Like many authors I correspond with I noticed a slight drop in sales in April, which is pretty typical in the bookselling biz. While we still sold lots of books and I am grateful as always for your support, we didn't break any records so there will be no free Reader Reward story this month. That's the bad news. The good news is, also as always, the previous Reader Reward story will remain free until a new one goes up. So don't forget to grab a free copy of Double Exposure as well as the always-free first book in the series, His Lucky Break.
Thanks and enjoy!
M
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Hearing People Read Your Stories: Bad Idea, Or Terrible Idea? (Or...)
So last night was interesting.
I went in the HypBook chatroom (HypBook is basically Facebook for people who like hypnosis. http://www.hypbook.com is the site, I'm MarcCabot there as well... http://www.hypbook.com/index.php/profile/MarcCabot ) and when I entered, somebody was reading something. HypBook chat allows both voice and video, although it's primarily text-based. So while one often hears voice talk, this was a new one on me. It turned out he was reading a story about erotic hypnosis, although I never quite got the straight of how this had happened in the first place.
When he was done, they asked me to read one of my stories.
This quite simply hadn't occurred to me before. However, I am nothing if not flexible, and I have a pretty good presentation voice. So I called up one that seemed appropriate. Namely, Caught In His Web, which is about... an evil hypnotic mind controller who works through video chatrooms. However, before I started, there was a wrinkle. They wanted me to change the name of the mind control-ee to the name of one of the women in the chatroom.
Did I mention that I am flexible?
I of course agreed, but demanded some recompense for this distortion of my art. Eventually, they worked out - and by them I mean the other people in the chatroom, I had nothing to do with it - that if I did, I would get to hypnotically dominate her for an hour. It seemed little enough for tampering with a masterwork, but she's a lovely person and so, magnanimously, I agreed.
The advantage I had was that I had the actual manuscript, so I just did a search-and-replace on the character's nick and her real name with the chatter's nick and what may be her real name but is at least the name she goes by in chat. Then I read through the story. Since I wrote it, and I can read ahead when I'm reading aloud, it went very well, if I do say so, and everybody seemed to like it. It was agreed that I had earned my reward fair and square.
The actual hypnosis session took place on Skype, with the two instigators conferenced in as well. I'm not one to trance and tell, but I'll say that a good time was had by all and I found her a very interesting subject. It was a very good opportunity for me to stretch myself a bit and use some techniques I don't normally have to use with hypnotic submissives. Then afterwards I told them the story of Queen's Gambit, as they were curious about my "hypno-domme" book. I think I may have horrified them. A little bit. In a fun way. I hope.
Hypnotizing people gets me stoked up, so even though it was very late by this time I went back into the chatroom on Hypbook for a while. When I returned, they were just trying to figure out who was going to read the next story. I volunteered to provide another of my shorts for free and they picked a fellow with an accent that several of thewomen people in the chat wanted to hear talk.
I toyed with the idea of having him read Dream a Little Dream, which contains an actual hypnotic induction scene. However, while I think I could edit it on the fly to make it safe, there were some very suggestible people in there and I didn't want to risk installing an open trigger or inducing a trance even by accident. So I had him read His Lucky Break.
Now, the fellow was perfectly nice and knew how to pronounce all the big words: I won't hear a word against him. But... He didn't have the story memorized, like I do. :) He didn't realize how the little rushes of words during the photography scenes were meant to be read. He occasionally left a word out or added a word.
It drove me nuts.
He was an intelligent fellow and absolutely did not deserve to have me scream at him, "That's not what it says! READ WHAT IT SAYS!" But I wanted to. Constantly. It probably wouldn't have made any difference, but it felt like making these small mistakes made the characters sound a lot stupider than they are. It doesn't help that the characters in those particular stories are not sophisticated people. The dialogue is meant to reflect that. But when you take dialogue that's already unsophisticated and make little mistakes and read it haltingly (like I said, he didn't have it memorized :) ) it goes from "unsophisticated" to "stupid." The language the control victim exactly parallels the language the controller/hypnotist uses. Change even a word or two, and once again, you break that thread, and it goes from parallel to... stupid.
Oh, well. If people want to read my stories I shan't complain. I'm grateful everyone liked it. But I don't know I'll listen next time. :)
I went in the HypBook chatroom (HypBook is basically Facebook for people who like hypnosis. http://www.hypbook.com is the site, I'm MarcCabot there as well... http://www.hypbook.com/index.php/profile/MarcCabot ) and when I entered, somebody was reading something. HypBook chat allows both voice and video, although it's primarily text-based. So while one often hears voice talk, this was a new one on me. It turned out he was reading a story about erotic hypnosis, although I never quite got the straight of how this had happened in the first place.
When he was done, they asked me to read one of my stories.
This quite simply hadn't occurred to me before. However, I am nothing if not flexible, and I have a pretty good presentation voice. So I called up one that seemed appropriate. Namely, Caught In His Web, which is about... an evil hypnotic mind controller who works through video chatrooms. However, before I started, there was a wrinkle. They wanted me to change the name of the mind control-ee to the name of one of the women in the chatroom.
Did I mention that I am flexible?
I of course agreed, but demanded some recompense for this distortion of my art. Eventually, they worked out - and by them I mean the other people in the chatroom, I had nothing to do with it - that if I did, I would get to hypnotically dominate her for an hour. It seemed little enough for tampering with a masterwork, but she's a lovely person and so, magnanimously, I agreed.
The advantage I had was that I had the actual manuscript, so I just did a search-and-replace on the character's nick and her real name with the chatter's nick and what may be her real name but is at least the name she goes by in chat. Then I read through the story. Since I wrote it, and I can read ahead when I'm reading aloud, it went very well, if I do say so, and everybody seemed to like it. It was agreed that I had earned my reward fair and square.
The actual hypnosis session took place on Skype, with the two instigators conferenced in as well. I'm not one to trance and tell, but I'll say that a good time was had by all and I found her a very interesting subject. It was a very good opportunity for me to stretch myself a bit and use some techniques I don't normally have to use with hypnotic submissives. Then afterwards I told them the story of Queen's Gambit, as they were curious about my "hypno-domme" book. I think I may have horrified them. A little bit. In a fun way. I hope.
Hypnotizing people gets me stoked up, so even though it was very late by this time I went back into the chatroom on Hypbook for a while. When I returned, they were just trying to figure out who was going to read the next story. I volunteered to provide another of my shorts for free and they picked a fellow with an accent that several of the
I toyed with the idea of having him read Dream a Little Dream, which contains an actual hypnotic induction scene. However, while I think I could edit it on the fly to make it safe, there were some very suggestible people in there and I didn't want to risk installing an open trigger or inducing a trance even by accident. So I had him read His Lucky Break.
Now, the fellow was perfectly nice and knew how to pronounce all the big words: I won't hear a word against him. But... He didn't have the story memorized, like I do. :) He didn't realize how the little rushes of words during the photography scenes were meant to be read. He occasionally left a word out or added a word.
It drove me nuts.
He was an intelligent fellow and absolutely did not deserve to have me scream at him, "That's not what it says! READ WHAT IT SAYS!" But I wanted to. Constantly. It probably wouldn't have made any difference, but it felt like making these small mistakes made the characters sound a lot stupider than they are. It doesn't help that the characters in those particular stories are not sophisticated people. The dialogue is meant to reflect that. But when you take dialogue that's already unsophisticated and make little mistakes and read it haltingly (like I said, he didn't have it memorized :) ) it goes from "unsophisticated" to "stupid." The language the control victim exactly parallels the language the controller/hypnotist uses. Change even a word or two, and once again, you break that thread, and it goes from parallel to... stupid.
Oh, well. If people want to read my stories I shan't complain. I'm grateful everyone liked it. But I don't know I'll listen next time. :)
Sunday, April 21, 2013
"Queen's Gambit" - A New FULL-LENGTH Dreams of Control Book!
My new book, Queen's Gambit, is now available on all major e-bookstores except iTunes, which will get it when they get it. An evil hypno-domme, the world's most exclusive fetish club... what could possibly go wrong? Well, it's the Dreams of Control universe, so you know nothing is as it appears and nothing goes the way you might expect...
Thanks, and enjoy!
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/queens-gambit-marc-…
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/308149
Kobo: Link's not working, but should be up any time. Sorry!
From the back cover:
Mistress Blackheart the hypnotic dominant has at long last achieved the ultimate prize - an invitation to the Victoriana Club, New York City's most exclusive fetish club. There, the rich, powerful, and decadent wait to fall under her thrall... and become her helpless, mindless slaves.
They give her their obedience, their pain, their pleasure... and their wealth and power. Anything for a caress, or a whipping, at the hands of their dark goddess. Tonight, a beautiful little submissive and a powerful oil magnate are already wrapped around her fingers, and the night is still young.
Up to now, Mistress Blackheart has been unstoppable. But the rules of the Victoriana are enforced by something more than human. And the hunter is about to become the hunted.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Auto-fractination: A New Deepening Technique
So the other night I was talking to a subject (someone who likes to be hypnotized) and she volunteered that she'd like me to hypnotize her. (I never ask.) However, she didn't want to do erotic trance, she just wanted to be hypnotized. It is of course very relaxing and it usually feels very pleasant even without overt erotic components.
So I said, "Sure, what kind of induction do you like?"
"I don't know, I like to experiment. Do you have anything you've been wanting to try?"
Well, actually, no, at least not in a non-erotic sense, I really didn't. But I wasn't about to admit that! ("I got a rep to protect.") So I said, "Let me think..." Fortunately this was through videochat so she couldn't hear the gears grinding or smell the burning from me throwing my brain into overdrive from a standing start.
And then it hit me.
Fractionation is a well-known technique, used both by amateur hypnotists and by hypnotherapists. It is a big word that simply means, "Putting a person in trance, bringing them out of trance, and then putting them back, usually several times in a relatively short period of time." It's a deepening technique: the reason it works is that even when you "leave" trance, you remain very suggestible for a short time. If you then re-enter trance, you will probably go deeper the next time because you aren't starting from a fully conscious, non-suggestible state. Especially on subjects who are experienced at entering trance, it can produce very deep levels of hypnosis in a short time. Plus, it's fun to watch them bounce up and down if you are the kind of person who enjoys hypnotizing people. Which I am.
But, you know, it's just so much work. (No, it isn't.) And I am very lazy. (Yes, I am.) So I was thinking about fractionating her and the word "auto-fractionation" popped into my head. Right behind it was a plan for implementing it. So I figured, "What the Hell? Let's do this."
So below, a description of the historic hypnotic session wherein "auto-fractionation" was first used on a subject.
Incidentally I would not be surprised to know that others had used similar techniques, but I had never heard of it before it popped into my head, and searching for the word did not reveal any similar usages. I don't know that no one has ever used it before, and if you have, I do not mean to suggest otherwise. But to my knowledge this is a novel deepening technique. I thought about patenting it (No, really, I did. I'm a patent lawyer.) but I have decided to release it into the public domain for the good of mankind. Feel free to use it in appropriate circumstances and with proper training and/or supervision in hypnotic techniques.
Note: This is NOT designed to induce trance, but if you're highly suggestible, please use caution as the hypnotic technique is described in some detail. I have left out most of the safety suggestions I gave both prior to and during the trance (such as, "If we get disconnected or anything needs your attention you will automatically awaken refreshed and ready to deal with whatever needs your attention.") This is only to describe the actual technique and should not be used as a stand-alone script for a hypnosis session.
So I said, "Sure, what kind of induction do you like?"
"I don't know, I like to experiment. Do you have anything you've been wanting to try?"
Well, actually, no, at least not in a non-erotic sense, I really didn't. But I wasn't about to admit that! ("I got a rep to protect.") So I said, "Let me think..." Fortunately this was through videochat so she couldn't hear the gears grinding or smell the burning from me throwing my brain into overdrive from a standing start.
And then it hit me.
Fractionation is a well-known technique, used both by amateur hypnotists and by hypnotherapists. It is a big word that simply means, "Putting a person in trance, bringing them out of trance, and then putting them back, usually several times in a relatively short period of time." It's a deepening technique: the reason it works is that even when you "leave" trance, you remain very suggestible for a short time. If you then re-enter trance, you will probably go deeper the next time because you aren't starting from a fully conscious, non-suggestible state. Especially on subjects who are experienced at entering trance, it can produce very deep levels of hypnosis in a short time. Plus, it's fun to watch them bounce up and down if you are the kind of person who enjoys hypnotizing people. Which I am.
But, you know, it's just so much work. (No, it isn't.) And I am very lazy. (Yes, I am.) So I was thinking about fractionating her and the word "auto-fractionation" popped into my head. Right behind it was a plan for implementing it. So I figured, "What the Hell? Let's do this."
So below, a description of the historic hypnotic session wherein "auto-fractionation" was first used on a subject.
Incidentally I would not be surprised to know that others had used similar techniques, but I had never heard of it before it popped into my head, and searching for the word did not reveal any similar usages. I don't know that no one has ever used it before, and if you have, I do not mean to suggest otherwise. But to my knowledge this is a novel deepening technique. I thought about patenting it (No, really, I did. I'm a patent lawyer.) but I have decided to release it into the public domain for the good of mankind. Feel free to use it in appropriate circumstances and with proper training and/or supervision in hypnotic techniques.
Note: This is NOT designed to induce trance, but if you're highly suggestible, please use caution as the hypnotic technique is described in some detail. I have left out most of the safety suggestions I gave both prior to and during the trance (such as, "If we get disconnected or anything needs your attention you will automatically awaken refreshed and ready to deal with whatever needs your attention.") This is only to describe the actual technique and should not be used as a stand-alone script for a hypnosis session.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Nice Try...
Although sales were very good this month, we didn't break our record, so there will be no new Reader Reward story in April. Of course, that means last month's Reader Reward story will remain free, so go grab it!
On the plus side, I have two books - a novella and a novel - nearing completion and no Reader Reward story means I can work on those without feeling guilty that I owe you a story. So they'll be finished that much sooner.
Hey, wait a minute...
Well played, Internet. Well played.
Anyway, as always, thanks and enjoy!
On the plus side, I have two books - a novella and a novel - nearing completion and no Reader Reward story means I can work on those without feeling guilty that I owe you a story. So they'll be finished that much sooner.
Hey, wait a minute...
Well played, Internet. Well played.
Anyway, as always, thanks and enjoy!
Friday, March 29, 2013
A Musical Interlude
I have a habit of hearing a song I like and then listening to it over and over and over again until I get tired of it. This is the current song:
It's called "Ain't No Rest for the Wicked." The band are to a man hipster-looking dips that make me want to hit them with a bat, but I really like the song.
Ironically, that's pretty much been the story of me lately - somehow, I keep staying up until all hours, and then I have to wake up early anyway. Lucky I don't need much sleep.
In other news, started working on What He Wants again, it's coming together. I am on holiday the next three days and I hope to get a big chunk of it done. It's kinda talky but it's a lot of fun. It is exactly the kind of thing that people who like that kind of thing will like. Trust me!
Also, you people are slacking off... I don't know if we're going to make a record this month. That means no Reader Reward story! I know you want it. Get out there and make it happen!
Seriously, sales are very good even if we're slightly off pace from the last THREE record-setters. We've been on a tear lately and if we miss a month, I'm still grateful for all my readers and their support. As always, thanks and enjoy!
M
Ironically, that's pretty much been the story of me lately - somehow, I keep staying up until all hours, and then I have to wake up early anyway. Lucky I don't need much sleep.
In other news, started working on What He Wants again, it's coming together. I am on holiday the next three days and I hope to get a big chunk of it done. It's kinda talky but it's a lot of fun. It is exactly the kind of thing that people who like that kind of thing will like. Trust me!
Also, you people are slacking off... I don't know if we're going to make a record this month. That means no Reader Reward story! I know you want it. Get out there and make it happen!
Seriously, sales are very good even if we're slightly off pace from the last THREE record-setters. We've been on a tear lately and if we miss a month, I'm still grateful for all my readers and their support. As always, thanks and enjoy!
M
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
A Comment on Print Distribution
DISCLAIMER: Obviously, I write erotica. My discussion of print distribution should be viewed in that context. Erotica buyers are less likely to prefer printed material for several reasons, in my opinion, than mainstream fiction or non-fiction readers. Caveat lector.
So anyway, I took 120 copies of my books in print form to NEEHU last week. Up until now I have had very little success with print books although in erotic ebooks I am basically the equivalent of a midlist author. (I sell steadily, my new books sell at a good surge, but I’m not a bestseller.) NEEHU is dedicated to topics explored in my books: it was just about the best imaginable marketplace for my work. There were somewhere between 100 and 150 attendees: in addition, the conference was held in a space where other people also could have seen the books for sale.
These were Createspace printed books which I bought at the author’s price and shipped to myself at the conference, stealing a page from Dean Wesley Smith’s excellent and simple advice on how to sell direct to bookstores, etc. Here’s what I brought:
60 copies of The First Two Are Free. I was giving this away for free.
20 copies each of Love Spells and Better Loving Through Chemistry. I was selling these for $6.00 each. (Which is above author’s cost and shipping, but not by much. I just didn’t want to eat the whole thing.)
20 copies of Maestro. ($6.00 each and ditto.)
Results:
1) I am sure you will not be surprised to learn that all sixty copies of the free book were picked up by interested persons. I saw very few people take multiple copies: the ones who did, when I was looking, asked if they could have one for a friend who couldn’t attend.
2) I gave away four sets of the paid books – two to influential bloggers, one to the fellow who was manning the sales table when I wasn’t, and one as a donation to the conference venue’s library
3) Saleswise, I sold just over half the books I was trying to sell. Only two people bought “complete sets.” The rest bought either one or two books, mostly, for whatever reason, two. (Weird.) People were surprised to see print books for sale but the reaction was overwhelmingly positive. I got two or three comments along the lines of “I don’t buy paper books any more, I don’t have space.” Otherwise people were happy to have them. Several people were literally chasing me through the venue to give me money.
What I wanted to do was get my books in the hands of people who might like them and who might a) recommend them to others, b) buy more, and/or c) post positive reviews on Amazon et al. And if I broke even selling them that would be a pleasant bonus.
So far, my sales have not experienced any surges, and at one week after the conference nobody has posted ANY reviews. (Every time I sold one and/or gave away a free one, I asked people politely to post a review on Amazon if they liked it… or even if they didn’t!) I still hope a few might dribble in but knowing how people work it seems unlikely that a lot will happen after a week or two passes.
I will probably continue to put together collections and put novels in paper format, but I doubt I’ll repeat this experiment. If this was the best I could do in more or less the ideal marketplace, I am not enthusiastic about print book distribution.
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