SB James

Mar

2019

Migration Complete!

Well, I did it! I got the site onto a new host. A shout out to A2Hosting for their great service and their help in making a potentially difficult process much easier.

Now you will notice the https on my site. I’ve been meaning to get SSL on the site for a while. The new hosting made this possible.

One thing I want to mention. My previous web hosting was provided by GoDaddy. I know a lot of people don’t like GoDaddy for a variety of reasons. I wanted to get on the record that it was not for any political reasons that I switched hosting. It was really because I simply outgrew the Managed WordPress hosting I had with them, and to upgrade to accommodate the plans I have for 2019, it simply would have been way too costly to stay with them.

So, what plans do I have for 2019? I do plan on continuing Ethan’s adventures, for one thing. The fifth anniversary of the publication of The Inventor’s Son is coming in May. It’s hard to believe that I’ve been in the publishing business that long! On the other hand, a great deal has changed since The Inventor’s Son hit the market, so, in that regard, it feels like five years isn’t that long a time at all!

Feb

2019

Some More Maintenance and Updating in the Works

Hey, I know it’s been quite a while since I last posted here. I am making my way back from a long downtime and starting to gear back up once again. I have some diverse plans for 2019.

My Google+ is going away (along with everyone else’s, apparently). Google has decided to discontinue the social network for consumers, which means as of April, I’ll no longer be on Google+. I’m sure this change affects probably nobody ;). I’m glad because it’s one less social network to try and keep up with. For a while, it was good SEO, but that’s about it.
I’m ditching Tumblr as soon as I am able. I have a blog here and a blog on WordPress.com. That’s enough for blogging for my purposes as an author, certainly. They’ve made a few decisions that I don’t agree with while allowing other content to continue on, which all gave me the push needed to leave there for good. I know I have some followers on Tumblr but there are other places to follow me.
I’m changing web hosting so this site may be a bit wonky for a few days while I make the migration. I’m going with a service that will allow multiple websites and I’m hoping that this website, ultimately, will run a lot faster after the change. I will strive to keep all the links for my books live, obviously.
Most importantly, I’ve begun the outlining for The Rebel’s Son. I’ll post more about that soon.

I have been poking around Goodreads, Facebook, and Instagram, but not Twitter. I think Twitter may be the next social site I ditch. What other social media sites make the grade these days?

Dec

2017

The Traitor’s Son is Now Available!

It’s official! The Traitor’s Son is now published!

It’s available at all major eBook retailers

Ethan Stanwood’s life will never be the same now that he knows the truth…

In The Traitor’s Son, Book 4 of The Inventor’s Son Series, Ethan’s quest to find his father has only become more desperate as he realizes that the more time passes, and the more others discover the truth of what Marcus Stanwood has done, the more likely he will be denounced as a traitor to the Crown. Ethan is determined to keep that from happening, but to do it, he himself may have to betray the very things he values the most. Ethan realizes that he will need to ally himself with someone whose ambitions, from the very beginning, have brought out the worst in Marcus Stanwood and have turned Ethan’s life into a chaotic nightmare.

At the very same time, Ethan is wrestling with his own growing powers. His witch master is reluctant to control it, but when Ethan experiences a frightening episode, Hardwick is forced to reconsider. The method he uses to restrict Ethan’s power appears to be a blessing, but could easily turn into an insidious curse.

For a limited time, the eBook version of The Traitor’s Son is priced at $0.99. The print version will be available shortly, so keep an eye out.

Oct

2017

A Minor Change to The Inventor’s Son Collection

Hi, everyone! Very briefly, I wanted to let you know that I have made a slight change to the title of the digital boxed set edition of the first three books of The Inventor’s Son. It will now be listed in the eBook stores as The Inventor’s Son Collection (Books 0-2) because that is a much more accurate description of the contents. “Book 0” is commonly used for numbering a prequel book, but I’ve never been able to use it in the stores since they would not allow me to use anything but whole numbers. Since this set contains the prequel novella, Book 1 and Book 2, I wanted to make sure that the title of the set reflected that, now that I have gone and made sure the numbering of the volumes in all stores all correctly corresponds to the correct books.

The set includes:

The Inventor’s Son: The Beginning, book 0, which has added material and is exclusive to the set (or to the mailing list).
The Inventor’s Son, book 1 of the series, a full-length novel.
The Scientist’s Son, book 2 of the series, a full-length novel as well.

The new retail price will be $4.99 in all stores, and in the coming days, there will be a pre-order set up for The Traitor’s Son! Watch this space.

Oct

2017

The Next Steps with Changes to The Inventor’s Son Series

Hi, everyone!

It’s October 1st now, and I have delisted The Inventor’s Son: The Beginning from all sales channels. Google Play books, again, will probably be the first one to have it removed, followed by Amazon. Then Kobo, Nook, and iBooks will probably have it delisted by the end of the day tomorrow. The version they all were selling was the original version, and I’ve since added some material and revised a few things. The revised version is exclusive to The Inventor’s Son Collection Books 1-3 or to subscribers to my mailing list. I’ll be updating the book tables and all the book pages to reflect this change. Any older versions of the eBooks might have links to the Amazon pages, and I’ll try to track these down and redirect them if possible to this page.

There’s more coming! As I come up with the changes, I’ll be posting about them here. Stay tuned…

Sep

2017

Detailing the Progress Made with Updates to The Inventor’s Son Series

Hello, everyone! This morning, I took the first steps to changing the price of The Inventor’s Son back to $3.99. The price has already changed at Google Play because such changes are usually immediate there. I suspect it will be a few days before the change is completely done with Amazon because Nook takes a little time to change pricing as well. Amazon likes to price match as long as one of their competitors has a lower price on a book, and in my experience, Nook has always been the laggard.

I have decided to leave the price of the boxed set at $3.99 temporarily. This is probably because I will be releasing a new boxed set when I release The Traitor’s Son, and it will include The Inventor’s Son, The Scientist’s Son, and The Explorer’s Son, and that set will probably be priced at $7.99. The Inventor’s Son: The Beginning is still up for sale through the end of the week, but it will be unpublished by October 1. It will always be available for free to anyone that wants a copy if they join my email list, and who knows, it might appear on Instafreebie from time to time as well.

So, as for progress on The Traitor’s Son, it is in its final stages. I did get set back a little, but I’m sorted out now that the worst of the power outages, internet outages, and supply shortages from Hurricane Irma are behind us in my immediate area. I’m going to try and streamline the formatting process so that I can get the paperback and eBook copies for sale at the same time this time around, rather than having the paperback delayed for a long time, but if I find that my system is not working, I will release the eBook version early, then release the paperback when I have it finished.

You’ll see more from me soon!

Sep

2017

Some Important Updates on the Status of The Inventor’s Son Series!

Whoa, got your attention? Don’t worry, The Traitor’s Son IS scheduled for release. ARC copies will be available when I create a pre-order (I decided I’m going to do a month-long pre-order for it just like I did with The Explorer’s Son) but in the meantime, there are a few changes I am making with the rest of the lineup.

The most important and impactful will be these two changes:

After October 1, The Inventor’s Son will no longer be “permafree” in any of the sales channels. The price will be set at $3.99 as it had been when it was originally released. If you have not gotten a copy of the book and it’s before October 1, check your favorite online eBook seller. Amazon will probably be the last one to revert to paid status. I have given away thousands of copies of The Inventor’s Son since I made it free last year. With the advent of services like Instafreebie, having the book free in stores makes less sense than before.
After October 1, I plan to unpublish The Inventor’s Son: The Beginning. Again, as with having a free book in an online store, having a book for sale that has always been meant to be a “reader magnet” makes little sense. It will be available exclusively in boxed sets and as a reader magnet. You can find out more in upcoming posts. In the meantime, if you want to read the original version of The Inventor’s Son: The Beginning, you can check it out on Wattpad, but if you want the better version that’s available in the boxed set, for free, then sign up for the SB James Author and Artist Newsletter to have it delivered to your email inbox!

As of now, I have no plans to take the rest of the series down from any of the online sellers like Kobo and iBooks, so no need to worry about that. In fact, I most likely will not make this series exclusive to Amazon. I do plan on participating in future Instafreebie promotions, so you can be on the lookout for that. I find that these promotions, run alongside other authors in my genres, are the most satisfying and successful.

There will be more changes coming so stay tuned!

Aug

2017

The Big Cover Reveal For The Traitor’s Son!

The Next Book in the Series is Near Completion at Last!

As you can see, I’m sticking with the same theme of Ethan’s hand holding something that is emblematic of the story in the book. In this volume, Ethan has a dilemma: does he continue his search for his beloved father, or does he turn him in?

You’ll be hearing more and more about The Traitor’s Son as the release date gets closer. I wanted to get the cover out there so that everyone would know that the book really is on the way!

Jun

2017

A Quick Update on Changes to The SB James Author and Artist Blog…

Again!

I just wanted to make a quick note about the past couple of days and the hard times some people might have been having with the links. As it turns out, I am doing some more tinkering around with the site, mainly with the blog. The other day, I attempted to change the permalink structure of my blog posts. This ended up being a disaster, because all the ping backs were getting messed up, and Google was having a hard time finding the posts. So, I have restored the old permalink structure so people can find my posts. What is done is done, and I can’t revise it without a great deal of hassle. This most likely means nothing to you, as you are reading this, and you found the post in the first place.

I re-categorized all of the old Doing the Write Thing posts that I have transferred to this site to Older Posts. Going forward, any new posts for the Doing the Write Thing category will be categorized correctly, but all of the old posts can be found on my other WordPress.com site that I had for years. Eventually, those old posts will only be archived on that old site, and all new posts will be on this one. You’ll notice new blog posts for that category coming very onto this site very soon. I’ve been wanting to make this transition to blogging solely on this site for a while, and this summer is as good a time as any to do this project.

You’ll soon be finding the SB James Social Media Deep Dive category on this site as well. I have some observations about social media and how authors can use it effectively, and those posts will fall under their own category.
You will also be seeing some new artwork, and I’m going to be revamping my SB James Galleries to reflect all of the new Photoshop skills I have! And I will be getting some updated branding here as well.

In the meantime, enjoy this post about Dragon NaturallySpeaking and my first adventures with dictation. It is the first in a series of posts I will be dedicating to the topic of dictation.

May

2017

The Last of the Instafreebie Promos (for now!)

Ending Very Soon!

Just a really quick heads up; this one is almost over! If you like YA books, and you like them FREE, then you’ll like this selection. But it’s only through May 31, 2017, so head on over there while they’re still available!

I’m making a few changes on the site, now that there are more people visiting, so I want it to be optimized. I want to caution that some of my links from external sources (like old social media posts) may be goofed up, but I’m working on getting that fixed and I will be posting new links in my social media to my most important posts. I believe the link problem only is going to affect blog posts, but I will make sure of that. I will also be trying out some redirects if I can’t weed out all the problems. This seems to be my month for technical difficulties, LOL!

I will be updating my progress bar for The Traitor’s Son’s progress. I’m also working on something that I should have had for quite a while: my ARC reader list. When I have all the details ironed out, I will be offering the option to people on my mailing list. What do you mean, you’re not on my mailing list? Remedy this unfortunate situation at once, and click the link for “A Free Book” in the menu!

It’s official! The Traitor’s Son is now published!

It’s available at all major eBook retailers

The Next Book in the Series is Near Completion at Last!

Again!

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