Saturday Humor

Happy Kwaanza

Merry Christmas!!!

Feel the Force...

Lyn McConchie's Katalagein Available on Audible!

 

Welcome to Katalagein. I've been writing short stories now for 25 years, and they've been published for 24 of those. I also write books, but that's another tale entirely. I live with a cat, or rather, as he'd see it, he graciously permits me to live with him. As a result, and over the years, a number of my stories have featured cats, and some even featured cats that were real - although their adventures may have been exaggerated, but then again....

Cats think that humans exist to keep them warmed, fed, cuddled, and loved. Humans exist to open doors, cat-food tins, and cartons large enough for a cat to curl up in. They exist to rescue the cat, defend the cat, and protect the cat. Our opinion, that cats exist to keep us company and catch mice, doesn't begin to describe the relationship of the average cat with their human.

Humans are stupid too, in the estimation of the same cat. No tail, no whiskers - no brains. Certainly our language abilities, compared to feline-speak are incredibly limited. We come in useful for some things but it can take so long to get the essential demand across, that I think that my current cat, Thunder, assumes I'm something of an idiot.

However, I've always enjoyed writing cat stories, some have even won awards, and using my imagination I've been able to explore cats and their elements in a way that has opened doors to worlds previously unknown to me - and not always as expected either. So follow me into the many worlds of cats, but watch out, because where ever cats go, trouble follows!

Happy Yule or Solstice!

Check Out Pat MacEwen's Dragon's Kiss

Some Saturday Humor...

Did your dad ever talk to you like that?

Modern Sorcery -- Now on Audible!

The bestselling novel by Gary Jonas is available unabridged on Audible!

A husband armed with a sword hacks apart his wife in a Denver grocery store. There are dozens of witnesses, and the crime is captured on the security cameras. To the police, it's an open-and-shut case.
To Naomi, the daughter of the couple, it's evidence of dark magic. She hires her ex-lover, a private investigator named Jonathan Shade to prove her father is innocent.
Shade specializes in paranormal cases, but he isn't buying it. Still, he takes the case, hoping to rekindle their relationship. Instead, Shade finds himself mixed up in supernatural intrigue with wizards, magically engineered assassins, and an ancient sorcerer returned to life who's willing to kill anyone who stands in his way.
Too bad Shade doesn't have any magic.

Win One of Our Most Popular Audiobooks!

You want to enter our latest Rafflecopter giveaway of our FIVE most popular books including The Lost Enforcer, Modern...

Posted by Maggie Bonham on Thursday, December 17, 2015

Audiobooks!!!

Did you know that Sky Warrior Books has Audiobooks?  How cool is that?  We offer a number of your favorite books on Audible including Prophecy of Swords, The King's Champion, and Shield of Honor all unabridged!  Check them out!

Happy Hanukkah!

Happy Hanukkah!

Stupidly Busy and the Fall Slow Down

Fall is an insane time for us at Sky Warrior Book Publishing, LLC.  We are working hard on our audiobooks and working toward getting our other books under contract out the door.  From now until the end of the year, you probably won't hear a lot from us. This is because the stars align and it's time for other pressing things, as well as getting books out the door.

Hunting Season...No, Really

Hunting season is upon us and quite honestly between hunting and getting all the other work we have to get done, this puts anthologies at the back of all the other Sky Warrior Books that need attention. If you're really curious, you can read about hunting and the critters at EatingWildMontana.  We then have the holidays, and then the after-holiday sales.  So, this is a slow period for us to respond and we had to make some hard choices. Unfortunately, anthos get the short end of it. More on this later.

Audible Books in the Works

Right now, we have Audible books in the works. Currently we have 19 -- yes, you read right -- 19 books in all phases of production. If you haven't noticed, we have a number of new books out in Audible including:

• Samurai Son
• Prophecy of Swords
• Acheron Highway
• One-Way Ticket to Midnight
• The Lost Enforcer
• Daemons and Shadows
• Rough Magic
• Shield of Honor

If you're doing math, we have 11 more in production and dozens looking for narrators.  And yes, we pay royalty share.  So, if you're a good narrator, you can join up on Audible and see if we like your voice.

Books in the Works

We've been working on S. A. Bolich's books in her Fate's Arrow saga as well as other books soon to be put forth in print.   We still have a number of books by John Dalmas to produce as well as books by Frog and Esther Jones, David Lee Summers, and others.

What's the Deal with the Anthos?

We've been reevaluating our anthologies and discovering, quite honestly, they don't generate enough profit to continue pumping them out, given the amount of work that needs to get done for them. Between paying authors, editors, and artists, we pay out nearly 75% in net royalties which doesn't even begin to cover our costs when you consider that most of the authors do not promote them. We're thinking that in the future, like our novels, anthos may be invitation-only, if and when we decide to continue our anthologies. The current anthologies are on hold for the time being, dates of publication TBA.  Do not send me emails or comments asking me when that is.  Most likely you won't see them out until well after the first of the year.

While this is a bit of a pain for the short story authors, the reality is that you aren't going to make millions off this work. It may be your first sale, but if you've signed a contract with us, you can still market it elsewhere. We take nonexclusive antho rights which will let you shop it elsewhere.  No harm; no foul.

Small Product Lab Experiment, Day 3

Day 3 for the Small Product Lab consisted of creating a landing page for our product. I screwed around with various website builders and came up with something, only to discover the builder was proprietary. So, I went back to my original builder and took the buttons and swatches and created this:

I ended up using Mailchimp as the newsletter sign up.  I then added it to Facebook as well. Yesterday, I created the Get Your Goat Now logo, I set up the Twitter and Facebook pages, set up the blog, and I bought the domain name.

So far with the exception of the domain name, getyourgoatnow.com, and one stock photo, everything has been free (I already have a website host.) The domain cost me about $18 for two years and the stock photo set me back $7.  So, what I have:

-- Order/Landing Page
-- Facebook page
-- Twitter page
-- Logo
-- Newsletter server
-- Blog
-- Domain

This, my friends, is what I am referring to when I am talking about promotion.  I put in about $25 and two days time and look what I have already.  It's not the prettiest or the cleanest, but it is there.  Note: anyone can do this and it doesn't matter what country you're from. It isn't rocket science. But look what I already have together in two days?

Tonight I got the Intro written and about half of the first chapter. Hmmm.  I have only 7 more days.

The Small Product Lab Experiment

I enrolled in the Small Product Lab on a lark and got accepted which was pretty cool.  Basically it is to produce a product within 10 days and bring it to market.  I want to do this as a kind of exercise both to learn some things and to show my authors how to produce and promote a new product in a short amount of time.  In this case, the new product is a book.  Granted, with 10 days, it will be a small book.

The first day, I had to come up with an idea.  The idea had to be small because it is a small product -- and one should know about the product one is doing in order to produce it.   I decided to come up with the idea of writing a short goat book that would work for new goat buyers.  It wouldn't cover all aspects of goat ownership -- just the most critical. Thus the project, Get Your Goat Now! is borne. With this new idea, I now get to make a plan. The plan includes a schedule for everything I have to do in the eight more days I have. This includes the book outline.  So, I started putting the schedule together.  Join me on this merry adventure as I plan out this book from conception to market.

Authors: I know what you're thinking.  You're thinking that there's no way this would work with fiction.  Are you so certain?  I'm pretty sure it will because short stories are cheaper than dirt. Write one and come up with a promotion like I will.  Maybe you'll have something at the end to show me as well?

Sky Warrior Books -- or How Things Have Been Progressing

As usual, things have been crazy here at Sky Warrior Books. Right now, I'm working to get some books on the schedule, such as The Dragon's Hoard, Zombiefied: Hazardous Material, Through the Veil, Gate of Souls, and other books. We are all caught up with royalty statements and should get the final payouts or contributor copies to the couple of authors still due by the end of the month. Royalties for the second half of last year will come out as per contract after the royalty accumulation period, which is when we finally accumulate the monies from our distributors. Obviously, we have to get paid before we can pay anyone.

We've got a couple of anthologies in the works now. One of them is on fairy folk. The other is a steampunk anthology. Oddly enough, we seem to attract those in steampunk.

New Releases


The long-awaited release of S.A. Bolich's sequel to The Mask of God, known as The Mark of God, is currently available as an e-book and will soon be available in trade paperback. It features artwork by Peter Bradley.

Up-and-Coming Releases June , 2015