Hugh Howey's Blog, page 83

Blown Away

No, not from Hurricane Isaac. From you all.

The Wool Audiobook!

You’ve learned not to trust your eyes. Now you can deceive your ears, too. The Wool audiobook has popped up on Audible.com. Soon, it’ll be on iTunes and Amazon.

I’m working on expanding the territories beyond the US and Canada. I don’t have any control over price, but my wife (an avid Audible user) says a membership is the way to go. You get a free credit for signing up, and Wool only costs one credit. They have some introductory deal right now that reeled me in.

My thanks again to Minnie Goode for putting so much heart and soul into this project. If you haven’t seen her behind-the-scenes video, check it out. She did a fantastic job.

Here Comes ChiCon!

I just landed a few hours ago from Denver, where we celebrated the 10th anniversary of Nelson Literary Agency, and I’m already getting jazzed for Chicago! (see what I did there?)

For anyone heading to the conference, here’s how to avoid me:

Don’t go to The Emerald Loop at 8:00 on Thursday. We’ll be doing our first-ever Chicago Meet-Up. It’s going to be an absolute blast, so steer clear.

The rest of my schedule is after the break. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

Moderator in bold. The Kaffeeklatsche is like a coffee hangout.

Thu Aug 30 6:00:pm
Thu Aug 30 7:30:pm
To Indie or Not to Indie


Columbus CD
What are the pros and cons of electronic self-publication? Is it the right choice for you/your project/this moment? What are the options? What factors should you consider when making your decision? What processes are the same or different in electronic self-publication and legacy print publication?


Bill Housley Hugh Howey J. Kathleen Cheney Matt Forbeck Mike Shepherd Moscoe






Fri Aug 31 9:00:am
Fri Aug 31 10:30:am
New Writers Session 3


Addams
A panel for new and debut authors to discuss their work and careers.


Brad Aiken Dennis Y. Ginoza Hugh Howey Janet Catherine Johnston Michael Coorlim






Fri Aug 31 3:00:pm
Fri Aug 31 4:30:pm
Autograph Session 5


Autograph Tables



Geoff Ryman Hugh Howey Jacqueline Carey Jacqueline Lichtenberg Mike Flynn Nnedi Okorafor Seanan McGuire Vylar Kaftan






Fri Aug 31 6:00:pm
Fri Aug 31 7:30:pm
Dystopian or Post-Apocalyptic or Both?


Buckingham
This panel will examine novels like the Hunger Games trilogy that have elements of both dystopian writing and the post-apocalyptic tradition and explore what those distinctions may mean.


Alaya Dawn Johnson Heather Urbanski Hugh Howey John Joseph Adams Marie Bilodeau






Sat Sep 1 11:00:am
Sat Sep 1 11:30:am
Reading: Hugh Howey


Addams



Hugh Howey






Sun Sep 2 3:00:pm
Sun Sep 2 4:30:pm
Kaffeeklatsche with: Hugh Howey


Kaffeeklatsche 3



Hugh Howey

Lunch at McCormick’s!

Less than an hour from meeting up with Denver readers at McCormick’s! Hope to see at least two of you there.

Matt asks about beta readers

Another question from a reader who thinks I know what the hell I’m talking about. Please, everyone, don’t spoil the fun. I dig these posts. It’s like writing fiction, but with less research!

Dear Hugh,

How do I find beta readers on the internet who I can trust to not upload my mobi/epub to a pirate site? Any suggestions for finding IRL beta readers, besides the obvious ploy of roping in family, friends and coworkers?

-Matt

Great question, Matt! Beta readers are like a writer’s best friend. They’re like a writer’s best friend when you need a sofa moved. Or a loan. Or when you’re a leper and you really just want a shoulder to cry on. They’re like those best friends.

Before I tell you how impossible it is to find them, allow me to allay your concerns regarding your work being stolen and posted for free somewhere. Here’s what you need to do to protect yourself: Go ahead and post your work on a website of your own. For free. And pray someone reads it.

I didn’t show up on piracy sites until WOOL was a bestseller. I threw digital copies of my Molly Fyde series everywhere. I sent them to potential reviewers, friends, family, complete strangers, just hoping someone would read the entire thing and want the next one. Getting started in this industry requires giving your work away for a good period of time. As indies, we should be pricing our stories where people would feel guilty for stealing them if they enjoy them. We should be thankful for anyone who invests time in reading what we’ve written. That’s my attitude, anyway. I felt giddy when I saw that my works were being pirated. It meant I had arrived.

With that out of the way (and with 90% of you having browsed away from my blog in disgust), on to the challenge of finding betas. In the beginning, you might have to exchange services. Writing groups are great for this. You take turns having your work critiqued, even though you never have time to go through an entire novel. Members, however, will often read in exchange for being read. Being someone else’s beta will make you a better writer, guaranteed. So look for opportunities to swap rough drafts with other writers. Start threads in writing forums like KB. You’ll get takers.

Try bribery. Offer signed copies of physical editions in exchange for a beta read. Let them know they’ll be thanked in the acknowledgments. Another thing to try is to post the first dozen chapters or so on a blog and point everyone to the free sample. If you don’t have people begging for the rest, you need to reexamine what you’ve written. If you do have people wanting more, see if they’ll help you clean up your draft. Again, don’t be scared to give your work away. Neil Gaiman, even after becoming a household hame, experimented with giving his book AMERICAN GODS away online. The entire book! Guess what happened? Sales for both the digital and print books exploded. We, as authors, want to be read. Make it as easy as possible for this to happen.

It bears mentioning that once you have some sort of established readership, getting betas for subsequent works is much easier. Contact people who have reviewed your work or emailed you as a fan. See if they’d be interested in a sneak peek at the next book in exchange for any typos or plot holes they can catch. Save this list for future works. And take what your betas say to heart. Believe the negative comments and discount the positive ones. You’ll be seeing the same feedback in your eventual reviews, I promise. Only louder. With all-caps sometimes. And bad grammar.

Congratulations to Nelson Literary Agency!

This weekend, we will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of Kristin Nelson’s literary agency. It’s remarkable what Kristin has accomplished in the last decade. The publishing industry has gone through unbelievable turmoil, and Kristin has managed to thrive by anticipating and embracing change rather than struggle against it. Her reputation amongst writers and her peers is unmatched.

When I wrote my very first manuscript, Kristin was one of the dozens of agents I queried. I’m pretty sure I have a form rejection email from her somewhere. Her name remained familiar enough from her blog and industry news, and so I couldn’t believe it when I received an email from her some three years later! She had sent it in the middle of the night after digging into Wool. Her getting in touch to offer representation was a huge turning point in my career. In a series of Skype sessions, she wore down my resistance to having an agent, and everything she promised she’d be able to do for me, she has done.

In my working with Kristin, I can see why her agency has been able to do well through tumultuous times. A wonderful staff, a love of books, and the flexibility and open mindedness that will foster good things in this industry. I’m looking forward to what she accomplishes in the next ten years. Congratulations, Kristin. And congrats to your awesome staff.

Don’t Do as I Have Done

The Kill Zone is an awesome blog for readers and writers to check out. They’ve had a number of excellent stories recently. I try and get over there a few times a week. Somehow, I missed their Grafton coverage. It’s interesting, though, because they point out that Sue is wrong when it comes to authors like me but totally correct when it comes to hacks who write during NaNoWriMo and publish their books in December before they’re ready.

The only problem is: I was that very NaNoWriMo’er! Wools 2, 3, and 4 were written during NaNo 2011. And so: I am what Sue and others say to do. I am the supposed exception. And yet: I am also doing what they say nobody should be doing.

Read their coverage. After the break, you can check out the comment I left.

My comment:

It’s interesting that I’m supposed to be an exception and an outlier due to my success, and this same article (an excellent one, btw) cautions against publishing a NaNoWriMo book on December 1st.

 

The series that launched my career, Wool, has five parts. Parts 2, 3, and 4 were written during NaNoWriMo 2011. All three parts were published before the end of the year. Part 2 was published *in* November. *During* NaNoWriMo. The books have sold over 200,000 copies and hit the NYT and USA Today bestseller lists. Ridley Scott picked up the film rights and Random House is releasing a hardback in the UK in January. We’ve turned down 6 and 7 figure advances from major publishers here in the States.

 

The success of Wool largely hinged on my seeing the breakout of the first novelette and being able to satisfy demand with quality stories delivered swiftly. The delay encouraged by Grafton and the like would have destroyed my momentum.

 

I point this out to support those who have had success with NaNoWriMo and who enjoy writing and publishing on whatever schedule best fits their work ethic. Holding me up as an exemplar of taking one’s time and the NaNo’er as the other extreme is ironic, since I am that NaNo’er.

Denver Meet-Up, Anyone?

Any readers in Denver interested in meeting for lunch on Saturday? I’m thinking fish tacos or fish and chips at McCormick’s right across from Union Station. Lunch is pretty reasonable, and it’s near my hotel and this shindig I have to go to Saturday night.

There’s been call for a Denver Meet-Up in the past, but the way these things usually work is that the person who brought that up is out of town once it happens. Chime in and spread the word. The more the merrier! I’m thinking 12:30 or 1:00.

Dear Mr. Indie…

Please don’t tell anyone that I have no idea what I’m doing, because I love pretending. Today on Dear Mr. Indie, Frank asks:

“I know I want to start with Createspace, but am I ok then trying to get on the Nook store and iBooks? Will Amazon get mad at that? What procedure do you use to publish?

Thanks!”

I highly recommend CreateSpace. I’ve used them and Lightning Source, and I’ve become a huge fan of CS’s advantages over LSI’s ability to get me in bookstores. The printing quality is top-notch, the pricing is better, the setup is free, the shipping is faster, and the integration with Amazon (who owns CS) is much better.

Because of this ownership, it sounds like Frank is worried about publishing on other platforms. Don’t be! CreateSpace and Kindle Digital Publishing (KDP) are separate entities. There is no penalty for publishing your ebooks wherever you like. Amazon won’t get mad at all, I promise.

My publishing procedure is as follows:

I concentrate on the ebook first. Once I have that formatted and uploaded, I paste my manuscript into Indesign. I use a template set up from an earlier book. The pagination is a little involved, but I end up with a PDF, which is what CreateSpace uses for their printing. Once I have these two formats handled, I work on getting the ebook up at Kobo, Nook, and the iBookstore.

Lately, I’ve started using a professional ebook formatter. Kindle keeps making little changes and tweaks, and some of these have caused issues with various readers. It’s too much to keep up with, not like in the old days when there was a single Kindle and everything was black and white (har).

Theresa Ragan: Lost in Time

This is an awesome story of an author who spent 19 years trying to get a book published, finally released it on her own, and has sold over 160,000 books in the last 10 months. The synopsis of her book sounds very interesting. Twin girls born in medieval times, one of them is sickly and sent to the future for medical aid. At the age of 24, not knowing anything of her origins, she is whisked back to the past and into a forced marriage, and no one will believe her story. Very cool twist.

But it’s the time-traveling the author endured that really moves me. 19 years of querying, landing an agent, performing 20,000-word edits at the behest of potential publishers, all to no avail. And then the desperation of self-publishing two decades later.

Welcome to the future, Theresa! And congratulations. What an incredible story of perseverance and coming out on top.