B.E. Sanderson's Blog, page 40
August 5, 2018
I Haz a Sad
Yesterday, I was scrolling through my newsfeed stopping here and there to check out new-to-me books in the marketing listings. Which I am wont to do on a lazy Sunday morning. Especially when I had to DNF a book the night before. (A whole other sad, lemme tell ya.)
Along the way, I saw a book that looked interesting along with a plea from the author with hopes people would find and love their book as much as they loved writing it. Sounds like a plea I'd make, and I'm always on the hunt for underappreciated authors, so I clicked the link. No reviews. Okay. A ranking approaching 3,000,000th. Oh, no. Poor thing. Read the marketing copy...
First off, the marketing copy could've worked for any generic fantasy novel written by anyone, it was so unspecific. It told me nothing about the book I was thinking about buying other than it was another brother n sister fantasy book in which they'd be discovering things and fighting things or some such blah.
So, I did the 'Look inside' thing. First person... okay. But the beginning reads like a note from the author telling the reader what they're going to find inside and it really didn't sound interesting. a few paragraphs later, scene break. Okay, I thinks to meself, time for the story to start. Nope, not really. The beginning was a hot mess. MC goes to find his sister at the mall and ends up somewhere else. BAM! There you are at a pivotal moment. No lead in whatsoever. Over the course of like two paragraphs.
And here's the kicker. The book shows it has a publisher* (one I've never heard of, so it may just be that the author made up a publisher name himself - which I hope he has a DBA for) and it's listed at $6.99.
New author, first book, unknown publisher... $7 ebook. Umm, no. I'm not willing to take that kind of chance with my money. And judging from the sales ranking, neither is anyone else. As poor as my sales have been throughout the past 4 years, I have never had a ranking that low. Hell, I don't think I've ever seen a ranking that low in all the time I've been buying books at Amazon.
Now, as bad as the sum of my experiences with the beginning of this book were, I might've given it a chance at 99c. I'm a sucker for the underdog sometimes. His heartfelt plea tugged at my self-published author soul. But my pocketbook is a hard-hearted thing. I can support 2-7 other new authors for the price of his book (at 99c to $2.99 ea - which about all I'm willing to pay to take a chance).
All of the above is what gave me a sad. I can see this struggling new author wringing his hands and wondering why the book of his heart is dying in the cold light of reader opinion. He may never write another book. And that makes me sad. Because even as bad as it was in the beginning, there was something there that made me wonder if, perhaps, it wasn't such a bad book after all. With some editing. And a a bit of marketing finesse on the cover copy. (Kind of like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree. All it needs is a little love to be beautiful.)
I would've told him this in his initial post to the marketing group, but these days you can't be sure when a bit of constructive criticism will make you a target for psycho. So, while I can't help him directly, maybe this post will serve as a cautionary tale to other new writers. Don't do the things that this guy did.
*If the publisher listed is an actual publisher, they should be horsewhipped for what they're doing to this poor kid. (Yeah, I wouldn't say kid except his bio says something about him graduating high school in 2010. A year older than my daughter. So, he's a kid to me. And another thing - don't put high school stuff in your bio. Just don't.)
Along the way, I saw a book that looked interesting along with a plea from the author with hopes people would find and love their book as much as they loved writing it. Sounds like a plea I'd make, and I'm always on the hunt for underappreciated authors, so I clicked the link. No reviews. Okay. A ranking approaching 3,000,000th. Oh, no. Poor thing. Read the marketing copy...
First off, the marketing copy could've worked for any generic fantasy novel written by anyone, it was so unspecific. It told me nothing about the book I was thinking about buying other than it was another brother n sister fantasy book in which they'd be discovering things and fighting things or some such blah.
So, I did the 'Look inside' thing. First person... okay. But the beginning reads like a note from the author telling the reader what they're going to find inside and it really didn't sound interesting. a few paragraphs later, scene break. Okay, I thinks to meself, time for the story to start. Nope, not really. The beginning was a hot mess. MC goes to find his sister at the mall and ends up somewhere else. BAM! There you are at a pivotal moment. No lead in whatsoever. Over the course of like two paragraphs.
And here's the kicker. The book shows it has a publisher* (one I've never heard of, so it may just be that the author made up a publisher name himself - which I hope he has a DBA for) and it's listed at $6.99.
New author, first book, unknown publisher... $7 ebook. Umm, no. I'm not willing to take that kind of chance with my money. And judging from the sales ranking, neither is anyone else. As poor as my sales have been throughout the past 4 years, I have never had a ranking that low. Hell, I don't think I've ever seen a ranking that low in all the time I've been buying books at Amazon.
Now, as bad as the sum of my experiences with the beginning of this book were, I might've given it a chance at 99c. I'm a sucker for the underdog sometimes. His heartfelt plea tugged at my self-published author soul. But my pocketbook is a hard-hearted thing. I can support 2-7 other new authors for the price of his book (at 99c to $2.99 ea - which about all I'm willing to pay to take a chance).
All of the above is what gave me a sad. I can see this struggling new author wringing his hands and wondering why the book of his heart is dying in the cold light of reader opinion. He may never write another book. And that makes me sad. Because even as bad as it was in the beginning, there was something there that made me wonder if, perhaps, it wasn't such a bad book after all. With some editing. And a a bit of marketing finesse on the cover copy. (Kind of like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree. All it needs is a little love to be beautiful.)
I would've told him this in his initial post to the marketing group, but these days you can't be sure when a bit of constructive criticism will make you a target for psycho. So, while I can't help him directly, maybe this post will serve as a cautionary tale to other new writers. Don't do the things that this guy did.
*If the publisher listed is an actual publisher, they should be horsewhipped for what they're doing to this poor kid. (Yeah, I wouldn't say kid except his bio says something about him graduating high school in 2010. A year older than my daughter. So, he's a kid to me. And another thing - don't put high school stuff in your bio. Just don't.)
August 2, 2018
Coming Soon!
Okay, so for the past couple weeks, you've been seeing a coming soon thing over on the right there. It's brown and it's boring, but it got the job done until I had a cover to show you.
Well, I have a cover to show you now!
And back cover copy!
Looks aren’t everything… And curses aren’t real… Yeah, right.
Burgeoning supermodel, Jeni Braxxon is all about fun parties, cold drinks, and hot guys. But when she wakes up one morning as ugly as an infectious baboon’s butt, she understands how real this curse business can be. Too bad for Jeni, uncovering the existence of magic in her mundane world won’t uncover who cast this heinous spell or why. With the list of people she could’ve pissed off lately, the possibilities seem endless.
And as if she wasn’t already up shit’s creek, bigger worries keep slapping her upside her ugly head. Like her jerkstick brother’s disappearance, and why the police are trying to lay the blame at her pretty, pink feet. This is all way too much for a gal who lives by her looks, but she doesn’t really have any other choice. Higher stakes are on the line and, pretty damned cursed or not, she’s got to make it right.
Even if it kills her.
---------------------
I'm still on track to have this out on August 29th. I'm hoping to get the edits completed in time to put it up for pre-order on the 18th, but that's iffy. We'll see.
And I'll have a Goodreads listing up shortly. Stop back later for a link so you can Want to Read it.
I really hope you guys like this one. It's definitely snarky and fun.
Well, I have a cover to show you now!
And back cover copy!Looks aren’t everything… And curses aren’t real… Yeah, right.
Burgeoning supermodel, Jeni Braxxon is all about fun parties, cold drinks, and hot guys. But when she wakes up one morning as ugly as an infectious baboon’s butt, she understands how real this curse business can be. Too bad for Jeni, uncovering the existence of magic in her mundane world won’t uncover who cast this heinous spell or why. With the list of people she could’ve pissed off lately, the possibilities seem endless.
And as if she wasn’t already up shit’s creek, bigger worries keep slapping her upside her ugly head. Like her jerkstick brother’s disappearance, and why the police are trying to lay the blame at her pretty, pink feet. This is all way too much for a gal who lives by her looks, but she doesn’t really have any other choice. Higher stakes are on the line and, pretty damned cursed or not, she’s got to make it right.
Even if it kills her.
---------------------
I'm still on track to have this out on August 29th. I'm hoping to get the edits completed in time to put it up for pre-order on the 18th, but that's iffy. We'll see.
And I'll have a Goodreads listing up shortly. Stop back later for a link so you can Want to Read it.
I really hope you guys like this one. It's definitely snarky and fun.
July 31, 2018
Editors and Editing
On Monday, I said I'd talk a bit in another post about finding a good editor. This is the other post.
First off, you probably need an editor. Sure, there are writers who can edit their own work successfully. Those are few and far between. I can count the ones I know on a single hand. And I ain't one of them. An editor is there to find things you won't or can't see. Most writers are too close to their work to actually see the flaws in it. I know that after I've read and re-read and lived a set of pages for however long it takes me to get it from the first paragraph to actual publication, I can no longer see what actually is on the page. The words as I thought them might differ from the words as I wrote them, but I won't know because the thought words are paramount. It's a thing. :shrug:
Plus, you might think a certain scene is really awesome, but an objective eye might see it differently. They might think that scene is awesome, too, but belongs further back. Or they might think it doesn't fit at all. And once they point it out, you might see it, too. (Or not, depending on your mulishness.)
Okay, so you've admitted to yourself that you need an editor. Where do you find one? Well, in my case, for Dying Embers, I asked my writer friends if they could recommend anyone. And I got a good editor who did well for that book. She was also reasonably priced. (We'll come back to 'reasonably priced' later.) And, if I remember correctly, she edited in a timely fashion.
She also edited Accidental Death for me, which did not go quite as well for any number of guessed at reasons. I paid her and then I found someone else to edit behind her and fix what she didn't. Which is how I got my current editor, by the way.
Now, on the full disclosure thing, my current editor is someone who I've been friends with for years. Friends long before I asked her to look over Accidental Death and tell me if she thought it needed more edits than my editor at the time was pointing out. I trusted her to give it to me straight. And she did. And she does. BUT... I do agree with the traditional wisdom that you shouldn't have friends be your editors. With one caveat. If your friend can be objective, they may also work well as an editor. If they can't, then all you're doing is screwing yourself. AWE is objective. She kicks my ass when I need it and doesn't attempt to spare my feelings if they need a little bruising. I mean, she's sorry when she has to do it, but she knows it's necessary for the success of the book. She's never mean about it*.
And she's reasonably priced. Yes, friends pay friends for services rendered. I wouldn't have it any other way.
On the reasonably priced front... I ran across a writer asking a question on a FB group recently. She was asking about pricing for edits because someone had quoted her like $1000 for a 65K word manuscript. Ummmm.... about twice what I pay. And about twice what I paid the other editor. And about twice what a lot of other people are paying their editors. I'm not sure if the editor giving that double-cost quote had an awesome resume of experiences - like they used to be the editor for Michael Crichton or Nora Roberts or, I don't know, Gutenberg. But I doubt seriously an editor with super duper qualifications would go pimping their services on FB groups. About .0075 per word is the general yardstick. If they're asking .015, run away and find a different editor. Or ask them why they think they can charge that much. Maybe they have a Doctorate in Editing Fictional Manuscripts from like Harvard or Oxford.
On the other hand, you do get what you pay for, so if you've got someone telling you they can edit your novel-sized manuscript for $25, you should probably run away, too. That one just doesn't pass the smell test. Sniff, sniff... ewww.
In the end, finding an editor is hard work, but it's oh-so necessary. And if you find the right one, hand onto them with both hands. Your readers will thank you for it.
*The other day a writer I follow on FB was lamenting a note he'd gotten from his editor about the climax of his book. In my opinion, the note was just mean. And unprofessional. And unhelpful. But that's me.
First off, you probably need an editor. Sure, there are writers who can edit their own work successfully. Those are few and far between. I can count the ones I know on a single hand. And I ain't one of them. An editor is there to find things you won't or can't see. Most writers are too close to their work to actually see the flaws in it. I know that after I've read and re-read and lived a set of pages for however long it takes me to get it from the first paragraph to actual publication, I can no longer see what actually is on the page. The words as I thought them might differ from the words as I wrote them, but I won't know because the thought words are paramount. It's a thing. :shrug:
Plus, you might think a certain scene is really awesome, but an objective eye might see it differently. They might think that scene is awesome, too, but belongs further back. Or they might think it doesn't fit at all. And once they point it out, you might see it, too. (Or not, depending on your mulishness.)
Okay, so you've admitted to yourself that you need an editor. Where do you find one? Well, in my case, for Dying Embers, I asked my writer friends if they could recommend anyone. And I got a good editor who did well for that book. She was also reasonably priced. (We'll come back to 'reasonably priced' later.) And, if I remember correctly, she edited in a timely fashion.
She also edited Accidental Death for me, which did not go quite as well for any number of guessed at reasons. I paid her and then I found someone else to edit behind her and fix what she didn't. Which is how I got my current editor, by the way.
Now, on the full disclosure thing, my current editor is someone who I've been friends with for years. Friends long before I asked her to look over Accidental Death and tell me if she thought it needed more edits than my editor at the time was pointing out. I trusted her to give it to me straight. And she did. And she does. BUT... I do agree with the traditional wisdom that you shouldn't have friends be your editors. With one caveat. If your friend can be objective, they may also work well as an editor. If they can't, then all you're doing is screwing yourself. AWE is objective. She kicks my ass when I need it and doesn't attempt to spare my feelings if they need a little bruising. I mean, she's sorry when she has to do it, but she knows it's necessary for the success of the book. She's never mean about it*.
And she's reasonably priced. Yes, friends pay friends for services rendered. I wouldn't have it any other way.
On the reasonably priced front... I ran across a writer asking a question on a FB group recently. She was asking about pricing for edits because someone had quoted her like $1000 for a 65K word manuscript. Ummmm.... about twice what I pay. And about twice what I paid the other editor. And about twice what a lot of other people are paying their editors. I'm not sure if the editor giving that double-cost quote had an awesome resume of experiences - like they used to be the editor for Michael Crichton or Nora Roberts or, I don't know, Gutenberg. But I doubt seriously an editor with super duper qualifications would go pimping their services on FB groups. About .0075 per word is the general yardstick. If they're asking .015, run away and find a different editor. Or ask them why they think they can charge that much. Maybe they have a Doctorate in Editing Fictional Manuscripts from like Harvard or Oxford.
On the other hand, you do get what you pay for, so if you've got someone telling you they can edit your novel-sized manuscript for $25, you should probably run away, too. That one just doesn't pass the smell test. Sniff, sniff... ewww.
In the end, finding an editor is hard work, but it's oh-so necessary. And if you find the right one, hand onto them with both hands. Your readers will thank you for it.
*The other day a writer I follow on FB was lamenting a note he'd gotten from his editor about the climax of his book. In my opinion, the note was just mean. And unprofessional. And unhelpful. But that's me.
July 30, 2018
Typos, Flaws, and Formatting Errors
Typos, flaws, formatting errors... No matter how hard we try to scrub them all out, they still seem to pop up in any manuscript.
As a writer, they bug the hell out of me. I'm sure they bug the hell out of my editor, too. The two of us try our damnedest to get those buggers right the hell out of my books before they go to publication.
If you follow me on Facebook, you will occasionally see me point out where people have egregiously left one in a short FB post somewhere - usually the news. The shorter the written item, the more irritated I get about it. And the fact that someone somewhere was actually paid good money to write short paragraph or two with errors sends me 'round the bend.
Now, you may have seen a boo-boo or two in my blog posts or my FB posts. :shrug: I do the best I can but those things are usually written on the fly. And no one is paying me to write them. (Sure, in the bigger scheme of things, everything I write goes toward selling books so in a way, they are 'paid for', but let's not split that hare*.) Hell, there are probably errors in this post. I'm writing it on the fly at just before 6am, so it is what it is.
As a reader, I forgive a lot of typos, flaws, and formatting errors. Provided the story is good. I read one recently where the author kept using YOUR in place of YOU'RE. But the story was enthralling, so I got over it. Read another where the formatting was off and there was a space between every paragraph - like you see here. They either forget to turn off the 'Add Space Between Paragraph' function in Word or they just didn't care. I got over that, too.
Hell, I've run across books that were totally screwed up on my Kindle Fire, but they were interesting enough for me to try them again on my old Kindle and they read just fine. It's just how far I'm willing to go as a reader.
As a writer, though... GAH!
I read another book recently where there were multitudes of errors. I stuck with it and the book was actually pretty good otherwise, so it wasn't a big deal to me. But the reviews. OMG, people were ripping the crap out of the poor author. Telling them they needed an editor (when an editor name was actually listed on the product detail page). I felt so bad for them. Not that the reviews were wrong, per se, but I could never do that to another author.
Finding a good editor... But that's a post for another time.
Ahem, where was I? Yes, yes... wrapping up...
So, how are you about typos, flaws, and formatting errors? Fine with them as long as the story's good or do they drive you right up the freakin' wall? Or both?
* Yes, I meant to write HARE instead of HAIR. Everyone splits hairs, but few split hares. It's just gross. But it got your attention, didn't it? =o) Intentional typos... also a post for another time.
As a writer, they bug the hell out of me. I'm sure they bug the hell out of my editor, too. The two of us try our damnedest to get those buggers right the hell out of my books before they go to publication.
If you follow me on Facebook, you will occasionally see me point out where people have egregiously left one in a short FB post somewhere - usually the news. The shorter the written item, the more irritated I get about it. And the fact that someone somewhere was actually paid good money to write short paragraph or two with errors sends me 'round the bend.
Now, you may have seen a boo-boo or two in my blog posts or my FB posts. :shrug: I do the best I can but those things are usually written on the fly. And no one is paying me to write them. (Sure, in the bigger scheme of things, everything I write goes toward selling books so in a way, they are 'paid for', but let's not split that hare*.) Hell, there are probably errors in this post. I'm writing it on the fly at just before 6am, so it is what it is.
As a reader, I forgive a lot of typos, flaws, and formatting errors. Provided the story is good. I read one recently where the author kept using YOUR in place of YOU'RE. But the story was enthralling, so I got over it. Read another where the formatting was off and there was a space between every paragraph - like you see here. They either forget to turn off the 'Add Space Between Paragraph' function in Word or they just didn't care. I got over that, too.
Hell, I've run across books that were totally screwed up on my Kindle Fire, but they were interesting enough for me to try them again on my old Kindle and they read just fine. It's just how far I'm willing to go as a reader.
As a writer, though... GAH!
I read another book recently where there were multitudes of errors. I stuck with it and the book was actually pretty good otherwise, so it wasn't a big deal to me. But the reviews. OMG, people were ripping the crap out of the poor author. Telling them they needed an editor (when an editor name was actually listed on the product detail page). I felt so bad for them. Not that the reviews were wrong, per se, but I could never do that to another author.
Finding a good editor... But that's a post for another time.
Ahem, where was I? Yes, yes... wrapping up...
So, how are you about typos, flaws, and formatting errors? Fine with them as long as the story's good or do they drive you right up the freakin' wall? Or both?
* Yes, I meant to write HARE instead of HAIR. Everyone splits hairs, but few split hares. It's just gross. But it got your attention, didn't it? =o) Intentional typos... also a post for another time.
July 27, 2018
Stuffs and Junk
I got a glimpse of the cover for Sleeping Ugly last night. SQUEE! Can't show it to you guys yet because it needs a eensy bit of tweaking. But squee. And soon, I'll be able to share it all over the place.
Ugly and the Beast is coming right along. Not sure if that's the right title for it yet. I took last night off because I was pooped... okay, and because I'm not quite sure what the next scene is going to be... but I should be back to it tonight. As of now, it's sitting at 12,700 words.
The sale and the ad for this week is coming right along, too. There's still today to go on the sale. All three SCIU books are 99c each. Get 'em while they're hot.
I think I figured out the reason why these ads are not performing like the ads I placed in 2015. In 2015, there was no Kindle Unlimited. So people would buy the whole book and it would sit on their Kindle unread and no one would ever know. Now, they use their KU subscription to get the book and sometimes they read it, but sometimes it sits on the Kindle unread until it drops off or whatever. It's good because people aren't paying for books they don't actually read. But yah, it hurts the sales numbers.
I'm still getting a good return on the ads, though, and I'm getting plenty of residual page reads, so it's all good.
And that's it for me right now. Any questions? Comments? News?
Ugly and the Beast is coming right along. Not sure if that's the right title for it yet. I took last night off because I was pooped... okay, and because I'm not quite sure what the next scene is going to be... but I should be back to it tonight. As of now, it's sitting at 12,700 words.
The sale and the ad for this week is coming right along, too. There's still today to go on the sale. All three SCIU books are 99c each. Get 'em while they're hot.
I think I figured out the reason why these ads are not performing like the ads I placed in 2015. In 2015, there was no Kindle Unlimited. So people would buy the whole book and it would sit on their Kindle unread and no one would ever know. Now, they use their KU subscription to get the book and sometimes they read it, but sometimes it sits on the Kindle unread until it drops off or whatever. It's good because people aren't paying for books they don't actually read. But yah, it hurts the sales numbers.
I'm still getting a good return on the ads, though, and I'm getting plenty of residual page reads, so it's all good.
And that's it for me right now. Any questions? Comments? News?
July 24, 2018
Planning Ahead (Even When You Kinda Suck At It)
Okay, so I am the worst planner-aheader ever. I don't like making doctor's appointments more than a few days out (but I do ever since I missed making an important one). I don't like making hair appointments at all (which is part of the reason I cut my own hair). I want to do stuff when I get the notion to do stuff. And not before.
However, being a self-published author means planning ahead, even when you kinda suck at it.
There's planning a publication schedule so you know when you're going to need to have things done so you can, you know, get a book in an editor's hands. And so you know what the hell you're going to do so you can fit yourself into a cover artist's schedule.
Ran into that one again this week. Ack. It's taken care of, but it meant planning ahead when I wasn't ready to even start thinking about the next book and the next. (Yes, I am now on my artist's schedule for October AND February. :panics a little: So, not ready.)
There's planning a marketing campaign. Umm, yeah, so not good at thinking ahead far enough to do that, but I'm trying. I'm trying to think about next month's release and have marketing around that to draw people in. We'll see if I get it right.
Planning anything is so outside my comfort zone. But I have to step outside my comfort zone if I want to make this self-publishing thing work. And I really do want to.
Heh, maybe I should've called the blog Outside the Comfort Zone instead of Outside the Box. Yeah, no.
Anyway, I've made some good inroads into being a planner. I have a date book! And a calendar! And I even remember - most of the time - to write stuff on them. (I'm better than I used to be.) But I'm still kind of sucky at it.
Hell, if I wasn't, I wouldn't have needed to panic when my artist said she was almost booked through the end of the year. I would've already had space in her calendar because I would've been planning. And if I was really planning, she'd be working on the next cover in December or January instead of February (which will push a release date back to March instead of a Feb release like I would've had planned, if I was, you know, a planner.)
It's all good. And I'm working on it.
How are you at planning?
However, being a self-published author means planning ahead, even when you kinda suck at it.
There's planning a publication schedule so you know when you're going to need to have things done so you can, you know, get a book in an editor's hands. And so you know what the hell you're going to do so you can fit yourself into a cover artist's schedule.
Ran into that one again this week. Ack. It's taken care of, but it meant planning ahead when I wasn't ready to even start thinking about the next book and the next. (Yes, I am now on my artist's schedule for October AND February. :panics a little: So, not ready.)
There's planning a marketing campaign. Umm, yeah, so not good at thinking ahead far enough to do that, but I'm trying. I'm trying to think about next month's release and have marketing around that to draw people in. We'll see if I get it right.
Planning anything is so outside my comfort zone. But I have to step outside my comfort zone if I want to make this self-publishing thing work. And I really do want to.
Heh, maybe I should've called the blog Outside the Comfort Zone instead of Outside the Box. Yeah, no.
Anyway, I've made some good inroads into being a planner. I have a date book! And a calendar! And I even remember - most of the time - to write stuff on them. (I'm better than I used to be.) But I'm still kind of sucky at it.
Hell, if I wasn't, I wouldn't have needed to panic when my artist said she was almost booked through the end of the year. I would've already had space in her calendar because I would've been planning. And if I was really planning, she'd be working on the next cover in December or January instead of February (which will push a release date back to March instead of a Feb release like I would've had planned, if I was, you know, a planner.)
It's all good. And I'm working on it.
How are you at planning?
July 23, 2018
SCIU Sale
Hey, All.
Just a quick note to let y'all know that the SCIU (Serial Crimes Investigation Unit) series books are on sale this week. 99c here in the US and .99p in the UK.
There'll be an ENT ad going out today for Dying Embers. If you already have DE, now's the time to grab the others.
If you're not familiar with the SCIU series, each book stands alone and centers on a different main character within the same law enforcement agency. They all have the same general theme - an agent dealing with a case that is personally difficult for them (even though Ned in Early Grave doesn't really realize it until near the end) and a villain with a psychotic reason for their actions.
And, yes, the bad guys always get what's coming to them in the end. I don't write books where the bad guys win. Ever.
So, anyway, thank you to everyone who's already bought and read the books. Super special thanks to those that also left a review.
Now, back to your regularly scheduled lives. ;o)
-B.E.
Just a quick note to let y'all know that the SCIU (Serial Crimes Investigation Unit) series books are on sale this week. 99c here in the US and .99p in the UK.
There'll be an ENT ad going out today for Dying Embers. If you already have DE, now's the time to grab the others.
If you're not familiar with the SCIU series, each book stands alone and centers on a different main character within the same law enforcement agency. They all have the same general theme - an agent dealing with a case that is personally difficult for them (even though Ned in Early Grave doesn't really realize it until near the end) and a villain with a psychotic reason for their actions.
And, yes, the bad guys always get what's coming to them in the end. I don't write books where the bad guys win. Ever.
So, anyway, thank you to everyone who's already bought and read the books. Super special thanks to those that also left a review.
Now, back to your regularly scheduled lives. ;o)
-B.E.
July 20, 2018
A Little Window
The other day while I was at the feed store, I got to talking books with the cashier there. And some interesting things came out of the conversation.
First, she loved Blood Flow (now Project Hermes) and spent some time gushing about it, which made my day. I'd given her a copy back in May and she finally finished reading it. (Her busy schedule, not that it was a slow read.) I reminded her that it I had changed the name, and she was glad. Her take on it was that the previous title was confusing and didn't really fit the story and it clashed with the cover. Good to get feedback from a member of the reading populace.
Second, the younger gal cashier there stated that she hadn't read an entire book since 7th grade (she'll be a senior in high school this fall. Now, I don't know about you, but a young person should never say they hate reading in front of me. Or apparently in front of my book loving friend there. We spent a copious amount of time trying to convince the young lady of the joys of reading. By the end of our harangue, she seemed like she might actually be interested in reading a whole book. Perhaps one of mine. My friend said she'd give her Dying Embers when she finished reading it.
Third, the young gal stated that her teacher read the class a book last year that she really liked. Had READ a book to her class... to juniors in high school. The last time a teacher of mine read a book to the class, I was in third grade. This might be how a gal reaches 17 without having read an entire book on her own. We were reading like fools for our classes back in the '80s. We had to in order to pass our classes. Shakespeare and other classics were assigned reading. Hell, even books like Lord of the Flies (which I hate) are better than not reading at all.
Fourth, the other occupant of the store at the time was the young grandson of the guy who loads the feed into my car. I think he's eight. Anyway, he was trying to be part of the conversation, too, but he really didn't have the chops - you know, cuz he's a child. The only book he said he liked made me sad, because it was so obviously virtue signalling. A boy that age should be reading The Hardy Boys or Tom Swift or Encyclopedia Brown. You know, something adventurous and exciting. He should've been able to talk about that. Not a book about a poor tortured little girl. Is it any wonder kids don't like to read? Ugh.
Of course, this is just a little snapshot from a small town feed store in northern Arkansas. I would expect, though, it's a tiny window into the greater whole of middle America.
First, she loved Blood Flow (now Project Hermes) and spent some time gushing about it, which made my day. I'd given her a copy back in May and she finally finished reading it. (Her busy schedule, not that it was a slow read.) I reminded her that it I had changed the name, and she was glad. Her take on it was that the previous title was confusing and didn't really fit the story and it clashed with the cover. Good to get feedback from a member of the reading populace.
Second, the younger gal cashier there stated that she hadn't read an entire book since 7th grade (she'll be a senior in high school this fall. Now, I don't know about you, but a young person should never say they hate reading in front of me. Or apparently in front of my book loving friend there. We spent a copious amount of time trying to convince the young lady of the joys of reading. By the end of our harangue, she seemed like she might actually be interested in reading a whole book. Perhaps one of mine. My friend said she'd give her Dying Embers when she finished reading it.
Third, the young gal stated that her teacher read the class a book last year that she really liked. Had READ a book to her class... to juniors in high school. The last time a teacher of mine read a book to the class, I was in third grade. This might be how a gal reaches 17 without having read an entire book on her own. We were reading like fools for our classes back in the '80s. We had to in order to pass our classes. Shakespeare and other classics were assigned reading. Hell, even books like Lord of the Flies (which I hate) are better than not reading at all.
Fourth, the other occupant of the store at the time was the young grandson of the guy who loads the feed into my car. I think he's eight. Anyway, he was trying to be part of the conversation, too, but he really didn't have the chops - you know, cuz he's a child. The only book he said he liked made me sad, because it was so obviously virtue signalling. A boy that age should be reading The Hardy Boys or Tom Swift or Encyclopedia Brown. You know, something adventurous and exciting. He should've been able to talk about that. Not a book about a poor tortured little girl. Is it any wonder kids don't like to read? Ugh.
Of course, this is just a little snapshot from a small town feed store in northern Arkansas. I would expect, though, it's a tiny window into the greater whole of middle America.
July 18, 2018
Updates and Junk
I gave myself quite the pep-talk on The Writing Spectacle yesterday. And I still am way short of my goal to have this done by the end of today. We'll see what today brings.
Talking with my cover artist and she's all 'how do you want this laid out?' and I'm all like 'gah!'. Then I went to the Top 100 Urban Fantasy list on Amazon and looked at what some of the bestsellers are doing for covers. I kind of liked one and then kind of liked another. The second one was the half-face thing, which I hadn't done before, so she sent me a mock-up. Meh. We're going with Jeni in the middle, my name on top, the title on the bottom. With magical sparklies and stuff. I found what I think is a good model for Jeni, in a pose that looks like she just woke up and isn't happy about it. Should be fun. Fingers crossed it draws in readers. You'll see the cover when I approve it.
I have a sale set up starting Saturday for all the SCIU books. 99c or .99p each. Thru the 28th. And I got accepted for another ENT ad for Dying Embers. It'll go out on Monday. Fingers crossed on that, too.
I was at the doctor's office yesterday for my shot and the nurse, who I see every three months so we're pretty friendly, asked how the writing was going. Then she asked some questions about how things work in the biz. It was nice to talk about it to someone outside the biz who was really interested. I just wish she had more time to read.
Well, that's about it for the update today. Any questions?
Talking with my cover artist and she's all 'how do you want this laid out?' and I'm all like 'gah!'. Then I went to the Top 100 Urban Fantasy list on Amazon and looked at what some of the bestsellers are doing for covers. I kind of liked one and then kind of liked another. The second one was the half-face thing, which I hadn't done before, so she sent me a mock-up. Meh. We're going with Jeni in the middle, my name on top, the title on the bottom. With magical sparklies and stuff. I found what I think is a good model for Jeni, in a pose that looks like she just woke up and isn't happy about it. Should be fun. Fingers crossed it draws in readers. You'll see the cover when I approve it.
I have a sale set up starting Saturday for all the SCIU books. 99c or .99p each. Thru the 28th. And I got accepted for another ENT ad for Dying Embers. It'll go out on Monday. Fingers crossed on that, too.
I was at the doctor's office yesterday for my shot and the nurse, who I see every three months so we're pretty friendly, asked how the writing was going. Then she asked some questions about how things work in the biz. It was nice to talk about it to someone outside the biz who was really interested. I just wish she had more time to read.
Well, that's about it for the update today. Any questions?
July 15, 2018
How Not to Market
Since I'm at a loss for what to post here, here's a link to someone else's brilliance...
I saw this post over at The Mad Genius Club yesterday and thought I'd share it here. It's got some really good tips if you really don't wanna sell books. (Or things to avoid if your goal is actually selling books. But who'd wanna do that? :smirk:)
We won't talk about the things I've done to not sell books. I'm better than I used to be. Kinda. Okay, in some ways, I'm not.
(Warning: The font is really small (at least on my computer), so you might need to increase it on your computer to read it without going blind.)
I saw this post over at The Mad Genius Club yesterday and thought I'd share it here. It's got some really good tips if you really don't wanna sell books. (Or things to avoid if your goal is actually selling books. But who'd wanna do that? :smirk:)
We won't talk about the things I've done to not sell books. I'm better than I used to be. Kinda. Okay, in some ways, I'm not.
(Warning: The font is really small (at least on my computer), so you might need to increase it on your computer to read it without going blind.)
