What do you do when your date tells you Ragnarök starts next Tuesday?
Logan expected his date with Stina Lorne to be a disaster, quickly ending after dinner when they acknowledged she was out of his league. Instead they went for a long drive, then a walk along a familiar beach. In fact, everything seems to be going better than Logan could have imagined when he asked her out last week.
Sure, his date is convinced she’s the descendant of Fenrir, demon wolf of Asgard. And yeah, she’s talking about the apocalypse kicking off in the near future. Logan’s not sure that matters, yeah? After all, nobody’s perfect, and even the best relationships take work.
One Last First Date Before The End Of The World is the fourth release in the Short Fiction Lab series from Brain Jar Press. This experiment has been filed under: mythic fantasy, first dates, the day before the apocalypse, and slipstream romance stories.
This release is on sale for the remainder of the week, giving you the opportunity to pick it up for 99 cents US. Come Sunday, it’ll be joining the rest of the Short Fiction Lab line at $2.99.
And with that, I’m off to drink coffee and write new words.
I grew dissatisfied with the original covers for the Short Fiction Lab releases over the weekend.
My original goal with the series wast putting together a consistent design scheme that also forced me to write a bunch of blurbs–practicing skills that I hadn’t needed as a writer. It worked, to an extent, but getting blurbs down involves a lot of tweaking and adjusting for keywords, and that meant the covers would end up lagging behind.
On top of that, I just wanted something that looked a little better as I started lining up the releases side-by-side, so I went back to the drawing board and rebuilt the series design from the ground up.
Wait, you say, there are three stories on that banner? I’m glad you noticed.
Right now, I’m also gearing up to release The Early Experiments–a mini-collection of previous published stories that served as the spiritual precursors to the Fiction Lab line. I’m doing final proofs and uploads on this instalment today, and it’ll be going out as a free download to my newsletter subscribers ahead of going on sale later this week. so expect to see if available for sale later in the week.
In short, if you’re subscribed to Notes from the Brain Jar,The Early Experiments will join You Don’t Want To Be Published as a free giveaway to my weekly readers.
While I spend a lot of time talking about writing and creative business in the newsletter, I wanted something in the subscriber pack to give people some insight into who I am as a fiction writer as well.
Often strange, always unforgettable, this mini-collection brings together four short tales featuring spacefaring dinosaurs, bullet catchers, ghosts, and brides from the land of bees.
Upon Discovering of A Ghost in the Five Star
There’s a ghost in the Five Star Laundromat. The worst thing you can do is accept her balloon when she tries to give it to you. Nick’s interest in the dead girl is causing problems with his boyfriend… but he isn’t sure he’s ready to give her up just yet.
Counting Down
Phil thinks he can catch a bullet as a party trick, but he needs someone to pull the trigger. Mattie isn’t sure he’s got what it takes to fire the antique Luger at his friend, but he’s also caught a glimpse of the bats living inside Phil’s skull and knows what it means if they get out.
The Place Beyond the Brambles
The women who emerge from the land beyond the brambles are always strange and always beautiful. They’re also prone to returning home, long before the men who marry them hope they will depart. Ethan’s wife has left him to do exactly that, leaving behind a daughter and a memory that only Ethan can recall.
The Things You Do When The War Breaks Out
Henry and his dad are going to the moon for a holiday. The dinosaurs who occupy the dark side of the moon are no longer content to share it with humanity. When war breaks out and the moon is evacuated, Henry’s father sees an opportunity to resolve some old grudges.
The Short Fiction Lab series from Brain Jar Press: home to stand-alone short story experiments in fantasy, science fiction, horror, and fabulist literature. The Early Experiments has been filed under: mini-collection, short-shorts, ghost stories, faerie stories, weird sci-fi and horror.
As promised in the last post, you can pick up a copy of Winged, With Sharp Teeth for free this week. Just follow the links here to claim your copy: Amazon US | Amazon Australia | Amazon UK
And here’s a little taste of what you’re getting if you follow the link.
The rain draped over Brisbane like a wet sheet, bringing with it a chill and sharp gusts of wind. Not the kind of weather you hoped for when planning a first date, but Steve wasn’t complaining. They were huddled together in the Siam Palace on Sandgate Road, seated beneath the watchful eye of a giant golden Buddha. They ate Pad Thai, traded stories about their lives: the events of the week, where they worked, what they studied at university. Wait staff hustled between the tables, delivering drinks and plates of fragrant curry. The wind chased new patrons through the front door, setting the candle flames on every table dancing. Their own lanky, blond waitress brought a fresh beer as Duke finished telling Steve about the crocodile. “I know it’s not the sort of thing you confess right up,” Duke said. “It’s just…look, it’s been a thing, with other guys, before this. I know it’s been a thing. They tell you it’s not, but it is.”
Winged, With Sharp Teeth: A Short Story (BrainJar Press Short Fiction Lab Book 1)
You can pick the story up for free until Midnight on Sunday in America, which translates to around 6 PM Monday here in Australia. Signal boosting in the form of liking/reposting during the free period is always appreciated, given the small size of Brian Jar Press.
EIGHT HOURS INTO THE GIVE-AWAY
This is the first time I’ve given a book away on Amazon, and I’m largely using it as an opportunity to gather data and think about the business model for Brian Jar Press.
Eight hours in, I’m starting to see numbers based on a quick post to my private social media and a mention in my most recent newsletter. Some of them are surprising–for instance, when I woke up this morning, the story had ranked pretty well for its category on the Australia:
And even did better than I expected on the US store:
Since I’d picked up more downloads than predicted this early, I figure it’s time to start reaching for a few stretch goals. With that in mind I’m going to peel back the curtains a little and mention a few things you can do to help, and how they interact with the Brain Jar Press business model.
DO YOU WANT TO HELP A WRITER OUT AND IMPROVE THOSE NUMBERS?
Here’s the list of quick and easy things you can do that will have an impact over the next five days:
1) Grab a copy of the story from Amazon. It’s hard to beat free as a price point, after all, especially at this time of year when we’re all gearing up for the holidays. No-one is entirely sure how the Amazon ranking systems work except Amazon, but they’re driven by attention and engagement. If you need those store links again, I’ll repeat them here to save scrolling to the top of the page: Amazon US | Amazon Australia | Amazon UK
If you’re shopping at Amazon, they have a bunch of data about who you are and what you like…but they have comparatively little about this book in general and me as a writer.
2) Read the story and post an honest review. The honest part is important here, because at the end of the day Amazon is a big search engine. Its success and failure is driven by its ability to match a customer with something they really want–and like all search engines it needs baseline data to work with and drive those matches.
Writers want their work matched to readers who enjoy it, which is where the honest part comes in. Whether you love the story or hated it, your review gives the search engine algorithm some nice juicy data about who this story will appeal too.
There are other benefits to reviews, but in the first thirty days of a story going live on Amazon, I think this is probably the most useful one.
3) Tell a friend. A few years back, Goodreads did a study on how people find new books to read–the most popular way was a new release from a writer they already knew and loved, but the recommendations from friends ranked in the second or third spot.
It’s considerably more powerful than a random author saying hey, I did this thing, you should check it out.
In theory, this can be easier than doing a short review, but I rank it third because I’m very aware that it can be a bigger ask. Reviews are often contextualised by the places they appear, particularly when it’s just a few words and a star rating at a sales site.
In contrast, the recommendations we offer the world on social media and in person aren’t just a review–they’re statements about who we are, tokens we offer to the world as a statement of identity. This is the kind of thing I like, and I believe you will like as well.
SO WHY DOES ALL THIS MATTER?
The great challenge for any writer, regardless of how their publishing, is not getting a book published but getting a book noticed by readers. How this is done usually depends on the resources available to the writer and their publisher–bigger publishing companies have ongoing relationships with vendors that help position certain books and new releases, access to high-prestige review outlets, and ongoing networks that can be used to create buzz.
Indie publishers tend to rely on other tools: the ability to leverage the one-on-one relationships they can build with readers via the internet, throwing money at newer advertising models, and the freedom to connect with tastemakers who exist outside of the traditional model. The way they leverage these models largely depends on their available cash to throw at the problem of discoverability, and the speed with which they build up an engaged readership.
One of the interesting side-effects of this is the impact that reader support has on a smart writer’s approach to their business. Writers have limited time to create new work–and it’s often less once they’re handling the production side of things–which means the books and series that are supported by the readership tend to be ones that get the lions share of the writer’s focus.
The relationship between writer and reader grows more direct, and more symbiotic.
At this stage of its development, Brain Jar Press and its various projects rely heavily on the relationships it can build with readers. I dubbed this series the Short Fiction Lab because it’s a place for me to play with things, try out some different worlds, techniques, and styles to see what’s resonating the most with the people who pick up my stuff.
The stories that resonate loudest get more attention. The stuff that doesn’t get tucked away.
