Cynthia Harrison's Blog, page 68

Cindy’s Indies

At last! Two years ago I had a plan. I was going to put all my novels on my website and quit writing content for A Writer’s Diary. Because, really, after ten years, what else is there to say? But I knew that blogging is a good marketing tool and felt like a static website would be too boring. So…I needed a new subject. Health? Already did that. Plus now I have Healthy Writers! Astrology? I’m more a beginner in that art and should leave it to the pros like Barry and Susan.

So what? What? I really flogged the brain trying to come up with something that would be fun and useful. And here’s the part where I roll my eyes at my own blind self: reviews. Yes, I’ve done that before. I still do it on Goodreads and I do it here on AWD. But what is going to make Cindy’s Indies new and exciting is that the ony reviews will be by indie writers with strong voices.

So if you are reading this, and know of a great indie author who is not receiving the attention they deserve, please send me their name and book title at cindy@cynthiaharrison.com. I don’t want free books. I want to buy affordable Kindle editions myself because I will not be reading or writing about books I don’t like. I have a few rules, but basically Cindy’s Indies is going to be a list of books that kept me turning the pages, books that make me laugh and cry, and most important of all, they will be all be affordable indie novels:)

Story Madness

It may have been a little crazy of me to think pulling a subplot from a novel and making it a story would be easy. Okay, a lot crazy. Had the critique group over and they found several areas where my response was “In the orignal book, that is explained.” And they only read 20 pages!

I am blind to these loose threads as I have read the book so many times. So I’m very happy with their help and new eyes. Am also very worried about not catching all of them in the rest of the story. Also worried bacause school is seriously infringing on my writing time. It’s not just being there, or planning lessons, or grading. It’s that those two days mean I have less time to run errands and keep my house and health running smoothly.

I don’t understand how 2 days can ruin a workout routine, play havoc with eating, and totally screw up a writing schedule that has been in place for a very long time. It’s not only those 2 days. It’s also marketing. Being free to write every day has been hindered by social media in the name of “marketing” my work. Ha. I don’t do so much self-promoting on Twitter. I don’t even have a FAN FB page, as my mom is my biggest fan and she has never owned a computer.

So, FB is mostly friends, and I’m not about to toot my marketing horn in their direction much, either. So bascially social media is fun. Goodreads, that’s another thing. I love posting about all the books I’m reading but I see no way that this helps my book sales.

I do think that the free story will spark something for the upcoming release, at least that’s the plan. If I can get the story revised in time. I’m thinking a week or two before the novel comes out. Two weeks is enough time…and then it will always be on my site, always free.

 

Full Moon Eclipse

It’s not like I wasn’t ready for it. Full moon eclipses mean that things come to an end. But when you don’t know what’s going to end, how can you be ready for it? Plus this latest eclipse was the rare Transit of Venus. Won’t see another of those in my lifetime. Won’t bother me a bit.

Like so many others, I got hit hard by this recent eclipse. My work life went way off kilter and I finally realized after many years that I am not a romance writer. Now that the stardust has settled, I realize I can live with those changes. I’m a stubborn Aries, and all the writing advice books say “be persistent” so that potent cocktail kept me hammering away at the romance game until I finally got the unmistakable message that it is just not my path.

Which is funny, because I have a romance novel coming out next month. It’s only a romance because I had a very talented editor that chipped away at my story until all that was left was the love. It was hard for me to see big chunks of my plot go away–but I did what I thought I had to do. And it worked out okay. I’ve got a subplot begging to be a free story as a promo for the novel. But my days of trying to write like a romance writer are done. I’m fine with that.

Now I can add the voice that has been begging to be let into my current novel. Now I can come out and call myself a fiction writer with no genre restrictions. (I still have those paranormals in my closet…) The thing with eclipses and endings is that what comes after the ending is something new and better. So…

I’m still wondering what the message is for me and teaching. Actually, I know what it is. I am done. I have said this so many times and yet I always go back because it’s my job. It’s what I know how to do. And I have always enjoyed teaching creative writing. Using my book, being with other writers, what’s not to like? Well, personality clashes, conflicts over content, and dueling values to name a few of the things I am not liking right now. I’m going to respect my students and not tell the story, but I also thank them and the eclipse. The double whammy was like a slap upside the head saying “LISTEN, THIS IS NOT YOUR CALLING.” 

Universe? I hear you. And whatever is next? Bring it on!

 

 

 

A Harlequin Affair

Never say never, but I believe my long-held goal to become a Harlequin writer is finally finished for good. It’s not that I still don’t love the publisher and the books. I have ten or so rejections from them for various series dating back to my very first book back in the ’80s. “Our readers don’t respond to heroines in the arts,” read the rejection letter.

It was very kind of them to let me down this way, as years later I read the manuscript and promptly threw it in the trash. It was horrible. A practice novel. Next, I sent in a highly polished query and got a request for the manuscript. The reply to that was from an assistant to an editor. “You need to learn your craft.” Wow. That stung. But I made it my mission to study craft. I attended conferences, took workshops, read books. Then I reread the manuscript and revised it. Finally, a revised and improved The Paris Notebook is coming out next month via The Wild Rose Press.

When I got an agent, she sent a sure thing manuscript to Harlequin’s “Next” line. They almost bought it but in the end passed. My agent was more shocked than I was…that book, Sister Issues, revised and indie published is now available on Kindle and Nook.   

Harlequin sent my editor a form letter rejecting my fantasy novel Gypsy. I have since written a sequel to Gypsy called Travelling Girl and can’t wait to get them both on Kindle as indie titles.

Meanwhile, on the romance front, I wrote three novels and began a lovely relationship with a Harlequin editor who always gave thoughtful critiques, balancing ego-boosting praise with why my novel does not fit the Harlequin brand. This third time, she said I had written a “bigger” book. The love story was not central. And she was right. A teenage girl was begging for a pov. I had written much about her in diary form, just as a way to let her have her say. Now, I’ll let her in the manuscript, which is a follow up to Sister Issues and more rightly belongs on my Kindle book list.  

Getting that final rejection from Harlequin was really sad. I kind of knew it was coming, and I was prepared for it, but it still stings. It’s been less than 24 hours, and I know this mood will pass. And even though it didn’t work out between Harlequin and me, I will always appreciate them for their honesty and excellent advice. It has made me a better, tougher writer.

Writing Contest

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I love entering writing competitions. In fact, I’m polishing up an entry for one today. I have written a draft, put it away for a week, taken another look, revised, polished, and after one last read this morning, I’m going to send it. I am done with the nail biting “Is it good enough? Will I be a contender?” phase and am on to the growing sense of possibility and elation. That emotional mix will hit its peak when I mail the entry. If I actually win? That’s an even better feeling, like living in a skin made of Champagne, bubbly everywhere.

If you want those feelings, and a possible win to put in your queries & on your bio, there’s another writing competition in my own writer’s organization: Detroit Working Writers. If I wasn’t in charge of it, I’d enter. It’s open to all Michigan writers and DWW members no matter where you live. We have five wide open genres. For example, you could send a screenplay or a stage play in the “play” category. For fiction, you can send a chunk of a novel, a short story, or even micro-fiction in any genre. There is truly something for every writer. (Except porn! Please no porn!)

We have five talented, multi-published judges, each of whom will adjudicate their own area of expertise. Best part are the cash prizes. Lots of them! First, second, and third place in all five categories. But time is ticking. Our deadline is July 15. Winners will be announced at our From Passion to Profession conference in September. You don’t have to be there to win, but you should come! 

See our website for more information and entry forms. Get writing and Good luck!

Mark of the Loon

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I did not know what to expect when I picked up this indie novel on Kindle. I knew the writing would be good because I read Molly’s blog. But I wasn’t sure if it was mystery, fantasy, women’s fiction, literary fiction, or what. After spending yesterday glued to my Kindle, and finishing the final chapter at 10 pm, I gotta say, it’s all of that. And it works beautifully on every level.

The story starts with an intriguing snippet from the past, then moves into the present day life of California Realtor Madison and her friends Genny, Gabi, and Anna. Madison’s story structures the novel, but I love the way Greene devotes lots of time to Maddie’s relationships with her friends. They support each other through marriage and cheating and divorce and moving house. They share meals and drinks and secret dreams. I love writers who give their characters strong friendships, and this group is deeply, emotionally, resonant.

Madison’s home base is Sonoma County, California, where the real estate market is still ticking along quite well. Not as crazy busy as she was before the financial meltdown, Madison fills her free time with buying rundown properties and burnishing them to beautiful jewels. Then she flips them for a tidy profit. She’s never stayed in one place very long, never felt the need to put down roots in one space, until she sees a cozy English cottage on Sonoma Lake and buys it for a song, incurring the wrath of another would-be buyer.

Once Madison moves into her charming bungalow, she starts finding keys. Actual beautiful old keys that don’t seem to open anything. Then, as her remodeling progresses, she unearths secret cubbys and even rooms. She bought the place ”as is” with all the furnishings and artifacts of another life and as she begins to uncover the story of the previous owners, her heart starts telling her she needs to find new dreams. And professor of “happiness psychology” Cole is just one of them. Or is he?

Because the more clues she finds, the murkier, and more dangerous, things get. Madison can only be sure of her best friends. Everyone else around her is suspect at best and maybe dangerous as well. It will take all Madison’s faith and trust, plus an angel from the other side, to solve the mystery of the former owners and in the process discover new parts of herself. Molly Greene’s debut novel is a stunning gem of a book, both beautifully written and compellingly told. The psychological insights are bright lights in a book about grief and healing and so much more. Greene handles a complex plot with deft skill and fully immerses the reader into the mystical world she creates. Madison and her friends will stick with me for a long time.

To Review or Not To Review

When I told my former agent I knew a very famous writer, the first thing she said was “Can you get her to write a cover blurb for your book?” I said “no.” I knew this writer was overwhelmed with obligations and had a stack of galleys from her editor waiting for blurbs that had sat unread on her coffee table for months. My agent was quite disappointed; she said a good cover quote by a famous author helps sell a book. Before it sells in the  store, a diamond quote can sell a book to an editor or a publisher.

Which I find interesting because for a few days now on Twitter we’ve been talking about book reviews. Who should you review? Should you ask your friends to put up Amazon reviews? Should you review a friend? And if you do, should you cop to it in the review?

Indie authors have scruples the traditional publishing world never worried about. Louise Erdrich’s husband pretended he was her agent to get her first book deal. Traditional publishers, editors, and agents push their contracted writers to read galleys and rain praise on others in the same stable. Literary elite reviewers are often literary writers who know the novelist whose latest book they are reviewing. And they don’t put that fact in their New York Times review.

I know this stuff because I worked for two trade review magazines, RT Book Club and Publishers Weekly. Nothing in either of my contracts stated that if I received a galley by someone I knew from a conference or a writing group or social media, I must immediately return the galley or at the very least confess to “knowing” the novelist under review. In fact, I knew many writers I reviewed. They sent email thanking me for my reviews, and one email led to another, as they used to do, and that’s how I got to know many wonderful writers.

Are they my best friends? No. Not in Real Life. But what if my best friend did write a novel, and what if she did ask me to review it on Amazon and interview her on my website? Would I do it? Yes! And I’d start the review by saying “My best friend just wrote a wonderful novel…” Wait. What if the novel isn’t wonderful? What if I hate it? What if it’s amateur and full of cliches and just plain sucks?

In that case, I wouldn’t write the review, because now that I don’t make a living as a book critic I will never write a negative review again. I’m committed to only writing reviews of books I love, and even then, I’m not going to be able to review every book I read and enjoy. There’s just not enough time in the day. What with writing novels myself and teaching other people how to write novels and flitting around like a social media butterfly writing blogs and tweets. Then there’s dinner to cook. 

The publishing world is small and everyone is trying to become the next #1. We used to have indie bookstores where booksellers would hand sell a book they believed in. That doesn’t happen much anymore. Instead, indie authors are looking to online communities for reviews, for a cover blurb, for a good word. And they shouldn’t have to feel bad about that. It’s part of the business of writing.

Indie Wonderland

New writers may well be confused by the superfine distinctions between self-published, vanity published, e-published and indie published.

I self-published my first book, a non-fiction writing manual, Your Words, Your Story, because I wanted to use it in the classroom as soon as possible. I knew from experience that trying to  traditionally publish a book takes years, so I decided to go it alone. What self-publishing means is that the author pays a printer to print copies of her book. I had a built-in distribution deal with my college library.

Self-publishing was a small but difficult endeavor, and had I known the trouble it would be, I might not do it again. I hired out some of the work, formatting, design, cover image. The entire venture cost me about $3000 and I recouped that money quickly. Now I sell the digital form of that book on Kindle for 99 cents, and to my surprise people other than my students buy it.

The difference between self-publishing and vanity publishing is simple. Self-published authors have a long tradition in literature and are involved in every step of the production of their book. Virginia Woolf’s husband set up a printing press so he could publish his wife’s brilliant but misunderstood novels. Walt Whitman, a poet far ahead of his time, self-published too.

I felt fine about being in such company and thus created my own small press. I found a printer known for quality work and met with them to discuss everything from the size of my book to the color of the pages (buff is better than white) to the type of print I wanted. Then I hired a skilled professional to format the book to the printers’ specifications. This is not how the Vanity Press folks do it.

Vanity Press companies take out ads in writer’s magazines and promise to do everything for you. Just send your manuscript and they’ll do the rest. What happens here is the writer loses creative control, and at a price far above $3000. More like $10,000 or more. Writers who don’t understand the slim but important distinction between vanity and self-publishing are writers who do not do their homework. To their own detriment, vanity writers don’t want to know about or deal with the publishing end of things.

Now Kindle Digital Platform and other internet sources are making it easy for self-published and vanity authors to upload their books with free distribution at little to no cost. And thus the indie writer was born. And indie books run the gamut from unedited unformatted vanity projects to professional quality books. These indie authors aren’t just for e-readers. They have the option to print their work on demand. (POD). I decided to use KDP for Sister Issues, my first published novel, that fits no mainstream niche (one sister is chick lit the other is women’s fiction). Also because I was familiar with it from my first book. I didn’t bother with the print version; I just wanted to join the band of indies. I still ended up paying someone to format my book, but this time it was for $100, a price well worth the work–because the internal workings of KDP demand certain formatting details if the writer wants an e-book not riddled with mistakes and strange re-arrangements. I found that out the hard way, too, but it’s so easy to “publish” and “unpublish” on KDP that it didn’t cost me respect or readers.

So right now, indie books vary wildly in appearance and content. What we have is vanity and self-publishing plus traditionally published authors reprinting their back catalogs all duking it out for a spot on the list. It isn’t easy promoting an indie novel, and so far the mainstream press has been wary. With good reason. For every great indie novel I’ve read, I’ve deleted five from my e-reader mostly unread. Which is fine, because the price is right, folks. But also it’s not fine because the serious novelist who doesn’t fit any major publishing parameters finds her work buried under vanity crap and well-known traditionally pubbed authors. This is where we are now and this is what we, the indie authors who care about production and content excellence, are trying to fix.

Something funny happened when I indie pubbed. I received a contract for another novel from an e-publisher. These folks have been around for years and their quality of content varies. Anybody can put up an e-pub house on the net. And frankly, most of what sells is very spicy sex to soft core porn like 50 Shades of Gray. Although I love building sexual tension, I’m not fond of what my editor consummation scenes.Still, as an adventure, I decided to try working with an e-publisher as well. They take care of all the things I didn’t like doing on KDP. They provide a book cover, formatting, editing, distribution, and marketing.

The Wild Rose Press is set to release my new novel, The Paris Notebook, July 18, 2012 in both electronic and print. It will be interesting to see which novel does better, the indie self-published or the e-published by an online publisher.

Marketing Ploy Surprise

When I brought up my marketing give-away of a free story here on the website, I didn’t have any idea how much work it would entail. But it is work I love, so I won’t complain. This post is more of a cautionary tale with a nifty bit of marketing thrown into the mix.

After searching through my laptop Word documents, and looking at my old files from a previous hard drive, I realized I didn’t take the time at the time to cut and paste Sarah’s story into a document. I just deleted it, not thinking ahead. I knew I had a print copy of the novel with Sarah’s pov still there if I ever were to need it.

It didn’t take long for me to think about using Sarah and David’s romance in some way. I loved Sarah so much I considered writing an entire novel for her but then came up wiith the free story idea. By then I had conveniently forgotten that I didn’t front load the edits into their own file. So, little job just got bigger. The good news is, I found the print version and pulled all Sarah’s scenes and read through them today. They’re excellent (yes, I know, I’ve always been modest:) just as they are after a revision session earlier today. The conclusion is perfect too, because it ends happily for now, but makes readers wonder what will happen next. So it works on its own as a nice story and also as a teaser for The Paris Notebook.

One thing I wanted to make sure of was that Sarah’s story could stand on its own without the other book. Because I hate when I read a book and realize that its the tenth in a series and the author assumes I’ve read them all. Happy to say, Sarah’s story stands alone. I deleted a few things but its pretty much intact. So good news, again! Also, I saved a Word version of the ms. with Sarah’s scenes intact. Yet more good news.

Now what is left is to cut and paste, like I should have done in the first place, from that document, add in today’s polish and upload. I have a free couple of days ahead later in the week. I am hoping I can get my syllabus typed up AND Sarah’s story. Class starts a week from today so that has to come first but I’m pretty sure I did the same class (creative writing) last summer. And I did write the book we’re using, so really, no worries there except the usual: that teaching will steal time from my writing.

Side Project Strategy

Time to kick-start my marketing efforts. Reading the New York Times this morning, I saw an article about how print publishers are pressing their writers, who usually pub a book a year, into producing short stories or novellas for the e-publishing market in between books. The New York marketing departments are slowly catching on to what indie writers already knew. Offer a free or inexpensive piece of shorter writing six to eight weeks before the novel comes out, and the novel will sell better.

The NYT article kick-started me into getting my free novella up on the website with a link to my publisher. I’ve been talking to the TWRP marketing maven, and she’s all for it, giving me ideas and help. Of course I have to read the story first. It’s a subplot pulled from The Paris Notebook, and will probably need some revising.

What I really love about this idea is giving readers another love story, one that has the same group of characters in the same setting, but from a different point of view. And I love that it will be here, on the site, and also that it will be free. I love giving stuff away. You can’t write a blog for ten years and not love sharing your work with whoever clicks on the page.

I don’t mind spending time away from my main project to work on this piece on the side because for me and my readers it’s a win/win. I love the story and want to share it. And readers get something free, which is always fun.