Cameron Chapman's Blog, page 12

Read an Ebook Week

It's read an ebook week, and I thought I'd share some of awesome ebooks I've read recently. I've been reading like crazy since I got my Nook Color a few weeks ago, and absolutely love it. I'm already on target to read more books this winter than I read all of last year.

So, here are my suggestions for ebooks to check out this week, or any week (note: book titles are linked to the Kindle versions with an affiliate link):

The Trylle Trilogy: Switched, Torn, and Ascend, by Amanda Hocking. (You can also get them on Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords). This was the first series I read on my Nook. I finished all three in one weekend.

Hollowland, also by Amanda Hocking. (On BN and Smashwords). Like zombies? You'll love Hollowland.

Save My Soul, by Zoe Winters. (On BN and Smashwords). This is one of the few books I've read that had a twist at the end that I completely didn't see coming and yet fit perfectly within the rest of the story.

Ask Me if I'm Happy, by Kimberly Menozzi. (Only available on Kindle). This is an absolutely beautiful book, a seamless blending of romance and literary fiction.

And of course, if you're looking for an ebook to read, why not try mine? Aboard the Unstoppable Aerostat Fenris is available on Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords.

A First Look at "The Great Healion Race"

Since it's #SampleSunday over on Twitter, I decided I'd share the first part of The Great Healion Race, Book Two of The Steam and Steel Chronicles. Here are the first two scenes, which start four years after the end of the first book, Aboard the Unstoppable Aerostat Fenris (available on Nook, Smashwords, and Kindle):

>><<

Late afternoon sunlight glinted off the turrets of Saint Basil's Cathedral as the airship flew in from the east. Captain Stig Rayner looked out over Moscow as he came in for a landing. It was time for repairs and Russia was the place to get them done. Or at least the place to get them done on the cheap.

Things had been going downhill over the past eight months. First his airship was impounded for transporting stolen goods. He'd barely made it out of that one without spending some time in a Chinese prison. He had to borrow the money to get his ship out of impound and to pay for the cargo he lost. Then he ran into some problems when he didn't have the money to pay back the loan. And now his ship was in dire need to repairs. It was a miracle he'd stayed in the air long enough to make it back from Beijing.

He still didn't know where the money for them would come from, but something would turn up. It always did.

Once he was safely on the ground at the shipyard and his airship had been registered with the repair office there, Stig went for a drink. Maybe, if he was drunk, the cost of repairs wouldn't be such a blow. Besides, what else was he going to do for the rest of the afternoon while the crews at the shipyard came up with an estimate?

It had been a few years since he'd been in Moscow. He hated it there. It was dirty, crowded, and he didn't speak the language. But it had a couple things going for it: there was a steady supply of opium from Persia, and the vodka flowed like water.

>><<

Isabelle Feeny Hemsworth was just pulling into Moscow when she saw the airship coming into the city a few minutes ahead of her. She shielded her eyes against the sun and studied the outline. It had been four years since Stig had left her on a London street with twelve and a half thousand pounds in her pocket—half the reward for returning some stolen defense technology to the British government. But she'd recognize that ship anywhere, partly because it was such an outdated model, and partly because it was in such disreputable condition.

She brought the locomotive to a stop next to the platform in the freight yard and shut down the engines, opening the steam blow-off valves to relieve the pressure in the system. The airship had lowered out of site by the time she looked back up.

The new rail route she'd taken on was working well for her. She'd gotten in early and now had the best reputation of any of the freighters on the route, even though the line was only a little over eighteen months old. She had so much business, she'd been considering hiring a second operator.

She watched as the dock workers unloaded the three cargo containers she'd hauled in. It didn't take long. They were efficient on the Moscow end of the line. The same couldn't be said for the workers in Samara.

"Any outgoing freight ready?" she asked the yard manager when everything was unloaded.

He looked over the papers on his clipboard thoughtfully. "Not till tomorrow, at least."

Damn. "Let me know if anything comes up."

"I always do," he called after her as she walked toward the front gates to the freight yard.

Once out on the street, Isabelle headed toward her favorite bar. Maybe she could find cargo from one of the other shipping companies. The sooner she got out of the city, the better. It was feeling awfully crowded all of a sudden. But right now, she needed a drink.

Transparency in Indie Publishing: Month One

As promised, I'm going to share my sales for my indie-published novella series here, so that others considering indie-publishing can have as much data as possible to make their decision. I'll also try to share any insight into my sales numbers, and what marketing efforts I've made (and if I can see any correlation between those efforts and my sales figures).

So, February was a short month, and Aboard the Unstoppable Aerostat Fenris wasn't widely available until the 4th or 5th. So right off the bat, I was working with a month that was only about 24 days long.

Also, I did virtually no marketing ahead of time. Sure, I'd posted here a few times about the book and its progress, but I didn't send out any review copies, I didn't do any real networking, prior to the release date. Mostly, it was because this is my first go at indie publishing fiction, and I didn't want to shoot myself in the foot if I ran into problems getting it out there. I decided to go with the slow-and-steady approach.

Here are my sales for the month of February:

Smashwords: 2 copies (I know both people who bought it there)

Barnes & Noble's PubIt!: 6 copies

Amazon: 14 copies, but one was returned immediately after being purchased, for a net of 13 copies

Net Total: 21 copies

Honestly, it's about where I figured it would be, which is a good feeling. I wanted to sell at least a dozen copies in the first month, and I was hoping for a copy-a-day average, which I came very close to.

I know a lot of you are interested in what marketing I did for the month, so here's a breakdown of that:

Blog posts here. I wrote six posts related to the book in February.
Facebook Page. The FB page launched on February 1st. It currently has 49 fans, and I'm happy to report that a significant number of those are people I've never heard of before. I try to post a few times a week, both with links to the book and related info, as well as to other steampunk-related links.
Twitter. I posted on a fairly regular basis with links to buy or to the Facebook page. I also participated in #SampleSunday twice (on 2/6 and 2/27), with a total of six re-tweets.
Interview on the Kindle Author Blog. The interview was posted on 2/10, and I saw no noticeable uptick in sales. This link was also shared by the Tor.com Steampunk Facebook Page, which has around a thousand fans.
Interview on Greta van der Rol's blog. I might have had an extra sale or two because of this.
Interview on Noelle Pierce's Candles of the Night blog. Again, I might have had an extra sale or two because of this.
I posted announcements on Kindle Boards, Nook Boards, and UK Kindle Users.
Posted an announcement on the Absolute Write forums, and on the Authonomy Forums. I scored one glowing review on Barnes & Noble from an Absolute Write member.
I updated my signature and avatar on all the writer and book forums I participate in, to reflect my book cover and links to purchase. No idea whether this has had any effect or not.
I'm trying to be more active on Goodreads, and networking there. Currently, Aboard the Unstoppable Aerostat Fenris is on fourteen "to-read" shelves and on three listopia lists: #98 on the Best Steampunk Books (out of 174), #17 on the Steampunk/Romance (out of 41), and #13 on the Best Steampunk and Gaslight Works (out of 57). If you're a Goodreads member and have a minute, I'd appreciate any votes!

This month I've already had one small blog feature, and I have three or four reviews and more guest posts and interviews lined up. I also need to get back to sending out review requests.

In all, for a soft launch, I'm not disappointed with the progress so far. And, with the launch of the second book later this month (I'm in the proofreading/copyediting stage at the moment), hopefully sales will pick up more.

Transparency in Indie Publishing

One of the biggest questions a lot of authors have when it comes to indie publishing is "Can you really make any money at it?" We've all heard the stories about people like JA Konrath, who already had a mainstream publishing career prior to going indie. And we've heard about people like Amanda Hocking, who has shot up the charts and has sold more than a million books on Kindle in about a year (not to mention her sales on Smashwords and elsewhere). But can the average person make a decent living by indie publishing?

Well, I don't know. I have friends who have self-published and are making a few hundred to a few thousand dollars a month. I have other friends who have self-published and are probably lucky to make a hundred dollars a month. A lot of it depends on how appealing your book is, and how hard you market it.

I'll say that so far, 19 days into self-publishing my first novella, sales are right about where I expected. There's still a few more days left in the month, and I have at least one more blog appearance lined up for this weekend, so here's to hoping that I get a nice little up-tick in sales this week and exceed my expectations! (If you want to help out with that, you can purchase Aboard the Unstoppable Aerostat Fenris on Smashwords, Nook, and Kindle in both the US and UK.)

In an effort to help get more data out there, so that people can decide for themselves whether indie publishing is the right thing for them, I plan to publicize my sales numbers and marketing efforts each month. I'll include the number of books I've sold (including the outlets they sold through), as well as the blog appearances and other marketing I did during the month. I'll draw conclusions as I can, but I'll try to share as much raw data as possible.

On that note, is there anything in particular all of you would like to know in these monthly reports? Let me know in the comments, and I'll try to share the information that's important to you guys!

Getting to a Coherent Draft

The structure of a novel can make or break it. If it's well-structured—as in the pacing is good, the events happen in the most logical order (even if that's not necessarily chronologically), and the characters do things you'd expect them to do—that's more than half the battle. And if you're lucky, the structure is pretty good starting with the first draft. Most of my novels/novellas are like this (now—maybe not in the beginning), but not all of them.

One of the novels I'm working on now wasn't so lucky. The first draft was okay. It was actually pretty good until about 2/3 of the way through. And then it kind of fell flat. The ending sucked, to put it bluntly.

So on my first round of revisions, I rewrote the ending entirely. My protagonist made a better decision to start with, and then I added in a new twist after that, and then everything wrapped up more or less neatly. But I still didn't really like it. I kept looking back at my original ending, wondering if there was something there after all.

In addition to the ending issues, there was also an issue with one of the main characters (Hank). His motivations weren't clear, making him seem just a little too passive. I decided the best way to fix this, and the most natural way, would be to add in a few scenes from his POV throughout the novel and even to rewrite some existing scenes in his POV.

What I ended up with was a vague idea of what I needed to do, and no clue where to start actually doing it. It was a big project to tackle. And over the past two nights, I tackled it. Here's what I did:

I started out by grabbing the printouts I had of the entire last draft I had, as well as the ending of the first draft. Then I opened up Google Docs and started a new spreadsheet (please don't go running away at the mention of that word, I promise there are no formulas involved). And I went through the last draft, scene by scene, and entered each scene into the spreadsheet. I included the scene number (chapter.scene), the POV character (since I'll be adding in scenes from an extra POV), a brief description of what happens in each scene, the characters included in the scene, a space to enter any changes that need to be made, and whether a draft of that scene had been written. See? No math.

I then went through the ending from the first draft and entered those scenes into the spreadsheet. I entered each of those chapters after their respective chapters already in the spreadsheet. To keep track of which draft was which, I labeled all the scenes from the first draft with an "A" and all the ones from the most recent draft with a "B" (it seemed the most logical way to do it, though you should do it however makes sense to you).

At the same time, I entered places where I thought it would make sense for Hank to have a scene, or highlighted scenes that should be rewritten from his POV. Some scenes need to be split so that part is from the current POV, and part is from Hank's POV.

From there, I took out a notebook and pen, and went through the ending scenes to see how I might be able to use scenes from each to come up with a coherent ending. A few scenes will be eliminated, and at least a couple need to be rewritten substantially to work within this new outline, but I'm going to be able to salvage about 75% of both endings. Which has the benefit of boosting my word count quite a bit (this was on the short side for the genre to begin with, so longer is good in this case).

Then, to finish it all off, I imported the two draft files to Scrivener, and created a new document where I copied the respective scenes into the correct order. This way, when I finally go to make all the changes, I have everything in the proper order, and can do all the editing in one marathon session (or possibly a weekend).

I'd love to dive into the edits on this book right now, but I have too many other projects demanding my attention, including The Steam and Steel Chronicles, a super-secret big project (which I'll disclose as soon as I can), and the first fifty pages of Dragon Rider (I still loathe that title!) to work on in the next few weeks and months. But knowing that it's waiting for me when I do have the time is a huge bonus, and makes it much easier for me to focus on the projects that need my attention.

If anyone has other tips to share about tackling this kind of rewrite, I'd love to hear about them in the comments!

Rewriting, Revising, and Editing: My Strategies

Considering this blog is "Cameron Chapman On Writing" and not "Cameron Chapman Promoting Her Books and Nothing Else", I thought it was time to get back to writing about writing. Besides, there's a nice, big, shiny link to where you can buy Aboard the Unstoppable Aerostat Fenris in the sidebar.

So today I'd like to talk about my strategies for revising and editing my work. Some writers have very set techniques for editing their work. Others are sort of all over the place. I like to think I fall somewhere in the middle.

Now, the goal of editing any manuscript is to improve it. Some manuscripts need very little improvement, while others need a ton. I'm trying to get to the point where I write fairly clean first drafts, that don't need entire rewrites and only need minor, focused editing. I think I'm there, but we'll see after a few more first drafts.

Without further ado, here's my basic process for editing a novel (or novella), as it stands right now:

Finish the first draft. This is key. I don't edit while I'm writing the first draft. If I decide to change something partway through, I'll just leave a note for myself in [brackets] and move on with the rest of the manuscript as if I'd made the changes. I've also found that the faster I write the first draft, the better it will be, story-wise.
Let it sit for a few weeks (or a few months). I can't edit as soon as I've finished writing. Everything's too fresh in my head and I have very little objectivity. My ideal waiting time seems to be right around a month, though that varies based on the project. Sometimes, by the time I finish the first draft, I don't want to touch the thing again for months.
Print out a hard copy. My personal preference for printing format is to switch everything over to Courier New (I usually write in Cochin, Georgia, Baskerville, or Palatino, because I'm a typography nerd), 10pt. and double-spaced. I set my top and bottom margins to .25″, and side margins to .7″. Then, and this is the part that probably makes a lot of other writers feel faint, I print the pages 2-up (so there are two pages side-by-side on one sheet). I've found that this gives me just enough space to make notes in the margins (and I always have the back of each sheet for more extensive notes), as well as to insert proofreading marks and other minor edits between the lines. I've done it this way with four manuscripts, and have yet to run out of space on any of them. Plus, it uses a lot less paper this way (cheaper and more environmentally friendly). I would not, however, recommend this to anyone who has vision problems. Of course, now that I have a Nook Color, I may try doing this stage with that instead. This is also the stage where I find any notes I left for myself and incorporate those changes.
I re-type it. Once the entire thing has been gone through (preferably in one sitting, though that's tough with anything over about 60,000 words), I start retyping it into a fresh document, incorporating the changes from the hard copy. I inevitably find even more issues doing this, so it almost serves as a second round of editing.
I send it out to beta readers. If I'm fairly confident in the manuscript, this is usually a close friend and my husband, both of whom have no issue with being ruthless. If I'm less confident, I may seek out other writers to beta read as well.
I incorporate the changes the beta readers suggested, if I agree with them. If I don't agree, then I don't make changes, but I carefully consider everything they say. Sometimes they'll make suggestions, and while I don't use the exact suggestion, it makes me think of another way to fix whatever the problem is.
I proofread. This is my least-favorite part of the editing process for my own work. My technique for proofreading is to read the entire manuscript, paragraph-by-paragraph, from the end to the beginning. This causes a disconnect in your brain, and you pick up on a lot that isn't apparent when reading in order. I not only find typos this way, but also often find repetitive words or statements, and other language issues. I've done copyediting professionally, so I don't really have a problem proofing my own stuff, as long as I'm careful and take my time.

This seems to be the most streamlined way for me to make edits. This is the process I used when I edited Aboard the Unstoppable Aerostat Fenris. The entire editing process took me approximately a month. That was for a manuscript that was effectively written in about three weeks. (The original story it was based on only took around a month to write, though the new version is substantially different than the original, which was written two years ago.)

Overall, I can edit pretty much any length work in around a month with this method (not including the time it takes beta readers to get back to me). It's simple and effective, and I've been very pleased with the end results.

If your writing is more focused on language, rather than or in addition to character and story, then you may want to use a different technique. I use simple, plain language in my writing, so while word choice is important, it's not as important as it is in some genres. Those with a more lyrical or literary style may take additional passes to get everything perfect.

I'd love to hear about the editing process others use in the comments!

9 Ways to Help Your Favorite Indie Author

Note: This post is being released under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. That means you can take it, put it on your own blog, and make changes to it, as long as you credit me with the original and link back here!

As an indie author, it can be tough getting publicity. People are more than happy to email you privately and tell you they love your book, but getting them to leave a review on a public site, or recommend it to friends is trickier. And asking outright can seem a bit rude (whether it is or not depends on how close you are to the person; asking your mother or your sister isn't rude, asking someone you've met twice might be).

Readers often don't really know what they can do to help their favorite authors (indie or otherwise) be more successful. So here are nine things readers can do to help their favorite authors be more successful:

1. Review their work.

Leaving a review on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Goodreads, or elsewhere is a great way to show your support. Other readers rely on reviews to make their purchasing decisions, and books with more reviews appear to be more popular. Take a few minutes to write a review. Remember, most sites don't require you to purchase the book before leaving a review, so you can copy and paste your review into multiple sites.

2. Share a link.

If you're on Facebook or Twitter, share a link to the author's book with your friends and followers. If it's a book you really love, then there's a good chance at least some of your friends will love it, too.

3. Buy it as a gift.

Books make great gifts. And sharing the work of your favorite author with a friend or relative can gain them new fans.

4. Become a fan.

Whether it's on Goodreads, Facebook, or elsewhere, becoming a fan of your favorite authors means you'll get regular updates about their work. The more fans a page has, the more popular an author appears. Don't forget to recommend them to your friends, too.

5. Recommend them to book review sites.

If you're an active participant on a book review site, recommend that the site review their books. Indie authors sometimes have a hard time getting reviews due to the stigma still attached to self-publishing, but a recommendation from an active site participant can go a long way toward getting past that stigma.

6. Ask for it at your local library.

Libraries will often buy books based on what their patrons ask for. So if your local library doesn't have books by your favorite authors, ask for them. Libraries can help writers get new fans, who will then go on to buy their work in the future.

7. Order through your local independent bookstore.

When you order a book through an independent bookstore, you increase the chance that the bookstore might order additional copies. If the person placing the orders is intrigued by the book, they might order an extra to see if it sells. Alternatively, they might leaf through the book when it comes in, and then decide to buy, or ask for your recommendation.

8. Share their other content.

If your favorite author is on Twitter, Facebook, or another social media site, following them and then occasionally re-sharing their updates can be a huge help.

9. Use #writerwednesday and #followfriday hashtags on Twitter.

If you and your favorite author are on Twitter, consider recommending them for #writerwednesday and #followfriday. Both are great ways to find new people to follow, and can result in a handful of new followers every week.

If you have more ideas for how you can help indie authors get more fans, please share them in the comments! Remember, this is a Creative Commons-licensed post, so feel free to re-post it in its entirety on your own blog (just make sure you link back here for credit).

Available on Kindle!

So, the description for Aboard the Unstoppable Aerostat Fenris isn't yet showing up on the Amazon US site, but the book is there and available for purchase! It's listed in both the US and UK Kindle stores.

If you read the book, please don't forget to leave a review. Also, please let me know if you run into any formatting issues (as far as I know, there aren't any, but I don't have a Kindle, so I was limited to checking on the Kindle app).

Here's a recap of where you can buy it:

Barnes and Noble
Smashwords
Amazon US
Amazon UK

Reviews and Interviews

In the traditional publishing world, reviews and interviews are generally lined up ahead of launch. That's because it's important for books to sell well in the first week or two after they're released if they want to maintain shelf space in bookstores. Many bookstores only give new releases three weeks or so to prove their worth, and if they don't sell in that time, they're returned to the publisher.

Indie authors aren't as affected by initial sales. We can be in it for the long haul, especially with ebooks. There are countless stories of indie authors who only sold a dozen books in their first few months, and then suddenly took off and have now sold thousands (Lexi Revellian is just one such author, and I'm proud to say I was a beta reader for the book that has now done so well—if you like mystery and/or romance novels, go check out Remix!). So lackluster initial sales are nothing to fret over.

On that note, I'd like to line up some reviews and interviews in the coming weeks/months for Aboard the Unstoppable Aerostat Fenris. I'll be releasing the second book in the series sometime in March/April, and would like to get the ball rolling on the first book prior to that release.

If you have a book review blog, an author blog, a steampunk or Victorian/Edwardian history blog or any other kind of blog whose readers would be interested in the book, and you'd like to write a review or interview, please get in touch. To streamline this process, here's what I need from you if you'd like to do either:

For a review: Please email me with your site's URL (your site must be active/regularly updated), approximate readership (don't worry, I'm not going to deny reviews to small blogs, but I'd just be interested in tracking results for my own purposes), and when (approximately) you'd post the review. I'll then send you a coupon code so you can download the book in the format of your choice from Smashwords (if you'd rather purchase the book to review, there's no need to email me ahead of time, but I'd love to be notified if you do post a review). Send emails to thirteen [at] cameronchapman [dot] com, and please include "Fenris Review Request" or something similar in the subject so I don't miss your email.

For an interview: I'm happy to discuss either the book or my experience with indie publishing, and all I ask for in return is a link to the book page at the beginning and/or end of the interview. Please email me with the interview questions, your site's URL, approximate readership, and when you'd like the interview by (please give me at least a week). Again, email thirteen [at] cameronchapman [dot] com, and please include "Fenris Interview Request" or similar in the subject. If you'd like a free copy prior to the interview, let me know and I can send you a coupon code.

Giveaways: If you're interested in running a contest/giveaway for Aboard the Unstoppable Aerostat Fenris on your blog/site, let me know. I'm only doing this kind of thing for higher-traffic sites, and will only be doing a limited number, on a first-come, first-served basis. Email me at thirteen [at] cameronchapman [dot] com, and include "Fenris giveaways" or something similar in the subject.

Thanks in advance to anyone who'll host a review, interview or giveaway!

Now on Nook!

A quick update to let everyone know the Aboard the Unstoppable Aerostat Fenris is now available through Barnes & Noble for the Nook! I'm quite proud of the formatting in this version. Unlike with Smashwords (which requires you to submit a Word document, and then puts it through their "meatgrinder" system to convert it to the different formats), you have much more control over the way everything looks. You can download part of the book as a sample to see what I mean.

Also, the book is live on Amazon, but the version up there has some wonky formatting—the "Go to" menu isn't working properly. I've uploaded the corrected version, but have to wait for it to publish again (which should happen sometime tomorrow). I'll post a link when that's set.