Dragonates

Pyramids is set in Prytennia, which is divided into three dragonates.  Through the magic of Julie Dillon, here are Nimelleth, Dulethar, and Athian...

Stained Glass Mapping

Added the map for Stained Glass Monsters (and sent the file for update on CreateSpace).  For The Sleeping Life I'll have to expand this, and Tyrland will shrink down to a middle-sized kingdom, thoroughly dwarfed by the Empire Rennyn & co head to in an attempt to clear up some unfinished business.

I also updated the ebook files to the new formatting fad which is going around - including the blurb in the 'front matter' of the ebook.  This is something I've wished for more than once when reading ebooks since it's very common to download a mass of samples and then have no idea what any of them are supposed to be about by the time you get around to reading them.  Even if you embed the description in the metadata of the ebook, too many ereaders don't display this in any handy way - so I'm including mine right after the copyright page.

Other than that, I've been playing some Nancy Drew hidden object games, and failing to weed the garden.

Mapping

I've updated the trade paperback version of Champion to include the map (there's just a link in the ebook version).  I usually draw a rough map while I'm writing, so that my characters don't head out east to go to the Western Marches, but I hesitated to fool with images when taking my first shaky steps into publishing - so of course my first reviews commented on the lack of a map.  I'll be adding the maps to Medair and SGM over the next month or so.  [A map just wouldn't work with the Touchstone series, though I wish I was artist enough to fill it with little sketches of the things Cass sees.]

I also took the opportunity to add six paragraphs of 'underlining' to Champ to emphasise a particular interpretation of the text.  No change to the plot, but those paragraphs function much like the little arrow on the map of Darest, pointing north.

A self-publisher's ability to update is a double-edged sword.  Great for fixing typos, but an eternal temptation, since I've never met a piece of my own writing that I didn't want to fiddle with every time I read it.  I decided on a system of noting the version date on the copyright page, if it's ever updated with more than typo corrections, but on the whole I will try to restrain myself.

Kindling and other housekeeping

[Edit: Note, after a closer reading of the terms and conditions as part of publishing at Kindle, it appears that the 70% royalty is available to anyone, but only for US/UK/Canadian _sales_.]

Amazon KDP does not offer a good deal for non-US/UK authors.  The 70% royalty is not available, only a 35% option, and the only payment options are having a US bank account, or US cheques (with the currency conversion fee that will attract from my bank).  Because of this, I didn't go straight to Amazon KDP, but instead waited for Smashwords and Amazon to finalise their formatting so I could distribute to Kindle through Smashwords, which would mean a higher royalty, less work, and payments via Paypal.

Not publishing to the major market for self-publishers has been a trifle annoying, but since I didn't have a big launch or any noteable publicity, there was no particular hurry.  But weeks turned to months, and I finally caved.  Champ is now up, and Silence and Stained Glass Monsters will be up in a couple of days.  I am hoping that the negotiations are done by the time I've finished editing Stray, though.

Still doesn't solve the problem of publicity, but it's good to at least be in the market.

In the versions I put up, I added a link in the front material to maps for each book, since one of the main reader requests I've had is for maps.  The "ETC" page on my site will be the repository for such extras for the books, and the Champ and Silence maps are there.  Will have to draw a map for SGM, though.