Click here to read it.

When you publish your book to Kindle, you can’t specify that it is the Kindle version of an existing paper book. Instead, you’re supposed to wait and allow the Amazon database to figure this out and link them together.  In my case, that didn’t seem to happen, resulting in me having to contact them, supply the details of the paper and Kindle versions, and ask them to do it – which they did.

The process takes several days and isn’t yet complete. When it is, reviews written about the paper version should appear on the Kindle version’s page (which is currently reviewless), and when going to the paper version’s page, you will be offered the option of purchasing the book on Kindle.

But there’s a third benefit, which didn’t occur to me until I was looking at the (now partially linked) Kindle page, and seeing how the price is displayed now that it is lined to the print version (click to make bigger):

Now I’m not an expert in the psychology of prices and pricing. But I think that might be quite cool.

See, if I had only a Kindle version, the price would be £0.70. A browser might come across this and conclude that it is “cheap”. But they might also conclude that it’s clearly not worth much. But now, they see that the price is £0.70 compared with a price for the print version of £7.99 – a saving of 91%. It’s no longer £0.70 for something worth £0.70, but £0.70 for something worth £7.99. I’m hoping that the word that will come to mind now will be “bargain” rather than “cheap”. (There is a proper name for this “price expectation” effect, but I can’t remember it now).

Well here’s hoping, anyhow.

Or it might fizzle out and die, taking my hope and dreams with it.

There isn’t so much I can do to determine which of those two outcomes occur. But there is something that you can do. Two things in particular. It’s really quite cheeky for me to ask you to do them, but it’s really important to me, and I’m hoping you won’t mind.

Firstly, you can buy the Kindle version of Game Night, even if you’ve already got the paper version. You don’t need a Kindle. Amazon do free Kindle applications for Windows PC, Mac OS X, iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry and Android. These allow you to purchase and read Kindle books just as if you had an actual Kindle. (It’s pretty straight-forward, but I’ve put some instructions at the end).

During this initial launch period, it will only cost you 99c in the US, or 70p in the UK, which I’d like to feel is a small enough amount that I can ask you to do as a favour to me, albeit a rather considerable one for which I will owe you a drink. (In case you’re interested, the amount of money I’ll get out of that is 35c, but it will be worth far, far more than that to me).

Buying Game Night is pretty crucial. At present, if you type “Game Night” into Amazon you get a long list of books with Game Night in the title, not one of which is my one. If enough of you buy Game Night I’ll be at the top of that list. Sales will also give it a high Amazon ranking, which gives the book credibility with readers and will help it get into Amazon’s crucial recommendation system.

Secondly, assuming you’ve enjoyed reading Game Night, you can recommend it to people who follow you on social networks like Twitter and Facebook as well as the many forum sites out there. I’ll be doing tweets about Game Night. If you’re a twitter user and could retweet one of them (or even better do your own tweet), I’d be very grateful. When it comes to making Game Night really take off, I can light the fire, but it’s those around me who have to blow on the flames.

The best links to use are:

US: http://www.amazon.com/Game-Night-ebook/dp/B0057JPZSG

UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Game-Night-ebook/dp/B0057JPZSG

Finally, as always, if you liked Game Night then I would be very happy if you did a short review, either on Amazon or your own blog, saying so. Alternatively, you can go to the Amazon pages for the book (the above links) and click on the “Like” button, to say that you like the book. (Assuming you do, or course!)

And it would be especially nice if you comment here, or on Twitter or Facebook, to say that you’ve bought or retweeted or posted.

I know this entire post is just a tad cheeky, but I really will be grateful for any and all help. Thank you. I really appreciate it.

HOW TO BUY A KINDLE BOOK (IF YOU DON’T ALREADY HAVE A KINDLE)

1) Download and install the appropriate app. If you have a Windows PC, you can download it here. If you have an Apple Mac, you can download it here (it will only work Macs bought within the last five years, as you need an Intel one and it needs to be running at least OS X 10.5 Leopard). Otherwise, if you have an iPad, an iPhone, a BlackBerry, or some kind of Android phone or tablet, you should download the “Kindle” app from whichever app store you normally use. In all case, it’s free.

2) Enter your Amazon account details into the app (i.e. you log in). US customers can enter their Amazon.com account details. UK customers can enter their Amazon.co.uk details.

3) Click on the “Kindle Store” button. This will take you to the Kindle Store. (Which is basically the Amazon website, but showing only Kindle titles).

4) Search for “Jonny Nexus”. Pick Game Night from the resulting list. (It should be either 99c or 70p, depending on whether you’re on Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk).  Click that you want to buy it.

That’s it. It should then be automatically downloaded to whichever app you’re using to make the purchase. If you have multiple Kindle apps (on both your iPad and iPhone say, or Windows PC and Android phone) you can download it to the “other” app by going into the “Archived” section and selecting Game Night. (You only pay once, even if you read it on multiple devices).

US: http://www.amazon.com/Game-Night-ebook…

UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Game-Night-ebook…

As part of his I’ve done a press release, reproduced below. Please feel free to grab any or all of it if you want to post something up on a blog, on Facebook, or on a forum.

PRESS RELEASE

Game Night, Jonny Nexus’s 2007 ENnie-nominated novel of roleplaying gods, is now available on Amazon’s Kindle platform, with versions available both for standard Kindles as well as the Kindle apps for PC, iPhone, iPad and Android. To celebrate this event, it will initially be sold at a bargain launch rate of just 99 cents in the US (Amazon.com) and 70 pence in the UK (Amazon.co.uk).

As well as achieving the prestigious ENnie nomination, Game Night was widely lauded in reviews. Cartoonist and writer John Kovalic said:

“A Pratchet-esque debut novel of gods, roleplaying, and game-night kerfuffles … Buy Game Night. It’s a fun, fresh, irreverent read that’ll ring true to any gamer even if, unlike the protagonists, you happen not to be a god.”

And on RPGNet, RPG writer and reviewer Steve Darlington declared:

“The best novel ever written about gaming. One of the funniest novels ever written about anything.”

The novel’s author, Jonny Nexus, says: “Launching Game Night on the Kindle is a big thrill for me. The paper version of Game Night got a better response than I’d ever hoped for. People really enjoyed it, both gamers and non-gamers. It really seemed to strike a chord, and I can’t wait for a whole new group of people to read it.”

Game Night on the Kindle can be found on Amazon at:

US: http://www.amazon.com/Game-Night-ebook/dp/B0057JPZSG

UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Game-Night-ebook/dp/B0057JPZSG

204 words

ABOUT JONNY NEXUS

Jonny Nexus lives in Brighton with his wife, their dog, and an array of chew toys that the dog invariably leaves on the top-most step but one.

He is the editor, co-founder, and chief-writer of the cult gaming webzine Critical Miss. He wrote The Slayer’s Guide to Games Masters for leading roleplaying publisher Mongoose Publishing, as well as writing a monthly column for their magazine Signs & Portents.

His debut novel Game Night, published by Magnum Opus Press in 2007, was shortlisted for a Gen Con EN World Award (an “Ennie”). This August, Mongoose Publishing will publish “The NeXus Files”, a compilation of Jonny’s Signs & Portents articles. And a short story of his (“On Her Majesty’s Deep Space Service”) will be appearing in a forthcoming anthology from new publisher Stone Skin Press.

A ten-thousand-year quest is about to be completed. Prophecies will be fulfilled, ancient riddles answered, legendary evils bested, and the nature of the universe revealed. All that’s needed is a band of mighty heroes to do the completing.

Unfortunately for the locals, some of the gods have taken a personal interest in the chronicle of these heroes’ adventures. Now they are each guiding one of the characters towards the conclusion of their epic journey. That is, when they’re not squabbling, backstabbing each other, blowing things up by accident, refusing to play by the rules, and turning the AllFather’s creation into a mess of petty arguments, fantasy cliché, gratuitous combat and unnecessary dice-rolls.

If you thought your games group couldn’t be any worse, Game Night shows just how bad things can get when a bunch of unruly deities decide they want to play. And may the heavens help us all.

“The best novel ever written about gaming. One of the funniest novels ever written about anything.” —RPGNet review (rating 5/5) by Steve Darlington

But wait, there’s more!

Sorry, appear to be channelling the inner QVC I wasn’t aware I had.

But there is more. While I’m not necessarily aiming for world domination, it’s important to me that Game Night does well. Not just on a personal level, but because I need something to show agents and publishers that, contrary to what they might think, there is actually a market for humour fantasy/SF, and that just maybe I’m someone who can write it. So far, it’s done okay in terms of sales (probably around 1800 copies sold so far), and very well in terms of how well people liked it. But it seems I need more if I want it to be something that causes agents to sniff at my door.

So the second bit of news is that Game Night will launch on the Kindle at a special launch price of 99 cents (and a similar amount in the UK). Yes, that’s $0.99. This isn’t what I think my novel is worth – I think it’s worth a lot more. But it is an amount that I’m hoping will provoke curiosity, interest, and those all-import re-tweets.

At some point the price will go up to what I think the novel is worth (I haven’t yet determined what that is, but I know it’s more than the price of a small bottle of cola). So if you’ve got access to a Kindle device or app, and you haven’t yet read Game Night then I’d suggest you buy it when you can.

Actually, you know what? I’d just ask you to buy it.

And if you have another device, I will be trying to get Game Night out in other formats just as soon as I get this out of the way.

So it’s with great pleasure that I can finally now talk about the thing I spent a chunk of last summer working on, “The NeXus Files”, which is being published by Mongoose Publishing this summer. Here’s the blurb:

In May 2003, Jonny Nexus embarked on a journey that would take him from the ruins of post-WWIII Poland to the shores of long-gone realms, and from the faded grandeur of 1920s Venice to the twice-sunned deserts of alien worlds. During this journey he would view fabulous sights, witness epoch-shattering events, and meet beings of both might and majesty – many of whom he then proceeded to kill. He engaged millennia old vampires in hand-to-hand combat armed only with petrol bombs and a ready wit. He uncovered secrets of ages past; he forgot secrets of ages past. He robbed from those that had money, and kept it. Across a score of glittering worlds he entirely failed to write himself into either myth or legend.

But he did have fun.

And somewhere along the way he even found time to die.

Several times.

For thirty months, Jonny Nexus recorded the thoughts aroused by, and the lessons learned from, his twice-weekly roleplaying habit in a column he wrote for Mongoose Publishing’s Signs & Portents magazine. Part travelogue, part guide, part manual, and part manifesto, these are those columns.

It all started around eighteen months ago when Mongoose contacted me to ask if I would be interested in working with them on a reprint / compilation of the “Jonny Nexus Experience” column I used to write for their magazine Signs & Portents. I was pretty happy with the pieces I’d written, and loved the idea of them being available in one nice neat package with my name on it. So I said yes. But we didn’t want it to simply be a reprint, so we agreed that we would try to add some extra content. What we ended up with was this:

1. An introduction (introductory essay really), giving a bit of context to the creation of the columns, together with a tutorial about roleplaying intended to make it a bit more accessible to non-roleplayers.
2. All 30 columns that I wrote, together with new, additional “explanitory” notes for each (a sort of “director’s commentary”).
3. Two bonus columns, one of which completes the story of my Sunday/Tuesday/Monday group’s Orient Express Cthulhu campaign.

So far, there isn’t much information out there about it. The best I found was this link on FRP Games, where it’s available for pre-order. But as I get more information, I’ll mention it here.

I’m pretty chuffed to have it coming out. Hope everyone likes it.

Here’s the reply I’ve just sent to her:

Hi Meg,

Thanks very much for this. I would be interested in doing a signing, but given the crushing disappointment to my ego a signing usually involves, I think it would be best to restrict it to just the one session.

If possible, could I have the final session on Monday at noon? That gives me the maximum possible time to get to know people in the bar on the previous evenings and then silently guilt trip them into buying my book if they’re unwise enough to walk past the signing table and catch my eye. (I’m not joking. That was how I made my one and only sale last year at Odyssey. Poor Rob. I think he was only trying to get to the art show.)

Thanks,

Jonny

What do you think? Too self-depreciating? Or just honest and realistic?

Why?

Well I’ve got a simple ambition – simple to define that is, certainly not simple to achieve. I want to be a mainstream, published writer, with an agent, a publisher, and books in bookshops around the world. I don’t want writing to be my hobby. I’d like it to be my job.

I received two emails today, both very nice, both very polite, and both trying to be as constructive and helpful as possible.

The first was from a fan of Critical Miss urging me to forgot about mainstream publishing and instead self-publish.

The second was an agent who, in a very thoughtful, constructive and helpful email… turned me down. Mainly this was due to my writing not setting him on fire. That’s fine. Writing is, as he himself said, very subjective, and I think humour is doubly so. But he also said something else, that I’ve previously heard from other people, which (paraphrasing his words) is this:

As far as the mainstream book world is concerned there isn’t really such a thing as a market for, or genre of, humorous SF/Fantasy. There’s just a Terry Pratchett market, and that’s that.

I can believe this to be true, which is what makes it so doubly depressing. But it seems perverse. Terry Pratchett became the best selling UK author of the 1990s by writing humorous fantasy, and the conclusion that was drawn from this was that there is no market for humorous fantasy? That’s he so cornered the market that there’s no room for anyone else?

Trying to break into the fiction market is hard enough as it is. It’s not enough to be good, I know that. You have to be great, and even then you have to find people whose tastes are aligned precisely enough with yours that you’re their kind of great.

But if you’re writing for a genre that doesn’t exist, then what’s the point? You may as well give up and go home. Or in my case, leave home and go to work (a.k.a. the day job).

Three years back, I wrote a book, Game Night, which people loved. It wasn’t technically self-published, but it was self-marketed. It wasn’t in any bookshops save a handful of Waterstone’s, where it appeared due to the efforts of individual staff who were fans. It was about a subject perceived to be even more niche than humorous fantasy. You think humorous fantasy’s niche? This was humorous roleplaying game fantasy! There was no marketing budget. There were no PR people. Hell, there were no editors.

There was just me.

And yet it’s sold nearly two thousand copies, which I’m told is pretty good for books.

At 2008′s Eastercon I had two middle-aged, female, Terry Pratchett fans who’d never played a roleplaying game in their life buy the book. They loved it. One came back the next day to say: “I was awake half the night, and it’s all your fault, because I couldn’t put it down, because it’s brilliant!”

A few months later we went to the 2008 Discworld Convention, which is, as the name suggests, basically a Terry Pratchett fan convention. We sold 76 copies, which amounts to a little over one in ten of the people attending. I’ve since met many of those people again, and they’ve all told me how much they love the book.

I’ve got a page on my website listing literally dozens of seriously nice quotes about Game Night, many of whom compare it favourably to Terry Pratchett’s works.

Barely a month goes by without someone asking me when me next book will be out. Nagging even. (I mean that literally. For the record, the most recent time was at a party in Wincanton on Saturday 5th March, whose attendees included several Terry Pratchett fans. I’m not making this shit up.)

And each time I have to tell them sorry, don’t know, but it’s a long time away at best.

Which is what I find so frustrating. On one side I have a bunch of people who like what I’ve written thus far, and who not only want more but are getting annoyed at my failure to produce something. And on the other side I have a book industry that says there’s no market for what I write.

I should stress again that I have no bad feelings whatsoever towards the agent who said this. I respect him, and value the kindness that led him to send me a personal written rejection rather than a standard form reply. If I thought his words were falsehoods backed by poor judgement they would be easy to dismiss. It’s that I believe his words to be truths backed by hard-earned knowledge that’s made me so depressed.

It’s probably a little unprofessional to confess to being depressed on my blog (strictly speaking I’m pissed off and miserable rather than actually, clinically depressed) but I figure what’s a blog for if it’s not to be occasionally honest?

I’m not about to give up. There’s still more agents out there, and I’ll keep plugging away, although it worries me that if publishers really do all believe that there’s no market for humorous SF/fantasy, then any agent who might take me on is apparently, by definition, a fool who doesn’t understand the market.

And if we get to this time next year with no progress made, then maybe I will look down the self-publishing route. But if I do, it will be with a heavy heart. I don’t want to be a salesman or a publicist or an editor. I just want to write. I’d like the prestige of being a “published” author, rather than the dubious honour of being part of a process that I once heard a big-name SF author describe as “evil”. I’d like to believe that I might one day be a guest at an SF convention, rather than just the bloke with a stall in the dealers room trying to sell his self-published “crap”.

And I fear that the day I go self-published is the day I give up on the dream of ever making a living at this. I’ve tried selling a book and it isn’t anything like as easy as people think. But maybe that’s an impossible dream anyway. Very few authors make a living writing, and in the “information wants to be free” Internet era I suspect that number will be even further reduced.

It’s not about the money. I’ll never earn as much as a writer as I currently earn as a programmer in the City. And it’s not just about wanting to do a job I enjoy – although that’s a big part of it. It’s about wanting to have time to write all the stories in my head. I bought myself a notebook recently and on the first page, wrote a list of all the novels I already have ideas for.

There’s eleven of them, eight of which are in a genre that apparently doesn’t exist. I’d like to arrange my life such that I might actually get to write them one day.

Here’s hoping.

This is a quite depressing process.

What keeps me going is the occasional comments of approval I get about Game Night via email, Facebook and Twitter. So for purposes that consist pretty much entirely of boasting about my compliments in order to boost my fragile ego, I thought I put up some of the Twitter comments I’ve received over the last few months. (It’s only the last few months because Twitter doesn’t seem to allow me to go any further back than that).

@nicholsonj

@jonnynexus @wilw Oh, definitely. Satisfied customer over here!

[link]

I think that was in response to me saying something along the lines of thinking that Wil Wheaton would probably enjoy Game Night.

@nicholsonj

@jonnynexus Then I’ll see you at Eastercon, and add to your woes by wanting to buy a new book that you don’t have yet!

[link]

I think that was in response to me saying that my second novel was finished, but that it would be a long while before it saw publication (as I had to find an agent first, and then they would have to find a publisher).

@multiclassgeek

@jonnynexus It’s OK, you’ll be at #Red11 in spirit via my love of #GameNight

[link]

That was when I said I would be at Redemption 2011 (an SF convention). I read that one out to my wife, my sister-in-law, and my mother-in-law, who were all with me when I first saw it.

@Arcgrim

@jonnynexus Just wanted to say how pleased I am to have found you on Twitter. Bought Game Night after @wilw blogged about it – loved it!

[link]

@jonnynexus Ah, it might have been @muskrat_john. If @wilw hasn’t read Game Night, then he should! I’m sure he’d love it!

[link]

@jonnynexus Sorry if I got you all excited for nothing! Still wherever I heard about it, I love the book & also bought one for my brother

[link]

That did get me a bit excited for a while about the idea of Wil Wheaton having blogged about my book, but I don’t mind that it turned out that hasn’t. Just meeans I can still look forward to him reading it. And yes, I’d be lying if I said a big (but not only, he’s a writer I really admire) part of that is the thought that he might recommend it to his 3.55 Wheatons worth of Twitter followers. And if someone’s bought Game Night twice? That’s awesome on top of awesome. That really made my day.

I really do appreciate any and all complements that come my way. Thank you to anyone who’s even helped me along with some words of encouragement.

Why am I telling you this? For the self-centred and perhaps even egotistical reason that I’ve got a story in one of Stone Skin’s upcoming anthologies, along with such noted authors as Ed Greenwood, Adam Marek, Alex Bledsoe, Jesse Bullington, Richard Dansky, Monte Cook, Matt Forbeck, Julia Bond Ellingboe, and Kyla Ward.

The story I pitched, and which Robin and Pelgrane accepted, was a sort of pulpy, retro, alternate history space opera set in the future the people of the 1950s thought they were heading toward:

It is 1987. With outposts from the frozen moons of Saturn to the burning plains of Mercury, the sun never sets on the British Empire. Peter “Pete” Stone is a member of the Royal Space Force who, together with their allies in the United States Aerospace Force, keep the space-lanes safe from the ever-present Soviet threat. As a member of the RSF’s Special Investigation Bureau, Pete Stone uses his courage, his clear-thinking, and his arrogant conviction in his general superiority to dispatch the enemies of the Empire with a blend of style, brutality and wit.

And if that isn’t enough to tempt you, here are some teasers from a couple of the other (much better known than me!) writers who’ve contributed stories:

• Matt Forbeck
• Monte Cook

More news about which anthology I’m in and when it will be out, when I have it.

¹When I throw in that “ably”, I really mean it. Working with Robin as my editor was both an education and a pleasure, so much so that I intend to write a later blog post (“The Benefits of a Zeroth Draft”) describing a little bit about the process.