Numismatist | Michelle Proulx

Posts Tagged With: Numismatist

I need your advice RE: self-publishing a short story

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Michelle Proulx

Greetings fellow blogotrons! In today’s post, I desperately need your advice. Intrigued yet? Read on!

As I mentioned in a recent post, my short story The Coin Collector (formerly The Numismatist) has failed to win a place in the Sword & Laser Anthology competition. Tragedy strikes again! Anyhoo, at the suggestion of the lovely Keri Peardon, I have decided to self-publish my short story on Smashwords. Huzzah!

First of all, I’m going to offer the short story for free — as a kind of sampler of my work, in the hopes that people will download the story on a whim, enjoy my writing style, and then seek out other works by me. This process will of course be aided by whatever I stick into the ebook at the end of the story — so, something along the lines of:

Enjoyed the story? Want to read more by Michelle? Check out her debut sci-fi/romance novel, Imminent Danger And How to Fly Straight into It!

Visit https://michelleproulx.com/ for details.

Or something to that effect. That’s what I was going to go with, anyway. Then the lovely Keri Peardon struck again, suggesting that I include an excerpt of Imminent Danger at the end of the short story. Her theory is that as long as I indicate the length of the short story in the ebook description, no one will be upset by a free preview at the end. I’m a bit worried, though, that people won’t read the description, and will just see “4000 words length” and get upset when the story ends about 2000 words before they thought it was going to. Then again, it’ll be a free download, so they really can’t complain, right?

Hmmm … what do you guys think about this? Let me know in the comments, or clicky clicky the poll:

I’ve also got a possible cover design I’ve been messing around with, which I will now share:

What do you guys think? I’m pretty pleased with it. The treasure chest image is from here: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/178312. It’s royalty free (woo!), but I will of course be crediting the photographer (“chancey”) in the front matter of the ebook.

SO! Please let me know your thoughts on:

A) Whether or not I should include an excerpt from Imminent Danger at the end of the short story

B) What you think of the cover design

Thanks oodles! Have a fab Tuesday!

Unrelated media of the day:

Categories: My Works, Self Publishing, Writing | Tags: author, coin collecting, cover design, ebooks, Numismatist, self-publish, Short Stories, smashwords, writing | 49 Comments

Sword and Laser Short Story Anthology — REJECTED!

Posted on August 16, 2013 by Michelle Proulx

In a tragic turn of events, the short story I submitted to the Sword and Laser Short Story Anthology competition didn’t make the cut. Obviously I wish my story had made it, but I’m not too torn up about it — can’t expect to win the very first short story competition you enter, after all! That would just be silly. And awesome. But mostly silly.

For all wondering, the short story was a whimsical fantasy rambling of mine entitled The Numismatist. I was thinking of posting the entire thing here, but I think I might try entering it into a few more competitions, so you’ll have to make do with a teaser excerpt instead:

Pounding his fist against the dented metal door, Mr. Quimbly shouted, “Anyone in?”

“Just a moment, if you please,” a voice rumbled from inside.

The door squealed open of its own accord, and a huge, gleaming claw attached to a scaly green appendage nearly the size of Mr. Quimbly’s entire body reached out. Mr. Quimbly yelped, stumbling back and nearly dropping his file.

“Forgive my rudeness,” said the same deep voice, and the claw retracted into the darkness. “I didn’t mean to startle you, little manling. Do come inside. I’ve already put the kettle on.”

“I—I’d rather not, if it’s all the same to you,” said Mr. Quimbly, preparing to run.

“It isn’t, actually.”

The claw shot back out, hooked around Mr. Quimbly’s waist, and yanked him inside. Lying in the middle of the dimly-lit warehouse was a massive green dragon. Its iridescent viridian scales contrasted magnificently with the small mountain of gleaming gold coins on which it was nestled.

“Good heavens,” said Mr. Quimbly. “You’re a dragon.”

“Well spotted,” said the dragon.

The Numismatist — Michelle Proulx 2013

There you have it! As you can imagine, the situation rapidly deteriorates into silliness now that Mr. Quimbly is stuck in a warehouse with a dragon. I’ll probably give it another read through, maybe make some minor edits, and then send it off to another competition. I figure I have to win something one of these days if I keep entering things, right?

Never give up! Never surrender!

Unrelated link of the day:

This is so cool. Seriously. Go to this site and mess around for a bit. It’s really awesome.

http://weavesilk.com/