Tag Archives: self-publishing

June 8, 2015 · 8:00 pm

Thoughts on Writing – To Time Travel or not to Time Travel

In my current manuscript, The Wishing Blade, I’ve been streamlining the original story while striving to maintain the overall tone. I started the original draft in 2003, and I set it aside for several years before pulling it out again this year to revise it into a workable manuscript. While some plot points have been easy to keep or discard, there’s one point I’ve been going back and forth on… whether or not to keep the time travel incident in the novel or whether to remove it all together.

Now you get to have a first hand look at my thinking process regarding revisions… all while I try to work this out for myself.

First, let’s look at reasons to remove this incident:

1. Potential Confusion: I have a tendency to confuse people once I start talking about time and dimensional travel in my stories, and I’ve seen agents list ‘no time travel’ in what queries they accept. (However, the last point is negated since I intend to self-publish this particular story. And technically, while some agents might not want time travel, others might. So this bullet revolves entirely on whether or not the incident is confusing to readers and pulls them out of the story.)

2. Potential Loss of Tension: One of the main characters must ‘die’ if the time travel incident remains. The other character goes back in time with the aid of the gods, and they prevent the death of the other character. There are complications that arise once the character returns to the present, but those complications are minimal. Worse, by showing readers that there’s an object that does allow time travel in this particular universe, any future sequences threatening the main characters’ lives is moot, because readers may then wonder why the characters don’t just go back in time and fix it?

3. Unnecessary Plot Point: At this point, the time travel device only allows time travel once in the story. It does do other things, but I could pretty easily remove the time travel incident and chalk up its bizarre powers to other magic.

Possible solutions:

1. Streamline the sequence: Make sure what happens is clear to readers (or is as clear to the readers as it is to the main characters…).

2. Consequences: To avoid loss of tension, I could make sure there are consequences to going back in time. (In this case, I need to make sure those consequences are clear to both character and reader). Also, I could make the complications that arise from time travel a little more immediate. This was actually the case in the original draft, but was removed when I didn’t find a reasonable place to reinsert the point. (And this is a good example of where having fresh eyes to look at a manuscript can be useful, because you might remove an important tidbit without noticing the resulting effects).

3. Increase Relevance: Similar to the point about consequences, if I can better tie in the time travel incident to the main plot, along with making the incident crucial with what’s to follow (along with the irony of the incident regarding the antagonist), the incident shouldn’t feel out of place. Linking the antagonist further into this scene could also improve the overall story.

Besides the reasons I might remove the incident, I’m also considering reasons to keep the incident:

1. Character Development and Increased Tension: We get to see the antagonist step forward to protect one of the main characters– and get a hint as to why, and what she’s willing to do if that character dies (and remains dead). The goal? Tension rises as the character she’s trying to protect risks their life time and time again, because if the antagonist loses said character, all bets are off in regards to what she’s willing to do to achieve her larger goal, and what she isn’t.

2. Magical World Building: We have an explanation of why the ‘time travel device’ reacts a certain way to the bad guys later. Cause and effect comes into play, and the world gets a little more exploration. And we get to see more of the various character relationships.

3. Time Travel Is Cool: I like time travel and dimensional world travel. I know, that’s not a good excuse. But really… we’ll get to see the effects of time travel first-hand in the story. We don’t just hear about it from a side character.

4. Paradoxes! Or so the characters think…: The incident sets up tension between the antagonist and protagonist, because the protagonist knows who the antagonist is but doesn’t know how they got there…

This is a case where beta readers will come in handy. They’ll help decide if the time travel plot point should be removed altogether (requiring a light restructuring of the plot), or whether the plot point works. For now, (thanks in part to having a friend enthralled by the backstory of the antagonist), I’m going to keep the incident.

So… onward to editing, and I hope you enjoyed this post. Let me know what you think, and please let me know if there’s any topics you’d like me to cover. 🙂

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June 5, 2015 · 8:00 pm

Thoughts on Writing – Creating Fantasy Languages

One of the topics I’ve been thinking about recently is creating fantasy languages. Reason being, I’m creating a language for use in my YA fantasy manuscript, The Wishing Blade. Now, in the original draft (and even across several drafts for different books in that world), I only had a handful of made-up words sprinkled into the story to give it flavor. This time, however, the use of the language system suddenly had a reason to shine– I actually intended to show ‘word magic,’ one of the magic systems in my Cirena stories coming from the Cantingen Islands. Suffice it to say, creating a language has been fun, if not a bit difficult.

When I attended ConQuest, one of the panels I attended was about creating alien languages. Some of the topics in the panel included: deciding how in-depth you wanted the language to be– do you want to have a word here and there, or will there be full sentences in this language? How does it look? How does it sound to the ear? Might it have odd sounds (like clicks) that you might not normally read? Do you base your new language off of a current language, and if so, how do you change the language to fit the needs of your story? For example, does a word or phrase mean something now that it doesn’t mean in the future where your story takes place?

All of this is food for thought and can be applied to a fantasy language of your creation. For example, I like the idea that language changes over time. We can portray this in our stories. An example of this in The Wishing Blade is the name of a town, Shuhritan Fritarando. Which no one says because it’s ridiculously long. Most characters, unless they happen to be upper class or a particular linguist (I’m debating on my word mage correcting my main characters about the city’s name), are simply going to call the town Shu Frit. It gets even more fun, because the full name isn’t entirely exact. Shuhritan is an ancient Cantingen word for ‘male royalty’ or ‘king.’ Fritarando translates to ‘small male kin.’ Which could mean nephew, cousin, son, etc., but in this instance refers to ‘son.’ Shu Frit becomes ‘Little King’ in the terms of cultural history, even though neither word actually means that. It’s a colloquialism, informal and a pain to translate, but a natural part of how languages evolve.

Of course, this whole explanation may never show up in the story itself (and probably shouldn’t), but it shows how you can play with language to create cultural history in your novel. It’s a way to add flavor.

However, not everyone in my story is going to use such colloquialisms. In the example I gave, the characters are referring to a language that’s outdated. Outside of naming conventions, the language is only used by word mages. Due to the nature of word magic, these mages need to make sure that what they say is exact– or risk the consequences of having a fireball light them on fire instead of their opponent. Pronounciation is key. Which is why, when I went to place all the words and phrases I had thus far into an Excel spreadsheet, I realized that I needed to change one of my words. I had qui meaning ‘as,’ quis meaning ‘good health,’ and ki being an emphasized word that connects an unusual modifying word to what it is modifying. And they were all pronounced like the English ‘key.’

That could get dangerous for a word mage who is trying to say something about ‘good health’ and instead has his word translated to ‘as.’ (As what? Something deadly?)

So I changed qui to li and did a word search in my manuscript to make the changes. Small details, but hopefully fun for anyone who pays attention to the language in the novel. Eventually I want to make symbols that represent each phonetic pronunciation. (Oh, IPA (international phonetic alphabet)… so fun in high school theater).

If you decide to create a language for your story, I highly recommend writing down the words in a spreadsheet and keeping track of your rules. I recently updated my word document of notes into an Excel Spreadsheet. When I did, I saw several potential problems that I went ahead and fixed. Primarily verb conjugations. (Spanish… French… these classes are starting to be rather helpful, even if I never did become a proficient reader of either language). The Cantingen language is supposed to be precise. Repetitive, even. And I really didn’t want to mess with irregular verbs. So I adjusted each verb that I ran across. As long as you know the ending for “I did something” versus “you did something” or “he did something,” you’ll be able to tell who or what the verb refers to. None of this irregular verb mess we commonly deal with in English. In addition, a single add-on to the word will signify if something is past or future.

Is this a simplification?

Oh yeah. Definitely. But I’m not trying to be Tolkien (though I did try to learn Sindarin Elvish several years ago. Didn’t get far, but I got a few words of Enya’s “May It Be” translated into Sindarin beyond what was already translated). My goal is to add flavor to the story, and keep the language consistent.

And maybe try writing a song in pure ancient Cantingen. That would be fun, though that’ll be after I get more words and verbs ironed out. There’s plenty more that can be said about creating languages, but I’ll leave that for a later post. Let me know what you think, and I hope you enjoyed my ramblings. 🙂

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Video

Thoughts on Writing – Writer’s Block

Writer’s block… that pesky concept that makes writing difficult and that everyone loves talking about. How to break writer’s block, how to deny writer’s block…

When it comes to writer’s block, I find that trying to write something, anything, is better than writing nothing at all, because it pushes me to another point in the story. But how to work through ‘writer’s block’ is different for everyone. For plotters, this is where having that outline is handy. You write what’s next on the outline, even if you’re cringing as you write. It might not be as terrible as you think once you go back and take a second look. For pantsers, this is where deviating from what you thought you had planned and saying ‘Forget what’s supposed to happen next. I’m going to write whatever comes to mind.’ comes in handy. It might end up leading you to the break-through you need.

One of the things mentioned at ConQuest was that you can’t always force a novel to do what you want. Having trouble writing a scene can be a sign that what you’re trying to write doesn’t fit the novel you’re writing. On the other hand, one of the most important things I took from my creative writing minor in college was that the difficult scenes we tend to avoid writing can also be the best ones to read. With a little polish (or a lot), these scenes can be fantastic. Or… you might read back through the scene and wonder what you were thinking. This has happened to me, especially in my Distant Horizon manuscript. *Cough.* So you learn from trial and error which scenes are causing difficulty because they’re taking you out of your comfort zone, and which scenes are causing difficulty because they simply don’t fit.

For example, I’ve run into a set of scenes in my current manuscript, The Wishing Blade, which are completely new to the story line. These scenes aren’t in my original manuscript, but with the edits I’ve written, they are necessary to keep the story moving forward. Ultimate goal: The good guys want to stop the bad guys from gaining enough power to attack the gods and successfully plunge the country into shadow. Literal shadow… the bad guys’ magic consumes the mortal realm and thrusts it into a dreary half-dimension where the bad guy have complete control over everyone in it. There are two main characters, Toranih and Daernan, and a goddess has granted them some of her magic in an effort to fight the bad guys. Thing is, Toranih absolutely hates magic and would rather be a swordsman. But she gets caught by the bad guys, turned into a shadow, and she has to deal with resisting the bad guy’s magical commands. Daernan isn’t particularly gifted with weapons, but he’s got a decent skill when it comes to wielding magic, and he’s working with a group of people in an attempt to help refugees escape from a city under siege by the bad guys, all while trying to figure out how to get Toranih out from the shadow realm.

Problem is, in the original version of this story, Daernan thinks Toranih is dead, and there is no one else to help him with magic, so he ran along to the king to warn the country about the attacks and put up a defense at the castle. Now he has different motivations, which I’m trying to sort out before I write the next few scenes. I need to know how much he’s going to do to help save the innocent townspeople, which will help for a time, and at what point will he abandon them to go retrieve a weapon that will defend against the shadows in the long run. As for Toranih, she’s trying to slow the spread of the shadows, but I’ve been having a terrible time trying to get through the scene where she acts against their leader. (Because she’s overconfident and actually thinks she might be able to assassinate him. Yeah– that’s going to work so well).

But every time I sat down to write the scene, I wasn’t sure where to go next. My plotting sort of… stopped.

Then my husband, Isaac, gave me the solution that I needed all along. Toranih doesn’t like magic, but she likes swordplay– which is something the bad guy is good at. In the original version of the story, she’s caught in the shadow realm and forms an uneasy friendship with the bad guy, learning from him as she tries to foil him. In this version I have her trying to assassinate him, but I wanted to have her fail miserably. Unfortunately, I wasn’t sure where to go once her attempt failed and he got her back in line. But when Isaac suggested that she attempts to attack the bad guy, who then casually tosses her one of his swords and more or less starts training with her (much to her confusion), this opened up a whole new possibility. Because now she’s not the moping and following the bad guy around because she’s being magically commanded to. Now she’s having to deal with inner conflict. She can learn quite a bit from the bad guy if she sticks around, and it puts her in a position to be close enough that she might be able to strike him later. However, she still doesn’t like being a shadow, and as long as she’s nearby, he might order her to do something she doesn’t want to do.

Which keeps the story rolling and keeps me interested in writing what happens next.

The whole point of this example is that when you’re stumped, you may want to explore new options, or step back and consider character motivations. Or maybe step in and examine character motivations. For my story, there’s a lot of other stuff happening off-screen that affects the main characters. But if I put too much attention there, the task of writing becomes overwhelming and I forget to focus on the characters who are actually important. So try approaching the scene from a different angle. Stop worrying about what the rest of the story world is doing and write what matters to your main characters. Once you’ve got the rough draft written, then revisit the rest of the world.

That being said… it is entirely possible to be stumped on a scene and to use your procrastination as a tool to get chores done. I think this is how I actually remember to do laundry.

Anyhow, I hope this post was helpful, and please let me know what you think. 🙂

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June 1, 2015 · 8:00 pm
May 29, 2015 · 8:00 pm

Thoughts on Publishing – Author Central and Kindle Keywords

While at ConQuest last weekend, one of the panels I attended focused largely on ‘Navigating the Amazon.’ One of the points the panelists made is that sometimes the best way to make Amazon work for you is by not focusing too much on how to make Amazon work. Essentially– don’t get caught up in the minute details of using the algorithm to push books to the top or mass produce downloads. The algorithm changes constantly, and really, if we spend our time writing the next book, that will help us increase our sales– since we can’t sell something we don’t have. That being said, there were a couple important Amazon tips that the panel offered: the use of Author Central and a note about Kindle keywords.

First– Author Central. It’s a handy tool Amazon uses to collect all the work of one author into one spot. You’ll need to set this up yourself, but it’s ridiculously easy. The landing site can be found here: https://authorcentral.amazon.com/ You log in using the Amazon account you have, confirm your email address,  then fill in the extra information about yourself as desired. I added an author photo and bio, and connected my twitter feed and WordPress blog. For the blog, it asks for an RSS feed. I copied my WordPress blog address and added /feed at the end of the URL, and it appears to be working. I then added my books, which was as simple as typing in my name and clicking on the button that said ‘this is my book.’ I was even able to add 1000 Words, which is under my maiden name. Both books are now connected to my author page, which means that anyone who likes one story can easily find the others. It’s a really great way to make it easy for potential readers to find your books. No hassle.

The panelists pointed out that the nice thing about Author Central is that once you set it up, you can pretty much leave it alone. The caveat is that you may need to add each new book to your page when you release the book, but it’s super easy to do, and takes hardly any time at all. And since you can connect the author page to your blog and twitter, it’s really easy to drive readers to your other sites.

I hadn’t realized Author Central would be this easy to set up, but I’m glad I heard about it. Plus, it looks kind of cool seeing the page with all your info. Makes it feel more ‘official.’ When I signed up, Amazon said the page could take up to a week to go live, but the page was up within a few minutes for me. Not bad.

If you want to see an example of an author page, you can see mine here: http://www.amazon.com/author/stephanieflint Or you can look up your favorite authors and see if they have a clickable name under their book title. If so, they might have an author’s page. 🙂

As a side note, Author Central offers you the option of creating a short URL for your author page. You only get to choose the URL once, so you might not want to rush, but I went ahead and selected my name since I don’t plan to use a pen name or nickname. (See above for example link).

Now, I’m not sure how pen names would work, but I’ve heard there are ways to separate pen names in Author Central. Might be worth looking into if you plan to use more than one name.

Author Central not only organizes your information for readers, but also provides information to you as the author, in regards to how and where their print books are selling, sales rank, author rank, and recent reviews. You do have to set up your author page separately for each of the different countries available, if you want the page available in more than one area. I’ve created the page for the UK, but I haven’t tried the other ones. Not sure I want to accept the terms of service without at least skimming the contract, and while I can recognize a few words in French, I don’t even no where to begin on the other languages.

As for keywords, the panelists brought up something else I hadn’t paid attention to. In regards to uploading a Kindle ebook via KDP (Kindle Direct), you have the option of including seven keywords. I knew that, but here’s the kicker. You have the option to include seven keywords… including phrases. Since Ashes, my YA sci-fi romance, hasn’t really recieved much interest through Kindle, I decided to swap out the single keywords with mostly phrases. Each relate to the book, but since my main keywords were already included in a phrase, I tried out a few combinations I wouldn’t have tried before. It may not do anything helpful, but it’s worth a shot.

Which is the other important thing the panelists said. Don’t be afraid to experiment. If it doesn’t work, well… try something different.

And that’s what I plan to do. Hopefully this post was helpful, and please let me know if you want to see more of this kind of information. 🙂

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February 5, 2014 · 7:31 pm

Cover Reveal and Review – The Devil’s Third

This is the third and final book cover for Rebekkah Ford’s Beyond the Eyes trilogy, as well as a few of the promo pieces I put together for it. You can see the wrap-around cover here: http://sbibb.deviantart.com/art/The-Devil-s-Third-Book-Cover-423981244?q=gallery%3ASBibb&qo=0

SBibb - The Devil's Third - Book Cover

Facebook Banner:

SBibb - Devil's Third Promo

Bookmarks:

SBibb - Devil's Third Promo SBibb - Devil's Third Promo

A bit about the cover: All images are my own, and I used the camera’s timer to get a few shots of me posing for the main character. We had a couple different ideas to work from, and when the first didn’t work out, it turned out handy that I’d done a few standing poses as well. Side note for photography– it can help to take multiple angles and poses in case one doesn’t have the desired effect. Photoshop CS6 to blend everything and photomanipulate the hand reaching out from the text.

(See the the previous covers for the series: https://sbibb.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/dark-spirits-cover-reveal/ and http://sbibb.deviantart.com/art/Beyond-the-Eyes-Wrap-Around-309769699 )

And now for the review. 😀

Disclaimer: Paranormal romance isn’t my preferred genre, and therefore, my opinions may be skewed compared to that of someone who regularly enjoys paranormal romance.

Overall, an enjoyable read. The characters have a realness about them that I enjoyed, and the description of setting was wonderful. (Seriously, I read one passage that made me think I could smell a rainy autumn day. Descriptions that really engage the senses like that make me a happy camper).

My favorite part of the story was where Paige goes into Carrie’s memories (so-to-speak, trying not to give away spoilers). The visuals were awesome, the pace really picked up (the beginning was just a bit slow, but served well to remind me what happened in the previous book), and the plot revealed a few nice tid-bits of information about the dark spirits.

I also enjoyed the magic system and finding out more about their world and <spoiler>the different doorways Paige can open. I actually would have been interested in seeing more of the different dimensions</spoiler> but we also got to see other new abilities, as well, which I enjoyed reading about.

That being said, there were a few downsides for me. A minor thing, but I did notice more typos in this story than in the previous ones. Also, there were several times I felt like something convenient happened or wasn’t fully explained. In all fairness, I was reading this in ten minute intervals while on break at work, so my attention wasn’t completely focused. Might have been different if I’d been able to read it in longer intervals.

I didn’t really get into the romance between Nathan and Paige, but then, I don’t typically read stories for the romance. And Brayden… I still kind of want to strangle him. I did, however, like seeing more of Ameerah’s character, and I also liked seeing the new characters, like Pip.

For me, I think my favorite book out of this trilogy was actually Dark Spirits. I really liked the interactions between Bael and Paige in that story, but I liked seeing Paige’s new powers in this one. Overall, though, I think this was a good series that paranormal romance readers are likely to enjoy. 🙂

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June 14, 2013 · 6:00 am

Ashes – Short Story Now Available on Kindle

“Ashes,” my prequel short story to “Socks” (1000 Words project) is now available on Kindle. I’ve been meaning to upload it for some time, but never did. Until now! So, not only can you find it on Smashwords, you can also find it on Amazon for 99 cents. 🙂

A 7,500-word young adult, post-apocalyptic romance: When rebels attack the city, two teens race to save the last existing library before it is destroyed.

Find “Ashes” on Amazon

Find “Ashes” on Smashwords

 

SBibb - Ashes Cover - Blog

An Excerpt:

The sky is darker than I remember, and a shape forms above me, blurry. “Matthew?” I ask. My head smarts. I cough, tasting acrid smoke, and my fingers touch a sticky warmness on my forehead. There’s a cut there; I don’t remember why. The gray metal of a helicopter glints in the fire from the building a block away. The warning system is playing repeatedly, but for the life of me, I can’t tell what it says. A firm hand grips mine and then it’s Cory who yanks me to my feet, not Matthew. “Come on!” he says. “We’ve got to get inside.”

What else is there to do? He half drags me into the lobby of a restaurant. Traces of fresh pancakes and hot maple syrup and pungent coffee smells mix with the ashy gunpowder odor from outside. The place is astonishingly empty for the morning hour. We navigate past upturned chairs and coffee stains, broken mugs lying forgotten on the floor.

Then we’re in the kitchen, where thick ceramic tiles block out the sounds of chaos. Cory grabs the handle of the bunker and twists it, praying for it to turn. He pulls me to him, holding me tight as another explosion rattles the foundation. My head against his chest; his heart beat competes with the explosions like a drum.

“You okay, Serena?” he asks.

I’m not sure. “What happened?” I can’t seem to remember why Cory is here. All I know is that I trust him more than Matthew, and there’s a sickness in the pit of my stomach at the thought of the other.”

 

“Socks” is available on Smashwords for free

Enjoy. 🙂

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May 8, 2013 · 1:00 am

Spring Cleaning and Price Updates

Hello there. You may have noticed my blog got slightly reorganized. Added a page for my short stories, removed the pages about my portrait work (can still be accessed via http://www.sbibbphoto.com), and redid the pricing page. Thought it was time to do a little organization. 🙂

The good news is that the pricing page should be easier to read, and also shows examples for the different types of book covers. If you’re looking for a new book cover, be sure to take a look. Prices start at $50.00 plus the cost of stock images.

Please let me know if there’s anything you’ve found particularly helpful on this blog, or anything you’d like to see more of. 🙂

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May 2, 2013 · 1:00 am

Guest Interview: Author Sarah Dalton

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. 🙂

Sarah Dalton - The Fractured: Maggie

 

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

http://theblemished.com/

http://sarahdaltonbooks.com/

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/sarahdalton

http://www.amazon.com/Sarah-Dalton/e/B004S7FQE6/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

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April 18, 2013 · 4:48 pm

Surprise Feature – Short Stories

Got a nice surprise in my inbox today. Chris (the Story Reading Ape) featured my short stories on his blog:

http://thestoryreadingapeblog.wordpress.com/2013/04/18/stephanie-flint-nee-bibb/comment-page-1/#comment-23

 

Just thought I’d mention it, and thanks. 🙂

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April 3, 2013 · 1:00 am

Interview with Rebekkah Ford – Dark Spirits

Hello, everybody. Today we have an interview with Rebekkah Ford, the author of Beyond the Eyes, and most recently, Dark Spirits.  For today’s interview, we’ll look at both Dark Spirits and the self-publishing process. So, without further ado, please welcome Rebekkah Ford to the blog! 😀

SBibb - Dark Spirits Cover

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What was the inspiration for Dark Spirits?

Well, the whole series was created from an idea I came up with from the beginning. The movie that scares me the most—The Exorcist, my love for history, my experience with the paranormal world, and the out-of-box ideas I have about it.

Was it easier or more challenging to write Dark Spirits than Beyond the Eyes?

I think it was harder because I had to recount some of the things I wrote in Beyond the Eyes to keep the continuity of it all and to remind readers of events that happened in that first book. It’s more time consuming I think.

Who is your favorite character to write?

Nathan. He’s fun to write, and I enjoy writing in the male POV.

Anything we should look forward to in book three, The Devil’s Third?

Yes, the reader will finally get to discover what Paige is, there will be magic, and shocking revelations.

Why did you decide to write the Beyond the Eyes trilogy?

Because I grew up in a family that dealt with the paranormal and the unknown fascinates me.

What was your process for writing Dark Spirits?

I wrote every chance I got. I have a f/t day job, so I would get up extra early in the morning just so I could write before I had to go to work, and then in the evening I would write as well. I also spent most of my whole weekend writing. I still keep to that routine.

What made you decide to self-publish?

It felt like the right thing for me to do. Beforehand, I did a lot of research on it and the pros outweighed  the cons. I did have some agents interested in Beyond the Eyes, but unfortunately it didn’t work out. So I decided to take the plunge and self-publish.

Have you been satisfied with the experience?

Pretty much. It’s hard, hard, work though. I don’t care for the marketing aspect, but then again, even if I were to have taken the traditional route, I’d still have to market my books. So there’s really no way around it at this point in my life. I honestly would much rather write than try to sell my work.

How did you go about choosing an editor?

I was on Absolute Write, which is a wonderful writing forum. I saw an ad an editor posted for his services, so I emailed him, and the rest is history.

What kind of editing did you have done to your novel, and how was the process?

My editor and I have a process—I send him a chapter at a time. He line edits, checks for errors, and leaves comments. Once I receive my chapter back, I make the corrections, maybe do some rewrites, and send it back to him. He double checks it and sends it back to me. Afterwards, I send him the next chapter.

Did you do your own formatting, or hire someone to format the book for you?

No. I’m horrible when it comes to technology. I wish I knew how to format my book, but I don’t. I hired somebody else to do it for me. Tugboat Designs formatted Dark Spirits for me and did a wonderful job.

How have you gone about promoting your book?

I did a launch party on Facebook and next month I’m doing a couple blog tours. I’ve been using social media like Twitter and Facebook. I’ve been doing giveaways as well and getting reviews from readers who are already a fan of this series which is wonderful.

You mentioned enjoying writing Nathan’s POV. I personally enjoyed reading it. What was the best part about writing his POV, and what was the most challenging?

Thanks! The best part was stepping inside Nathan’s head, discovering what thoughts he had, and getting to know him on a much personal level. The most challenging was restraining myself from writing erotic thoughts about Paige. Nathan had them, but since this is a young adult series, I had to refrain from writing such naughty things. 🙂

Any idea when we can look forward to reading The Devil’s Third?

I’m not sure yet. I’m hoping before the end of this year.

You introduced the concept of parallel dimensions in Dark Spirits. Will we be seeing more of that?

Oh, yeah! 😀

What’s your favorite part of the magic system in the Beyond the Eyes trilogy?

I like that Paige is slowly discovering what she can do and Carrie has dabbled in elementary magic. It’s not like their characters woke up one day and BAM, they have all these powers. I like to keep it realistic, so my favorite part about the magic system is it’s not ostentatious.

Do you have any favorite books that helped inspire you to write the trilogy?

Believe it or not, Anne Rice’s vampire books. There are no vampires in my trilogy, but one of the many things I love about Anne Rice’s stories is how she spins realism into a fictional tale that’s dark, but yet alluring. If that makes sense? The cool thing about my Beyond the Eyes trilogy is, after The Devil’s Third, I still have the option to continue writing this trilogy if I wanted too. There are still endless avenues to explore without it being tiresome.

Anything you’d like to add (either about the books or self-publishing) before the interview concludes?

I just want to thank the fans of this series and future readers. Your support means the world to me. I could have went the traditional way and published this series through a publishing house. However, I had to find out if I could do this on my own. I also wanted complete creative control and to know that my books would never get pulled from the shelves. So I carved out my own path, and although it’s a lot of hard work, I have no regrets. I did this and nobody can ever take it away from me. That’s a feeling that money can’t buy, along with bringing enjoyment to the readers who fall in love with this trilogy and them telling me about it. So if you’re an author reading this, do what makes you happy and follow your heart. If you do those things, there will be no regrets. 😀

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Great, thanks for the interview! You can find Dark Spirits at the links below. As a side note, Beyond the Eyes is currently available for 99 cents on Amazon, so get it while you can. 🙂

Beyond the Eyes: http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-the-Eyes-ebook/dp/B0088JF7HQ/

Rebekkah’s Blog: http://themusingwriter.blogspot.com

Rebekkah’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RebekkahFord2012

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Spirits-Beyond-Eyes-ebook/dp/B00BEKJ9VG/

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dark-spirits-rebekkah-ford/1114506937?ean=2940016397214

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/286383

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