Christopher D. Schmitz's Blog, page 18

Review: The Witchstone

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The Witchstone by Victoria Randall is absolutely spellbinding!

The story is a wonderful tale and thick with history and worldbuilding that is seamlessly interwoven into the narrative (I especially loved the usage of books with author names and snippets of text that are interspersed throughout the tale—especially the first several chapters—as the tale unfolds.) The Witchstone intertwines a few narratives from different characters, all seeking one terrible hell-borne stone.

Randall’s story has the feel of a mystery as the mythopoeia unrolls like a scroll during the adventure. The author’s words during her beautifully written introduction and explanation of her personal journey and explanation of thematic elements are especially relevant. At the heart of The Witchstone is one highly important theme I got to interact with readers about following an article I wrote (published at Lorehaven/SpecFaith)… that is, magic often extracts a steep and terrible price—one which spell casters often think they are capable of paying, but rarely are.

The characters and setting create a rich tapestry that hearkens back to the golden age of fantasy, and while Randall has recently updated and released this title independently, it holds a certain relevance and relatability that is timeless. (Incidentally, I love this cover which throws back to that era and the distress lines on the graphics made me buy in immediately. You can’t fake the kind of authenticity that Randall’s relaunched title possesses.)

I got a free copy of this book in exchange for a review at Inside the Inkwell blog. You should check it out on amazon, by clicking here.

State of Writing

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So I had what felt like a productive week. I got a few blogs written for the future, talked with a few libraries over the weekend, and got some recording done in the studio. I was also offered a publishing contract… a pretty terrible contract—you can read about it when the blog releases in a few weeks (I had a story perform very well on Wattpad and one of their up and coming competitors offered me a check and continued royalties to sell out on it. No thanks.)

In the midst of all the political nonsense that continues to shake the western world I escaped and dedicated some time to write as a means of escaping and put down several thousand words this week in two different stories I’m working on.

Hopefully, more to come this week! I’d like to keep working on the new Dekker’s Dozen installment and finish the first chapter of my new fantasy (not a TKR title). Also, I gotta get that audiobook up for Darque Gates of Koth—TKR#1 just dropped the other day and has had a lot of downloads already… I gotta keep my momentum strong.

Unique Marketing Approaches

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I don’t talk enough about marketing. That is in part because I’m not great at it: it seems like that magic sauce so many people have eludes me. Maybe it’s because I’ve tried to replicate what works for other people… that only gets a person like me so far (I’m kind-of an off-the-wall type and it’s hard to put me in a box.)

Below are some great marketing ideas I’m going to try. If you’re as unique as I am, they might be the kind of marketing ideas you need! Here are three fresh ideas I’m planning to test drive…

Here’s an idea from Bookbub that I liked about real-life promotion events.

Create a “real-world” experience to supplement a book

When Mark Leslie Lefebvre, former Director of Self-Publishing & Author Relations at Kobo, launched Haunted Hamilton, he decided to turn his book into a “real-world” experience.

The book launch at the local library included a traditional reading, Q&A, and signing. But to really shore up the number of turnouts, he recruited a local host-walk group to run a tour visiting three haunted spots near the library.

He ended up with a launch attendance of over 100 people, and with a spot on morning TV to talk about the launch!

Now, ghost walks aren’t suitable for 99% of book launches — but that doesn’t mean you can’t organize some activity that will:

Attract a larger audience to your launch.
Make it stand out from the “biscuits and wine in plastic cups” crowd.
Get people excited to read, share, and review the new book.

Lefebvre says, “The concept is adding in real-world three-dimensional experiences associated with the book itself that will draw people in to attend and participate in the event. It can be directly tied in to the book itself, or be more associated with a tangential element associated with the book or the writer.”

The trick with this tactic is to find something relevant to your book’s content. This may be easier with nonfiction, but you can always link in some kind of tie-in that will build reader confidence.

An author friend of mine sells books about local, paranormal history. He has used live events to set himself up as a paranormal expert and his personal appearances are usually sold out and drive his book sales. He also runs a popular podcast.

A second idea I got from Bookbub (though it’s hardly new) is to use podcasts.

Use podcasts to promote a new book

Marketing guru Rob Eagar has helped numerous books hit the New York Times bestseller list. For him, “one of the smartest and most underused book marketing ideas is using iTunes to line up author interviews on popular podcasts for free.”

Podcasts have soared in popularity over the past few years. As of February 2018, there are over half a million podcasts on iTunes — and many of them are always looking for fresh guests. And we’re not just talking about book-related podcasts (although there are hundreds exploring topics from writing tips to book reviews and recommendations). Look for shows that fit into your niche.

I’ve had a few recommended to me from friends including The Sell More Books Show, The Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing Podcast, and Novel Marketing Podcast by Jim Rubart

Several folks I know are die-hards for AMS (Amazon Marketing Services.)

A fellow author in my writing group online recommends Brian Meek’s Mastering Amazon Ads. I’m planning to pick up a copy soon. She is in the same boat as myself: not an expert by any means, and encourages others to follow Meek’s advice on every step while insinuating that failure for it to work probably says more about a writers copywriting skills or ability to draft ad copy than it does about Meek’s advice. Ouch… but she’s probably right!

Bonus Idea, I recently purchased the Busy Mom’s Guide to Novel Marketing (also by some folks in my writers circle.) I’m only a quarter of the way through it, but there is lots of gold in here… and it’s not just for Mom’s, but it is a good tool for busy people.

Review: Cryptofauna

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I wasn’t sure what I was getting into with Patrick Canning’s Cryptofauna. When I was queried for a review, I almost passed and I’m glad I did not.

Down on his luck Jim is something of an Arthur Dent kind of character from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy… amid his life falling apart all around him, he is whisked away on an incredible (and mostly unbelievable) adventure. The humor is similar as well and Canning is able to write some incredibly potent hooks into the story (the first line, for one) as well as some concepts that are normally so antithetical that they feel absurd—but in context, they are the right kind of absurd that makes the story work.

Cons? I’m not a fan of the cover and there are some minor format glitches with the justification, but nothing to get in the way of the story.

The book reads like a pan-galactic garble blaster: Da Vinci Code smashed up with The Game but wrapped around Hitchhiker’s Guide. If dark humor and a touch of absurdity is your thing, check out Cryptofauna and if you like it, also check out another book series that it reads like, Scott Burtness’s Monsters in the Midwest series.

State of Writing

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I got rough outlines done for the next Dekker’s Dozen novelette and for my untitled fantasy novel. I did some recording on a few new chapters for Wolf of the Tesseract: Darque Gates of Koth. There’s not much I can hope to do this week except continue on that course… refine outlines and keep recording.

My plan is to write a sample couple chapters on this fantasy WIP and then pitch it to the company who was talking with me (it’s in a shared universe). Hopefully I can get a thumbs up or down with a completed outline and an early sample. If it’s a no-go I can complete the story and remove some of the trademarked elements.

I’m also still waiting on getting Fear in a Land Without Shadows back from editing. That will be my priority once I get it back and I’m excited to get cracking on a final version around the time that the new Writers Market for Lit Agents releases.

The Problem With Purple Prose

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If you want your book to read somewhere on the spectrum between Volgon poetry and James Joyce’s notorious Finnegan’s Wake, then purple prose is for you.

While running one of my Indie book seminars we discussed the concept of “purple prose,” which is prose that is too elaborate or ornate. Basically, it’ stringing a bunch of high falutin, fancypants words together to try and impress (or sound smarter than/overwhelm the reader). It’s a trapping of those endowed with big vocabularies.

In my course, when we discussed things to avoid and brief writing (back cover summary, etc.) I read aloud a summary that a writer had sent to me as part of a query while asking for a book review. They obviously meant to impress me. The end result was very, very bad. Unreadable.

Purple prose is flowery, and therein lies the problem: it obfuscates the object of our surveille neath said sheaves of ornate patois. (That means it partly hides what we mean to say.)

The best possible way of telling a story is to simply say why you mean and to say it simply. Purple prose is often a sign of a mediocre story dressed up with fancy words meant to clever it up. To be vulgar: it’s an ugly woman wearing tons of makeup. A better way is to write an amazing story told with as simple of language as possible. That creates the lowest entry level to enjoying your story; a middle school reading level is about right.

This is a prevalent mistake made especially by self-published authors and one I often see in submissions to my review service. It often makes me think of the Friends episode where Joey discovers the thesaurus in Microsoft Word. He changes every single word in a letter he wrote hoping that it will make him sound smarter.

 

 

Review: Gift of the Shaper

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D.L. Jennings uses tight language and well-paced action to move his hero, Thornton Woods,  along on his quest to save his father in Gift of the Shaper.

This is very much a coming of age tale as Thornton comes into his own, alongside his friend Miera, at the beginning of the book. But Thornton is not a stranger to hardship, as the son of a blacksmith.

Jennings’ world is fraught with peril and his writing reminds me somewhat of Robert Jordan. The lands of Derenar and Gal’Dorok likewise have original races and creations that differ from the traditional fantasy ones, although some of the timeless tropes remain. Like Jordan and Sanderson, Jennings uses seamless world-building pieces including old myths, histories, and prophecies in order to firmly establish his realm and its people. The language elements are beautiful and consistent and Otherworld is much greater and larger than the slice that we are treated to; we will likely see more of it as the Highglade Series unfolds.

If you’re looking for a good but of mythopoeic fantasy, and a solid story about good vs evil, check out Gift of the Shaper. I got my copy for free to review on Inside the Inkwell blog.

You can check out Gift of the Shaper out by clicking here.

State of Writing

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I was able to complete my audio version of my Dekker’s Dozen prequel. I didn’t get much progress on the second WotT novel’s audio, but I will keep working at it this week!

I have a short story out on submission, now, and I’ve managed to start putting together for a kind of sword and sorcery tale. Once the outline is complete and ready I will pitch it to the folks over at SFR as it’s a story in the Dragon Dice game universe. When I last spoke with their execs, they were interested, but some time has lapsed and so I figure it’s worth putting together something solid to follow on the heels of their very successful Kickstarter campaign. If it ultimately doesn’t work out, I can always change a few of the world-building elements (places, trademarked race names, etc.) and have a solid one-shot fantasy.

I’m going to keep working on outlines for the untitled fantasy as well as the next Dekker’s Dozen outline (I’d like to have two more short stories in rough draft by Christmas) while I wait for my editor to get finished with Fear in a Land Without Shadows. It should be ready any week now.

In the meanwhile, I’m also booking self-publishing workshops and toying with the idea of starting a patreon page… but we’ll see.

The Createspace/KDP merger & Migration

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So I like Createspace. It’s simple, efficient, and powerful. There have been problems in the past (as a company) but they’ve mostly been ironed out in recent years. And now… they are disappearing, pending a migration/merger with KDP which now will print physical books. All recent communication from Createspace claims it will happen “within the next couple weeks.” I suspect the process will finalize around the new year.

Here’s the details and what it may mean for you:

If you have books at Createspace you will need to migrate them to KDP. Your KDP dashboard will now handle all of the sales and be a one-stop-shop for all of your publishing via Amazon’s services. No official word yet on whether or not they will forcibly migrate your files into the new system or under what conditions they will or do that. I assume that they will eventually enact a forcible relocation.

My primary beef with KDP is that, compared to CS, their customer service is garbage. I’ve had some issues with them in the past (and have an ongoing one even now). The worst part is that KDP support does not have a phone line to speak with a human and get a timely response. I have seen mention of phone help for the migration, but I assume (that if it exists) it is only for CS/KDP migration issues. I was speaking with someone at Amazon support the other day, and even they could not connect me to someone at KDP. That’s not a thing I’m very fond of.

There is no price increases, except for where there are price increases. Royalties and print/author costs will remain the same except for in Europe. The UK assesses an increase which will amount to a necessary couple dollar increase in UK titles that are printed there—but only if your book is less than 110 pages. Pay extra attention to their online calculator’s as you publish any book under that margin.

Another change is the payment schedule. Expect a delay in royalties. CS paid out every 30 days. KDP pays on a 60 day schedule, so be aware that there is a 2 month delay from the point of sale until deposit day.

There is a loss of direct help/services for those needing to enlist the help of editors and cover designers. CS’s service, from what I’ve heard, were higher than the norm. It had originally been theorized that the migration was a ploy to force renewed interest in these services which may be available at KDP. CS shuttered their service division many months ago, and there may be some truth to the theory. I’m not qualified to say, but I will recommend that you get involved in writing groups to find quality services from users who would give endorsements of people they’ve used. Additionally, there are many sites like fiverr.com which have low cost alternatives and I have used many folks there with only little disappointment.

There are two big changes which I do like. When you made changes in CS and then authorized them (when the book was locked for review) it switched to Out of Print on the Amazon customer side making it temporarily unavailable. KDP Print will not do that. They retain the previous files and will simply create the previous version of the files eliminating a couple-day period of unavailability, which can be big, especially if you wind up travelling or out of network access for a period which can amplify the length of unavailability.

The other thing I like is that KDP distributes print books in Japan (I didn’t even know CS did not). I have a decent following on my sci-fi (Dekker’s Dozen series) from Japanese readers via Wattpad. Hopefully this will open some additional doors without closing others.

If you are not down with everything happening over at KDP, the next best shot is to use IngramSpark. CS was more powerful in its setup system but also extremely easy to use. IS is a step up from CS in power, and several steps up in ease of use, so look for plenty of guidance if you go that route. I do fully recommend IS if you’ve got the capability to use what it offers.

I have not yet migrated my files over, but I plan to do so soon using the process KDP customer support detailed in an online video. Hopefully this will be a good thing (fingers crossed.)

Review: The Dead Sea Gospel

[image error]James Boswell’s debut novel, The Dead Sea Gospel, proves that there is plenty of mystery and intrigue revolving around the ancient world… and around the modern one which grasps to understand it. He pens an intricate web very Dan Brown style about a new discovery: a scroll believed to come from the first century… one that was possibly written by Jesus himself. Everyone wants it… and some are prepared to kill for it. (An intriguing tale, and one worth reviewing at my Inside the Inkwell blog).

Boswell’s characters are likeable and believable. I especially found the supporting cast (some of the college students, especially Rebecca Chatsworth,) and scenes to be very believable and even endearing.

While Brad Chase is suddenly thrust into the spotlight during this discovery, he has the chance to begin grappling with truth—and the light of such overwhelming truth can only do one thing: change the world… a world which many people want to remain as-is.

The writing and verbiage in The Dead Sea Gospel proves Boswell’s unyielding dedication to the craft and his desire to make every sentence perfect. The easy way the narrative rolls makes it easy to see that Boswell spent great effort and time on every detail.

This is a book you won’t want to miss. Pick up a copy now by clicking here!