A cat named Frosty, a new book convention, and unicorns

Posted on March 24, 2019 (Subscribe to Blog)

Conventions, book signings, promotions, advertising, creating book covers -- I've been doing all that and more lately along with some writing as well. But it's not all Author Stuff. In the meantime, Ordinary Life and The Day Job continues to chug along in the background. Ordinary Life is great, and The Day Job is okay, but something happened this month that was downright horrible. We'll call it Frosty Attack.

I'll say up front that she's fine today, well on her way to recovery. But we weren't sure for a while there.

This is Frosty:

We have four cats. Biscuit and Treacle are 18 years old, which means they're pensioners. Twiglet is middle-aged. And Frosty is the youngest. She's lovable and mischievous, the sort of cat who puts up with toddlers yanking her by the ear. Of all our cats, Frosty is by far the most expensive. We rescued her when she was a kitten, and she broke her leg soon after, which meant vet bills and a cast and a special cage that I built... and a couple of weeks ago, she got her butt ripped open by a pack of dogs.

I won't go into details, but she had surgery and it cost us a fortune. She's worth it, though. And I built a "cattery" or a "catio" out back where the cats can get outside at night but not really outside -- protected from dogs and coyotes and even owls (we're pretty sure an owl attacked one of our cats years ago). Now our babies are safe!

Helping to Build a Book Convention

A total change of subject now. After going to several sci-fi and fantasy conventions and wishing people came for authors rather than artists, to buy books rather than cool superhero paintings, the idea of a new convention came about -- one that's geared around books and authors.

Actually, it wasn't my idea at all. It was a friend of mine. Young adult urban fantasy author Kenyon T. Henry got it into his head that he'd like to establish and host a books and author convention in our local area, and so Next Chapter Con was created. It'll be held in Ringgold, GA, this September and will feature a pretty large bunch of authors and panels. More on that as I develop the website -- and yes, that's my contribution, since my day job is a website designer.

Does Unicorn Hunters Need a Different Title?

Unicorn Hunters (Island of Fog Legacies #1)

I've struggled with this one for a while, ever since I heard a girl at one of these sci-fi and fantasy conventions glance at this book on my table and say, "Ooh, I love unicorns! But I don't want to see them being hunted." She quickly moved on, and I thought, Hmm, maybe that title puts people off.

Then a woman came by and made a similar comment, that she loves horses and can't stand the idea of harm coming to them. I tried to explain that the whole point of the story is for the hero, 12-year-old Travis, to rescue the unicorn and a load of other mythical creatures from captivity, and it's a story of adventure and magic.

But if the title doesn't suggest that, then it's a problem. So I'd like to ask you, anyone who's reading this, what you think. If you haven't read Unicorn Hunters, does the title put you off in any way? If you have read it, what would work better? Unicorn Rescue? Something else?

(I may have asked this question before. But it's come up again after doing some recent ads and finding them to be ineffective. The read-through on this book is great, in that people who read it immediately buy the second and the third and so on... but getting new readers to pick it up is proving difficult.)

And finally...

I Just Published My Biggest Ebook Yet

Yep. Speaking of Unicorn Hunters, I now have a box set containing all five Island of Fog Legacies books, the entire series so far. This book will keep binge-readers busy for quite a while!

It's available for USD $19.99 on Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and Apple.

But NOT on Amazon.

Why? Because Amazon has this silly little bee in its bonnet that limits book prices to $9.99 at the standard royalty rate. Above that, and the royalty rate drops to a pitiful 35%. Seriously? So, if you're an Amazon reader and want a copy for your Kindle reader or app, you can get one at good old Gumroad. Same price, exact same book.

That's all for now, folks!

Comment by S. R. WAINRIGHT III on Monday, March 25, 2019...

Hi Mr Robinson,
Sounds like fun. Keep us posted on your progress. We would be interested in bringing our project "GOTCHA!!!".
Regards,
S.R. Wainright III
Author & First Responder

Comment by BRIAN B. on Monday, March 25, 2019...

We keep our cat indoors. She's an Indoor Cat. Too many creatures out there.

I thought the same thing when I saw Unicorn Hunters. I knew what it inferred but literal Americans may not read into the actual gist of the tale. Unicorn Rescue has more appeal to the lowest common denominator.