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Update, New character portraits, and Contest

Stuff I mentioned:

The Cast and Characters page! (always available among “The Story” links on the right)

The Skyscraper Ad Contest – written details in the previous post

Cowry Catchers Ad Contest!!

Win a free, gorgeous t-shirt from the new Cowry Catchers swag store. Or, you know, just buy one. ;) To enter the contest, you need to create an ad 160 pixels wide by 600 pixels tall, using artwork from the books. It can be a JPG, PNG, or GIF. It can move if you wish, but it must be no bigger than 100K. Enter as many times as you like. I may use all ads, even those that don’t win, to promote CC. Post your entries in the forums or send them to me (hilton at fauness dot com). Contest ends Feb 1st. We will vote on the most provocative ad (most likely to make people click and stay) the following week. Also, if you want the piratey font that I use in the titles of my books, it’s Windlass. Examples of ad are here and here.

The art above is by Jeff Mcdowall. It’s the wrong dimensions for this contest, but it’s a good example of a provocative idea with few words. And if you really want to make your own art for the ad, go ahead! :D

Other important links:

Cowry Catchers Book 1, the non-illustrated version – free on Smashwords

My books on Amazon

My books on BN (They’ve currently got Prophet on sale for free. I have no idea why, but I’m not too worried about it.)

I <3 your reviews!

A Christmas present from Cowry Catchers

I’m posting the PDF for the first 3 chapters of Book 3. That’s a sneak peek of the first episode (and a better stopping place than we’re currently at). :D Merry Christmas!

Art by Jeff McDowall.

Silveo Short Story – a Postmortem

Hello, listeners! I guess you’re my readers today.

I promised you a post-postmortem on my experiment with the Silveo story. It’s been up for about a quarter of a year, and although I see no reason to take it down, the bulk of the sales are definitely over. We’re in the trickle that is often called the “long tale” of publishing.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with my work, here’s the background – I’ve been podcasting fiction for free since 2008. In April of this year, I tried selling a related short story for $2 on the website of a podcast novel that had already finished (The Prophet of Panamindorah). That experiment was moderately successful.

I took what I learned from that, and in October, I offered a 3,000 word short story about a popular character from my current podcast series. I produced this story every way I could think of, because I wanted to know what people would buy. The top-tier cost $4.99. The lowest tier cost $0.99. I purchased artwork, and I pay my voice actors 25% of whatever Paypal gives me for the fullcast version. Recently, I took down the lower-priced options, because no one was buying them. I learned a lot from this experiment. I could ramble on about it, but I’ll give you the numbers, and you can draw your own conclusions.

Numbers sold -

Fullcast (plus everything else): 99
Solo Read: 2
Text + illustration: 0
Text only: 3

As near as I can tell from Paypal, my listeners are:
46% male
46% female
7% indeterminate gender
83% US
17% International

Total Paid to Voice Actors: $116.08
Voice actor with the least words got: $13.41
Voice actor with the most words got: $58.86
Cents per word paid to all voice actors to date: 15 cents
Amount I paid for Artwork: $45

My net income after all expenses (Paypal fees, VA’s, artwork): $310.58
Cents per word for me: 9.5 (pro rate is 5 cents/word)

Is short fiction dead? You tell me. I’ve never made a pro rate on fiction before. I doubt I could have sold this story to a magazine for $300 (plus whatever else I’ll make on it next year). In addition, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with many people saying they would like to buy more.  However, this story wasn’t produced in isolation. It’s not worth $4.99 all by itself. It’s worth that to my listeners in the context of the larger (free) podcast. That is important to keep in mind if you’re a creative person looking at this and considering the possibilities.

Aaaand just to put everything in perspective…
Net loss from all podcasting/ story production since I started keeping track in 2007: $8,085.17 This includes everything from professional editing for the eBooks to mics to tons of artwork. Good thing I don’t have dependents! ;)

My podcast and related projects were never intended to be money-making ventures. I just wanted an engaged audience and an excuse to keep telling stories. However, I’d also like to work part-time and write, so maybe I should start looking at this more like a business. I have not been trying to make money. I wonder what would happen if I actually tried… I guess we’ll find out, because I’m definitely treating the eBooks like a business.

If you enjoy my work, this is all good. I plan to keep putting out a lot of free and inexpensive content. The podcast for Book 3 is coming along. I think 2011 will be a good year for Cowry Catchers and the rest of my stories.

*Artwork is by Rah Cloutier.

Cowry Catchers eBooks Special!

Hi, guys! I have eBooks! For all kinds of eReaders! From now until Christmas, I’m doing a 2-for-the-price-of-one special. Listen to the podcast for details, and visit the store on the right to purchase.

Interview with Kim the Comic Book Goddess

This is my interview with Morchella’s voiceactor. She is the mastermind behind the Geek Pantheon and Your Moment of Kim, which is rumored to be backed by the notorious SSDWC (Secret Society for Delayed World Conquest). Shhh! Don’t tell! No, wait. Scratch that. Do tell! Tell everyone to go and listen! :D Here’s the direct iTunes link.

Things we meantioned:

Last FM

Kim on GetGlue

Abbie on GetGlue (I just looked this up)

Ragnell – Kim’s feminst comic book blogger sister.

Interview on Podiomedia Chat

This week, I did an interview with Chris Moody of Podiomedia Chat.

The Tagging program I couldn’t remember is PBTagit by Bob Ranch.

Cowry Catchers 2 – Outtakes

This begins with about 28 minutes of feedback. If you just want the outtakes, skip to the last 12 minutes. ;)

Stuff I mentioned:
Business cards
Little Lion Man song
Burning Zeppelin
Digger

Click to view the artwork.

Cowry Catchers Book 2 – Episode 13

Chapter 32. Vicious and Deceitful
Chapter 33. Caught
Chapter 34. Windchimes

Story-so-Far is by Christof Laputka of The Leviathan Chronicles.

Voice Credits

Nathan Lowell
Norm Sherman
Chris Lester
J. Daniel Sawyer
Big Anklevich
Rish Outfield
Ryan Stevenson

Sound Credits

Beth Quist – Grace, Monsters, Q Song, Planet
Kevin MacLeod – Road to Hell, Stages of Grief, Blue Feather, Dark Walk
Digital Juice
Sound Snap
The Free Sound Project

The illustration this week is by Sarah Cloutier.

Click to view the artwork.

Cowry Catchers Book 2 – Episode 12

Chapter 29. Gwain
Chapter 30. Right and Wrong
Chapter 31. Not Poison

Story-so-Far is by Hatching Phoenix of The Way of the Buffalo Podcast.

Voice Credits

Nathan Lowell
Norm Sherman
Chris Lester
J. Daniel Sawyer
Big Anklevich
Rish Outfield
Terry Mixon

Sound Credits

Kim Fortuner – All I Want
Beth Quist – Grace
Kevin MacLeod – Lone Harvest, Ghostpocalypse – 8 Epilog, Interloper, Gagool
Jami Sieber – The Darkening Ground and Red Mood
Digital Juice
Sound Snap
The Free Sound Project

The illustration this week is by Sarah Cloutier.

Click to view the artwork.