Erinn Harper's Blog, page 4

KINDLE GIVEAWAY

Hello! I’ve got a lot of exciting news this month!

For today’s news, I wanted to mention that I’m hosting a giveaway over on Tumblr and Twitter! One lucky winner will win a Kindle copy of both Stormbringer and its sequel Halfsleeper. I’ll be running the giveaway up until October 17th at 11:59 PM EDT. Please note that this giveaway is for Kindle only. I won’t be making substitutions at this time!

If you’re interested in entering, check out this Tumblr post or this tweet. If you’re on both platforms, you can enter twice!

More exciting news coming very soon…

HALFSLEEPER: COMING OCTOBER 18

Exciting news! Halfsleeper, the sequel to my debut Stormbringer, will be launching on October 18—just in time for witchy season!

Please note that at this time, only the ebook version has a guaranteed launch; I’m working on print copies for both Stormbringer and Halfsleeper, but I’m not yet ready to announce a launch date for those!

Preorders are technically available at Amazon and several other retailers (the latter link is still updating its list of vendors as of today).

If you follow me on social media, keep an eye out for another little exciting announcement in the coming days!

DUMP BOOKS: A FAVORITE WRITING TOOL

Imagine a world where you, a writer, bought all those darling notebooks…and actually used them!

Shocking, I know, but that world could exist, if you only allowed yourself to press a pen to those pristine pages. For me, it took a few years of collecting to actually begin to use them, and now they’re one of my favorite tools in the writing process. I call them my dump books.

Classy, I know, but referring to them as such actually helped me get over the reluctance of “spoiling” a shiny, new notebook. It gave the notebook a specific purpose and gave me permission to use it exactly for that purpose and nothing else.

And what might that purpose be? Well…mind dumping.

I’m not too sure how other writers tend to organize their thoughts when it comes to things like plotting, worldbuilding, developing characters, and so on, but for me, what works best is dumping all my thoughts onto paper and tackling each problematic item as I go. I’ll flesh out characters and their backstories, untangle knots, fill holes (the ones I’m aware of, anyway), and plenty of other things that need a more direct touch.

Take a look at my example below! Be warned there are some slight spoilers pertaining to Stormbringer, so don’t look too closely if that’s something you’re concerned about.

(And for anyone geeky enough to notice, yes, that’s a Mass Effect reference in there…)

But see what I mean? It’s kind of a mix of plotting, journaling, and stream-of-consciousness. Something about working on paper helps me think more deeply than I would sitting behind my computer. Often times I’ll sit down to work out one problem and realize I have five more to address, or I’ll accidentally find a missing puzzle piece I need. With that said, it can be easy to spiral down a rabbit hole with this process, but I’d rather the ideas be flowing than not at all.

Whenever I’m about to start a new draft (and especially starting a new book), I like to sit down with a dump book and just write/solve problems until my mind feels vacant. The notebooks pictured were fairly cheap (about $5) and I write with just a basic ballpoint pen, so there’s no real pressure to have the words look pretty. Now, if I really wanted to impress with my handwriting, I’d use gel, but that’s not the point. The point is to get words on the paper. To fix, to imagine, to edit. These books are FULL of typos (I cross them out and move on), witty jokes, sarcasm, and sometimes self-deprecating humor, because hey, writing is HARD and we’ve gotta have fun. I mean, look at my example. I’m talking to myself, for crying out loud!

And if you’re wondering…no, these are not organized in the slightest. There’s no table of contents and no visible way to break up ideas. That’s where highlighters and post-its come in handy. Post-its to mark important pages, highlighters to mark important ideas. I ramble in these books until I arrive at one of these important ideas, and then I take those to my digital notes.

In a way, dump books are my “rough drafts” when it comes to ideas. If I wasn’t so concerned about getting carpal tunnel, I’d use them for drafting the actual novels themselves. But I might not have a working wrist afterward…

Feel free to let me know whether you use YOUR notebooks…and if so, what are you using them for?

FROM PAPER TO PUBLISHED

Image ID: a tablet featuring the cover of Erinn Harper’s debut, Stormbringer, situated beside a black journal and pen. The journal’s cover features a typewriter and the words “Think, write, create” in gold.

It’s been a chaotic month since Stormbringer’s launch, and while it was a sort of “quiet” launch (stealth launch?), I wanted to reflect on my process and some things I’ve learned since hitting that “publish” button. It seemed an appropriate time!

First of all, a big thank you to those of you who supported this launch with a purchase, a boost, or even a shake of your pom-poms! Books are such personal creations and are thus difficult to share and promote, so it means the world to me that there are people out there willing to boost a new voice.

There’s never an end to research when it comes to learning how to self-publish and self-promote. Everything—from coordinating beta readers and editors to marketing—falls on you and you alone, and learning how to tackle it all requires a special sort of industriousness. What’s worse, advice and resources are always changing. What was trending a year ago is likely not trending anymore. What worked for this author and that genre may not necessarily work for you. That article you read from 2019? Take it with a grain of salt because it might not be relevant here in 2021.

What I like about self-publishing—beyond having full control of my work—is that I can take it as near or far as I like, and I can jazz it up in ways traditional publishing might not allow. But there was one big reason I chose self-publishing over the querying trenches: the challenge of problem-solving.

You see, self-publishing has the potential to be simple. No one was stopping me from taking a draft that I alone edited and uploading it to KDP with a cover I whipped up in Canva. It can be that simple and that inexpensive. But I wanted to challenge myself to do more. I wanted to sink my teeth and claws into something way out of my comfort zone and create something I was proud of. I wanted to figure out what was working and why. I wanted to learn the industry.

But here’s what I have to remember: learning this stuff is an ongoing project, and the material is always changing. There’s no right answer in the self-publishing world when it comes to the question, “How do I sell more books?” As far as I can tell, it requires a lot of work, time, and dedication (and a willingness to wrangle your spiraling emotions), but beyond that? I’m just going to have to experiment.

For instance, how successful would my launch have been if I had chosen to give away review copies? Would I have gained more interest if I had talked more about my work and process in the months prior to release? Did I shoot myself in the foot for not offering paperback copies straight out of the gate?

I don’t know. But I don’t think a quiet launch is as bad as everyone else makes it out to be.

So if you find yourself in a similar position as me, feeling quietly anxious on a small platform, don’t fret. There’s plenty of time to learn. That’s really all self-publishing is: an infinite learning experience. The most important thing is to not lose that spark of writing joy in the whirlwind of marketing and online criticism. That’s a reminder for myself, too.

One final note: if you read and enjoyed Stormbringer, please consider leaving a rating or review on places like Goodreads or Amazon! It would help my reach immensely. Thank you, and stay safe out there!

STORMBRINGER: AVAILABLE NOW!

IT’S HERE!

My wild little debut, Stormbringer, is available now in ebook format from Amazon and these other retailers!

It’s been a long road, but my journey as an author is only just beginning. I have a lot to learn. There are so many things about writing and storytelling I have yet to fully grasp, and I’m excited to watch myself grow with each new book I complete.

I am so grateful to everyone who got me here, including my rad editor, Charlie Knight; my artist soulmate, Helen Graham; and my personal cheerleader, Lily. A big thanks, also, to everyone on Writeblr, Twitter, and IG who expressed interest in this story. I hope you’ll enjoy!

Erinn