Keith Robinson's Blog, page 15

Books I'll be publishing in the next few months

I'm putting myself on the line here, but here's my plan for the rest of 2013...

Publish FRACTURED (BOOK 1) in September 2013

Yes, the collaborative sci-fi/fantasy novel by Brian Clopper and myself is finished. I'm currently doing a final read on my Kindle (and I'm sure Brian is too) and of course I've picked up one or two words I'd like to change or delete, but otherwise it's ready to go. So look for this in September. I'll let y'all know the launch date. See here for details about the book.

Edit, beta read, and publish QUINCY'S CURSE in October 2013

This is written and I have a slew of minor edits as noted by two beta readers. Once I've put those right, I'll send this out for further beta reading around mid-September. Look for a post about this if you're interested in beta reading. This book features a vaguely traditional fantasy setting but is a fairly light read, good for all ages. It's about a boy named Quincy Flack who is cursed with bouts of good and bad luck, which can turn a great day into a terrible one and vice versa. What I love about this novel is the way each chapter is told from a different point of view as the boy and his friend, Megan, make their way across country and meet various colorful characters. It was fun to write and I think works quite well. But only readers can confirm that!

Write, edit, beta read, and publish VALLEY OF MONSTERS in December 2013

The first draft of the seventh book in the Island of Fog series is about 63% done. It's flying by! Of course, then I have a lot of editing to do. But still, it's coming along nicely and I'm confident it will be ready to go well before Christmas. I'm a little bit amazed at how well separate plot threads are coming together so seamlessly. I had only a rough summary with this one, and have been writing fairly organically, but I'm not sure I could have planned it any better. I must be getting pretty good at this lark.

So those are the three main projects for this year. But I have other things I'd like to slip in as well, including:

WONDERSTORMS
A short one-off tale for Brian Clopper's "Wonderstorms" project, which involves various other authors as well. This is such a unique idea and I'm glad to be part of it. I just need to write and polish my story in the next month.

ISLAND OF FOG WEBISODES
A number of short, chapter-length Island of Fog stories featuring not Hal but his friends and foes. These are the "webisodes" I've been promising for decades. I really need to get stuck into them, because I also have a bigger plan afoot for the series as a whole...

FREQUENCY SERIES
The first in a new series of sci-fi and fantasy novels in which our intrepid heroes (two 12-year-old boys and a slightly older girl) get tangled up in weird and wonderful adventures. Though the characters will remain the same throughout the series, the stories will be one-offs, and the overall order that you read them won't matter too much. I want this series to be accessible whichever book you start with. To this end, I plan to write Book 1 as a full novel, then include a super-compressed 1-page version in the front of every subsequent novel the way that many sci-fi TV shows do a quick "what this is all about" during the opening credits. "Frequency" is a working title for the series and may change. The first novel will be SLEEP WRITER, focusing on the girl who writes weird messages in her sleep.

This should all keep me busy for the rest of the year.

Island of Fog Book 7: Valley of Monsters

It's about time I had the word "monsters" in the title of one of these Island of Fog books! Even though the shapeshifters would argue that they're not monsters at all, it's worth remembering that a significant portion of this new installment is about Chase and his time in Happy Valley Ridge where Miss Simone and her classmates grew up. Put simply, Chase was pretty freaked out by the whole experience. The valley was, in his own words, full of monsters.

And so here we are with Book 7 of the series. I won't specify who or what adorns the cover this time around, but those who have read Book 6 should understand immediately. Still, that's just a third of the story. Another third is about Chase as he tells his tale, and the remaining third is... well, you'll see.

I'm about 45% through this book already. My rapid progress has surprised me! It's just the first draft, but at this rate I think I can get this book out before Christmas.

I take delight in trying different things. That said, I wouldn't dream of changing the format and style too much. I wouldn't, for instance, suddenly write one of these Fog books from another's point of view. The series takes place in Hal's head and could be seen as his own complete, unbroken story. If all the books were jammed together into one volume, there would be no discernible break in style.

But Chase's story is special in that it's very long. So either he spouts endless dialog, or I use scene and chapter breaks to switch into his point of view. I opted for the latter. It's really the same thing -- endless dialog! -- only without a million quotation marks and interruptions about what everybody else is doing while he's talking.

His first segment is a full chapter, but after that he gets scenes within chapters. For example, we're in Hal's head as usual up until the end of Chapter 7, at which point Chase clears his throat and begins his story. Chapter 8 is entirely his, told in first person as if he's sitting there around a campfire. Then we return to Hal's head at the start of Chapter 9 and stay there until a scene break, at which point Chase takes over again. And so on.

Here's a snippet from Chase. Bear in mind that this is very rough, not edited at all. So please don't bother mentioning typos and poor grammar, etc...

From the forthcoming VALLEY OF MONSTERS (very rough cut):

Where one twin went, the other followed, and I found that Astrid always took the lead and Bo tagged along. Bo was nice enough but had half the personality of his sister.
      All the kids were great, and I think they saw me like an uncle or something. I got to go on field trips with them, and I ended up helping out a lot—keeping them in check, that sort of thing. They took my mind off my mom, that's for sure. I liked Charlie a lot; he was the loudmouth, always goofing around. Orson was a bookworm. So was Molly, actually. Canaan and Ellie were always arguing about something. Riley was a grumpy little thing and just wanted to be left alone to tinker with mechanical stuff. Lucas was tough, kind of hard on Blair, who was a bit of a crybaby if you ask me. And Simone... well, she was quiet and hardworking, very serious. Hardly ever smiled, unlike her brother Felipe, who took nothing at all seriously.
      But Bo and Astrid were my little pals, especially Astrid.
      Things were pretty normal for six months. The kids lived on the property in those cabins on the hill with their parents. I saw the adults fairly often, but they came and went as they pleased. Some of them had jobs to go to, but most didn't. They just sort of hung about. I asked my dad about that one day, and he told me they didn't need to work, that everything was paid for.
      "They're guests," he said mysteriously, then clammed up like he'd said too much. He tried again. "They don"t need to work, but some like to. Those twelve families are guests here at Happy Valley Ridge. I gave them the cabins, and I pay them a monthly allowance."
      "But why?" I asked.
      "Because their children are very special."
      And my dad wouldn't say anymore. I begged him for more information, and he kept saying he'd tell me one day, but... well, it was frustrating.
      It took me weeks to realize there were no other brothers or sisters, just these twelve eight-year-olds. Not only that but their birthdays were all in the same month. Pretty strange, huh?

This method of telling somebody else's personal story is the best of both worlds -- literally -- and so far it's been interesting switching characters and trying to speak as 14-year-old Chase rather than 12-year-old Hal.

Also, it may be a little early to mention this, but the very first hints of ideas are beginning to worm their way into my head for Book 8...

Advertising and promoting an ebook with BookBub

There are a ton of places to promote an ebook, some of them free and others that ask for money. I've always been reluctant to hand over cash (cuz I'm cheap), but I heard really good things about BookBub and decided to give them a try. Were they worth it? Read on and find out...

Bear in mind that I decided to make Book 1 of the ISLAND OF FOG series free forever. It's a marketing ploy. People will happily download free books, and some will get around to reading it, and some more will like it and buy the rest of the books in the series. It's a numbers game; of the readers who download the free Book 1, a very small percentage will become paying fans of the rest of the books, so you need a lot of downloads to make some real sales. I always heard that 3000+ downloads is the number to shoot for to make any promotion worthwhile.

This is certainly true in my own experience. My first KDP Select promotion with Amazon yielded about 6000 downloads, and I had the best sales ever, 645 books sold in the US. In the interest of useful comparisons, I typically sell about 150-250 a month, so 645 was a great boost for me. Subsequent promotions nabbed as high as 5000 downloads (well worth it) and as low as a measly 800 downloads (almost useless, only boosting my sales a little).

I'd already made Island of Fog (Book 1) free at Kobo and Apple. Then Amazon price-matched it and set the price to $0.00 as well. I got a sudden, unexpected boost just because it was free; it was auto-listed on many different sites. In the remaining nine days of the month, the book was downloaded 6732 times. Without the downloads I probably would have made about 175 sales in June, but this number was boosted to 221 and would have been more had the sales not spilled over into July. So naturally I started July strong, and the book was still being downloaded about 100 times a day when my BookBub ad kicked in on July 2nd.

I'd signed up for BookBub a few days before, and my book was approved to be included in their mail-blast in the Children's and Middle Grade section for free books, costing me $30 to reach 40,000+ readers. I'd worked out that if a reader likes the free Book 1 and buys the others in the series, that would be $13.96 total profit, so in theory I needed to gain only three new fans to get my money back. So I was fairly confident I wouldn't lose out. :-)

I was at 120-ish downloads before the BookBub email went out around midday. I then gained 1300 downloads between 12-3pm (three hours). I kept a running list:

Midday -- 120
3:00pm -- 1446
4:00pm -- 1745
4:10pm -- 1913 (yes, just ten minutes later!)
4:30pm -- 2165
5:30pm -- 2777
6:40pm -- 3327
7:40pm -- 3573
8:20pm -- 5264
...and so on.

It's hard to say when it "ended" because it never did. It just slowed. After a few days the download rate had dropped to about 250 a day, then 200 a day, and now -- nearing the end of July -- it's just about managing 100 a day, which is what it was doing before The BookBub Experience.

Overall so far? It's July 25th and the total number of downloads is now at 11,019, and I'm guessing it will reach about 11,600 by the end of the month.

Island of Fog reached #27 in the Kindle Store, my highest ever:

So what did all this do for my sales? Did I win three extra fans and get my money back? Why, yes! Sales this month have been the best ever. My previous record was 645 in one month, but for direct comparison, July so far is now at 665 on Amazon.com plus about 75 on Apple and 21 on Barnes & Noble. So it's definitely a pick-me-up from my usual! I estimate a combined total of about 900+ if things keep chugging as they have been.

Obviously BookBub worked for me. I'd happily pay them $100 or more each month if they'd let me. Unfortunately they like to keep things fresh and won't let the same author promote the same book more than once every 120 days. Sigh. I suspect the first BookBub advert is always the best anyway... but then again, only 11,000 out of 40,000 downloaded it, so there are still a bunch left...

And there are other categories. Check 'em out. I could switch to, say, Fantasy and pay $90 for 230,000 subscribers. The mind boggles. But I must wait my turn and hope they approve me next time I apply.

In the meantime, though, I need to try something else. I'm gearing up for another promotional boost in the first week of August. I've applied to many free sites plus a couple of paid ones. The one I'm most interested in this time is Freebooksy... but more on that another time.

A final word, then, for those who are interested in trying BookBub:

Do it. Do it NOW.

Sci-fi and fantasy novel Fractured is ready for beta reading

Yesterday, Brian Clopper and I wrapped up the main round of editing on our collaborative sci-fi/fantasy novel Fractured. There are a few minor things to do, and we both want to read it all the way through again to catch any further typos and things, but it's mostly done.

That is, it's ready for beta reading, after which there will likely be another round of minor edits.

Anyway, while we do a read-through, I'd like to go ahead and start compiling a list of beta readers if anyone is interested. Don't forget, this novel will be a free ebook when it's released, so it'll be free whether you read it now or later. But of course the best beta readers are not interested in whether it's free or not. The best beta readers are interested in getting involved, offering their input and seeing their suggestions taken to heart, as well as pointing out many embarrassing mistakes the author(s) didn't catch. The bonus is that you get to read it early, months before its release. The downside is of course that you're reading a not-quite-so-polished version.

So what's it about? Well, here's the "back cover blurb" as it might appear if we actually had a back cover:

Fractured: A Tale of Apparatum

The world of Apparatum is divided. To the west lies the high-tech city of Apparati, governed by a corrupt mayor and his brutal military general. To the east, spread around the mountains and forests, the seven enclaves of Apparata are ruled by an overbearing sovereign and his evil chancellor. Between them lies the Ruins, or the Broken Lands -- all that's left of a sprawling civilization before it fractured.

Hundreds of years have passed, and neither world knows the other exists.

Laws are harsh. Two young fugitives -- Kyle from the city and Logan from the enclaves -- escape their homes and set out into the wastelands to forge a new life. But their destinies are intertwined, for the separate worlds of Apparati and Apparata are two faces of the same coin... and it turns out that everyone has a twin.

This novel is the first part of a 2-part story, although the book is complete in itself. The second book explores another aspect of the story, a natural extension of the first, but will be entirely optional. For sci-fi and fantasy fans aged 9 and up.

The previous round of beta reading for Chamber of Ghosts worked out well, and so the same "rules" will apply here. Here they are again, slightly revised:

What is a beta reader?

As Wikipedia says, a beta reader is "a person who reads a written work, generally fiction, with what has been described as a critical eye, with the aim of improving grammar, spelling, characterization, and general style of a story prior to its release to the general public."

You don't have to be a professional proofreader or anything like that. We just need avid readers of the sci-fi and fantasy genre who are willing to provide some feedback with regards to anything that seems slow, silly, unrealistic, too dark, clunky, confusing, and so on -- basically drawing attention to anything you feel could or should be improved. Also, some of you might be adept at catching typos and grammatical issues, all of which would be gratefully received and dealt with.

How long do I have to read it?

We'll give you exactly three weeks from the day we send you the book.

Where will readers find the published book, and will it really be free?

We'll be publishing Fractured primarily to Kobo and Apple's iBookstore, and various other places that offer free ebooks.

Because it will be free, it won't be available on Amazon straight away. If and when we put it on Amazon, we'll have to price it at the minimum $0.99, and then it'll be in Amazon's hands to hopefully price-match it to $0.00. Barnes & Noble doesn't price-match, so it'll never be free there.

However, it will be available on our author websites as .epub and .mobi files, so Nook and Kindle users will be able to sideload it at any time.

Do I have to review the book afterward?

No, you don't have to, but ratings and reviews are always welcome. The thing about beta reading is that the book may not be at its very best -- hence why you're beta reading. So if you read it and find things that could be improved, you would need to take that into account if and when you rate and review it. For instance, you might think it's a 5-star rating but only if a particular bit is rewritten, otherwise it's only a 4-star rating. And for that reason, we would suggest holding off on your review until you've seen the very latest pre-release version, or at least the relevant updated text.

What we don't want to happen is for beta readers to have posted reviews saying, "It was great apart from this really daft bit," when in fact that really daft bit was edited out before publication. So if you do rate and review the book, please take last-minute changes into account.

Where and when should I post a review?

You'll be able to post a review on Goodreads weeks before launch date because we'll have a book page set up already. After that, you can post reviews anywhere the book is available for download.

Do you care what rating I give your book?

Heck yeah! Ratings are very important, particularly in the early days. I do want you to be honest, though, so if you think the book is only worth 3 stars or lower, then fair enough -- but then please don't rate it. No rating is better than a low rating! I'm hoping for 4- or 5-star ratings only, so if you think the book is worth it, then please shout it out.

In what format will the book be available for beta reading?

For beta purposes, Fractured will be available as a Kindle .mobi file or a standard .epub file that will work on Nook or other electronic readers. We'll also make it available in .pdf and .doc format if necessary. You'll need to let us know what format you prefer.

It won't be available in print.

So there you have it. If you want to be a beta reader for Fractured, please comment below or, if you prefer, email me at keith@unearthlytales.com, or even leave a comment on Facebook. Don't forget to let me know what format you'd prefer the book in!

Going perma-free on Amazon

Is it worth getting your ebook listed perma-free on Amazon? Does it helps sales?

Like many others before me, I wondered for ages if giving a book away for free would help sales overall. I think the biggest disagreement over whether this method works or not comes down to one simple question: Do you have other books to sell while you're giving one away?

If you only have one book and you give it away for free during a KDP Select promo (for maybe 2-3 days), readers will download it but obviously won't be able to buy anything else you have, so this won't help your sales much at all. Sure, when your book reverts to paid status after the promo, it will likely retain some exposure and garner a few sales -- but your book will quickly drop out of sight again, and that will be that.

If, on the other hand, you have an arsenal of books and you offer one for free, then you'll likely make some sales. Readers will sample your free book without obligation. If they like it, they'll come back for more. They'll trust you as an author and will happily spend a few dollars for each of your other books. So you'll give one away but gain followers that you wouldn't otherwise have had. It's simple and logical and well worth doing.

I suspect this works even better with a series. I don't know this for sure because I ONLY have a series and can't compare to sales of non-series books. However, when I think about (for example) the Maze Runner trilogy by James Dashner, I bought the first book hoping it would be good, read it in record time, and snapped up the second and third without hesitation. And the prequel. But it took me a while to move on to other books by the same author. Even though the author had gained my trust as a reader, it was that one particular series I was drooling over.

Then again, plenty of authors write only one-off novels, and once you've read a couple and trust what the author delivers, you tend to snap up the others pretty quickly... so maybe it doesn't matter whether they're series books or not.

Anyway -- after many promos between August 2012 and June 2013, I put Island of Fog (Book 1 of what is currently a 6-book series) up for free at Kobo and iBookstore. I imagined I would need to do what other authors do, which is to encourage friends to visit Amazon and "complain" that this $2.99 book is available for free elsewhere. Once alerted, Amazon would then price-match the book and set it to $0.00.

As it happens, Amazon price-matched it automatically within a few days. I suppose they have automated bots that seek out and check the prices of other copies of books they're already selling.

Island of Fog went free on Amazon on June 21st. Downloads started immediately although at a moderate pace. Things gained momentum over the next couple of days, and my Amazon ranking started rising. The best day was June 24th. It's slowing again now, though still chugging along quite nicely. Five days later I'm at around 6000 downloads.

Sales have picked up as a result of this, so I'm happy. It's interesting to see how sales of Book 2 in particular are strong, and soon it will be Book 3, and so on as readers devour the free Book 1 and move on through the series... but not ALL readers, of course. Really it's just a small percentage of those who downloaded Book 1, mostly because many readers grab free books while they can even though they don't have time to read them all. Also, some will read Book 1 and hate it. (Yes, that really does happen.) But anyway, since Book 1 is perma-free, the number of downloads will just keep on rising bit by bit, and overall might be more consistently better than occasional KDP Select promos.

So there's no question in my mind that free promotions and/or going perma-free are well worth the effort -- as long as customers have something else to buy, otherwise it's pointless. It stands to reason that if readers get hooked on Book 1, they'll work their way through the rest of the series however many more books there happen to be. Therefore, I'm planning a 20-book series. (Just kidding.)

Anyway, back to downloads and Amazon rankings. Here are a couple of screenshots of where my brief 15-minutes in the limelight got me. When you first go free, your ranking is way down there at 50,000-100,000 or whatever, but it rises fast as readers start downloading your book. Getting up into the Top 100 is some sort of milestone, and previously I had reached an overall ranking of #97 Free in Kindle Store. This time I beat my own record, reaching #52:

There's also a ranking for each category you end up in. Anywhere in the Top 20 means a placement on the first page of that category, which in turn means more downloads:

In the aftermath, my overall ranking dropped to #100, then rose to hover around #95 and #96, then up to #86, then down to #202, then back to #180... Meanwhile, my category ranking remains relatively high at the moment. So things have gone off the boil but hopefully will keep simmering rather than go cold. Only time will tell whether I'll end up making more sales overall with a free Book 1. I'll add updates below over the next few months.

All books in the Island of Fog fantasy series now available at Amazon, Kobo, iBookstore, and Barnes & Noble

Yes, you read correctly! All six books in the ISLAND OF FOG shapeshifting fantasy series are now available in four different popular e-bookstores -- and the first book is permanently FREE at three of them!

Now that I have six books in the series, I can afford to let the first go for free. Since August 2012, the series has been sold exclusively at Amazon because I've been using their KDP Select program and taking advantage of their free promos. They don't allow you to price a book at less than $0.99, so these promos are often the only way to get your books out for free to a large audience -- but only for a maximum of five days in a 90-day period. Those promos have worked well, but it seems they're drying up a little.

So I've opted out of that exclusivity program, and all the books are available from multiple online bookstores. Kobo and iBookstore both allow authors to give their books away, so Island of Fog is permanently free at those stores from now on.

Meanwhile, Amazon have a price-matching program, and it's already kicked in and set Island of Fog's price to $0.00 on a "permanently"-free basis -- in other words, until they decide to put it back up to $2.99 (which is out of my control).

The books are also available at Barnes & Noble again, but unfortunately they don't price match, so Island of Fog will remain at $2.99 there. Still, not bad for a 100,000-word novel.

The other five books in the series are set at the usual price of $3.99 each, which should be a steal for those who have read and liked Book 1. So, if you haven't already tried Island of Fog, you now have a greater choice of stores to choose from:

       

It's been a couple of days since Island of Fog went perma-free on Amazon.com, but as of right now it's been downloaded 1300 times, currently at a rate of about 100 per hour, probably due to exposure on a couple of "free ebook" sites as I write this. I don't expect that rate to continue, but still, even a couple of hundred a day would be great if it's every day of every month! What? 6000 new readers a month? Yes please!

Finding beta readers and proofreaders for your self-published indie novel

Should indie authors pay for a professional proofreader? What makes a great beta reader, and are family members and friends to be avoided at all costs? These are some of the questions self-published authors face after they've completed their manuscript.

I received an email recently that gave me warm fuzzies AND set me thinking about this matter. First of all, here's the letter (which the writer kindly gave me permission to print):

I just wanted to write to you and say thank you. I have been an avid reader and writer all my life but life has always had a habit of getting in the way of me actually accomplishing my goal of writing a book.

About 4 years ago an idea came to me in the night and I started writing Gaea, then life got in the way again -- first with happy stuff then with heart breaking stuff and for the past 18 months I have not read nor written anything at all -- until I stumbled upon a free sample of your first book. I had to buy it, then the second, then the third and there is no doubt in my mind that I will buy them all! I especially like the authors note at the end of book three and as I have started writing again with a clarity of mind I have never experienced before I will definitely be contacting your brother sometime in the near future! Grin.

So, thank you. Your wonderful writing and amazing story has inspired me and helped to wake me up again. I am not lucky enough to have proof readers as family and friends but I am confident the universe will figure something out for me when the time comes and for the first time in a long time I am really looking forward to it!

Right, onwards to book 4.

So naturally I was chuffed to bits when I received this. But it also made me think about beta readers and proofreaders, and where to find them.

When I finished Island of Fog back in 2008, I was apprehensive about it. At that point, nobody but me had read it. I thought it was okay, maybe even good enough to start shipping around to publishers, but it might equally have been terrible. Up until then, the only writing buddies I had were from a writers' group I was a member of. We'd shared critiques on several chapters of our novels, and also short stories, but we'd never beta-read or proofed entire manuscripts. In that respect I was kind of on my own.

I found a highly recommended professional editor, took a deep breath, and paid $700. This was a monumental expenditure for me back then, and still is to date. I don't regret it, though. The overall feedback was very good, and the sheer number of red marks throughout the manuscript proved she'd read the book carefully instead of just brushing over it. I learned quite a lot and, above all, discovered that it was "worthy" of publishing, and that I was on the right track. All this was back in October 2008 (see The manuscript is back!).

This set me on the road to self-publishing, and through that book and the ones that followed, I gained an audience including a few fellow authors such as Brian Clopper and Roger Eschbacher. Also, my brother Darren was developing his own Iguana Proofreading business. Suddenly I had a close circle of professionals that I could call on to proofread my books, and of course I returned the favors in whatever way I could.

I always edit, edit and edit until I think I have a highly polished manuscript. Then I pass it on to fellow authors and my proofreading brother. More recently I've started asking for beta readers, too. These are generally readers only, in my case fans of the Island of Fog series, and they're more than capable of spotting typos and commenting on larger issues but not so concerned with comma placement and some of the finer details. Beta readers are supposed to read the book and get a feel for overall story rather then get bogged down by details.

When I requested beta readers for Chamber of Ghosts, I ended up with this list:

1 author 1 wife 14 fans 1 put-upon brother

The author (Brian Clopper) was first in line simply because he's so fast. I also gave the manuscript to Darren, knowing that his critique would be the last I received but probably the most detailed and comprehensive. Meanwhile, my wife and fourteen others were given a few weeks to read the book and get back to me.

My wife and most of my fourteen betas gave me very detailed lists of typos and inconsistencies and general issues to look at. Many of the typos were mentioned several times, but each beta reader found stuff that others didn't. Some of the larger issues that were brought up were mentioned two or three times, so I felt a need to address those issues.

Because the feedback came in at different times, I was able to put things right bit by bit, which wasn't as daunting as working on all feedback at once. Fixing typos is easy. Correcting awkward phrasing is easy. Deleting scenes and reorganizing things is fairly easy. Dealing with large-scale issues is a challenge, but luckily I didn't have much to fix in that respect.

Finally, Darren's critique came in. Some of it was dealt with already, and some was no longer relevant because scenes had been deleted. But there was still a ton of extra fixes to deal with, much of it that NONE of the beta readers had picked up, technical things that frankly most readers don't even notice or care about, like whether a comma should be placed before "but" and so on. It's all really important stuff that I want to get right, but it's not something beta readers are asked or expected to report. (See how that "but" in the previous sentence needs a comma before it? It often does but sometimes doesn't... like this example here!)

Finding beta readers is not difficult. They don't have to be fans of your work. They just need to be voracious readers. I've found that many readers love getting involved. In fact, one of my betas posted on Facebook about how she felt "honored to be part of the process," and her friends and family congratulated her and asked how she "got so lucky"... my point being that many readers just love the idea of getting involved no matter how utterly unknown the author is.

So if you need beta readers, ideally ask your own readers, who will have the added insight of knowing your characters and caring about them, and can comment on the arcing plot between books. If you're a new indie writer and have no fans yet, then trawl social networks and ask for readers to critique your book. Not all of it will be great feedback, but those who offer will generally be helpful.

Don't pester friends and family, though. Your best friend may feel obliged to read your book but might be the worst possible beta reader. You're better off avoiding family and friends and instead going to strangers who are genuine fans of your genre and have nothing to gain or lose by offering their feedback. Friends and family tend not to "get" that honest criticism is far more useful than simple glowing praise.

I pestered my wife, though. She likes my books and generally offers very useful feedback, good or bad. I always tell her not to hold back, and she doesn't. She's not one to pick up on technical writing errors, but even with fourteen other beta readers, an author, and a proofreader brother, she still looked up from the book, frowned at me, and told me something everyone else had missed. Every beta reader has a different way of looking at things, and having at least ten of them will give you a really good overview of what's wrong -- and right -- with your book.

One thing I will stress, though: find beta readers who are familiar with your genre. Otherwise you'll have some bright spark saying, "Wait -- Hal's a shapeshifter? That just doesn't happen in real life, though. Consider changing this idea to Hal being psychologically damaged and just thinks he's a shapeshifter. You don't want to lose your readers." Seriously, someone started reading Island of Fog once thinking it was a suspense thriller, and he was completely turned off in the first chapter when a manticore appeared. "A monster? Are you kidding??"

Author Brian Clopper and I beta-read an urban fantasy romance recently. We both found problems with it, particularly in the final scene, and although it may have looked to the author that we ganged up on her, in fact we came to the same conclusion separately. As far as we were concerned, the ending just didn't work. The author insisted it was fine, that the problem was more to do with the fact that we were guys who weren't interested in the romance genre. Hmm. I hope the author reconsiders. I still don't think romance readers will go for an ending like that, but the experience has made me vow not to beta-read romance-type books again -- because if I don't know the genre enough to know what works and what doesn't, then how can I be of any use in my feedback?

Beta readers are everywhere. You don't need to pay them (except with a copy of the final edition) -- just let them be a part of the process, thank them profusely for ALL feedback good and bad, and NEVER get argumentative and say they don't know what they're talking about. The thing about readers is that they're actually more professional at their job than many authors seem to think. The only qualification for being a professional reader is reading a lot of books.

Finally, it's worth mentioning that my dad picks up typos as well, in my books as well as in these blog posts. I think my mum is afraid he's going to upset me by nitpicking, but the opposite is true. So when I write blog posts, I check them carefully but am always wondering what else I've missed! Luckily, my dad usually has it covered. :-)

Writing and editing a sci-fi/fantasy novel with another author

What are the pros and cons of collaborating on a novel? Is it easier to plot, write and edit alongside another author, or is it just one big headache? I think the answer lies entirely in who your writing partner is, how similar your tastes and skills are, and how well you get along. As it happens, I chose well.

Back in January, I posted about a sci-fi/fantasy novel that I'm writing in collaboration with another author, my good friend Brian Clopper (see the post Fractured -- a free sci-fi and fantasy novel). We spit-balled the plot back in November and worked out how we would organize our writerly chores. As far as I'm concerned, both the idea for the story and our approach to writing it couldn't be any more logical for a collaborative effort. It's basically two stories running in parallel -- two characters embarking on separate journeys and gradually coming together for a crucial crossover scene two-thirds of the way through the story.

We hammered out the novel in January, and almost completely by chance our word count ended up nearly identical, with 43,764 words by Brian and 44,049 by myself, totalling 87,812. Of course, those numbers will change now that we're into the editing mode, but it'll still be virtually half each.

So we wrote the first draft in January and deliberately put the book away while we worked on other things. Now we're back into the thick of it, editing and polishing and proofing with a view to publishing sometime in July. (We'd originally thought about publishing in May, but hey, things happen.)

This editing process is turning out to be really interesting. Normally, with my own books, I would read and edit as I go, rewriting much of it, straightening things up. But with Fractured, where we've written alternating chapters, I can directly edit my own text but only comment on Brian's -- and vice versa. I wouldn't dream of making a single alteration to Brian's text without his knowledge, and I wouldn't want him editing mine directly either. It's just not done. So we highlight bits of text and leave comments.

We're using Google Docs, which allows us to view and edit the same manuscript online and add comments wherever we want. Everything is done dynamically and in real time; all changes and comments update immediately. So if I change a word in my chapter, it auto-saves a second later and updates the document at Brian's end also -- even while he's sitting there reading it!

At one point, we happened to both be working at the same time on the same chapter. It was my chapter, and as I was writing, a comment appeared at the side of the screen. I clicked it, and the relevant text highlighted yellow. I agreed with the comment and made a change to my text -- and Brian then announced in the comment panel that he could see my cursor moving on the page. He could see the text changing as I was updating it.

The mechanics behind this is both fascinating and creepy. In the old days of using a Word document on an internally networked system, only the person who opened it first could make changes; if someone else opened it, it would be in read-only mode. Makes sense, right? You can't both be editing the same document in the same file location. It's impossible! But Google Docs allows this in a surprisingly seamless way, and I haven't come across any problems yet. It's creepy, though, knowing that someone is literally watching me type. It's like having a person standing behind me as I sit working at my desk. It's really off-putting.

Luckily, we don't bump into each other much. We're often online together but in different parts of the document, kind of like sitting at desks side-by-side. The system is working really, really well, better than any other method I can think of.

So how is our actual editing going? Brilliant. We've got into a groove now. I'll go ahead and read/edit my own chapters, skipping his for the time being -- so I started out working on Chapters 1, 3, 5, and 7 first while he was working on his own Chapters 2, 4, 6 and 8. Once we'd straightened up our own text, we started reading all eight chapters combined and commenting where necessary. As Brian left comments for Chapter 1, I'd make those changes and "resolve" his comments, and so on. We've been going back and forth like that for a while now, making several sweeps, backing up and re-reading the tweaked chapters, and generally smoothing things out. Working in batches of eight chapters, we've completed the first batch (1-8) and are about to complete the second batch (9-16).

Once we're completely done in this fashion, we'll most likely put the whole thing on our Kindles and read it to ourselves over a few days. I'm sure we'll make further notes about typos and inconsistencies, and then it'll be back to the manuscript again for final tweaks.

THEN the completed book will be off to beta-readers.

I'm honestly not sure that I could collaborate on a full-scale novel in this way with anyone other than Mr. Clopper. Apparently our mindsets and wavelengths are the same. We have no egos when it comes to criticism no matter how small or large; we just get it sorted in the name of the book. Everything we do is about bettering the story and the way it's written, so if that means a load of nitpicking highlights show up in what we thought were our carefully crafted chapters, then so be it -- it's just stuff we need to work on some more. It's a matter-of-fact, methodical approach, and our goal is a final product that we're BOTH proud of.

It seems like an obvious thing to say, but for any authors thinking about collaborating: pick your writing partner wisely. I can see a hundred ways it could go wrong otherwise. Most of all, don't ever take criticism personally. The last thing I want is someone to apologize and tiptoe around as they meekly tell me, "Sorry, I hope you don't mind me saying this, but this scene might possibly be in need of a teensy-weensy alteration, but then again, what do I know?" I'd rather just be told flatly, "Hey, mister, this doesn't work, and here's why..." so I can go fix it and move on. I'm happy to say that Brian and I are able to say it as it is and be grateful for the feedback.

I'll try to save some before-and-after examples for the next post on this subject -- little snippets of the kinds of fixes we're making throughout.

Until then, I have to get back to Google Docs now. Books don't edit themselves, you know!

Oh wait. Apparently they do...

Island of Fog is a B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree

Island of Fog (Book 1) has won a place on the B.R.A.G. (Book Readers Appreciation Group) website after going through a review process and meeting certain minimum standards of quality, subject matter, genre, content and editing.

There are a number of websites offering awards and badges to make authors feel good, but very few are as noteworthy as indieBRAG (and their B.R.A.G. Medallion™) who have earned the backing of the Alliance of Independent Authors (itself a well-respected community). So why does this organization exist? As indieBRAG explains on their website:

According to publishing industry surveys, 8 out of 10 adults feel they have a book in them. But traditional or mainstream publishers reject all but a tiny percentage of manuscripts. Historically, this has presented a classic catch-22, in that you had to be a published author in order to get a publisher. The advent of self-publishing companies and print-on-demand technology has changed this. Now anyone can publish a book and the number of books being self-published is exploding, reaching into the millions annually. However, there is virtually no control over what is published or by whom, and industry experts believe that upwards of 95% of indie books are poorly written and edited. Compounding this problem, these books are rarely reviewed in The New York Times Book Review or by other leading sources. Additionally, the reviews and ratings at online booksellers are often provided by the author's friends and family, and are therefore unreliable. There are professional book review services and bona fide writing competitions within the self-publishing industry that certainly help address this problem. However, none provide an independent, broad-based and reader-centric source to advise the public which indie books merit the investment of their time and money. This is precisely the reason that indieBRAG, LLC, and the B.R.A.G. Medallion™ exist. Our company fills a critical void within the publishing industry by providing enlightenment of the readers, by the readers, and for the readers of self-published books.

I submitted the first book in my Island of Fog series back in December 2012 and was told that it "must meet certain minimum standards of quality, subject matter, genre, content and editing. If it passes this preliminary assessment, it is then read and evaluated by members drawn from our reader group. The readers judge the merits of the book based on our proprietary list of criteria, the single most important of which is whether or not they would recommend it to their best friend. If a book meets our high standards, we award it our B.R.A.G. Medallion™, and along with other medallion recipients, it is presented on our website."

Being able to recommend a book to a friend (best or otherwise) is about the highest praise there is, because what else is there, really? An author is nothing without readers, and readers pick up or download books for one of two reasons: either they liked the cover and blurb, or they heard about it from an enthusiastic friend. Word of mouth on blogs and forums, recommendations to friends, family, and acquaintances... it's how authors get around. And nobody recommends books they don't like.

The review process was stated as up to four months, and it was actually more like five, but that's okay. I was very happy to be told a couple of days ago that I'd won a place on their website. It's a badge I'll be sure to wave around and brag about -- as in this blog post!

True to their word, indieBRAG have already posted a 5-star review on Amazon, Goodreads and Barnes & Noble, saying, "We are proud to announce that Island of Fog by Keith Robinson is a B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree. This tells you that this book is well worth your time and money!" The book will shortly be featured on their home page and Facebook page, too.

And how much did I pay for all this? Nothing. When you have to pay for an award, it's usually not worth bragging about. The B.R.A.G. Medallion™ is free but not freely dished out, an award to be proud of -- as I am!

Ned Firebreak by Brian Clopper

Fantasy author Brian Clopper recently published a new novel, Ned Firebreak, about a dragonslayer who has lost part of his memory and can't recall how to slay dragons. What a pain that would be!

I had the privilege of beta-reading this novel, and it's full of colorful characters and adventure. It starts out fairly relaxed as Ned wakes from a coma, but it picks up speed like a magical talking tree floating down a river (which, by the way, actually happens in the story). The ending is epic. Ned Firebreak is a fantasy novel for middle-graders and up, and well worth a try. Here's the author's back-cover blurb:

The Firebreaks are a family of dragonslayers. After dispatching the unruly lizards, this father/son team brings back the fair maidens to live on their magically protected princess reservation. At least that's what their brochure would have you believe.

When Ned wakes up from a coma, he finds key memories relating to his rescue missions and missing-in-action father erased by magic. With the help of three motivated princesses and one who's rather a hindrance, he sets out to uncover his missing memories and reveal the truth of the Firebreaks' dealings with the dragons of the Eight Kingdoms. Along the way, Ned picks up a tree sidekick, a wizard versed in the ludicrous art of pun magic, and a healthy respect for both princesses and dragons alike.

Can he make the world outside of the reservation safe for the princesses? Will he uncover the true threat to the maidens' well-being? Can he find his father before he must face off against the nefarious black dragon, Rackeesus, who dogs his trail every step of the way?

Find out Ned's fate in this rousing tale that blends fantasy with mystery and heaping helpings of wit.

This is a solid tale of princesses, dragons, and not-quite-dragonslayers

Mr. Clopper goes all out in this tale of a dragonslayer who's lost his memory and has to figure out how he's supposed to continue his trade when he has no recollection of his skills. And why is he in the company of Aunt Nance and four lovely princesses?

On this journey of discovery, my favorite character has to be the magical tree, dubbed Sir Franklin, who leaves his roots behind and branches out in an effort not to leaf Ned to fend for himself on his quest. (See, Clopper's not the only one who can write puns.) But all the characters are solid, and the story moves at a pretty fair clip, culminating in an epic ending.

As I said, I had the privilege of reading an early pre-publication copy of this novel, and there are a number of things the author has since adjusted and improved based on feedback from myself and other beta readers. The sign of a good author is one who is enthusiastic about listening to comments and making changes for the sake of a better book. This book has come through the refinement process and is now as shiny has Aunt Nance's sword. The result is a solid and well-written novel for all ages. Thoroughly recommended.

Ned Firebreak is available only on Kindle at the very reasonable price of $2.99. Get it now!