First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy

First Cup of Coffee - September 15, 2022

September 15, 2022 Jeffe Kennedy Season 5 Episode 122
First Cup of Coffee with Jeffe Kennedy
First Cup of Coffee - September 15, 2022
Show Notes Transcript

I'm celebrating finishing SHADOW WIZARD! And the exciting results of my BookBub Featured Deal with setting DARK WIZARD to free. Also a bit on endings, respecting the story brain, and tithing to the creative powers.

Interested in Author Coaching from me? Information here: https://jeffekennedy.com/author-coaching

Preorder SHADOW WIZARD, Book One in Renegades of Magic, continuing the epic tale begun in DARK WIZARD. https://jeffekennedy.com/shadow-wizard

ROGUE'S PARADISE is out today! (https://jeffekennedy.com/rogue-s-paradise). Buy book 1, ROGUE'S PAWN, here! (https://jeffekennedy.com/rogue-s-pawn) and book 2, ROGUE'S POSSESSION, here! (https://jeffekennedy.com/rogue-s-possession).

ORIA'S GAMBIT now available in audio on Scribd here! https://www.scribd.com/audiobook/571010481/Oria-s-Gambit LONEN'S WAR - now in audio! - is available wide. Buy links here https://jeffekennedy.com/lonen-s-war and in audio on Scribd here https://www.scribd.com/audiobook/558914129/Lonen-s-War

If you want to support me and the podcast, click on the little heart or follow this link (https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/jeffekennedy).

You can watch this podcast on YouTube here https://youtu.be/YSCIlDnVRjI

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Thanks for listening!

00:00.00
jeffekennedy
Good morning everyone! This is Jeffe Kennedy author of epic fantasy romance I'm here with my first cup of coffee.

00:11.76
jeffekennedy
Ah, fabulous today is Thursday September Fifteenth Fifteenth halfway through the ides of September which is not a thing. Well, there's ides of every month obviously. But anyway, how are all of you. Um, good news here is I finished shadow wizard woo very exciting finished it yesterday. Um I did. Alas I did a big push yesterday I didn't have any meetings scheduled so that was good and I ended up doing about 4200 words um to finish out that last scene and it's a little sketched in little. Penciled in at this point but I'll go through and flesh it out start the revision past today. The plan is best late plans. The plan is to revise today tomorrow Monday Tuesday ah, and then. And I think that's the plan. Let's consult the plan. Oh I should tell you what it came in at um, eighty six thousand seven eighty five I was a really darn close to my projection of eighty nine thousand by the time I finish the revision. It'll be.

01:42.21
jeffekennedy
Around eighty nine or ninety thousand I think oh so I actually have Wednesday as well. So that's right today tomorrow Monday Tuesday Wednesday and then Thursday friday I'll do my out loud proofing send for formatting on Friday or Saturday. So I've got a little bit of wiggle room there. Um I might see how fast today and tomorrow goes and if I'm going slowly I might work some over the weekend I tried not to do that because it wears me out. But I might do it. But. Fingers crossed and knock on wood I think the revision is going to go pretty fast I know a few things I need to weave in but I don't have the feeling like I do sometimes that's like oh my god there's so much stuff I have to fix. Ah um, yeah. 1 of the things I'm thinking about is that I do need to check that I want to make sure I have all of my threads for the overall arc touched upon and maybe reintroduction of some characters. Um I was kind of aware that of that at the end that there were some characters that I probably had not really introduced in case of new readers. um so um and I know there's a few things I want to weave in but I don't know.

03:16.89
jeffekennedy
Maybe I'll get lucky this time and it really won't be that much work I Also don't feel as exhausted as I can when I'm um, done with a book. So So that's pretty cool I've been pretty revved pretty revved lately. So Yeah I Think. Getting to go to conferences and do things has been energizing. Ah yeah.

03:46.68
jeffekennedy
Um, let's see. Um oh the other exciting thing is I mentioned on Tuesday that I had the book bub ad and that dark wizard would be free. It's free through tomorrow and that has been very interesting for those of you interested. In numbers. Um, so so far there I've had. It's probably already there by this time but I've had um, nearly 12000 downloads of the book. Um.

04:26.20
jeffekennedy
On the day of the book bub ad ah I got nearly 10000 downloads that was Tuesday and then yesterday I got another 2000 actually I got 2221 why couldn't I have gotten 2222 somebody out there let me down and that it's still going hot today. It was very interesting to see the Amazon ranking because ah, pretty much all day Tuesday for a very long time on tuesday. Um I was at number 60 in the free store dark wizard was at number 60 in the free store I should do better right? I really do try to not conflate myself with my books. Ah, and I thought and I commented grace because we were chatting and looking at the numbers enjoying. You know as we do sharing our business stuff and we thought that you'll probably those top 60 are very very difficult to dislodge somebody else said well maybe Amazon's not updating which it could be but I imagine the top 60 are difficult to dislodge. But then all of a sudden the book was at like number 10 in the free store and I did take a screenshot of that and shared it. Ah and the highest I ever saw it was number 7.

05:57.90
jeffekennedy
And now it has dropped again, but it hasn't dropped by much this morning. It was at number 20 in the free store. So so that's really cool. Um, so now the question will be. How will those free downloads translate to actual sales. Um, the book will go back to regular price tomorrow um tomorrow night probably I have seen um, an uptick in sales of. Bright familiar and gray magic pre-orders for shadow wizard have increased. Um, so yeah I need to more carefully track bright familiar and grey magic and see see how those sales. How much they've up ticked. They certainly have upticked. Um I also feel like you know people need time to read dark wizard but they've certainly risen in rank in the Kindle store. Not you know, not to astronomical numbers. But. You know, bright familiar set like something like 20000 overall and like 3 50 in the Subcategory. So you know nothing to write home about but considering before the the sale they were um you know like down at 120000 or something.

07:28.56
jeffekennedy
Like that and I can definitely tell by my my daily sales that there's been an overall uptick in a lot of my books so that's cool. Um, yeah, so you know now it's like I think a lot of people. Get books that are free because I mean why wouldn't you it doesn't hurt. You know, especially ebook you know, put it on your kindle and maybe someday you'll read it so it'll be interesting to see how it plays out from here. But overall I think it was very successful. Um I think it was. Worth the ah the book bub ad my money I think I paid three hundred and fifty dollars so which is not nothing but it was also reasonable I don't often pay for ads but I paid for that and certainly. Got a lot of profile from it. So so that's great I do have 1 friend who said oh well that when she had um her book bubbin her book was free that she got thirty eight Thousand downloads and hit number one in the free Kindle store. And it's like oh well. Okay, so I guess mine didn't do that well but that was also a while ago for her and it was contemporary. Romance. So so yeah, I'm I'm super excited about this and it feels good feels like I've got um.

09:03.12
jeffekennedy
The momentum for shadow Wizard release which is what I was looking for and yeah so I'm excited to get this revision going I have um, fun things coming up in the future after this I'm going to work on that.

09:22.00
jeffekennedy
Secret project the movie project I Only call it movie project because it's um and it's working off of a movie concept. It won't be a movie probably well could happen So but ah.

09:41.24
jeffekennedy
The rest of this week just today and tomorrow I guess is for this and next week for putting this book to bed and then I will begin the next project I'm excited to do that I am going to write the ah Christmas novella once this other book is written.

10:00.51
jeffekennedy
And yeah, it's going to be ah, a midwinter wedding in the heirs of magic world. Thank you to I think it was Laura Darnell reminded me that that was a possibility I'd actually had that in the back of my head so that'll be a little holiday sussy. For you all and teach I'm home for the next couple of months which is nice well month and half now right going to world fantasy con first week in November and then it sounds like I'm going to get. To do a super fun writing retreat the week after Thanksgiving I will um I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to talk about that one I'll tell you all more if I can but it's um, really exciting I'm looking forward to that.

10:57.61
jeffekennedy
Um, and let's see I don't know if I've a lot else to say it because I've been very head down on finishing this book.

11:09.36
jeffekennedy
Yeah, and I I don't know that you know watching those numbers that's been going on. Do I have anything profound and interesting to say seriously folks do I ever. Ah.

11:27.16
jeffekennedy
Um, beautiful morning, Beautiful autumn morning the Sunflowers garden.

11:38.94
jeffekennedy
My mind is a little bit of a blank I suppose I'm even though I'm feeling pretty energized I think I'm a little bit um, emptied out telling this story I sent it off to Carien to read and we'll see what she says. Ah, but I wrote the ending that I wanted and I'm really happy with it. Ah, hopefully you all will be happy with it too. Ah, ah, um, how it just feels like this is the ending that's got to have has felt that way all along and so I think i. What I have to do right? Um, you know it can be such a push pull right with reader expectations market expectations and your own creative urge and I think you all know that I tend to. Sneer I do I sneer a bit at the people who are deliberately inverting tropes to show that they are cleverer than everybody else. Um, you know, especially the people who are like I'm going to write a romance only it won't end happily be. And then and they say this like they're the first person to think of this and and I've talked about this at length before but you know really, it's easy to write a tragic ending. It's much more difficult to write a happy ending to write especially one that's earned where.

13:13.62
jeffekennedy
Um, especially in a romance where the true love is believably earned. Um, you know a tragic ending is at a cheap jerk of the heartstrings I think.

13:32.88
jeffekennedy
But you know if if that's if that's the ending the story needs and that's great. But if it's because you think that that's um, being clever. It's not however, you know our society. Our. Art scene. What have you persists in prioritizing dark stories as being more artistic than lighter ones for whatever reason you know it's rare for a comedy to. Be nominated for the academy award this is true to all creative genres. So but this ending well, it's the first book in a trilogy and I feel like I'm giving too much away and I shouldn't. Ah I hope that that the readers will trust me I hope you all will trust me? Um, it's it's a little bit of a frustrating ending perhaps and I might change it still. We'll see what Carien says she speaks for you. All. So. You all should um, like say nice things to her but this book from the beginning. This particular book has demanded new things of me not in a challenging way but just things I haven't done before and I feel like I need to.

15:08.20
jeffekennedy
Keep that call and and it's an interesting place to be because normally I'm very strongly on the side of um, you want to satisfy reader expectations. You want to satisfy Market expectations. Ah this particular book. Is going to go against some of those things and it's not I can promise in case this podcast ah like goes down as evidence of anything I promise that it's not because I'm like trying to switch things up or invert expectations. Um I'm not trying to. Be Clever. It's just this was this the ending the story demanded from the beginning. Um, and and yeah it does it advance. The overall arc not a lot. Um. But it sets things up and sometimes that's the way of things. Um, ah I still remember that I saw a review of storm princess not storm princess. No Dragon's daughter and the winter Mage. And the airs of magic so series where somebody said you could skip this one because it doesn't advance the overall arc at all and they didn't like the romance and it's like you know, do.

16:39.91
jeffekennedy
Sometimes ah advancing the art sometimes what does it mean I described bright familiar to a friendly other day as um, well you all know I've called it my 2 towers.

16:57.59
jeffekennedy
Um, but it's it's basically an extended training montage and building the team so in many ways these books bonds of magic and renegades of magic are going to be the same they are in some ways a single book told in 3 acts 3 Equal acts um so and and I'm okay with that I hope you all are okay with that.

17:30.56
jeffekennedy
I was talking with a writer friend of mine the other day who said something about how she could be a multi-millionaire by now if she had if she was doing a better job of being disciplined about writing. And I think we all feel this way at some point or another that if we ah were better about targeting market expectations about doing things a particular way we could make more money and I said to her but I don't think you want to be a multimillionaire and she's like well everybody does and I said but to you and she was like.

18:08.15
jeffekennedy
Said were other things more important too I think more other things were more important to her and I think that's a choice we all make right? we decide what's important to us and what we want to be and um as I often say there are easier ways to make a living ah than. Writing if you want to make a bunch of money be a financier oops you then you can buy new chairs I really need to fix these chairs. But if you want to tell stories then sometimes you have to pay a tithe. To the story gods and the bringers of the stories I don't often talk in terms of amuse. But um I really like Mary Robinette Cowell's term story brain and I'm yeah.

19:04.42
jeffekennedy
Sometimes you you got to do what the story brain tells you to do? Um, otherwise you risk the wrath right risk losing it. So I'm going to go start it on this revision. Hope you all have wonderful thursday Thank you all for the congratulations on finishing and I will talk to you tomorrow you all take care bye bye.