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M. Darusha Wehm

Science fiction and mainstream books by award-winning author M. Darusha Wehm

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    • The Voyage of the White Cloud
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    • Year’s Best Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction & Fantasy, Volume 4
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    • Fireweed: Stories from the Revolution
    • Year’s Best Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction and Fantasy: Volume I
    • The Dame Was Trouble
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    • Procyon Press Science Fiction Anthology 2016
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    • You Do You
    • if ink could flow backward
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business

Crowdsourcing Funding for Novels

November 29, 2012

About a year ago I started planning to crowdsource funding the release of my upcoming novel. I’ll spoil the ending right now: I did it, and it was successful, raising just over $1000.

Recently, I’ve mentioned that I’m working on a couple of novels and I’ve been asked if I plan to crowdsource funding for their release, too. I hadn’t really thought about it (I’m not quite at that stage yet), but that made me think about the process for The Beauty of Our Weapons and whether or not I do want to give it another go.

As I’ve said, the previous campaign was financially successful. However, it was also stressful. Really stressful.

The campaign met its target on its last day, and it was met thanks to a very generous donor who chose one of the major packages that I’d included mostly for completeness. I was completely shocked first that the target had been met and doubly so by the generosity of this donor.

Though, nearly missing the target wasn’t the most stressful part of the process. I used an IndieGoGo campaign which allowed me to keep any funds raised regardless of whether I’d met the goal, and I’d structured the campaign in such a way that I had different things I could accomplish at different levels of success, so I was reasonably happy with the money aspect early on. What was much more stressful to me what the constant sense of nagging everyone I knew about it.

I am not a natural salesperson. Not even close. I find it kind of distasteful to ask for money under any circumstances, so promoting the campaign was really hard for me personally. I don’t know whether I did a good job or not; no one told me to stop talking about it, but people tend to be pretty polite about that sort of thing.

I did notice that almost all of the people who contributed were people who had previously supported my work. This wasn’t surprising, but it does make me wonder about the value of using this kind of method for the future, especially since I’d be tapping the same people over and over again.

So, I’m asking you: do you regularly use Kickstarter/IndieGoGo as a way to support the creative people whose work you like? Is that a method you prefer or would you rather just buy their thing once it’s commercially available? Do you like the aspect of many crowdsourcing projects where you can get limited edition or special physical products? If so, what kinds of things do you like to get?

And finally, if you are in favour of this method of funding, how would you suggest that campaigners share their news without being annoying? How do you like to be asked for money?

Filed Under: News Tagged With: business, marketing, sales

Crowd Pricing – An Ebook Price Alternative

November 15, 2012

How much should an ebook cost? This is one of those questions that is discussed endlessly among authors these days. “Price low and shift a bazillion units.” “99¢ devalues literature.” “I worked on this for five years; I can’t stand practically giving it away.” “All ebooks should be $4.99.”

To a certain extent, I think it’s a question with no answer. Everyone has their own top price they are willing to pay for a book, and not every book is going to have the same value to a potential buyer. Some people think paying under $10 for something is cheap enough to be an impulse buy, others hem and haw over paying a buck for anything. There is no right answer for everyone.

However, there’s a new model being proposed and I’ve decided to participate in the experiment. Scribl.com is a new ebook marketplace that uses a fluctuating pricing structure based on popularity. The idea is that by charting popularity of downloads, they can prove what the market will bear.

On Scribl, all ebooks start at free. As more people download the free version, the price moves up a tier. The more downloads at any price, the higher the price becomes.

The idea is that the market will bear a higher price for more popular books and that, as a reader, you know that if a book is priced at $6.99, that’s because a lot of people have already purchased it.

I’ve put Beautiful Red and a new novella (maybe more of a novelette, really) called Fire. Escape. on Scribl. For now, they are both free, so if you want to get an ebook copy of either or both, head over to Scribl soon.

Disclaimer: This is an experiment for me. I don’t believe there is a correlation between quality and popularity, so being able to judge a book by its price isn’t something I buy at all. However, the current state of the art in ebook pricing is out to lunch, so I welcome people who are trying to innovate in this space, and want to support the attempt. If this interests you, go check it out.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: business, ebooks, pricing

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A teal, purple and amber circular swirl with images of different landscapes (various futuristic cityscapes, an endless suburban street, a desert world) and flying whales. Text reading Transmentation | Transience by Darkly Lem.

Transmentation | Transience: Or, An Accession to the People’s Council for Nine Thousand Worlds (The Formation Saga)

From bestselling authors Darkly Lem comes Transmentation | Transience, the first book in a sweeping multiverse of adventure and intrigue perfect for fans of Jeff Vandermeer and The Expanse series.

Over thousands of years and thousands of worlds, universe-spanning societies of interdimensional travelers have arisen. Some seek to make the multiverse a better place, some seek power and glory, others knowledge, while still others simply want to write their own tale across the cosmos.

When a routine training mission goes very wrong, two competing societies are thrust into an unwanted confrontation. As intelligence officer Malculm Kilkeneade receives the blame within Burel Hird, Roamers of Tala Beinir and Shara find themselves inadvertently swept up in an assassination plot.

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Free Stories

Major Tom and the Lucky Lady

I was balancing a cup of tea in one hand, while hanging on to the side of the companionway hatch with the other. I climbed into the cockpit sideways, compensating for the roll of the boat. I was only … Read More... about Major Tom and the Lucky Lady

The Foreigner

I slip into the fake-leather seat, and look at my watch. I have about an hour before the shareholders' meeting, but I have to stop by the day care first, so I want to make this snappy. I've found that … Read More... about The Foreigner

Lucidity

last night I had the most wonderful dream Carly moaned softly in her sleep, and rolled over. She dreamed and dreamed, and when she woke, she found that she still had the lingering shadow of a … Read More... about Lucidity

Publications

  • . ….. ..story .. time
  • A Most Elegant Solution
  • A Most Elegant Solution (audio)
  • A Thorn in Your Memory
  • A Wish and a Hope and a Dream
  • Alexander Systems
  • Fear of Lying
  • Force Nine
  • Good Hunting
  • Home Sick
  • Home Sick (audio)
  • Homecoming
  • I Open My Eyes
  • if ink could flow backward
  • Microfiction @Thaumatrope
  • Modern Love
  • Modern Love (audio)
  • Preventative Maintenance
  • recursion
  • Reflections on a Life Story
  • Showing the Colours (audio)
  • The Care and Feeding of Mammalian Bipeds, v. 2.1
  • The Interview
  • The Stars Above Eos
  • War Profiteering
  • War Profiteering (audio)
  • we are all energy

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