Stillpoint News
Timepiece Flash Giveaway!
For today only, we’re having a flash giveaway of Heather Albano’s thrilling steampunk time-travel adventure, Timepiece!
This rollercoaster thriller of a novel combines Jane Austen romance with Mary Shelley monstrous horror and then adds dystopian time-travel a la H.G. Wells! The first novel in the Keeping Time trilogy, Timepiece takes all of these very different elements and combines them in an exciting, romantic, fun romp.
A game designer as well as an author, Heather Albano mixes Regency romance, gothic horror, science fiction, sly humor, dystopian steampunk, and military history to create a unique, fun, exciting read that will keep you guessing and keep you on the edge of your seat.
And it’s free, today!
Continue reading Timepiece Flash Giveaway!
Risuko Lightning Sale!
With Bright Eyes less than a week from release, we wanted to let you know that we are offering David Kudler’s award-winning first novel Risuko on a special sale for a limited time — both ebook, paperback, and hardcover!
This week only, you can get a special deal on the first volume of Seasons of the Sword:
The ebook is only $0.99!
Order Direct from Stillpoint • Order from Your Favorite Store
The paperback is only $6.99!
Order Direct from Stillpoint • Order from Your Favorite Store
The hardcover is only $16.99!
Order Direct from Stillpoint • Order from Your Favorite Store
We’ve never offered the book at these prices before, and won’t be likely to again — if you’ve been waiting to order a copy for yourself (or for someone else) now is your chance!
Kunoichi Tales Kickstarter Under Way
We’re excited to announce that the Kickstarter campaign to support the launch of Bright Eyes: A Kunoichi Tale, the second title in David Kudler’s award winning Seasons of the Sword series, is now open — and already 80% to its initial goal!
About the Kickstarter Campaign
This crowdfunding campaign, which runs through April 10, will help us create the best possible book — while guaranteeing our supporters copies at less than the retail cost.
As author David Kudler wrote, Continue reading Kunoichi Tales Kickstarter Under Way
Timepiece giveaway ends tomorrow!
Goodreads Book Giveaway
Roundup: 6 More Interesting Posts on Ebook Publishing!
We’re back! Here are 6 more interesting online publishing tidbits, coming at you hot off the (digital) press.
- Looking for tips on how to successfully interface with readers online? Don’t reply to comments when you’re hangry, and other helpful tips from Neiman Lab.
- For those not in attendance at the recent London Book Fair, here were bestselling author Joanna Penn’s main take-aways.
- Facebook’s newsfeed feature is constantly evolving — read this Social Media Today article to keep up to date with how to use its algorithms to your advantage.
- For those not up to date with Google’s new GDPR-compliant policy, here’s an interesting read on why publishing trade groups aren’t happy with the tech-giant’s latest update.
- If you’ve really been living under a rock re: literary scandals, here’s a quick update on why the Nobel Prize in Literature is postponing this year’s award.
- I recently stumbled across this list of best publishing podcasts, and have to say, I’m impressed! If you’re looking for a good listen, shuffle through a few of these — you’ll certainly learn something.
Also, Stillpoint publisher David Kudler posted recently on TheBookDesigner.com about whether or not it makes sense to offer your ebook for free — and the best way to make that happen if you decide it does. Check it out!
Questions? Comments? Concerns? Feel free to let us know below!
Weekly Roundup
April may be the cruelest month, but here at Stillpoint Digital there’s some good news — with a new month, comes a new roundup of this weeks most interesting #eprdctn-related articles. Continue reading Weekly Roundup
Speaking in Code: Ebook HTML basics
This post originally appeared on Joel Friedlander’s wonderful site, TheBookDesigner.com.
If, as I keep saying, an ebook is just a website a box, then in order to know how to get in and edit your ebook, you’re going to want to know some HTML. However you choose to work on the file, knowing the basic building blocks is essential in creating a finished product that presents your book to its best advantage.
When we talk about HTML, we’re actually talking about two separate things:
Timekeeper is on its way!
Copies of Timekeeper are on their way to all our Kickstarter backers! Thanks again for your support. If you don’t receive yours in a reasonable amount of time, please contact us.
Two down, one to go! Continue reading Timekeeper is on its way!
Special Offer: Buy Timekeeper, Get Timepiece Free!
Heather Albano’s Timekeeper: A Steampunk Time-Travel Adventure has hit the shelves! It’s available now in ebook or print form at your favorite store!
And since we know you might want to read book #1 in the Keeping Time series, Timepiece, before reading book #2, we thought we’d extend your chance to get the book free! Continue reading Special Offer: Buy Timekeeper, Get Timepiece Free!
Launch your summer reading with a free time-travel adventure!
Looking for a great way to launch your summer reading?
Last month, Heather Albano’s Timepiece: A Steampunk Time-Travel Adventure hit #1 on Amazon, Kobo, iBooks, Barnes and Noble, and Google Play in the Steampunk genre! It was part of a two-day promotion that was more successful than we could ever have hoped.
Well, in case you missed it, here’s your chance to get the book free! Continue reading Launch your summer reading with a free time-travel adventure!
Musings
“To Boldly Go”: Splitting Infinitives and Why You Should (or Shouldn’t) Care
“To boldly go where no one has gone before!”
I’ve always been a huge Star Trek fan. Watched all the original series episodes and even the animated series over and over as a kid. Went to Trek cons as a young teen. Had a pair of Vulcan ears and a tribble.
But one thing made me grit my teeth every time the show came on.
Continue reading “To Boldly Go”: Splitting Infinitives and Why You Should (or Shouldn’t) Care
Book Descriptions 101: Have I Got a Book for You!
Great! You’ve gotten a potential reader to visit your book’s product page. Maybe it was your fabulous cover that intrigued them, or the brilliant title, or — hey! — maybe it was your name, you celebrity author you!
In any case, it’s now time to seal the proverbial deal. Make the sale. Get the interested customer to become a reader and, hopefully, a fan.
How? Continue reading Book Descriptions 101: Have I Got a Book for You!
Book Covers 101: You CAN tell a book by its cover
Let’s Talk Covers…
Your mother probably taught you many things, among them the truism “You can’t tell a book by its cover.”
Now, while that wisdom holds in most of our lives, one place where it doesn’t, ironically, is in publishing. Continue reading Book Covers 101: You CAN tell a book by its cover
Book Marketing 101: What to do BEFORE you pay for ads
The first thing you need in order to sell your book(s) is a quality product — well-written, well-edited (not by you), and well-designed (both the ebook, the print edition, and, possible, the audiobook — not to mention the cover). But that’s not enough. If you build it, they probably will not come.
Creating books is only the first half of the job. The other half is actually making sure that you’ve created an audience who want to buy them.
Now, when I say that to new author-publishers, they immediately think I’m talking about paid ads on Facebook, Google, Amazon, BookBub, etc.
But that’s not what I mean. Continue reading Book Marketing 101: What to do BEFORE you pay for ads
Toss them out the window! Using and forgetting the Hero’s Journey
This morning, I was giving a talk to a group of writers on Joseph Campbell and the Hero Journey or Monomyth (in this case, specifically with regards to setting, rather than plot or character). I ran the group through a basic overview of Campbell’s schema, and gave them a number of examples from movies (since visuals are always helpful) — including two movies that I know for a fact consciously used Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces as inspiration: Star Wars: A New Hope and The Matrix. And I mentioned that, while I loved the first Matrix movie, I felt as if I could hear the pages of Campbell’s magnum opus turning as Neo’s journey progressed. Call to Adventure? Check. Crossing the Threshold? Check. Belly of the Beast? Double-check…
One of the participants asked, very reasonably, how to use and honor the Hero’s Journey schema without falling into the trap of writing a story that is formulaic.
When I was studying to be an actor, we had a wonderful master teacher named Archie Smith. Now in addition to being a terrific teacher, he was also (though in his late 60s) still an actor and a student of acting; he would sit in on many of our classes with other teachers and go through the exercises they had us work on, then apply them to his own work on stage and talk to us about what he’d learned.
One day, one of our classmates asked Archie how we could keep all of our acting fresh, even as we tried to apply all of these technical concepts that we were learning. Archie told us to learn all of the techniques that he and our other teachers were giving us, to internalize them… and then, he said with great glee, “Toss them out the window!”
Continue reading Toss them out the window! Using and forgetting the Hero’s Journey
Review: Lethal White — Deadly Fun
Since The Cuckoo’s Calling, I’ve enjoyed the Cormoran Strike series, written by J.K. Rowling as Robert Galbraith. Each entry has been a mind-tickling, exciting mystery in the old-style gumshoe detective vein, with all of the flourishes that made Rowling’s Harry Potter books so enjoyable — memorable characters, sly humor, exciting plot, and a deft hand at shifting moods unexpectedly. The latest entry in the series, Lethal White, provides many of the delights of the earlier books while revealing increased skill on the author’s part — but also revealing a disappointing tendency toward formula. Continue reading Review: Lethal White — Deadly Fun
Weekly Roundup
With the summer solstice comes longer days. With longer days comes more time for reading! Here’s this week’s roundup of what we found interesting in the world of ePublishing.
Weekly Roundup — What’s new in digital publishing?
From a scandal that rocked the world of digital publishing to some nice, relaxing podcast recommendations, here’s our latest weekly roundup. Continue reading Weekly Roundup — What’s new in digital publishing?
Elements of Style: CSS for Ebooks
I originally published this post on Joel Friedlander’s wonderful resource for self-publishers, TheBookDesigner.com
If HTML is the blueprint, showing how an ebook (or a web page) should be laid out, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are the interior design, saying how everything should look. While that may sound superficial, in fact learning to use CSS can have a profound impact on your ebook.
This is a somewhat complicated topic, so I am going to take three posts to cover it. This time round, I’m going to show you what CSS is and how to apply it. In the second post, I’m going to look at some of the different properties that you can use to define how your ebook looks. And in the last post, I’m going to talk about how to know which rules take precedence when.
Weekly Roundup – 6 Fresh Topics in Ebook Publishing
Don’t call it a comeback! Here’s the second installment in our now weekly roundup of interesting articles in the world of eBook publishing. Continue reading Weekly Roundup – 6 Fresh Topics in Ebook Publishing