John R. Phythyon Jr.'s Blog, page 29

After NaNoWriMo Part 3: Working with an Editor

Monday, I discussed how to take your NaNoWriMo manuscript from first draft to second. Yesterday, I examined getting criticism and using it to shape further drafts. Today, I’ll look at, arguably, the most critical step towards getting your book ready for publication: editing.

You might be thinking you’ve already edited it several times. After all, you read your first draft, reshaped it and sent it to your critics, and then made further alterations based on their suggestions. Well, you’re right. All those are edits. But now you need a professional editor to really help you clean that manuscript up.

English is an extremely tricky language, and, even those of us who think we know it pretty well tend to make mistakes with it. The sheer number of rules and exceptions is staggering. I know most of them, and it often amazes me that I can keep as many of them as straight as I do.

But like every writer, I have my weak spots. I simply cannot keep the rule for appositives in my head. (This has to do with comma usage and referring to someone. For example, “This blog’s author, John, has trouble with appositives.” I just can’t remember if I’m supposed to set John off with commas, because he’s the only author of the blog, or if that would indicate there are multiple authors, and John is only one of them, in which case there should be no commas, because John is the only author.) I need an editor to keep after this detail for me.

The first step to choosing an editor is to understand you need a professional for your book. This should not be your friend, the English Major. It has to be someone who has professional or at least amateur experience with editing the English language. You want someone who knows how to use an appositive correctly (as well as the other rules of English).

Be prepared to spend some money on this. Aside from what you invest to design a good cover, this is the most important cash you will spend on the development of your novel. Shop around for good rates — reputable editors can be found online with a pretty simple search, and they should be upfront about their rates — but make sure you’re paying for someone with some experience.

I took a chance on my editor. She had never edited a novel before, but she was a copy editor for two major metroplitan newspapers and had worked on two Pulitzer Prize-winning stories. It cost me less to use her, but her experience gave me confidence in her abilities.

You also need to understand something about styles. English has a variety of different styles for publicantion. AP (the standard for journalism) is very different from MLA (the standard for academic writing). Neither is quite proper a novel. I recommend The Creative Writer’s Style Guide by Christopher T. Leland. He writes in easy-to-understand language, discusses all the major grammar rules, and talks about which is best for fiction.

Make sure your editor is comfortable working in the right style. If you hire a former journalist like I did, make sure this person can distinguish between AP Style and what you’re using. AP, for example, uses the Rule of Nine — you write out the word for numbers one through nine, and then use the number for 10 or above. That’s not true in a novel. All numbers are written as words, although you can use numbers for chapters and in a few other situations. Capitalization and punctuation are different from style to style as well.

For the most part, you should listen to your editor. You’re paying money for his or her opinion on how to improve your novel grammatically. If you hired someone you trust (and you should have), there is no reason not to listen. Occasionally,  my editor and I disagree. In those cases, I research the rule, looking for an authoritative decision. If it isn’t clear, I choose the version that seems to most closely match the style I’m using. Just for the record, I’m wrong more often than I’m right.

I am a firm believer in more than one edit. When I get a manuscript back, I put in changes, but I also have my editor content-editing, not just grammar-proofing. I want to know about structural problems, not just syntactical ones. You may need to pay a little more for this, but it’s worth it. Having a professional tell you where you’ve got a major plot hole or inconsistencies in your characters is extremely helpful.

After I’ve made the changes my editor suggests, I send it back to her for another read. Nothing causes typos and story conflicts like a rewrite. A second edit, makes sure none of these slip past me into the final publication.

The last step is to read the book aloud. Once you’re confident your book has been well edited and all the changes put in, you need to sit down with someone else and read the entire novel out loud. This works best with your editor, since he or she has enough familiarity with the manuscript to spot some things you might have missed up to this point. If your editor isn’t local or you can’t afford this service, find someone who will do it with you. You hear repetitive words and phrases and catch punction mistakes better when you are reading the book aloud than when you read it silently in your head.

It’s also a last chance to find a real problem. During the read-aloud phase of publishing Red Dragon Five, I discovered a logic problem. Wolf was speaking in a foreign accent while undercover. But he was posing as a Phrygian agent who was supposed to be undercover to Wolf’s native Urland. Thus, it would be illogical for the character to have a Phrygian accent — he’d get caught! It was reading this aloud that made it occur to me Wolf shouldn’t have an accent in those scenes.

You need to have your manuscript edited if you want it to be professional and ready for publication. Self-publishing companies like Kindle Direct Publishing, Pubit!, Smashwords, CreateSpace, and Lulu have made it extremely easy to get one’s work out there. But an unfortunately high percentage of self-published novels are rife with typos and grammatical and stylistic errors. Make your work stand out and increase your opportunities for four- and five-star reviews with a clean manuscript that reads well.

Congratulations again on finishing your NaNoWriMo project. I hope this series helped a little bit in determining what to do with it next!

After NaNoWriMo Part 2: Getting Criticism

Yesterday, I discussed the process I use to get a novel from first draft to second, noting how important rewriting is to crafting a really great book. However, I also wrote that I don’t let anyone read my first drafts. What I didn’t mention is that, at some point, it has to get a wider read.

Today, I’ll look at the process of getting criticism for your novel.

Before we start, we need to establish two very important things. The first is that you must get criticism before you publish. Without it, you can’t improve your book. You have to have someone, preferably several someones, read your novel and give you an honest opinion of it. Without that, you don’t know if you’ve written gold or tripe.

Second, “criticism” doesn’t mean someone says, “This sucks.” Criticism is an honest review. Your readers should tell you more than whether they liked it or not. They need to tell you what works and what doesn’t. They should make suggestions for improving the things they didn’t like, and tell you what they did.

For example, before I wrote State of Grace, I penned a different Wolf Dasher novel that I ended up deciding not to publish. However, in the description of the hierarchy of the Shadow Service in that book, I wrote, “Wolf had been ‘promoted’ seventeen times. It was a dangerous job.” One of my readers was really struck by that phrase and told me how it really drove home the danger of Wolf’s career to her. So, when I wrote State of Grace, I made sure to keep those two sentences from the other book.

The first step to getting criticism is choosing your critics well. You don’t need to get someone with an English degree (although that helps) or a professional book doctor, at least not at this stage. What are you looking for is people who will read the book in a timely fashion and not be afraid to hurt your feelings. For that reason, it is often better to choose strangers than friends. Friends, no matter how well meaning, may be worried about being truly honest with you, and you need that honesty to craft the best novel you can.

Think about joining a writing group. There are a number of them available online, and many of them are genre-specific, so you can find someone who knows the kind of material you write. I’m a member of a Facebook group called Author’s Critique Group. We spend a lot of time promoting our books to each other on the group’s page, but it exists so that members can seek out other writers and editors who will volunteer to read an MS and give honest criticism.

If you do turn to friends and family, make sure you are clear about wanting their most honest opinion. Tell them you can take it if they don’t like it and that you want them them to tell you how to make the book better. Tell them too to tell you what works, so you also get positive feedback.

One of my primary readers is my fiancee. That clashes with the advice to get strangers to read your work, but I balance that with her unfamiliarity with my genre. She doesn’t read a lot of thrillers or fantasy books. She’s more of a sci-fi and litearary novel reader. The Wolf Dasher books are a marriage of James Bond style and Tolkienesque fantasy. As a result of her not usually reading the type of book I write, she asks a lot of hard questions about plot points, archetypes, and characters. She wants to know why someone would do some of the things I describe. That makes me question everything that happens in my novels. I have to justify it both to her and to myself. If I can’t, I make a change.

For example, in Red Dragon Five, there is a plot point of a stolen magical elixir. Wolf correctly guesses it is connected to the bad guys’ plan, but no one believes him. My fiancee said that didn’t make any sense. If he brought it up, she posited, it would be logical for his superiors to at least look into it. She was right, so I made a change.

The most important thing to remember about criticism, though, is that it isn’t personal (or shouldn’t be). If someone tells you your novel is broken or there are problems with your plot or characters, it does not mean you are horrible writer, who should quit immediately. It means your book isn’t ready for publication yet. That’s an altogether different thing.

I have a phrase I keep in mind when people tell me there is something wrong with a book: “Listen to your critics but don’t take them to heart.” In other words, listen to the criticism so the novel will improve, but don’t think it means I am a bad author. If you choose your critics well, they will be interested in helping make your book better. That’s a good, good thing, and you should thank them for it.

Criticism is an important part of writing your novel. You can’t author a good book without it. You should embrace it and remember it’s helping you become a better writer.

Once you’ve shaped and reshaped your novel following the criticism process, it’s time to start working with an editor to get it in publishable shape. I’ll discuss that step tomorrow.

After NaNoWriMo Part 1: First Draft to Second

So you worked hard, made sacrifices, and turned out a successful National Novel Writing Month project. Congratulations! You’ve accomplished something extraordinary. Just finishing a novel is a difficult thing to do.

But if you’re harboring dreams of publishing your masterpiece, you’re far from done. You probably know that already, having said to yourself, “Okay, I’ve finished the book. Now what?”

Now comes the painful yet fun part of editing. I really enjoy shaping the book once it’s written. I’m not sure which I prefer more, actually — writing or rewriting.

They’re both an important part of the process, though, and, if you want your novel to be more than a project you take on in November, you need to become familiar with the latter.

Over the next several blogs, I’ll outline my process. Everybody has their own way of doing things, but this is what works for me, and I think it gets me to press with a pretty solid manuscript. So hear goes: Step 1: Getting from the first draft to the second.

I never let anyone read my first draft. It’s not so much that I’m trying to be secretive or even that I’m ashamed. It’s really that I haven’t had a chance to work with the material yet. I’m a big believer in editing, and I don’t want people to see my work until I’ve had a chance to check it first.

My first drafts almost always have plot holes and other inconsistencies in them. Partly this is because I write the book over a period of several months, so, as I go along, I forget little details. Partly it’s because, even though I write from an outline, the story and characters evolve and change as I write. The novel I finish is never the one I conceived.

When I was writing Red Dragon Five, for instance, I changed the name of a character midway through the writing process. I initially named a Freyalan priest Mother Gladsong, but somewhere along the way, I changed it to Mother Gladheart without even realizing what I’d done. I discovered this in the editing phase and had to think about which one I liked better. I decided I liked the sound of Gladheart better, plus there was a minor character named Glorysong, and I didn’t want the names to be too close.

To edit the novel, I print a hard copy of it and then read it with a pen in hand, making notes as I go along. I find I can see errors a lot easier on the page than I can on the computer screen.

The first draft into the second is where I usually make my most significant changes to the novel. It’s here where I really question whether something works and how things are arranged structurally.

Red Dragon Five has two major plot lines that take place separately before coming together at the end. The book alternates between the two. While editing the first draft, I decided I needed to move some chapters around to make the story flow better. Thus, events in the final draft happen in a slightly different order than I originally wrote, and I believe that makes the novel stronger and a better read.

Once you’ve made your notes and have an idea what you need to change, you sit down and write your second draft. The good news is it doesn’t take as long (and really isn’t as hard) as writing the first draft. You’ve got something to work with, and you just need to make changes to it.

I save each draft I write. It’s very rare that I revert to an older draft. Generally, once I make a change, I move forward. But I like to be able to go back if I need to. I recommend you do the same. That way you don’t lose anything.

Once you’ve got that second draft finished, it’s time to get someone else’s opinion. I’ll cover that step tomorrow.

ONCE UPON A TIME and “Sleeping Beauty”

Man, I love ABC’s Once Upon a Time. A modern retelling of every major fairytale mixing magic lands with the real world and nonlinear storytelling with lots of strong female characters? What’s not to like?

(Well, actually, there are some writing issues, a lot of pandering to Disney films, and some special effects problems, but that’s a whole other blog.)

I’ve enjoyed fairytales my whole life, and I like approaching old material in a fresh way. Plus, I love magic and happy endings. Once Upon a Time appeals to a lot of my sensibilities.

So, needless to say, after what I thought was the strongest episode yet last week, I’m a little disappointed we’re already at the mid-season finale this coming Sunday. I don’t want to wait a month or more for more episodes. Things are getting good!

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Missing ONCE UPON A TIME already? “Sleeping Beauty” is FREE December 3rd!

I’m betting I’m not the only fan of the show feeling this way, so I’m engaging in a little shameless self-promotion to help fill the void. I’m making my short story, “Sleeping Beauty”, free on Monday, December 3.

Much like the show, “Sleeping Beauty” reimagines a classic fairytale and sets it in modern times. Also like the show, True Love is the most powerful magic of all.

But my version of the fairytale is a cautionary story about obsessive love — particularly the kind shown by overprotective parents. It’s not a wicked witch who ensorcells the titular character, but her father — attempting to “preserve her honor” until she is old enough to marry. Her mother is little better, manipulating first her daughter into becoming the woman she thinks she should be and then her would-be boyfriend into breaking the spell.

“Sleeping Beauty” is a creepy retelling of a familiar story that asks questions about how we should treat our daughters. I wish it was less timely than it was.

Regardless, if you like Once Upon a Time like I do, “Sleeping Beauty” should appeal. Hopefully, it’ll help tide you over until we get some new episodes.

Back to Actually Writing

As any small businessperson will tell you, you have to do a lot of things that aren’t necessarily in your job description. Particularly among microbusinesses, entrepreneurs work a lot outside their purported areas of expertise, because there’s work that needs to be done. and there’s no one else to do it. That’s especially true of sole proprietorships.

Now that RED DRAGON FIVE is launched, it’s time to get back to writing my next book!

It’s been that way for me as an indie author for the past month or so. I released my second novel, Red Dragon Five, last week. That made me very happy, but it also brought a lot of stress. I edited it three times in only a few weeks — once with a rewrite for the fourth draft, once for the read-aloud with my editor that produced the fifth draft, and once when I proofed the copy that came back from CreateSpace to create the final version.

I also had to lay the book out three times — once for the ARC, once for the final print version, and once for the published Kindle version. Cracking the code on MS Word’s headers, footers, and page numbers function was especially vexing (although I understand it now, so that was a win).

And, of course, I had to market the book. To help launch it, I enrolled my first novel, State of Grace, in KDP Select, managed several free promotions, and put a teaser chapter of RD5 in the back of S0G, which, of course, necessitated more layout. I also researched and bought some advertising for both novels to try to push them.

To an extent, all this was fun. I enjoy being in business for myself, and I do like the business aspect of managing my career.

But the thing is I’m a writer. And, aside from blogging regularly about my books and my career, I haven’t actually done any writing in weeks.

Today, that changes. I get to write the next chapter of the book I’m working on (Calibot’s Revenge for those who don’t follow this blog regularly). As you may recall, I was writing that book in between editing and rewriting Red Dragon Five. I’m pretty excited, because I left off right before a big plot reveal. Today I get to pen that big development in the story that throws things into overdrive and moves the novel towards its conclusion.

Of course, it had been long enough since I’d last worked on it, I had to spend three days reading the first 22 chapters to get my head back in the flow of the story.

But I’m pretty excited. I’m pretty sure I can finish this novel and at least get the initial edits done before year’s end. That should put me on schedule for a first quarter release.

Today, though, I’m not going to worry about all the technical and business components to publishing Calibot’s Revenge. Today, I’m just going to enjoy writing it.

That is, after all, why I started this business in the first place.

Holiday Shopping Sales Trends: What Do They Mean?

Part of the business side of being an indie author is trying to understand marketing and sales trends, so I can capitalize on them. After observing this past Black Friday/Cyber Monday shopping season, I can confidently say I have no idea what my sales mean.

I deliberately set the release of my new book, Red Dragon Five, for the Tuesday before Thanksgiving both to get some sales push from the kickoff to holiday shopping season and to celebrate the one-year anniversary of my becoming an indie author. To maximize my brand awareness, I enrolled my first novel, State of Grace, in Amazon’s KDP Select and set up Monday and Tuesday of last week and Monday of this week as free days. Then I set up a Facebook ad campaign on the free event targeted at fans of James Bond and fantasy literature. I also tweeted the daylights out of the free event and the release of the new book, and announced both in all my usual news venues.

The initial results were strong. SoG was moving out the door at better than 10 copies an hour. I even sold a copy of my short story, “Sleeping Beauty”, that first day. SoG rocketed up Amazon’s free chart from somewhere in the 8000′s to #1322 in just a few hours’ time.

And then things began to slow down. Suddenly, State of Grace was only doing a few books an hour. I hit some sort of a wall, and what had been a gusher slowed down to a trickle.

The next day, SoG’s slowdown continued. I was still giving books away, but it became apparent I was going to be lucky to give away 200, when the early pace suggested 500 would be easy. However, Red Dragon Five went live, and there were several purchases. I even got another sale of “Sleeping Beauty”.

On Wednesday, a few more RD5 sales encouraged me. My sales numbers remain very modest, but  RD5′s launch was much more successful than SoG’s a year ago. I was encouraged that I might finally be starting to build a little of that elusive momentum.

Then everyone stopped buying. I had no sales Thanksgiving Day (not terribly surprising), none on Black Friday or Small Business Saturday or Sunday, and none on Cyber Monday. The second SoG giveaway on Monday resulted in only 27 copies. Yikes.

I became depressed, thinking I actually sucked and no one really wanted to read my work. But then on Tuesday morning — after the big sales days, someone borrowed a copy of Red Dragon Five in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library program. Go figure.

I’ve no idea what all this means. Maybe this weekend is a bad time to release a book, because everyone is buying TV’s and electronics from the big box retailers. Maybe my ads suck. Maybe I’m  just not writing books people want to read. It’s hard to know.

But I went from feeling fairly euphoric on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday to feeling like a failure by Monday. Such is the life of a little-known author trying hard to become known.

Still, I’m not discouraged. As I mentioned above, RD5 had a much better opening than SoG. That alone is testament to the fact that I am building a platform. I wish it were a bigger one right now, but there’s a lot more room to stand on it than there was a year ago.

Moreover, despite being teased with the possibility of a sales trend that never materialized, November 2012 is already my strongest sales month yet. In total books distributed, it is number two to September of this year when I had a more successful giveaway for “Sleeping Beauty”, but, in terms of actual buys and borrows, I’ve moved more books and earned more money than any previous month. So it’s entirely possible any expectations I had were unrealistic, and, regardless, I need to be happy with what I’ve done.

But is it that elusive beast, momentum? It’s impossible to say just yet. I’ll know in the weeks and months to come.

Did you run events for Black Friday/Cyber Monday? Leave a comment below. I’d love to know what you tried and how well it worked!

An Indie Author’s List of Things to be Thankful For

It’s that time of the year, when we Americans stop rushing around like idiots trying to conquer everything we see and take a moment, however short, to be thankful for the things we have. It’s kind of a special moment in a culture that is driven by the need to acquire, and it’s terribly ironic that the day after we pause to appreciate what we have, we run out and elbow other people out of the way to get more stuff we don’t really need.

But that’s America for you.

As I mentioned in Tuesday’s blog, I’m now a year into my journey as an independent author. After a year of trials and errors, of learning and maturing, I’ve got a few things I’m thankful for. So, in case you need to get away from family and turkey for a few minutes and want to spend it perusing the internet, here’s an indie author’s list of things to be thankful for.

My fiancee: My entire career is possible because of her. She supports me, cheers for me, and is proud of me. Not only does she have faith that it’s just a matter of time before I become a hugely successful author, she really likes what I write. Everyone needs someone to believe in him or her, and, when you’re on the lonely side of a computer screen, wishing people would start buying your books in significant quantities, you need someone who has faith when you don’t.

Microsoft Word: Yeah, I hate Microsoft as much as the next guy, and this program often makes things harder than it seems like it should be, but MS Word is an incredibly powerful program. It lets me do everything I want to and more. When I first set out to become a self-published author, I was awed not only by how much Word could do but how much I didn’t know that it could do.

Amazon.com: They’re a monolithic beast that is positioning themselves for (publishing) world domination, but Amazon makes my career possible. Their Kindle made e-readers popular and affordable. There’d been a lot of talk about books going digital, but it didn’t become a viable business model until the Kindle became popular. They also helped pioneer giving authors a sizeable royalty, and that’s good for little guys like me and the wildly successful authors alike.

Smashwords.com: Over the past few months, I’ve been moving more and more of my business away from Smashwords and over to Amazon’s KDP Select. But I’m still grateful to Smashwords for a number of reasons. Most importantly, a good chunk of my understanding of formatting manuscripts for electronic publication comes from The Smashwords Style Guide. Mark Coker demystifies the process in simple language and taking you step by step through each part of formatting. I learned so much about MS Word and electronic publishing by reading this book, and going through Smashwords’s Meatgrinder helped me understand how to format books for Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Michael Jasper: Jasper decided, out of the goodness of his heart, to write an incredibly informative series of articles about formatting manuscripts over on his website, www.michaeljasper.net. He covered each of the major publishing sites and PoD. He even discussed how to market eBooks. Then he collected the whole thing into a book, which is now one of my go-to reference resources. I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t stumbled across his website last year. I know how to do what I do because of him.

Other Indie Authors: This is a hard, hard business. It’s an incredibly competitive world out there trying to get your book noticed, bought, and read by people. You would think the indie community wouldn’t be very tight-knit, because we have to compete with each other. The opposite is true. Indie authors are incredibly generous with their time and support. We retweet each other. We write blogs about what’s worked for us. We give advice when it’s asked for and often when it’s not. I’m truly thankful for all the good advice and time I’ve gotten from my fellow indies, and I try to pay it forward with blog posts that divulge what worked and what didn’t for marketing purposes and by featuring members of the Independent Author Network in my tweets.

Readers: This is the most important one of all. To everyone who has ever bought or read one of my books, thank you. I hope it was worth the experience and the money. I am able to do what I love, because you support me.

So that’s what I’m thankful for as an author this Thanksgiving. What are you thankful for? Leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you.

A Year in the Life of an Indie Author

Every now and then in life you need to stop what you’re doing and pat yourself on the back.

RED DRAGON FIVE is on sale now!

Today seems an appropriate time. As of today, Red Dragon Five is on sale at Amazon.com. You can get it in print and eBook versions. It’s enrolled in KDP Select, so you can borrow it if you’re a member of Amazon Prime.

As any indie author can tell you, publishing a book is a monumental task. In addition to writing the thing, you’ve got to get it edited, laid out, a cover designed, and market it. All things a publishing house allegedly does for you. So just getting Red Dragon Five on sale is worth celebrating.

But it means a lot to me on a number of other levels.

This is my second novel. I published State of Grace last year. Writing and publishing one book is a significant achievement, but it comes with a certain kind of blissful ignorance. No matter how much research you do or what your background is, doing this the first time means not really knowing what you’re doing. Being able to get a second book out comes with a lot of hard-earned wisdom, some battle scars, and wondering how you ever managed to publish the first one.

Delivering Red Dragon Five after a year of trials and errors and perserverance feels pretty rewarding.

In addition to being my second novel, it’s my fifth book. I’ve also published three short stories — “The Darkline Protocol”, “The Coronation of King Charles III”, and “Sleeping Beauty” — as eBooks. It seems extraordinary to me that I could get five books out in a single year’s time. I’ve read that, to have a sustainable career as an independent author, you need to have a large catalogue. Year One has certainly moved me in that direction.

But I think the best part of publishing Red Dragon Five today is that it happened on the one-year anniversary of my publishing State of Grace. The date isn’t exactly the same — I published SoG on November 22, 2011. But I launched my indie-publishing career the Tuesday before Thanksgiving 2011. Not only do I like the symmetry of getting Novel #2 out on the anniversary of Novel #1, as I reflect on this grand occasion, I’m struck by how much better my life is today. Last year at this time, it was filled with uncertainty and worry. Publishing a book was one of the few good things I had going, one of the few ways I was taking control of what was at the time a rough life.

Get STATE OF GRACE free November 20!

Now, I am so much more satisfied with my career. I am getting married. I have two great stepchildren, and I’m healing the rift with my daughter. I even got adopted by a cat shortly after State of Grace came out. Red Dragon Five isn’t just my second novel; it’s a marker for how much better my life has gotten.

So today I am going to take time out from what has become a very busy life and pat myself on the back. It’s been a good year, and Red Dragon Five is a good present to myself. If you want to help me celebrate, pick up a copy of RD5. It’s only $3.99 for your Kindle. And today (November 20), you can get State of Grace for free. Two books for four bucks. Not a bad deal. (And if you’re reading this after the 20th, SoG is only 99 cents, so it’s still a good deal.)

I am so excited for the coming year. I’ve got plans for two more novels and another short story. I’m getting married in March. I can’t wait to see where I am the Tuesday before Thanksgiving 2013.

STATE OF GRACE in KDP Select

STATE OF GRACE will be free on Amazon.com on November 19-20

Well, I have done it. I have officially unpublished State of Grace from Smashwords and Barnes & Noble and enrolled it in KDP Select. The eBook version is now available exclusively through Amazon.com for the next 90 days.

Part of me feels like I just accepted Darth Vader’s offer to join him and rule the galaxy together. After all, Amazon is an empire when it comes to book sales and distribution. You can decide for yourself whether it’s evil or not, but there is no question it is the 800lb gorilla in the market. A pro-competition liberal like myself can’t help but feel a little dirty about signing on with an organization that controls a large enough piece of the market they could effectively be considered a monopoly.

But it doesn’t matter if Amazon is evil or benevolent. We’re not going to rule the galaxy together — at least not yet. I’m no Luke Skywalker. I’m a small, independent author struggling to get myself over. And after looking at all my business options, Amazon is offering me the best method to increase my brand awareness and sell more books.

RED DRAGON FIVE — Available Tuesday, November 20!

My new book, Red Dragon Five, launches Tuesday. I’ll be celebrating by using KDP Select’s free days to give away copies of State of Grace. Those copies will have teases for Red Dragon Five in them. I’ll be supporting the giveaway with a Facebook ad campaign. Over the next few weeks — you know, prime shopping season — I’ll be using the various online advertising venues available to indie authors to push the John Phythyon and Wolf Dasher brands.

So logon to Amazon.com on Monday and Tuesday of next week and pick up a copy of State of Grace for free. Then on Tuesday, get Red Dragon Five for $3.99. Two books for four bucks. How can you go wrong? James Bond-style action in a traditional fantasy world of elves and magic. What’s not to like?

As always, I’ll report my success and failures on my KDP and other promotions here. If there’s any wisdom to be found for other indie authors, I’m happy to share it.

In the meantime, get yourself some Wolf Dasher books for your Kindle. They make perfect reading while you’re standing in long lines doing your holiday shopping.

Making an Action-Adventure Book into a Literary Novel

I didn’t want to just write an action-adventure novel.

I like them. Don’t get me wrong. A taut James Bond thriller or an epic swords-and-sorcery book is fun to read.

But I wanted something more.

I blame Bob Boyer and Ken Zahorski for this. These two professors — a Chaucer scholar and a Shakespeare expert respectively — taught an excellent class on science fiction and fantasy literature at my alma mater, St. Norbert College. They taught me that the best speculative and fantastic books were actually literary novels that just happened to be set on other worlds or in other times.

Thus, The Hobbit is less about slaying a dragon and taking his gold than it is about going out into the world and self-actualizing, i.e., growing up. Brave New World wonders if there is a place for the individual in a society that stresses conformity.

And, because these novels are set in worlds not our own, we’re able to gain the distance and perspective to ask these big questions and learn some lessons. Suddenly, an action-adventure novel becomes a fable, a parable.

So last year, I introduced the world to Wolf Dasher. He’s clearly a James Bond figure – a man whose job it is to defeat megalomaniacal villains and get a few girls along the way. But Boyer and Zahorski’s tutelage wasn’t going to let me leave it at that. Wolf’s first adventure, State of Grace, sent him overseas to a nation that bears a strong resemblance to the Middle East. Through the action, I raised questions about what it means to be a patriot and about the role of religion in society.

Now Wolf is back in his second adventure, Red Dragon Five, which releases Tuesday, 20 November. Once again, I can’t stay away from disguising a literary novel as an action thriller.

This time, a top-secret weapons project is sabotaged. Only Wolf realizes that the sinister terrorist organization, the Sons of Frey, is behind it. To do something about it, he’ll have to go behind enemy lines to fundamentalist state Jifan. His mission is unofficial. If anything goes wrong, he’ll be disavowed.

But Wolf has fallen in love with May Honeyflower, Captain of Alfar’s Elite Guard and his ally from State of Grace. When he vanishes in Jifan, she abandons her post and goes in search of him. She’ll have to find him before the Sons of Frey do, and the two of them will have to stop the terrorists from unleashing an apocalypse on Alfar.

But that two-paragraph summary only describes the plot. It’s not what the book is about.

Red Dragon Five is a story of love and family. Wolf was disowned at the age of 15 when his magical Shadow powers manifested. He has never been in a real, romantic relationship before. As sincere as his feelings are, he doesn’t know how to act. Over the course of the novel, he learns what it means to love someone, to be part of a family, and to care for others. And he learns some of these lessons the hard way — by betraying his allies and even May. He does stupid things, because he just doesn’t know any better.

And May loves him desperately. She risks everything to be with this strange man from another country — her reputation, her career, and even her life. She teaches him what it means to love and be loved, and she makes a deal a criminal to rescue him.

In between, I also take some to comment on politics. Alfar is run by a shaky coalition of progressives and conservatives. They argue incessantly and accomplish little. When a new domestic threat rises in the form of a popular, progressive priest agitating for revolution, they cannot agree on how to deal with her until disaster occurs.

Red Dragon Five is an action-packed page-turner that reads quickly. But don’t go too fast. Thanks to Drs. Boyer and Zahorski, there’s a lot more going on you won’t want to miss.

Red Dragon Five releases Tuesday, 20 November 2012. It will be available via Amazon.com for Kindle and in print everywhere.