Author: Richard Parry

We begin the 15-day story challenge on Monday 📅

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This is one of my world-famous emails, originally sent Friday, November 30. You can get on the list here. Happy [insert day of the week] to you. You might remember me talking about the 15-day story challenge. Turns out, that’s next week. WHAT HAVE I DONE?! I feel sick, but excited! This week: A few details on the story I’m minting; The plans and schedules; Me vs. Aeon 14; and Free beer. Rattle and roll. The Story Tyche’s Progeny, in particular Tyche’s Ghosts and Tyche’s Angels, features Algernon as a part of the cast. He’s a sentient machine, a survivor of the human-AI wars that resulted in the Mercury Accords. People really liked Algernon. I got a lot of email about him because he’s funny, but also because he spends about 70% of his on-screen moments mocking October Kohl. A Read More …

Three to See, One to Avoid

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I picked up a bunch of movies on physical media. If you’re on the fence about Alien: Covenant, Ready Player One, Thor: Ragnarok, or A Dark Song, this might help your decision-making process. Alien: Covenant This is a good monster movie. If you watched Prometheus and left wanting to /wrists, this is not the same thing. Where Prometheus was ridiculous to a fault (e.g., why can people not run sideways out of the path of a giant rolling donut…), Covenant is a return to an Alien movie where they don’t try to explain too much (busting things in the process – what even was the black goo…), and give you the horrific scenes you want. Covenant follows the crew of a colony ship. Pulled off-course by an accident, they set down on a human-habitable world. Unfortunately, the monsters beat ’em Read More …

I hope you haven’t slipped into a diabetic coma (🦃)

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This is one of my world-famous emails, originally sent Friday, 23 November 2018. Get on the list here. Those of you in the US are probably full. We don’t really do Thanksgiving in New Zealand – but the photos on my social media of food, more food, and all the food kinda make me wish we did. This week: The 15-day story challenge; Tragedy; and A peak into my old, terrible covers. Let’s get to it. The 15-day story challenge Some of you who’ve been here a while will remember Delilah. I wrote this story and sampled it out to you over the course of a few months, eventually giving out the free book download link. It was fun to do, and most of you seemed to like the tale. I’m doing something similar again. Similar, but totally different. I’m Read More …

Scalzi’s Thanksgiving Gift

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I suggest listening to the audio of this rather than reading it. Also, try not to get too angry at your past automated phone system support calls. https://whatever.scalzi.com/2018/11/19/a-thanksgiving-week-gift-for-you-automated-customer-service/

The tale of a launch week 🚀

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This is one of my world-famous emails, originally send Friday, 16 November 2018. You can get on the list here. But first… …we need to acknowledge the passing of a titan. Today: The late, great Stan Lee. A tiny bit of author biz, and Chromed: Upgrade’s launch week. Let’s dig in. Marvel has the best characters. I reckon that’s all down to Stan Lee. I’ve read comics for while, but not forever. I noped out in my early years – I didn’t really understand things like Commando or Archie, and when I found ‘superhero’ comics, they were full of muscle-bound weirdos and not-empowered women. I didn’t get the magic. Then a friend told me about Ronin. This changed my whole world. How he explained it: ‘comics’ were for kids and ‘graphic novels’ were the real deal. Fast forward a number Read More …

The Interesting Science of Free Books Driving Piracy

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I like data. It helps make better decisions, and avoid posturing and hand-wavium. A bunch of people in the author community espouse the value of permafree* book one in a longer series. The basic argument is: There’s no friction to reader attachment, thus you’ll get a higher readership. This is testable. While less people as a percentage of book one readers will read next-in-series (as speculative “purchasers” can come from outside your genre lane), the volume of readers will drive greater success overall. We can test this for science. We can also talk about the shit-show of also-boughts and how that makes advertising painful. You gain exposure on other storefronts, other than the mighty Zon. We can test this too! TL;DR: none of the promised gains worked for me, but I did see a massive spike in book 2 & Read More …

High-Five, Internet!

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When I released the first tortured edition of Upgrade in 2014, it sank without a trace (from a sales perspective). While sales aren’t the total arbiter of success, they’re definitely a leading indicator! The re-master launched last Friday. Today, it snuck into the top 100 of the cyberpunk genre on the world’s biggest bookstore. No clue if 96 is as high as it’ll go, but it feels like I might have finally given this book the treatment it deserved.

The Land of Confusion 😕

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This is one of my world-famous emails, originally sent Friday November 9, 2018. You can get on the list if you want this directly wired to your brain (…or nearest connected device). Greetings, programs. It’s Author Launch Week™ here in the Richard Parry empire. This is like other weeks, but with a higher alcohol consumption level. Today: Soundtracks; Pinterest for inspiration; What I’ve been reading; and The world of confusion I’ve been wrangling. “Herding cats” doesn’t begin explain it. Let’s dig in. Soundtracks! Back in the day, I made soundtracks for all my books. This serves the fantastic purpose of feeding my ego, while giving readers a vibe for the story. Searching Spotify for “cyberpunk” will give you all kinds of synthwave bullshit. Many of those playlists sound like amateur hour with a bunch of people dry-humping an electronic keyboard. Read More …

Chromed: Upgrade Is Out!

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Chromed: Upgrade is on virtual shelves across planet Earth. It’s about the twisted, beautiful creatures we are and what this world does to us. It’s 2150AD. There hasn’t been a corporate war… until now. Mason Floyd is an augmented syndicate enforcer at the top of his game. His job is asset protection and acquisition, no questions asked. Company tech is stolen on Mason’s watch. Rival megacorps want it, and they don’t mind killing him to get it. Framed for the theft, Mason runs. He tangles with off-grid rockstar Sadie Freeman on the grimy seam between the powerful and poor. Together they uncover a secret an entire city died to keep. Hunted and desperate, they must team up to survive. Together Mason and Sadie can save the world. Apart, both are lost. They must trust each other or die. Megacorps. Cyborgs. Read More …