Cris Game

As noted in my  last post , my novel  Sensation   actually broke into the Top 100 in its Fantasy category last week, debuting at No. 97.  I was tremendously excited and was barely able to focus on anything else. Over the next few days, I watched it climb steadily higher in both wide-eyed surprise and white-knuckled anticipation.  They like me! They  really  like me!  I thought.  After all, I only just put the novel on Kindle at the beginning of May, so I felt extraordinarily blessed to have found an audience so soon. When I woke up yesterday morning, I checked and saw that I was up to #2.  Excellent!  I thought and gave my wife the good news. As I drove to work, I tried to imagine what it might feel like if I ever reached the top spot, but it's one of those things that you can't quite get your arms around because it would be so surreal.  Around that time I got a call from my wife. "What are you going to do if you hit numbe...

When I first looked into indie publishing a few years back, I recall coming across a statement that the average self-published book only sold nine copies.   Nine !  I don't know where the person making that statement got their stats, but it was a little frightening to me. Authors put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into their writing; the thought of only selling nine copies might be a little discouraging.  I was recently discussing this subject with a friend, who felt that the obvious solution to selling  more books was to get ranked on one of Amazon's bestseller lists.  This struck me as a lot like the which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg scenario:  in order to sell more books, you need to get ranked on one of the lists.  In order to get ranked, however, you need to sell more books.  In other words, my friend's advice wasn't a real solution, but more of an objective. Needless to say, every author wants to sell a lot of books.  (Or at leas...

There's an old question that goes:  If a tree falls in the woods and nobody is around, does it make a sound?  In a similar vein, if you write the greatest novel in the history of the world but nobody knows about it, will you sell many books? It's possible, but not probable. In essence, your job as a writer - especially an indie author - doesn't end once you upload that final, professionally-copyedited version with the too-cool-for-words cover art.  You still have to get the word out about your book.  That's not to say that some novels will not gain popularity and through great word-of-mouth, but I wouldn't put all my eggs in that basket as a virtual unknown.  Basically, you will probably have to do some marketing (so build that into your budget). In my own case, I've got several venues that I intend to use for marketing and promotion, but one that stood out to me was the prospect of a Goodreads advertising campaign.  Goodreads bills itself as having "140 mi...

Hello all! It has been a busy week indeed. We took Sunday off and attended the local Renaissance Faire, so we are updating today instead. Here are some shots from yesterday (if you're interested )  :D Now to the game... Below are some screenshots of the progress we've made on the rainforest level. We added in the cliff sides for the valley (which I made last week) and they work even better than anticipated! We put a lot of emphasis on the look of the plants, so when it comes time to start working with the rift we will have the most "real-looking" experience we can create. An interior space: Our interior space: Making leaf cards for out plants in photoshop: I just started working on this door today: It was mostly a photo post today - but who doesn't likes scrolling through photos? John and I graduate this upcoming weekend, so we won't have as much development time this week. After that we are all taking a 2 week break to spend time at home with our families bef...

Mother's Day is coming up, so - like a good son - I recently went in search of an appropriate gift, along with a nice card.  In addition, I've got numerous relatives (cousins, nieces, nephews, etc.) graduating from various institutions this month.  Thus, it occurred to me to get all of the shopping for everyone out of the way at once. Following that train of thought, I found myself in the greeting card aisle of my local drugstore, casually perusing the various cards-for-all-occasions on display.  After making my selections and heading to the checkout counter, I offhandedly flipped one of the cards over to see how much it cost...and almost had a heart attack! $6.99!!!   For a card !  Talk about sticker shock!  Granted it was nice, but it's essentially a folded piece of paper with a couple of sappy, sentimental lines of text.  For that they want $6.99?  You could get both of my books for less than that!  (Admittedly, at  $2....

Hey Everyone! Sorry I'm a bit late on my post this week! (you may notice that it is currently a very early Monday) We put together our summer and fall work schedule for the game at the beginning of this week - lets just say it will be a VERY busy summer. We will have one day off per week, which should hopefully work out. Speaking of working out, we will finally be setting up an exercise schedule for the summer for all of us! All this sitting at the computer isn't the best for our bodies or minds, so a workout plan is now in the making  :) Thank goodness! Now for some screen shots - because we all like looking at pictures! Remember this little guy? He look very hungry. This is him rendered in-game: We all worked in the editor this week, so here are some beauty shots. John and I worked on layout and foliage placement within the level. This tree is massive! Great work John! James has been working on this bamboo tree house: I did some modeling this week to...

I recently saw the funny commercial below, in which a young couple discover that the plumber fixing their sink is also the guy who did their taxes.  As you can imagine, it leaves them feeling a little queasy - like walking into the doctor's office and suddenly realizing the physician you're talking to is also the guy who changed your oil at the mechanic's shop. What this commercial clearly shows is that we rarely expect people to have expertise in more than one area, and the public rarely embraces them when they try to go outside the boundaries that have been drawn for them  (e.g., no one wants to see Garth Brooks singing rock).  The same seems to hold true for writers.  While there are a select few who can seemingly navigate all waters in the field of literature (Michael Crichton is one who comes to mind), we usually expect authors to stick to what they know.  For most of us, that means writing in a single genre (or related genres, which might include variation...