Dance plays a major role in this book and it's hard to dance without music. I didn't name any particular songs in the book but there were specific songs that I had Koko dancing to during those scenes. If you want to listen to those songs while reading the scenes I've listed them below along with YouTube links. If you're reading this post because you're a dancer or a choreographer who wants loves the idea of the routine and wants to perform a full version, be my guest. Just make sure you record it and tag me on Twitter (@KimMay_ninja) so I can watch it!
Here they are!
Chapter 2: Harajuku Fosse
But by Koda Kumi
Chapter 14: Bitch Play My Song
Nothing Else Matters by Apocalyptica
Chapter 20: Pinch Me
My Beautiful Woman by The Backstreet Boys
Chapter 28: Turn It Out
Oceano by Josh Groban
It've also put it together on a Spotify play list. (For some reason Spotify keeps adding songs to the playlist that I didn't intend to be there. I keep hiding them and for some strange reason they keep coming back. Sorry.)
Thanks for reading my book!
Monday, January 6, 2020
Tuesday, November 12, 2019
2020 release schedule
I've got some great news! I have another short story coming out February 4th! My story, Stealing Thunder From the Gods, will be in Straight Outta Dodge City, edited by David Boop!
It's available for pre-order on Amazon.
I love this story and I'm thrilled to be in another Baen anthology! I'm also ecstatic that my name is on the cover! This is the first time my name has made it on the cover! Oh, and do you see the huge names that I get to share a table of contents with? I'd be honored to be in an anthology with any one of them but to be with all of them is amazing! It's hard to contain the squee!
I also have news about Oneiroi War 2. The official title will be The Closed Game and right now it's on track for a January 7th release. I don't have the cover art yet but I'll share it when I do. I've almost finished the final edit -- just seven chapters left! I don't foresee any delays so fingers crossed that nothing happens to postpone it. I'm eager to finally see the next installment out in the world! I know many fans of The Moonflower are eager to read it.
In other news I'll be attending Superstars Writing Seminar in February. I've been asked to give my presentation on how to make the most of book signings. There's still space available if you want to come hear it. You can also check out the list of instructors at the link above. It's going to be an informative seminar and I'm looking forward to it! That's all I have planned for next year so far. As always once plans solidify for anything else I'll post the details here.
Monday, May 20, 2019
The Baker and Taylor situation
Recently Baker and Taylor, one of the largest book distributors in the US, announced that it was shutting down its retail branch. A lot of the authors I know reacted to the news with a "meh" or "okay, whatever" type of reaction while others who know more about the retail side of the business were uttering long strings of expletives. Both reactions are valid for different reasons but I wanted to go into more depth of what exactly this change means and how it affects authors as well as bookstores because I suspect that there are many who don't understand the situation.
Not only was Baker and Taylor one of the largest book distributors left it's also one of the last. There are still a few small regional distributors on the east coast but B&T and Ingram are the big boys. If a store didn't want to order directly from every publishing company whose books they sell (and few do because that's a huge headache) or if they're like some store who can't order directly because the big publishers are terrible at processing new account information in a timely manner then they have to order through a distributor. B&T gave a slightly better discount than Ingram and had some other great perks so out of the two they were the preferable company to deal with.
I do want to emphasize that B&T isn't going out of business. Their library sales and distribution division is still business as usual. It's only the book store side that they're shutting down slowly over the next two months. The reason why is a little hazy. Their public press release said one thing while their press release to their retail clients (the bookstores) said another. It could very well be both reasons but without further information it's impossible to know for sure. As far as I can tell it was a corporate/executive decision and most of the folks at B&T had no clue it was coming. Their staff are as sad about the announcement as the stores are and this definitely wasn't done on a whim. The execs put a lot of thought and study into other options before pulling the plug.
On the book store side the announcement has caused a lot of panic because now it limits options for ordering new stock and whether or not they can discount titles to stay competitive. It also may affect what stores choose to stock because the slightly less favorable terms mean that it's harder to financially justify taking a chance on a new author or a book on an esoteric subject matter. (More on that later.) Pretty much every bookselling association in the country has been emailing Ingram since the announcement to find out what their plans are to facilitate the extra demand they're going to recieve. The only information that's come out of Ingram so far is that they're committed to helping stores that don't already have accounts with them get set up and that they intend to increase their stock. The first point it great and a relief to hear. The second point has me worried. Why? Ingram hasn't revealed how they're going to increase stock and what they're increasing stock on.
There are three options that I can see for how they can increase stock.
Option 1: If they have unused warehouse space then they already have the ability to increase stock. Ingram has multiple warehouses across the country so it's possible they can put up more shelving to accommodate the extra stock. I don't believe it's probable but it is possible.
Option 2: They can decrease their stock of slower selling authors and/or subject matters and sidelines to create room for the more popular items. This is an option I think is far more likely since it's something that they're already practicing. They like to keep a pretty fast turn around so they have as little stock sitting around as possible. It's not unusual for them to have almost completely phased out of stock a title that's only been out two or three months -- and once they've phased it out that's it. They're not ever going to restock it.
Option 3: Purchase more warehouses and hire the necessary staff to run them. This would be the smartest move for them, especially since their business is going to increase, and the best option for the book business and publishing as a whole. Will they actually fork out the money to do this? I don't know. My fingers are crossed.
There is a pretty unlikely but not too far out of the realm of possibility option 4; which is to convince the big publishers to do more print on demand trade paperbacks. Some large publishers like Macmillan already do this and Ingram has a POD division that can facilitate it. The downside is that they're often outrageously priced which makes it highly unlikely that the public will like it if it does happen.
Whatever option Ingram chooses it's going to be rough the first few months as they figure out exactly how much their demand has changed and publishers figure out how much more of a print run they have to set aside for the Ingram order. Publishers are already kind of slow to fulfill Ingram orders (it's not unusual for it to take 2-4 weeks for stock to reach the Ingram warehouses) so part of the solution will depend on how publishers react and adapt as well. Hopefully they adapt quickly so stores don't lose too much in the transition. It's hard to ask customers to wait a few weeks for the warehouse to restock when they can go online and have it on their doorstep the next day. Those lost sales hurt and since brick and mortar stores are on the rebound it would be a shame to see any store have to close because they lost too much money waiting for backordered stock to arrive.
How does all of this affect authors? If you're traditionally published it's going to affect you the most. I'm willing to bet that most of Ingram's increased stock is going to be bestsellers and new releases that have received a lot of positive pre-release buzz. For new authors and mid-list authors it's going to be a lot harder to stay in the game. It won't be impossible but it's going to be harder to have the blockbuster first week sales to get another book deal because the necessary stock level for those kind of sales numbers isn't likely to be in the Ingram warehouse. I'd love to be proven wrong on that but honestly, I don't foresee it happening. For NYT bestsellers the worst I foresee happening to them is that they have to carry large stacks of book plates to sign when they're on tour so the people who couldn't get their hands on a copy because of warehouse shortages can still get a signature.
For indie authors this can be a great opportunity -- especially if you distribute through Ingram Sparks. If you don't distribute through Ingram Sparks now would be a good time to start. Ingram Sparks titles won't be effected by warehouse space shortages at all because those come from separate facilities. The big key is to make sure your books are available at the industry standard discount (that's 70-75% on the back end so it's the standard 40-45% on the store's end). These coming weeks as stores transition over would be a great time to visit local indie stores or mail them a one page sell sheet about your books and highlight the information about them being available POD at Ingram at the standard discount. I believe that information will become a bigger selling point then it was before since orders for POD titles can fulfilled without any additional hassle. In these early transition months your titles will be easier for a store to restock than a lot of traditionally published titles.
If I hear more concrete information in the coming months I'll add it to this post but this is all I know right now. I hope the situation and the ramifications are more clear to you than it was before. I'm still hoping that the transition will be more smooth than I expect it to be but I'm not holding my breath either. As they say, only time will tell.
Not only was Baker and Taylor one of the largest book distributors left it's also one of the last. There are still a few small regional distributors on the east coast but B&T and Ingram are the big boys. If a store didn't want to order directly from every publishing company whose books they sell (and few do because that's a huge headache) or if they're like some store who can't order directly because the big publishers are terrible at processing new account information in a timely manner then they have to order through a distributor. B&T gave a slightly better discount than Ingram and had some other great perks so out of the two they were the preferable company to deal with.
I do want to emphasize that B&T isn't going out of business. Their library sales and distribution division is still business as usual. It's only the book store side that they're shutting down slowly over the next two months. The reason why is a little hazy. Their public press release said one thing while their press release to their retail clients (the bookstores) said another. It could very well be both reasons but without further information it's impossible to know for sure. As far as I can tell it was a corporate/executive decision and most of the folks at B&T had no clue it was coming. Their staff are as sad about the announcement as the stores are and this definitely wasn't done on a whim. The execs put a lot of thought and study into other options before pulling the plug.
On the book store side the announcement has caused a lot of panic because now it limits options for ordering new stock and whether or not they can discount titles to stay competitive. It also may affect what stores choose to stock because the slightly less favorable terms mean that it's harder to financially justify taking a chance on a new author or a book on an esoteric subject matter. (More on that later.) Pretty much every bookselling association in the country has been emailing Ingram since the announcement to find out what their plans are to facilitate the extra demand they're going to recieve. The only information that's come out of Ingram so far is that they're committed to helping stores that don't already have accounts with them get set up and that they intend to increase their stock. The first point it great and a relief to hear. The second point has me worried. Why? Ingram hasn't revealed how they're going to increase stock and what they're increasing stock on.
There are three options that I can see for how they can increase stock.
Option 1: If they have unused warehouse space then they already have the ability to increase stock. Ingram has multiple warehouses across the country so it's possible they can put up more shelving to accommodate the extra stock. I don't believe it's probable but it is possible.
Option 2: They can decrease their stock of slower selling authors and/or subject matters and sidelines to create room for the more popular items. This is an option I think is far more likely since it's something that they're already practicing. They like to keep a pretty fast turn around so they have as little stock sitting around as possible. It's not unusual for them to have almost completely phased out of stock a title that's only been out two or three months -- and once they've phased it out that's it. They're not ever going to restock it.
Option 3: Purchase more warehouses and hire the necessary staff to run them. This would be the smartest move for them, especially since their business is going to increase, and the best option for the book business and publishing as a whole. Will they actually fork out the money to do this? I don't know. My fingers are crossed.
There is a pretty unlikely but not too far out of the realm of possibility option 4; which is to convince the big publishers to do more print on demand trade paperbacks. Some large publishers like Macmillan already do this and Ingram has a POD division that can facilitate it. The downside is that they're often outrageously priced which makes it highly unlikely that the public will like it if it does happen.
Whatever option Ingram chooses it's going to be rough the first few months as they figure out exactly how much their demand has changed and publishers figure out how much more of a print run they have to set aside for the Ingram order. Publishers are already kind of slow to fulfill Ingram orders (it's not unusual for it to take 2-4 weeks for stock to reach the Ingram warehouses) so part of the solution will depend on how publishers react and adapt as well. Hopefully they adapt quickly so stores don't lose too much in the transition. It's hard to ask customers to wait a few weeks for the warehouse to restock when they can go online and have it on their doorstep the next day. Those lost sales hurt and since brick and mortar stores are on the rebound it would be a shame to see any store have to close because they lost too much money waiting for backordered stock to arrive.
How does all of this affect authors? If you're traditionally published it's going to affect you the most. I'm willing to bet that most of Ingram's increased stock is going to be bestsellers and new releases that have received a lot of positive pre-release buzz. For new authors and mid-list authors it's going to be a lot harder to stay in the game. It won't be impossible but it's going to be harder to have the blockbuster first week sales to get another book deal because the necessary stock level for those kind of sales numbers isn't likely to be in the Ingram warehouse. I'd love to be proven wrong on that but honestly, I don't foresee it happening. For NYT bestsellers the worst I foresee happening to them is that they have to carry large stacks of book plates to sign when they're on tour so the people who couldn't get their hands on a copy because of warehouse shortages can still get a signature.
For indie authors this can be a great opportunity -- especially if you distribute through Ingram Sparks. If you don't distribute through Ingram Sparks now would be a good time to start. Ingram Sparks titles won't be effected by warehouse space shortages at all because those come from separate facilities. The big key is to make sure your books are available at the industry standard discount (that's 70-75% on the back end so it's the standard 40-45% on the store's end). These coming weeks as stores transition over would be a great time to visit local indie stores or mail them a one page sell sheet about your books and highlight the information about them being available POD at Ingram at the standard discount. I believe that information will become a bigger selling point then it was before since orders for POD titles can fulfilled without any additional hassle. In these early transition months your titles will be easier for a store to restock than a lot of traditionally published titles.
If I hear more concrete information in the coming months I'll add it to this post but this is all I know right now. I hope the situation and the ramifications are more clear to you than it was before. I'm still hoping that the transition will be more smooth than I expect it to be but I'm not holding my breath either. As they say, only time will tell.
Monday, July 30, 2018
What I've been up to lately
Yeah, I know. It's been a shamefully long time since I updated this page. The past 10 months I've been busy because of a family emergency of sorts. Everyone is fine, you needn't worry. But my family needed my help and that took me away form writing for a while. The same can be said for the ongoing construction/remodeling at home. Last summer it reached a stage where I had to pack up a lot of things and get them out of the way. I did manage to squeeze in some writing time and I've made good progress on book 2 of The Oneiroi War. It was at the halfway mark when I had to put it aside in March to work on three contracted short stories that were due back to back. I've finished those up recently. In fact, not only are all three written, two have already gone through edits. So that's a huge relief -- and I need some relief. I've pushed myself too hard these past few months to make up for lost time and to make these deadlines. My arthritic hands are hurting and I'm really fatigued. So rather than jump right back into book 2 I'm going to take a short break. I know a lot of people are eagerly waiting for that next book and I definitely want to get back to it but I really need two weeks off so my hands can recover. I feel terrible delaying it a bit longer but I have to be smart and put my health first.
Never fear though. I do have something new to tide you over while I rest. One of the three stories I worked on over the spring is coming out August 1st! It's part of Uncollected Anthology. Uncollected Anthology is an urban fantasy anthology series. Every volume has a different theme -- this time the theme is fairy tales -- and all of the stories are by really talented authors! What makes Uncollected Anthology really unique is that you can buy all of the stories seperately! You can still buy the whole volume, but I love that the option to only but two or three is available. I'm the guest author for this particular volume and I'm thrilled!
Here is what my story, The Twelve Dancing Sisters, is about: Private Investigator, Chloe Martinez, has had some strange cases but this is the first one that has scared her to death. Twelve sorority sisters disappear every Friday night and no one knows where they go. All of the clues lead to the secretive world that Chloe narrowly managed to escape years ago. If she doesn’t take case these girls might not survive another night. But if she does take the case, Chloe might not be able to escape that world a second time.
You'll find the buy links for The Twelve Dancing Sisters and all of the other stories in the anthology here, at the bottom of the page.
When I have details on the release of the the other two stories I wrote over the spring I'll share them and I'll definitely keep you updated on how book two is coming along. Till then I'll commence my break!
Never fear though. I do have something new to tide you over while I rest. One of the three stories I worked on over the spring is coming out August 1st! It's part of Uncollected Anthology. Uncollected Anthology is an urban fantasy anthology series. Every volume has a different theme -- this time the theme is fairy tales -- and all of the stories are by really talented authors! What makes Uncollected Anthology really unique is that you can buy all of the stories seperately! You can still buy the whole volume, but I love that the option to only but two or three is available. I'm the guest author for this particular volume and I'm thrilled!
Here is what my story, The Twelve Dancing Sisters, is about: Private Investigator, Chloe Martinez, has had some strange cases but this is the first one that has scared her to death. Twelve sorority sisters disappear every Friday night and no one knows where they go. All of the clues lead to the secretive world that Chloe narrowly managed to escape years ago. If she doesn’t take case these girls might not survive another night. But if she does take the case, Chloe might not be able to escape that world a second time.
You'll find the buy links for The Twelve Dancing Sisters and all of the other stories in the anthology here, at the bottom of the page.
When I have details on the release of the the other two stories I wrote over the spring I'll share them and I'll definitely keep you updated on how book two is coming along. Till then I'll commence my break!
Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Three StoryBundles!
That's right. I have stories in three different StoryBundles right now.
First off the Epic Fantasy Bundle, which contains my debut novel, The Moonflower, is about to end. There's a little over a day left to get this great selection of DRM-free e-books. 15 books for $15.00 is an amazing deal! Hell, I've been known to pay that much for a Sanderson alone! You don't want to miss out on this one. Trust me! You can get the Epic Fantasy Bundle here.
Next up is the Light in the Dark YA bundle. This young adult bundle contains the Sparks volume of Fiction River which contains my short story, Moonshine. This is my historical YA story about two orphans during the Great Depression who turn to running Moonshine in order to survive. You get the Sparks anthology at the $5.00 level. There's 15 days to get this bundle. You can get this bundle here.
Finally, the Aliens Among Us bundle just launched today. It's available for another 22 days. At the $5.00 level you get the No Humans Allowed volume of Fiction River, which contains my short story, When A Good Fox Goes To War. This is my historical fantasy story about a kitsune who gets caught up in a war between two feuding Samurai. You can get the Aliens Among Us bundle here.
This is the cheapest all of these books have ever been! I highly recommend you snatch up these bargains!
First off the Epic Fantasy Bundle, which contains my debut novel, The Moonflower, is about to end. There's a little over a day left to get this great selection of DRM-free e-books. 15 books for $15.00 is an amazing deal! Hell, I've been known to pay that much for a Sanderson alone! You don't want to miss out on this one. Trust me! You can get the Epic Fantasy Bundle here.
Next up is the Light in the Dark YA bundle. This young adult bundle contains the Sparks volume of Fiction River which contains my short story, Moonshine. This is my historical YA story about two orphans during the Great Depression who turn to running Moonshine in order to survive. You get the Sparks anthology at the $5.00 level. There's 15 days to get this bundle. You can get this bundle here.
Finally, the Aliens Among Us bundle just launched today. It's available for another 22 days. At the $5.00 level you get the No Humans Allowed volume of Fiction River, which contains my short story, When A Good Fox Goes To War. This is my historical fantasy story about a kitsune who gets caught up in a war between two feuding Samurai. You can get the Aliens Among Us bundle here.
This is the cheapest all of these books have ever been! I highly recommend you snatch up these bargains!
Monday, September 4, 2017
The Epic Fantasy StoryBundle!
My novel, The Moonflower is part of the new Epic Fantasy StoryBundle that Kevin J. Anderson put together! Squee!!! There are some amazing authors in this bundle like R.A. Salvatore, Michael Stackpole, Brandon Sanderson as well as a lot of great indie authors!
You can get the bundle here: http://storybundle.com/epic
If you're not familiar with StoryBundle, it works like this:
The DRM-free e-book versions of each of these books are available for download and you get to decide what you pay for them. If you pay at least $5.00 you get:
Knight of Flame by Scott Eder
A Hero Born -- Realms of Chaos book 1 by Michael A. Stackpole
Joanna Crusader by Hilary Benford
The Fallen -- The Greatest Sin Book 1 by Lee French and Erik Kort
The Education of Brother Thaddius and Other Tales of DemonWars by R.A. Salvatore
Yeah, that's not a typo. You get a Salvatore, a Stackpole and two more great books for only $5.00! But here's the real kicker...if you pay at least $15.00 you get TEN MORE BOOKS! You get these great books in addition to the titles above:
Obstacles by Ryan English
Blood of Akhilles by R.M. Meluch
Blood Curse by Quincy J. Allen
Warrior of Light by William Heinzen
The Moonflower by Kim May (Yay!)
Shadowguard by Gama Ray Martinez
Sixth of the Dusk by Brandon Sanderson
Spearwielder's Tale -- The Woods Out Back by R.A. Salvatore
The Sword of Bedwyr -- The Crimson Shadow by R.A. Salvatore
Unwilling Souls by Gregory D. Little
As I mentioned earlier all of these ebooks are DRM-free. If you're not familiar with some of these books or some of these authors, that's okay. If you click on the book's picture on the site you can pull up a description of book as well as some reviews to help you decide. You get both the epub and mobi files so you can read them on any device. Plus, when you buy the bundle you also have the opportunity to donate a portion of the proceeds to The Challenger Center For Space Education. You can find out more about the Challenger Center here. Their work is so important so please consider donating to them.
This bundle is only available until September 20th so don't wait. Get it now!
You can get the bundle here: http://storybundle.com/epic
If you're not familiar with StoryBundle, it works like this:
The DRM-free e-book versions of each of these books are available for download and you get to decide what you pay for them. If you pay at least $5.00 you get:
Knight of Flame by Scott Eder
A Hero Born -- Realms of Chaos book 1 by Michael A. Stackpole
Joanna Crusader by Hilary Benford
The Fallen -- The Greatest Sin Book 1 by Lee French and Erik Kort
The Education of Brother Thaddius and Other Tales of DemonWars by R.A. Salvatore
Yeah, that's not a typo. You get a Salvatore, a Stackpole and two more great books for only $5.00! But here's the real kicker...if you pay at least $15.00 you get TEN MORE BOOKS! You get these great books in addition to the titles above:
Obstacles by Ryan English
Blood of Akhilles by R.M. Meluch
Blood Curse by Quincy J. Allen
Warrior of Light by William Heinzen
The Moonflower by Kim May (Yay!)
Shadowguard by Gama Ray Martinez
Sixth of the Dusk by Brandon Sanderson
Spearwielder's Tale -- The Woods Out Back by R.A. Salvatore
The Sword of Bedwyr -- The Crimson Shadow by R.A. Salvatore
Unwilling Souls by Gregory D. Little
As I mentioned earlier all of these ebooks are DRM-free. If you're not familiar with some of these books or some of these authors, that's okay. If you click on the book's picture on the site you can pull up a description of book as well as some reviews to help you decide. You get both the epub and mobi files so you can read them on any device. Plus, when you buy the bundle you also have the opportunity to donate a portion of the proceeds to The Challenger Center For Space Education. You can find out more about the Challenger Center here. Their work is so important so please consider donating to them.
This bundle is only available until September 20th so don't wait. Get it now!
Wednesday, June 28, 2017
My Debut Novel!
The last time I posted an update I teased that I have a new book coming and would soon release the cover. Well, soon thereafter I was so swamped in copy edits, and other pre-release business that I completely forgot to do that. I am sorry for that but I have some news that might make up for that. My debut novel, The Moonflower, is now out!
Here's the publisher's description:
"Getting into a Parisian art school was a dream come true for Ariana, but night terrors are disrupting her sleep, making it nearly impossible to complete her coursework, and now she faces expulsion.
When a mysterious woman gives her a pendant, promising it will solve her problems, Ariana is desperate enough to try it.
Instead of sweet dreams, it transports her to the Demos Oneiroi - the dream world of the ancient Greek gods - and thrusts her amidst a war between the gods.
Now Ariana must choose to let the gods fight amongst themselves, or risk everything to keep their feud from spilling into the real world."
And here's the cover I mercilessly teased about:
The gorgeous cover art is by Lee Moyer and I couldn't be happier with it! It's so amazing to finally see these characters on a cover and hold the book in my hands. This book is the first of five books in the Oneiroi War series. And because I know that someone will ask, yes, it will only be five books. I am not going to pull a GRRM or a Jordan on you by suddenly expanding the series and spending the next twenty years working on it. Right now the plan is to write and release a book a year in this series. I've already written about a third of book two and I'm loving it! It's so good!
There's also a paperback edition available on Amazon. The paperback will also be available at Reader's Guide and Powell's bookstores in Oregon but give it a few weeks before you rush in and buy it. Their warehouses haven't received their shipments yet but I've been assured that they will arrive.
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