Haha! I am finally uploading the chapter two reading of Magic’s Stealing! I’m much more satisfied with this version, so I’m glad I didn’t rush this, even if it is two blog days later than I intended. I hope you enjoy it, too. 🙂
Here’s the Youtube link in case you can’t see it.
You can hear the first chapter here. 🙂
Filed under Business Ventures, Writing
Today I’m continuing the trend of doing a weekly video blog post, but instead of doing a reading from 1000 Words, I’m reading the first chapter of Magic’s Stealing. 🙂
(And a Youtube link in case you can’t see it).
This is a day late–I normally try to post on Fridays– but this time I edited the audio to remove the more obvious stumbles where I tripped over my words. It’s been a while since I used Premiere Pro, so it’s not perfect (and I caught a couple spots I missed once I listened to the full video), but hopefully the edits will make the overall listening experience smoother.
As a side note, I started doing the video blogs as an experiment in seeing whether or not that would help shorten the amount of time I spent producing material for the blog.
Did it?
Nope.
I want the videos to look and sound at least semi-professional, so I practice the reading at least once beforehand, so that the actual reading has as few stumbles as possible. Since I’ve now rediscovered how to use Premiere Pro, removing obvious stumbles also takes time, and then I have to export the edited clip from Premiere Pro and create a “movie” image in Movie Maker for the book (because I haven’t quite figured out the video options in Premiere Pro). Then I upload the different clips to Youtube (I do the reading separate from where I talk beforehand). Depending on my internet speed (which has been lacking as of late), those clips can take a while to upload. Then, once uploaded, I need to splice them together using Youtube’s video editor (handy thing, though limited), listen to transition points to make sure those flow smoothly, and create the new video. Once that’s uploaded, I listen to the full thing to make sure that everything has correctly processed.
It’s a lot more time-consuming that I thought it would be, but I suspect part of that is the learning curve involved with each program.
I still enjoy doing the readings, however, and I hope you enjoy them, too. 🙂
Filed under Business Ventures, Writing
I recently got back notes from our beta reader for The Multiverse Chronicles, and one of the questions we asked her was whether or not she would read it in serial format (in this case, one episode a week). We want to make sure that when we release the episodes that the method of release will work well for readers.
Though she said that she enjoyed the episodes that she read, she also said that she personally wouldn’t read it in the serial format. She explained the reason was because the first two episodes (two weeks of content) had a lot of characters to keep track of, and given that the episodes alternate between two groups, that was a long time to wait to find out what happened to the main character from the first scene.
As an alternative, she suggested releasing several chapters at once, but at longer intervals, so that readers would have a chance to get grounded in the story before having to wait for the next installment.
In a sense, this is what I’m doing with The Wishing Blade series, but with a several-month interval. Technically, each book will fit together as one larger, complete book, though each one is meant to have a semi-complete story on its own.
Our beta reader suggested looking at Stephen King’s The Green Mile as an example of releasing several chapters at once, a serialized novel that was released monthly in 1996. From what I gathered during my (Wikipedia) research, The Green Mile was released in six parts, once per consecutive month, each paperback book around 100 pages until the last book, at 144 pages). Later the publisher released a compiled edition.
Now, I haven’t read the book, so I’m not sure how complete each part was, (though I did try to skim through a few reviews to get a feel for it, and I’m still not sure), so I don’t know how much of a cliffhanger each episode may or may not have been. Click here for more information about the original release of The Green Mile books.
But this research did lead me to thinking about the various options involved in releasing a serialized novel.
Originally, Isaac and I had intended the Multiverse episodes to be stand-alone short stories that fit a larger story arc, but the story arc took over. and now we have a serialized novel on our hands.
The options (with variation, depending on the author) are generally to release episodes or chapters every few days, once a week, every few weeks, or monthly/bi-monthly.
Due to time constraints, Isaac and I decided not to release episodes more than once a week. Otherwise there would be a long span of time between the beginning and end of each “season.”
However, if you have a complete novel, or if you want to write daily and release the new parts as their written, a faster release schedule may be the way to go.
Releasing weekly or every few days could work great if you have cliffhangers and an audience who is excited for the anticipation of waiting for the next episode. Here, having a story that hooks the reader and doesn’t let go, but demands a faster release schedule, may work well.
Though I haven’t read it personally, I found one example to be Worm, a completed web serial by Wildblow. In their case, they released chapters twice a week (sometimes three times, if donations met a specific goal). Also, The Legion of Nothing, which (according to the info at the top left corner of its home page) updates twice a week.
Interesting side-note: According to Merriam-Webster.com, bi-weekly can either mean “twice a week” or “every two weeks.” Gotta love the consistency there.
Releasing every few weeks might work better for stories with larger episodes, where the author wants time to make edits before the release, or for writers who are writing the story as they go, but want time for feedback to develop, and time to implement that feedback.
Releasing monthly or even bi-monthly seems like it would work better for longer episodes or short books that have a reasonably complete story arc, however, my current research suggests that stories with strong cliffhangers can work well at this extended rate, too.
One romance series I’ve heard has done well, Renee George’s The Lion Kings, (according to its description/reviews, since I have not read this series, either) has each book as a fairly short installment that involved cliffhangers, where the author released the books on Kindle at around a month or so apart. Of course, audiences preferences may vary between genres.
Then there’s The Martian by Andy Weir. According to Smithsonian.com, The Martian was released on his blog at the rate of one chapter every six to eight weeks, though it does sound like he made adjustments per reader feedback. I’m not sure how long each chapter was, though, and since I haven’t read it, I’m not sure what specific part of the book may have drawn in the large audience that it did. (The Business Insider suggests that the author’s enthusiasm for science attracted a lot of other readers who were also interested in science, which helped propel its popularity forward. The eventually release of a Kindle edition continued to boost its popularity until it was picked up by a traditional publisher).
I haven’t tested out these methods myself, but I wondered if Isaac and I could mix a couple of these ideas together.
In this case, we’re thinking of releasing six episodes (chapters) to start with, which should give readers time to get familiar with the characters and the world, but also leaves off at a major turning point for the story. Then, a week later, we’ll start releasing one episode a week until the story is complete.
We already know that we’ll have at least 28 episodes, and since we originally planned on a six month schedule of weekly releases, offering the first six episodes to start with would help keep this plan on track. Not only that, but it would give readers more reassurance that this will be completed, since they can begin to see how the story will progress. As a bonus, leaving off the first week after the sixth episode would give readers a bit more idea of the conflict that our Battle Decks: Trials of Blood and Steel game (which influenced the story) is about.
So now I just need to see if I can get all six episodes edited before the release date. If so, then we may give this method a shot.
If that doesn’t work well, we can always switch it up later.
The main thing is that we’re trying to go for consistency, that way potential readers know what to expect.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this post. 🙂
Have you found any serialized novels or blog serials that worked well in terms of how they released each segment?
Related Posts:
Thoughts on Writing – What Does A Serial Episode Need? (The Multiverse Chronicles)
Thoughts on Publishing – A Novel or Three Novellas? (The Wishing Blade series)
Filed under Writing
Today is the day! Magic’s Stealing is now available for the public to purchase and read! *Squees and does happy dance.*
(Also available on iTunes, but I’m not sure how to link that)
Now that the book is out, I’ve got to figure out how best to market it… without, you know, spamming everyone.
There’s a fine line when deciding how often to tweet an announcement that you’re super excited about… (I’m going with the plan that if I’m self-advertising, I need to have retweeted several useful articles or interesting tidbits between ads. That, and I’ll only do one or two announcement tweets with the cover and buy link for Magic’s Stealing. After that, I’ll try to either post little quote pictures maybe once a week (if I remember, and can restrain myself to that), or once a week continue my occasional “pitch line” tweet with a buy link, kind of like I’ve done for my short stories.
Here’s an example of a quote picture (not sure if there’s a technical name for these or not… if there are, please enlighten me).
I personally think they’re kind of cool, but we’ll see if everyone else thinks they’re interesting or annoying. Either way, they’re fun to make. I’m thinking of doing one for Shevanlagiy, too…
What are your thoughts? Have you found any quote pictures to be particularly interesting?
Other than that, I shall try to refrain from active “advertising” other than what other people share, what I reference in blog posts, and a possible giveaway I’ve considered. That way I can focus more on actually writing stories (which hasn’t been happening over the past few days).
In the meantime, I’m debating whether a Facebook author page would be of interest to readers… but I’ve heard that they’ve been a pain lately, in regards to getting the people who follow you to actually see your content (maybe a “group” would be better?). But I’m not even sure what I’d put on one. More pretty quote pictures? Not sure that would be terribly interesting after a while.
What are your thoughts? Have you had any experiences in successfully marketing your book without waving the cover around like a giant, virtual banner?
Now… back to the happy dance. 🙂
Filed under Writing
I am thrilled to announced that Magic’s Stealing is now available for pre-order!
Now, for the moment you’ve been waiting for…
The cover reveal!
For centuries, ribbons of magic have provided the kingdom of Cirena with light, healing, and protection. Then, in a span of minutes, those ribbons fly from their masters, stolen, save for the magic of a few chosen mages. One of these mages is Toranih, a young noblewoman who would rather have a sword in her hand than use her powers to heal or throw fireballs. As a result, her magic skills are lacking. But with former mages dying from magic withdrawal, and the looming threat of an army of shadows who are impervious to mortal weapons, she must either embrace the responsibilities of a mage or watch her home perish.
This is a 34,000-word novella. Book one of The Wishing Blade series.
Preview the first four (almost five!) chapters at Smashwords. 😀
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In the meantime, you may have noticed that my author photo has changed across several of the sites I frequent. It’s time to reveal the author photo I chose!
The choice was between 1 and 4 (Read the post about author photos here):
Author Photo #1
Author Photo #4
It was a tough choice, but I ultimately chose #4, since that picture seemed to convey a quirky, adventurous feeling. You can see the three versions I’ve made for different social media uses. However, I plan to keep the first one around, since it has a nice, professional look to it. 🙂
I hope you’ve enjoyed this post. If you like fantasy stories, please pick up a copy of Magic’s Stealing and share the news of its release (September 17, 2015) with your friends. 😀
Filed under Book Covers, Business Ventures, Writing
Where does the time go? My day job started up again a couple days ago, and I’m currently readjusting my schedule to be able to be productive and not spend all my time daydreaming about what happened in the role-play campaign that my husband and I just finished this week. (A main character got a bittersweet ending… not the ending he was hoping for (he’s a fourthwaller), but an ending that left him reasonably happy and with his mind intact).
Anyway, while I’m readjusting my after-work patterns, I thought I’d do a quick status report on the projects of Infinitas Publishing
When Isaac and I started up our business this summer, we created a rough schedule of when we would like to release our books and games. It’s something we created for our own personal use, which gives us an extra push to actually publish things, rather than getting into an endless loop of editing. It’s also a good measure for us to use in terms of how much time we have until we complete a project, even if we don’t release the prospective dates to the public. This should give us a little more wiggle room for when our planning inevitably goes astray.
For Magic’s Stealing, I’m about a month behind on my goal (Shh… don’t tell anyone), but I’m in the final phase. I’ve already got it formatted as ebook, except for the table of contents (easy to do, but needs to be different between Kindle and Smashwords editions), and I’m working on the final proofread for typos on printed paper. Once that’s done, I’ll put it up for pre-order and reveal the cover. Look for that coming soon… which I also need to update on the main website. A few months after that I am hoping to make the paperback edition available.
For Battle Decks: Trials of Blood and Steel, we’re on par. We’ve already ordered the initial proof copy (which I posted about a while back), got feedback, and made edits. I’ve updated the box title to Trials of Blood and Steel instead of Multiverse: 1953, based on further feedback, along with updated the rules (still needs to be proofread) and fixed the cards for consistency (cards now say +2 ATK instead of +2 attack, etc). Once we have the rules proofed, we plan to order a second copy of the game to make sure all of our edits are input correctly. We also need to recreate the trial edition of the game with rules specific to the trial (that way we don’t confuse players with irrelevant rules, such as how to choose heroes for each faction). Based on our current schedule, we should be able to release Battle Decks as planned.
For The Multiverse Chronicles: Trials of Blood and Steel, we should still be on par, but we’ll see as we get closer to our planned release date. Isaac is currently working on the rough draft of episode 19 of the 24 expected episodes, though some of those we’ve planned to split, so we may be a bit further ahead (and there may be more than 24 episodes). I’ve gotten ten of those episodes edited and semi-polished, ready for us to do the full read-through and see how everything meshes together. I’ve got partial edits done on episode 11. However, once those are complete we will need to send out the episodes to beta readers to look for errors, and then polish the first few episodes to release online. We also need to prepare the blog site where we’ll be publishing the story. The first four episodes need to be ready to go before we release Battle Decks.
Beyond those projects, which are up for release by the end of this year, I also have plans for The Shadow War, (book two in The Wishing Blade series).The first draft is partially written (but requires changes), and I’ve been plotting the rest of the story and making sure it will flow easily into book three. The upside of my day job is that I have plenty of time to plot while I do greenscreen work on photos.
Once I have a definite date for these projects, I’ll make them public.
In the meantime, please enjoy the first chapter of my upcoming YA fantasy novella, Magic’s Stealing. 🙂
Magic’s Stealing
Darkness flooded Toranih Covonilayno’s sleeping chamber as she mentally extinguished her magic crystal’s light. She tossed the crystal onto her dresser and hurried to her bed. The silk covers rustled as she slipped underneath, where she felt for the leather hilt of the knife under her pillow.
The last few nights had brought strange creaking noises from the attic, soft footsteps and the brushing of rough wool on the edges of the wooden floorboard above. She listened now, waiting to see if the footsteps returned.
They did not.
Instead, wind whistled through a tiny crack in her bedroom windowsill. She peeked over the covers. A shadow passed by the heavy curtains and she clasped the smooth fabric between her fingers.
Ridiculous.
She kicked off the covers, knife in hand, and hopped out of bed. She waited, just in case the shadow returned. Then she walked to her dresser, picked up the crystal, and carefully raised the light again.
The dresser was pristine, with only an oil lamp sitting in the dustless corner. A small oak chest at the foot of her bed remained locked with steel. Heavy brocade curtains obscured the window.
No sign of intruders.
So why couldn’t she shake the feeling that someone had been watching her?
She dimmed the crystal’s light until the room was cast in an eerie twilight, but the only magic present was her own. The crystal’s faint light revealed thin, lime green ribbons of magic floating around her, while glowing turquoise ribbons darted in and out of the crystal.
Her older sister, Siklana, had created the artifact for Toranih when she was little. Few could see magic without a crystal. Whenever a mage used their ribbons to do… well… anything, she couldn’t see the cause.
And what she couldn’t see, she couldn’t fight.
Toranih sighed. She was seventeen now, and she wasn’t afraid of magic. She just didn’t like it. There was a difference.
Something tapped the glass. Toranih shrieked, fumbling with the crystal. She clutched it to her chest and spun toward the window. A cluster of ribbons danced around a small form on the other side.
Well, are you coming? Daernan’s telepathic voice flitted through her mind, amused.
Of all the times for him to show up unannounced—
She dropped the crystal on her dresser, sheathed the knife, then flung open the curtains. “Don’t scare me like that!”
A small, brown, ostensibly cute owl peered at her with bright yellow eyes and giant black pupils. Daernan, judging by the white ring of feathers crowning his left eye.
The owl shrugged and puffed out his plumage like a feather duster. Not my fault you’re so jumpy.
Toranih crossed her arms. Though dim in the moonlight, the crystal’s twilight revealed various blue and yellow and pink ribbons swirling thick through Daernan’s owlish body.
Coming? The pink ribbons carried Daernan’s thoughts to Toranih’s mind, and she fought the urge to swipe them away.
Toranih knelt beside the window so that she was eye-level with the owl. He tilted his head and blinked. She snorted. “I’ve been expressly forbidden from attending the festival,” she said in the most high-and-mighty voice she could muster. “So, no. I’m not coming.”
Not that she minded missing the event. Too much magic and too many people teasing her about when she and Daernan would make their courtship a formal engagement.
She turned from the window, lit her oil lamp, and then mentally killed the crystal’s light.
The ribbons vanished.
Let me guess. Your father wasn’t happy that you challenged Lady Ikara to a duel, then respectfully threatened that she ought to let her fiancé fight for her, lest you knock her off her high horse onto her—he mentally coughed for effect—her lazy ass?
Toranih shrugged. “She insulted you. Good excuse not to go.”
The owl sighed, best an owl could, before tapping the window with his beak. Can I at least come in?
She obliged him with a flip of the latch. Then she plopped onto her bed. The owl swooped inside, changing as he went. By the time he landed, the owl had morphed into a young man with shoulder-length brown hair. A patch of white hair ran through his bangs above his left eye.
Daernan stood from his crouch and shook himself like a dog that had just run through a pond. He looked as he usually did, no more dressed for the festival than any other day. Only a simple cotton tunic and loose fitting breeches, along with a leather belt that Toranih had helped to etch and dye. That belt had been an experiment, to say the least. Daernan proved much better at drawing the various creatures than she had. An owl, a shaggy dog, a horse… his favorite changes.
He tossed her a green velvet satchel. “I know you don’t like this holiday, but that’s for you.”
She scowled, dangling the satchel by its cords. “Really?”
If Daernan had brought her spicy cocoa flowers, like last year, she would swear to Shol that she’d make him pay the next time he tried to duel with her.
Daernan shrugged and leaned against the dresser, perilously close to her oil lamp. “Don’t worry, it’s not flowers or ribbons, or anything silly that you wouldn’t like.”
“I didn’t get you anything,” she said. Well, technically she had, but she’d planned to give him the owl-shaped ginger cookies she’d bought for him tomorrow, when the gift wasn’t linked to Aifa’s Night.
“In that case, you could make it up to me by coming to the parade.” He smiled hopefully.
Toranih raised an eyebrow. She dug into the satchel and paused when her fingers touched cool metal ridges. She withdrew a brooch made of sterling silver. The metal had been crafted into a raven that held a wreath of flowers in its talons. Small and not particularly gaudy, the piece would look nice pinned on the pouch she normally wore on long horseback rides.
Daernan rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously. “I might have lied about the flowers. I hope you don’t mind.”
“It’s…” She let out a breath and smiled. “I like it. Thanks.”
He grinned. “I commissioned the crafter whose goods you keep eyeing.”
“I do not!” Toranih had done her best not to let anyone catch her eyeing the metalsmith’s jewelry… just his weapons. They might think she’d gone soft.
“Sure you don’t.” Daernan chuckled, then glanced around the room. “Redecorated?”
“The room was cluttered. I cleaned it.”
“You? Clean something?” Daernan raised an eyebrow. “Who are you and what have you done with Toranih?”
She scowled. “There were too many things someone could hide behind.”
His smile faltered. “You still think someone’s watching you?”
“I heard noises last night. I checked the attic, but nothing was up there. I even used the crystal to look for magic.” She kicked her feet against the bed and sighed. “I know I don’t have enemies, but someone’s been in here.”
“Lady Ikara, maybe? She isn’t exactly friendly towards you.”
“Oh, please. She could run my ear off but I don’t think she could tell the difference between a dagger and a dirk.”
“She doesn’t have to know the difference to stab you,” Daernan pointed out.
Toranih punched his shoulder.
“Ow! I’m just saying!”
She snorted. He wasn’t helping. Lady Ikara wasn’t the kind to go snooping around the manor, and Toranih’s father, Lord Covonilayno, had relatively few enemies. Though he was officially a viscount who oversaw the day-to-day proceedings of Viyna, he was also tasked with guarding the kingdom’s armory, so most nobles chose to stay on his good side.
Daernan sighed. “The parade is starting soon. If you really don’t want to be seen, we can go as owls. There’ll be dancing…”
“Which we can’t enjoy since we’ll be owls.”
“Free food…”
“As owls? Do you want mice? Besides, you get free food anyway. Everyone likes you.”
“They like you, too,” Daernan protested.
“They bow and curtsy to me.”
“Unless you challenge them to a duel.”
“There is that.” Toranih grinned and eyed the raven brooch. Lady Ikara could sniff the air all she liked, but she wouldn’t keep calling Daernan a street mutt. Besides, he did have claim to noble lineage, even if his father wasn’t around to prove it. His mother permitted the commoners to tend to their estate in return for access to a small cottage inside the city. No one paid attention to the fact that she had married into nobility.
Seemed that was how she liked her life.
“And we’ll get to watch all the mag—entertainment.” Daernan closed his mouth quickly.
Toranih rolled her eyes. “Magical entertainment, right. Know what? You go. Report to me in the morning about all the beautiful light showers and flashy streamers, and don’t forget to tell me how the gracious Aifa blessed the newlyweds. If you get back here before sunrise, you might even beat Siklana to the story.”
Her sister always did like magic. She cast enough for the two of them.
Daernan groaned and tugged Toranih’s arm. “Come on—it’s no fun if I go by myself. And everyone’s expecting us, even if we are owls. You should come.” He beamed, giving her his kingdom-class puppy-dog eyes.
She swallowed uncomfortably. “This is a bad idea.”
“Please? It’ll be fun. I promise.”
Toranih sighed. Sometimes she wondered if he had ribbons of the persuasive nature, though she’d never caught him. Wasn’t likely, anyway. That kind of magic was rare.
She rose from her bed and set the raven brooch beside her prized lamp. Then she raised her crystal’s light until it was just right for seeing magic. After she extinguished the oil lamp, she focused on her royal blue ribbons and stretched her arms, her palms open to the ceiling. Tickles rolled through her fingers, then her hands, then her body. Blue ribbons swirled around her, merging into a thick smoke that rushed to her toes. She shrunk. Her bones mended into the form of an owl. Her magic glowed bright, twisting and fading with a heartbeat of its own.
Ready? Daernan asked, already perched on the windowsill.
Toranih killed the crystal’s light and hopped toward the window with her leathery feet.
She preferred raven form— though it wasn’t much better—but at least now she could see.
Daernan hooted. Let’s hurry—the show should be starting! He dropped off the windowsill, his wings outstretched, and caught the air with a quick swoop.
Toranih cringed. What would happen if she hadn’t made the change properly? What if she didn’t actually fly?
The ground teetered beneath her, perilously far from the ledge. She spread her wings, prayed to Shol she wouldn’t crash, and dropped into the night.
*
A cloaked figure knelt beside a sprawling sycamore near the young woman’s sleeping chamber, her eyes trained on the two owls.
Finally, they were gone. She climbed the tree, bark catching on the tips of her leather boots, then slipped inside the open window. The room was dark, save for moonlight, but it was just enough for her to see that the young woman had rearranged the furniture since the night before.
No night table or pile of books, and her usual set of sparring knives didn’t hang from the wall. Probably locked in the chest at the foot of her bed, or buried under the mattress.
She didn’t bother to check, though, instead stopping beside the dresser and stroking her fingers across the light crystal. It responded eagerly, and turquoise ribbons flared to life.
She quickly extinguished the crystal and peered into the distance, waiting to see if her own sight revealed the magical ribbons that would signal the two’s return to investigate.
The night remained empty.
The only magic she saw was her own. The rest of the family was at the parade.
But there was something new in the room. Ashen moonlight shone through the oil lamp at the edge of the dresser. Skewed light reflected onto a metal brooch—a brooch with a raven and a wreath of flowers.
The intruder held her breath, reaching her fingers toward the jewel piece, then quickly withdrew. She couldn’t leave any trace that she’d come. That meant leaving objects where they’d been found.
She left the sleeping chamber for the hallway. Bronze wall sconces flickered with pale, turquoise light across elaborate tapestries. The crystals cast shadows along the crimson throw rugs, each one embroidered with curling gold patterns.
She paused, recalling the two owls flying into the night.
Always strange to see the young woman, but stranger still to see Daernan alive.
She wrapped her cloak tight around her shoulders, then traveled the familiar stairs downward, downward, and deeper—under the manor and into the kingdom’s dwindling armory.
Stay tuned for cover reveal and release date! 😀
Filed under Business Ventures, Personal Work, Writing
Last time I blogged, I talked about figuring out what happens next in a scene. That process helped me out considerably with the scene I was working on, along with a few scenes before that. However, I’ve been running into a new problem–figuring out how to get the ending to fit together.
The story I’m currently working on is supposed to be a romance with science fiction elements. One of the scenes I visualized for the ending was… well… not romantic. The characters stay together, but there’s this looming shadow of oppression hanging over them both.
Not exactly a happy ending.
I tried day-dreaming alternative ways the scene could play out. I originally had Special Forces tapping Cole’s phone, and so they overhear when Amy says that Mr. Rivera is a member of Challenge, a supposed terrorist organization. But then my husband pointed out that, as Cole’s supervisor, Mr. Rivera would be the one to hear the message first.
No Special Forces agents descending on the group, leading to a major fight scene that doesn’t end well for anybody. Not unless Tamara called the police earlier, but that didn’t make sense with her motives.
So I started plotting what might be said if Tamara and Cole sat down confront Mr. Rivera directly. One of the things I pictured Mr. Rivera saying was that not all members of Challenge were the bad guys. Then I realized that I already had the elements in place to include an actual bad guy who was working for Challenge.
All in the form of a separate subplot that I’d largely forgotten.
This is a scene from earlier in the story, one which made me realize I had an undeveloped subplot waiting to be used.
“What took you so long?” Amy looked up from her phone and raised an eyebrow. She was probably playing an EYEnet game, or something like that. “Get lost in the cafeteria? Or did you meet somebody cute downstairs?” She eyed my empty laundry basket suspiciously.
“Unless you count the police officer, not really.” I dropped onto the bed and yawned.
Admittedly, the guy had been cute. Light brown hair, closely cropped to his head. Square jaw, and a smattering of super-light freckles across his cheeks. Didn’t look badly built, either. But I’d been too worried about the ‘painting’ to dwell on his looks.
“Police officer?” She frowned and lowered her phone to her lap. “What happened?”
“Someone drew a picture on the wall.” I sighed, already removing my phone from my pocket to show her.
“A policeman came for a picture?”
“Not just any picture.” I passed her the phone. Her green eyes widened as she stared at the picture I’d taken. “You okay?”
I wrestled the phone back from her fingers. Her knuckles had gone white from how tight she was gripping that thing.
“Yeah,” she whispered. “Wish I’d thought of that.”
I blinked. “What?”
She laughed dismissively. “Using laundry detergent to paint a picture. It’s imaginative. Even if it is… well… you know.” Her voice dropped off, and her lips twisted into a frown. She was still eyeing my phone.
“Should I delete the picture?” I asked.
“What?”
“You know… so it doesn’t look like I’m supporting them?”
She scoffed. “You? Supporting them? Please. You’re like… the community ideal. Or you will be, if the whole EYEnet Match thing works out. You already reported this to the police, didn’t you? That’s how they found it?”
I nodded.
“Then you’re fine. Long as you weren’t the one who painted it.” She swiveled around to her computer.
“I’m fine? Someone around here is painting terrorist symbols on campus. In our dorm.”
Amy shrugged. Her blond ponytail bobbed inconspicuously. “I’m not worried. It’s probably just a student wanting to cause a ruckus. And even if it is someone from Challenge, I still wouldn’t worry too much. Didn’t you read those articles I gave you? Most those people probably aren’t going to do an outright attack. They need allies, not enemies, and attacking innocent people isn’t going to win them brownie points.”
Originally, I had planned for Amy to be the one doing the painting, since she has ties to Challenge. But as I wrote this scene, I got the distinct impression that Amy wasn’t the culprit. While I want readers to wonder if she is the culprit, this scene is also foreshadowing. If I weave in other incidents similar to this one, I can hint that there’s someone else on campus who is leaving behind these symbols.
Someone being reckless.
When I get to the scene where Tamara and Cole must choose between reporting to the police that Mr. Rivera is part of Challenge, or working with him, it helps if they have someone to rally against. In this case, a rogue member of Challenge who might actually be a threat.
The stakes are high for both sides. If this rogue is discovered, they draw attention to the ‘good’ Challenge members–Mr. Rivera and Amy. In addition, if this rogue makes an attack, innocent people are at risk. Since Tamara is interested in finding out the truth behind Challenge, she’s likely to get involved. Cole may get involved to protect Tamara and learn more about his supervisor’s (Mr. Rivera’s) secrets, while Amy would get involved because she wants to dispel the notion that all members of Challenge are terrorists.
Thus, by following a subplot that got planted earlier in the story, I may have a way to bring both sides together, raise the stakes, and still have the potential for a happy-ever-after.
But that’s still to be determined.
Now that I know someone other than Amy is leaving the symbol in public places, I’ve got to decide who they are, what they want, and how far they’ll go to get that.
Lesson learned? Subplots can be a helpful tool to move your story along and flesh out the world.
I hope you enjoyed this post. 🙂
Have you ever found a piece of foreshadowing or minor subplot to be useful later when writing a story?
Filed under Writing
As you may have read in my last blog post, I’ve been working on a new adult, science fiction romance set in the Distant Horizon universe. Which has been… interesting, to say the least. Romances in that particular universe have a habit of not ending well.
However, since I challenged myself to write a romance, and not a science fiction story with romantic elements, that means I’ve got to figure out how to give my hero and heroine a happily ever after with each other. Or at least a happy-for now ending.
*Head-desk.*
Right now I’m working on the climax. I’m in a lovely spot where I’ve figured out what triggers the ending… but not where to go from there.
Let’s take a look, shall we?
Quick back story: Tamara is the main character. She doesn’t have powers and she craves stability (and a stable relationship), but secrets bug her to no end. Meanwhile, Cole (the hero), is a telepath working under Mr. Rivera, who has ordered Cole to date Tamara so that he can get close to her best friend, Amy (who has successfully concealed her powers), to see if Amy has ties to a so-called “terrorist” group, Challenge. There’s plenty of secrets surrounding them, which Tamara is trying to unravel.
Got all that?
So here’s the precursor to the scene I’m on.
Tamara figures out that Cole has telepathy, thanks to her long-running interest in super powers. She calls him out on it, and though he physically can’t tell her everything, he gives her enough information that she finally realizes that he has some kind of telepathic block holding him back. While he’s trying to work around that block, Amy bursts into the room. (She’s Tamara’s roommate and doesn’t expect to find them nuzzling). Cole instantly notices that his powers have been shielded. Since Amy was already scanned a while back… and she didn’t show as having powers, Cole attributes this as proof that she has a rare set of powers and that she may be working for Challenge. He runs off to report to Mr. Rivera because he’s worried for Tamara’s safety if Amy is involved with Challenge.
Shortly after their talk, Mr. Rivera reports to his superiors (his actual superiors, he’s a double-agent for Challenge) so that he can try to recruit Amy. But Cole doesn’t know this, so he’s moping around thinking that he’s just sent away the best friend of the woman he likes.
Meanwhile, Tamara goes to Mr. Rivera’s office in hopes of getting information from him about Cole’s strange behaviors. Instead, she finds an empty office with a folder of incriminating evidence on Mr. Rivera’s desk that suggests the counselor is a member of Challenge… along with a note that has Amy’s name on it. Worried that he’s going after Amy, she tries to contact her best friend. After no response, Tamara then contacts Cole to confront him and see if he had any idea that Mr. Rivera was a double-agent. Cole is perplexed, since Mr. Rivera has been his supervisor for the last several years. But he begins to question himself when Tamara shows him her evidence.
This is where I run into problems.
Tamara has just enough information to be suspicious of the government’s motives, but she has no absolute proof. Cole, on the other hand, has long believed that his powers were a result of the plague he survived, and Amy has been rather vocal in her distrust of the government’s recent actions. So when Cole explains that Amy might have blocked his powers, Tamara is not entirely surprised. But she has evidence that, prior to the plague, Challenge was typically a criminal group (and they had super powers), so she’ not ready to trust them immediately, despite evidence suggesting that Challenge might no longer be criminal. If the government has been corrupted, Challenge is not be the bad guy everyone thinks they are. However, if the government hasn’t been corrupted, then Challenge is most definitely the bad guys.
Back to Tamara and Cole.
They could sit around and hope for the best, (but that would be boring and they have enough evidence to be worried for their friend’s safety), they can call the police, or they can investigate on their own.
In order to figure out what should happen next, I needed to look at the whole picture, even that which isn’t going to be shown to the readers.
Let’s figure out what’s going on with Amy and Mr. Rivera, even though we may not see this particular exchange in the story.
First of all, I needed to know what Amy could do to get out of a tough situation. If you recall, she’s a shielder, which means she can block powers. More importantly, shielding is a combination of three powers: life-spirit, radiation, and power steal. That’s a pretty nice combo to have, especially if she has any training. Given that she’s been meeting with her cousin, a member of Challenge who would want her to protect herself, it’s certainly not impossible. In addition, her power blocking skill is coveted by pretty much every group involved.
People want her alive.
Mr. Rivera, on the other hand, does not have powers, but he does know of a ‘key’ that has been telepathically embedded in Cole’s brain that would allow Mr. Rivera to issue commands to Cole… which Cole would have to follow. The particular process could be experimental, though, and may not always work properly (especially if anyone else knows they key).
The question, then, is the order of events after which Mr. Rivera learns that Amy has powers and might be sympathetic to his cause. He might inform someone in his group that he’s going to approach a potential recruit in case he needs backup. Or he might approach her directly. If Amy has a night class, he might wait until she’s done with class and try to talk to her afterwards, if he’s not afraid of scaring her off. (Granted, I’m not sure about taking this route, since a similar scene happens in Distant Horizon).
Or Mr. Rivera might contact Amy shortly after he learns what she can do, and not bother talking with other members of Challenge. He tries to approach her directly, and thus meets with her in a semi-public place to ease her concerns.
As for Amy, she would be skeptical. She knows that the government is trying to weed out people with powers. But she’s also been trying to get involved with Challenge, so she might take risks that she wouldn’t otherwise take.
Let’s say that Amy skips her night class and goes to meet Mr. Rivera at the coffee shop in the student union. She’s in public, so she’s not meeting a stranger in a high-risk situation. But she’ll have to be careful about demonstrating any of her powers. If innocent people notice and she causes a scare, the security involved may just wipe out the whole area and claim the campus was devastated by the plague.
Wouldn’t be the first time it’s happened.
Now that we know where Amy and Mr. Rivera are (not in a secret facility, like I initially day-dreamed, though that may happen later, depending on the outcome of this scene), let’s jump back to Tamara and Cole.
If Tamara and Cole call security because they’re worried for Amy’s safety, they’ll be questioned and a search will go out for Amy and Mr. Rivera. If Cole mentions Amy’s powers, Special Forces will get involved and everyone’s chances of surviving gets really slim.
This makes for a difficult happily-ever-after, though it has nice stakes if I can figure out how to get them out of trouble. Amy can fend for herself, while Tamara and Cole could potentially help them escape (not quite sure how yet), unless they go the ‘bad guy’ route and go pro-government, entirely believing Challenge is the bad guys. (This could happen if Amy and Mr. Rivera aren’t careful of what they say).
But if Mr. Rivera has a chance to explain himself first, he may be able to prove that the government has been killing off people with powers, and doing a few other nasty experiments on them, too. Cole, with his telepathy and persuasion powers, would be a perfect test subject for their major experiments, and Cole can’t be certain they would let him go after Mr. Rivera gets captured, even if he complies with their orders (and does he even want to? His life hasn’t exactly been his for the past few years).
If Cole agrees to help Mr. Rivera, they could get Amy to safety, and then Cole has to find some way to stay in the country without drawing attention to himself. Or he could flee altogether.
In the meantime, we have Tamara. She would want to protect Amy and get answers, and she would get a lot more transparency if she leaves with Mr. Rivera. But then she wouldn’t be able to see what’s going on from the inside the way that Amy has. By playing the part of the ‘good citizen,’ Tamara might be able to help other people with powers escape.
But then she wouldn’t have the stability she longs for.
Here we have a sacrifice on either end of the spectrum. Does Tamara flee the country, in which she gets the stability she longs for and a more definite idea of what’s going on? Or does she stay behind to pass along inside information to Challenge and help others escape? How does Cole figure into this equation?
This story is supposed to be a romance, after all, with the two of them discovering that they want to be together.
Maybe Tamara remembers that Amy has a night class, and decides it would be best not to jump to conclusions. Cole asks if she’s had dinner yet, and she hasn’t, so they decide to head to the cafeteria while they wait. But once they get there, they see Mr. Rivera sitting at a secluded table chatting with Amy.
But this feels like it has lower stakes, unless they make a pre-emptive call, only to discover the Amy and Mr. Rivera in the cafeteria, and security quickly descending on them…
I haven’t quite decided how this scene plays out, but I’m another step closer. By looking at the whole equation, the potential actions of each character makes a lot more sense, and gives me more room to play while narrowing the options to a logical path.
So… will they call security? Or will they set out to find Amy themselves?
To be determined.
I hope you found this post helpful. 🙂
What do you do when you get stuck with a scene?
Further Reading:
http://blog.janicehardy.com/2015/08/dont-know-how-to-end-your-scene-heres.html
Filed under Writing
In general, I write novels. Then I trim said novels because their early drafts are excessively long. However, I’ve recently become fascinated with the concept of serial novelization. You release the novel in several parts, with the idea that readers know they aren’t getting a complete work at one time and that the next installment will come in a timely manner. I toyed with the idea of doing this for my current manuscript, The Wishing Blade, with each installment between 10,000 to 15,000 words. But as I started the rewriting stage, I realized that each section didn’t feel complete. The sections left on a cliffhanger, and weren’t really satisfying.
The other serialized option I’d studied was to write a complete short story (or novella), and make sure it had a full beginning, middle, and end, even if it was part of a larger work. At the moment, I’m thinking that might actually work well for The Wishing Blade. Each installment would be around 30,000 words, maybe more, with an expected three installments. I could release the story sooner, while still producing a reasonable quality work. Each story would be complete in itself, so there would hopefully be fewer unhappy readers who aren’t satisfied with the ending. With each installment, the reader should feel the series has made progress. Think about the show Avatar: The Last Airbender. (I think Legend of Korra and Fullmetal Alchemist where this way in their first seasons, too, but it’s been long enough since I’ve watched them that I don’t remember). For the most part, each episode (or set of episodes) felt complete, even though there was a larger story arc in progress. Granted… I’m still in the second season of Avatar, so that might change.
So here’s how it would work.
1. I separate The Wishing Blade into three novellas. They’re tentatively called Magic’s Stealing, The Shadow War, and The Immortal Realm. (What do you think of the names? Good? Bad? Neutral?)
2. I then figure out the story arc for each individual novella. This is crucial, because while reading them in order would be preferable, I also want readers to be able to pick up book three, enjoy it, then go back to book one. I personally have a habit of grabbing whichever book interests me… even if it’s in the middle of the series.
So the novellas would look something like this:
3. Edit book one and make shiny. Send to beta readers for feedback. Work on a different story in the meantime (either finish the rough draft for The Wishing Blade: The Shadow War, or work on long-overdue edits to book two in my husband’s and my Distant Horizon universe). Once beta readers return comments, I’ll review said comments, make edits as necessary, then set book one aside for a while. Work on The Shadow War in the meantime.
4. Polish book one. Do what editing I can, maybe get an additional beta reader to proofread for errors.
5. Begin publishing process. Upload to Kindle and Smashwords, and consider other markets (I’m currently considering Drive Thru Fiction and Draft2Digital, but I haven’t had experience with either). For now, The Wishing Blade will be in ebook format only. I hope that once I have all three books out, I’ll be able to earn enough from them to purchase a block of ISBNs. Then I’ll need to decide if I want to make a collected print edition with all three books, or make a separate edition for each story. (If you’re looking for a length comparison, I’ve been looking at the old Animorphs series. Wrong genre and age group, but the word count is about right.)
6. Continue process with book two. I’m hoping to release each book around two months apart, though I may change my mind on that once I get further into this process.
Granted, there’s a lot more going on in the background (my husband and I setting up a partnership to publish this, and we’re picking up the DBA, EIN, and trying to figure out tax forms, etc…) but this is what I’ve got going on in the front end. Hopefully you found this post to be interesting, and I’d love to hear what your thoughts are regarding this process. 🙂
Filed under Business Ventures, Personal Work, Writing
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of beta-reading a novella by Sarah Dalton, a member of the Absolute Write forums. (For those who don’t know, Absolute Write is a great place to find information and improve your writing craft, whether you write science fiction, literary, romance, or pretty much any genre you can think of). We got to talking about her self-publishing process, and much of the information sounded like it’d be really useful for others to know as well. So, I asked if she’d be willing to do an interview with me regarding her latest novella, The Fractured: Maggie (released yesterday!) and the approach she’s taken in regards to her book series. The Blemished. Lucky for us, she agreed. Without further ado, an interview with Sarah Dalton!
***
This is her most recent novella, the second of The Fractured series. Not my cover, but I wanted to share it, none-the-less. 🙂
Tell us a little about yourself. 🙂
Well, I’m from the UK and live in Yorkshire. I grew up as a country bumpkin with lots of horses and chickens. The Blemished was my debut novel, but I have been published in short form prior to that, with stories in Apex, PANK and the British Fantasy Society anthology. I’m most definitely a chocaholic and for the most part believe animals are better than humans. 🙂
What kind of books do you enjoy reading? Have any of them been particularly helpful in your recent series?
I’ve always read a diverse range of genres, from literary to science fiction to horror. I had a huge thing for Victorian Gothic classics such as Dracula and The Picture of Dorian Gray. Then, I started reading a lot of dystopian books such as Margaret Atwood’s MadAddam trilogy and JG Ballard’s novels. I think Atwood is a particular inspiration; I love her feminist themes and genetic mutations. Her books are incredibly clever and insightful.
Then I discovered the Hunger Games and it opened up a while other genre for me – young adult. In Britain we didn’t have a YA section before the Hunger Games, there were children’s books and adult’s books with nothing in between. I loved the drama of being a teenager coupled with the post-apocalyptic setting.
When I was a teenager I loved to read Point Horror and Goosebumps books and now that I write books for teenagers I’ve realised that I would love to be a similar kind of author.
What was your inspiration for the Blemished series?
I wanted to write a book for teenage girls with a heroine they can look up to, and with a love interest worthy of that heroine. It was really important to me for feminist themes to be brought to young adults. When I look around and see the models and beauty industry it makes me feel like I already live in a dystopia. It made me think about what else I could cram into a novel, what do girls need to know? And that was when I thought up the idea of control and choice. The Blemished is about choice being taken away and women not having control over their bodies. In the Blemished it is the women who are sterilised, not the men, because that has always been typical to the way the world works. Mina is the person who stands up and thinks to herself that this isn’t right, and she doesn’t want it to happen to her. She’s just not sure how to go about changing things.
But I also wanted to write something entertaining that has you reading it with a torch at night. So there’s lots of action and adventure. Throughout the series Mina and the gang get into lots of trouble, discover different ways of living and just how nasty human beings can be. On the flip side they discover how wonderful human beings can be, what it’s like to love and be loved, and how you can find a family in unexpected places. There’s something for everyone, and boys can enjoy it just as much as girls.
When did you first start writing the Blemished series?
I think it was just over two years ago. At first I tried to write a novel set on a different planet. It went a bit wrong so I decided to give myself an easier ride, keeping just one thing from the original idea – superpowers. But at first Mina had the extraordinary sense of smell, not the telekinesis. It made the book a bit boring so I changed it!
Tell us about your latest/upcoming novella, The Fractured: Maggie.
Maggie is about Mrs Murgatroyd from the first novel – The Blemished. She’s a very nasty woman who vilifies Mina and Mina’s choices. She’s not exactly a girl’s girl! J I wanted to write about her story in order to show her human side. I don’t believe in evil and good, and I think that even the most horrible of people have something inside that we can sympathise with. It was a long and hard road for Maggie, she didn’t become Mrs ‘Murder-Troll’ Murgatroyd overnight.
What made you decide to write the Fractured novellas?
There were a couple of characters whose stories I couldn’t quite finish, or forget. They appeared in the first book but didn’t make it to the second, and whilst I always planned to bring them back, I wasn’t sure how much ‘page time’ they’d get. In the reviews of The Blemished, Elena always seemed very popular, and I really liked her too. I figured she deserved a story, and some romance.
What’s your favorite part of writing this series? Any favorite characters?
Ali is hands down my favourite character. He’s the kind of guy I want to be best friends with. He’s just a chilled out rock star. In the third book we learn more about Ali. He has hidden depths.
My favourite part of the series is writing little civilisations, like the Perthans. I like thinking up ideas for societal structure – so in The Vanished there is the Glasgow cult who keep women as slaves, but then the Perthans where the women rule and the men take on historically ‘feminine’ roles; then there’s the Moorlanders and Dales folk coming up in The Unleashed. In The Blemished we have the Slum people who live in the Areas but outside the law.
Why did you decide to self-publish?
I decided to do it after getting a few rejections from agents. For me it was about timing, and going down the trade route could have taken too long. I knew that YA dystopia was popular now so thought I’d best get it out there while there are readers wanting to buy it.
How has self-publishing worked out for you?
It’s definitely a long game, because you don’t have a publisher behind you to help with marketing, you have to make a name for yourself and that takes time. The first few months were slow but the reviews were encouraging. You have to work out how much you want to spend on your marketing, and how much you need to spend on editing and cover art. There is only so much you can do yourself, and I’ve learned the importance of beta readers, and of people who support you and your book, such as bloggers and reviewers.
I’m really happy with what I’ve achieved so far, but as my goal is to support myself as a full-time writer, I’ve still got a long way to go.
Has it worked out well having beta readers help edit for you? Has there been much of a difference? How many do you typically ask? I know some people go the beta route, others go editing.
Betas are really important in my opinion. They’ve helped me to shape the relationship between Mina and Daniel, to make sure that characters are well-rounded, and helped a great deal with grammar and typos. I usually ask two or three beta readers to read my book and send me their comments.
In an ideal world I think a combination between beta reading and editing is best, but when you need to be frugal, betas are essential. Especially trusted writers. It can be hard to know what advice to take and what to dismiss, but you get used to trusting your instincts.
I’m using Betas as a necessity at the moment. I can’t really afford to pay for editors, as much as I’d like to. I think betas do a fantastic job but I must admit there’s always a part of me in a slight panic over spelling and grammar, especially grammar. But even professionally edited novels often have tiny mistakes in them so you have to learn to switch off that panic.
What is bookbub?
Bookbub is an email subscription service telling readers about kindle deals. They have thousands of sign-ups and you can pay them a fee to email their subscribers details about your discounted book. I was lucky enough to be picked by them and it really worked for me. http://www.bookbub.com/home/
At what point did you submit to Bookbub, and how long did it take to accept your book? Did it help with sells/reviews?
I went to Bookbub in February. I think they responded in a week. There might be some info on the site about how much notice to give them.
To be honest, I feel as though I owe all my sales since February to Bookbub. On the first day I sold 300 books which tripled the amount of sales I’d gotten in the first five months of publication. Since then, even after putting the price of my book back to 2.99, I’ve had really good sales.
I noticed you have a Wattpad account. Have you found it to be a useful tool? How have you used it?
Actually, no! I probably don’t spend enough time on there, but not many people read my stories. It seems more geared towards One Direction fan fiction! I know some people find it a great place to post their work, and I do like adding stories that were not good enough to sell. At least then someone gets to enjoy them.
Your book covers are beautiful (and so are the promotional materials you have posted on Facebook). Who did you have do your covers? They look really well done. 🙂
My cover designer is Najla Qamber, she’s the in-house designer for Inkspell Publisher and a really lovely person to boot http://www.najlaqamberdesigns.com/
I have a go at image manipulation from time to time and experiment with covers and promo bits and bobs but Naj is the real talent.
Have you found having the promotional banners to be helpful? What sort of promotional tools do you use?
I tend to use whatever is free and inexpensive – posting images to facebook, using social media, contacting bloggers, setting up blog tours… I don’t tend to spend a lot of money on adverts. I have tried Goodreads and Facebook adverts but they don’t affect sales.
I have some bookmark designs but until I find myself at a writer’s conference I don’t think I’ll bother getting any printed.
Do you primarily use the internet to promote your books, or have you done any book signings or other author events?
Just the internet for me! I’m a bit shy about book signings but would like to once I have a few more sales and maybe more books. I’d love to team up with another writer in my genre and maybe share a table at an event. Perhaps in the next year or so.
Does having your own specialized website help promote your books? Did you create it yourself or hire someone to make it for you?
My partner is a computer programmer so he did it for me! I’m very lucky to have him around.
Do you plan on continuing to self-publish, or do you hope to trade publish as well?
I’ve really enjoyed the experience but I must admit I would like a trade contract. I think my ambition is to be both trade and self published. If I can get at least one book to a bigger audience, then hopefully my sales would increase for the other books, and I’d get to keep 70% of the royalties from the self published books.
Or another ideal would be to have a print deal and retain my ebook rights. Some of the authors who have had amazing success at self-publishing – Hugh Howey, Bella Andre – have done this. It would be amazing to walk into a supermarket and see your book on the shelves.
I saw on goodreads you had a few short stories trade published (congrats on getting into Apex, by the way). Do you think being located in Britain versus the US has had any difference on your market/target audience?
I’m not sure about the Britain/US thing. I tend to read US based YA so I think my books are heavily influenced by the US trends. But at the same time I write in British spelling and set my books here, so that might actually work to my favour for a US audience. I think we’re pretty popular in America at the moment, what with Harry Potter, Doctor Who and One Direction. Most of my sales are in the US. I find my home country the hardest to sell to!
I saw on your Amazon page that FeedARead is listed as your publisher. Can you tell us a little more about them and how they work, and if they have been useful to you?
Feed a Read are a Print On Demand service for British writers and funded by the UK Arts Council. They pretty much offer the same service as Create Space but work as a smaller company. I’ve had no problems with them at all and am very happy with the royalties and the quality of the book.
I went with Create Space for my second book so I could compare. They are a lot quicker and the direct link to Amazon is really helpful, but the royalties aren’t quite as generous. When I first published The Blemished, Create Space didn’t have direct bank transfer payments for UK authors (another reason for choosing Feed a Read) but now they do, which is much easier.
For the third book I’m not sure which way I’m going to go. Amazon is my priority for sales, so I’m drawn to Create Space.
Any suggestions for authors considering going the self-publishing route?
I’d say have a go to anyone. As long as you research everything and get a really kick-ass cover (and have a good story) then there’s no reason why you can’t have some success. One key factor is releasing more than one book. That’s one of the reasons I decided to do novellas, so readers wouldn’t forget about me when waiting for the third book. It does put a little bit of pressure on the turnaround time, but I work part time so have been able to handle it so far.
Check out Kindleboards Writer’s Cafe if you want to know more. (http://www.kboards.com/index.php/board,60.0.html)
I understand the novella bit. It was something I’d wondered about doing. Actually, I’d wondered about splitting novels into self-contained “episodes” that were novella length and releasing them within a period of five months or so, but I wasn’t sure how well that would go.
The episodes thing worked really well for Hugh Howey and Wool. I think it’s a good idea when self publishing because regular releases bump sales. One thing I’ve noticed from the people who earn their living through self publishing is that they write fast and they release often.
On the topic of suggestions for self-publishing, was there anything you found particularly useful or not useful when you started promoting your books?
Kindleboards Writer’s Café and Absolute Write are really useful forums to learn more. I love reading other people’s experiences with selling their work.
Having a good cover is really important, and it needs to represent the genre you’ve written.
Goodreads – excellent for finding reviewers and building up a good relationship with people enthusiastic about your books.
I saw that you had advanced reader copies available for reviewers when you published the Vanished. Have you found ARCs to be useful in getting reviews? How early do reviewers like to have their copies to read?
I got some advice from a publicist before I published my first book (she was kind enough to stop by my blog and offer advice) who suggested I send ARCs out about a month before the release. I don’t always make that deadline.
Anything you’d like to add (either about the books or self-publishing) before the interview concludes?
Just that you’ll come across many cautious people who make you feel like you’re doing the wrong thing. Sometimes people are right and sometimes they are very wrong. It’s a learning curve. You have to learn who to listen to and who to ignore. When people begin to tell you their way is the right way alarm bells ring in my head.
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And that’s a wrap. To find out more about her books, take a look at the links below. I hope you the information proves useful, and perhaps you’ll even find an intriguing book to dig into. 🙂
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sarah-DaltonAuthor/152388908154545
https://twitter.com/sarahdalton
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4720363.Sarah_Dalton
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/sarahdalton
http://www.amazon.com/Sarah-Dalton/e/B004S7FQE6/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
Filed under Writing
Stephanie Flint - Author and Artist 