Jason Halstead's Blog, page 47

I'd advise you not to read this

But clearly, I suck at giving advice (otherwise you wouldn't have read this far). For this brave enough to continue, here's the reason for this unusual blog post: a Twitter friend who shall remain nameless, opined that they have been growing restless with their life. Oh, they're not thinking of trying a different life or anything crazy, just tired of the daily grind and wanting to reach out for their dreams.

For the record, I don't consider myself qualified in this area to offer up much of an opinion. When it comes to many things computer or IT related then yes, I'm one of many experts in the field capable of offering up reliable opinions. The same applies with weightlifting, personal training, and nutrition. The problem is that there are many experts in such fields, and even among those of us who have proven results to back their claims up our opinions vary. So advice is just that, somebody else's opinion. In some things it can be more useful than others (e.g. which TV is better vs. which sofa is more comfortable).

Now back to the Twitter dilemma. I was accused of being one of those people who is following my dreams. That made me smile and filled me with a touch of warm fuzziness (not the moldy kind either). Then I thought more about the things I do and I had to chuckle. Who dreams of working the equivalent of four jobs, going to grad school, maintaining a happy family, and training for an obsessive and demanding hobby that can easily lead to personal injury? Not me! I dream of being successful and able to relax a bit, so I work my ass off in the process of getting there. What is the definition of successful to me? Being relatively bill free with a stable and comfortable income, along with a similarly stable and comfortable home / family life. And doing all of that with a day job that does not intrude unnecessarily on the fragile tranquility of the rest of it. And to have laser vision.

Superman for a day

Okay, I made the last part up.

Seriously though, my books are slowly inching up every month in sales. Although at their present climb it may be a decade or more before I'm able to consider it a retirement income, let alone FU money. I'm constantly trying new things though, from launching other backlisted stories under a pen name (part of that experiment is not letting anyone know the identity of said pen name, so you won't hear it from me) to trying to game the rankings system at Amazon a bit. As a matter of fact, for anybody still reading this if you want to help a brother out and use the social networking tool of your choice to post about Voidhawk, Wanted, and New Beginnings / Vitalis being a series written by yours truly, I'd be terribly grateful. Of course if it's easier to just go and buy the books that's a great substitute as well. Did I mention how useful reader reviews are on the Amazon page?

Okay, enough pandering from me, back to my troubled friend. They want a change, and seeing punks like me pushing for my dreams even with the heavy load I've got going on they think it might be possible, they just aren't sure what it is to do or what they want. Changing careers or going after a new degree is no decision to take lightly. I'd considered continuing school myself after my MBA – and get this, for either something in the medical or pharmacology field. Yeah, crazy. I'm pretty sure I'm over that now.

My advice is to figure out what's missing or wrong. I've gone through some overwhelming personal changes in my life and I've seen a few others do that as well (including my amazing wife). It's definitely not an easy road, but with perseverance it can be very rewarding. The only thing that is certain is that 100% of ventures not attempted will fail. The tricky part, as I've discovered, is making sure that any new project is not undertaken at the expense of existing facets of life. Easier said than done, eh? That's where communication comes in, as well as having a decent support network.

Lacking that, it's time for more drastic changes. After all, who wants to be surrounded by people that don't understand you or aren't supporting of you?

JOBS – Just Obama Blowing Smoke

This acronym was shared with me this morning and while I smiled, I had a hard time finding much to laugh about. I've got a job – heck, I've got several, but that's not the reason why. I've read a few articles and blogs from pundits who seem to enjoy tearing into the administration for the lack of economic surplus that all Americans would love to see. Through it all I find myself shaking my head, annoyed.

Am I saying Obama has it figured out? Hell no! Then again, neither do I or anyone else who isn't a maybe of an ultra-secret organization that plots the rise and fall of the world's economics for their own amusement and gain. It's easy to play couch-critic though and poke fun at what's not working. Now let me take a turn at poking fun at the fun-pokers.

Donald Trump, I believe, made an assertion a while back while he was playing a joke and saying he might run for President. He stated that the gov't should be run by businessmen and women, not politicians. I agree with that wholeheartedly. Take the current and past attempts at boosting economic growth through potential job creation. The gov't offers money to businesses, under a variety of different methods and with a variety of stipulations. The problem is that businesses are run by people who got where they are because they are smart, not because they are patriotic and because they want to help others out. That does not mean they fall short in either category (patriotism or altruism), only that their jobs and their responsibilities dictate they must make certain decisions. And what is the top priority of any business? Making money.

Given any opportunity a business is going to do a cost benefits analysis and consider the rate of return. On top of that, they are going to evaluate any risks they must take from a conservative position. After all, times have been hard recently and even if they've been given a blank check today, that doesn't mean tomorrow things aren't going to be worse. Long term and short term goals must be considered.

So when the government says here's some money, go spend it, and they hope it's done in a way that will increase jobs. A company will probably find a more efficient way of optimizing their business – after all, labor is arguably the single most controllable facet of most businesses. The mantra of the times is to work smarter, not harder, and to do more with less. As employees we show our worth by multi-tasking and being able to perform better and better in spite of the adversities thrown at us. We're our own worst enemy, but the alternative is to be fired for poor job performance.

I'm hardly qualified to offer an explanation on the country's economic condition, yet if a gun was held to my head (or a blog put in front of me), I'd say that I think it's a slow recovery process. Everybody, from businessperson to guy on the street, feels violated and wary. Our financial significant others have been sleeping around on us and we just found out, so we're leery of trusting again. Post traumatic stress of the economic kind. We don't want to put money into something for fear that we'll lose the money and be left with nothing, and that includes buying a new car or house or toys for our kids at Christmas time. The only fix is healing over time and seeing a steady and reliable positive trend. A few economic surges aren't going to do it – we're smart enough to know every climb has a downhill slope on the other side.

So, to draw a conclusion to a confusing post, don't blame the administration for jobs not bursting forth, blame ourselves. We're all leery and we've got every right to be.

Writing the Catholic Style

Nothing religious about this post – rather it's all about the lack of birth control endorsement and encouragement to reproduce. So, too, should a writer be prolific. The more material a writer has out, the better the chance of income. More work means more exposure, which means more people interested, which means more sales. Of course it goes without saying that it should be quality work, but unless you're Will Smith or Warren Buffet, the odds of predicting what's going to be successful and writing something that matches the timing is a long shot, at best.

Don't take my word for it though! I don't have anything to back this up, other than a slowly increasing volume of books sold. There's plenty of other sources that support this, from other writers suggesting the most important thing a writer can do is write to rough stats that show the more lines you have in the water the better your chances of catching a fish.

Something I stumbled across last night on the topic gave me quite a kick in the pants. The suggestion was relating to back lists, or pieces written that never left the hard drive / were retired from public consumption. Why are they were they are? In the age of ebooks there is no shelf-life, just a steady stream of new people looking for things to read. Is it because you, the writer, feel that it's poorly written? Are you ashamed of it? Or perhaps it's something you wouldn't want your mother knowing you wrote. That's not much different from having a money tree grow in the back yard but insisting on not plucking the fruit from it because you're afraid it would hurt the tree. The answer? A pen name!

Branding is a key part of being a writer, and a lot of work goes into establishing and perpetuating that brand. We blog, we tweet, we read / review, and we write. We do other things too, hopefully most of them keeping us out of jail. But if you write something you feel may not be good for the brand you've been establishing, then put it out there under a pen name instead. Don't focus so much on creating that brand, just let it do its thing on its own. Sure, maybe it's slower, but our focus should be on writing and on doing what we enjoy the most, otherwise writing isn't about living the dream, it's just another job. And trust me, there are plenty of jobs that pay a decent salary out there that are a hell of a lot easier than being a writer.

So go forth and multiply! Or at least let your writing do the multiplying. Write like bunnies that got into a bottle of Viagra.

Reader / Writer Appreciation

A couple of peculiar things happened to me recently. In the first I was contacted by someone who told me they bought not one of my books, but four of them! Okay, I'd love to say that's not out of the ordinary at all, and someday I hope to. Even if that happens it's not the point of the blog. Not only did this individual tell me that, but they went on to admit putting aside another book they'd written to try mine out (Wanted), and were sucked into it and loving it. Sleep, when it finally came, was considered an enemy to their desire to read.

Peculiar item 2 was when another individual contacted me to say they were halfway through my book and loving it more and more with each page (Wanted, again). I thanked them and shared that the sequel to Wanted will be out soon. They, in turn, were thankful for the head's up. Thankfulness is a neat thing, but that's not the moral to the story.

The thing that strikes me as odd is that these readers are contacting and sharing this with me in the first place, then in some instances act surprised when I respond to them. The feedback is great – it's what keeps me and the other writer's I know going. It's reviewing, rating, and sharing with us that we know whether we're doing a good job or not and also how we can improve. Technically a sale is feedback as well, and it helps put food on the table, but all a sale tells us is that we managed a successful sales pitch, not that the finished product was well done.

I can't imagine a day, regardless of future success, were I can't take the time to respond to somebody who goes out of their way to share with me. After all, if a person can work time in their busy schedule to send something to me, why shouldn't I take the same time to do the same? So too all my readers, past, present, and future – I thank you and appreciate the time you take reading and enjoying my work!

Speaking of future success, I read an article recently where a writer considered himself mid-list and made a living at it. He indicated he had roughly 100 titles available. If that's what it takes, then that's what I'll do. So far I've got 9 out with a 10th and 11th pending. Behind them I've got releases scheduled up through February of 2012 on a monthly basis. That takes me to 16. A bit shy of a 100 but I've got a lot of words left in me, not to mention a roadmap for several more Voidhawk and Dark Earth books!

Oh, and as much as I hate to admit it, I may even jump on the bandwagon and include some occasional vampire related stuff into one of my existing or future universes. They will not be sparkly and emo though, that I promise you!

Writing the Book Blurb

I'm an American. I hate to encourage any stereotypes but like many of my fellow countrymen (and women), I want to see results in a timely fashion. Oh sure, I accept that "right now!" is not realistic, but still, anything that slows down my progress is irritating.

Take, for example, a stretch of a few days where people don't appear to be buying books. Okay, maybe it's just my books, but I don't like being an attention-whore. Anyhow, here I am doing my utmost to try and figure out the art of selling books, whether it's price point, cover art, blog, reviews, or something involving a special dance, chanting, and optional chicken blood. And in the midst of what seems like slow and steady progress I run into a roadblock of no sales for a couple of days. Where did I err?

Looking back my most recent change was rewording multiple blurbs. This was after a conversation with someone on Twitter who reminded me of what often influences me when it comes to picking out a book. That and studying other, successful blurbs. Or wait, the blurbs of other successful books. Perhaps they are successful in spite of their blurbs? Regardless, my point is that I've been trying to refocus the blurb into something geared at selling the book(s), rather than a 300 character synopsis of the story. Among that reworking is special focus on how the main character(s) evolve, grow, and improve themselves (and the hardships they endure).

I read once that a story is about the characters and how they grow and improve. People identify with people, not plots or objects. I think some of my best books so far involve a lot of special characters. Take Wanted, my most successful book – it's got some extreme characters in it that people really take a liking (or a hating) to. I've got another one I'm finishing up called The Lost Girls with a main character that is so damn believable, loveable, and messed up that I'm really expecting her to be a big hit. Er, by her I mean the book. I'd never make the mistake of getting too attached to my fictional characters…even if she did make me write three books about her back to back (to back).

So here are some of the new blurbs. Yes, it's part shameless self-promotion but it serves two other purposes as well: 1) Considered whether this is decent or not (and feel free to comment on it) and 2) Another stepping stone towards future success for fledgeling writers seeking to spread their wings.

Or maybe my faithful blog-readers instead subscribe purely out of amusement at my attempts. Hey, I'll take what I can get.

Dark Earth:

Eric Baxter's dreams were shattered when his wife was taken from

him by a reckless driver on a snowy Alaskan road. All that remained was his

newborn daughter, Jessica. Uprooting to provide a safer life for his child,

Eric moved back home to northern Michigan.

Thirteen years later with Jessica raising the bar in

everything she does, darkness returns to the Baxter's life in the form of a

crazed gunman. Surviving the assassin and seeking answers, Eric has to not only dig into

the secrets of his deceased wife's past but also search for his own father that he never

knew.

The answers are beyond belief – until the next hunter shows

up with orders to kidnap Jessica and take her back to the world he came from.

In order to protect her Eric has to push past sanity and reason to embrace his

own dark legacy.

Voidhawk:

Too young and naïve to care about the tensions between

nations, Dexter Silverhawk considered himself the luckiest man alive when he

found a derelict voidship hidden amongst some asteroids. Making it void-worthy

and finding a crew to sail it seem like minor problems when he ends up in a

Federation prison.

Rotting in a communal cell, Dexter's luck shows a fickle

side when a mysterious elven woman is thrust into into his life. Helping her

fend off an assault Dexter quickly learns that her mind and her tongue are weapons

against which he has little defense. Unable to resist, he hires her at the first

opportunity.

Surviving both politics, sorcery, and even ancient curses

will force the growing crew of the Voidhawk to put aside their differences and

work together. What remains for the young captain is the lessons of when to

heed his mind, and when to heed his heart.

Sex Sells:

People meet in the strangest places. Internet dating, smoky

bars, coffee shops, or while stalking a clueless woman in the hopes of violating

their privacy and capturing intimate footage to sell on the Internet.

Seeking revenge, Cindy blackmails Rodney into giving her a

cut of his profits. The more they're forced to work together the more confused

Rodney's mind and heart becomes. From forced partners to accidental witnesses in a

crime, Rodney and Cindy each face a decision – do they turn to each other or

away from each other?

The Thankful End of an Era

My wife likes a lot of the shows on the TLC channel. Me, I'm not much of a TV guy. We DVR NCIS and Combat Hospital and catch up when we can, but that's about it. Nonetheless I've been subjected to a lot of background noise on the TV that has been driving me crazy. Kat Von Dee and LA Ink and the infamous Kate Gosselin of Kate Plus Eight. Both series are ending and I couldn't be happier!

To be fair, Kat's show I really don't care about. She seems to have a train wreck of a life but she's not really screwing anyone up other than herself with it. Live and learn I say. The other show, run by Kate Gosselin, should have been cancelled years ago. I, personally, couldn't stand it when it started and my opinion has never once varied.

But good news, the story about the polygamists that fled Utah to Las Vegas – the land of religious freedom – is coming back. Yes, I'm being sarcastic. I could personally care less about this show but the controversial value of it is such that it's going to generate ratings. Ah the media, such a wonderful thing. Why entertain people or try to teach them something useful when we can splatter somebody's personal lives all over the world and tease the public with the possibility that it may all end in a flaming ruin?

Early Morning Surprises

Sometimes you wake up in the morning and find out your alarm clock quit working. Other times you realize you didn't hear the dog whine and there's a pile on your floor. Those are bad surprises – nobody wants those!

Then there are the good ones, perhaps the kind of thing that I shouldn't mention in a family-friendly blog, for example. Or to be a little tamer, to receive an email saying I've inherited $20,000,000 from a Nigerian prince…

All right, I'm being silly. It's early and there's no coffee in my hand yet. The real surprise for me today was a review that came in for Dark Earth on a blog called the "Place of Reads", run by a wonderful lady named Cana. It's a 4 out of 5 rating for the story with a great write-up!

"Dark Earth by Jason Halstead

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Eric is a man who has lost a lot. His mother, his wife, and has moved to the middle of nowhere to raise his daughter. It is only when the world (and another world as well) comes to his home and world that he has to face what and who he and his daughter really are.

This novel is just as the title suggests, it is dark. There is a lot of death, even from the very first chapter. But even then it is still a really beautiful story. Eric is a strong man who after being introduced to a new and strange world, he takes it and grows. He fights to protect his daughter and becomes a stronger person. Between two worlds (parallel to each other), Earth and Dark Earth, the story tells of what love and courage can do for someone.

With a mix of Celtic myth, werewolves/changelings, witches, and secret organizations that protect the world as warders, you will get a wonderful mix of fantasy and fairy tale.

Recommend this book!

Cana"

Dark Earth

Dark Earth is a stand alone novel, however it also establishes a setting that I have several other books taking place in, some published and some forthcoming in the near future. Check it out, you won't be disappointed!

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm headed off to Michigan for the day.

Cutting it out

Fair warning – this is not about writing, editing, cover arting, or anything related. This is about my 3 month or so stint to cut some fat and lean out.

To recap, after bulking up to 241.5 pounds (mostly a good bulk, I was around 14% bodyfat at the time), I wanted to trim down for the rest of summer. So, three months later I bottomed out at 212 pounds – that's a total of 29.5 pounds lost. Average of 10lbs / month. By Biggest Loser standards it might not be so great, but I can still bench 315 and pull (deadlift) over 500. I call that  win, losing 30 pounds and retaining 90% or more of my strength. In fact, the calipers (I took multiple measurements) had me under 8% bodyfat. I don't believe it, but I focus on my worst spots. For me the midsection is my worst, by far. I can see upper abs and everywhere else I've got good vascularity and definition, but the midsection refuses to lean out like I want it to.

C'est la vie. I'm a powerlifter, not a guy who likes to walk around on a stage in a speedo. Now I'm trying to put some muscle and strength back on for an unsanctioned bench only meet just to get back into it. It's been almost 2 and a half years since my last meet, thanks to me ripping my left pectoral muscle free from my arm. Surgery and a lot of self-guided therapy later I'm trying to get back up there. I may never bench 400+ again but I'll be damned if I don't try for it!

So What Really Sells a Book?

I've reached some preliminary decisions regarding cover art. It's a huge boon to have good cover art – I can't find anyone who disagrees. But I still see books rated much higher than mine in the ranks on Amazon that have downright horrible covers. So what gives? Is it the blurbs? In most cases the blurb is inconclusive, at best. In some cases the blurbs are outright horrible and filled with errors, yet the sales are vastly superior. Back to WTF.

Reviews come to mind next. First my definitions:

Editorial Review - this is a review done by a reader or a blogger (or somebody at a reviewing firm). It is not necessarily attached to a book at a point of sale with a rating associated with it. Typically these are longer reviews with more thought and, potentially, spoilers attached to them.

Reader Review - these reviews are done at the various points of sale on the web and have a rating assigned to them. For exapmle, Wanted on the Kindle has two 4.0 rating reviews. There is often a brief bit of text associated with these as well.

When I launch Ice Princess, the sequel to Wanted, next month I've got a couple of editorial reviews ready to launch with it. This is a first for me – coordinating a book launch like that. We'll see how it goes. Anyhow, the point is that I'll have some data to assimilate at that point about launching a book with an editorial review. A few of my other books (Voidhawk, Human Nature, and Wanted) have editorial reviews as well and they get the most sales for me. So yeah, editorial reviews help a lot. New Beginnings, book 1 of my Vitalis series, has no reviews associated with it yet (some pending), and similarly I have no sales on the Kindle yet (Smashwords and Barnes and Noble, on the other hand, have seen some action).

Reader reviews give the book a rating on a scale (typically) of 1 to 5. The higher the number the better. Of course individual tastes may vary, but it stands to reason that the higher the rating and the more people that rate it, the better the book will be exposed and received. I believe this can sway a potential reader into buying the book. It's reassuring to know that a few other people thought it looked good enough to buy – and if it's not well then at least they weren't the only one suckered into buying it!

So…

Cover art?

Blurb?

Editorial Reviews?

Reader Reviews? Uh oh…

So how do we get reviews? Editorial is done by finding bloggers and people willing to do just that, then going out there and submitting your book to them for consideration. Typically there's a wait involved. That's okay, good things come to those who wait (or so my bottle of ketchup tells me).

As for reader reviews…that's a bit trickier. Short of begging and pleading there's not much we, as writers, can do to get our readers to take time out of their lives to click a button and jot down a few words. But for the readers out there reading this – support your favorite authors (or those who haven't made your personal favorites list). Take that time to rate their stories you've read and let them know what you thought about it. Heck, "Good book, thanks!" is a great review if you don't want to take time explaining why Shirley should have stabbed Brian after he slept with Tammy instead of asking to join them next time. Or just click the number of points / stars / whatever you think it's worth. This helps the writer in many ways: it helps them by letting them know whether they did something right or not and it helps to potentially draw in more sales. A writer without feedback (and sales ARE a form of feedback) will lose interest sooner or later.

If you've got all of those (and they're positive), but still not making sales then there's not much left outside of shouting to the world that your book is out there and the said world should check it out.

In spite of the links and the preference for mentioning my own material, I'm not trying to drive anyone to buy my stuff (at least not any more than usual). I'm using it as examples of the data points I have, and how my barely modest success can be of use to others struggling to write and make a name for themselves. Oh – there is also no relation or involvement in any of my books to a Shirley, Brian, or Tammy, or at least none that I can recall.

More Cover Art Research

As promised, my saga of cover art research continues. In this part I unveil the new cover for New Beginnings, Vitalis book 1. It's a hell of a lot prettier than the original – but don't believe me just because you should, believe me because I show you and prove it!

The old cover:

Original Cover for New Beginnings

New Cover:

New cover for New Beginnings

The moral of the story? Well there isn't one yet, but I'm willing to wager there's not a soul reading this who won't agree that I stand a far better chance of attracting interest and generating a sale. Plus it just makes you wonder what happened? Did she survive that crash? Did she cause that crash? Is that skinny girl really tough enough to do either? There may be a few other questions the picture prompts but I won't cover them here. So my fellow writers, perfect your craft and edit your work until you're sick of it, then spend just as much time on making sure you're cover art is top shelf quality.

And now since I've proven myself right in this regard, clearly you should do everything I tell you – for example, Jason says go and buy his books then tell your friends, family, and the guy on the street to do the same.