Tag Archives: The Wishing Blade

August 14, 2016 · 4:22 pm

Thoughts on Writing – How A Deleted Scene Turned into A Short Story Idea

Hello, again! I realize I’ve been silent for awhile, and I thought I’d give a quick update. See, I’m sort of between projects. Distant Horizon is being read by a proofreader, and I’ve gotten notes back for The Shadow War… and I apparently have a few plot holes that need to be addressed before  I can make much progress. That, and I finally finished the beta-reading project I’ve been long overdue on!

But that left me in writing-limbo. It’s not like I don’t have a bunch of projects to work on. (Trust me, I’ve got plenty of rough drafts begging to be polished). But I didn’t want to start anything big until my two main projects were finished.

And, well, I’ve been reading a lot about short stories and the concept of short stories and then I kind of decided… why not write a short story while I’m waiting?

It started with edits to The Shadow War. One concern had to do with the numerous point of view shifts. There are two characters in particular who had scenes, but, upon second look, I realized might not add much to the story itself (Never mind that I thoroughly enjoyed them).

My first thought was to take one of those scenes (since I rarely delete anything, I copied them into a separate document before removing them from the book) and flesh it into a short story from the point of view of one of the antagonists or semi-antagonists.

Problem with that was two-fold. First… spoilers. All the spoilers. There would be no way around it with the scenes I wanted to write. Second… background details that I wasn’t ready to explore. There’s a highly-detailed world behind The Wishing Blade, and not all the details have been worked out. The ones pertaining to the main plot are mostly in place, but some of the ‘how did this character get here‘ have not.

So I pushed those ideas out for now (Someday I want to write a novel or novella that looks at the antagonists of the series. I could have so much fun with their stories).

Instead, I started looking at areas in the world which interest me, but have nothing to do with the main story. Or, well… are only vaguely related. In this case, the Cantingen Islands. Remember that word magic conlang I’ve been working on? It features heavily in the rough draft of the third book, but from an outsider’s perspective. But I’ve wanted to do more with it, and actually take a look at their mythology and culture.

Enter the short story idea for Stone and String (tentative title). My goal was to write a short story between 5,000 to 10,000 words, with a cohesive beginning, middle, and end. And that goal has been achieved, completing the story at 8,000 words!

The story takes place in the Cantingen Islands, around the time of Magic’s Stealing but not tied to any of the main characters. It explores word magic to a degree, but focuses heavily on their afterlife, as the main character is a young girl who trades her death magic for a chance to see her little sister after an accident kills her.

The story is off to beta-readers now, but I’m hoping that edits go smoothly and I can publish it here in the next couple months. Hopefully it will tide readers over until I can finish The Shadow War.

If people enjoy it, I may write more short stories following the particular character. If not… well, it’s a stand-alone, so it won’t leave anyone on a cliffhanger.

Now, the caveat is that I plan on releasing the short story through Kindle Select so that it can be placed in Kindle Unlimited. Which means, at least for a few months, it won’t be available outside of Amazon. I’m curious to see if it might bring new readers to the series.

But the main books will continue to be available through multiple channels, as I prefer not to have all my eggs in one basket.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this post! Have you tried using Kindle Select, or had luck writing stand-alone short stories? 🙂

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July 2, 2016 · 6:53 pm

Thoughts on Writing- Developing a Fictional Language

A while back, I wrote a post about creating a fantasy language. Today, as I’m continuing to plot for The Wishing Blade series, I want to expand on that idea. What things should we consider when developing a fictional language?

I’d say part of that depends on the purpose of the language. If you’re only going to have it show in one or two scenes, a word here or there, you might only need to create those few words and consider how it sounds regarding the culture of the people who use it.

If, on the other hand, you plan to write whole paragraphs in it, have miscommunication issues (or spells that backfire–as with the Cantingen word magic in The Wishing Blade series), or use it explain part of the culture or mythology, you might want to go a little more in detail in regards to how the language functions, even if your reader never sees most of it.

I’ve been skimming through articles, trying to get an idea of things to keep an eye out for, and this article in particular has some great suggestions as to what sort of things to keep in mind when creating a language. Things such as the range of sounds your language has, how words are stressed, and how to change words from present to past tense.

I already know that I’m not going to have a perfect fictional language and there are going to be imperfections. But, having a set of rules that are relatively easy to follow, as well as a dictionary of sorts, should help to alleviate that problem.

Starting out, I took all the phrases I’d already written for the first book and broke them apart, figuring out what each word was and entering that into an Excel file. (As a side note, I just discovered that it will sometimes enter suffixes for you if you have the same word ending row after row in the same column–conjugation got faster!) Then I considered common words that I might run into: colors, directions, verbs, nouns, elements…

Once I had a general list, I started double checking to make sure none of them had the exact same sound (since word magic is based on pronunciation), and that words that have the same sounds have the same spelling, so I could picture it correctly.

For example, I wrote out the cardinal direction and created versions for both Cantingen and Cirenan words:

English || {Cantingen} || Cirenan
North || {Chudé} || Chud
East || {Nuré} || Nur
South || {Sidé} || Sid
West || {Dre} || Dreh
Dimension || {Dribé} ||
Southwest || {Sidé si dre} || Sid-Dreh

(Note: ‘si’ is the equivalent of ‘and’)

Since word magic has a concept of there being different realms and dimensions, I also included that word in the Cantingen language regarding directions (though I’m still working out the details), but did not include it in Cirenan. You can see how the two languages are related, obviously having branched off from one or the other.

I’m still working on grammatical rules, but I’ve figured out thus far that verbs will primarily be regular conjugations (thus making it easier to read because the endings for a verb will always be the same.

Subject {-suffix} || Conjugated Verb (dacin – to destroy)

I {-a} ||  dacina (I destroy)

You (Person) {-at} || dacinat (You destroy)

You (Imperative//Magic) {-an} ||dacinan (Magic destroys) (Note: This is the form often used when a word mage is commanding magic to do something)

He {-on} || dacinon (He destroys)

She {-ol} || dacinol (She destroys)

They {-eht} || dacineht (They destroy)

It {-tra} || dacintra (It destroys)

(Note: Word mages probably wouldn’t use this particular verb in their spells because it’s too vague.)

I’ve been debating adding additional suffixes for goddess and god, essentially a “formal” version of he/she and they. Haven’t yet decided on that, though.

Originally, when I started creating the Cantingen language, I planned on them having a very specific set of words, and no more than those words. The idea was that they would sometimes have to create convoluted phrases to mean something very simple.

Problem is… that’s really convoluted. (And something I may be fixing in the current draft of The Shadow War.

For example, let’s look at this phrase as it currently stands:

Be la niitan musieh shodo li dohlé’jute trorlat si fora lel sarana si tasse lel urell duhan so mitora en eh chi rov’wida so nocho Pellmer chono la be.

Simply put, it’s a portal spell to the grassy plains of Pellmer.

The spell itself isn’t that simple.

Here’s a part of the English translation, with asterisks denoting breaks between words:

(Open)*Create*all and any*transfer-passage*as window-door*12 feet high and six feet wide* direct-front*of my seeing*to*any-safe*grass-field*of*Pellmer*(Close)

That’s… not easy to read at all.

Okay, let’s break that down even further.

The open (Be la) and close (la be) statements signify the start and end of a spell. Required for word magic to work properly.

niit is the word for “to create,” with niitan being the imperative telling magic to create something.

musieh – all and any (mu si eh) – English equivalent to “everything”

shodo – passage

li – in the form of (as a)

dohlé’jute –  dohlé (window),  the apostrophe symbolizes “of” or possession, jute (door) –

trorlat si fora  – ten and two (12)

lel sarana– (lel) measurement akin to feet, sarana (referring to height)

si – and

tasse – six

lel urell – (lel) measurement akin to feet, urell (referring to width)

…And so forth. I think I may want to break it down just a bit more and make it easier to work with. I mean, those poor word mages have it bad enough just trying to pronounce it right.

Eventually, I’d like to go through the language sometime with IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) and mark all the sounds to keep it consistent, plus design a script that the Cantingen word mages use based on the common sounds.

For now, I’ve got various conjugations created, and I’m trying to work from there. To fully flesh out the language, I’m considering trying to translate English phrases so that I can create words I might not otherwise consider.

For example, I spent about an hour or so taking a passage from The Shadow War, translating that intro a structure the Cantingen language would use, and then translating that into the Cantingen language (after double-checking my glossary and coming up with new words.

This is what I came up with:

Original Passage (English):

Siklana kept reading. “Listhant gave Diandae permission to open a portal into ‘the Old Realm,’ where Ruetravahn retrieved his words of power.” She paused. “This could mean that word magic isn’t really a split from Old Cirenan, but something altogether different.”

Passage rewritten to match style of Cantingen language (Still in English):

Siklana continued to read. “Listhant permitted Diandae to create a portal to the Old Realm. In the Old Realm, Ruetravahn retrieved the Words-of-Power.” Siklana stopped reading. “This scroll I am reading uncertainly explains that the Words-of-Power are something inherently different from the Old Cirenan language.

Passage in Cantingen language:

Siklana ahaolsho shi. “Listhant mocon Diandae niitol Dribékre. Da Dribékre, Ruetravahn glaton Shadi.” Siklana shiylagsho. Keh mishia uuhtrafo Shadilakosha clisé Quisrena’Casikre.

Now, the fun part of this was trying to read the passage aloud, based on the rules of pronunciation I’ve come up with. Each vowel is pronounced separately, with the exception of two vowels which are the same. For example, ‘aa’ is held longer than ‘a’ by itself or next to another vowel (or maybe it’s inflected more… I need to do more studying of phrases regarding language construction). Many of the consonants sound “harder.”

Needless to say, my reading didn’t go smoothly. Could be because I haven’t practiced it, or could be due to my current pronunciation rules. I’m considering adding in more letters and vowels that are smoother when I add additional words, as I originally pictured it being a much more flowing language, which would have made it easier for word mages to perform spells. Right now, there are a lot more stops and starts and broken sounds.

Once I work out a bit more of the language, I’ll probably go back through the second book and make sure that the phrases there still make sense. I’ve already been going back and correcting a few of the mistakes I’ve seen.

I hope you enjoyed this post. 🙂 Have you ever tried creating your own language for a story you wrote?

 

Related Reading :

http://www.councilofelrond.com/subject/how-to-create-your-own-language/ – An article with a lot of useful things to consider when creating a language

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Linguistics.and.conlangs/ – Facebook group that discusses conlangs

http://www.wired.com/2015/09/conlang-book/ – Article talking about the creation of Game of Throne’s “Dothraki” language

http://www.stormthecastle.com/mainpages/for_writers/using-invented-language-in-your-novel.htm – Ideas to make it easier on your readers if you use a conlang

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June 28, 2016 · 5:47 pm

Thoughts on Writing – Salvaging Plot Points from a Trunked Story

Every once in a while, I like working out potential plot points in blog posts. This is one of those posts. Be warned, there may be spoilers for the world of The Wishing Blade series ahead. I’m trying to keep it to a minimum, but…

I’ll have a big SPOILERS warning before I get to the plot-heavy part.

Now, onto the post.

With beta-readers looking at the manuscript for The Shadow War (Book Two of The Wishing Blades series) and Camp NaNoWriMo coming up, I’ve been plotting for the third book (currently unnamed). I’ve got the general plotline figured out, and I know where this particular story is going. However, there’s a few particulars I’m still trying to figure out, since those may affect the fourth book, as well as later books set in that world.

One particular I’m working on has to do with Litkanston, the country south of Cirena. In Magic’s Stealing, Litkanston is briefly referenced in a conversation between Aifa (a goddess) and Toranih (the main character).

“You’ve heard of Litkanston?” [Aifa asked.]

Toranih scowled. “Kind of hard to miss the neighboring kingdom.”

“But you’ve heard the tales…” Aifa stepped forward, her doe-eyes wild, fearful, and a tad over-dramatic for Toranih’s liking.

“Vaguely. No one can leave Litkanston if they go past the Division.”

“The Divide,” Aifa corrected.

Nothing else is mentioned about it in the first book. In the second book, though, Litkanston is mentioned again. Without delving too deep into spoiler territory, I can say that something the main characters need to stop the shadows is found near the Divide… and there’s a good chance they’ll be spending time in that region in the third book, trying not to get themselves trapped.

But here’s the thing.

The so-called “Divide” that traps anyone who enters Litkanston happened fairly recently in the history of the world, leading a couple characters to suspect that Shevanlagiy (antagonist of the first book) had a hand in its creation.

Does she?

WARNING: THIS IS WHERE THE POTENTIALLY BIGGER SPOILERS ARE! (I say potentially since this might not be the direction I take the story).

That’s what I’m currently trying to decide. On one hand, she very well could be responsible for the Divide, for all the reason that the characters believe (after all, they know she has a major role in the creation of shadows, and a tendency to destroy worlds). On the other hand, I’m tempted to push it into the hands of a character that no one would suspect–Listhant-Nsasrar, the high-god of Cirena.

The reason is two-fold. One, because I don’t necessarily want Shevanlagiy to be responsible for all the world’s big magical problems, and two, because of a story-arc I wrote a decade ago when I wrote the rough drafts of the original Cirena stories, a plot referencing a lost romance between Nsasrar and a princess of the Cantingen Islands.

With the updated story, it would be fairly easy to explain the Divide based on that plot. Let’s take a closer look.

From what I remember of the original plot, Nsasrar falls in love with the princess of the Cantingen Islands. But fate binds him through magic’s lure, and the princess is killed by a specific sword that isn’t supposed to be able to kill her (thanks to the equivalent of word magic). At least, it appears she is killed. In reality, it seems she has been thrown back in time, and into Litkanston, where a younger version of the god and the princess develop their romance. Alas, she is mortal and he is not, and I assume she eventually dies (because this was a story draft I didn’t complete), and presumably, the god returns to the Immortal Realm to wander. (After writing the draft for this post I skimmed through the original manuscript to see if there’s any tasty story fodder… and now I want to work more on the actual mythology of the world).

Theoretically, the high god could attempt to slow time down in the region with his love interest, thus creating the barrier later known as the Divide.

There’s another story element from the original stories that could play a part, as well.

Originally, the time span of the stories was much, much longer. The main characters in The Wishing Blade series became immortal, and the Shadow War took place over a period of two hundred years (Now I suspect it’s going to be less than a year). In both versions, the shodo’charl eliminated shadows in a brilliant flash of light. But in the original, it took those shadows and sent them some two- to four-hundred years into the future, removing the shadow essence from them in the process (and leading to some very confused former shadows).

I haven’t yet decided what happens to the shadows who are hit by the light of the shodo’charl in the updated series. One possibility is that they’re thrown into the future (but not several hundred years). Another possibility is that the shodo’charl sends the shadows to Litkanston.

If that’s the case, then that gives me story fodder for later, as characters seek to bring their loved ones back to Cirena. (Remember, once they pass into Litkanston, they can’t return–at least not until the curse on the place is lifted and the Divide is broken).

My thought is that perhaps Nsasrar falls in love the princess, and knowing the shodo’charl has time-bending properties, he attempts to set up the divide to slow time to the outside world of Cirena–thus giving him more time to spend with his beloved. (I should probably note that while he is the (Cirenan) god of creation, Madiya is the (Cantingen) goddess of death, and he can’t necessarily stop a person from dying. I mean, he could make them immortal, but I’m not sure how well that would sit with a Cantingen princess. The Cantingen religion sees death as part of an important equilibrium. Then again… immortals can still be killed. That there is a potential plot hole I’d need to examine closer before choosing to go this route.)

However, in his attempt to create the barrier, something goes wrong, and the Divide is stronger than he expects, causing the whole country to be cast under a blanket where regular magic doesn’t work (or if it does, it doesn’t work properly) and strange creatures escape from the Immortal Realm to terrorize the land. And the days are extremely short. And the night brings a fog and werewolf-like creatures that use a form of magic’s lure (which seems to be one of the few powers that still works) to control and army and take power…

Ahem. That particular story could use some tidying.

A lot of tidying.

Still, the original plot could also play into the fact that the realm as whole is getting weaker, a plot point I’m currently tinkering with in the second book.

Now, the fun part is that most of this plotting wouldn’t even be touched on in The Wishing Blade series. It’s all backstory for me to know and use to examine character motivations (and possibly have Shevanlagiy protesting that particular magical mishap was not her fault). That, and political implications. Nsasrar isn’t necessarily going to want to mention to Madiya that he’s the one who got the country of Litkanston separated from their realm. But it does show why he might be sympathetic to Shevanlagiy’s cause. Both have lost someone they loved, someone who they took desperate measures to try to get back.

END OF POTENTIAL SPOILERS

The point of this (other than letting me clear my thoughts by writing out the idea and reasoning through it) is that even when you have an outlandish rough draft that you may have trunked a long time ago, you might still find snippets of useful information that can breathe life into your story or make a plot work… without taking a really long roundabout way to fix it. (I am prone to daydreaming the roundabout ways to see if there’s anything useful in them).

And this is why I don’t delete anything. I just save it in a new document and move on. I never know when I might want to examine it again. Plus, if you’re writing a fantasy story, it’s kind of like finding a legend that gives you hints about what might have happened…

Okay, just looked at the original manuscript that has that story line. 134,000 words. Oiy. I always did tend to write on the long side.

I hope you enjoyed this post. 🙂 Have you ever salvaged anything for a story from an older story you wrote?

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March 23, 2016 · 10:12 pm

Thoughts on Publishing – A Video Blog Post – Reading Chapter Fifteen of Magic’s Stealing

Today I’m reading chapter fifteen of Magic’s Stealing. Also, we’re going to have a booth at the upcoming Old Drum Festival in Warrensburg, MO (April, 9th)! We’re going to be debuting our Phalanx game there, which we will be selling game bags (see the video for an example!) and the wooden board versions, along with copies of Magic’s Stealing.

Like our Facebook page if you want to hear all the latest updates. 🙂

Click here for the link if you can’t see the video.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

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March 9, 2016 · 10:27 pm

Thoughts on Publishing – Infinitas Publishing Status Report

Normally I’d have posted this last week, but since I was doing a cover reveal on the designated post day, I decided to do the report today, instead. 🙂

The Shadow War: Not much progress in regards to actually writing this one, however, Isaac and I have discussed the idea of splitting The Shadow War into two books. Seeing as how it’s already at 45,000 words, (with the series meant to be a set of novellas) and it’s only going to get longer, I’m inclined to agree.

So I’ve been doing a lot of plotting for what’s going to be the new book three, and I like where it’s going. As such, there’s a good chance that there will be four books in The Wishing Blade series instead of three. The Shadow War looks to be around 35,000 to 40,000 words, and by splitting it where I think it would have a decent beginning/middle/end, I can effectively say that I’m actually working on the second draft, rather than the first draft (since I had to go back reread what I wrote to continue writing the story).

While I still have a little ways to go before I release this one (as I’m not finished polishing it for beta-readers yet), it’s a whole lot closer than I thought it was.

The Multiverse Chronicles: Trials of Blood and Steel: There are currently six episodes out so far (Read them here), and more on the way. Missed last week’s episode due to lack of time to properly edit said episode (and due to a character’s dialect being difficult that may or may not sound Scottish), but if all goes well, the seventh episode will be released this Friday.

The season as a whole is a work in progress, and it’s entirely possible that we’ll make small edits to the season once it’s complete and before we release the ebook and print editions. So let us know what you think as you read the episodes. 🙂

Phalanx: If you’ve been following our Facebook page, or if you watched my latest video blog post, you may have seen us talking about our upcoming Phalanx game. This is a project Isaac’s been working on (I’ve mostly just helped with touch-ups). We still need to proofread the rules and have someone do a blind test from the rules (rather than us showing them how to play), but we’ve got the beta version of the game on order. This should be available by early April, since we’re hoping to have it available for sale at a local event during that time. More info coming soon!

Battle Decks: Trials of Blood and Steel: The starter game is available now, and Isaac has been working on creating rules and card ideas for a deck-building expansion. We’ve been meeting with our group of beta-testers to see how the new cards play and which ones we’re going to want to release in the first expansion. We’re still in the early stages of the deck-building part of the game, however.

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: Majority of the book covers I’ve been working on are now complete. In the meantime, I’m working through several formatting projects. Or, I will be as soon as I finish writing this post…

Beta-Reading: Put on hold temporarily so author could make changes. We should be getting the new chapters to beta-read shortly.

Distant Horizon:  Finally finished working on changes to a scene later in the story. I need to proofread and polish that scene, check it with Isaac to make sure he likes the finished version, and then I’m ready to hand this off to a proofreader. I’ve also got to do a few more things for the basic ebook formatting, but the majority of this is already complete.

Video Blogging: I just released the audio reading of Magic’s Stealing: Chapter Fourteen on Monday, and I plan to continue reading Magic’s Stealing, one chapter a week, until the story is complete.

In other news, we just finished our partnership tax forms! All we have to do is give them one more look-over and then mail them in. Woot! 😀

That’s it for now. I hope you enjoyed this post. 🙂

 

 

 

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March 7, 2016 · 11:41 pm

Thoughts on Publishing – A Video Blog Post – Reading Chapter Fourteen of Magic’s Stealing

Today I’m reading chapter fourteen of Magic’s Stealing and showing off the first wooden board for the our upcoming game, Phalanx (Check out our Facebook page to see a couple sneak peek pictures!) Enjoy! 😀

Click here for the link if you can’t see the video.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

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February 3, 2016 · 11:03 pm

Thoughts on Publishing – Infinitas Publishing Status Report

Beginning of the month status report time! 😀

Magic’s Stealing: This book is finished, however, I’ve been working on promotion. I recently did a Goodreads Giveaway and sent out one book, and I did a book signing at a local book store. I’ve got plans to set up another signing soon, as well as to place a few more books in nearby stores.

The Shadow War: Progress made! I’m still editing what I’ve already written, but I’m really excited about the direction it’s taking. Plus, I’ve got a good idea as to how this book will end, and several of the major plot points of the third book. It’s still a ways off from being released, but it’s nice to be back on track.

The Multiverse Chronicles: Trials of Blood and Steel: The first three episodes are slated to be released this Friday! 😀 Check out the blog on Friday for a link to the new blog site, which will be the home of The Multiverse Chronicles. Isaac and I are still doing a few final touches, but I’m really happy with how it’s coming out thus far.

Battle Decks: Trials of Blood and Steel: Isaac and I just finished smoothing out the deluxe edition of the player guide today, and now all we have left is to make adjustments to the trial and basic editions, and to do a few minor tweaks to the box artwork. Then we’ll be uploading the rest of the adjusted artwork to The Game Crafter and be ready to release in time for Stealth Con. Speaking of which, we’re debuting our game there and giving out trial versions of the cards. Isaac’s been working on a play-through video that we created with a group of people who have been play-testing the game with us, so we’ve got a lot of things in store for this. With that in mind, we plan to upload a PDF with the trial edition of the game, and release the full edition game for sale, sometime next week! 😀

SBibb’s Photographic Illustration: Per usual, I’m working on book cover design and formatting. I’ve started keeping a handy little planner so I can keep track of when everything is due. At the moment I’ve got some print edition formatting to work on tomorrow (I did some research at the bookstore yesterday regarding the particular genre), and I have a few book cover proofs to work on for this weekend.

Beta-reading: This is going slower than I intended, mostly because I’m trying to pick times to work on it when my mind isn’t distracted by everything else. I’m hoping to put this project into focus after Stealth Con, that way I can give this more attention and so the author can make the edits she’s been waiting for. Luckily, Isaac has also been helping out with beta-reading, and he’s gotten farther than I have. He just has to watch that he doesn’t give me too many spoilers…

Distant Horizon: This is another project I’m hoping to work on after Stealth Con. It’s ready to be formatted (I’ve got to adjust how the telepathic portions are formatted) and then be proofread for typos and grammar issues.

Video Blogging: I’m taking a short break from reading Magic’s Stealing while Isaac and I do the final touches on Battle Decks and The Multiverse Chronicles, but I expect to continue doing short video blog updates until I start back with the readings at the end of the month.

That’s it for now. We’ve got a lot of stuff coming up, and I’m excited to see what you guys think. 😀

 

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January 30, 2016 · 11:27 am

Thoughts on Publishing – Results of My First Book Signing

Yesterday I had my first book signing! It was held from 4-6 pm at Reader’s World in Sedalia, Missouri. I sold five books–four to people I knew from my workplace, and one to a person I didn’t know but who showed interest in my signing table (thank you, everyone!).

Today I’m going over my process of setting up and holding the book signing, in case it helps any of you who are considering doing a book signing in the future. 🙂

First, of course, I talked to the bookstore. In this case, I went in with a copy of Magic’s Stealing a couple months ago to see if they might be interested in carrying the book. They took four copies on consignment (they don’t pay me until they sell the book, we have an agreed upon royalty, and I’ll pick up any unsold copies at a later date).

I signed those copies (a simple signature, not personalized) and left them with the store. One of those copies sold to my husband’s uncle, who lives in the area (thank you, too!) and knew I’d left copies there.

Then, a couple weeks ago, I arranged a signing with the manager.

I tried sending an email at first, but when I didn’t hear back from them, I was worried that maybe my email hadn’t gone through (since I’m still new to that particular email service and that does happen). Turns out the manager was out of town, but I was able to call once she came back in, and we got everything scheduled–they were really friendly and easy to work with.

I asked if there was anything they wanted me to bring in, to which the manager suggested a flyer for their door and any promo materials I wanted to leave on the table. I was still waiting for my promo cards to come in, so I created a set of small “mini” flyers which contained a picture of the book on the front, with info about the signing (date, time, location), as well as the book’s blurb on the back. I also created a larger flyer that I hoped might catch the attention of store-goers.

It took a couple tries to get the flyer to look right (the printer needed to be set at “matte” photo paper before it would print reasonably high quality on regular print paper– and even then I switched to a “parchment” paper to get the best results. I also printed about 40 of the mini fliers (four per page, duplex setting for the front-back parts) to use as walk-by ads and reminders for my book.

Readers World - Magic's Stealing Book Signing Flyer

On the bright side, I did receive the metallic print mount for Magic’s Stealing in time to drop that off with the fliers, so after work the next day, I dropped off my various pieces.

Upon verifying that the flier would work, I printed two more copies and, at the end of the day Monday, posted one to each of the employee bulletin boards where I work. I didn’t mention anything directly to my coworkers, but they did see the fliers and started asking me about it after lunch… which was really cool. The next day, during morning announcements, one of them mentioned the fliers, so I was able to announce the date and time of the signing (yay!). I’d been wondering if I should ask about announcing it, but they did that for me. 😀

Anyway, I got the promo cards in the mail shortly after, so I dropped off a set at the bookstore. They had set up a small table with the mounted picture, the fliers, and the remaining three books. Plus, they had the flier on the door. I asked if I could drop off the promo cards/bookmarks, which they said was fine. I set them up on the table, then headed out.

MS_RWS_2

The day before the signing, Isaac and I went to Walmarts and picked up supplies for the signing (other than books, I counted and found I had nineteen books (I first thought I only had seventeen) still in stock with me, so I hoped I wouldn’t need more than that). I wanted to have a few extra pens on hand (ballpoint pens keep disappearing around here–I’m not sure where), plus a pen that was a little more nice looking and wouldn’t leave a heavy indention in the paper or smear. I also found a couple “precise” Pilot pens that looked like the ones I had borrowed previously from the bookstore manager to sign their in-store copies.

In addition to the pens, I picked up a set of sticky-notes. I’d seen them mentioned before on the web, and I’d seen them in use at Conquest when I was standing in line for Brandon Sanderson’s book signing, and the sticky notes seemed like a really good idea. The concept is that, when personalizing a signing, you ask people to write the name they want the book dedicated to on the sticky note so that you make sure to spell it correctly. Not only does this avoid spelling mistakes, it’s helpful if you have a hard time hearing them (and it also avoids the inevitable embarrassment of not remembering their name if you know them but you’re terrible with names. Seriously… I spent the last week at work trying to match faces and names in my head).

The final thing Isaac and I picked up was candy to offer people walking by the table. We spent some time looking for pieces that would represent the book. We ultimately chose Hershey kisses (for the papery ribbons coming out of the wrapper, and for the colors. The chocolate truffle ones for their dark pink and brown swirls, and the special dark ones for their purple wrappers). We also picked up a bag of Andes mints (for their green wrappers).Magic's Stealing Book Signing - Candy Bowl

As a note here, only a couple people actually took a piece of candy, so I guess we’ll have plenty left over for the next signing. But several people showed excitement about the candy matching the book cover. (Even the pink and brown actually matched a shade). We served it in the same bowl that’s used as the scrying bowl on the cover. 🙂

Finally, the day arrived for the book signing! I decided what to wear (business casual), and then did some last minute research on book signings to see if there was anything I was missing. First off… the email newsletter signup sheet! I put something together quickly in Excel, because I do plan to do an email newsletter, but no one actually signed up to be included. I still plan on bringing it to future signings, though.

Excel - Newsletter Signup Sheet

I also found an article mentioning the idea of having a guest book of sorts for the people who came to the signing to sign their name. I loved the idea, so I picked out a small journal that I was fairly certain could lay flat before the signing officially started, made a quick purchase, and added that to my table. I arrived about 30-45 minutes early, so I could help set up. I checked to make sure the bookstore was okay with having the candy there (they were). Then Isaac took a setup picture.

Afterward, we waited for people to show up. The very first person was one of my coworkers, as were the next couple of people. During the signing, we had one person we didn’t know show interest, to which I asked if they liked fantasy. She said yes, but she mentioned she didn’t typically buy paperbacks (instead preferring the Nook). We did give her a promo card, and Isaac said we could sign that for her, if she wanted (I was having a bit of trouble hearing her– something I hadn’t considered before that might be a problem for me. While I hear fine in most situations, if people are whispering due to being in a bookstore or library, etc, then I sometimes have a bit of trouble understanding them). After a moment, she decided to go ahead and pick up a book. I used the sticky note system so I could make sure I spelled her name right, and yay! Another book sold to a potential reader. 😀

A couple other people showed interest, and we gave them the cards, but that was about it. Overall, we sold five books during the two hours, mostly during the first hour. There were always about 2-3 groups of people in the store at a given time, with the exception of the last half hour, when the store quieted down. I would have liked to have had more people stop by, but there were two factors that might have been at play here.Magic's Stealing - Book Signing - Reader's World Sedalia

First, in regards to work, one of my co-workers mentioned that they had let a lot of people in my department go home early, which means that the event’s timing wouldn’t have been quite as convenient as it would have been if work let out at normal time (we’re in the season where jobs come in at varied intervals). Second, one of the employees at the bookstore said that one of the schools had cancelled school that day due to a stomach virus going around, and that parents might not have been taking their kids out as much as usual.

Still, I count the signing as a success, and I’m hoping to do more of these in the future. Is there still to learn? Plenty, especially as Isaac and I try to figure out how to bring more people into the events of the target audiences.

I hope you enjoyed this post. Have you attended any book signings, and if so, was there anything you found that they did that was particularly helpful or neat?

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January 25, 2016 · 11:18 pm

Thoughts on Publishing – A Video Blog Post – Reading Chapter Eleven of Magic’s Stealing

Today I’m reading chapter eleven of Magic’s Stealing. Plus, I talk about the Goodreads giveaway that recently ended, promo cards for Infinitas Publishing, and show off a couple trial cards from Battle Decks: Trials of Blood and Steel. Enjoy! 🙂

Click here for the link if you can’t see the video.

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

 

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January 24, 2016 · 12:33 pm

Last Day to Enter Goodreads Giveaway for Magic’s Stealing

Just a quick heads up– it’s the last day to enter the Goodreads Giveaway for a chance to win a signed, paperback copy of Magic’s Stealing. 🙂

Enter the giveaway!

SBibb - Magic's Stealing Cover

(Note: This giveaway is currently only open to US entrants.

I hope to run another giveaway later this year that’s open to multiple countries, so please let me know which countries you want to see available for the next giveaway, so I can get shipping estimates from the local post office.)

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