Our Philosophy on Series

Chipmunk

About twenty-five years ago, I read the fourth-book of a six-book series. I have been waiting ever since for books five and six. The first four books are out of print and copies are getting hard to find, so I can't really bone up on the story if book five comes out.

I hate this. Over the last quarter-century, my interest in the series has waned, so I'm not sure I would even buy book five if it does come out.

About two years ago, I bought a book touted as being an interesting story about post-apocalyptic civilization. Unfortunately, the author for got to tell the readers (me) that the story was going to span several books, each about 75 pages long. He also forgot to mention that he had only written the first book. Haven't heard from him since.

My take-away? Write the series before releasing the first book. In fact, Jo and I write the complete first arc of the series before releasing all of the books in the arc simultaneously. Look at Engine of Creation or Stryker Team. Engine of Creation is made up of two three-book arcs, one that ends with Engine while the second ends with Resolution. Stryker Team consists of a four-book arc followed by four stand-alone stories. Jo and I have decided that we will never leave our readers hanging. If we write a series, then we will finish it in a timely fashion.

Frank Carey

Announcing the Return of Geeks, Cons, and Amazons

Geeks, Cons, and Amazons by Jo Carey

Announcing the return of Geeks, Cons, and Amazons by Jo Carey. When eco-terrorists unleash the Zephyr virus, the resulting pandemic wipes out most of the world’s population. Survival depended on isolation—those working in a high-security building, or filming a movie in a cave, or those in solitary confinement. Who’ll survive to build a new world? Will it be Geeks, Cons, or Amazons? Available at many fine Internet retailers and booksellers.

Story Research

Dung Beetle

Today I was doing some research for my next creature terror book in the same vane as Ice Terror. I started by looking at Top 10 animal lists.


You know how we love lists.  I found the fastest animals(Cheetah), those with the strongest bite (gorillas and polar bears), the ones with the best sense of smell (bears.) Along the way I found some strange and interesting facts too.

A type of frog called a wood frog takes hibernation a step further than other animals. The wood frog stops breathing entirely and their bodies cool down so much that ice crystals form in their blood until the summer sun thaws them out and the frogs start breathing again.

Topping the list of the strongest animals was the dung beetle. A dung beetle can pull over a thousand
 times their own weight. That's strong! I'll admit my first thought was that a lot of s%&t!

Jo Carey

Step One Complete

Tea Still Life

I have just finished uploading 85 e-books to Draft2Digital for publication on Barnes and Noble, Kobo, iTunes, and Tolino. Next, I will go through and check the listings, then begin the marketing effort.

Amazon update: I've heard nothing from the Zon since the last roboletter. Since then, all 85 of our books have been removed from the KDP Select/Kindle Unlimited program. Hopefully, this move will conclude the KU nightmare we've been experiencing. I'll keep you posted.

Pictures: The pictures I add to these posts are taken from my Flickr collection of over 1,700 pictures taken my wife over the past seventeen years. The one above is from my still life period.

Frank Carey

Going Wide - The Process

Prairie Dog

Just a quick update. I am now in the process of preparing and uploading all 85 of our titles to Draft2Digital now that they are no longer part of Amazon KDP Select/Kindle Unlimited. This process involves modifying the cover, modifying the text source file, then using them to publish them on Draft2Digital from whence it goes out to Apple, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, and Tolino. It will take time, but it is time well spent. Remember, our work is still available as e-books and soft cover print books through Amazon.

More to come.

Frank Carey

Moving Forward

Spaceport America

Our withdrawal of all our books from Amazon  KDP Select/Kindle Unlimited is now complete. We have begun the process of going wide by publishing our books on Tolino, Apple, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble via the Draft2Digital service. It will take time, but we feel this move is a necessary one. It is hard to imagine that just a week-and-a-half ago, we were hoping to stay in KDP Select but times have changed and we must move on.

Frank Carey

Open Letter to Kindle Unlimited Users

We are saddened to announce that we are pulling all our books from the KDP Select/Kindle Unlimited program. We apologize to the many readers who have enjoyed our books over the past few years  as part of their Kindle Unlimited subscription. This process will finish sometime before the end of July.

Last week we were notified by Amazon that suspicious activity occurred on some of our books in KU. The form notification we received indicated the problem was related to book marketing services, but the only book marketing service we have ever used to promote our books is Amazon's own AMS.

We were told if the activity continued Amazon might shut down our access to publish on Amazon. Because Amazon has such a large share of the book market, we simply couldn't take that risk. Our only recourse was to remove all our books from the Kindle Select/Kindle Unlimited service.

We apologize to those who use the service and hope you'll continue to enjoy our books that are for sale on Amazon.

Jo and Frank Carey, Authors
"It's all about the tale."

Welcome and News of the Day

Welcome to the blog of authors Frank and Jo Carey, aka Elven Industries Press. We have created this blog to share information about our books and writing efforts with our readers. For more information about our work, you can visit the Frank Carey Amazon author page or the Jo Carey Amazon author page.

News (11 April 2018):

Due to circumstances beyond our control, Jo and I have been forced to terminate our participation in the Amazon KDP Select Program which means our books will be no longer available under Kindle Unlimited. We've taken this step to insure that we will be able to continue publishing our books on the Amazon platform. We apologize for any and all difficulties this may cause for our readers, but Amazon has forced our hand on this subject. We will explain our decision more completely in an upcoming post.

I will be publishing a new series based on situations from Adventures of the League Space Patrol Books 8 and 9. Stay tuned for further details.

Have a great day.

Frank