Mike Jastrzebski's Blog, page 102

Just Showing Up

The holiday season is upon us and in between shopping for a tree and picking out presents, I am readying a manuscript for publishing on Amazon Kindle. As Mike Jastrzebzski has written on this blog, the Amazon platform gives authors access to readers who use Kindle, iPads, iPhones, Droids, and other electronic readers. Like Mike, I am ready to jump into the game.

Woody Allen famously said that 80 percent of success is showing up. For writers, the math is even more dramatic – 100 percent of being an author is being published. With that said, Kindle's platform is…. well, self-publishing. Yes, self-publishing. You know, the electronic version of running your manuscript through a photocopier and calling it a book. The editorial threshold being set by the world's most uninformed decision-maker, the author himself/herself.

Yet, Mike's own example reveals the opportunity. With more than a thousand copies sold since August, Mike's book, The Storm Killer, continues to attract new readers at an ongoing clip. When I checked last night, Mike was one notch above Randy Wayne White (one of my favorite mystery writers) on the Hard Boiled Thriller list for Kindle sales. As Mike will tell you, he's equally as tickled by the high number of five-star reviews that have showed up on Amazon registered by readers who picked up the book via word-of-mouth – mostly electronic word of mouth.

I have no idea how my own story will be received. Hopefully, I've unfolded a tale in which my protagonist, Steve Decatur, takes readers on the water in the tradition of John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee or Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt. But my ability to pull this off won't be decided by me, by an agent, or an editor. It will be determined by the market.

While I have no idea how things will turn out with my Kindle sales, I am confident about the following assertions:

1) e-readers will continue to win-over readers who have long-loved hard covers and paperbacks;

2) the use of Smart phones as e-readers will rise dramatically as the advantages of ubiquity and mobility overcome the limitations of the small screen;

3) the very form of books will change as readers such as iPads allow the insertion of audio/video applications as part of the story telling;

4) content will remain king (content that is strong and valued, that is);

5) the open platform of e-readers will give new authors access to audiences, but the editorial role will be no less important in marketplace that will be flooded with content.

None of this suggests the end of the written book. FM never eliminated AM, as many said it would. MTV didn't kill the radio. The broadcast networks charge-ahead regardless of cable TV, and broadband cable won't be undone by the internet. Given this past, we shouldn't expect the end of the publishing industry, just the publishing industry as we know it.

So then, if you want to check out A Single Deadly Truth when it comes out later this month you will be part of a new wave in publishing, and maybe, just maybe, you'll enjoy an escapist ride as Steve Decatur finds adventure on the waters of Buzzards Bay, Rhode Island Sound, and Cape Cod.

My tribute to the greedy-little-bastards or, Why high gas prices are good for writers

Michael Haskins

I have left my Jeep under the house (I live in a stilt house, I didn't bury it) and bought a 2001 Miata. The Jeep got 15 mpg, on a good day, and the Miata gets 30 mpg most any day. I have gone from about $100 a week in gas to about $30. That's a pretty good savings. I am also a lot more aware of my running around in the evenings and on the weekends and schedule things now, like dinner, movies, a trip to the Hog's Breath, Schooner Wharf, the Tiki Bar – well, you get the point.

According to my friends, and reports on the news, I am not unique in this. People have begun to put the gas-guzzlers in the garage and turned to more gas efficient vehicles. Here in the Florida Keys that includes scooters and bicycles. I live 15 miles from downtown (not much in miles if I were still in LA, but miles and miles here in the Keys) and it's too far, and unsafe, to ride a scooter on US1, or a bicycle.

Before we all began to support the new robber oil-barons, I might have driven to town and had breakfast on Saturday morning at Harpoon Harry's and then come home to write. Now, thanks to gas prices and the greedy-little-bastards who bought our elected officials, I stay home Saturday morning and write or read.

I dislike big cities, but I suppose if I lived that kind of lifestyle, my daily routine may not have changed as much because of gas gouging, since there are so many places you can walk to (and face the possibility of being mugged) when you live in the heart of an overcrowded metropolises.

So, I can thank the greedy-little-bastards who are pillaging our savings, driving food prices to skyrocket and keeping many of us from taking vacations, because I am staying home writing my  fourth novel and catching up on reading. If I had to guess, I'd say I am only about three-years behind in reading, where last year at this time I was five-years behind!

I've even stomped around under the house with a cigar and Jameson on the rocks, writing a short story built around vampires and the devil in Key West stealing body parts and think it is workable!* If gas had been $2 a gallon (yeah, get real, we'll never see that price again!) I would probably have driven downtown, stopped at Finnegan's Wake, Schooner Wharf, the Tiki Bar and the Hog's Breath, and maybe not finished the short story.

So, this is my tribute, and thank you, to the greedy-little-bastards for keeping me at the computer writing as they rape and pillage the American dream, horde their billions in quarterly profits, and eliminate – or least downsize – the middle class, now that they've bought Congress.

Of course, if Congress lacks the cajones, the American people should be trembling, because there is less and less for us to lose and the plundering may not be stoppable.

* I just signed a contract with Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine for the short story: Vampire Slayer Murdered in Key West. They haven't given me a publication date yet.

Fuzzy Math

By Mike Jastrzebski

If all goes well Mary plans to quit her job at the end of January. We then hope to both work on the boat until the end of March when we will pull the boat, do a bottom job, and take off cruising. We have a few major jobs to do and a slew of minor ones. The major items on my list include adding solar panels, putting up the radar dome and remaking the dodger and bimini. I do all of the sewing in the family but with Mary off the plan is for her to do the canvas work with me helping out when she gets in a bind.

The minor jobs run the gauntlet from getting the engine going after a couple of years sitting idle to applying for passports. So where does the fuzzy math come in? Well I was always taught that if you start with say 35 projects (roughly what I had on my list at the start of last week) and complete three projects you have 32 projects remaining. So why do I now have 42 projects on my list? Either my math skills have gotten rusty over time, after all, it's been forty years since I took a math class, or boat projects are like rabbits and they multiply at an ungodly rate.

How the hell are we supposed to get everything done at this rate? Of course when we originally left Minnesota we had a handful of projects that weren't finished. Same thing goes for when we left Mobile and I suspect it will be the same story when we leave Ft. Lauderdale. I guess that's just the name of the game we call cruising.

When I should be writing

I would much rather play.  In fact, I would say that I have honed playing on the computer into a fine art.  On the off chance that there might be other kindred playmates among the boating writers and readers of this blog, let me share with you some of my favorite things to do on the computer when I should be writing.

Wordle- "Wordle is a toy for generating 'word cloud' from text that you provide," according to the text on the home page of this free site.  You can change the fonts, colors, sizes and input any words that you want.  This is just too cool and good for several hours as you input your book titles, boat names or, as in the case above, the names and tags from this blog. I think my Writeonthewater design above is worthy of a poster.

CatNED -  NauticEd's Online Catamaran Maneuvering Game is totally addictive.  The first time I tried it, I managed to get a score of minus 2071 after 64 crunches and 37 crashes.  I knew I had to do better than that . . .

-  This site does exactly what the name says, however, I have found it to be a marvelous swift kick to the brain as I am currently struggling to find a title for my WIP.  I discovered much to my amusement that you can continue giving it the same word over and over, and it spits out an endless supply of possible titles until you are laughing so hard you have to run to the head lest you pee in your pants.  You've got to try it!  I gave it the word submarine, and I got back these gems upon which I could not help but speculate on the possible cover copy:

Spanking Submarine — Hot tails of the new coed navy — bottoms up!
Considering Submarine And The Garlic — Miss Manners list of absolute faux pas.
Submarine Of The Probed Eleven — The year is 2054 and the SS. Nautilus is found adrift with the eleven members of the 1968 jury that vanished mysteriously from the Days Inn where they had been sequestered.
Submarine Yoga — For those who live in NYC or Tokyo studio apartments, the new micro fitness program.
Submarine Of The Junk — This tell-all memoir from a former TSA agent who describes his adventures down under.
Sprocket Of The Submarine Piss-ant — I think this one could only be a band, and I don't think I'd download their music even on Free Music Tuesdays on iTunes.

Name that Tune – Actually, this site is called Midomi and it allows you to hum a few bars into your computer's microphone after which it will tell you the name of the song.  Of course, you need this site to help you remember that song you've been humming all morning while you were trying to write, but once there, you cannot help but try a few rounds of "Stump the Computer."

Macsailing.net -  I troll the Macsailing forums to learn about the latest and greatest new marine electronics and software and dream about what I'd like to add to my dream boat.

The Setup and MacAppStorm Mac Setups — These two sites satisfy my inner geek's need to drool over office/computer setup porn.

Okay, now get back to work!

Fair winds!

Christine

From Rags to Riches on the Kindle: November sales report

By Mike Jastrzebski

It's been five months now since I went live with my first book. My November sales are down from previous month's sales with 179 sales of The Storm Killer and 114 sales of Key Lime Blues. This will still earn me about $550.00 for the month, but this is substantially down from other months.

My August royalty check, which I received last week, was for $824.00 and my September check will be for a little over $900.00. I believe that there are several reasons for the slowdown in sales.

First, I have slowed down on the promotion of the books. There are a limited number of outlets available for promoting e-books and although I am always looking for a new promotional source, the pickings were not good for November.

The Kindle Nation Daily, which has proved to be the most effective advertising source to date has gone up in price and is now sold out months in advance. That's because it works. It's a great success story and all I can say is congratulations to Steven Windwalker who puts out the blog. He's done a great job of promoting Indie writers, he's worked hard, and he deserves the success. I am running a Kindle short and sponsorship with The Kindle Nation on December 29th and I'll report on how my sales go at that time.

I did do a sponsorship for both books early in November with the Planet Ipad blog, which caters to Kindle sales on the Ipad. This sponsorship had very little if any impact on my Kindle sales, but my books are available through the Ipad bookstore and since I only receive statements on those sales every 90 days I'll have to wait to see if it helps sales in the Ipad store.

This month I will also be trying a new sponsorship ad with the Frugal eReader blog. I will be promoting both of my books on this blog between Dec. 18th and Dec. 24th, along with New Years day. I will post these sales results next month.

I have to admit that it's a little depressing to have sales fall, but this whole experience is a journey that I wouldn't miss. And let's face it; I started out hoping to sell 30-40 of each of my titles every month. Finally, the best promotion is word of mouth so if you've read Key Lime Blues or The Storm Killer and enjoyed the books, tell a friend. Better yet, you can now give Kindle books as a gift and Christmas is right around the corner.

From Rags to Riches: November sales report

By Mike Jastrzebski

It's been five months now since I went live with my first book. My November sales are down from previous month's sales with 179 sales of The Storm Killer and 114 sales of Key Lime Blues. This will still earn me about $550.00 for the month, but this is substantially down from other months.

My August royalty check, which I received last week, was for $824.00 and my September check will be for a little over $900.00. I believe that there are several reasons for the slowdown in sales.

First, I have slowed down on the promotion of the books. There are a limited number of outlets available for promoting e-books and although I am always looking for a new promotional source, the pickings were not good for November.

The Kindle Nation Daily, which has proved to be the most effective advertising source to date has gone up in price and is now sold out months in advance. That's because it works. It's a great success story and all I can say is congratulations to Steven Windwalker who puts out the blog. He's done a great job of promoting indie writers, he's worked hard, and he deserves the success. I am running a Kindle short and sponsorship with The Kindle Nation on December 29th and I'll report on how my sales go at that time.

I did do a sponsorship for both books early in November with the Planet Ipad blog, which caters to Kindle sales on the Ipad. This sponsorship had very little if any impact on my Kindle sales, but my books are available through the Ipad bookstore and since I only receive states on those sales every 90 days I'll have to wait to see if it help sale in the Ipad store.

This month I will also be trying a new sponsorship ad with the Frugal eReader blog. I will be promoting both of my books on this blog between Dec. 18th and Dec. 24th, along with New Years day. I will post these sales results next month.

I have to admit that it's a little depressing to have sales fall, but this whole experience is a journey that I wouldn't miss. And let's face it; I started out hoping to sell 30-40 of each of my titles every month. Finally, the best promotion is word of mouth so if you've read Key Lime Blues or The Storm Killer and enjoyed the books, tell a friend. Better yet, you can now give Kindle books as a gift and Christmas is right around the corner.

Joyce Holland on finding a jewel in the slush pile.

 

Every once in a while I think I have found my jewel in the slush pile. Such was the case last week when I came across a medical thriller with an opening worthy of a Stephen King horror movie. A plague was sweeping the Earth and everyone was trying to escape before it caught up with them.

How about you? What would you do in the face of a plague? Anyone reading on this site would probably stand up and shout, "Get on a boat and get the hell out of there."

Sure enough, to my absolute delight, that's what the protagonist ending up doing. A good third of the novel takes place along the shoreline or far out to sea. There were chases and storms and enough nautical drama to fill three books. I was transported back to salty air and changing tides. The pacing was terrific. But it soon became a bit tiring and finally became what I call — episodic. This happened, that happened and there was no rest for the weary. Then the complications stretched the imagination like a worn out bungie cord. And like that cord, I couldn't spring back with great enthusiasm. You just can't weather every dangerous encounter at sea unscathed. Two or three, maybe, but I soon lost count. I guess you can see where this is going. Mind you, lots of people fell by the wayside in this impossible adventure, but the protagonist came through like a trooper. The writing was superior.

I might have accepted the story for the sake of its exciting adventures, but there was something else missing, and I finally figured out what it was. There was no romantic involvement of any kind, which was mildly disappointing, but understandable considering the book had a miserable ending. Why make two people unhappy? Note to potential submitters: I hate bad endings. Life is tough enough, it's why many of us burrow into the tunnels of make-believe.

Alas, I'm now back to searching for: "The Jewel on the Pile."  (Little pun there)

Forget bad endings for the moment though, that's fodder for another blog, and I'll do it later.  But, let's return to the lack of a love interest in this or any other tale. I wasn't expecting a down and dirty romantic tryst in the story related above; however, do any of us live a life without love? You rarely see a successful television show without a low hormonal hum in the background. An occasional spark here and there, even if it's subliminal, raises a tingle on the spine of the most benign audience. I'm certain someone can point to examples of successful stories without romance in them. Nice tight little cozies come to mind. Miss Marple, Sherlock Holmes. Pfft. Protagonists past their prime would be my deduction. I crave a wee bit more spice in my stories. Give me characters like Brennan and Booth from Bones, or Mulder and Scully from X Files. They don't have to do the nitty gritty for me to know there's a fire down below. And romance behind closed doors is always more alluring than humping in plain sight. I don't necessarily hunger for soap-opera sentiment, but a hint of sensuality is not a bad way to induce reader interest, is it? Where do you draw the line? This inquiring mind wants to know.

We Are Experiencing Technique Problems

Old Diesel-Electric Romeo Class Submarine Used by North Korea

by Tom Tripp  

As I suspect many before me have, I am struggling with literary technique in my novel. Because I am writing what might loosely be called a techno-thriller, I have a couple of specific obstacles to surmount. These include an over-abundance of technology, at the expense of character and plot; the requirement to ensure that my characters are fully and compellingly drawn, and a nightmare of a plot timeline that threatens to overwhelm me, never mind some future reader.

I know there are solutions to these problems, and I'm studying the approach of some of the more successful techno-thriller writers. At the same time, I'm trying to avoid having the novel pigeon-holed in one narrow genre. It's a story; my story, and it has elements of a techno-thriller, elements of a classic mystery, and even characteristics of a romance. I know I'll have to label it when I look for agents and publishers, but that will be the last thing I cave in to.

For now, I'm studying Michael Chrichton's Andromeda Strain, and Tom Clancy's The Hunt for Red October, both early classics of the techno-thriller genre. Chrichton used the mutation progress of an alien organism to pace his story, while Clancy used the mechanism of the calendar to force a structure onto his complicated plot. Both were natural and effective techniques. Clancy, a huge fan of military technology, also had to ensure he didn't overwhelm his readers with the nuts and bolts of mil-speak. In the case of The Hunt for Red October, he created an enthusiastic, likeable hero in Jack Ryan, whose genius and quirks (a fear of flying for a military/spy agency hero?) were the perfect foils for cold-war high-tech.

Neither Chrichton or Clancy really tackled romance in their novels; something I'm compelled to do in mine because it's part of the path my protagonist must follow to get where he needs to be. It's part of his humanity. He's not a robo-spy or a Rambo. So, I struggle with this character who lives on his own boat, understands the complicated technology of undersea and nuclear warfare, and is hamstrung by a completely unexpected romance.

My timeline suffers from the fact that the opening scene, designed to dramatically launch the story, requires a backstory weeks prior to the events of the first few pages. At the moment, I'm leaning toward moving that into an interior monologue-flashback for one of the bad guys. It will be a challenge because it can't be a giant dump of explanation. It has to feel like a real memory, naturally evoked and not out of place.

I say that I'm "struggling" with these technical issues, but that implies I'm not enjoying myself, when the reality is that I love this. I love solving these problems (at least I hope I'm solving them). And the time it takes is time that doesn't exist. When I'm writing all the clocks disappear, the calendar fades, day and night blend, and I'm in place of blissful ignorance.

What sorts of "technical issues" do you face in your storytelling?

Changing gears.

By now those of you who read this blog on a regular basis know that Mary and I are planning on going on an extended cruise on our sailboat, Rough Draft, this spring. You probably also know that I have been working on the rewrite of my next novel, Dog River Blues.

The plan was to finish most of the rewrite by the end of November and then start on the boat work that has to be done before we can take off. So much for planning. Although I kept to my schedule when rewriting The Storm Killer and Key Lime Blues, it doesn't look like my original plan to publish Dog River Blues before the end of the year is going to happen. You see, it's time to switch gears and start working on the boat.

I'm still shooting to publish Dog River Blues before we leave, but starting Wednesday my primary focus has to shift from writing to boat work. The truth is, this may not be a bad thing. One of the reasons I've had trouble writing is that my mind has been on the boat. I'm just going to have to schedule some writing time between boat projects.

Fortunately, I'm beginning to feel motivated to work on the boat. The idea of spending another summer in Fort Lauderdale is not very appealing to me or Mary, and since Mary plans to give her notice at work soon, the motivation to get the work done is building.

If you're waiting to read Dog River Blues, I ask that you be patient for a couple of months. If you're reading my posts on the blog don't be surprised to see more boat oriented posts. If you've been following my From Rags to Riches on the Kindle posts, I intend to continue to post my sales figures every month for those who are curious about them.

It's all in the words

Every writer I know has trouble writing.  ~Joseph Heller

Here it is nearly midnight on Thanksgiving night and I have all sorts of ideas about writing that are swirling in my mind like wind-swept fog, but that bloody blinking cursor has his arms crossed, and he's tapping his foot, waiting. Blink … Blink … Blink.

Earlier this week, Michael and John wrote about the perennial question writers hear, "Where do you get your ideas?"  I have come to the conclusion that most of the time the people who ask that are not really inquiring about the origin of ideas.  The real question is one they are asking themselves.  They want to know, "Could I do that?  Could I write a book?"  They are asking to see if this writer's method for discovering new ideas is something within their grasp.  They think that writing a book is all about getting a great idea.

So, I am here to tell you that it's not even about ideas.  Writing a book is extremely hard work, but getting an idea for one — that's easy.  I have ideas every day.  I have more ideas for books than I will ever get written.  Think of your average writers' conference; everyone there has an idea for a book. Many of them aren't yet finished, but they got the ideas for their books.  No, it's not about the ideas — it's about getting it down — it's about  the words.

John Urban provided us with that lovely quote from Stephen King, something about how we need to recognize these ideas that come sailing at us out of an empty sky.  So often, we don't know what we think until we put it into words.  We don't recognize an idea until we get it written down.  And writing it down is the hardest part.

There are many days I sit there staring at that damn blinking cursor unable to string together enough words to make a sentence.  I have this great idea for this book — but I don't know what this character is going to say next or who is knocking on that door.  And I won't be able to find out until I can write my way into it and force myself to tell that story, to write that scene.  And in order to know it, I must remember what I wrote yesterday, and the day before, and the day before.

Knowing and remembering all the little details that make up this fictional world I'm creating is hard mental work.  Every day when any writer sits down to write fiction, he or she must conjure up all those characters with their own unique voices and all those places, those worlds they all inhabit.  The first hour of my writing time is the most difficult because I must overcome my innate inertia and reconstruct this imaginary universe.  After an hour or so, I'm there in the scene and my characters are starting to talk to one another.  If I can stay focused and suspend reality long enough, I might be able to get enough words down to make my ideas recognizable.

Is writing really that much trouble?  For me, yes.  So why do it?  Is it for all that fantastic financial reward?  Now, that does make me laugh.  No, I believe in what Sinclair Lewis is saying below.

It is impossible to discourage the real writers – they don't give a damn what you say, they're going to write.  ~Sinclair Lewis

Fair winds!

Christine