The Siliphore - An Engrossing Fantasy Trilogy

[DruSimon]

Things to do when you visit the capital city: See the zoo...tour the royal gardens...avoid being killed by an attacking army...become the King...

When a dying ruler places the powerful Collar of the Kings around his throat, Sennic of Aradok embarks on a life-changing journey in which he witnesses the legends and myths of his youth coming to terrifying life before his eyes as he becomes the unwilling center of a struggle to save his world.

In Book One - KINGDOM, Sennic becomes the target of a kingdom-wide manhunt by an ambitious prince who will commit any atrocity to obtain the Collar for himself. As the prince's net closes around Sennic and his companions, the young Collar Bearer must confront an unworldly dagger called The Siliphore and discover the inner strength he will need to save himself, his family and quite possibly, his world.

In Book Two - PRINCES, Sennic must piece together the broken shards of his humanity and courage after he's freed from the horrors inflicted on him by Prince Pash with The Siliphore. Believing the prince has been defeated, Sennic sets out again on a seemingly hopeless quest to find the lost priest, Barak. But Sennic’s trials have only begun. Using the combined power of The Siliphore and the Collar of the Kings, Jave, the demonic ruler of a parallel world means to use Prince Pash to transform Sennic’s rich, green kingdom into his own hellish landscape.

In Book Three - SACRIFICE, Sennic and his companions defy the powerful Council of Agma and ride west in search of the priest Barak. As time grows short, Sennic must learn how to wield the enormous power of the Collar of the Kings.

But the Council of Agma is not taking Sennic’s disobedience lying down. Their response is felt throughout the capital and surrounding cities, setting off a chain of events that bring the Kingdom to the terrifying brink of war.

Unaware of the dangerous situation in Agasee but too aware of his own mortality, Sennic prepares for his inevitable encounter with the genocidal demon Jave, the result of which will decide the fate of the world.

Part adventure, part romance, The Siliphore is set in an intricately detailed world, and populated by a multi-faceted cast of characters who take Sennic though the dangers, adventures and horrors he must face on his journey from being a victim of circumstance to becoming the monarch the world needs him to be.

Note: Violence and sexual content

The entire trilogy is available for KINDLE via Amazon.com. Hard copy of Book One - KINGDOM is also available via the following URL: https://www.createspace.com/3447218
Hard copy of Book One will shortly be available through Amazon.com.

[Worldwalker]

DRM-locked?

*sigh* Of all the things that could have been my 1,000th post here, it's a question about DRM.

[neilmarr]

DRM ain't the way to attract readers here, Dru. But good luck and very best wishes. Neil

[Worldwalker]

Looks like it might be a fun read, too.

I wonder how the paper book industry would have taken off if people who wanted to buy books were repeatedly told "no, we only advertise it in your country; we don't actually sell it there" or "that book isn't allowed on your brand of bookshelf". Somehow, I don't think it would have done too well.

[Dr. Drib]

The ebooks will have tough competition in the marketplace:

They are priced at $14.95, $14.95, and $34.95 for volumes 1,2, and 3.



Don

[Worldwalker]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

The ebooks will have tough competition in the marketplace:

They are priced at $14.95, $14.95, and $34.95 for volumes 1,2, and 3.

. . .

I didn't even look at the prices because of the format/DRM issue.

That is so far over my "impulse buy" and "let's check out this new author" thresholds that my mind is spinning like a top. (okay, maybe that's the caffeine)

I can think of one time when I've paid anything like that for any book by an unknown author. He was signing his books at the local Borders and he was a really nice guy who was starting to look kind of dispirited, so I bought one of his books. Bad mistake. It stank on ice. It would stink in Antarctica. It would stink in the Kuiper Belt. If I hadn't learned my lesson before that, I certainly did then. Now I have an autographed reminder in case I forget, which I keep as kind of a cenotaph for my lost fifteen bucks.

I guess it's just another indie who isn't getting the same thing the NYC publishers aren't getting: Price your books as luxury items and most people will find cheaper entertainment. Price your books as impulse buys and a whole lot of people will impulsively buy them. (the proof is left as an exercise for the student's TBR list)

[MmavisO]

And to top it all off, it's Kindle only. Nothing to see here, move along.

[Critteranne]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

The ebooks will have tough competition in the marketplace:

They are priced at $14.95, $14.95, and $34.95 for volumes 1,2, and 3.



Don

Yikes! What is this, a new trend in indie author prices? I hope not. For that price, I could buy the e-book of the third Stieg Larsson book and have enough money for a large frozen coffee drink full of fat and sugar and little pieces of candy.

When e-books were really really new, there was a place called Fatbrain where indie authors could self-publish e-book editions of their novels, nonfiction, short stories, etc. Most priced them very affordably, seeing it as a way to get readers. But once in a while, an unknown author would price their e-books at around ten dollars or more. I'll bet they wondered why they got so few sales. Luckily, most indie authors have learned better since then, but I guess there are a few outliers...

[Marcy]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

The ebooks will have tough competition in the marketplace:

They are priced at $14.95, $14.95, and $34.95 for volumes 1,2, and 3.

Don

$34.95?? I hope that's a mistake of some sort. The only books I have ever paid that much or more for are scientific reference texts or coin reference texts with many plates of pictures. But for fiction??

-Marcy

[banjobama]

Originally Posted by Critteranne

Yikes! What is this, a new trend in indie author prices? I hope not. For that price, I could buy the e-book of the third Stieg Larsson book and have enough money for a large frozen coffee drink full of fat and sugar and little pieces of candy.

YES! Me too.

$15 for all three of the books sounds a little more reasonable.

Advice: Make the first one $1.99, the second one $2.99, the third one $3.99, and make them available at Smashwords.

[Worldwalker]

I really have to wonder what goes through people's minds.

"The Hobbit sells for $10, so I bet I can get $15 for my book!" doesn't seem to work for me.

[DruSimon]

Yeah, the $35 price is a mistake but that's okay for now, since it badly needs edits (working on it now) and I don't want you to pick it up. The prices have to do with it not COSTING me every time someone buys it. Kindle makes it easier, and soon I'll be changing that 3rd book to something more reasonable, but hey - it's a bit over 800 pages long - I've gotta keep it from costing me! Please hang in there - book 1 is available in hard copy right now if you're interested, though Kindle is always cheaper. You CAN get an ereader for your PC by the way.

Do try it - the story is complex and entertaining - and discusses issues everyone thinks about, from the nature of love and relationships, to power and politics, and even the nature of God. There's a lot of laughter in it, too.

Forgive my "Newbie" mistakes, guys! I take instruction from you!

[Marcy]

Originally Posted by DruSimon

Yeah, the $35 price is a mistake but that's okay for now, since it badly needs edits (working on it now) and I don't want you to pick it up. The prices have to do with it not COSTING me every time someone buys it. Kindle makes it easier, and soon I'll be changing that 3rd book to something more reasonable, but hey - it's a bit over 800 pages long - I've gotta keep it from costing me! Please hang in there - book 1 is available in hard copy right now if you're interested, though Kindle is always cheaper. You CAN get an ereader for your PC by the way.

Do try it - the story is complex and entertaining - and discusses issues everyone thinks about, from the nature of love and relationships, to power and politics, and even the nature of God. There's a lot of laughter in it, too.

Forgive my "Newbie" mistakes, guys! I take instruction from you!

I'm sorry for sounding mean, but you shouldn't publish a book before the editing is complete and then count on a $34.95 price to keep people from buying it. That makes you seem unprofessional. You're better off waiting to publish it when it's complete.

Your books are still too much money, in my ever humble opinion. As a comparison you can buy Elizabeth Moon's The Deed of Paksenarrion (1040 pages, 3-novels-in-one) in trade paperback for $13. New, not secondhand. You can get the ebook for $6. I'll give you that this is an older book but I still have my original copy I bought way back when it was first published, and it was only $7.99 then.

-Marcy, Meanie

[banjobama]

Originally Posted by DruSimon

You CAN get an ereader for your PC by the way.

Do try it - the story is complex and entertaining - and discusses issues everyone thinks about, from the nature of love and relationships, to power and politics, and even the nature of God. There's a lot of laughter in it, too.

Forgive my "Newbie" mistakes, guys! I take instruction from you!

Your novels sound great, but realize that most people aren't going to want to read an epic trilogy of (I'm guessing) between two and three thousand pages on their computer or smartphone. If you were to opt out of DRM then more people will download the book and covert to a different format usable on different e-ink readers. If you sold it at Smashwords or direct from your own website as an epub file, even more people would gladly buy it to support that system rather than Amazon's closed system.

As-is, people without Kindles that want to read your books (of which there are probably a lot here, if the price were lowered) will have to illegally remove the DRM in order to convert the files. Some of us don't really care about doing that but others don't want to bother or don't want to break the law. Just something to think about that people who are "new" to this kind of stuff sometimes don't realize.

[Worldwalker]

Okay, I'm kind of crabby tonight, but ....

How is it that your book will lose money on every sale at any price under $14.95, yet other authors sell for a fraction of that price? You know who David Weber is, right? He doesn't seem to be losing money in the writing business, but I can buy three of his books for the price of one of yours. And I'm a little unclear on just what it's costing you, and how.

Also, um, If I wanted to read books on my PC, I wouldn't have spent the money on my ebook reader. Not being tethered to my desk was kind of the whole point.

Not that it matters in any event, since they're DRM-restricted, but by only selling your books to Kindle owners (or to people who don't actually want to use ebook readers) you're leaving money on the table. What you're doing is like standing in the door of a bookstore and telling customers that you'll only let them buy your books if they drive GM cars -- turning away the Ford owners and the Chrysler owners and all the foreign car owners at the door. Just because GM has the largest market share -- the biggest piece of the pie -- doesn't mean it has the whole pie. Likewise, well, take a look at the people browsing the device forums here on MobileRead: The Kindle is top at the moment, with 73 people reading its forum, but there are 166 people reading forums for devices other than the Kindle. In other words, for every person who are able to read your book on their e-reader, there are 2+ people who can't. Two-thirds of your potential customers are being turned away at the bookstore door.

The third book "badly needs edits"? How did it get up there if your editor wasn't finished with it yet? Or are is this one of those situations where the last words you said to your editor were "The next time I see you, it's going to be over the barrel of a lawyer"?

It's 2 am and I'm seriously lacking in caffeine, which may explain a lot, but I don't seem to be able to make much sense out of this.