xanatos

Sad and Happy

d. m. arney, ma — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 03:19:02 +0000

I sold ten copies at the local Borders through May, but the last two haven’t moved in three months. I’m trying not to notice, but it’s a little hard not to. If you know someone in Rancho Santa Margarita, Ca, tell them to at least move the book to another shelf so I can know that someone actually picked it up.

On a very exciting note, I’ve begun writing the screenplay to Forgotten as a mini-series I’ll be submitting to the BBC. I’ll post some of it when I read through it again. It has some previously unreleased material regarding Xanatos back story. I’m hoping that they pick it up as a show and publish the book too. I have a feeling that UK late-adolescent early adults will appreciate it a little more than our current “I love Twilight” littleuns.

Xanatos will rise and laugh at all of this. Especially if I finish book two soon. Act One and Two are done. I had the most wicked idea for the end on my way home tonight. Wierd because I usually know exactly what happens in the climax before I start writing. But this one element between Xanatos and The Voice was off, and I couldn’t figure it out.

Oh, and if you know someone who works in film and television, and really likes you because you’re sweet/cute/cool. Tell them about this awesome book that just happens to be written by an excellent screenwriter too who would like to give up the wonders of retail to focus on “my kids” and writing. Passion works much better than necessity in getting me up in the morning.

Lastly, I promise, I love reading other people’s ideas and offering comments/suggestions. If Cidne hadn’t done that for me, Xanatos would still be the multiple personality lunatic that lives in a box under my bed. (Maybe when I’m old and grey I’ll open that box and you can see all five of the prevous versions of Forgotten, hand written, cuz I’m a masochist.)

Cheers.

Post from: xanatos

Sad and Happy

Problems with contact form

d. m. arney, ma — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 20:01:06 +0000

I just discovered that during one of my upgrades the contact form was reset and was not actually posting messages to me. If you sent an email and did not recieve a reply it was never recieved. My apolgies. Please send it again. I respond to all emails I recieve. –Dave Post from: xanatosProblems with [...]

Post from: xanatos

Problems with contact form

New Price

d. m. arney, ma — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 22:32:51 +0000

Due to a small error in the publishing process, the list price came out one dollar more than I had expected it too. Not that it’s a huge deal but something about $19.99 just looks better, feels better than anything else. Whether that translates into sales is yet to be seen, but I have a thing for how numbers look and sound; the new price makes me feel better, happier. Overall things are going well, I’ve been able to promote the book to both American and UK audiences. But if you’re reading this, your voice will sell more books than any adds I run. The top two reasons books sell are the front cover followed by the recommendations of friends. So please, tell everyone you know about it. Have anyone you get to buy the book use the contact form to tell me who referred them. I will remember those who help get the word out with special treats from time to time. This is an uphill battle, but I’m confident in the story and in the efforts of everone that has helped to get the book out. Thanks in advance for all your efforts.

Post from: xanatos

New Price

Buy Today, Tell Everone

d. m. arney, ma — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 03:14:10 +0000

It’s official. Forgotten: Xanatos I is available for sale on Amazon. This is a really great moment for me, and I know Chris and Alex will be pretty pleased about it as well. A long, hard time in the making and now it’s time to strong arm everyone I know to make three friends buy it. The website http://xanatos.dmarney.com has all the info you need to recommend it to someone, and the first chapter is available for reading if they don’t trust you implicitly. It’s for 16 years and older because some of the content is gritty. Thank you to everyone who has supported me and kept me going. I can’t wait for the movie. (Actually, I’m rewriting ten chapters of Destiny starting today, so I can wait, but it sounded funny in my head, so I wrote it.)

Cheers.

Post from: xanatos

Buy Today, Tell Everone

Proof Copy Approved

d. m. arney, ma — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 00:15:05 +0000

I got the proof copy of the book this week and went through for the final round of corrections. Randomly managed to misname a chapter in the text but had the correct one in the table of contents. I don’t know how many times I would have had to glaze right over that. Booksurge is painfully slow in responding with questions and unusually hesitant. I emailed the final draft because their website was broken last night. Today I get an email asking if that was the final draft. (I stated in the body of the email that it was, and that the website was broken, hence the email.) I had a really great time with the pre-publishing team, but I should have had the book out next week if not for all the lag on their end. Anyway, it will be about three weeks at the latest and it will be availabe on Amazon. I’ll post a link from this website and there will be some Facebook ads running too. I’m targetting 16-25 year olds who liked Harry Potter, Inheritance, and Twilight. It’s just a broad sampling so if you know someone who would like it, you can always refer them to the main website, http://xanatos.dmarney.com, where they can read the first chapter as well as get more detailed information. As far as the exact publication date, it’s dependent on whether they need to ship me another proof copy or if they can just take these correctoins and run with it. It’s a three to five day wait for the proof to arrive. I’m hoping around the 15th it’ll be out there. Totally exciting now that I can wash my hands of it and be done for good.

Post from: xanatos

Proof Copy Approved

They gave the dude an ISBN

d. m. arney, ma — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 03:11:37 +0000

1-4392-1173-6. So it’s officially a book now. In about two weeks or a little more, it’ll be submitted to Books In Print, and officially become listed among the plethora of books still available in print. Still, a nice moment when I stopped and considered it. Oddly, the one prefix is used for UK publications. I’m glad of that as I think UK teens might enjoy it as much or more, and the film might sit better in the UK than here. And Xanatos is half British at times anyway; probably because I’m dredging up some past life of my own. But, there it is. The official moniker of every legitimate book. Cool.

Post from: xanatos

They gave the dude an ISBN

Forgotten Cover

d. m. arney, ma — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 20:36:03 +0000

This the final design for the cover of Forgotten. It was a lot of work, and I must have poured over hundreds if not thousands of royalty free images. It really is Cid’s help that made this all possible anyway. She kept me focused on making the cover something different, unique, and not the standard young adult fare. The addition of the little girl is really signifgant because I was stuck in a one image mode, but again, Cid suggested that we combine both of our favorite images to make the cover. You’ll see why she is important to the feel of the book after you read it. I had felt rather strongly about it, so I’m glad that Cid was there to guide me through the process.

It’s been a whirlwind, but the book is complete. I’ll obsess about it for a few more days, and then it’s gone for good. The best news is I’ve been able to get to work on Destiny, which until yesterday was still out there somewher because I hadn’t been able to put Forgotten away yet. It’s exciting and fun, and I can’t wait to explore the characters more. I was getting so annoyed with them during my final read through, but they’re once again fresh and exciting.

Check back for an official release date, but it will probably be the first part of October. I’ll have the links to Amazon on this site, but you can also contact your local bookseller to order it through them. Anyone who uses Baker and Taylor shoul be able to find it. However, it may take a little longer to get into their systems, so Amazon is probably your best bet. Cheers.

Post from: xanatos

Forgotten Cover

Woes of Editing

d. m. arney, ma — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 03:53:00 +0000

Well, the final edit is complete. After much angst and many breaks, I have reviewed all of Cid’s comments, rejected some, approved most, and found some other stray it’s along the way. Momentous, but it doesn’t quite feel entirely so, yet at least. I’m not sure I’ll be up to reading it for fun anytime soon. But it does feel certain at least. I’ll be submitting it to the printers this friday, and it should be a few weeks until it’s available. I’ll post information on how to order it. It will be available through Amazon, and by order through any bookseller that uses Baker & Taylor, which is pretty much everyone. Soon, very very soon.

Post from: xanatos

Woes of Editing

Cover Design Finalizied

d. m. arney, ma — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:28:49 +0000

The cover design is complete. You can see the mock up on the website as the banner image. My editor is going over the book for her final read through right now. I’ll get it back probably at the end of this week and do my own final edit. If everything goes well, and she doesn’t have any major problems, it should be submitted for publication at the start of September. I’m using BookSurge to self-publish and they usually take a few weeks to get everything setup and put it out on Amazon. So if I’m lucky, my birthday present this year will be a finished copy of Forgotten. It’s very exciting to be this close, but I can’t wait until I press the submit button for the publisher. I’m done with the book, and really want to move on to Destiny fully. Eventually, I love it again, but for the moment, it couldn’t be out of my hands fast enough. I’ll write another update when I submit it, and also when I have a good idea of the release date.

Post from: xanatos

Cover Design Finalizied

Pages Update

d. m. arney, ma — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 07:49:43 +0000

Check out the updated pages for Places, Mythology, and Technology. They won’t spoil the book for you, but do have some fun facts that may be better left for after. Enjoy learning a little more about the world, and spread the buzz about the upcoming release. Post from: xanatosPages Update

Post from: xanatos

Pages Update