Jason Halstead's Blog, page 48

Cover Art for the Win

I read a lot, it's a prerequisite for being a writer. Sadly these days most of my reading involves the business angle of writing rather than reading for pleasure and self-improvement. Okay, the business stuff could be argued as self-improvement, but that's not the point.

The point is that I read somewhere a person has less than a second to make a first impression. When I consider my own actions when browsing / shopping I don't doubt this at all. What do most people focus on? Images, 99% of the time. I'd like to think I'm part of that 1% (occasionally) when I tell myself to focus on scanning the text in a listing of items rather than the images associated with them – normally I do the image thing too. I even tease my wife about how she's been known to pick out a movie – she looks at the cover and if it catches her eye she'll rent / buy it without knowing a thing about it!

So after the first impression is made (visually), then the item has a few more seconds of potential interest to convert most people into digging deeper and wanting to know more / convert into a sale. I forget the exact time that was determined, but it's not much. I can understand that as well – if I start to read a product description or blurb and I'm turned off or disinterested with the first few words / sentence then it's time to click the 'back' button.

My own ongoing research shows that a great cover generates sales. A great blurb can help and sometimes even overcome an average or bad cover, but that accounts for the outliers on a statistical bell curve. Blurbs, unfortunately, are somewhat subjective. I may think I've written a three short paragraph masterpiece whereas a potential buyer may think my blurb was as interesting an algebraic math formula. That's where honest friends come in handy, both those within the target market and outside it.

Now I bring this back around to my stuff in an open-faced marketing tactic. I just released New Beginnings (Vitalis series, book 1) at the beginning of September. My sales have been less than I expected – especially when I consider the cover art I personally created for it. I thought it was great…but admittedly the font for the title needed some work and the girl on the cover didn't quite fit in.

So I shipped it off to a cover artist with an open question – could he make it better? He liked the elements and the idea, then asked for the raw images I had for it to see if he could blend it together better. Oh, he also pointed out my text sucked (he said it far more politically). Naturally I complied. He got back with me a little later and said that the images weren't working, but he had some other ones he could use. Once again I gave him a thumbs up – I'm great at theory and direction, but not so good when it comes to execution of such things. That's why I'm in management.

A few hours later an example image popped up in my inbox. My jaw dropped. My wife, who happened to be sitting beside me, said something to the effect of, "Wow, I really like that! Yours really sucks." Again, I'm paraphrasing but less so than usual (I appreciate and expect the candid dialogue my wife gives me). The checks in the mail, so to speak, and hopefully by tomorrow I'll have the full size finished image ready to replace the existing cover of Vitalis. When this happens I'll be able to assemble another data point for my ongoing research into cover art.

At this point though let me caution my fellow writers – go the extra distance to create a good cover. If that means dropping some cash than you just need to figure out how much you're willing to spend. Ideally a single days sales will recoup the investment, but let's be honest – there aren't that many of us able to bring in volume like that in a single day. I know a few, but I know a lot more of us who have to wait a month or so to offset the costs of cover art. As long as you've got a primary source of income, I say go for it. After all, the more sales and books you have out there, the more it should escalate and improve over time.

Writing isn't something we do for fame and fortune, we do it because we enjoy it. If we happen to make enough money to live off of it then we win. We're taught that winning isn't everything, but how many of us stop wanting to win? So why deny yourself every opportunity and tool to do so by having a lousy cover?

The cover artist in question? Willsin Rowe. He also does covers for my friend J.E. Taylor and a fellow writer, Selena Kitt. Check out what Willsin's working on at: Willsin's World.

The Psychology of Winning (aka Selling)

August started out horrible for me, sales-wise. 0 Books for the first two weeks. Nada. Zero. Zilch. It was humbling and demoralizing. I hear that August is a rough month in general for book sales but come on. So I dropped my two best selling books (note: they are not "bestsellers"), Wanted and Voidhawk, to $.99 each and started tweeting the bejeezs out of them. In the last two weeks of august I boosted my sales from zero to 50 in the United States alone. 50 books, by the way, is a personal record for me. Almost as exciting as setting a new personal best in power-lifting. I'm weird – it's okay, you can say it. The point is sales feel good, damn good. Even when they're not bringing in the FU money it's still a psychological boost.

So then September rolls around and my two books come off sale back to original pricing. I modify my tweets to reflect this and sit back, hoping that I can use August's momentum. The first went by with nothing. The second went by and still the BBOS taunted me (Brown Bar of Shame – it's the displayed image on the Kindle publishing page when there are no sales). So I caved and decided it was time for a new experiment. I dropped almost all of my books to that $.99 price point to see what would happen. This time tough no tweeting about it (well, other than this documentary blog post – but this is for posterity and to help myself and other writers out).

The results so far, after a day of the new pricing? Two sales already. Would they have happened if I'd have stayed the course and left the book at $2.99? I'll never know. I've done research and concocted a few theories about the topic, but until I get results I won't confuse myself or any readers with them.

When I see books ranked far within the top 2500 on Amazon that have pathetic covers and horribly written blurbs rife with typos and worse I start to get downright angry. Of course that doesn't get me anywhere, but it does make me wonder what the heck the trick is. There must be a secret, some way to game the system to get a book that high in the rankings. Of course at that ranking does it mean anything? Being on a bestseller list is a bragging right and a way to not only market more books but it's also easier for people to find and buy the book. Ranks 1000 and beyond are not bestsellers though, as far as I'm aware, but that does mean they are being purchased regularly. I'd wager somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 – 20 books a day, but that's purely a guess.

So to myself and to other writers I suggest patience, even if it's an unwelcome bit of advice. There doesn't appear to be a secret trick or recipe to sales, or at least not one I've found yet. My current guess is that by offering my stuff at a lower price I can generate more sales and inch my way up the rankings. After a while they'll have reached a point where the interest outweighs the cost and I can inch the price-point up.

It's an interesting challenge thus far. I'll be sure to document it as it unfolds!

New Book Released – Vitalis book 1: New Beginnings

I've been babbling about it for a while now and here it is, finally hot off the virtual presses!

Book 1 of the Vitalis series, by Jason Halstead

Here's the blurb:

Humans have advanced to span multiple solar systems, diminish the effects of aging, and conquer the human genome, yet their cruelty towards their own kind binds them to the stone age. The rim worlds are the outer solar systems for human civilization. Men and women earn their living with their wits and talents, although treachery often nets a bonus.

The Rented Mule is a ship with a crew seeking to earn an honest living in a realm of dishonesty. No stranger to trouble, they know the unwritten rules of the trade and have avoided being claimed as "salvage" for many years.

On a routine transport mission the Mule has to struggle with not only the usual dangers of traveling through rim systems, but also a new navigator with a troubled past and a romantic interest in the ship's engineer.

Plagued by threats from without and within, the crew's only hope when the Mule suffers catastrophic damage may be an uncharted planet. The fate of the Rented Mule and crew is in the hands of the neophyte navigator.

And here's an Excerpt:

"Kira!" The navigator groaned as the words filtered through the disturbing images of her dream. She'd been reliving some very pleasant aerobic activity with Eric one moment, then felt as though she'd been sucked through the wall of the ship to be immersed in the absolute zero temperatures of deep space the next. She coughed, feeling like her lungs were coated in ice water. Somebody grabbed her, helping her up and over a metal ridge that pressed painfully into her ribs. She gagged some more, dry heaving until she could hear straight. Spittle hung from her lips and chills racked her body.

"Kira, we've been dumped out of cold sleep, your prox warning is going off, what's going on?" Captain Sharp demanded.

Kira looked up slowly, wincing at the pain in her chest, throat, and head as she did so. He looked pale and miserable, but his actions spoke otherwise. She nodded and forced herself up, fighting back a wave of nausea. "C..c…cold, Sir!"

"Walk it off, damn it!" He snapped, perhaps a concession to his own condition.

Kira nodded and pulled herself out of the pod she'd been in. The others were either doing likewise or were standing around in robes. She felt a tug and looked down, her head clearing as she realized she was still fully integrated with the hibernation chamber. The light blanket that had covered her nude body was still on her, but she'd given the Captain quite a show in spite of it. She glanced up when she heard a scuffling sound and saw Eric was struggling into a robe and trying to join them. He brought a spare robe for her. That's nice, she thought, then her view of her recent lover was blocked by the Captain. "Kira, snap to!"

"Sorry, Captain," she mumbled. "Never been dumped before."

She reached down and removed the catheter, grimacing as she did so, then slipped the sensors that were adhered to her body and head off. She held the blanket tight and forced herself to climb up and out of the cocoon like bed, taking the robe from Eric with a grateful smile and slipping it on. Her feet were cold on the steel floor but she could tell from the Captain's tone she had no time to worry about that. "Prox alert, gotcha Sir!"

Sharp and Eric followed her as she walked stiffly out of the hibernation room. Her body warmed and began to obey her as she walked, allowing her to pick up the pace. By the time they reached the bridge, only a few short minutes later, only a faint headache persisted. She touched the data port on her palm to the matching port of her station, then proceeded to mentally send the navigation system commands. The large display at the front of the bridge responded almost immediately, allowing them all to see what had transpired.

"That's not an asteroid!" Sharp growled. He turned to Eric. "Get Tarn up here now!"

Eric took off with barely an, "Aye, Captain!" tossed over his shoulder.

"That's why the dump from cold sleep, Sir," Kira said. "The autopilot adjusted course but so did the other ship. It's closing with us fast. ETA is less than ten minutes. It must be accelerating," Kira muttered to herself as she fed more commands via the cybernetic link into the computer. "I don't understand, even a cold dump takes hours – this hit my outer threat range seventeen minutes ago."

"Had some modifications done to our chambers," Sharp explained. "You're going to feel like hell for a week or so because of it, but most of the time it's only temporary."

"Most of them time, Sir?" Kira turned to look at him.

Sharp shrugged. "Guy who done it said he only had one case of somebody suffering permanent brain damage."

Kira swore. "Hey, you prefer to let them board while we're still snuggled up in dreamland? What happens then? Pretty thing like you might get raped a few dozen times before they sold you as a slave. The rest of us most like get our throats cut – if we're lucky."

She nodded at the Captain's logic. He said no more until Eric returned with a grumbling Tarn behind him. "Tarn, where's your threat sensors? And the plasma defenders? Why aren't they online and tracking?"

Tarn ignored him, staring at the screen and deciphering it. "Fuck, must be bugged up," he muttered, then turned away to head over to the security station.

"Don't give me that, you said everything was fixed!" Sharp roared. "Get them up and running now or I'll shoot you at them!"

"Sir, we don't know who it is," Kira pointed out. "It could be another transport or even a naval vessel."

"Uh-uh," Eric said, slipping up quietly beside her chair and pressing his hand against her shoulder. Kira glanced up at him and smiled. This proved he wasn't the kiss and tell type and that he would still respect her in the morning. Then again, after the things she'd made him do in the heat of the moment she wasn't sure she could respect herself.

"Free agent would be steering clear of us," Sharp confirmed. "Naval vessel would be broadcasting to us. This ship's silent. You tried hailing?"

Kira nodded. It was standard procedure on seeing another ship, especially one with an intercept vector. "No response, Sir."

"Tarn?"

"Hang on," He grunted. "Must be a bug in the activation code, the program's in there but it never executed properly."

"What about our guns?"

"Enemy ship is out of range. They'll be ready when it gets closer though!"

"What've they got to use on us?" Sharp asked.

Tarn laughed bitterly. "This is a transport! No sensors worth a damn on here. Mining rig's got better eyesight than this thing does."

Kira looked at the Captain and saw the muscles in his jaw flexing. She felt Eric squeeze her shoulder again. Her own free hand went up to rest on top of his. "Are these Pirates?"

"They're not a welcoming committee," Tarn muttered.

Kira stared at him, eyes narrowed. Eric gave her shoulder another squeeze forcing her to relax. She looked at the display again. Even though they could all see it she felt the need to announce, "Seven and a half minutes, Sir."

"Tarn, how long until they're in range?"

"Four minutes."

Sharp swore. "Glad I spent so much on the weapons you recommended!" The ex-Marine wisely chose to stay quiet. "Kira, what's our position? How long were we under?"

"A little over a month, Sir," Kira had already figured that much out from the data on the display. She input several more commands to analyze the stars and compare their position. "Otherwise we're on course for the mining region, roughly two months out. The rotation of this system's planets and stations are further from us than a return to the jump station would be."

Sharp swore again. "No outrunning them either I bet."

The display popped up a new frame with calculations and text within it. The answer was clear seconds later. "No Sir," Kira parroted the system's visual display.

"You better hit those sons of bitches so hard they get turned into a wormhole." Tarn grunted as he sat sweating over his chair.

Kira stared. She could see the sweat running down the side of Tarn's face. She was still chilled to the bone and only the adrenaline of the moment was keeping her from falling to the deck. She glanced up at Eric again and saw the misery in his own eyes. He smiled in spite of it when she caught his eyes, which prompted a strange flutter in her own stomach. Her first real relationship and he was an engine jockey on a dead end tanker in the middle of nowhere. She bit her lip to fight back the tear, then smiled back at him. It wasn't his fault that she'd fucked her own life up so badly that a desperate shot at running away on the Rented Mule was her only way out.

"Five minutes, Sir," She croaked loudly.

Sharp's hand rested on her other shoulder, squeezing so firmly it hurt. Then it was gone. Kira felt her heart thundering in her chest, something she had read was next to impossible after being dumped out of cold sleep.

"Where are Jeff and Kevin?" The Captain asked.

"I told them get suited up and stand by for emergency repairs," Eric said. "They can handle pressure leaks and basic electronics, I've been showing them a few things."

"Might need you in the engine room."

Kira felt Eric's hand stiffen on her shoulder. It might have been because she was suddenly squeezing his so much harder. "Aye Sir, I'll keep an eye on things. Call me if I'm needed."

He pulled his hand away but the warmth of it lingered on her shoulders. Kira set her jaw and blinked away the tears. After everything she'd done and all the sacrifices she'd made this did not seem like a fitting way to die.

"Sir!" She screamed, looking a fresh readout on the display. "We're being—"

Lights flashed and an alarm went off, even though nothing seemed amiss. "We're under attack Sir!"

"Damage?"

"It was a relativistic projectile, no breech but it definitely hit us on the port side." The inertial suppressors eliminated the shock from spreading throughout the two thousand ton ship. It was neither graceful nor pretty, but the Rented Mule could certainly take a beating.

A few second later another alert sounded, followed by fresh damage indicators. This continued for several more rounds, each spaced a few seconds apart. "Sir, they're firing something large enough to clear our avoidance field but not big enough to do any serious damage."

"Tarn!"

"Just a damned minute!" He growled. Then he slammed his finger on the panel, triggering the plasma defenders.

Sharp stared at display that showed the star field in front of them, watching a green mist streak out so quickly it was barely identifiable. It disappeared into the blackness, giving no indication of what had transpired. "Well?" He asked, his voice overpowering the steady chirps that indicated fresh hits form the enemy vessel.

"Limited sensors, Sir," Kira said.

Tarn let out a whoop. "I got the bastards!"

The ongoing alerts continued. "Why are we still being fired upon?"

"Didn't say I killed 'em," Tarn snapped. He went back to his display and began hammering in fresh commands. He snarled as two more plasma shots went out, both missing.

"Sir, less than two minutes until they're on us!"

"Roll us twenty degrees so I can bring both plasma guns on line!"

"Do it!" Sharp snapped.

Kira rolled the ship, firing the thrusters manually to save time. She arrested the roll too late, but Tarn had already triggered his attack. The star field display went blank. One of the frames on the main display stopped scrolling updated data.

"What happened?"

"Something else hit us," Kira stammered. She was desperately trying to make sense of the data, inputting fresh queries to the system. "An energy weapon I think, looks like they found our primary sensor modules."

"So we're blind?"

Kira fought with her system several seconds before she slumped in her chair. "Looks like it…Sir."

"Shut those damn alarms off, internal sensors will still tell us if there's a problem."

Kira silenced the alarms and stood by, expecting to have to cancel a new one in a few seconds. She realized she'd have to do it constantly and wondered if there was a way to issue a command so that only a different type of alarm would sound.

"Did you cancel everything?" Sharp asked her as the seconds ticked past silently.

"No Sir," she said. "Trying to figure out how to differentiate between the existing attacks and more serious ones."

"You may not need to. They've stopped shooting at us." Sharp stared at the unmoving displays then turned to the ex-Marine. "Tarn, did your last shots hit?"

"Of course! Both barrels down the throat!"

"Your sensors show the damage before we lost them?"

Tarn grunted as he tapped clumsily away at the display. "Feedback from the sensor loss must have wiped out the logging."

"So you don't know for sure."

"That range there ain't no way I could miss!"

Kira glanced up and saw the stare down between the Captain and the security officer. She looked away, hoping she could ignore the growing tension in the room. "All right no, I got no way of knowing what shape they're in now."

Sharp stabbed the intercom button. "Everyone suit up now! Our attackers have destroyed our sensors but we believe they've also been damaged. If they board us they won't give us the time to arrange a welcoming party — they'll just blow the hull. Suit up and stand ready to repel boarders."

"Sir, should I—"

"Go get your suit, I'll mind your station until you get back."

"Yes Sir," Kira hopped up and hurried to the air lock. She met Eric on the way and they grabbed each other's hands briefly, then let go and hurried on when Tarn came huffing along behind them. The suits were unisex and universally uncomfortable. Kira grabbed the tallest one and turned to glace at Tarn. Eric looked up, catching her gaze, then slipped between them while the ex-Marine busied himself with displaying a very hairy back and butt so he could slip into the suit.

With him distracted, Kira shucked her robe and jumped into her suit, zipping it up quickly before fixing the helmet on. The onboard system powered up and did a system check. With a few adjustments it read off a list of green statuses. Kira turned to see Eric helping Tarn into a different suit, then waited patiently for the porcine man to be ready.

"Get back to the bridge," Eric told her. "I'll help Tarn finish up, you're needed up there."

"Be careful!" She whispered.

"Careful's my middle name, Legs!" Kira squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her fist at Tarn's voice over the suit-to-suit radio. He chuckled even as she turned and stormed off.

Her station at the bridge was far from comfortable in a bulky space suit. They had evolved and improved over the years but still weighed twenty five pounds and remained bulky enough to make even a runway model feel like they were wearing a fat suit. She settled in as best she could and then had to break the seal on her suit so she could route the suit's internal data cable to her palm. After she resealed it, and noticed the Captain trying to look everywhere but at her, she applied the external cable to her station to allow her direct input to the system.

"Sorry, Sir," she said, somewhat out of breath. "I'm ready now."

"Kira, the bridge is yours. Do what you think is best should the situation require it." Sharp gave her tap on the shoulder that she barely felt through the suit then he turned and left the bridge.

She stared after him for a long moment, then turned back to look at the partially functioning screens. She swallowed loudly, aware that the only thing she could hear was inside her own helmet. "Okay, let's see what we've got left," she muttered, feeding fresh commands into the computer as quickly as she could think them up.

But wait, there's more! How about a link to a downloadable PDF for a sample of it too?

Book 2 has been written (rough draft), what remains is cover art and editing. October – November launch date planned. So snatch this one up quick so you can be ready for the next one!

How can Blogging Help a Writer

The title is designed to suck you in and make you think I've got some solid stats on what writing a blog can do for you. If you've read this much, it appears to have worked! The reality is I've got nothing solid, just a slowly growing trend of noticing I'm getting steadily more and more visits to my blog as I write more posts and network with more people via blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and other networking sites (e.g. Goodreads).

So does it work and does it help? Yes, I think it does. Well I hit a personal sales record this month for books sold. Granted, I had some sales taking place and maybe I didn't make the most money, but at this stage of the game it's not about bringing in revenue, it's about getting my material out there, reviewed, rated, and noticed. To further test that theory I opened up a new blog tonight. This one's just for pics though, and no, not THOSE kinds of images. I put all my book covers along with a brief blurb on Tumblr, as well as convenient links to take an interested reader to the Amazon buy link.

The address for my new Tumblr blog is: booksbyjason.tumblr.com.

Objects in Motion Tend to Get Stuff Done!

Sometimes the problem isn't hitting n many words in a day, sometimes the problem is just getting started. Once the creative juices have been stimulated with a proper back rub and maybe a little grammatical foreplay they start to flow and things move along rather nicely. The problem is getting in the mood for some people. And no, it's not specific to one gender or another – we all suffer a lack of motivation from time to time.

I've accomplished a few tasks this morning that seemed daunting, for example. Whipping up a preliminary action item report with some broad timelines to respond to an audit from our customer was not a task I looked forward to, but it was something I'd promised. So I did it, and then I moved on to a few other necessary but burdensome items. Those are done too, and now I'm feeling completely drained.

I start my final class for my MBA today, you see, and that involves writing up a capstone project. It's a research project more commonly referred to as a thesis. I was fine with it until I saw the minimum length is 45 pages – not including title, table of contents, or appendixes. What's 45 pages to a guy who writes novels in the hopes of one day making a living at it? I'll tell you what it is, it's ridiculous.

In an age where being business is done by being concise and hitting our distracted target markets with something fast and easy to generate traction, writing something loquacious like this is preposterous. I view it as one more example of how academia struggles to push itself into obsolescence.

So if I've got so much work to do, why the hell am I writing this? Refer to the topic. I'd stalled and this was my way of getting the ball rolling again. Momentum reestablished, I can now push forward to make things happen. Maybe it won't be on my school project, but now I'm primed to accomplish something, at least. And that's the take-home tip for a stuck writer: Try finding something else to write about to get your fired up and moving again. Then transition over and don't look back. Before you know it you'll be flying!

Surprised by a Sleeper

"Humans have advanced to span multiple solar systems, diminish the effects of aging, and conquer the human genome, yet their cruelty towards their own kind binds them to the stone age. The rim worlds are the outer solar systems for human civilization. Men and women earn their living with their wits and talents, although treachery often nets a bonus.

The Rented Mule is a ship with a crew seeking to earn an honest living in a realm of dishonesty. No stranger to trouble, they know the unwritten rules of the trade and have avoided being claimed as "salvage" for many years.

On a routine transport mission the Mule has to struggle with not only the usual dangers of traveling through rim systems, but also a new navigator with a troubled past and a romantic interest in the ship's engineer.

Plagued by threats from without and within, the crew's only hope when the Mule suffers catastrophic damage may be an uncharted planet. The fate of the Rented Mule and crew is in the hands of the neophyte navigator."

Book 1 of the Vitalis series, by Jason Halstead

You've just read the blurb for Vitalis – New Beginnings. This is the first of a new multi-part series of science fiction books. The first one rings in as a full size book to introduce the setting. It also spins a heck of a tale that involves some romance, some intrigue, some good old fashioned sci-fi fun, and enough action to satisfy every need.

The surprise behind this was that I came across the idea to write it almost on a whim. Having done so, I had an opportunity to try to put together some cover art. After a few hours of getting nowhere it suddenly snapped together for me. So then I sent it off to an editor friend / colleague and forgot about it. Ten days later it came back with surprisingly few edits.

Well, I'm out of reasons to put it off so come September 1st, Vitalis part 1, New Beginnings, will be available on the Kindle, Nook, and all the other places. Links to follow when available!

Why Twitter Rocks or On The Fly Cover Art

I had a few moments of peace today and I wondered how I could ruin it. Well I just recently finished writing the rough draft for my second part of Vitalis so I thought, why not work on the cover for it?

Book 1 of the Vitalis series, by Jason Halstead

Many thoughts came to mind, most unreasonable or way beyond my ability. Ultimately I decided to see if I could find a critter that is featured in the novella. To risk a minor spoiler, said critter is a combination of a dinosaur, a bird, and a gorilla or feline. Not a chimera, per se, but an alien critter that developed thusly. Oh, and the characters call it a "chickasaurus". Yeah, you're curious now, even if it's only to understand just how off my rocker I really am!

So anyhow, I'm looking for this critter online, hoping for some way to either find a free pic that was similar or something I could photoshop together. I ran out of time quickly without any luck. So I posted on Twitter that I was looking for a free pic of a cross between x, y, and z.

Almost immediately I got a response from a guy by the name of @joekawano on Twitter. He threw something together and offered it up to me. It was clearly an amalgamation and cartoonish, but it was amazing and cool. No, it doesn't fit what I'm looking for but that doesn't detract from the plain coolness of the out-of-the-blue situation. I mentioned I was just kind of venting a little and he went another step to actually throw together a sample cover for me with a silhouette of the "monster" in question. Here's his cover:

Cover concept by @joekawano

It's wrong in many ways, but that doesn't diminish the fact that I thought this was downright cool and entertaining. Joe thought this was for Voidhawk, not a new series, and again the creature just doesn't work for me. It's still a pretty cool image and offering though, and I wanted to make sure I drew as much attention to Joe's work as I could as a way of saying thank you for both his offer and the entertainment I got out of the process.

So if you're on Twitter give this guy a follow and a shout! @joekawano

The Battle Lines of Writing

I've been reading some blog posts lately about EBooks and how some of them look unprofessional. This can be caused by many reasons, from poor editing to poor formatting to just being a shoddy piece of work. As a writer, we hope the last reason is always somebody else's fault and never our own, so let's assume that what you and I write is top shelf material and move on.

Poor editing? It happens – especially if it's self edited. It's no indicator of your ability as an editor, it's a simple fact that it's exceptionally hard to self-edit. The best way to do it is to read it aloud, but even that has failings. For example, when reading to my kids at night I often reword the stories on the fly to make them sound better to me. The problem with that is I am still reading the story, so I see the missing information and still process it as context. My children don't see that and miss out, thus the story is incomplete or confusing to them. Well that and my daughter has confided in her grandparents that sometimes daddy takes shortcuts when reading stories. Ah, children…

So the solution is obvious! Read the story into a recording device and play it back. I bet that sounds like a wonderful thing for every person out there! Who doesn't want to listen to take the time to read aloud a story that you already wrote, as well as turn around and listen to your own voice reading it back? Yeah, that's going to be a fail and we all know it. Or at least 999 out of 1000 of us know it. That one person might have the discipline to stick with it, but for the record I don't know that guy or gal!

Next up is printing it out and reading it with a red pen handy. I've done this plenty of times and caught a lot of errors. The problem is there are still some left behind. It's infuriating and unbelievable, but it happens. So do it a second time? Sure, if you can, but the odds of catching something on that second go-round is much worse.

Clearly the best option is another person. But to really spit-shine a story, you need multiple stages. Self-edit, then a second party for content and continuity, then a third party for line editing (grammatical mistakes and the sort), and finally I'd recommend having you go through it again yourself just to make sure nothing was missed. It's time consuming and frustrating, but you only get one shot at a first impression, so why risk screwing it up?

Then there's the bane of all writer's in the EBook publishing world – formatting. Formatting the document for the EBook type isn't that big of a deal. Sure, it can be a pain but if you start out keeping that format in mind it becomes a lot easier. No the problem is that no matter what your intentions and how hard you try to make it look perfect, it's never going to convert properly that first time. If the average writer isn't there by now, this particular problem is the one that will make you want to drink. Heavily.

The solution? Well, there's no pretty one, it's a case by case basis. The best bet is modifying it in HTML but that requires knowledge of said HTML. Sounds ugly and miserable, doesn't it? Well, by the time a writer has gotten to this point they've realized that it's not an easy process – and some of the hardest and most frustrating work has yet to begin (marketing).

As a reader, I've been amazed at some of the mistakes I've seen in EBooks – especially when I've also read a print version of the book. Having seen those mistakes I recognize that sometimes the error is in translation and I don't let the errors bother me. I may be in the minority though, I'm not sure. I'd love to see more robust formatting and conversion tools and I'm sure we will see them in time. Until then, as a writer I remain frustrated and constantly whittling away at the little quirks that pop up, even if I can overlook them as a reader.

So there is no answer, just a constant battle against the evil Emperor Typographicus and his dark queen, Lady Grammaticus.

How to Write When All Else Fails…In 5 Steps

In my day to day Twittering and blog reading I see people having troubles writing. Lightning struck and I realized that I should share some tips I use to get the words out. Your mileage may vary, but this is what works for me.

Five Tips for Writing

1. Write. Yeah, how, I know. Sometimes it doesn't matter – write something else. A blog, a diary entry, a short paper on why you want to be a writer, a big of flash fiction of how you'd expect your day to go if you were a chihuahua.

2. Starting a book. I've read it plenty of times and I subscribe to it. Start with an earthquake and end with an explosion. Not literally (unless it fits the story), but suck the reader in immediately and hook them. A scene with a lot of emotion or some sort of intense moment can leave a reader powerless to look away. Then again so can a train wreck, and there are plenty of those kinds of books out there too…

3. Starting a sentence. Really? You need help starting a sentence. I've started four now on this point alone. Do you have trouble talking too? Stop over-analyzing and just let it flow.

4. Hitting n many words in a day. I read some articles and letters from R.A. Heinlein to budding authors where he suggested setting aside at least an hour a day for writing and writing whatever it is that they can. I subscribed to that for a while and perhaps that helped me get to the point where when I've got time to write, I write. If that's what it takes for anybody else to get to that point then try it out. Block out the world and explain to your world that this is important to you and you need to do it. If you don't have the support in place for your addiction – excuse me – obsession, then I'd suggest better communication with that support staff or finding a new one.

5. Write! Covered this I suppose, but the point is that's what it's all about. If you don't write then you don't finish anything. If you don't finish anything you might as well be a mime and we all know how obnoxious those people can be!

That's it, only five steps. No bonus, no magic pill or words or wand to offer that will solve your problems. It's a tough road and not one for the weak-willed. Fight for it if you want it and you'll find a way.

What makes me good enough to offer these tips? Well I guess it's a subjective matter. There are best-selling authors out there that I don't think deserve a tenth of what they get – but clearly nobody asked my opinion because they're living the life, not me! I've got eight novels published with my ninth and tenth coming soon. Eleventh as well, come to think of it. What's more I have yet to receive a review below four stars on anything I've written and a few fives as well. I haven't hit big sales numbers yet but that's okay – this is tips on writing, not on marketing! When I figure out how to sell 100+ books a month (or better yet, 100+ a day), THEN I'll be offering marketing tips as well!

Cut the complications and crap - Just Write!

Living Life in the Red

For those that remember the cold war era, this post has nothing to do with communism. At least not intentionally! Nor is it about reliance upon credit and living in debt. No, this article is about the difference between getting by and living life without regrets.

Talk about a bold statement! I used to get by. I had fun and enjoyed my life but I wasn't going anywhere or doing anything with it. There was no improvement or change, just the same old stuff one day to the next. Things were 'good enough'. I just didn't know anything else because I'd never had the notion that I could try. Instead for people that were successful i considered them lucky or flawed in some way that would come back to bite them in the ass. The best word to describe me: bitter. Okay, another word: pessimistic.

This isn't about me though. I just wanted to throw out some self-observations in hopes that maybe somebody reading this can identify with that attitude or mindset. No, this latest inspiration for an article came while having a twitter discussion with a couple of people (@kreelanwarrior and @tjameswriter) that involved me picking up heavy things. Regular readers of my blog know I'm addicted to weightlifting – power lifting in particular. I've had my share of injuries from back strains to tearing my pec free of my left arm and needing surgery to reattach it. Yeah, you can grimace, it wasn't pretty. It is a fun story to tell, but I've told it in another blog post already I think.

So how does power lifting equate to living life in the red? Well, think of a tachometer on a vehicle – you know, the guage that tells you how fast your engine in spinning. It's got numbers and colors on it, and red generally means you need to shift up or you're going to blow your engine. Well, life has one of those too. You can keep your life tachometer in the lower ranges where you never challenge yourself. You'll live a safe life without any great successes, but also hopefully without any catastrophic failures.

Tachometer

What fun is that? Maybe that's fine for the majority of the population, but for some of us it just doesn't work like that. We're greedy, we want more out of life. That's where living life in the red comes in. You don't know what you're capable of until you've found that line in the sand that shouldn't be crossed. Then again, if you don't cross it, do you really know where it is? Every toddler knows where their line is – they attempt to cross it constantly with their parents (trust me, I've got a toddler!). But as adults we've been beaten down time and again for pushing the envelope so we start to not try anymore.

Risk is scary. Failure is paralyzing. Losing is a painful pill to swallow. There are many reasons why we shouldn't try, and some of them are legitimate (injury, emotional upset, or worse), but sometimes the risk is worth the reward. I tore my left pectoral muscle so badly I'll probably never be able to lift again what I once did. I even notice problems in day to day activities and movements. If my pecs are contracted (flexed) the left side looks drawn up and funny compared to the right side. I'd risk it again though…succeeding is worth it. I still do try lifting maximally and I hope to one day get to where I once was. I lift in a safer and more controlled environment, but I still live in the red both under the iron and in other areas of my life. I've accomplished a lot more than I ever expected to because of that and I'm not any more entitled to success than anyone else is. I've got a long ways to go too, but life and personal achievement have something in common – you have the most memories along the way rather than at the end.

Besides, what good are goals if you're too afraid of failure to try and reach them?

Winning!