Holly Hook's Blog, page 6

Progress Update

Tonight, I finished the climax of Frostbite.  I’m pleased with the way it’s all come together to involve all of the characters.  To avoid spoilers, I won’t give away any more, except that this will be a very emotional book.

My first draft will probably be done next week.  Then, it’s on to editing.  The book is nowhere near prime time and I already know of several major issues that will need fixing before I even think of publishing.  Due to its complicated plot and numerous conflicts, editing might take a little while.

Right now, I’m thinking I’ll come out around 60,000 words.  As I edit, the word count will no doubt increase to about 65,000 or more, making it about the same length as the other books in the series.

Mistakes I’ve Made and How I’m Not Going to Make Them Again

This post is going to deviate away from my usual progress updates and such and touch on a different topic: publishing and sales.  These are things I’ve done wrong while publishing my books.  This list below is by no means all the mistakes an author can make, of course.  It’s a summary of what I messed up on in particular and how I could have done things better.  I’ve learned a lot from my mistakes (I think) and hope that someone else can, too.

So, if you’re looking to publish a book, or have already taken the leap, it might be a good idea to keep these “don’ts” in mind:

1.) Don’t slap on a cover that doesn’t look professionally made.  I think this is the most important “don’t” on this list.  If your cover doesn’t look great, nobody’s going to click on your book on Amazon.  There’s too much about what makes a great cover to go over here, so I’ll link you to this blog that has tons of good cover advice:  http://booksat.scarlettrugers.com/bookcoverdesign/

The first cover I had looked terrible.  In fact, it was so bad that I’m not even going to post it here.  I went through several better versions over the past couple of years until I reached the one I have now.

2.) Don’t get too original or unique with your cover.  Look at the covers on Amazon for your genre.  Which kinds of covers are on books that sell well?  Chances are, they follow a pattern and have most of the same elements.  That’s because readers need to be able to look at a cover and know what kind of book they’re getting.

For example: YA book covers are usually one of two things: a girl in a dress or a half face shot with a quirky eyeball.  While I did have the quirky eyeball shot in my old covers, and I loved the cover another author made for me that had one such shot, the covers didn’t have the right colors or fonts to attract a YA audience.

So I experimented and slapped a girl in a dress on the cover, with a more fantasy-looking font.

Downloads for my first book instantly tripled, so it certainly didn’t hurt doing something that wasn’t very original.  I can only wonder where I’d be now had I started Tempest off with this cover back in 2010.

3.) Don’t take a year to release the next book in your series.  I made this mistake and worked on other projects instead, and many people who read the first book didn’t realize that Destroyers was going to be a series.  I know I missed a lot of sales doing this: when I released the second book, I was lucky to sell 20 per month.

4.) If you want to sell lots, don’t waste time in genres that don’t sell well.  While letting that year pass between Book 1 and Book 2 of my YA fantasy series, I was putting out and trying to promote a middle grade book.  This is something I will never do again.  Middle grade, in general, does not sell well.  Neither does YA humor, I’ve found out.  I will finish my middle grade series, but it won’t be the top priority and it won’t be at the expense of my YA paranormal and fantasy stuff.

5.) Don’t waste time trying to market a book that just won’t sell.  Some books are just duds.  I’ve had two that no one will touch, including one that is no longer for sale.  This was another time-waster for me when I could have been writing another book that could possibly sell well.

6.) Don’t let your average star rating for a book fall under 4.0 on Amazon.com.  Really.  Don’t.  This is the kiss of death, unless your book is already selling hundreds per day and doesn’t need to be promoted.

If your star rating falls under 4.0, most promotional opportunities will slam shut in your face.  Most ebook-promoting websites, particularly the big ones with thousands of followers, will not consider letting you promote your book with them if this happens.  Unfortunately, your star rating is also the factor that you have the least control over if you play the game honestly and don’t pad your Amazon page with fake reviews.  (Which you shouldn’t, by the way.  People can tell.  If you do, you’ll get caught someday.)  Sometimes, someone hates your work no matter what.

My mistake here?  When some of my first 10 or 20 reviews came in for my first book, I wanted to do some minor edits to clean up some things.  I asked around about this, and some people told me to leave it alone.  I did.  As another year passed, my average star rating got lower until it crossed that Threshold of Unpromoteableness.  (Is that even a word?)  Now that I have a lot of reviews, it will be much harder to crawl out of that pit.

I did finally make the edits I wanted to make a long time ago, but it might be a bit late for that now.  Free books by nature tend to garner lower rated reviews because they’re perceived as having less value by consumers.  I believe there’s a study about this somewhere.

So it definitely might be worth doing some small tweaks here and there if you catch wind of any problems with your book to minimize the chances of this happening.  It can never be eliminated as there will always be people who hate your work.

But now…

I’m starting a new YA paranormal romance series, and I vow never to make these mistakes again.  While I do risk having a star rating under 4.0 no matter how many times I edit and how many times my crit group tears my drafts apart, I’ll take every measure possible to make sure it doesn’t happen.  I won’t wait a year between sequels. I’ll focus mostly on YA fantasy and paranormal from now on, which is a genre that sells well.  I’ll probably get a cover artist for 2:20 if the jury says I need one.  (I probably do.)

So hopefully, my next post about something like this will be along the lines of, “Things I Did Right and How I’m Going To Do Them Again.”

Cover for Destroyers #4 Released!

Okay, here it is: the cover for the fourth book of the Destroyers series, due out in November of this year:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Granted, it’s on a topic that I’m not too fond of due to the fact that I live in Michigan, but it makes it fun demonizing the new villain.  I’ve had a blast plotting out all the substories of this novel: Janelle’s and Gary’s, Paul’s and Leslie’s.  Even Kenna’s.  They’re all here in this one, and things will definitely be coming together by the end of this book.

There will be one more after this, of course–it’s going to be impossible to resolve all these problems in one book alone.

 

Cover Reveal for Destroyers #4 This Friday

Yes, I will be revealing the cover (and with it, the title) of the fourth Destroyers book this Friday, sometime after work, of course!  I am very pleased with the way the cover turned out, although it wasn’t my original idea.

Right now, things are looking good for a November release, a full 1-2 months before I originally planned.  I am aiming for 1,500 words per day now, which means I will finish writing Destroyers 4 around October 25.  Then, there will be edits, of course, and beta reads.  (And probably more edits.)

I’m about at the halfway point now, assuming the book comes out at about 65,000 words.  It may be slightly more, or slightly less.  It depends on which way the story takes me.

Progress Update

I’m glad to say that I am sticking with my new goal of 1,000 words per day.  Right now, as the fourth Destroyers book is most in demand, I am concentrating about 90% of my effort there at the moment.

I finished about 3,000 words on Saturday alone, about 2,000 on Sunday, and another 2,000 words tonight.  I have most of the plot worked out in my head now, which helps immensely.

However, if I continue to write Destroyers 4 at 1,000 words per day, I should finish with my draft at the end of October, two months earlier than I’d originally planned.  I know how it will end, and I also know that there will be a fifth (and most likely final) Destroyers book.

I’ll admit I’ve slowed down a bit on 2:20, as I am waiting for some research material to come in the mail.  As the book will involve a historical event, some research is always necessary.

“Tempest” going live on Wattpad, among other things

Since the first book of the Destroyers series is currently free, I’ve decided to begin posting chapters up on Wattpad to promote the rest of the series.  I will be posting probably one or two chapters per week, depending on my mood.

If you’re interested in voting on “Tempest” or anything else on Wattpad, you can check it out here: http://www.wattpad.com/story/2145957-tempest-destroyers-book-one

All votes will definitely help!

In other news, I have set myself a new goal to make more progress with my two current projects: write at least 1,000 words per day on either one of my current projects.  I’d prefer to do 2,000 words per day, split evenly between Destroyers, Book Four and 2:20, but with a full time job and other obligations, that might not happen.

Still, it’s nice to see the progress bars grow on the side of the blog.  I’m still hoping for a release at the end of the year.

Beginning a New Series

This weekend, in addition to working on the fourth Destroyers book, I hope to be starting my new young adult paranormal romance series.

If you’ve been tracking the progress bars on the right side of the screen, you might have noticed one called “2:20.”

2:20 will be the first book in what will likely be the Timeless Trilogy.  I won’t divulge what the book will be about yet, except that the title itself (and perhaps the cover) is a clue.  This is a temporary cover that you see here, as I still have yet to buy the stock art.  The final one will definitely be prettier.

Feel free to leave comments as to what you think the book will be about!  The first to guess what the title 2:20 is referring to just might get a prize…

OK, Now For the Official Release of After These Messages…

What would happen if the world suddenly turned into a giant commercial break? Unfortunately, Jade is about to find out, thanks to her little brother’s stupid wish.

Now, not only must she face stupid ads coming to life around her every minute of the day. She’s also being stalked by the most terrifying one of all: the creepy, ever-smiling Burger Planet mascot!

If Jade is unable to face him, she risks losing everyone she cares about to thirty-second slots forever.

*This is a novella at about 23,000 words long. It’s not too serious.*

I had to do some tweaking on the cover to get it to show up better on Amazon, so the title is now yellow instead of red.

After These Messages is now on sale for $1.99 at the following vendors:

Amazon (for Kindle)

Barnes and Noble (Nook)

Smashwords (Kindle, Nook, and Everything Else)

After These Messages Now Done

Well, I finally did it after well over a year!  My first novella (which clocked in at about 23,000 words) was completed late last night at about 12:30 A.M, at the expense of a good night’s sleep and feeling even remotely awake this morning.

Edits have already been done throughout the past several months as the work progressed, so this phase won’t take too long.  It was only a matter of finding the right ending and actually completing it.  I didn’t even know what the ending was going to be until about two weeks ago.

Depending on edits, I may release After These Messages this week.  Then, I will begin to work much faster on the fourth Destroyers book, which should be out by the end of the year.

After These Messages Cover Finished

I’m moving pretty quickly in my progress for my young adult comedy novella, After These Messages.  Fortunately, I was able to find decent stock art for the cover, and put this cover together in two nights.

I’m getting pretty close to the climax (at last!) as I have finally figured out how it’s going to end.

You may be wondering why there’s a happy astronaut on the cover, and I’ll let on that it has to do with commercials.  More specifically, commercials coming to life and invading the real world.  The astronaut is a parody of a particular series of commercials that I found pretty frightening.  I’ll let you guess which ones.

I will likely finish After These Messages very soon and release in early September if all goes well.  I have to warn you, though: this novella won’t be too serious.