Christopher D. Schmitz's Blog, page 49
November 21, 2016
State of Writing
Pretty helter-skelter week over here. I did a small festival and sold a few books. I did manage to edit two chapters (and only have a few left to go). Lots of other stuff going on. Had to put my dog down–physically burned up from harvesting Christmas trees. Winter darkness has got me ready to burrow into my hole and write another novel. I did get some query letters off for a new, unpublished book and I checked in on my sales figures for November–pretty encouraging results and lots of new readers from interaction on my Facebook ad post.
Onwards and upwards.
November 18, 2016
Blog Tour: The Cedric Series
Cedric the Demonic Knight
The Cedric Series Book 1
by Valerie Willis
Genre: Paranormal Fantasy Romance
Lord Cedric du Romulus may be a powerful knight, but he’s no human nor does he like masquerading as one. He is a mixed blood demon made by Sorceress Morrighan in her quest to create an army of powerful underlings. Seeking out ever-stronger enemies, he devours them for their power; nothing is safe from his fangs whether they are beasts, demons, or magic wielders. When he finds himself staring at Morrighan’s castle, will he be able to follow through with his life’s ambition and leave behind his lover and wife, Lady Angeline who herself is an heir to a legacy of unknown magic.
Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22699451-cedric-the-demonic-knight
Romasanta: Father of Werewolves
The Cedric Series Book 2
by Valerie Willis
Genre: Paranormal Fantasy Romance
Romasanta finds himself a cursed man and struggles with his internal demon, literally. All his troubles start with a stone and after that he will be losing everything he’s ever loved. Faced with clinging on to what little humanity he has, he will lose it many times before reaching the end of his journey. His life’s tale will take you through time to see how every lore, every moment in history tied in with wolves all come back to him. They call him the Ancient One, others simply refer to him as the Father of Werewolves, but we know him by his name, Romasanta. Many battles will be fought before he gets closer to his goals, but will he be ready to finish what was asked of him at the very beginning of his horrible fate. Will he be able to return the Eye of Gaea and free the love of his life from the laurel tree in the Black Forest?
Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25318344-romasanta
Coming Soon….
The Oracle
The Cedric Series Book 3
By Valerie Willis
With Angeline back in Cedric’s arms and the Eye of Gaea in Romasanta’s grip, the next step in their journey begins. Knowing they will be facing the mother of dragons, Delphyne, at the top of Mt. Parnassus, they assemble a group to traverse the barrier which dissolves any technology and renders gunpowder useless. The question weighing on their minds is if two werewolves, the incubus King, and a demonized sorceress is enough to fight their way to see the Oracle?
About the Author
Valerie Willis, a sixth generation Floridian, launched her first book, Cedric the Demonic Knight, at the start of 2014 on Amazon.com. Since then, she has launched the second book to The Cedric Series, Romasanta: Father of Werewolves (2015), with several installments to come in this high rated Fantasy Romance Series. She pulls in a melting pot of mythology, folklores, history and more into her work with a remarkable amount of foreshadowing that makes reading her books a second time exciting. Also she recently published Rebirth the first book in her Teen Urban Fantasy, the Tattooed Angels Trilogy. Currently on the table to be completed is book two for the Tattooed Angels Trilogy, Judgment and book three in The Cedric Series, The Oracle.
https://www.amazon.com/Valerie-Willis/e/B00FQMV8SU/
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/Nitatsu7
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7822183.Valerie_Willis
https://www.facebook.com/ValerieWillisAuthor
https://twitter.com/Valerie_Willis
https://www.instagram.com/willis.artist/
https://www.facebook.com/CedricTheDemonicKnight/
https://www.facebook.com/TattooedAngelSeries/
Giveaway
5 Free ebook copies of any of my books of their choice & 1 Paperback of choice signed with signed bookmarks to share with friends!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
November 16, 2016
How to Do a Book Review
This is a pretty subjective topic, but it is important. Reviews are so important to an author that they can literally stand in the way of a potential bestseller/world altering book ever being discovered and being a success (especially in the early stages.)
The way most people leave a review is usually based on an internal metric that readers, authors, reviewers don’t really understand. It’s either very feelings based else it comes off a very harsh rubric (did it have any stray typos, maybe a minor format error somewhere or I didn’t quite like a minor plot thing? …sounds like a 2 or 3 star rating to me! [sarc.]) I’ve looked at some reviewers who have NEVER given a 5 star review and say “I’ll leave one when I find the perfect book.” That’s garbage. Those people shouldn’t leave reviews, honestly. Their metric is wrong and those 4s should be 5s and so on. The review system is not meant to punish authors for minor rough spots in their story—it is meant to encourage creativity and buy-in from fellow readers.
Just recently I answered a random call for help from a nice gal from Calcutta whose international driving license had lapsed on a technicality. She’d been stateside for a few years but only been driving for a few months. Because of MN’s odd law she was forced to get a new license and take the driving test. We chatted about a few things (I’d only met her once before, but I am all for paying it forward) including the driving exam. In that exam the tester starts you with a perfect score and every time you don’t score a perfect on some task you lose points until you fail and they end the test or time elapses and you get a score. That may work for things like driving tests, college term papers, and some other grading systems, but not an amazon/B&N/booksellers review. We do not look for ways to fail an author—we want others to succeed!
I strive for polite reviews which help other writers sell books rather than choosing to leave critiques over form and craft. The rate/review sections of reseller pages are not the proper place to talk about things like author’s use of grammar, etc. Reviews should talk mostly of what you liked or struggled with in the context of the story. A person has to have a fundamental hate of an author to drop a 1 or 2 star review of a book (which you can see on the 1 star reviews atheists have left on my books after discovering my day job is youth work through a religious organization). People ought to remember that an amazon/B&N page, etc. is essentially a storefront. I wouldn’t approve of painting graffiti on someone’s brick and mortar store and I don’t think it appropriate for online one either. I look for every reason to leave 5 stars rather than look for reasons to chip away at a high review for a failure to achieve perfection (because so few books realistically hit universal perfection but that doesn’t mean they aren’t still perfect in their own way.)
For me, 5 stars are deserved if there is something a person would enjoy about a book (and I understand that’s subjective)… I realize that reviews and ratings are a sales tool. Even if I didn’t particularly care for content, if it’s well done and would please a target market, it deserves 5 stars. You may disagree with my opinion, but remember that review boards are not academic institutions—they’re forums to rate enjoyability. Seriously…50 Shades of Gray was awful, as were many other highly acclaimed and best-selling stories. We consume things we enjoy, not things that are perfect in craft. There’s a reason millions of people ingest fast-food garbage food instead of scientifically crafted protein cubes and nutrition wafers. We are consumers and we go after what we like and enjoy rather than what is perfect.
Really the only reason I can think to leave 1 or 2 star reviews is if the product was grossly misrepresented (maybe a book supposedly about what is wrong with our politics and capitol hill and billed as political expose which begins with great observations and facts over three chapters before veering off to talk about how the reason for all problems is an infiltration by lizard people in disguise. That book is totally fine as long as the reader is not tricked and the content description was honest).
I’d back up my opinion here by leaving a link to all my book reviews. If you want an author to keep working at his or her craft and keep shooting for the stars, then leave them 5 stars. Helping writers succeed assures you that they will keep striving for higher levels of craft (and maybe someday hit that mark of perfection.)
November 15, 2016
Free Book until Tomorrow
Last time I did a free giveaway on my nonfiction book it hit #1 in the two categories it was listed in–I’ve done that again and would love to share it with you, too! As a sidenote, if you get it on Kindle (even if it was free) you can get the Audible version for less than $2 and listen on a commute.
Get the free book, audio, or paperback here:
https://www.amazon.com/Your-Pastor-Left-Christopher-Schmitz-ebook/dp/B01DTAKGGK
Feedback from readers:
“Every pastor and church leader needs to read this book”
“Schmitz interlaces Biblical Biblical scholarship, hard-hitting statistics, and gut-wrenching anecdotes seamlessly to create a can’t-put-it-down feeling.”
“I think it would be nearly impossible to read this book and not have a changed heart toward the functioning of our church bodies.”
November 14, 2016
State of Writing
I stall #amediting on the second fantasy novel–I hit the previous weeks goals last week in lieu of not making them then, so I completed final edits on two chapters instead of just the one. Dunno how I managed that since I had such a crazy week (took a bunch of teens to a youth camp all weekend and was pretty fried by the end of it and didn’t really start my week till Wed, even)… I guess I found little pockets of time to work on a paragraph here and there. The little things add up. I guess writing is kinda like life in that regard.
I’m eager to finish Rise of the Dragon Impervious and get to the next piece. (Second draft of Fear in a Land Without Shadows and then a rewrite/expansion of a paranormal YA that needs some attention and I feel like taking the indie-route with this spring.) I think I’m mainly so eager to finish because it was originally written alongside Grinden Proselyte and as one larger body of work so when I finished GP it felt like I was done. I’m going to shoot for another chapter this week, cross my fingers, and hope it might double again like last week.
November 12, 2016
Free Book Giveaway Weekend
Free for 5 days on Kindle! Just click to download/add to cart–today through Wednesday. Please encourage your friends to download and pass it on. If our recent elections remind us of anything, it’s how painful division and fracturing of groups can be–especially when it involves opinions about leadership!
Feedback from readers:
“Every pastor and church leader needs to read this book”
“Schmitz interlaces Biblical Biblical scholarship, hard-hitting statistics, and gut-wrenching anecdotes seamlessly to create a can’t-put-it-down feeling.”
“I think it would be nearly impossible to read this book and not have a changed heart toward the functioning of our church bodies.”
(Also, it looks like there’s a paperback sale on it for Prime members who sill save about 10%–that’s Amazon’s doing since it just came out on paperbook via their competition over at Ingram).
Data, research, and stories about American pastoral decline.
Nine of ten ministers know three or more peers who’ve been forced out of pastoral positions; a third of all pastors serve congregations who either fired the previous minister or actively forced their resignation; and at any given time, 75% of pastors in America want to quit. American church decline has reached epidemic proportions and in the last century, church influence has waned nearly 60%. Pastoral attrition is either an indicator of that problem or a central part of it. Why Your Pastor Left is full of detailed statistics and identifies the top ten “Ministry Killers” that cause pastoral stress and eventual “burnout.”
November 11, 2016
Blog Tour: The Aegis League
AEGIS RISING
The Aegis League Series Book 1
by S.S. Segran
Genre: Apocalyptic, Pre-Dystopian, Action-Adventure, Sci-Fi Thriller
#1 Amazon Kindle Bestseller – Worlds Collide . Heroes Arise
A Plane Crash… A Hidden Valley… A Mysterious Civilization… An Ancient Prophecy… A Cataclysmic Scheme… Five Unlikely Heroes
Over a remote northern forest, a small plane carrying five teenage friends – Jag, Mariah, Kody, Tegan and Aari – flies into a freak storm. Struck by lightning, the aircraft crashes and the passengers find themselves cast into a life-changing adventure.
In a hidden valley, a mysterious people gaze at the stormy sky as a glowing object with fiery wings disappears behind a mountain ridge. The astonishing sight reignites an ancient prophecy foretelling the arrival of five chosen ones destined to become bearers of light against a dark storm gathering on humanity’s horizon.
In a distant city, a secretive organization led by a shadowy figure initiates a sequence of cataclysmic events designed to wreak havoc across the planet, beginning with a remote mining site in northern Canada.
As the three worlds collide, unlikely heroes arise. Armed with powers entrusted to them by the ancient prophecy and the resilience of their life-long bond, the five teens take a stand against a malevolent foe.
For a limited time you can get Aegis Evolution (Book Three) for FREE. Visit www.aegisnovel.com
Aegis Incursion
The Aegis League Series Book 2
#1 Amazon Kindle Bestseller. Worlds Collide . Heroes Arise
A Missing World War II Bomber… A Baffling Contagion… Widespread Famine … Nations at the Brink of War… An Apocalyptic Prophecy… Five Unlikely Heroes
On a bright July morning in 1948, a B-29 Superfortress flying a top-secret research mission over Nevada crashes into the calm waters of Lake Mead and sinks, remaining lost for half a century.
It has been nearly a year since five friends – Jag, Kody, Mariah, Tegan and Aari – mysteriously reappeared in a small town in Yukon several weeks after their small plane went down in Northern Canada. All were found unharmed but with no recollection of what happened to them after the accident.
A baffling contagion is spreading across the bread-basket of North America destroying vital crops. As this dark shadow marches across the globe, widespread famine and riots bring desperate nations to the brink of war.
These seemingly unrelated events set the stage for a battle between the forces of darkness and those destined to become the ‘bearers of light’. From ravaged fields in the Great Plains to clandestine installations around the world, the Aegis League must race against time to save humanity.
Goodreads- https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25219388-aegis-incursion
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00V56524W/ref=series_dp_rw_ca_2
About the Author
S.S.Segran spent a good chunk of her childhood exploring the enchanted forest of a million tales in the mystical land of books. In her early teens, she began crafting intriguing new worlds and conjuring up characters who came alive with the flick of her wand… err… pen. Charmed by the magical response to her debut novel from readers around the world, she has embarked on a quest to take her cherished fans on a thrilling journey deeper into the Aegis universe. Even as she delves into her creative endeavors, the author intends to continue her work of supporting youths in developing countries realize their potential through her non-profit organization AegisLeague.org.
When not devouring a book or writing one, S.S.Segran can be found standing behind the cauldron of life, stirring a potion made up of chores, parkour, drawing, horseback riding and–having enjoyed jumping off a perfectly fine airplane at fifteen thousand feet – perhaps skydiving.
The author loves to hear from her readers and can be reached at shirin@sssegran.com
For more information visit sssegran.com or like her Facebook page at facebook.com/aegisnovel
˃˃˃ SUBSCRIBE today at www.aegisnovel.com and receive AEGIS EVOLUTION (Book Three) for FREE. Limited Time Offer!
https://www.amazon.com/S.S.-Segran/e/B00H2YL1P0/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1
https://www.facebook.com/aegisnovel
https://twitter.com/segranbooks
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7380291.S_S_Segran
Giveaway
a Rafflecopter giveaway
November 9, 2016
10 Way-Points to an Online Sales Roadmap
I have a few tabs open on my phone’s browser at all times–pages with some very basic advice I like to keep before me at all times. One of them is Mike Fishbein’s “How to Self-Publish a Bestseller.” I’ve discovered that there is no such thing as a sure thing. You can follow this guide exactly and you are still not likely to “sell over 400 books in 10 days.” However, it contains some very good, basic advice for indie authors and if you don’t have a written strategy for how to get your book into peoples’ hands other than airdropping them from your steam-powered dirigible at personal expense (ie. mass-giveaway due to your own independent wealth,) then this is a good structure to use as a starting point!
I based about 75% of my post on Fishbein’s advice and I’ll add a few points to his recommendations, but would start with this one: have a WRITTEN plan to fall back on. Just like I keep some tabs open until I’ve internalized every point, have something you will see frequently as a reminder and motivation to keep at it–it will seem impossible, otherwise. Q. How do you eat an elephant? A. One bite at a time.
#1, Understand how Amazon’s system works. It is a business and not a charity. If you want to succeed, know their metric for pitching sellable books to their visitors and operate within the guidelines.
#2, Make sure your book is up to snuff. For the love of God, hire an editor, beg a beta reader, and be open to rewriting. Don’t just “release a book into the wild.” Read my backblogs if you want to see me rant more about this. (This should go without saying… but I find the need to say it anyway).
#3, Have a good cover! We all judge books by their cover. Deal with it and understand that fact. Got it? Good, now go sell some blood and pay a cover designer for some artwork. Freeware covers are okay for some genres (poetry, Christian devo, etc.) and absolutely unforgiveable for others (fantasy, sci-fi, etc.)
#4, Have a good title. My nonfiction, Why Your Pastor Left, has hooked many people who intended to casually walk by a booksigning table. Have you ever looked at a sign and not read it? No! our brains don’t operate that way–take advantage of that automatic function. It’s a sharp hook, make sure it’s got a barb to hook your fish!
#5, Always be improving–this applies to your hooks/blurbs and descriptions at your online outlets. Feel free to go back and rewrite a product description if you think of a better wording.
#6, Get reviews! Beg if you have to. Without reviews nobody will buy your book. That is all. Either live by this and keep trying or put your head in the sand and fade away with more angst and frustration than the early 2000’s emo phase.
#7, Look at what others are doing for marketing. Mix it up with freebies, contests, etc. Don’t balk at paid services for promotion–instead find something that will fit into your budget (but expect to pay something, even if a low amount, if you want success here.) Make a marketing plan that includes some kind of budget.
#8, Build your platform! Want people to see/discover you? You will have to be everywhere–and that risks Bilbo Baggins syndrome (too little butter scraped across too much bread.) I made a plan and schedule for social media posts, blogs, etc. I’m not where I want to be, but I keep plugging away at it.
#9, Network with others. Don’t look at other authors as competition… they will be your biggest supporters and sources of advice, comfort, and catharsis. Be someone who supports others–that means you may need to be proactive in reaching out. Need a place to start? Click that follow button on my blog or leave a comment on a post of mine, interact with me on social media. I’m making myself available to be your first follow/connection. Shoot me a message, I almost always find time to respond.
#10, Start somewhere–you won’t be ready to sell 400 in ten days out of the gate, but maybe in a year after platform building you can achieve this. Take advice from others and keep working the system you’ve designed. You can do this… one blog at a time. One marketing attempt at a time. One tweet at a time. You don’t have to start at point #1–the writing craft is a lot less linear than outsiders realize. Pick a reasonable place to begin and start working your plan–just make sure you start.
November 7, 2016
State of Writing
So I didn’t get two chapters edited… I tried but only did a chapter and a half. Between hunting opener, a crazy busy week at work, and some huge curve-balls thrown into my life this week I didn’t get much time to sit and be me… and believe me, I could use it. Not sure what I’ll accomplish this week–I’m just gonna surprise myself.
November 2, 2016
4 Things to Watch When Self-Editing
I do book reviews and I often check in on what other people think of books if I find an advertisement to be eye-catching or have extremely brutal or stellar reviews. I know this is an odd way to start a post about self-editing, right? Just bear with me.
One particular Fantasy book series that was creeping up on ten books had amassed a lot of reviews and criticism. I actually started looking under the hood (so to speak) of the author’s operation for two reasons: 1) the top FB response was a rip because the advertisement had stolen a screen-grab of Gallifrey as its image (Dr. Who’s home planet,) and that got my interest up. 2) with a lot of legitimate complaints, there were so many sales (though so many were free) and a high number of reviews and I was interested in how such a lackluster author could amass such a following (although it’s easy to see this is the case across the board in other things such as the music industry, politics, etc.) …but this guy was a regular guy, just like me, banging on the keys at his kitchen table. (I asked him for a blog interview a year ago to talk about platform building because he obviously knows some stuff—but no dice).
Many of the complaints circled around some very real issues and legitimate complaints. The author changed the spelling of a minor character’s name at some point mid-series. The timeline was out whack in some others where the author obviously cut and pasted a large section and messed with the continuity. A character who had been killed was suddenly alive again for a scene. And grammar… doing grammer un goodly will makes mad peoples—a large number of reviewers suggested they knew the answer: the writer never got beyond the first draft and went straight to self-publishing with the next installment. Poor technical writing kicks the reader out of the immersive world of the story.
Self-editing is something that all writers ought to be doing after the first draft is in… also, it is not sufficient for your final draft. Get fresh eyes at some point down the line. Here are a couple key problems writers make in rough drafts and some easy tools to help overcome them.
Continuity errors: screwing up the timeline/order of events. Draw a timeline to help track when things happen. Also, write an outline—even if you don’t use one to write, use it to edit—go back and write an outline after the fact to help spot errors.
Character issues (descriptions, personality traits, purpose to the plot arc): keep a dossier or dramatis personae as if you were writing a wiki for your world. Mark when the character is killed, affiliations, etc. so that you don’t change a minor character mid-stream. Again, you can do this after the first draft and use it to edit.
Grammar errors: there are two ways to tighten this up 1) don’t make errors and always write well the first time, 2) have people who will help spot errors and fix them. You need both selections because your writing will never be perfect. In regards to #1 skill is earned by editing and learning mistakes and how to avoid them so practice writing and editing (even the works of other authors—find a peer group!) Write short fiction, it will give you opportunities to start a story, stop a story, and everything in between and then chances to edit, learn, rewrite. For #2, get beta readers for fresh eyes and then get an editor—expect to pay money! Invest in your story if you believe in it.
Telepoofing: this is that writing magic that comes from suspending disbelief and we see it all the time in Hollywood. The bad guy has the cure to the disease which will kill our hero in 24 hours and the villain, after infecting your west-coast MC has fled to his secret lair in Europe back in chapter five. After the rest of the events (discovering the location, a brief romantic interlude, a stopover at the CDC, MC rescues a batch of kittens), the story ramps up and the intensity peaks—MC has to get the cure or die and “Poof!” he’s teleported to Europe in search of evil Dr. McMeanypants’s hideout. The action takes place “off camera” and the story goes on… but even a nonstop flight from L.A to Europe will take at least 16 hours. Sometimes you can get away with things, but understand that you can only push the envelope of the details so much. That Timeline and Outline will help here, too, depending on what details you pay attention to. If there is a timer on a plot point (poison, bomb, etc.) pay attention to the clock. If there is a supernatural thing at play (vampires, werewolves, etc.) pay attention to when the sun goes down and the moon phases. If you mention guns being fired, get your calibers and ammo types right (shotguns won’t kill people beyond close range and a .22 is not a sniper rifle). Remember that the devil is in the details.
Self-editing tip: If you mention specific details or if some details are essential to the plot make sure they are right. Everything else can be left beneath a thin veneer of vagueness and left to the reader’s assumption… a limp is a great character detail but you don’t need to mention which leg or reference it frequently… not everybody in your world needs or deserves a detailed description of their complexion, hair color, dental alignment, etc. Readers will fill in the details, let them immerse themselves in your writing and make assumptions about what a house looks like, or what kind of car someone drives, etc. Don’t describe what they are seeing from an outside perspective, tighten your writing skill and loosen your descriptive details so that they experience your world from within.
