Author Archives: Joshua K Johnson
The Effect of New Hardware
I was going through my files and Evernotes for The Cerberus Rebellion and I realized that it has been 8 months since I started writing it. Now, what’s really an eye opening is the rate at which I’ve been writing. Between 8/20 and 3/24 (when I bought my new laptop) I had completed 65,000 words. That averages out to a little less than 9,300 words per month, or around 2,300 words per week
Now, on 3/24 I picked up my new laptop and started working. Between 3/24 and today 4/21 I’ve written a total of 27k words, not including the chapters and snippets that I ended up removing from the story. Which factors out to 30k words in a month, or just over 7,500 words per week.
I think it’s really amazing the effect that new hardware can have on your productivity.
Things I Did Last Week
Week in Review:
The last week has been a flurry of activity as I near the completion of The Cerberus Rebellion and prepare to move it into the Alpha/Beta Read stage.
In preparation for that, and knowing how busy a lot of the editors and cover artists are, I contacted a couple of editors and cover artists.
I decided to go with heavycatweb.net for my cover. They sent over the initial sketches for the cover and I have to say that it is very impressive and I am looking forward to the finished product. They offered to add the title and artist name to it for an additional fee but why do that when my lovely wife is prefectly capable?
After getting some quotes, I decided to schedule Nick at everything-indie.comfor the beginning of June. That gives me approximately six weeks to finish the last 5 chapters of The Cerberus Rebellion, get it through 2 or 3 rounds of reading by myself and then a round with beta readers.
Speaking of beta-readers, my uncle agreed to beta-read for me and I’m very excited about that because he’s a great writer and will definitely give me great feedback.
Finally I secured a map artist (Jared @ The Red Epic) to create a map for both the world of Zaria and a more detailed map of Ansgar.
If you’re reading this post then you’ll have realized that I’ve moved to a new site. Gunpowderfantasy.com is official and the home of my new blog. On top of that, today I started a wiki that I’m going to spend some time filling in to provide background information and to keep all of the character bios straight for readers.
Warning Spoilers will abound: Gunpowder Fantasy Wiki
What’s On Tap:
Right now, I’m working on getting The Cerberus Rebellion finished. I’m going to spend as much time this weekend working on the last five chapters.
I’m going to go through 1 read-through with Scrivener (the software I use to write) so that I can make on the fly changes.
Second read will be on paper and I think the third will be using a text-to-speech program.
I’m also working on securely long-term arrangements with my editor and artist to try and reduce the cost of production.
If all goes well, I should be releasing The Cerberus Rebellion at the beginning of July, which gives me some time to get a head of steam before my planned promotions on 9/14!
New Home
So I went ahead and started a WordPress.com site/blog. It’s a little bit new, so please bear with me while I work on getting it set up and ready to go!
Also, I registered “GunpowderFantasy.com” as my domain name!
Expect to have a blurb up for The Cerberus Rebellion by the end of the weekend and hopefully a cover by the end of next week!
The Home Stretch
Last night I clawed my way over the 80,000 word mark for The Cerberus Rebellion.
Before the weekend, as I was walkung into my night job, I had a flash of inspiration and used Evernote to plot out the last 8 chapters.
Well, one of those chapters turned into 3 chapters but if the last 8 end up between 2-3k words I’ll end up just above 105k.
It’s a little higher than I wanted to end up but I figure with rewrites and edits I’ll cut a few thousand words out.
I’m still hoping to make my self-imposed deadline at the end of April but if I’m over by a week it won’t hurt
I’m still looking for Beta Readers and expect to be through my own first draft editing by the end of May and would like to get it to an editor by the middle of June.
If you’re interested, please post a comment.
Junk it!
So I was writing a chapter that, when I had started it, felt like a good idea. It filled in some information, introduced a new POV character that I intend to carry on to the next book and did some world building in the process.
And then, about 1,000 words into it, I hit a wall and realized that the chapter wasn’t contributing to the story as much as I expected it would and was in fact breaking up the pacing of the story. So I did what I always do, threw it into my “Snippets” folders and started a new chapter.
I have over 6,000 words in my Snippet folder. Some of it may be salvageable, but for the most part there’s nothing for me to do with those words.
It seems strange on one hand that I can put so much effort into a chapter and then throw it in the bin. Oh well, back to work!
New Hardware
So, up until now I have been writing either on my desktop computer downstairs or on the laptop that my mom gave with almost no functioning keys and a ten pound paperweight.
I had to buy a wireless keyboard/mouse combo in order to function. The problem with that was that even with the wireless keyboard, I would have to set my laptop on the coffee table. For anyone with a wandering 1 year old, you know what trouble having a laptop open can be.
So I’ve been restricted to either waiting for him to go to bed or going downstairs and writing on the desktop. Since I work 4 nights a week, that cuts out a significant portion of my writing time and my wife works nights sometimes too so I can’t just go downstairs to write.
Well, we recently paid off my wife’s laptop on our best buy card so I started looking at laptops for myself.
I finally settled on a toshiba ultrabook. It’s crazy thin, has a Solid State Drive and only weighs 2.47 pounds.
I just got it on Wednesday and spent most of the night getting it set up, but I can already see that I will be able to get a lot more writing done.
Looking for Blog Tour Hosts for September!
If you have a blog or know of one that might fit the bill, please leave a comment or tweet me @authorjkjohnson.
Thanks!
How Many Points of View?
As I was planning out The Cerberus Rebellion, I had to make a decision on how many Point of View characters I wanted to include.
I had already concluded that I would be writing in third-person limited. I have written some short stories in first person and I have a couple of pen-on-paper novels written in third person omniscient, but right now 3rd Limited is where I feel comfortable. I like how 3rd Limited allows you to show a character from a different point of view by having them appear in someone else’s POV chapter.
Part of my goal in writing The Cerberus Rebellion is to tell the story of how the events of the book, and ultimately the series, affect my main characters.
I wanted to avoid the overwhelming number of points of view (especially as seen in the Song of Ice and Fire novels by George RR Martin) while at the same time telling the full spectrum of my story.
I’ve decided to start my first novel with 4 main points of view. I was going to include some secondary POV characters for one-shot chapters but decided that those stories could be used for short stories or novellas at a later time (kind of how David Weber fills out information through his anthologies).
How do you decide on how many POV characters to use? Do you think more than 1 is too many or do you like to see multiple sides of the story?
Getting the Ball Rolling
And by “Ball” I mean Advertising/Buzz.
While The Cerberus Rebellion may only be half-done, it is fully on track for a late August release. And as I look around at the various book blogs and advertising venues, it’s easy to see that now is the time for me to get going on my advertising.
I’ve already schedule an Author Interview on Two Ends of the Pen that will be posted September the 14th. I’ve also put in an email to the Kindle Fire Department to see if they do scheduling that far ahead.
I’m looking into sites where I might be able to do an interview before my book is published as a way to garner some new followers but I’m thinking that it may be best to wait until it’s ready to sell before I get too much attention.
Anyways, when do you start your promoting for a new book? And do you have any suggestions for sites or blogs to talk to about an author interview or feature piece?
Any advice would be great!
"Success" as a Self-Publisher
When discussing any endeavor one of the things that comes up is whether or not you are “Successful”.
Gunpowder Fantasy 