Around the net

A roundup of recently-discovered links related to my books. Thank you, internets, for these little surprises.

Dementedchris over at Ficsation reviewed No Strings Attached: "There's a studied air in the way this whirlwind romance is written..."

- Singled this out because this captures how I felt when I wrote it. I don't want to talk about it too much, don't want to affect how people read and interpret it. But, yeah, this.

Holly at Book Harbinger got copies of My Imaginary Ex and No Strings Attached in the mail, courtesy of Chachic. I love Manila-themed stuff, and I want that little wallet!

Dear friend Mimi Tiu of Candy bought No Strings Attached but hasn't read it.

Janus at Goodreads reviewed My Imaginary Ex.

Lee at From Page One reviewed My Imaginary Ex, Fairy Tale Fail, and No Strings Attached. Also, he interviewed me! That's a lot of stuff.

Jenn, Michelle, Joane, Jo Mar, Fay, Ei, Gem, Ramon, Elaine, Tina, Marimel, JaNille, Jen, Desiree, Olib, Cecille, Princess, and Renz dropped by the Facebook page.

If you've got a Kobo Reader, Fairy Tale Fail is in Kobo Books.

peachblossom021 on Tumblr posted some quotes from No Strings Attached (spoiler warning!).

Filipino book readers, yes, do convene!

If you happen to wander over to this blog because you're a Filipino reader, I hope you click next to fantaghiro23's Filipino Friday post asking for suggestions related to a Filipino readers convention. It's an exciting idea!

As a reader I'm not very "social" about my hobby. I rarely blog or write reviews, am not as active as I could be in readers' groups... but I buy, borrow, and read just as passionately. I'm sure many people are like this too, and our tastes and interests are probably not counted because we don't speak up as much. Anyway -- if you're this kind of reader too, I hope you drop by that post and suggest something that'll make a Filipino Readers Convention great for you. :)

FTF Kindle Report Card: An update

I posted a few months ago this Kindle report card for FTF. At the time I was amazed at October's figures, but this update is just to show how November and December totally kicked October's butt. (And January 2011 has so far kicked December's.)

Fairy Tale Fail isn't a bestseller yet, not by Amazon's standards. On any given day it can be ranked anywhere between #1,800 to #8,000 on their list. I'm thankful for the buzz that book bloggers and reading groups have given it, which likely help -- along with Amazon's recommendations feature -- in keeping the book alive and thriving as it nears its anniversary on the Kindle store. I'm aware that book sales dip in the months after the initial launch and marketing push, but that's not necessarily true now. At least, not for Fairy Tale Fail.

The point of this? Go finish that novel and publish it on the Kindle. Do it do it! And when you do, don't be discouraged when the first few months are tough. It'll get better.

Coming soon: Love Your Frenemies on your e-reader!

Not exactly the first announcement, as I've said it already on Twitter, but here it is: my next novella, Love Your Frenemies, will be released on the Amazon Kindle Store first, and then Smashwords, and then Sony, Apple, Kobo, Diesel, and maybe Barnes and Noble. A print version (most likely through CreateSpace again) will come at the very end of that process.

At this stage I'm working on the cover with Bianca Pascual, who was responsible for the pretty of Fairy Tale Fail's cover. The undercurrent of anger in this manuscript is giving us a bit of trouble in the kikay department, but we'll work it out.

(If you ever want to try to publish your own work, I hope you have friends who can help you out at various stages. If you don't have any, find some new artsy friends now!)

2011 for me

Some resolutions:

1. This year I will write more.
That includes finishing the SG project first (and putting up a sneak peek on this blog) within the next few weeks. And picking up on the CM project that I abandoned a few months ago. I will set aside time each day to write, and I will finish things!

2. This year I will publish online more.
The CM project, once finished, will definitely be for the Kindle. The SG project is still on the fence, depends on what happens with LYF. I think I've spent too much time on Amazon with just one title to my name. If there's more, I should just publish it all.

3. This year I will help people get published.
After guiding my husband Mike to putting his book out on Kindle, I've started talking to a few more people I know have book projects but are too scared/overwhelmed by the editing and publishing process to do anything about it. My cousin has a lovely, inspirational project in mind, and I've committed to help edit and publish it -- as long as she finishes writing the book.

4. I will buy less paper and start going digital.
Thinking of buying a Kindle. Already subscribed to Cosmo Philippines on Zinio. One factor is that I don't have space to keep anything, and the other is I want to encourage digital publishing on different fronts.

5. I will try writing something new and different.
Not making promises here -- I tried, and gave up. But maybe I'll resolve to give up later rather than sooner!

The God Equation and Other Stories by Michael A.R. Co

The God Equation and Other Stories (Kindle Edition)
by Michael A.R. Co

Mathematics and religion duel in an award-winning tale about the true nature of faith and free will. ("The God Equation")

Two soldiers share the unsavory task of killing someone worse than Hilter... over 500 years ago. ("Waiting for Victory")

A popular childhood belief can have sinister results, when a rapist gets the short end of a bargain. ("The Off Season")

A mysterious website allows users to see the whole world in an uncomfortably honest way. ("In the Eyes of Many")

A beautiful faerie finds herself trapped in a tropical paradise, and there's only one way out: a young man and his shovel. ("The Sweet Stranger")

These thought-provoking stories, collected together for the first time, offer a taste of Filipino-style science fiction and fantasy that transcend cultural boundaries and expectations.

My husband writes science fiction and fantasy stories. Not often, but in the past few years he's managed to come up with amazing stuff. "The God Equation," which shared first prize at the first Philippine Graphic/Fiction Awards, was actually his first published short story.

I've been encouraging him to put a compilation up on the Kindle for a while, and now it's here! You can get the entire thing for just $0.99 ($2.99 if you're using a Philippine credit card/billing address on Amazon). Whether you're into sci-fi or just want to support Pinoy authors, this'll be a great read.

Year-end Ebook Store Report Card

Apparently not all ebook stores are equal. At least as far as my ebook experiment is concerned.

When I decided to publish Fairy Tale Fail digitally via the Amazon Kindle Store in April 2010, it wasn't because I did my research and found it to be the best platform. I didn't care, and just wanted the book to be available to as many people as possible, and Amazon made it relatively easy for me to set everything up.

I was told that through Smashwords I could sell the book in more formats and gain entry into ebook stores that were competing with Amazon. So a few weeks later I put up FTF on Smashwords, also easy, and reformatted my manuscript so it would qualify for Premium Status and be accepted into the digital stores of Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, and the just-announced Apple iBookstore.

Now it's nearing the end of the year, and looking over the sales reports, I see an obvious leader: Amazon. Then again I never did doubt its reach, but looking at the comparison now I see that for me as an indie author Amazon has done the best job of getting my book, and name, out to their public.

Sony's second-place finish is surprising -- I don't know anyone who owns a Sony Reader or buys books from its store, so when I started out I pretty much ignored them in my marketing plan (sorry about that). I'm glad and thankful that Reader owners would take a chance on a title and author they barely know.

On the other hand, Barnes & Noble and Apple iBookstore -- what's up? I thought they would be Amazon's closest competitors, not just in e-readers but book sales as well. Maybe Nook owners aren't into chick lit written by a Filipino indie author, or the ones who might be bought their epub from Smashwords instead. Maybe iPad owners would rather download apps. Or they're reading their ebooks on the Kindle app, like some of my friends, which means Amazon needn't worry about having the best device, as long as they can evolve and be compatible with whatever device their buyers want to use.

What have I learned from this?

#1 - Releasing Fairy Tale Fail digitally was a great decision, and I really should release another one in the next few months.

#2 - Amazon rocks as a distribution channel.

#3 - Since it's not that much effort anyway, I should continue to release my next ebooks on other stores too.