Five Stars

Cass Gets Her Kicks got its very first review at Smashwords. Five stars!

The Blog Post That Is Not A Blog Post

So I'll come out and confess here that I'm kind of having a rough day (the baby didn't fall asleep until the husband woke up, the weather is weird, and we were supposed to have dinner guests who canceled at the last minute) and blogging is the last thing I really want to be doing. However, I want to make it to 500 blog hits this month and that won't happen unless I actually, you know, blog.

This is where the "now with 100% more filler" tag comes in.

Last night, I opened up a new word processor file (I don't use MS Word, I use Open Office--I do plan to post about it at some point) and wrote up some meta on Lilah Thompson, my heroine from the current WIP. Because I've been editing line-by-line, I've lost sight of the big picture. I needed to step back and look at it. I also needed to work out Lilah's motivation. She's not exactly the most likable character (I'm hoping she comes off sort of like Scarlett O'Hara, a character I always thought was unlikable but still appealing), but I don't think it's necessary for a heroine to be a likable character. After all, not everyone is a likable person. I do hope that readers can identify with her, which to me is more important.

Meta is telling in the way that the actual story is showing. It isn't ever meant to be shared, but it can be very useful. I write meta for original characters when I'm having a difficult time sticking to their characterization (characterization is something I'm fabulous at--when I write fanfiction; I struggle when I write original fiction, mostly because character-building is something I have to work at) or when I'm having trouble with the evolution of a character.

Knowing that no one is going to read it is liberating. Knowing that it's a useful tool for helping me focus and settling my brain makes me want to do it.

Lilah has her reasons for doing what she does, and I explored those. She gets her happy ending, but not before she makes a mess of everything. I think her situation is something most of us can identify with. We may not have dead spouses or high school sweethearts who waited for us, we may not have distant-but-loving fathers and sweet-but-demanding mothers, but I think that most people will understand Lilah.

I like this story. Which is good, because if I don't like it, how can I expect anyone else to like it? I like the emotional conflict Lilah feels and I like the physical manifestation of the Clay/Lilah conflict. I like that I got to write humor (the book cover is a result of the funniest scene in the story, I think) and that I got to write banter. Cass's story was sex with minor character development; Lilah's story is character development with sex thrown in for fun.

Now all I have to do is finish the second editing pass and send it off to beta readers and, maybe, advance readers.

Quick Update: Cass Gets Her Kicks

It's now available at B&N for the NOOK.

Monday Miscellany

My Plug Your Book post is still open and my indiereleaseparty email is still accepting messages. I figure I'll give this venture another week before I make any decisions.

Last night, I finally made it into chapter four of editing! I've realized that it will definitely need another pass, which is cool, but I'm still hoping to send it off to beta readers by the end of the week. If you're interested in an advance reader copy of a short (roughly 15,000 words) romance, please let me know, either in a comment here or an email.

I'm almost halfway done with The Iron Admiral: Conspiracy by Greta van der Rol and I. am. in. love. The last time I read a non-Star Wars book that hooked me so completely was Elizabeth Moon's Once A Hero. The worldbuilding is masterful, the characters are wonderful (and the author does not succumb to the impulse to make them Mary Sue and Gary Stu), the mystery is exciting, and--in my opinion, the best part--the action sequences are just perfect! As if all of that wasn't awesome enough, the sex is great, too! Seriously. I keep having full-on fangirl attacks.

Today, I'm baking bread and dinner rolls. It's cool enough and I felt like it, so I figured, why not?

Blog Roundup: August 29 - September 4, 2011

My crush on Chuck Wendig just keeps getting bigger. He had two fantastic posts this week. "25 Things You Should Know About Self-Publishing" is part of his "25" series and, of course, is full of good points to get your brain working. "Making Sense of Ninety-Nine Cents" is about the $0.99 price and how to use it.

Last week, I posted about ebook covers. This week, The Passive Voice had a post on terrible covers and asked if they could kill book sales. (Yes. Yes, they can.)

Greta van der Rol wrote about building better websites. It went up as a companion piece to her post on what she hates about websites. If you have a site, it's worth checking out what people dislike. You want people to visit your site and stick around, not click back home because they're frustrated. (Even though it's old, I'm going to suggest this post, too, because book covers are apparently Theme Of The Week in my world.)

James Killick blogged about how to build a loyal Twitter following. I particularly agree with not block-tweeting for Follow Friday. I like it when the people I follow tell me why they think I should follow someone else, too.

The question of how much self-promotion is too much is addressed in this Keystrokes & Word Counts post. Self-promotion is something I struggle with. Oh, I have no problem sharing a link a day to whichever blog post I've just put up, but that's because I try to write posts I think will be helpful to others. Promoting my book... that's something else.

A new blog launched this week, and I can't pick just one post to link to. I liked the first one, the one on clichés, the one about Stephen King, the one about not being a dick on Twitter, and the one about bestsellers. Just go read it. It looks really promising.

Sirra posted another roundup of her #writetips from Twitter. You should listen to her. She's smart. Also, she's kind of stabby, so... yeah. (I understand she's considering a post on manuscript format. I hope she does one. Apparently, double spaces after a period are only standard in academic writing.)

A new cover was reviewed over at Your Cover Uncovered. Check it out and absorb some knowledge! Or possibly I mean wisdom. Maybe I mean both.

In The Real World, Yoda, We Try

Yesterday, a writer I follow on Twitter and here on Blogger released his first book: Heaven Can Wait by R. J. Davnall. I did what I could with a Facebook share and a retweet, but it occurred to me that it would be nice to have a place to go where I could read about all new indie releases.

So I went to my BFF, Google, and I asked it where I could find a list or schedule of new indie releases. I found Release Notes, but that wasn't exactly what I was looking for. (It's a good blog and I promptly started following it, though.) Goodreads has a self-promotion thread, but, again, not exactly what I was looking for. There's the Indie Book Collective. That looks like a great blog, too. I knew about the .99 Cent Network (which reminds me that I need to sign up; I knew I was forgetting something). I looked through several pages of results from Google, and I did not find what I wanted.

What I want is something like this: New Book Release Dates. Something like this in list form or this would also do, but indie (self-published and small publishers) books only. Nothing fancy. Just a cover image, title, author, summary, price, and link(s) to where the book is for sale.

So I created a new email address at indiereleaseparty@yahoo.com and I created a new blog and I put the initial feeler out on Twitter last night. I didn't receive much of a response, to be honest, but I don't think that means this is a failure. I want to give it a little more time.

In order for this to work, though, I need indie authors to submit their information. Like short press releases, I guess. You can email the address above, DM me on Twitter with a link to your book or webpage about the book, or leave a comment here or in last night's Plug Your Book post.

I think this could be really useful. If nothing else, it could be one more promo tool for indie authors, and, let's face it, we need all the help we can get.

Plug Your Book

That's it. That's the whole point of this post. I want you to leave a comment plugging your book. Give me the title, tell me what it's about, and link me to where you have it for sale.

SitRep Saturday: The Cowboy Next Door, Interviews, and Other Projects

I am here to admit, sheepishly, that I have only edited the first two chapters and the first page of the third chapter of Cowboy. I hit kind of a slump this week. I did, however, start work on the "bonus" chapter. It's not part of the story, but I thought the characters deserved some fun.

Greta van der Rol has agreed to be interviewed for From the Writer's Desk very soon. I am very, very excited about this. I've had The Iron Admiral: Conspiracy on my to-read list for several weeks. I just started it last night and I am not disappointed. I love science fiction.

A friend of mine who is part of Marginalia Studios has also agreed to be interviewed. I'm stoked about this, too, because I've been wanting to feature her since the blog was new. She's a fantastic artist.

Yesterday's post on why self-publishing isn't career suicide got me thinking about the guide to self-publishing I've been wanting to work on. September may be the month for that.

Self-Publishing Isn't Career Suicide

When I offered a coupon code for Cass Gets Her Kicks on a local website used most often by military spouses, one person downloaded the book--and one person sent me an email that said no publisher was going to take me seriously now that I've self-published. I didn't respond privately to the email because I didn't see the point (I won't change her mind, regardless of the evidence) but it did make me think. I'm willing to bet that there are writers out there who want to self-publish but are unsure. I bet they think the same thing: that by self-publishing, traditional publishers won't take them seriously. They probably think that self-publishing means you've achieved less and they aren't sure they're willing to settle for less.

I don't think self-publishing is career suicide. I don't think it's right for everyone, but I don't think it's the worst idea, even if you haven't submitted manuscripts to a traditional publisher.

Self-publishing has been around since the invention of the printing press. Apparently, most publications in the early days were self-published. When most people hear "self-published" they assume that it means "vanity press." Sometimes, this is true; vanity presses still operate and you have to watch it if you go that route. The self-publishing I'm talking about is a growing industry. It's digital. It's print-on-demand. It's cheap. It's easy.

I think that self-publishing gets a bad rap for those last two things.

You can self-publish with no start-up cost even if you have no talent and no skill. I plan to do a post or a series of posts on this in the future, so I'll give you a brief overview. You don't have to pay for word processing software because there's a great free one. You don't have to pay for a website because you can use Blogger or WordPress or any other desktop publishing site. You don't have to pay for a cover photo because you can use free royalty-free stock photos. You don't have to pay for the photo editing software because there's a decent free alternative to PhotoShop, or you can use a free online book cover designer. You don't have to pay for an editor--a copyeditor or a content editor--because there's no real vetting process. The next person to read your work is the consumer, not a gatekeeper.

Because all of this is possible, work that would make it to the slush pile makes it out into the world. Writers who don't spell-check or edit make us all look bad. Recently, I've read a number of posts--on Twitter, in blogs, and on message boards--by people claiming they'll never try another self-published book again because they've been burned. I can't blame them. It makes me sad, but I honestly do not blame them. It doesn't matter if they only lost $0.99. That was their hard-earned money and they were hoping for some decent entertainment. Probably they even wanted to support the independent arts. And what did they get? Something that was less readable than a message board post. It isn't fair to the consumer and it isn't fair to other self-published authors.

So I understand that people are wary of self-publishing. There's a lot that can go very, very wrong. But it doesn't have to go wrong.

Back in March, I bought Amanda Hocking's Hollowland. I had no idea it was self-published. I only learned that when I did some Google searching on her to find out what else she had written (I was looking for more zombie books). Suddenly, the book seemed that much more impressive to me. Her cover design, her summary, her whole book was so professional. Sure, there were some minor errors, but so what? I've read traditionally-published books that had more errors. I did a little more research on her and read about her success. Copies sold. Revenue earned. Her deal with a traditional publisher.

Yep. Amanda Hocking got a deal with a traditional publisher. Self-publishing didn't kill her career.

She isn't the only one. John Locke did the same thing. Understand that these two authors represent the extreme success the rest of us only dream of. They were wildly successful on their own, and traditional publishers sat up and took notice.

Successful self-published authors develop a fan base. They sell. This is attractive to publishers. Self-publishing is a lot of work, but it's only slightly more work than traditional publishing.

You still have to write your very best work. It doesn't matter if you send your manuscript off to an agent, a publisher, or your grandmother. If you have any respect for yourself as a writer or your audience, you'll do your best. Writing is hard (I believe I've discussed this before) and writing well is even harder. Then, even if you get that book deal, you still have changes to make. (Or not, I guess.) And if you think your publisher will do all of your book promotion, you are mistaken.

What appealed to me the most about self-publishing was the complete control. I, as the writer, have total control over my work. I decide what to write. I decide how to edit it. I decide what the book cover looks like. I decide when it gets released. I succeed or fail by my own hand. I'm not at the mercy of anyone but the consumer. That was something I could live with. That is something I can live with.

Authors like Amanda Hocking and John Locke have proven that it is possible to succeed at self-publishing and land traditional publishing deals in the process. Even if you aren't as wildly successful as either of them, it's still possible to make a living as a self-published ebook author.

Just don't slack.

Book Review: Anathema (Cloud Prophet Trilogy: Book One) by Megg Jensen

Anathema by Megg Jensen is a prime example of what a good book cover can do for your sales. I bought this book purely on impulse because I liked the cover. It didn't matter to me (because it didn't occur to me, the cover really did that) that I have enjoyed only a handful of YA fantasy novels and almost all of them were written by Madeleine L'Engle. I wanted to read this book.

It wasn't bad. I was really interested in the Malborn/Serenian struggle, and I kind of hope that she has plans to write the initial Malborn takeover, because I'd really like to read that. Reychel, the main character, was quite compelling; I just do not like her name at all. (In all fairness, I just came off of several months examining baby names, so "unique" spellings make me cringe. It's a personal issue, not a book issue. Her name actually makes sense in light of some revelations at the end.) She's a good girl with a good heart. Her "gift" is pretty awesome, and her ignorance was, I thought, sensible. I feel like Ms. Jensen wrote a pretty solid character. Reychel made sense to me. The way she thought and felt about her position, the way she went about learning new things, and her transformation in the end seemed plausible.

There were so many twists at the end I felt like my head was spinning, but it was a good kind of spinning. It made me curious about the second book, which I think is the point of a well-done first book ending. The little love triangle even appealed to my inner teen girl.

I think my favorite thing, though, was the villain. I'm not going to give it away, but I really, really liked that particular twist.

If you're the sort of person who reads and likes young adult fantasy, this book is worth checking out. I'm really glad I read it.