Ella James's Blog, page 10
August 1, 2012
Cover Reveal: Avenge - The Patronus Book Two
Cover art by Donna DullOkay. So if you haven't read Awaken, the first book in Sarah M. Ross' Patronus Series, let's start here:
Lucy Donovan was supposed to have a weekend of fun in the sun, celebrating her upcoming graduation from college. In a split second, everything changed. A drunk driver ended Lucy's mortal life.
Lucy opens her eyes to a world she never imagined possible and a new destiny: as a Patronus, a guardian of spirits. Adjusting to her new role and abilities while negotiating this confusing realm will test her limits and push her further than she ever dreamed she would go. From wayward spirits who don't want her help to soul stealing vampires, and even a stuck-up British royal, Lucy must brave them all to save one spirit she can't bear to lose.
Further complicating her confusing life is an inexplicable yet growing connection she feels to a member of her team, Max, whose mysterious behavior leaves her both confused and intrigued.
Waking up dead was just the beginning of her problems. Lucy's death is about to become the greatest adventure of her life.
Did I mention Awaken has 4.5 stars on Amazon based on 76 reviews? It's near the top of my TBR pile because it sounds AMAZING.
So here is the enticing summary of Avenge:
Six months ago, Lucy Donovan thought that being killed by a drunk driver was the worst thing that could happen to her. She was wrong. Now, the person she loves most has been ripped away from her, soul held hostage, and Lucy has vowed to stop at nothing to get it back.
Part of a new team with enhanced powers, Lucy and her friends begin a quest to avenge the souls that have been stolen. Enemies of the Patronus have united however, and a spy from within the Patronus realm is feeding the enemy their every move. When a mission goes horribly wrong, Lucy's soul becomes compromised. It will take a strength she didn't know was within her to escape the darkness, return to the light and avenge the soul she loves.
Since Avenage isn't out until October, you have plenty of time to read Awaken. ;)
Stalk Sarah:
www.sarahmross.com
sarah@sarahmross.com
@SarahTheAuthor
facebook.com/SarahTheAuthor
July 27, 2012
Happy release day + some contests for you!
If everything goes as planned and Amazon uploads it quickly, Chosen should be available sometime this afternoon or early tonight! It's a little shy of 60,000 words - long for the Stained Series - and I can't wait to see what people think of it.
I had planned to make Stolen 99 cents to mark the occasion, but I can't seem to do that. Long story, but the gist of it is, as of right now, Stolen will remain $1.99. I'm sorry to anyone who was looking forward to the special 99 cent price this weekend.
I've decided to run a few contests to celebrate Chosen:-SHARING IS CARING/deadline 8-3:
Share the link to the Stained or Chosen Amazon product listing, and encourage all your friends to read the Stained Series! FB wall posts = one entry; tweets = one entry. Friday, August 3, I will draw one winner, to receive a free copy of my adult romantic suspense, Over The Moon (a 100k-word book to be priced at $3.99) as well as the $2.99 book of their choice.
-REVIEWER'S REWARD/deadline 8-12:
Starting Saturday, 7/28 and running through Sunday, August 12, I'm running an early reviewer contest. All you have to do is leave a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads! (Each one = one entry). Then rely to this post, let me know on FB or Twitter, or e-mail me at ella_f_james@ymail.com. I'll enter everyone who reviews Chosen between 7/28 and 8/12 in a drawing to win a $20 Amazon giftcard! Drawing will be Sunday, August 12.
-BECAUSE I LIKE YOU/deadline 8-27:
Did you know liking a book on Amazon helps it become more visible to shoppers? Go to Amazon and thumbs-up any of my books, then let me know you did. Each like = one entry. On 8/27 I'll draw three winners, who will receive a free copy of the final Stained Series book, Exalted, due out in late August/early September.
-ALL-STAR JACKPOT/deadline 9-1: If you participate in ALL the contests above, you will be entered to win these beautiful Cayne's Feather earrings. Be sure to let me know you participated in all the contests!
-RED PEN ROUNDUP/no deadline: Spot a copy error or a typo in Chosen? E-mail me at ella_f_james@ymail.com. You'll get 5 cents per typo, so long as we both agree that the detail was incorrect.
-CAUSE BLOGGERS ARE AWESOME/deadline 9-27: Feature the Stained Series in any way, shape, or form on your blog, and I'll enter you to win signed *print* copies of Stained and HERE, plus a cover for your e-reader! If you already have one, you'll get a $15 Amazon gc!
So, go get started! :) Have a great weekend, and I hope you all enjoy Chosen!
I hope to have the cover and blurb for Exalted, Stained Series book four, up next week. :)
New Covers
I've been working on new covers for HERE, Stolen, and Before You Go, as well as a slight facelift for the Stained cover. And when I say "I", I mean my cover designer. I wanted to show you the new Stolen:
I think it's pretty sexy. What do you think?
I think it's pretty sexy. What do you think?
July 19, 2012
Reviews: the good, the bad, and the ugly
Last night, this post at the Bookish Brunette's blog got me thinking about reviews - specifically, 'bad' reviews. If you're an author, you know exactly what I mean. Anything less than three stars and anything worse than 'this is a decent WHATEVER KIND OF BOOK YOURS IS'. Anything where the praise doesn't balance out the criticism. Anything you, the author, think is even a little bit unfair. (It's true, my story might start a little slow, but my heroine is not boring!) If you're an author who reads his or her own reviews, you know the ones I'm talking about.
Some authors will try to tell you they don't mind a negative review. That those two stars help them learn how to improve. I've even heard/seen people say they wouldn't know how to improve without the bad reviews. Other people claim that they value honesty, and because of that, they welcome all input on their work. I don't want to say they're pulling your leg but... I happen to think bad reviews suck. A lot.
Do I need them to learn how to improve? No. That's why I have an editor, beta readers, and sales reports. If my stuff sucks, you can bet I'll hear it from my Editubby (yes, I have one of those; my husband is my editor! ;). If he doesn't tell me - and he will; oh, he will - a beta reader might. And if neither of those people notice, sales will let know that people don't want to read what I'm putting out.
Could I improve without input from any of these people? Yes! If I keep cranking out books, I will improve. In my experience, improvement skyrockets after about book five. Some people don't need that many books to figure out how to write a good one, but I did. (Don't worry, all those drafts are in drawers, and they will never see the light of day).
I cannot imagine feeling that public criticism was necessary for me to do good work. Private criticism is another story. Criticism is helpful; of course it is. I just don't enjoy the public kind. My books are for sale. I make money from them. All public commentary having to do with them affects my sales, therefore a negative review works against my sales. Which brings me to my point about reviews: They are a sales tool - usually a good one, but even when they're not, they are still a necessary part of being a published author.
Do I wish everyone who reads and dislikes my books would just shoot me a friendly e-mail, describing what they didn't like? Of course I do. Do I think that would be the 'polite' thing to do, the most constructive, the most helpful to the author? Yes. But is that reasonable? NO. It's just not. If I want Amazon stars and reviews to help me sell my books, I have to accept that I may sometimes get a bad review. And when I do, I need to try to suck it up and move on.
In my playbook, there are three exceptions to this rule - times that I allow myself anger or annoyance. The first is when a reviewer bashes me. Not the book, but me, the author. Look here and find Stained on the list, and read that review. This reviewer is just a hater; if you read her other reviews, you will see she bashes almost everything she reads, and she seems to enjoy insulting authors. That's rude, and it's unnecessary, and it makes me mad. I get over it, but I stew about it for a while first.
The second instance in which I get my panties in a wad is when I know someone leaving a negative review (because they are using their real name), and that someone is leaving a revenge review. Luckily, since I hate conflict, this is hardly ever a problem; I've only had it happen once. In that case, I got my panties in a wad because our original conflict was initiated by that person, who later felt the need to ice the cake with a negative review. Um, really? Well, okay. If that's how you roll. That review was reported (by someone I don't know) for vulgarity, and is no longer around to use as an example.
The third instance is probably more controversial, but I'm going to mention it anyway because it bugs me. It's when blog tour hosts, ones who accept pay for arranging tours, take an author's money and then the reviewers that they pass the author's books to end up pooing on the book(s), either because they really don't like that genre, so they were predisposed to dislike the book, or because they just plain didn't like the book; maybe the book sucked. This gets me irritated, not at the bloggers, but at the tour organizers. I feel like if you're going to take someone's money in exchange for a tour, which is PR, and which you are being paid to organize, you should only work with reviewers who will give decent or good reviews - that is, three stars and up.
There are so many book bloggers who only give decent/good reviews, it wouldn't be hard for a tour company to find them and stick with them. A simple solution to the problem, if the tour organizer wants to work with blogs that do give negative reviews, would be to have a just-blurb default. And by that I mean that if the blogger happens to dislike a book that is part of a 'professional' tour company tour, he/she agrees (in advance, with the tour company) to just post the book's blurb and a photo of it, maybe a quote or two from it, and a link to where it can be found. Even a Q&A could be substituted in lieu of a review that would, in the interest of honesty on the blogger's part, have to be negative.
If a book sucks, or if a blogger didn't like it, I in no way think the blogger should ever have to say they did, or even say anything positive about it - BUT if that blogger is working with a pay-for-tours company, and the author of the book paid for that particular tour, I think there should be an agreement that only a blurb will be published.
A while back, when I was a green-as-grass new ebook author, I paid someone for a tour and ended up getting a two-star review that encouraged readers not to buy one of my books. A large part of the problem was that the tour organizer who'd taken my money hadn't told me negative reviews were a possible outcome, and it wasn't posted on their site, so I didn't expect it. I was way too new to know how blog tours worked. But even if notice had been posted on their site, I don't think it's cool to take authors' money in exchange for a tour, and then work with reviewers who are unwilling to just not run a review, if the review is going to be bad.
Luckily, there is an easy solution to this, and that is to be careful who you pay to organize your blog tours. (I do mine myself now, but there are a lot of great companies out there if you don't want to take it on).
These days, if I get a review I'm not thrilled with, I try to get over it. Someone read my book, which is amazing and wonderful - and 99 percent of the time, reviewers (even ones doling out two stars) are kind and professional.
When I accidentally uploaded an unfinished draft of Stolen, and it was live on Amazon for about 12 hours, I got two reviews saying how terrible the book was, pointing out that it seemed like a draft rather than a real book... and these reviewers were so kind despite what they were saying, that I wish I still had the reviews, because I'd totally post them here. They were both taken down when my mistake became evident to me and I uploaded the correct version of Stolen, but I have always felt grateful that these people were kind enough to review me gently.
So... what do you think about bad reviews? Need 'em to do good work? Hate 'em? I want to know. It's too hot a topic not to discuss! :)
Some authors will try to tell you they don't mind a negative review. That those two stars help them learn how to improve. I've even heard/seen people say they wouldn't know how to improve without the bad reviews. Other people claim that they value honesty, and because of that, they welcome all input on their work. I don't want to say they're pulling your leg but... I happen to think bad reviews suck. A lot.
Do I need them to learn how to improve? No. That's why I have an editor, beta readers, and sales reports. If my stuff sucks, you can bet I'll hear it from my Editubby (yes, I have one of those; my husband is my editor! ;). If he doesn't tell me - and he will; oh, he will - a beta reader might. And if neither of those people notice, sales will let know that people don't want to read what I'm putting out.
Could I improve without input from any of these people? Yes! If I keep cranking out books, I will improve. In my experience, improvement skyrockets after about book five. Some people don't need that many books to figure out how to write a good one, but I did. (Don't worry, all those drafts are in drawers, and they will never see the light of day).
I cannot imagine feeling that public criticism was necessary for me to do good work. Private criticism is another story. Criticism is helpful; of course it is. I just don't enjoy the public kind. My books are for sale. I make money from them. All public commentary having to do with them affects my sales, therefore a negative review works against my sales. Which brings me to my point about reviews: They are a sales tool - usually a good one, but even when they're not, they are still a necessary part of being a published author.
Do I wish everyone who reads and dislikes my books would just shoot me a friendly e-mail, describing what they didn't like? Of course I do. Do I think that would be the 'polite' thing to do, the most constructive, the most helpful to the author? Yes. But is that reasonable? NO. It's just not. If I want Amazon stars and reviews to help me sell my books, I have to accept that I may sometimes get a bad review. And when I do, I need to try to suck it up and move on.
In my playbook, there are three exceptions to this rule - times that I allow myself anger or annoyance. The first is when a reviewer bashes me. Not the book, but me, the author. Look here and find Stained on the list, and read that review. This reviewer is just a hater; if you read her other reviews, you will see she bashes almost everything she reads, and she seems to enjoy insulting authors. That's rude, and it's unnecessary, and it makes me mad. I get over it, but I stew about it for a while first.
The second instance in which I get my panties in a wad is when I know someone leaving a negative review (because they are using their real name), and that someone is leaving a revenge review. Luckily, since I hate conflict, this is hardly ever a problem; I've only had it happen once. In that case, I got my panties in a wad because our original conflict was initiated by that person, who later felt the need to ice the cake with a negative review. Um, really? Well, okay. If that's how you roll. That review was reported (by someone I don't know) for vulgarity, and is no longer around to use as an example.
The third instance is probably more controversial, but I'm going to mention it anyway because it bugs me. It's when blog tour hosts, ones who accept pay for arranging tours, take an author's money and then the reviewers that they pass the author's books to end up pooing on the book(s), either because they really don't like that genre, so they were predisposed to dislike the book, or because they just plain didn't like the book; maybe the book sucked. This gets me irritated, not at the bloggers, but at the tour organizers. I feel like if you're going to take someone's money in exchange for a tour, which is PR, and which you are being paid to organize, you should only work with reviewers who will give decent or good reviews - that is, three stars and up.
There are so many book bloggers who only give decent/good reviews, it wouldn't be hard for a tour company to find them and stick with them. A simple solution to the problem, if the tour organizer wants to work with blogs that do give negative reviews, would be to have a just-blurb default. And by that I mean that if the blogger happens to dislike a book that is part of a 'professional' tour company tour, he/she agrees (in advance, with the tour company) to just post the book's blurb and a photo of it, maybe a quote or two from it, and a link to where it can be found. Even a Q&A could be substituted in lieu of a review that would, in the interest of honesty on the blogger's part, have to be negative.
If a book sucks, or if a blogger didn't like it, I in no way think the blogger should ever have to say they did, or even say anything positive about it - BUT if that blogger is working with a pay-for-tours company, and the author of the book paid for that particular tour, I think there should be an agreement that only a blurb will be published.
A while back, when I was a green-as-grass new ebook author, I paid someone for a tour and ended up getting a two-star review that encouraged readers not to buy one of my books. A large part of the problem was that the tour organizer who'd taken my money hadn't told me negative reviews were a possible outcome, and it wasn't posted on their site, so I didn't expect it. I was way too new to know how blog tours worked. But even if notice had been posted on their site, I don't think it's cool to take authors' money in exchange for a tour, and then work with reviewers who are unwilling to just not run a review, if the review is going to be bad.
Luckily, there is an easy solution to this, and that is to be careful who you pay to organize your blog tours. (I do mine myself now, but there are a lot of great companies out there if you don't want to take it on).
These days, if I get a review I'm not thrilled with, I try to get over it. Someone read my book, which is amazing and wonderful - and 99 percent of the time, reviewers (even ones doling out two stars) are kind and professional.
When I accidentally uploaded an unfinished draft of Stolen, and it was live on Amazon for about 12 hours, I got two reviews saying how terrible the book was, pointing out that it seemed like a draft rather than a real book... and these reviewers were so kind despite what they were saying, that I wish I still had the reviews, because I'd totally post them here. They were both taken down when my mistake became evident to me and I uploaded the correct version of Stolen, but I have always felt grateful that these people were kind enough to review me gently.
So... what do you think about bad reviews? Need 'em to do good work? Hate 'em? I want to know. It's too hot a topic not to discuss! :)
July 18, 2012
Stories... Including my own ;)
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I was the editor for a news magazine, and I had to write a weekly opinion column. It was expected to be about local politics, and so it was, but unfortunately I am a very gray person and could never come up with anything definitive to say. It definitely didn't help that I had to work with everyone I wrote about, and so felt pressured not to really speak my mind at all. But the long and...well, long of it is I really hate writing anything that resembles a column.
I suspect this is why I've never really warmed to the idea of having and maintaining a blog. I know it's necessary... and that's about the extent of my feelings about having a blog. I look at authors like Rachel Deagan and Heather Hildenbrand, who actually seem to enjoy updating their blogs, and it blows my mind a little. Then I visit amazing, beautiful review sites like The Bookish Brunette and several circuits fry inside my head.
But I want to be here. I want to communicate with my readers, and other authors, and reviewers. So I'm going to try to do a better job of updating, and not just with 'professional' stuff. If I'm going to do this, I want it to be personal.
Things have been super hectic lately in my world. My husband, who is also my editor, and I have been traveling a lot. Probably four long weekend sort of trips (all 5+ hour drives) in the last six weeks. And we're not traveling alone. We have an 11-month-old son (who just started walking!).
I originally said Chosen, Stained book three, would be out in early July - a deadline I definitely thought I could make, and probably could have, had I skipped UtopYA or one of our trips to visit family. I'm slowly learning that as an indie author doing everything 'in-house', deadlines are totally unpredictable, and it's best not to say much about a book's release date until it's actually time.
For example, I just announced that Chosen will be out July 27. The book is long since finished, and EditorHubby (or should he be Editubby? that makes me laugh. hard.) has even edited it twice already. So I know I can make that deadline, because if something terrible happened between now and then, we could simply put it out as is. It's that close to being truly finished.
Most of my days lately have been all about Little Bear (my son) and Chosen. Editubby and I have hardly seen each other at all, which has been pretty hard, and all my face-to-face friends think I'm hibernating. Which I guess I am. When I do leave the house, I'm wearing baby food-stained t-shirts and Nike running shorts, and the odds that my hair has been brushed and I've put on makeup (even chapstick) are, sadly, very low.
Honestly, I usually don't know what day of the week it is. My dishwasher has been broken for almost a month, but since Serious Housecleaning Time could be PR time or Chosen time or Stained Four time or Over the Moon time or Bear time or Editubby time, I never can justify doing a serious clean, and because I'm embarrassed about the state of my house, I never call a handyman to fix my dishwasher. So my dishwasher has been broken for a month, and I just keep scrubbing dishes in little five-minute intervals between other tasks. So, yeah. That's my life right now.
Lately I'm really feeling the weight of not having Chosen out yet, so I'm probably looking forward to the release as much as the next person, if not more. My goal is to have Stained Four finished two weeks after that, and have it released one week later. So, the next-to-last week of August. I've been working on it for about a week, while Editubby and I overlap and crisscross with the editing on Chosen. So far, so good. :)
It's kind of weird that I'll be wrapping the Stained Series up, simply because it's been 'alive' for so long. I wrote my very first real(ish) book from 2005-2006 (oh, the days when it took a year to write a book!) and after that, I started Stained. At the time it was called Marked; that was before the YA book by P.C. Cast came out, or at least before I'd seen it. I wrote it in a week, gave it to Editubby, and was querying agents two or three months later. (And this, my friends, was considered a speedy operation).
I didn't query very widely because at the time I didn't know I should. I sent out 20 queries and got two request for fulls and two requests for partials. One of the full-requesting agents rejected Marked because she didn't like the characters. Just plain didn't like 'em. She also thought the beginning was too slow. (It was. It's still not the fastest thing, but it's not that slow anymore). The other one, a NYC agent who was and still is one of the very best, rejected with this: Your writing is beautiful, but it is just not quite distinct enough. To represent, I have to be sure. And, in cursive, in the margin, he wrote: Hope you understand. At the time, I didn't.
I decided to revisit Marked later, and in the meantime, I spent three years writing and re-writing another book, which would eventually become Over the Moon, book one in my Princeps Series. I re-wrote that book, from start to finish, same characters but EVERYTHING else different, four times during those three years, and that more than anything else is what taught me how to write and plot. That book got me through some tough times, so when I started querying for it in the fall of 2010, I was determined to see it published. I would NOT take 'no' for an answer.
This time, I queried widely (150 agents). I got a lot of requests for fulls and partials, and I got as close as you can get to getting an agent without actually ending up with one. (There's more to that story, but because I still 'know' some of the agents, I don't share it; anyway, it's not that interesting). One of my agent situations was particularly hard to get over. For a long time, I was heartbroken over Over the Moon. Like, would cry if the subject came up. After having written it four times in attempt to get it perfect, the only way I could make myself put it away was to promise myself I that I would re-write it sometime in the future. Do something new with it. Make it better. Somehow get it published.
By that time, I was pregnant with Little Bear, and I wasn't sure anymore if I was even supposed to be a writer. I wanted to give it up. I didn't want to be a writer in a world where Over the Moon couldn't be published. At the time, I knew nothing about ebooks. If an agent didn't want to try to sell my book for me, everything was over. When I put OTM 'in a drawer,' I felt like my characters had died, and I mourned them.
During the querying stage of OTM, I'd gotten this image in my head of a girl finding this guy in her backyard, which was a field - the field outside my aunt and uncle's house, on their farm in Alabama. That idea quickly became HERE (and the farm was moved to Colorado, where it became a wind farm). HERE was the book I didn't really want to write. You know, like that guy you start dating when you really don't want to date anyone because you've just had your heart stomped on...but you do because you have nothing else to do...and you're kind of half-assing it...and then at some point, it somehow becomes real. That was HERE. By the end of the book, I was totally in love with Nick (and Milo), which was important and good, but not as important or good as something else...
During the writing of HERE, a little over a year ago, I went to the beach, where I was given a Kindle, which I was told could be read easily with one hand while rocking or feeding a baby. My sister, who gave me the Kindle and who at the time had no babies, had no way of knowing I would never actually be coordinated enough to read and feed a newborn at the same time. But after Little Bear was asleep, during that window of time when you can't quite put them down without waking them up... I could read. And I did. I read Jessica Sorensen's Fallen Star series and Addison Moore's Celestra series, both of which rocked my socks.
I will never forget the day that I decided to see who published Addison Moore's books. I remember so well lying on my (big, fat, pregnant) side, in my big, dark, too-hot bed, in what I think was the heat of July, and scanning through the first part of her book looking for the information. And then the moment that I saw HER NAME. My world was rocked. Here was a BIG author...publishing HERSELF. And then I frantically checked Fallen Star. And it was self-pubbed, too!
I remember I was so excited - just that this avenue was out there, available. Well, possibly available. I didn't even know yet. I told Editubby, who at the time was just plain Hubby, one night when we were walking on a nearby college campus. I was still down and out because of what had happened with OTM. I didn't know what to do with HERE. I definitely didn't know what to do about ebooks.
Editubby suggested putting Marked up, just for kicks. Maybe someone would read it. At the time, I had no plans whatsoever for the book that I re-named Stained. It wasn't distinct. It wasn't going anywhere. But I dusted it off, gave it an edit or two, put it on Amazon... and, to my total shock, people did start reading it. Even liking it. Which was amazing. And which promoted the decision to write Stolen. And then Chosen.
And slowly I started to find that you can make money with ebooks. It's not big money in the very beginning. It's not that sought-after 'very nice' advance from a NY publishing house, but it's your e-rights. Yours. It's giving none of your money to an agent or a publisher. It's hard work, but it's worth it. And here's the best part: You can write what you want, when you want to write it - and (this is still a little crazy) you can put it online. Just like that, people can read your books.
So it's no huge surprise that one of my first attempts at writing a 'real' blog post led me here. I am busy, yes, but I am so, so happy to be doing this.
Less than a year ago, I wasn't sure how I could keep writing, knowing that my efforts might be for nothing. Knowing that if none of these 200-some-odd people wanted it, no one would ever get to see it. At least not in a situation where I'd be making any money. And if I couldn't make money on my writing, maybe I should be doing something else. The fact was, I wanted - and still want - to make money from my writing. I wanted my books to be seen. I wanted them to be priced reasonably, so that people would buy them. I wanted to be given a fighting chance at making a name for myself. None of this seemed possible before ebooks.
I'm sure I sound like so many other up-and-coming authors out there, but seriously: I am living my dream. I have a to-be-written list about a mile long, and because of ebooks - and because of you - I can actually write those books, and it won't be a waste of my time. It won't leave me broke because I'm writing instead of working a paying job. It won't leave me discouraged because I'm writing only for agents who don't think they can sell my work. I'm writing for you. Which is wonderful.
I suspect this is why I've never really warmed to the idea of having and maintaining a blog. I know it's necessary... and that's about the extent of my feelings about having a blog. I look at authors like Rachel Deagan and Heather Hildenbrand, who actually seem to enjoy updating their blogs, and it blows my mind a little. Then I visit amazing, beautiful review sites like The Bookish Brunette and several circuits fry inside my head.
But I want to be here. I want to communicate with my readers, and other authors, and reviewers. So I'm going to try to do a better job of updating, and not just with 'professional' stuff. If I'm going to do this, I want it to be personal.
Things have been super hectic lately in my world. My husband, who is also my editor, and I have been traveling a lot. Probably four long weekend sort of trips (all 5+ hour drives) in the last six weeks. And we're not traveling alone. We have an 11-month-old son (who just started walking!).
I originally said Chosen, Stained book three, would be out in early July - a deadline I definitely thought I could make, and probably could have, had I skipped UtopYA or one of our trips to visit family. I'm slowly learning that as an indie author doing everything 'in-house', deadlines are totally unpredictable, and it's best not to say much about a book's release date until it's actually time.
For example, I just announced that Chosen will be out July 27. The book is long since finished, and EditorHubby (or should he be Editubby? that makes me laugh. hard.) has even edited it twice already. So I know I can make that deadline, because if something terrible happened between now and then, we could simply put it out as is. It's that close to being truly finished.
Most of my days lately have been all about Little Bear (my son) and Chosen. Editubby and I have hardly seen each other at all, which has been pretty hard, and all my face-to-face friends think I'm hibernating. Which I guess I am. When I do leave the house, I'm wearing baby food-stained t-shirts and Nike running shorts, and the odds that my hair has been brushed and I've put on makeup (even chapstick) are, sadly, very low.
Honestly, I usually don't know what day of the week it is. My dishwasher has been broken for almost a month, but since Serious Housecleaning Time could be PR time or Chosen time or Stained Four time or Over the Moon time or Bear time or Editubby time, I never can justify doing a serious clean, and because I'm embarrassed about the state of my house, I never call a handyman to fix my dishwasher. So my dishwasher has been broken for a month, and I just keep scrubbing dishes in little five-minute intervals between other tasks. So, yeah. That's my life right now.
Lately I'm really feeling the weight of not having Chosen out yet, so I'm probably looking forward to the release as much as the next person, if not more. My goal is to have Stained Four finished two weeks after that, and have it released one week later. So, the next-to-last week of August. I've been working on it for about a week, while Editubby and I overlap and crisscross with the editing on Chosen. So far, so good. :)
It's kind of weird that I'll be wrapping the Stained Series up, simply because it's been 'alive' for so long. I wrote my very first real(ish) book from 2005-2006 (oh, the days when it took a year to write a book!) and after that, I started Stained. At the time it was called Marked; that was before the YA book by P.C. Cast came out, or at least before I'd seen it. I wrote it in a week, gave it to Editubby, and was querying agents two or three months later. (And this, my friends, was considered a speedy operation).
I didn't query very widely because at the time I didn't know I should. I sent out 20 queries and got two request for fulls and two requests for partials. One of the full-requesting agents rejected Marked because she didn't like the characters. Just plain didn't like 'em. She also thought the beginning was too slow. (It was. It's still not the fastest thing, but it's not that slow anymore). The other one, a NYC agent who was and still is one of the very best, rejected with this: Your writing is beautiful, but it is just not quite distinct enough. To represent, I have to be sure. And, in cursive, in the margin, he wrote: Hope you understand. At the time, I didn't.
I decided to revisit Marked later, and in the meantime, I spent three years writing and re-writing another book, which would eventually become Over the Moon, book one in my Princeps Series. I re-wrote that book, from start to finish, same characters but EVERYTHING else different, four times during those three years, and that more than anything else is what taught me how to write and plot. That book got me through some tough times, so when I started querying for it in the fall of 2010, I was determined to see it published. I would NOT take 'no' for an answer.
This time, I queried widely (150 agents). I got a lot of requests for fulls and partials, and I got as close as you can get to getting an agent without actually ending up with one. (There's more to that story, but because I still 'know' some of the agents, I don't share it; anyway, it's not that interesting). One of my agent situations was particularly hard to get over. For a long time, I was heartbroken over Over the Moon. Like, would cry if the subject came up. After having written it four times in attempt to get it perfect, the only way I could make myself put it away was to promise myself I that I would re-write it sometime in the future. Do something new with it. Make it better. Somehow get it published.
By that time, I was pregnant with Little Bear, and I wasn't sure anymore if I was even supposed to be a writer. I wanted to give it up. I didn't want to be a writer in a world where Over the Moon couldn't be published. At the time, I knew nothing about ebooks. If an agent didn't want to try to sell my book for me, everything was over. When I put OTM 'in a drawer,' I felt like my characters had died, and I mourned them.
During the querying stage of OTM, I'd gotten this image in my head of a girl finding this guy in her backyard, which was a field - the field outside my aunt and uncle's house, on their farm in Alabama. That idea quickly became HERE (and the farm was moved to Colorado, where it became a wind farm). HERE was the book I didn't really want to write. You know, like that guy you start dating when you really don't want to date anyone because you've just had your heart stomped on...but you do because you have nothing else to do...and you're kind of half-assing it...and then at some point, it somehow becomes real. That was HERE. By the end of the book, I was totally in love with Nick (and Milo), which was important and good, but not as important or good as something else...
During the writing of HERE, a little over a year ago, I went to the beach, where I was given a Kindle, which I was told could be read easily with one hand while rocking or feeding a baby. My sister, who gave me the Kindle and who at the time had no babies, had no way of knowing I would never actually be coordinated enough to read and feed a newborn at the same time. But after Little Bear was asleep, during that window of time when you can't quite put them down without waking them up... I could read. And I did. I read Jessica Sorensen's Fallen Star series and Addison Moore's Celestra series, both of which rocked my socks.
I will never forget the day that I decided to see who published Addison Moore's books. I remember so well lying on my (big, fat, pregnant) side, in my big, dark, too-hot bed, in what I think was the heat of July, and scanning through the first part of her book looking for the information. And then the moment that I saw HER NAME. My world was rocked. Here was a BIG author...publishing HERSELF. And then I frantically checked Fallen Star. And it was self-pubbed, too!
I remember I was so excited - just that this avenue was out there, available. Well, possibly available. I didn't even know yet. I told Editubby, who at the time was just plain Hubby, one night when we were walking on a nearby college campus. I was still down and out because of what had happened with OTM. I didn't know what to do with HERE. I definitely didn't know what to do about ebooks.
Editubby suggested putting Marked up, just for kicks. Maybe someone would read it. At the time, I had no plans whatsoever for the book that I re-named Stained. It wasn't distinct. It wasn't going anywhere. But I dusted it off, gave it an edit or two, put it on Amazon... and, to my total shock, people did start reading it. Even liking it. Which was amazing. And which promoted the decision to write Stolen. And then Chosen.
And slowly I started to find that you can make money with ebooks. It's not big money in the very beginning. It's not that sought-after 'very nice' advance from a NY publishing house, but it's your e-rights. Yours. It's giving none of your money to an agent or a publisher. It's hard work, but it's worth it. And here's the best part: You can write what you want, when you want to write it - and (this is still a little crazy) you can put it online. Just like that, people can read your books.
So it's no huge surprise that one of my first attempts at writing a 'real' blog post led me here. I am busy, yes, but I am so, so happy to be doing this.
Less than a year ago, I wasn't sure how I could keep writing, knowing that my efforts might be for nothing. Knowing that if none of these 200-some-odd people wanted it, no one would ever get to see it. At least not in a situation where I'd be making any money. And if I couldn't make money on my writing, maybe I should be doing something else. The fact was, I wanted - and still want - to make money from my writing. I wanted my books to be seen. I wanted them to be priced reasonably, so that people would buy them. I wanted to be given a fighting chance at making a name for myself. None of this seemed possible before ebooks.
I'm sure I sound like so many other up-and-coming authors out there, but seriously: I am living my dream. I have a to-be-written list about a mile long, and because of ebooks - and because of you - I can actually write those books, and it won't be a waste of my time. It won't leave me broke because I'm writing instead of working a paying job. It won't leave me discouraged because I'm writing only for agents who don't think they can sell my work. I'm writing for you. Which is wonderful.
July 17, 2012
Finally! A Chosen release date!
Chosen, Stained Series book three, will finally be released Friday, July 27! Woohoo! Mark your calendars! xx
Release date
Chosen, Stained Series book three, will finally be released Friday, July 27! Woohoo! Mark your calendars! xx
FREE COPIES OF STAINED
Hi guys! An Amazon error has caused all sorts of confusion with sales rankings, and in an attempt to help mine find their way back to the spot where they were when the error occurred, I'm giving away some free copies of Stained.
If you'd like a free copy, leave an e-mail address that's associated with your Amazon account, and I will gift one to you. Depending on how many people are interested, I may have to close the offer at some point today (7/17), but I'll let you know when/if that happens.
The only thing I ask is that you 'open' the gift as soon as possible, and that if you enjoy the book, you leave a brief Amazon review. :) Thanks for reading my books, and I wish you all a happy Tuesday!
Ella
ETA: THE BOOK IS NO LONGER FREE. LEAVE YOUR E-MAIL, THOUGH, AND I WILL RANDOMLY PICK FIVE OF YOU AT THE END OF THE DAY AND GIVE IT TO YOU, TOO. Also, for the rest of you guys, it's only 99 cents, so shouldn't break the bank. :)
If you'd like a free copy, leave an e-mail address that's associated with your Amazon account, and I will gift one to you. Depending on how many people are interested, I may have to close the offer at some point today (7/17), but I'll let you know when/if that happens.
The only thing I ask is that you 'open' the gift as soon as possible, and that if you enjoy the book, you leave a brief Amazon review. :) Thanks for reading my books, and I wish you all a happy Tuesday!
Ella
ETA: THE BOOK IS NO LONGER FREE. LEAVE YOUR E-MAIL, THOUGH, AND I WILL RANDOMLY PICK FIVE OF YOU AT THE END OF THE DAY AND GIVE IT TO YOU, TOO. Also, for the rest of you guys, it's only 99 cents, so shouldn't break the bank. :)
June 22, 2012
Weekend contest
Hi guys! As you know if you visited my blog before coming here, I'm going to the beach this weekend. :) This is all well and good, but here's the thing... I don't even want to see my laptop! This is where you come in. I'm arranging some incentives so you guys can do my job for me...and get paid for it. Well, kind of. I'm going to list some tasks for you, and for each one you do, I'll enter you in a drawing to win. What, you say? I'm going to be giving away:
-Two $5 Amazon gift cards
-Three $2.99 (or less) ebooks - winner's choice - can be any author
-Two copies of Chosen, available the night before the book's release
So that's seven winners total!
Here are your options:
-Review any of my books on Amazon.
-Review any of my books on Goodreads.
-Plug any of my books on FB in any way you choose.
-Plug any of my books on Twitter.
-Send an e-mail to a friend recommending one of the books (you'll be re-entered for each recipient).
-Buy one of the books yourself.
-Share the Chosen cover on your wall with a note about how it will be out in a few weeks, and readers should start with Stained - then link stained (this is the link: http://www.amazon.com/Stained-Paranor...)
-Share a link to HERE with a message about how the next book is coming in July, and people should read it. Here's the link for that one: http://www.amazon.com/HERE-Sci-Fi-Rom...
-Vote for any of my books on a Goodreads list. Each vote earns 1/2 an entry... so vote on two lists to be entered once, and so forth. (Each book appears on several lists, so this won't be hard).
-After you do whatever you did, share info about the contest on your FB wall or Twitter and I'll enter you again, just for doing that!
THEN e-mail me at ella_f_james@ymail.com and say you did this. Monday I'll enter everyone the appropriate number of times and draw my seven winners!
-Two $5 Amazon gift cards
-Three $2.99 (or less) ebooks - winner's choice - can be any author
-Two copies of Chosen, available the night before the book's release
So that's seven winners total!
Here are your options:
-Review any of my books on Amazon.
-Review any of my books on Goodreads.
-Plug any of my books on FB in any way you choose.
-Plug any of my books on Twitter.
-Send an e-mail to a friend recommending one of the books (you'll be re-entered for each recipient).
-Buy one of the books yourself.
-Share the Chosen cover on your wall with a note about how it will be out in a few weeks, and readers should start with Stained - then link stained (this is the link: http://www.amazon.com/Stained-Paranor...)
-Share a link to HERE with a message about how the next book is coming in July, and people should read it. Here's the link for that one: http://www.amazon.com/HERE-Sci-Fi-Rom...
-Vote for any of my books on a Goodreads list. Each vote earns 1/2 an entry... so vote on two lists to be entered once, and so forth. (Each book appears on several lists, so this won't be hard).
-After you do whatever you did, share info about the contest on your FB wall or Twitter and I'll enter you again, just for doing that!
THEN e-mail me at ella_f_james@ymail.com and say you did this. Monday I'll enter everyone the appropriate number of times and draw my seven winners!
June 19, 2012
Chosen cover reveal
This is the Chosen cover! I am in love. :)
