LoN Book 2: Powers Released

E_book_cover_V2Book 2: Powers is finally out. I finished dealing with most of the formatting issues last week. “Most” is the key word though. I’ve been trying to get this book into the relevant stores for more than a week now.

That’s harder than you’d think due to the fact that Smashwords converts what you did for them and distributes to multiple online stores, each of which has different requirements. The result is that I’m still reformatting every time Smashwords comes back to me with a new problem. I actually gave up on Smashwords and used Draft2Digital for some stores.

Those of you who contributed will be getting links to your free copy tomorrow night.

Those of you who are interested in buying a copy can get one at: 24Symbols (soon), Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Page Foundry/Inktera, Scribd, Smashwords, and Tolino (soon).

After you read it, please review it wherever you bought it as well as Goodreads. That’ll make the book more visible to potential readers, and feel free to tell people you know too.

14 thoughts on “LoN Book 2: Powers Released”

  1. Speaking of links, did I miss the email with the Vol 1 link? And I can barely wait to get that t-shirt. My coworkers will have no idea what it is 🙂

  2. Hi Jim, idle curiosity: What is (if there is one) the weight of reviews on amazon against the purchases numbers of LoN2?
    I mean a positive review automatically lead to some purchases? Or LoN sell mainly to LoN readers?
    Or online stores attract new Lon’s adepts?

    1. Well, the short answer is: the more reviews the better.

      The long answer is: Most readers of the serial don’t buy the books. Most readers of the books don’t read the serial. That said, readers of the serial are more invested in the story (they show up once or twice a week). As a result, a significant number do buy the books and funded the Kickstarter. At the same time, the group that just buys the books is a larger group. Some of them do go on to read the serial.

      A positive review doesn’t automatically lead to purchases, but many reviews add up to credibility to the potential reader. Once there are ten or fifteen, people are more likely to consider buying something from an author they’ve never heard of.

  3. Thank you for the insign.
    Btw reviewer, don’t be fooled by Amazon’s tricks as me! I purchased the LoN2 on Amazon Italy and my review is visible ONLY on amazon.it. But if you review on Amazon.com the review is visible on .com and also on Amazon.it. I expect the same for other countrie’s Amazons stores.

    1. The differences are mostly along the lines of removed chapters, better wording and more proofreading, but here are the key differences:
      1. The first two chapters have been replaced.
      2. It ends after the first prom–which I would never have done normally. That’s such a cliche, but in this case, it’s the right spot to end. Thus, there’s a rewritten ending directly after that scene. Plus, the 1943 interlude appears there.
      3. The original story was written as a series of different stories that all push things forward a little. I removed a couple incidents that slowed things down and connected the chapters better.

      1. What’s the prom?

        I meant, what did you have to do differently to get your story formatted in the desired way for different publishers?

        Thanks!

        1. The prom as in the senior prom, a dance (sometimes including a banquet) commonly held near the end of the year at US high schools.

          As for what I had to do differently to get it ready for different publishers, here is the basic process:
          1. Amazon needs things in the .mobi format. I downloaded a program that works with my word processing program to convert a document into a .mobi.
          2. I formatted things for creating an .epub document through Smashwords. Smashwords has a boatload of requirements. I can’t list them all here, but if you really are interested, you can follow this link. The thing that stinks about Smashwords is that they don’t indicate precisely what you’re doing wrong or tell you precisely how to fix it. They have two preferred formats: .doc and .epub. A .doc is supposed to be easier, but it was frustrating enough for me that I gave up after trying it a few different times. Basically the program that takes your document and formats it into an ebook is very fussy and I never got it right.

          At this point, you may be wondering how I got around that. The answer is…

          3. Draft2Digital takes .epub and .doc files too, and unlike Smashwords, it converts them and they work perfectly and it doesn’t require you to do anything. Plus, they tell you directly that they make no claim on the files and that you can use them anywhere, even submit them to other stores.

          You know what I did? I submitted the .epub versions from the first two books to Smashwords after creating them in Draft2Digital, and they worked perfectly.

          1. Cool, thanks.

            I don’t remember a group standing around and dancing at a prom. Something must have interrupted the dances. 😉

  4. Grats! whip crack! where is the next one! 😉

    I’ll pick up a copy on Amazon… speaking of which, how does one get their book on the Deal of the Day email? I see a lot of people do that when a sequel comes out to gey folks hooked. I find more of my reading material that way than I would like yo admit…

    Again Congratulations, and thank you for sharing with us.

    1. I have no idea how things get on the Deal of the Day email. I’m going to be looking into that. That said, my plan has been to do only the promotion that I could do easily and cheaply for the second book, but then go bigger on the third. That’s because the second book and third book are essentially one storyline cut in two. I’m grateful that the second book feels more complete than I worried it would, but I’m still going to feel better promoting it when people can also pick up the third immediately.

  5. I’ve gone through the first two epubs, and noticed that the Mentalist got renamed in the present-day chapter, but is still called Isaac in the flashbacks.

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