Monthly Archives: May 2015

Writing, etc.

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Published Veil of Time on Amazon, began research for the next book the next day. I’m up to Chapter Three of The Ship, the first in a planned series. This one is hard-science SF, unlike my previous soft-science novels and fantasy novella.
I’ve also got enough information to begin writing the fifth novel in the Wizards Series. This one has a working title of Siberian Wizard and it takes up where Veil of Time left off.
I can’t promote Veil of Time yet; no reviews and Amazon won’t even allow a Countdown Deal until the book has been on their site for a month. So I’m promoting Combat Wizard instead; quite often, a first-in-a-series book leads to sales of other books in that series. With luck, Veil of Time will see some sales and maybe even a few reviews. Meantime, I’ve been posting this in various author sites on Facebook:
Combat Wizard, the first in a series of four Paranormal-ESP novels, is on sale today as part of a promotion. It’s $0.99 to purchase, free with your KU or Prime subscription.
http://www.amazon.com/Combat-Wizard-Paranormal-Thriller-Wizards-ebook/dp/B00J2HMUX2/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

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Copyright

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I just sent off a notice of copyright infringement to the person in charge of ebooks on Mobilism, a pirate site. Most of my books, as well as thousands of others, are listed there. I confirmed that they offer entire books by downloading a copy of a book I had already purchased from Amazon when it first came out.

The site also directs people to blogs that apparently have no other purpose than to offer work stolen from authors.

Based on the number of ‘views’, I suspect more of my books have been stolen than sold honestly through Amazon and other sources. Amazon’s mobi files and also ePub files, the version used by Apple and others, were available.

If you’re an author, I suggest you see if your books are available on pirate sites.

Veil of Time, DONE!

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I finished the editing on May 19th. Coincidentally, this marks two years since I began writing fiction. Based on a beta-reader’s comments, I added a Prologue, about one page, to the manuscript to bring the reader up to date before he gets into the book. It’s a bit of a spoiler, containing information about the other three books in the series, but he thought it necessary and I agreed.
Anyway, Veil of Time was submitted yesterday and it went live sometime during the night.
This is the blurb:
‘What would you do if someone was lost in time?
How would you find them? How can you communicate with someone in the past?
Suppose that lost person was a child? Could you abandon her, leave her to her fate?
Or would you do everything you could to find the child, even if it put your own life in danger?’
It’s available for $3.99, standard price for later books in this and my other series. If you have a Prime or KU subscription, it’s free.

http://www.amazon.com/Veil-Time-Paranormal-ESP-Thriller-Wizards-ebook/dp/B00XV5QTMO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1432034109&sr=8-1&keywords=veil+of+time+jack+l+knapp

Veil of Time: Progress

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Veil of Time currently contains 68 000 words and it’s almost finished. One more chapter, two at the most, and it’s written. The cover is nearly complete too.
I’ll take a couple of days, correcting things i know about, then do a final edit. One week, two perhaps, and it will be ready for publication.It’s been challenging. Read the book and you’ll understand why.

Writing and Publishing

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I’m at 66 000 words plus of Veil of Time, Ch 24 written, two to three more chapters to go. Final word count will be about 70 000 to 75 000 words. This is approximate, so it will be finished when it’s finished.
Chapter 25 is plotted out, so I only need to write it. Chapters 26 and 27 are roughed in. The book has been very complicated from my point of view; it has to be, so that no complications will niggle at the reader later on, but I think I’ve got it under control. Lots of research, lots of math on my part, arguably the most challenging effort I’ve attempted.
Side note: I’m setting up a Google Books account; ‘ll be listing Darwin’s World and The Trek on Google for use on Android devices. I’m waiting for Google to ‘verify’ my bank account, then the books will be uploaded.
People around the world, including those not served by my other distributors, will soon have access to my books. Depending on how sales go, I may remove other books from Amazon Select and list them on Google Books and other outlets.

FreeBookService; a Possible Scam?

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This promotion company, FreeBookService, promises a minimum number of downloads. According to a discussion group, it violates Amazon’s Terms of Service. It’s very expensive, and reportedly the downloads are done by dummy accounts, which won’t lead to additional sales of non-promoted books. I can’t confirm this; I’m only reporting what is available by looking up the company via Google. Let the buyer beware is good advice, and it’s especially good when dealing with companies you aren’t personally familiar with that you find through the Internet.
So if they handle free books through dummy accounts, how do they handle ‘purchases’? Probably by purchasing a minimum number of books, then returning them so the author gets no royalties and the company pays no money. If I were running a scam, that’s how I’d do it. I have no knowledge of this, I’m just speculating.
Several of us who comment on Goodreads have looked into this service, and our advice is to take your promotion dollars and spend them elsewhere.