Kablooie

This isn’t really a useful blog post of any kind. It’s just an interesting observation I had one day while at work.

I was organizing some books in the romance section when a particular cover caught my eye. I realized I’d seen this cover – not exact, but with the same concept – in other places. When I brought it up to a fellow co-worker, she pointed out another book I hadn’t seen. It, too, had the same concept. So then I wondered –

How many of these books are out there with this cover design and why is it a thing?

The concept I speak of is the exploding flower.

That’s really all it is. The flower can be any type or any color, but they all seem to have be dipped into liquid nitrogen and then shattered. Having one or multiple flowers on a book's cover isn't a new idea - you'll see that everywhere any day of the week. But a flower in the middle of breaking apart? How did this become a go-to image for publishers? Does it even represent the book in any way?

I wrote down as many books as I could remember with that image. I came up with several. Then I poked around online and found a few I’d forgotten and a few I’d never heard of before. How many did I get?

Nine. Nine books with flowers shattering on them. That’s…kind of a lot for such an image one would first think to be unique. Clearly it’s not, and for whatever reason it’s being used in all genres. Fiction. Romance. Teen. So I figured I would share them with you and you can go, “Huh.” with me as we boggle at the strangely common use of the shattered flower.

 

Interesting how almost all of them are some variation of pink, with just I Belong to You using a white flower (although to be honest, it looks like it's been photoshopped to be monochrome), Also, Dark Song is kind of a stretch since I got a better look at it - more liquid than anything. But still falling apart.

I don't know if publishers have noticed this, but if they have I suppose they don't much care. At the very least each flower appears to be different. So luckily they're not all using the same flower image.

Do you have any thoughts on this odd little trend?

What You May (or May Not) Know About Book Signings

We don’t have a Community Business Development Manager at my store – aka someone who handles relationships with all the schools, businesses, authors, and more. So while of the managers tackle it, I’m the one who works with all the authors. And, after only being a manager for a year and working with several, I've quickly realized something.

A lot of authors assume book signings mean magical book sales.

This is absolutely not true.

I’m going to lay this out for you in blunt fashion, so get ready. Unless you’re already popular like Jim Butcher or James Patterson or Nora Roberts, no one cares about your book. I know, it sounds harsh, but it’s true.

Now, on my end I can put your event into the website, order in flyers, order a big fat sign to put in the window, and make sure you appear on our Event Calendar that we hand out, but for the most part, people will see an author they don’t know with a book they've never heard of, and they don’t care. Just because you have a big sign in the window does not mean people will get all giddy about seeing an author and getting a book signed by you and you’ll have a line out the door. This is not how it works. Likewise, if you sit at your table like a bump on a log and wait for people to magically come up to you, you’re going to sell jack. So what can you do?

If you haven’t done your research yet about anything relating to the book business, it’s really time to get on that. If you haven’t yet thought about your work as a business, you really need to shift gears. You've created a product, right? Now you need to get out there and sell that product. Yes, I know. It’s scary and weird and not something a lot of us really like to do because that’s not exactly something we do on a regular basis, but it’s extremely important – especially if you plan on doing a book signing.

You can always see if the community relations person you’re working with has some kind of media list (I do, anyway) that provides you with as many different radio stations, TV stations, and various local publications as possible. They might not have one. In which case, it’s time to get to work. The more you get your name out there into the eyes and ears of the people you’re trying to sell your book to, the better. Consider this large scale example – Eckhart Tolle was around for years (first book in 1997), but the second he showed up on Oprah in 2009 people went on a buying spree.

Still, I get people coming into the store all the time saying, “I heard about this book on the radio,” or “I saw this book on the morning show,” or they’ll hand me a clipping from a newspaper or a magazine with the book in it. You need to get your name out there. This is what will bring people into the store to pick up your book. I've had one author who did none of these things and just sat there with high expectations and sold 1 book. Another author, T.J. Wagoner, did a ton of marketing for his book, Discover the Unseen, had a talk at the store, and sold 30 books.

Also, as I've mentioned, don’t just sit there. Say hello to customers. Think of a way to engage them so they’ll at least take a peek if they’re not there for your book specifically (and most of them won’t be). Maria V. Snyder, the author of Poison Study (Study Series), will hand out little pieces of chocolate because her protagonist is a poison taster (also, theobromine. HA.) Most recently, Dan Killeen, a children’s author, sat right in front by the doors and every time someone with a child walked in he called them over, talked about his book, and did adorable drawings for them of dinosaurs and other things. I’d ordered 16 copies of his books – we sold out.

So suck it up. Market. Call radio stations. Send releases and announcements to magazines and newspapers. Contact local news stations to see if they’ll do a quick piece about you. Talk to customers when you’re there. Be engaging. Smile. Anything. Everything. You have to be the one to make your book signing a success. Because if you don’t care enough about your book to talk about it, who will?

*Please note I've skipped over mentioning social media entirely. You can use it if you like, but 1.) your signing will be local so your Twitter followers in Australia won't care and 2.) Delilah Dawson pretty much hits it on the head.

So I'm Trying Something...

So. I'm doing a thing. Won't lie - I feel weird about it. Then again, I guess life is about being weird and taking risks so...yeah.

 

 

I was hesitant to do this at first, because the vast majority of the people are on there are putting out comics, music, or YouTube videos. So what do I have to offer? Book chapters. As I write them. Initially I thought, “That’s not much,” but then I thought about it some more.

 

Why do we writers always seem to rag on our own work so much? Why does it seem like people – ourselves included – devalue what we do when compared to other artists? It’s not easy to just smash out a chapter of a book, just as it’s not easy to create a comic book page. It takes thought and effort. There shouldn’t be anything wrong with offering up a chapter or two every month for those that want to be a patron of my work. It would be like a serialization in a magazine. And it’s not like people have to keep subscribing. They can cancel any time they want. So if they want to offer up just $1 and get one or two chapters out of it (I’m doing other things as well to make it more interesting) and that’s all, cool. I still feel kind of weird about doing this, but I refuse to feel bad about offering up my work for money on a monthly basis. I’d rather give something back than nothing at all.

 

This is my official site: https://www.patreon.com/NT

 

So we'll see how it goes. Until then, keep writing!

The Importance of a Good Cover

“Don’t judge a book by its cover.”

It’s the old saying we’ve heard over and over again. And it’s right. We really shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Just because weird things are happening on the outside doesn’t mean there isn’t a really good story on the inside.

But let’s face it – we judge books by their covers all the time. Humans are visual creatures. We see clothing that we like, we buy it. We see an attractive person, we want to go talk to them. So it’s only natural that a quality cover is going to entice us more. Even if there isn’t actual judging going on, it’s the cover that’s going to catch your eye first. It’s what will draw you in to read the back of the book or take a peek on the inside. So despite the old saying, a cover is important.

And judging does happen whether we like it or not. Though to be honest, it sometimes doesn’t come as a surprise. Whether you work at a bookstore or just happen to be moseying through one, when you see a bad cover you think, “Wow. What were they thinking?” which may be followed up by something along the lines of, “If they didn’t care too much about how the cover looked, how much work did they put into the book itself?” This is actually something I’ve seen from publishers of all sizes – including big ones. Once and a while a book will arrive in the store and I’ll just have a head-scratching moment. Did they not care enough to spend the money to make this book look good? Did they think this cover was good enough? Or do they actually think this cover is good?

In fact, we’ve all seen those sudden gear shifts a publisher makes with covers. I like Sarah J. Maas’s books as a good example.

This is the first cover. I’m not saying it’s bad at all. It’s pretty good as far as covers go, but personally it didn’t really catch my eye when it first came out and sales were less than stellar (actually, if I remember right, I don’t think we sold any at all).

This is the second cover. I believe it was the UK version as well (and remember thinking, “Why didn’t they use that one here? It’s awesome.”), and when Maas’s books went to the paperback, this is what we got. I found this to be way more intriguing and we actually sold the books this time. I’m not saying the purchases were due to the cover – for all I know people didn’t want to pay the money for the hardcover but were more willing to shell out for the paperback (which is often the case for many books – there are still people waiting for Insurgent to come out in paperback).  In Sarah’s case the publishers were smart and kept going with this design with subsequent books, all of which are selling – including the hardcover versions.

Unfortunately if you get picked up by a publisher, you have very little say in how the covers come out. You’d think that by now publishers would listen to what authors have to say about covers – particularly when it comes to accuracy – but that isn’t the case. Which is why we still get “Wtf?” covers appearing on shelves from time to time.

If you’re going to self publish, this is why it’s extremely important to take time to find a good cover artist who will do what you ask and for a reasonable price. While this post isn’t a plug for my cover artist, Regina Wamba, I will say that she’s pretty damn good at what she does. (The opposite is truer; if I were smart I’d keep my mouth shut about her. Why? Because popularity may not only mean the occasional price increase, but also longer wait times for kickass covers.)

The proof is in the pudding. My first book was only an ebook and sold at just $3.99. With a 70% royalty rate, that meant I earned about $2.79 for each book sold. That cover cost me just under $400. My goal, since that was my first ebook let out into the wild, was to simply make back that money. She did the cover twice until it was how I wanted it. And yes, I made back the cover cost and added a little extra cake to the pan. Did the cover help? I’d like to think it did. The book itself was released during the final edge of the heyday that was paranormal romance. Granted, that genre is still popular, but not like it was when Twilight was in full swing and publishers everywhere were scrabbling for paranormal romance books (both teen and adult). That’s also precisely why I requested dark blue colors. That was simply the style that you would see. The Teen Paranormal Romance section of Barnes & Noble (which has since changed to just Teen Romance) was essentially a wall of black and other dark colored book spines.

The point is, don’t sell yourself short on the cover. If you have a publisher that’s offered something ugly, you can always try to fight it – your agent should be more than willing to help you because they want the book to succeed, too. They’re working for you, and sometimes a bit of a fight can work. If you’re self-publishing, even if you’re on a budget, don’t go cheap. Take a good, long look at covers on the shelves of the bookstore and think to yourself what you like and what turns you off. Shoddy photoshop? A book you realize you read and the main character looks nothing like the person on the cover? Make sure to choose a cover artist that will provide you with a cover you want and approve. Don’t expect magical sales because the cover is, after all, just the skin. It’s what’s inside that counts (among many other factors in the book world) – but at the very least you’ll have something that will make people look.

The Molten Form of Poetry

Since I rarely post anymore, for those of you still out there, I bring to you a guest post by the talented Ron Gavalik! If you love poetry (like I do...although I don't think I've ever posted about it), then this post is for you.

Reading poetry is one of life’s truly intimate joys. Unlike more social entertainment such as films, theater, and sporting events, experiencing poetry is an individual pursuit. When cracking open a book of verse, we shuck off the mortal coil while our minds delve into a cerebral adventure. We are fused to the author’s thoughts, desires, and passions, all within the confines of our minds.

That, my friend, is the most profound experience. Poetry gives us new perspectives to enlighten our minds. Poetry fuels the imagination. In its raw form, poetry is life.

As readers, most of us are drawn to what’s considered popular and well reviewed. We count on so-called professional to tell us what precisely is a good read. We equate commercial advertising and movie deals with the quality of a story or poem. But then there are times, when some of us ignore the noise of our popular culture and seek the independent works of those who truly enrich the soul.

Our choice to own and experience raw, experimental poetry symbolizes courage. Delving into avant-garde expression without the safety net of widespread acceptance requires a sense of adventure. Those of us who take these leaps of faith are a cut above the average reader. We are independent thinkers who thrive on discovering uncharted waters.

In the introduction of my MicroPoetry collection, Hot Metal Tonic, I discuss how experimental writers often shrug off the conformity of industry standards to force new perspectives into the minds of our readers. Every time I sit down at the typer, I transform into an American drifter who tramps through vistas of tall grass, rarely touched by everyday society.

Free-spirited individualism is my most pronounced characteristic.

I highly recommend finding your unique identifier, the one personality trait that makes you an individual among the masses. I doubt you'll have to meet with Himalayan monks to determine your distinct qualities, but there's nothing wrong with quiet contemplation over a few whiskeys. Once you've pinpointed that one special characteristic, take the time to revel in your individualism. It's quite a freeing sensation that brings balance to the mind and to the soul.

For my part, I thrive on reading and writing free verse poetry.

In the 1960s and 70s, Charles Bukowski's free verse style often fell under the blade of academic criticism. His work was considered inordinately blue-collar and plain spoken to be real poetry, which made it far more difficult for him to publish and find a secure audience.

It took him years, but a handful of small press publishers with broad vision finally decided to print his work. Once the public got hold of that drunken writer's written voice, a whole new segment of society became poetry fans, which made Bukowski the most read poet of the 20th Century.

Free verse is the most individualized form of expression; therefore, I naturally gravitate toward that broad style. The newer form of MicroPoetry (140 character poems) that's sprung up in recent years on social media outlets has further pushed the literary envelope.

Hot Metal Tonic is a semi-autobiographical collection of over 180 MicroPoems that contend with love, family, relationships, politics, career, and spirituality. While most of the poems stand alone in each chapter's theme, many are interconnected in much of the way small human events are strung together to connect our lives. The collection has been referred to as a gritty read, the molten form of my rough and tumble life…and whiskey-laced madness.

Thankfully, readers are pleased with my work.

Now, kick back, baby.
Open your mind
and allow the hot metal to flow
as soothing tonic.
Prepare yourself
to laugh and think,
cry and rejoice.
Indeed, you will be transformed
into a state of raw emotions.
You and I,
we’re about to start a quest,
a journey to memories unseen in years.
Don’t worry, it will only hurt so good.
Grasp my calloused hand
and we’ll help each other
stumble along this treacherous path
together.


Ron Gavalik is a writer, living in Pittsburgh, PA. You can follow him on Twitter: @RonGavalik or read his blog at PittsburghWriter.net. Hot Metal Tonic can be obtained through the usual retailers: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, and other locations. Signed copies can be purchased at a discount (free shipping) direct from the publisher at PittsburghWriter.net.

More Clicky Clicky

Some excellent reading and information here for you, if you're curious.

An Open Letter to Agent Donald Maass

Some Highly Interesting Facts and Figures from J.A. Konrath

Want a Free Book?

I realize it isn't fair to have my book on Amazon only for 90 days, and then within that time offer it for free for 5 days.

So if you have a Nook, Kobo, Sony, iPad, or other e-reader, here's your chance.

Head on over to Smashwords if you feel like reading a little romance-fantasy-fractured-fairytale-type story. Once you pop the book into the cart use the coupon code CP47X and the book will be free.  That's it! To get the book to your device, just follow the instructions that Smashwords gives you. Easy as pie. The coupon will be good until October 31st, so if you have friends and would like to share, feel free to do so.

Hope you enjoy and Happy Halloween!

Why Self Publish? (Continued)

(Continued from Part 1)

Not long after publishing Blood for Wolves - and I really do mean not long - I got responses. I thought to myself, "I guess I should make an author Facebook page..." Maybe 20 minutes after creating said page I had a reader pop on to tell me they loved the book. That surprised the heck out of me. Not that they liked the book (but that was pretty cool), but that they had somehow found it out of all the other books out there, read it, and then discovered my FB page with such speed. The numbers for sales were pretty surprising too. I supposed it was because somewhere my book was being shown on some Amazon "Just In" page that I hadn't seen (and still haven't so who knows?).

I also discovered my book in some interesting places when Googling it several weeks after it came out. I found it at:

A USA Today web article
Once Upon a Time Book Blog
Maryse's Book Blog
Romance Lovers
Brightdreamer's Book Reviews

I hadn't contacted any of these people and requested they do anything - post my book or review it or anything. And it's other places as well, lists that included new releases, places that list books when they're for free (since I offered mine for a free on 5 different days), Goodreads lists (and I didn't even put my book on Goodreads - someone else did), and yes, even places that hijack your book and give it out for free download. And no, I wasn't mad about that. Not at all. Because 1.) If that's how they want to get their book, then nothing I can do will stop them, and 2.) I'd already given away over 3,000 free downloads anyway. Why would I flip out over a handful of unauthorized downloads? Metallica flipped out over Napster - meanwhile Paulo Coehlo pirated his own book in other countries. Who came out on top?

Am I an amazing bestseller? No. Do I need to do more marketing myself? Absolutely. Does it matter that some of those links above are just little personal blogs? Heck yeah. Because even if one person looks at a blog and decides to buy my book, that's one more sale, right? And if they like it, they might tell others about it, which leads to more sales. Those places are a part of your reader base, remember, so don't ever think them beneath you or meaningless.

Since publishing, I have learned a lot of things I don't think I would have found out otherwise. Do I still want to break into traditional publishing? Of course I do. I see it as a massive challenge. Will I ever be able to? We'll see. As of right now I'm revising another book in my Figments series to hang out with Blood for Wolves and will simply go straight to the electronic shelves. I'm also very seriously considering e-publishing my science fiction novel as well under a different name. Because at this point - why not?

Life is so short, and that's one of the big reasons I don't have a problem with self publishing anymore. In the past it could tarnish your reputation with agents and editors - give them a negative impression of you and your work. But those times are slipping into oblivion. Even if they weren't, a lot of successful e-published authors don't care becuase they're making a nice bit of income from their digital sales. I think, what might happen tomorrow that no one ever gets to read some of my other books? Why am I holding back? Just because one too many editors said no? Sometimes they have finite spaces to fill and can't pick all the books they might want and hand out the old, "It's good - but we can't market it right now" stuff, or some other reason they can't use your story. Authors have heard countless reasons and excuses over the years. Now there really aren't any.

Just remember - don't put out your first draft. Have good readers examine your work and be willing to hear them tell you it sucks. And don't cry and hide under the bed when they say that. Suck it up and get back to work. Kill all the typos and grammatical errors. Fix pacing and adjust characters. Erase scenes if necessary. Don't know where to turn? Seek out writing groups or workshops. Take a class if you have to. If you think your work is the best thing since sliced bread, know that it's not. Or at the very least, that someone somewhere won't think so. Be ready for negative reviews and grow a thicker skin than you think you had. Work just as hard - if not harder - before hitting that self publish button because you won't have agents or editors to make you tweak things or discover flaws. You have only your fellows, yourself, and that's it. In the end, the books all end up in the same place - the readers. And you want it to be the best book it can be.

Why Self Publish?

Times have changed a great deal since, well, even a handful of years ago. E-readers, tablets, and even smartphones and PC apps have made it possible for people to read a book at any given moment. In the past, authors looking to get published had to make it past agents, then editors, and then their superiors, all the while hoping someone along the way didn't decide that their manuscript wasn't good enough, thus putting yet another temporary halt to their dream.  Self publishing was left to the stigma that it was the place to go for authors who weren't good enough. For those that couldn't make it past the agents and editors and had to resort to sub-par or self-indulging practices to get their story out. True, there are plenty of authors who, both in the past and present, probably should have had someone (or multiple someones) take a look at their manuscript before sending it out into the wild. Yet at the same time, take a second to look up all of the now famous authors who started out self published, selling books out of their car trunks and so forth. I'll wait.

Back? Yes, I know, it's an impressive list, isn't it? My point, before I start rambling too much (although given the name of this blog, should be expected by now anyway), is that self publishing has a lot of positive points and can be a very freeing tool for an author to use. Today it's easier and in many ways better than ever because we have such amazing access to technology. We're not stuck spending thousands of dollars and prodding as many people as possible in the hopes of selling all of the hardcopies. Instead, a single self published author using the right mode of distribution doesn't have to spend a dime to get their books to people. And not just people within their home country, but around the entire globe. Any self published author from this particular digital era will tell you that there's something very cool yet rather surreal to see that they've sold a book in Germany, the UK, or Japan.

There is - somehow - still the worry that the book world will get too saturated. As if it weren't already. Work in a bookstore long enough and you will see for your own eyes just how many books come in each and every day - old and new alike - and you'll realize that the publishing world is still chugging along and books are EVERYWHERE, self published or not. People will find your book whether you help them or not. Whether it's electronic or not. I may have even linked a great article by Nathan Bransford about this in the past. The only real challenge is to make yourself known - but this rings true for any author, self published or not.

I can use myself as an example. I used Amazon's platform to publish my book, Blood for Wolves, and then moved on to use Smashwords as distribution to the rest of the e-reader world (Nooks, Kobos, Sony readers, etc.). But Blood for Wolves is not, I repeat, NOT my first book. Not by a long shot. Rather, it was my sixth. I went the traditional route with it, got a lot of nibbles, but no bites. I kept looking at the self publishing world, but continued to resist it. I was extremely curious though. How did it work? What kind of results would I get? How much would a good cover cost? Would I be able to make back that amount? What kind of reviews would I get? Was the 3 month exclusivity with the KDP program worth it?

Finally, one day I just said, "Fuck it." And I began my little experiment. Yes, I know, one does not just experiment with self publishing. But one does not just walk into Mordor either - and guess what? That's right. But I also wasn't just chucking out a garbage story, either. I revised it multiple times, had several fellow writers review it so I knew what needed fixing, if I'd missed any typos, how the pacing was, and so forth. I lost track of how many times I revised it, in fact. Eventually I got to the point where revising again would probably mean I would end up jumping off the roof of my house instead. So I hit the publish button and let it out for all the world to see.

And let me tell you, that's one of the more terrifying and exhilirating moments of my life. Terrifying because you don't know how people are going to react - how much they'll hate it or love it. Exhilirating because you know that even if they do hate it, there are people who will be out there, miles and miles away, reading the words you agonized over for a year or more. But at the very least, I would learn more about publishing electronically than just reading about it. I could view my stats, explore great ways of promoting my book, and make adjustments if there ever was a next time.

Now, knowing what I know, there will indeed be a next time...

(Continued in Part 2)

Oh the Horror

There is a story I want to write—but I won’t because it scares the shit out of me.

 

So I guess, in essence, I don’t want to write it. But it’s in there lurking around (as most stories do), bugging me to just go ahead and put it down on paper (or in electronic 1s and 0s) so it will get out of my head like a pensieve from Harry Potter.  But as I said, it scares the crap out of me. It would be my first horror novel, but it’s not blood or guts. It’s not something paranormal. No ghosts or goblins riding through the night eating babies or dark creepy things taking over people’s brains. None of that typical stuff that’s considered horror these days by so many (though horror is much more than that). No, this one is my personal fear. The kind of terror that leaps through you when you walk to the edge of the abyss and stare down into it and have no fucking idea of what might be on the other side.

 

Plenty of horror writers will indeed say, “Write what scares you.” And I could. And, okay, I will admit, a small piece of my really wants to. And maybe I will someday. But it’s the kind of thing that creeps me out to the point that I wonder—if I write this, what if it comes true? It’s that kind of end-of-the-world moment where you have absolutely zero control of where things are headed. And let’s face it, though it is true that the majority of the time we really don’t have control, at the very least we feel like we do. Or we can pretend that we do. Because that makes us comfortable. Because it’s fucking scary as shit when you realize the truth in one single moment when you have rock-bottom zero control. And I’ve had that happen (ironically it wasn’t when I realized I was just about to be involved in a car accident in which I could see the other car coming at me dead on) and it sucks.

 

It wouldn’t be a matter of just putting it down on paper, either. It would involve a lot of research. A lot of planning and a lot of looking up of information I really don’t want to know.  I think it would exhaust me and maybe even get me a little depressed—another few reasons why I’m not so keen on crafting it. Is it a new concept? No, not really. Has it been done before? The way I would do it, I’m not sure.

 

That’s it, really. I just had these thoughts fluttering around my head and decided to throw them out into the ether of the internet rather than let them swim. I’m sure others can relate, even if it isn’t in regards to a horror story idea. There’s always one or two ideas that we have rattling around in our heads that we either can’t seem to grasp or just don’t really want to put down on paper for one reason or another. Someday, perhaps. Someday.

 

But not today.

Ideas? Yes, Please.

Don't you hate it when you can't get anything going? I do. Frankly, I'd like to set Chapter 33 of one novel on fire, except I haven't written that chapter yet. Because it's like it doesn't want to be written. It's maddening.

That's why I'm all about new ways to conjure up ideas. Things that will help boost your brain, whip up some characters - feed the muse, as it were. My favorite is music, but sometimes even that doesn't work. Maybe I can't find a piece that fits properly. Or maybe my muse just isn't hungry for music. But of course, they don't tell us that. They just go wandering off wherever they like and leave you stumbling over the lines on the page (or the keys on your computer) going, "Duh....now what?" It doesn't matter if you're trying to conjure up a new novel idea or if you're stuck under the dreaded 10 ton writer's block. You need help - you need ideas on how to make ideas.

So when FictionVale asked for guest bloggers, I thought, "That would be fun to do," and set out to offer readers as many idea generators as possible. Things that both work for me and things that I know work for others. Things that - hopefully - will get someone's writer mojo going.

You may also want to pop over there to read some of the other guest blogger advice. They've got editors, authors, teachers, and plenty of other people ready and set to dish out all kinds of knowledge. And hey, while you're there, why not submit something and see what happens? :D

Not In Stores?

I've been meaning to write this for a while. More and more I've noticed that people coming into the bookstore are asking for books we simply don't have. It's not because we're out or that it's not something we usually carry - but it's because the book has been self-published.

A few years ago I remember Nathan Bransford reassuring everyone that even in the seemingly endless mire of books out there people will find the books they want to read. Well, he's 100% right. People already did that when physical books packed the shelves, and now the same is true for all of the electronic books floating around out there. Initially I found it to be a little frustrating. Partly because the people looking for the book would demand to know why they couldn't get the book (if it was only an ebook) or express frustration over it being print-on-demand. Partly because I found it a bit tiring to have to explain the reasons why they couldn't immediately get the book or why this print-on-demand book had to be sent to their home and not the store, etc.

Now, however, as more people come in requesting ebooks and POD books, I don't get frustrated. In fact, I'm actually pleased. I'm happy for those authors that somehow, in some way, these people have discovered their book. What's more, they want to spend the money and buy it. That provides an income to people who have worked hard to create a book. And that is excellent. While it doesn't always work because people still can't quite handle waiting for the book to be made and then sent, sometimes it does, and that's great.

For the longest time my dad always demanded why I didn't just self-publish my books and sell them. For a long time the answer was the same most of us would give. It costs money. It doesn't offer the same distribution as the bigger publishers can offer. You have to work your buns off to convince people to buy your book. A lot of big name authors actually did start out self-published, some even selling their work out of the trunks of their cars (John Grisham, James Redfield). And I thought, "I would do that - if I had the money." I never had the money and I didn't get a car until after college.

Epublishing allows all of us to do that. I'm doing it. I finally decided to jump into the deep end of the pool and see what happens. I want to know. I'm selling my book out of the trunk of my car - the only difference is that now it's all done electronically, I have access to so many more people, and I don't have to pay a dime (except to get an excellent cover, of course). It's terrifying and thrilling all at once. Yes, people are reading my book. No, I have no idea if they'll like it or not. But it allows to me reach an audience I never thought possible - like other countries. I found out today that I sold a unit in Germany. Germany! Someone in that country purchased my book. It's only one book, but that has got to be one of the coolest things ever.

So if you are working hard on a book and feel it is ready to be out there and can't get through the agents or publishers, then maybe epublishing is the way to go. The stigma of self-publishing is slowly but surely going away because there are just too many people out there with excellent stories that they want to tell. Not everything will be amazing, but not everything published now is amazing. And in the end, it doesn't matter because as Nathan said, people will read what they want. They'll be able to find despite the thousands of books out there. And that's pretty cool.

On a final note, if you would like to read my book, it will be available for free April 19th on the Kindle and devices that can host the Kindle app.

You can download the book here.  And in case you were curious or in need of a cover yourself, this lovely piece was done by Regina Wamba of Mae I Design and Photography. You can also find her on Facebook and her work is amazing. :)

Some Light Reading

I thought I might share a few interesting pieces I stumbled upon yesterday.

I've been getting impatient when it comes to publishing and have been seriously entertaining the idea of going the e-publishing route - though I do admit a lot of that is also due to sheer curiosity.  How well might one of my books perform?  How could I boost the sales?  How good are my marketing skills?  I didn't know how exclusive Amazon was with their publishing and I'm already familiar with how PubIt, CreateSpace, and Smashwords function, so I was curious as to whether or not Amazon's system could be used at the same time as one of the others.  So I looked and found a great article with a few handy additional linked articles.

10 Questions to Ask Before Committing to Any E-Publishing Service

Second, due to my potential e-publishing future, I wondered - if I published my SF novel should I use my name or a pen name?  And if I did use a pen name, it would be a male one.  Would that help my chances of getting more sales or does it matter?  I know that I don't pay much attention to authors - if I want to read it, I read it.  But since I was curious, I started looking to see if anyone had done any articles with actual information on whether or not gender still mattered to people and found a quite interesting blog entry that also had a lot of interesting articles linked to it that I ended up reading as well.

Fantasy Book Cafe's Women in SF&F Conclusion

You may find these interesting and helpful - you may not.  But I thought I'd share either way.  Time to go write!

It's Alive!

The Big Pink Crayon Project is now live!  I encourage everyone to take a quick gander at my madness (because if I am lucky, that's exactly what it will turn into!)

Interview with Pearl North

I was lucky enough to have Pearl North (that's her pseudonym, by the way - I know the secret of her real name, bwahahahaha!) as my mentor while in my Seton Hill writing program where she dished out some indispensable advice that I still use today.  I often smirk when a particular moment in the movie Serenity shows up.  But now you get to know a little bit about her as well, and at the end of this interview she offers the kind of writing advice you can't ignore.

Pearl North is the author of a trilogy of YA science fiction novels: Libyrinth, The Boy From Ilysies (a Norton Award Finalist), and The Book of the Night. A firm believer in human decency, she loves writing and reading about characters that transcend the limits of who they think they are and what they think is possible. She mentors graduate students in Seton Hill University’s Writing Popular Fiction MFA program, and writes in other genres under different names. A native and life-long resident of the Detroit area, she has never lived more than two miles from Woodward Avenue in her life.

1. Where did the idea of Libyrinth, and ultimately the trilogy, come from?

From a very early age, I was captivated by the idea of a girl who hears the voices of books. I wrote Libyrinth as a standalone, and then, at my editor's insistence, I wrote The Boy from Ilysies and The Book of the Night. He was adamant that I had more to say about that world, and it turns out he was right.

2. So – are you a plotter or a pantser?

I'd say my career trajectory is from pantser to plotter, and at the time I wrote The Book of the Night, I was about midway along that spectrum. I'd plot out the first few chapters, write them, and then plot some more. Nowadays, I'm doing a lot more planning ahead. We'll see how that goes.

3. If there was one – okay, two – great books you would give to every aspiring author, what would they be?

Ha ha! I bet you already know my answer. The first book, and only if there could only be one, would be Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight Swain. Sure his attitudes toward female characters are hopelessly sexist and dated, but what he has to say about the building blocks of story changed my whole approach to writing, and made me a better, more productive, and happier writer in the process. If I had two, I'd go with Self Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Brown and Dave King. It's a great companion to the Swain book, because where he focuses on story mechanics, they focus on the mechanics of language. I don't think you have to be a slave to everything they say, but it's good solid information.

4. What are some of your favorite books?  Words?  Desserts?

One caveat: Other interviewers have also asked me what my favorite books are. Every time I get this question, I have different answers. But they are all true. So, today: Freedom and Necessity by Emma Bull and Steven Brust, The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin,  Patrick O'Brien's Master and Commander books, which are really one twenty-volume novel.

5. Do you actually own all the books quoted in the trilogy or are some of those the results of perusing your local library/bookstore?

Almost all of them. I gave some thought to how I was going to handle the books mentioned in the trilogy. I knew I couldn't hope to offer a representative sample of world literature. I didn't try. I needed some sort of limiting parameter on my selections so what I went with was the books on my own shelves at home. That was my selection base. Except for a few instances where for plot purposes I needed to use a specific book that I did not own. But those are rare.

6. What were some of the *best* scenes to write in the Libyrinth trilogy?

I guess I must be a sadist because the first scenes that pop into my head are the ones where my protagonists have been captured and are being tortured by the villains. There's the scene where Haly and Clauda are tied up in the Vault, and the one where Queen Thela makes Po -- oh wait, that's in the new book, better not mention it. But I do have a tender side too. I love the interaction between Haly and Gyneth as they move from antagonists to friends and then to more than friends in Libyrinth, and in The Book of the Night, there are some scenes between Clauda and Selene that I like very much and that I hope will be satisfying for those readers who have been patiently waiting for them.

7. When you started out in your writing career, was teen fiction on the table as something you thought you’d write?

Not really. I was all about science fiction at that time. My father and brother both read sf and they talked about it around the dinner table when I was a kid. It influenced me profoundly. When I decided I wanted to write, I just naturally though I'd write sf, because to me, that's what books were. But then I read more out of genre and I found that I like all kinds of things. So now I write in other genres under other names as well.

8. How do you crack writer’s block?

Well, deadlines are a wonderful tool for that. I find that when someone else is expecting me to turn something in at a certain time  it's amazing what I can get done. I've shocked myself a few times like that. However, if I'm writing on spec, and I don't have that external reinforcer, then sometimes I employ what I call blast drafting. I close my eyes and just type like mad, whatever comes into my head goes out my fingers. It can be nonsense at first, but after a little while I usually find that I'm working on something coherent. Well, apart from all the typos, that is.

9. Do you have any muses that really kick-start your writing power (whether or not you have writer’s block)?

I'm often inspired by performances in movies or TV shows, but it's not specific to any one actor or program, just what strikes a nerve with me at the moment. Those experiences can sometimes help me identify an emotion or a state of mind that I wanted to create in a character but had not yet defined for myself.

10.  When you’re not writing what do you like to do?

I do love to read. I also like to get outside and do things, run with my dog, or go kayaking. I live in Michigan, and we have a lot of beautiful lakes. Summer is my favorite season because I get to do all of that fun stuff. In fact, my pseudonym, Pearl North, comes from a place my husband and I visit every year. It's called Pearl Lake and it's in northern Michigan. When I got the offer from Tor for the Libyrinth books, I was up there. And my agent needed to know what pseudonym I wanted to use right away because she needed it for the contract. I came up with Pearl North on the spot.

11.  Is there anything you’re working on now that fans of the Libyrinth trilogy should be looking forward to in the future?

That's hard to say. I have no immediate plans for another Pearl North book, but I also write in other genres. At the moment, I'm working on a science fiction romance.

12.  Quick!  Dish out your last minute advice to writers!

Write!

Want a Free Book?

Yep, it's been a while since I've done a giveaway, but this time I've got some help. I have 3 - count 'em - 3 copies of Pearl North's The Book of the Night to give away!

Now if you've read Libyrinth, then you've got to be ready to finish off this trilogy with a bang! You might want to be ready to have your mind twisted a little too because I'm about halfway through my copy and whoa-hey Stephen Hawking and Michio Kaku would flip out if any of this were really out there (...then again, who's to say it's not? o_O).

If you haven't read Libyrinth...well...I recommend picking up a copy. If you think you've been to enough imaginary places, trust me, you have not been to the Libyrinth of any of its surrounding areas. So, how do you get in on the giveaway? Easy. Just go to my Bookseller Recommends blog and leave a comment and some way for me to reach you (email is best) in case you win. Sharing this blog post with others is encouraged - in fact, tell me how you've shared (Twitter? Facebook? Your blog?) and I'll throw in an additional entry for you!

The closing date for entries will be September 10 at midnight, so get your entry in and find out what's inside of The Book of the Night!

(Please note, this giveaway is open to US and Canada residents only. Sorry!)

Get In Good With Booksellers

You want to sell books?  Then do what the title up there says - get in good with the booksellers.

I'm not talking about the owners of a bookstore (okay, well, if it's a mom and pop store then that probably can't hurt), I'm talking about the actual employees who are down in the trenches digging up books for people and - possibly more often than you realize - making recommendations.

I do know that you've probably heard this before, but I don't know how many people actually realize how hard some of us will work to get someone to buy a book because we love it so much.

Did you know that Barnes and Noble employees have access to something called B&N Inside?  It's available only to us, only on our network on our computers at the store.  Books pop up on it all the time.  There's a section of Bookseller Reviews where we send in some of our own favorites and they get featured so we can see what others are recommending.  To my delight, I made it on there once with one of my favorite trilogies (which was re-released into a complete volume).

But that's not all.  There's also a little something called the 100 Club.  I'm sure you can probably guess what that entails.  Yep - this is for booksellers who have sold 100 copies of a title.  While it's all on an honor system (you have to keep track of your own sales), there's no prize at the end of the road so there is no reason to cheat or lie about your numbers.  The people who do this are those who absolutely love specific books and do everything they can to get them into people's hands.  Some booksellers will even turn it into a game as well and challenge one another to see who can beat the other to the top.  But think; one single-minded bookseller can sell 100 copies of your book.  One bookseller sold so many copies of The Christmas Jar that the author actually went to the store to thank them personally.  Some of the books showcased by B&N as a company have come not from some suit sitting in an office in New York, but from a bookseller who just loved the book so much.

Right now, this is what I'm trying to do with not just one title, but two.  The first is - you guessed it - The Forbidden Game by L.J. Smith.  The second is The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig.  We'll see how it goes.

But not every bookseller is going to hit the 100 Club.  After all, we have a lot of things to do.  And that's just B&N anyway.  So what else can we do for you if we like what you've got to offer?  Easy - we get your book out there in front of people.  Books are supposed to go on various promotions at specific times.  Certain books get to have face-out time (where they are faced so the covers are front and center for all to see).  But if we like what you've got?  We'll put it somewhere people can see it.  We'll craft little areas of our own and put them there.  From employee recommendation displays to extra space we need to use up, if we can get your book there so people see it, we will.  I have both of my titles up there in areas where people can't miss them.  And you know what?  Sometimes we're way ahead of corporate.

For example, in our teen section we were supposed to have either an endcap (display at the end of an isle) or a mission table (think the size of your living room side table with the lamp on it) for The Hunger Games.  Yeah, well, when you get sent over 200 copies of each book in the trilogy plus books featuring movie insider goodies, an endcap or mission just isn't going to cut it.  Our managers took a big pine table instead and filled it full of Hunger Games books.  But we didn't stop there.  Corporate also sent lists of other books to feature on those displays that people might like as well so we made sure to include them on the table.  Of course, we could fit more so we got to choose our own ideas of what people might want to try.  And because I am a Children's Lead, I have reign over the teen section, so that table has fallen into my responsibility 95% of the time.

I had read and enjoyed Veronica Rossi's book, Under the Never Sky.  It wasn't selling too well where it was, and it's got the whole dystopian thing going on that people who liked The Hunger Games could get into.  So I snatched them all up and plunked them down on the table.  Front and center right next to a James Patterson title.  I don't always get to point it out, but now because it's got a sweet location, I don't have to.  And you know what?  The next week on a title list from corporate wanted that book to be on the next Hunger Games display.  I win.  And so does Ms. Rossi.  Now that list has come and gone, but our table is still there and so is her book.  It will come down when I say so - or when a manager decides to get rid of the table (but because we still have over 100-200 Hunger Games books in stock, I think that table is going to be around for a while).

Want another reason to get in good with booksellers?  We'll keep your books and try to sell them even after we get a return download.  When these downloads happen we are supposed to send designated books back to the publishers (or in the case of 99% of mass markets, strip them).  But...if we like your book...or we like you and we think we can squeak in just one more sale...then we'll hang onto them.  Technically i don't think we're supposed to, but I have.  And you know what?  I've sold books this way.  Beth Revis's first book, Across the Universe, was on my teen recommendation shelf for far longer than it was supposed to be.  The hardcover was due out, but I refused to let it go because A.) I was selling it and B.) the paperback wasn't due to be published until several months in the future.  Heck, I ran out and ordered more in while they were still due out.  And we both know that hardcovers net you more money than paperbacks.

We'll go the extra mile for you - this can be true even if we've never had the chance to read your book but know you personally.  If you like someone you want to help them out, right?  I've had the pleasure of meeting Victoria Thompson, but I've never read her books.  But when people are looking for a recommendation or mention they've heard of her books, I'll nudge them in her direction if at all possible and speak fondly of her.  It warms people to the author and the books and can make them more interested in making a purchase.  In the case of Maria Snyder, I've met her and emailed with her a few times as well as read her first trilogy.  When a woman called wanting the first book, I told her about Ms. Snyder as a person as well as how much I'd enjoyed her books.  After that the woman expressed interest in the next two books.  At the time I couldn't find the third book, but because I was determined to get the sale for Ms. Snyder, I kept on hunting until I finally found it.  I added it to the customer's other two books on hold.  I later checked the sales numbers and saw that she did indeed buy all three.  Later when her teen book came out, I hadn't read it, but I currently have it placed on our teen table (not too far away from The Forbidden Game!).

So be cool to booksellers.  We can be your best friends.  Write a great book and that's even better because if one of us falls in love with it, we'll throw it at every customer who walks in the door.

Bad Guys We Love (for some bizarre reason)

For some reason there are bad guys that we just absolutely love. Darth Vader. Vegeta. The Joker. And when you think about it, that’s kind of weird. Why is it that we love these guys and all their badassery? Why is it awesome when Vegeta blows up a stadium or when Vader stalks around in his black cape choking out commanding officers? We argue about who made the best Joker (personally I still love the cartoon version voiced by Mark Hamill. That’s right. Luke Skywalker is the voice actor for the Joker and does a damn fine job of it too, I might add) and bitch about how the kid playing Anakin Skywalker in the last two Star Wars movies to come out was a pansy (he WAS).

There are the bad guys we love and then there’s that phrase, “Bad guys you love to hate.” I’m not really sure about that last one because I can’t really think of any bad guys I enjoyed hating, unless that phrase refers to bad guys that you simply can’t wait to see die a horrible death because they deserve it. But what is it that separates out those bad guys from the ones we love? Is it like the difference between two dogs – like an ugly dog that’s just plain mean and bites everyone and that kickass black Doberman pinscher that stands there eyeballing you, letting you know it could totally mess you up but won’t until it either decides it wants to or its master says so.

I have a black dragon in one of my books that I love. He’s not nice. He’s literally destroyed entire civilizations. He steps on people. He eats people. He burns them alive and submits them to torture. I had a piece of work involving him get critiqued. The piece was basically picked apart (rightfully so), but everyone said that they loved my dragon. And that was excellent. As long as everyone loved him, I didn’t care how shredded the rest of the work was. They loved my baddest bad guy. Kick ass.

But again, it all comes back down to just why the heck do we get so excited over certain bad guys? Vegeta, for those of you who don’t know, comes from an anime called Dragon Ball Z. He is not a nice person. He’s killed millions, has actually destroyed a planet (probably more than one in his lifetime), tried to destroy the Earth, and yes, blew up a stadium full of people after he sort of shifted back to the dark side (he was good for a while, though I use that term loosely). And yet I think he has more fans than Goku, the actual protagonist who’s a little bit like Superman. I even have the royal crest of Vegeta’s house tattooed on my shoulder.

It seems to have something to do with just how badass these guys are, and there really isn’t a better word I can come up with to describe it. But how is their badassness any different from, say, Hitler’s? Everyone listed here has killed a horrifying number of people. Maybe because these guys do the dirty work themselves? Maybe it’s because they do it in style. Vader in his black getup. Vegeta in all his power. One could argue that the Joker is straight up insane, but I would differ with that stance. He simply has no qualms with killing others and happens to enjoy doing so with flare. The fact remains that pretty much all these bad guys (and others) are stone cold killers, but when they walk on the screen or the pages of a book, we sit up and think, “F*ck yeah!”

I don’t mean to ruin any of your bad boy enjoyment. Far from it. I will love Vegeta until the day I die and Vader will always be cool (movies I, II, and III not included). Perhaps it’s because without the chaos, we wouldn’t have a good story. And because it’s fiction, it’s okay to revel in said chaos. You can’t do that sort of thing here in the real world. It poses interesting philosophical questions. Perhaps it’s reading or watching that lure of the dark that gets us interested. Performing epic feats of chaos and not giving a crap about the consequences. At the end of the Green Lantern movie, plenty of people got all giddy when Sinestro put on that yellow ring because it meant future epicness.

But not all bad guys get this kind of reaction, even if they are wholly fictional. Maybe the epic part is what makes a difference. Nazis will always suck. Serial killers aren’t likely to ever get any love (though some do come close like Hannibal Lecter or Gretchen Lowell). Maybe it’s the further out in left field the bad guys are the easier it is to get into them. The others hit too close to home.

I don’t think we’ll ever understand it. It certainly won’t stop us from crafting characters that kill, rape, and pillage. And it won’t stop us from being totally pleased to learn that people love our bad guys. After all, I know we sure as hell do.



Oh Vegeta....you crazy, evil bastard you.

I Hate All of You.

One of the many reasons I hate celebrities.

Originally found at RageComics.

Kill Your Heroes

TELL ME THAT AS A WRITER THIS DOESN'T MAKE YOU SMIRK.