to do this for me. That would be lovely but Nic doesn’t have that kind of cash. So I have a most joyous week ahead of me, tra la.
I Am Astounded
Crystal Blade Episode 20: Oh, The Places You’ll Go! is live at Kindle Vella. You know the drill.
And while we are on the topic, I was astounded today to get an email notification that I had earned a Vella bonus for April. I honestly don’t know why—I didn’t start earning money until this month, and of that I’ve made a grand total of $1.08 from my two loyal readers (I know who you are—love you oodles).
I can only assume that the bonus is because of my like-clockwork posting schedule of M-W-F since I started posting Crystal Blade. And considering how much I’ve actually made on the story so far, this is a very, very nice bonus indeed. I’m sortakinda tempted to do the same thing with High Tide and Hurricane Warning, to be honest, but since the books will be the last two books in the Olympic Cove series I worry that readers wouldn’t know what the hell was going on.
But I will think of all that tomorrow at Tara. In the meantime, I’m gonna bask in the glow of my bonus and prep next week’s episodes.
Nicola Cameron Writes 