If you're still reading my ramblings...

You'll note that I somewhat fudged the truth when I said I was going to be posting more frequently. Sure, I started out with good intentions, but we all know where that leads. So I'm not going to promise that again. However, I do have a couple of interviews and book reviews lined up for this month so my posting more frequently is a possibility.

What have I been doing? Oh my, where to start? Well, first things first. After some tough love from my editor, I've decided to postpone the short story collection until sometime next year. Some of the stories I planned to include are stories I wrote quite some time ago and are not as well written as I would like. I want the entire collection to be of high quality, so some of those stories are going to need a revision (or three). As a good friend of mine says, "readers can tell when you're phoning it in." And I don't want to let anyone down. So it's back to the desktop for more work.

However, Fading Light: An Anthology of the Monstrous was released and widely praised. If you haven't gotten a copy, you can do so here. It's an absolutely stunning anthology. I'm so proud to be a part of it. And, in a surreal turn of events, my story, "Born of Darkness," has gotten some high praise from reviewers. Another reason I don't want to disappoint anyone with a so-so collection.

Next up, Satan's Toybox: Terrifying Teddies, is slated to be published the end of this week. I'm extremely excited for it to come out. I think, personally, that it's the very best of the Satan's Toybox anthologies. It's got some of my favorite stories in it. You won't want to miss Lisamarie Lamb's chilling tale "The Woods Today." You'll never sing the Teddy Bear Picnic song again after reading it. Another fine scare is "Benji" by Adam Millard. How do you get rid of a Teddy Bear who doesn't want to leave? My story, "Dead Nicky," is my favorite story of any I've written. All of the stories are interesting and will definitely change your view of those fluffy stuffed toys.

Also out this month will be Tool Shed, an eerie novella from Armand Rosamilia. While Armand is best know for his zombie fiction, this little novella will show the reading public that he's much more than a zombie writer. His story combines an ancient demon, teenagers, an unlikely band of demon hunters, and dead cows. Intrigued? Look for it the end of this month.

Also at the end of this month, I'll be a panelist at Coyote Con. Coyote Con is a FREE online conference for writers, published and unpublished alike. It has all the benefits of a regular conference: networking, editor pitches, and panels; without the negative cost or travel issues. I strongly urge every author to take advantage of this awesome con. I attended the first year, 2010, and the amount of info and energy that I gained was enormous. It really spurred me to start taking this whole writing thing more seriously and well, look where I am today. There will be many genres represented in panels: horror, sci-fi, fantasy, steampunk, erotica & romance, to name a few. I will be sitting on three panels myself: The end of the world as we know it: Apocalyptic Fiction with Todd Brown and Suzi M; Things that go bump in the night with various authors; and Giving up the ghost: writing horror with Billie Sue Mosiman and C.W. LaSart. Don't miss this con! Again, it's FREE and you can attend in your jammies!

And that's all I have time for today. But stay tuned! There are lots more projects to talk about. Along with some interviews, reviews, and th e truth about KillerCon...

♥Stacey

Guest Post by Armand Rosimilia

Today I'm serving up a guest post by Armand Rosamilia. I interviewed Armand once before. He's a talented man: publisher of Rymfire, author and all around interesting guy. See for yourself~

What eBook Price Is Freedom?

Armand Rosamilia

That title sounds pretty epic, eh? Now, to disappoint you…

Today I want to point out eBook pricing. I'm not going to get into the pricing models the Big Six Publishers employ, because we can read almost daily what that is doing to their business. I'm focusing on the little guy… me and you.

There have been so many different ideas thrown around, especially since the KDP Select program from Amazon went live.

Who's right? Who screwed up their sales? Who are the Masters of all this? That's the fun part, because it all seems to change monthly, weekly, and sometimes daily.

I've had days where 18 different titles will have new sales (I have over 40) and I'll get in 39 sales. The next day I get 6 sales, and I can't for the life of me figure out what I did differently or if I did.

But does pricing make that big a difference? I see many well-established writers (and, let's face it, the ones who think they are) pricing their eBooks at $6.99 and telling everyone they're getting nice, healthy sales at that price.

For several mid-list authors (their term, not mine) I read their blog and see them pricing anywhere from $4.99 to $9.99, mostly books that had been traditionally published in the past, reverted back to them, and now they're charging just slightly less than their traditional publisher did.

I have my own opinion on eBook pricing. Guess what? I'm going to share it with you. Always remember there are exceptions to the rule of pricing, whether it's for genre, length, author recognition, or a hundred other factors.

I generally use two prices: 99 cents for shorter works (under 10,000 words) and $2.99 for longer works (usually my novellas). Simple as that.

Again, I've dabbled with other prices: $1.99 for a couple of short story collections before dropping them to 99 cents and watching my sales rise, and $3.99 for the Undead Tales zombie anthology, which is one of my stronger sellers. I've even gone up to $4.99 for my Extreme Undead Collection, but that is 100k and has four zombie novels in one release.

But $2.99 is a nice price to sit at, in my opinion. It's a few cents more than an impulse buy (like a 99 cent eBook is) but, if it interests the potential reader, the price is right. When you're writing niche stories like I generally do, with zombies, your potential readers are in a smaller but rabid circle, and you need to lock them in and keep them coming back for more, especially in a series.

I'll keep experimenting, and I hope other authors do as well. $2.99 seems to be the average price right now for indie authors, and I think it's fair as an author and a reader. I've never purchased an eBook over $2.99 to read, but my Kindle is crammed with $2.99 stories waiting to be read.

What will the future hold? Free eBooks with advertising? Rising costs for eBooks? A brand new system? The crash of technology and the return of stone tablets?

It's a great time we live in.

Armand Rosamilia

* * * * *

Believe it or not, I'm doing this guest blog tour in support of my latest releases.

Want to know more about the "Dying Days" series? Want to win free eBooks and maybe print books of them? My contest is simple: e-mail me at armandrosamilia (at) gmail (dot) com with DYING DAYS in the subject line and I'll enter you into the daily giveaway… also, post a comment here and you get another chance… follow my blog at http://armandrosamilia.com for yet another chance, and friend me on Twitter (@ArmandAuthor) and simply post DYING DAYS to me, and you'll get another shot… nice and easy, right? If I get enough people joining in the giveaway there will be a print book given away that day!

"Dying Days" series information can be found here: http://armandrosamilia.com/dying-days-series/

Thanks, Armand!

♥Stacey

Meet Armand Rosamilia

I met Armand Rosimila through the Masters of Horror Facebook group. If you are a writer in the horror genre and you haven't joined this group, the question is why? Its a great group, very supportive, very caring and informative. But back to Armand. Armand is not only a writer, with several books, stories and anthologies under his belt; he's also an editor and publisher. He works with Rymfire Ebooks. And the more I get to know about Armand, the more I like him. You can read my review of the latest anthology he's edited, Undead of Winter, over at See Spot Read.

1. How long have you been writing?

All of my life. I wrote horrible stories as a kid that I would subject my mother to, trying to compete with her love of King and Koontz. I had a couple of horror short stories published when I was younger but they never amounted to much and I never kept the momentum going. Within the last  four or five years I've taken this a bit more serious, with being a publisher and an author.

2. How long have you been publishing?

I did a magazine in the mid-90's called Black Moon Magazine for a couple of years, then I didn't do anything until 2005 when I started Carnifex Press, which had some great books released but a horrible manager (me). It was What Not To Do As A Publisher 101, and it taught me a lot. When I started helping out Rymfire eBooks in 2009 I never dreamed I would be taking it over myself, but I'm glad I did.

3. What got you started in the publishing business?

 I was/am a huge Heavy Metal fan, and I read every cheesy fanzine back in the day and always wanted to do it myself. I decided to do it. The same thing with horror: I thought about the books and stories I was interested in reading, and when i didn't find them I created them.

4. Have you always been a fan of the horror genre?

I grew up reading my mother's huge horror paperback collection. I'm more of a horror reader than movie guy. I love the written word to get you scared more than some slasher film.

5. For your anthologies, what is the average number of submissions you receive and how long does it take you to sort through them?

On average we get over a hundred submissions, and each anthology takes 6-8 weeks to sort through... I read bunches of stories in spurts, putting them into different 'piles' until i find the best stories.

6. What led you to the indie scene?

 For me, the best stories always came from the indie scene, the same with Heavy Metal music. Reading Dean Koontz was great as a kid but I wanted to read more and fins something a bit more extreme and something that wasn't cookie-cutter writing. I'm on a constant search for the hungry authors out there, willing to push the envelope with their work.

7. What scares you personally? Any silly phobias?

They aren't silly to me, haha... I have an irrational fear of dogs, afraid of heights, midget zombie strippers...

8. What authors would you say influenced you the most?

As a kid it was definitely Dean Koontz and Robert E. Howard... the guys that inspired me in recent years and showed me that I could write what I really wanted to write were Brian Keene, Scott Nicholson, John Everson, Gord Rollo, Douglas Clegg... I could keep going...

9. How did you come up with the current anthology, Undead of Winter: An Extreme Undead Release?

Seriously, I've always wondered how the cold would affect zombies and these stories answer that question! The anthology got its original start because I wrote a story with the same name about Darlene Bobich, a character I've explored in several short stories ("Anything But Lucky" in Daily Bits of Flesh 2011 by Pill Hill Press and "Rear Guard" bonus short story in "Highway To Hell" extreme zombie novella from Rymfire eBooks) and she stars in the extreme zombie novella "Dying Days"... I decided that the concept of zombies in winter was a cool one, and figured I'd throw it out there and see what happens... and i was pleasantly surprised at the amount of great stories that came in! Choosing the eight that made it with my story was tough...

10. What advice would you give to newbie authors or publishers?

Write, write and write some more... realize that you need practice... finish that book and then start on the next one and never give up... find people that you trust to read and edit your work and have them be brutally honest... and then write some more...

Armand is a NJ native who's living in Florida right now. He lives with his three children, fiance Kim and her son and way too many pets. You can visit him on the web:

Armand's website
Armand's Facebook
Armand's Twitter

Hope you've enjoyed meeting Armand as much as I have!
Stacey