Audiobooks & Future Releases

Audiobooks:

I’m moving off of Bandcamp and selling the audiobooks directly on my website. I’m able to do this because Bookfunnel (who delivers and supports my ebooks) stepped into the boxing ring with a Tiger Uppercut and an awesome app that works just like Audible.

Don’t get me wrong, Bandcamp was a decent solution, but it had a couple of issues:

1. Their streaming app wasn’t good enough to handle the larger audiobooks.
2. Because of #1 above, y’all had to download the mp3 files and then use your own player on your phone. I know it was kind of a pain in the ass, and I kept asking Bandcamp to fix their app so it would work like Audible’s app (and download to your phone), but they didn’t seem interested in changing. A lot of you didn’t like Bandcamp because it was too hard to play the audiobooks. This is resolved with Bookfunnel. It works just like the Audible app, so if you’ve been holding off on buying my audiobooks because you thought Bandcamp sucked, Bookfunnel works just as you are used to. 
3. Bandcamp paid 85%- I make 95% (yes, you read that correctly) on my own website. Bandcamp’s rate is still way better than the shitty 40% that Amazon pays authors through Audible, that’s fucking robbery, but I’d prefer 95% over 85%.

The Bookfunnel app works super good, and we’ve started transitioning all the audiobooks you’ve bought on Bandcamp over to Bookfunnel. All you need to do is:

1. Download the Bookfunnel app on your phone.
2. Log in using THE SAME email you used to buy the books on Bandcamp
3. You’ll see all your audiobooks there. At this point, it will work just like the Audible app, and download and play on your phone. Woohooo!

If you are having problems seeing all your books, it’s 100% because you bought the various audiobooks through different email address(es). You can email Bookfunnel (help@bookfunnel.com) and ask them to move your audiobooks from one email to the main one you want to use. They are super good at that.

“But M-S, I KNOW FOR A FACT I only used one email, and I can’t find all my audiobooks on the bookfunnel app.”

We are still moving audiobook purchase history over from Bandcamp from last week, but if you can’t find ones you bought more than a few weeks ago or ones you got through Kickstarter/Indiegogo - it is most definitely under a different email. You can email my assistant at sales@michaelscottearle.com or you can PM my assistant on my FB author page. Then he’ll tell you which other email accounts you used.

PLEASE CHECK ALL YOUR EMAILS first before you message my assistant to ask which email you used. He’s got a literal buttload of work to do so that I can focus on writing, and 100%, you’ve used another email to get the audiobook, and you just forgot which email it was. Try all your emails.

“But M-S, I can’t figure out how to buy books on the Bookfunnel app.”

A bit of explanation clear up here might be in order:

When you are buying audiobooks on either Audible or Bandcamp, you are actually experiencing TWO different “services”

• Service 1 is the storefront where you buy the books
• Service 2 is the app that plays the book for you.

Since I’m moving away from Bandcamp and doing my own store, it will look like :

• Service 1 - You buy the audiobooks on my store (so I get all the money)
• Service 2 - The audiobook shows up in your Bookfunnel library, and you can play it anytime you want to (this works just like the Audible player app)

“But M-S, I liked downloading the mp3s!”

Bookfunnel is making tons of adjustments to their app. They’ll have an mp3 download option probably by March.

 

Future book releases:

I’m planning on putting the following books out in 2021 (Maybe in this order but maybe not in this order):

• Star Justice 12 - Direct to my website
• Star Justice 13 - Direct to my website
• Star Justice 14 - (should be the last book) direct to my website
• Tamer: King of Dinosaurs 8 - Through Kickstarter
• Lion’s Quest 4 - Direct to my website
• Lion’s Quest 5 - Direct to my website
• Lion’s Quest 6 - (Should be the last book) Direct to my website
• Space Knight 7 - Through Indiegogo
• New series through either Kickstarter or Indiegogo
• Either Monster Empire 3 or Space Knight 8 through either Kickstarter or Indiegogo

“But…M-S, I WANT MORE TAMER!” 
 
I know, but I really want to finish some of these other series so that they aren’t haunting my dreams, and fans of those series will appreciate me completing them. I’m going to do plenty of Tamer novels, don’t worry. Tamer makes like… all my money, and I love money. Believe me. In 2022 I’d focus on finishing Dragon Slayer and Deathship and then working most on Tamer, ME, SK, and the new series. I’ll probably finish SK at book 12ish, and then just work on Tamer, ME, and the new series for a few years.

This is the plan right now, but obviously crazy shit can happen in ‘Rona times, and I don’t really know what the future will bring. I also got hired by a videogame company to work on a new IP, and I can’t talk much about that at the moment, but I’m pretty excited about that too (I get to own the IP I’m developing for them, so that’s pretty neat).

Anyway, I’m also not sure about doing KS or Indiegogo on the new series, or I might stop doing them on other ones. I dunno yet. On one hand, crowdfunding really does help marketing for the books, and it ensures that I’m making my money before I write the books, but on the other hand, it just takes so much time to do them, and I might not really need to once my other marketing stuff hits fruition, and/or I’m just doing fine selling stuff direct. I’ll know more by the end of 2021.

“If you don’t do Star Justice on Kickstarter, how will I get signed print books??!?!?!”

I don’t quite know at the moment. I’m close to figuring out a Print on Demand solution that can go through my website (unsigned), or I might just order a massive print run of all the books, sign them, and then sell them through my site- but once they are sold out, that’s that. Or I could use a Kickstarter slot to do a limited run of print books for the finished series and maybe do leather-bound versions or something. I’ll figure it out, but my priority is just getting the books written and recorded first.

“But what about erotic art? If you don’t do them on Kickstarter, how will I get them?”

I’m going to be starting a Patreon just for various artwork around the books. That will make sense a lot more once you all see what I have in store for you with the super-secret Tamer thingy I’ve been working on for the last six months. I’ll make a big announcement about it, and I’m really freaking excited to show you guys what it is.

“What’s the new series?!?!?!?”

It’s not the drow one, but I’ll tell you more after SJ and LQ is finished.