Posts

Posted on

Gigsplained Guides coming to Gigabooks Press

Gigsplained Education Foundation

Gigsplained Education Foundation will be publishing a series of guides on a variety of topics with Gigabooks Press.

Branded “Gigsplained Guides” these books will be single topic books about a wide variety of topics from health and nutrition, to information and technology.

Gigsplained has made a name for itself by advocating for education and public media. The name Gigsplained means explaining a complicated topic in a casual, conversational way. This will make the Gigsplained Guides an easy read for a wide audience.

The Gigsplained Guides do not yet have a set publishing schedule but will be announced as they become available.

Posted on

Gigabooks Press Terms of Service

Gigabooks Press is offering authors of existing books access to our e-commerce platform. These are the terms.

Gigabooks Press (a division of Gigabytes Technology LLC) is a small publisher of e-bools, audiobooks, and physical books (heretofore simply referred to as “book” or “books”). We also print small format guides and novelettes which is currently the limit of our printing capabilities. What we offer authors of existing books is access to our e-commerce platform and promotion via our social media and other means.

How it works. We do not charge for any of these services. Rather, this is a profit-sharing arrangement. We will sell your book through our website Gigabookspress.com and promote your book at our discretion via our social media channels or other ad channels.

Physical products are purchased from you directly (typically a few copies at a time) at a wholesale price that you set. You are required to fulfil any physical product request in full once a purchase has been made.

Digital products like e-books and audiobooks are licensed and provided by you to Gigabooks Press and a wholesale price is agreed upon beforehand. As a digital product sells on our platform, the wholesale price for that item is paid out to you within 30 business days.

Termination. If, for any reason, you do not wish to have Gigabooks Press sell your book you may inform us in writing and we will remove the item from our store, no questions asked. Likewise, Gigabooks Press reserves the right to stop selling or promoting any book in our store at any time for any reason. In either case, any pending payments will be paid out in accordance with these terms.

Sales. If Gigabooks Press discounts the price for your book, it will do so at its own cost. It will not affect the agreed upon price for your book.

These terms are non-exclusive. You may sell your book on any other platform you choose in addition to Gigabooks Press. You are also encouraged (but not required) to promote your book on your own as being sold on the Gigabooks Press website.

Signature not required. By allowing Gigabooks Press to sell your book, you are agreeing to these terms.

Posted on

Reworking The 8 Fates of Okteveos: New 3-Book Series Unveiled

In 2023, J. Tordsen wrote and finished The 8 Fates of Okteveos. However, on a recent Gigsplained podcast he admitted that when it was given to beta readers they didn’t care for it. So the book will now be reworked into 2 separate books by adding new details that were not included in the original draft.

“They said it kinda sucked,” he explained in the podcast. “I could have paid an editor to tell me the same thing but ultimately I listened to the beta readers. I took a step back and thought about it for quite a while and came up with a plan to rework the single novel into 2 books by adding some foreshadowing and mysticism to the first part rather than making it a dry accounting of the hero/villian’s sins.”

“I felt constrained in the second half of the book anyway. There was so much more to the story that didn’t make it to the book.”

The first book will now be called The Sins of Okteveos and will have the same cover that has already been revealed. The second book will be called The Fates of Okteveos followed by the third book, The Rise of Okteveos.

A new release date has yet to be set.

Posted on

Okteveos Release Delayed

the 8 fates of okteveos

The 8 Fates of Okteveos is getting major rewrites at the suggestion of beta readers.

Parts of the anticipated book are going back to the second edit process which could delay the release by several weeks. J. Tordsen explains.

I am going to delay the release of The 8 Fates of Okteveos based on the feedback I received from beta readers. I use a self-edit process and to ignore the feedback from the beta readers is ultimately self-defeating. As this is my first foray into novel writing, it is worth taking the extra time to make the manuscript the best it can be.

What did the beta readers say? In a nutshell, the first half of the book was too much of a lift for the readers. So much so that one reader even began skimming and missed some important details that helped make sense of the story in later chapters.

In fairness, I have only been working on this book off and on since about January 2023. Ten months of work on a novel that might take years to write is better than I expected – especially considering how slow I type.

J. Tordsen

The original release was planned for October but with the delay, a new release date has yet to be determined. Gigabooks Press will announce the new date once it becomes available.

Posted on

Excerpt: Dealing With Writer’s Block

This is an excerpt from The Gigabytes Guide to Writing Second Edition on sale in paperback and e-book on this site.

The first thing to know about writer’s block is that the condition we call “writer’s block” is not unique to writers. When software developers experience the same thing we don’t call it “programmer’s block”.

The second thing you need to know is that is isn’t real. Seriously. It is not an ailment, a condition, or an affliction. You won’t find it in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual as a mental disorder however, you can find a book written 30 years ago called Understanding Writer’s Block: A Therapist’s Guide to Diagnosis and Treatment. The first sentence of the blurb?

“This innovative book explains writer’s block as a symptom of a larger disorder.”
Source: Google Books

Allow me to save you the time reading this 195 page “only to find out you aren’t crazy” book. Yes, writers and creative people can get stumped sometimes and we call it writer’s block because some Austrian psychologist living in New York named Edmund Bergler coined the term in 1947. Yeah, Bergler. Not Hemingway, Bronte, or Verne.
Source: ncbi.nim.nih.gov article PMC7965145

The long and the short of it is that writer’s block is a symptom of a larger issue. While chronic writer’s block may be caused by a mental disorder, your writer’s block may just mean you are tired, sick, or need a new source of inspiration. In other words, rest or do something else for a while. (Incidentally, have you watched the British version of Ghosts? I bet you haven’t.)

Pro Tip: There is literally no rule saying you have to write as the reader will read it. If you are feeling stuck at a certain point, stop writing, create a new document, and start writing a section that you are more inspired with. You can fill in the gaps later. It may even be easier to do so because all you have to do is connect the dots.

The good news here is, not only do you not have to write in sequence, what if I told you that you don’t have to write parts of your book at all?

I often skip parts of the writing and just make notes in brackets like these: <insert yet another joke about Ghosts on Paramount+>. I also use markers like xxx to bookmark the spot where I leave off writing and editing. Those marks are not often used in writing, so you are able to use your word processor’s search feature during editing to search for these sections and fill them in.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (of Sherlock Holmes fame) anecdotally started with the end of his mystery books and wrote the plot backwards. Plotting backwards is a legitimate technique used by mystery writers. So, you are allowed to skip around when writing your saucy romance novel (we all know what parts you really want to write anyway).

Posted on

Use of “Artificial Intelligence” in Writing

This is an excerpt from The Gigabytes Guide to Writing available on this site in paperback and e-book.

Let’s start off by calling it what it is: a large language model chat bot. Not only is it not artificially intelligent, it is well known for making factual mistakes and outputting terrible writing. “AI” is effectively a marketing term.

The temptation to use chat bots to write some or all of a work is great for any writer – particularly if they are struggling. Without getting into how these systems actually work, my advice as a writer and as a technologist is: Don’t.

The reasons are, quite frankly, both numerous and serious. First off, copyright law is not settled when it comes to chat bots and writing. If you let a chat bot write any part of your work for you, it is entirely possible you could find yourself on the end of a lawsuit over the rights and royalties to your work by the company that developed the chat bot. As ridiculous as it sounds, these companies may legitimately have a case against you.

Second, there are many publishing houses that will ban you if you try to submit a work that was written by AI – even in part. This could limit your audience and publishing options.

Third, flooding the market with poorly-written, self-published dreck – even if human edited – hurts the entire writer / reader community. If readers spend their hard-earned money on a terrible book that isn’t up to standards, then there is the potential to lose that reader forever. One bad book can be dismissed as a fluke, but if book after book is terrible, a reader might wonder why they are wasting their time and money.

Finally, if you can’t write for yourself, put this book down now and find another hobby. For example, I hear this show, Ghosts, is pretty compelling.

Posted on

J. Tordsen on The Author’s Voice

J. Tordsen will be on The Author’s Voice Podcast with Donnie Lansdale on September 14, 2023.

He will be discussing past projects like the recently released The Gigabooks Guide to $0 Publishing, The Gigabytes Guide to Writing, and the upcoming The 8 Fates of Okteveos.

To listen, you can search for The Author’s Voice with Donnie Lansdale anywhere you get your podcasts.

Posted on

Dealing with Hybrid Publishers

This is an excerpt from The Gigabooks Guide to $0 Publishing that was written in a special section called Author’s Aside.

The biggest issue I have with hybrid/vanity publishers is that they will tell you how impressed they are with you or your proposed work and that they would LOVE to publish your work but you have to ask them: “If you like my work so much, where is your investment in me?”

I had one quote for $49,000 for a publishing, distribution, and marketing package. I talked them down to $15,000 for the same package but at that rate, I would have to sell 1700 books to break even and there wasn’t even any sort of guarantee of success. They simply said “our other authors did well with this package”. That’s not a guarantee and a line I have heard many times from other hybrid publishers.

If they really believe in you or your work, do this: Demand a guarantee of sales within a specified time frame based on the break even cost of the package. I know that is a mouthful, allow me to explain.

If it takes 1000 book sales to break even, ask if they can guarantee – in writing – that you will be able to sell 1000 books in 6 months. If you do not sell the books, the percentage of unsold books will be applied to the cost of the package and that amount refunded.

In other words, if you get a guarantee of 1000 book sales in 6 months to break even, but only sell 800, 20% of the cost of the publishing package should be refunded to you under the agreement.

This is the kind of investment all hybrid publishers should be able to do if they believe they have an effective marketing system. This guarantee is how you get them to invest in you and your book. It will also weed out the outfits simply trying to take your money.

I ask this of advertisers and media consultants all the time.

The Gigabooks Guide to publishing is available here.
Find the e-book here.

Posted on

New Gigabooks Guide Announced

Gigabooks Guide to $0 Publishing

The next guide has been announced and will be The Gigabooks Guide to $0 Publishing. The book will be released on Gigabooks Press in paperback and e-book August 29th, 2023 with Amazon Kindle and Google play to follow shortly thereafter.

The best kept secret in the modern publishing landscape is that you don’t need to spend a single penny pursuing your dreams of being a self-published author – well, except maybe picking up a copy of this book. This publishing system is one that few authors know about and even fewer use. J. Tordsen used this technique to publish The Gigabytes Guide to Writing and details exactly how to do exactly what he did in this new guide.

J. Tordsen, author of The Gigabytes Guide to Writing, independently published the book in 7 days for absolutely $0. In this guide, he will take you through the complete process of publishing your own work with little or ZERO cost.

An author’s name is a brand and the the book is a product. The more money you put into the product, the more you have to sell to make that investment back. Keeping costs as low as possible makes making money on your book faster and easier.

The Gigabooks Guide to $0 Publishing takes you through all of the most cost-effective writing, editing, publishing, and marketing strategies available to the modern writer. Along the way, J. Tordsen will give you advice based on his own personal experience dealing with the publishing process as well as scam artists and vanity publishers – and how to deal with them once and for all.

The Gigabooks Guide to $0 Publishing is a comprehensive template for new and established authors to save tens of thousands of dollars on the publishing process.