J. B. Rockwell
  • Home
  • About
  • Novels
  • Novellas
  • Short Stories
  • Crowhammer Chronicles
  • Blog
  • Contact

Serengeti Playlist

2/11/2018

0 Comments

 
It's hard to believe, but Serengeti released two years ago this month. Two years! How is that possible? It feels like I was just telling you about this book and now here it is, a publishing toddler. I felt like I needed to commemorate this milestone, especially now that, with the release of Hecate, the Serengeti trilogy is finally complete. And how, you ask? Well, what better way to celebrate with a little music. A song or two (or twelve) to form the soundtrack to Serengeti.

I've actually had this idea kicking around in my head for a while, partly because I like to listen to music while I write, and partly because, like most authors I know, I have this silly dream that someday someone will make Serengeti into a big budget film. I mean, who wouldn't want their words and ideas translated into a glorious moving picture? But to have a movie, you need a soundtrack--one that captures the essence of the story and the feel of individual scenes. Well, I've mapped out my soundtrack, which includes a bunch of my personal favorites. Some songs you've probably heard of and some you probably haven't. Either way, have a listen. Sit back and enjoy.

Army of Me - Bjork
Scene: Kickoff of opening battle

Starlight Run - Hands in the Sky
Scene: Meridian Alliance retreat, right before Serengeti jumps to hyperspace

House of Cards - Radiohead
Scene: Henricksen and Finlay making for the lifeboat

New Light of Tomorrow - Husky Rescue
Scene: Slow pan through Serengeti’s wrecked body while she sleeps

Happiness - Grant Lee Buffalo
Scene: Engineering with its burnt out robots 

Dancehall Places - Mint Royale
Scene: Tig and Tilli working around the ship

Sorrow -The National
Scene: Serengeti looking inside the lifeboat

Die Young - Sylvan Esso
Scene: Firing the big gun to repel the scavengers

Mouthful of Diamonds - Phantogram
Scene: Serengeti touring the outside hull with Tig and Tilli

Agaetis Byrjun - Sigur Ros
Scene: Lifeboat setting off on its journey

Bleeding Heart Show - The New Pornographers
Scene: Valkyrie Arrival

Heroine - Sinead O’Connor
Scene: Closing credits

0 Comments

DARK AND STARS Named One of 2017's Best Indie Sci-Fi Books

12/12/2017

0 Comments

 
So, you guys know how much I love  SciFiAndScary , right? ​Right??!! I mean, who wouldn't love this blog, they let me ramble on about bad movies, after all. Well, this awesome site is also a huge supporter of indie authors and small press books. And this year, to my surprise and delight, Lilyn G selected my little sci-fi book, Dark and Stars, as one of her best indie sci-fi reads of 2017. YES! Looking for some suggestions for your next read? Well, click on the image below and you can check out the entire list.
Picture
0 Comments

HECATE Audiobook Release!

10/17/2017

0 Comments

 
Huzzah! After a long, long wait--believe me, it's be harder for me to wait than all of you--the Hecate audiobook is finally available! *flails* Want a copy? Can't wait? EARS ARE BURNING FOR THE WORDS??!! Good! Just hit this linkety-link-of-Hecate-goodness and you can clickety-click to get your own copy! Easy, right? Go! Click! Get the words in your ear bones!
Picture
0 Comments

HECATE Cover Reveal!

6/10/2017

0 Comments

 
Ladies and gentlemen, as promised,  the cover for Hecate, the upcoming Serengeti prequel. Whaddaya think? Seriously, whaddaya think??!!
Picture
Oh, and in case you missed it before, here's the back cover blurb to let you know what the story's all about:
​

Black Ops—the intelligence arm of the Meridian Alliance Fleet. Black Ops came calling with an offer Henricksen couldn’t refuse: a ship—an entire squadron of ships, actually—and crew to command. A chance to get back to the stars.

Too bad he didn’t ask more questions before accepting the assignment. Too bad no one told him just how hinky this particular skunkworks project was.

​They call the ship the RV-N: Reconnaissance Vessel - Non-combat, Raven for short. A stealth ship—fast, and maneuverable, and brutal as hell. On the surface, Henricksen's assignment seems simple: train his crew, run the RV-Ns through their paces, get the ships certified for mission operations and job done. But an accident in training reveals a fatal design flaw in the Raven, and when an undercover operative steals classified information from a Black Ops facility, the Fleet Brass cancels the tests completely, rushing the faulty ships and their half-trained crew into live operations. On a mission to recover the Fleet’s lost secrets.


Out of time and out of options, Henricksen has no choice but to launch his squadron. But a ghost from his past makes him question everything—the ships, their AI, the entirety of this mission, right down to the secrets he and his crew are supposed to recover.
0 Comments

New SERENGETI Book Signed with Severed Press!

5/26/2017

0 Comments

 
You've read Serengeti, you've read Dark and Stars, and now you're wondering: Will there be another? Do I get to spend more time with these characters? Well, I'm happy to say the answer is...
Picture
I recently signed another book in the Serengeti series with Severed Press. A prequel this time, set before the original ​Serengeti, so I guess it'll be Serengeti 0.5 not Serengeti Book 3. Release is scheduled for late June/early July--I hope to have cover art and a firm publication date to share soon. In the meantime, how about a little back cover copy to whet your appetite? Yeah? Sound good? Okay....GO!

Black Ops—the intelligence arm of the Meridian Alliance Fleet. Black Ops came calling with an offer Henricksen couldn’t refuse: a ship—an entire squadron of ships, actually—and crew to command. A chance to get back to the stars.

Too bad he didn’t ask more questions before accepting the assignment. Too bad no one told him just how hinky this particular skunkworks project was.

​They call the ship the RV-N: Reconnaissance Vessel - Non-combat, Raven for short. A stealth ship—fast, and maneuverable, and brutal as hell. On the surface, Henricksen's assignment seems simple: train his crew, run the RV-Ns through their paces, get the ships certified for mission operations and job done. But an accident in training reveals a fatal design flaw in the Raven, and when an undercover operative steals classified information from a Black Ops facility, the Fleet Brass cancels the tests completely, rushing the faulty ships and their half-trained crew into live operations. On a mission to recover the Fleet’s lost secrets.


Out of time and out of options, Henricksen has no choice but to launch his squadron. But a ghost from his past makes him question everything—the ships, their AI, the entirety of this mission, right down to the secrets he and his crew are supposed to recover.
0 Comments

AudioFile Magazine Best AudioBooks of 2016

12/2/2016

1 Comment

 
Those of you who read my blog regularly will remember that Serengeti won an AudioFile Magazine Earbuds award a few months back. That was huge and thanks in large part to the narration of the multi-talented Elizabeth Wiley. Well, AudioFile did me one better and picked Serengeti as one of the Best AudioBooks of 2016. It's a huge honor to have my little book listed alongside Joe Hill's work, and those from several other notable and well-known authors. You can check out the list in its entirety by clicking the document file link below.
2016-best-audiobooks.pdf
File Size: 15378 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Picture
1 Comment

New Interview: Indie SciFi Fantasy

10/14/2016

0 Comments

 
Yay! Another SFF site let me use up some white space with my babble! Want to learn a little more about me? Well head on over to Indie SciFi Fantasy and check out my new interview. And, yes. I promise I didn't just regurgitate the same old answers from my last interview. I wouldn't do that to you guys. Honest!
Picture
0 Comments

BookBub: A Retrospective

8/12/2016

4 Comments

 
Picture
Okay, so some of you are thinking: What is a BookBub and why do I care? Well, if you’re an author, or a reader, BookBub is sort of the holy grail of book promotion. BookBub emails subscribers about discounts on titles they’ve accepted for promotion.

So, how does it work? Well, if you apply to BookBub and they accept you for a listing—yep, that’s right, you apply and then pay them to list your book if accepted—they give your book a prominent listing on their website and blast a blurb out on the selected day to their millions of subscribers. But first you’ve got to put it on sale—that’s the big hook, after all. So when Serengeti was accepted (after 4 tries), Severed Press dropped the price to $0.99 for a week) and then we all sat back and chewed our nails.

I honestly wasn’t quite sure what to expect going into BookBub day. BookBub’s pricing page (https://www.bookbub.com/partners/pricing) provides average sales for books by category, and Serengeti (a sci-fi novel on sale for $0.99 in coordination with the BookBub promo) was targeted for 2,200 sales.

But those were just estimates. Averages based on other promos. And this was my book, my promo—I had no idea how Serengeti would measure up.

The $0.99 sale started on Monday, 1 August—I saw a few extra sales right away but not much. And then Serengeti’s big day rolled around--4 August 2016, Serengeti BookBub day. After a slow start, things really got rolling, Serengeti’s Amazon ranking jumping by leaps and bounds. At its peak, Serengeti maxed out at #22 in Kindle ebooks and #1 in all its sci-fi categories. And that 2,200 sales expectation? Well, from everything I read I should hit that on BookBub day.
​
Well, I didn’t. I didn’t even come close. Granted, I can only see Amazon sales data as reported by NovelRank (http://www.novelrank.com), not data from other sales outlets. And NovelRank only reports on some Amazon sites—Australia, critically, is missing from their data, which is potentially significant given my publisher, Severed Press, is an Australian company. Whatever the case, the data I did have access to told me that, on BookBub day, Serengeti sold just 159 ebook copies—a significant uptick from previous days, but nowhere near the 2,200 average advertised on the BookBub page.

PictureSERENGETI eBook Sales (NovelRank)
Disappointing? A little. But ya know what? I sold more books the next day, and despite a dip over the next few days, sales stayed steady and relatively good over the next few days, even after the $0.99 promo (which ran 1-8 August) ended. 

That’s not what typically happens. From everything I’ve read, sales tend to peak on BookBub day, drop off precipitously and all but die once the sales promo is over. Oh! And as an added (and entirely unexpected) bonus? The ebook promo spilled over into audiobook sales. I don’t have access to audiobook sales data like I do for ebooks but at one point, Serengeti was ranked #6 in sci-fi audiobooks.

Interesting. Very interesting. Especially since I can only see a portion of the sales data. And it’ll be even more interesting to see if those sales stay.

Even if they don’t, BookBub helped me connect with a ton more readers and secure a few more fans. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about, right? I mean, yeah. Sales are nice and all but connecting with a reader, having them really, truly enjoy something you’ve written. Have them ask for a sequel because they really, really, really want more. Well, that’s it, isn’t it? Everything a writer could ever ask for. The whole reason I started writing in the first place.

So, three cheers for BookBub and a huge thanks to my publisher, Severed Press, for landing the promo for Serengeti. It was fun, it was exciting, and it helped me find all of you. 

Picture
4 Comments
    J.B. Rockwell
    J.B. Rockwell grew up reading fairy tales, folklore and mythology, as well as anything and everything about ancient cultures and their history, and never lost her taste for any of it.  She currently lives in West Virginia with her husband and two cats, all of whom provide inspiration for her stories, whether they know it or not.
    Picture

    Archives

    February 2023
    December 2021
    October 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    October 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    September 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014

    Categories

    All
    Bad Movie Reviews
    Book Reviews
    Crimson King
    Diary Of A Crazed Cauliflower
    Publication News
    Serengeti
    SFF Interviews
    Unicorns

    RSS Feed

Home
About
Published Works
Crowhammer Chronicles
Blog
Contact
Website Design by Otterhaus Enterprises LLC © 2014