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

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.

Ladies and gentlemen, as promised,  the cover for Hecate, the upcoming Serengeti prequel. Whaddaya think? Seriously, whaddaya think??!!

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...

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.