Lexi Revellian's Blog, page 8

To be good, you first have to be bad...

...and not only that, while you are still quite bad you need to believe that you are good so that your enthusiasm and pleasure in your achievement will carry you through the necessary work to become good in reality.

This is why it's absolutely fatal for some well-meaning person to come by and tell you that your first efforts are rubbish. Believe this person, and you will give up. Beginners, like children, thrive on encouragement. Disparagement and brutal criticism make the creative urge wither and die.

I've found this to be true in every area of endeavour I've had a go at. I was pleased as Punch with my earliest attempts at making jewellery. I've still got some of those pieces, and no one could have guessed their maker would go on to have a career as a designer jeweller (I'd find it tricky to know what to say if a student showed something similar to me with quiet pride). The same is true of my first novel and my first book covers - but luckily the joy of creation spurred me on to better results.

Do the best you can, and don't let other people put you off. And never blight anyone's first tentative green shoots. You don't know what they might grow into if let alone, and it might be something amazing.

Quarter Finals of ABNA

I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all .

I like to start any discussion of contests with this excellent quote from Ecclesiastes. I've been a contestant and on occasion I've been a judge, so I know just how subjective any selection process is. But I'm still pleased that Ice Diaries has reached the Quarter Finals of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards . 500 novels have made it this far, out of an initial 10,000. Each had its first 3,000-5,000 words assessed by two Amazon Vine reviewers. This is my favourite:


The next stage, which takes two months, is for Publishers Weekly reviewers to read the 500 novels in full, write a review on each and choose 25 to move on to the semi-finals. 25 is 5% of the current 5%, so a hard mark to hit. But I'll have my PW review...

You can see Ice Diaries' ABNA page here - and how odd it looks without its cover.

Contemplating Remix the audio book

Now ACX has opened its doors to UK authors, I've decided to commission an audio version of Remix . It's a big step into the unknown, but an exciting one. Though producing an audio book is expensive, there is a growing demand for them. Of course, there's no guarantee one will make a profit, but any self-publisher is well used to taking risks. I believe in selective extravagance, and am prepared to scrimp in some areas so I can splurge in others.

For those of you unfamiliar with ACX's process, the author puts his book up on the site with details and a brief audition script. (I used a conversation between Ric and Caz, as it's vital they sound right.) Actors, known as producers, who are interested can make a recording of the script and send it to you. Also, you can choose producers whose samples you like the sound of and ask them to audition. It's a good idea to go to Audible, look up the narrator, and if she has recorded audio books, check out her reviews.

You can pay the producer an agreed amount per finished hour, or offer a royalty-split deal. If your book is currently selling well, ACX may offer a stipend to encourage producers to audition.

It's interesting, hearing an actress read your lines. I have a very, very clear idea of what my characters sound like, and would find it impossible to accept anything much different from my conception. It's essential the actress is able to read intelligently, or she will stress the wrong word and change the meaning of a sentence. On the other hand, a good narrator will surprise you with a slightly different interpretation which you may quite like.

Buying the ebook rights - in 1971

Forty-three years ago, Jean Craighead George signed a contract with Harper Collins for her book, Julie of the Wolves. She got a $2,000 dollar advance and standard royalties. It sold well - over 3.8 million copies, and it's still selling.

In 2011, the author published the ebook version with Open Road. She wanted to e-publish with Harper Collins, but they wouldn't match the 50% royalty offered by Open Road. They preferred to sue, arguing that clauses in the 1971 contract gave them the rights to the ebook. A judge has now found in favour of Harper Collins. Jean Craighead George died during the litigation.

What was the clause in the contract that tied in rights to a form of book not to be invented for many decades? It was a combination of a standard subsidiary rights grant and the following:

HarperCollins shall grant no license without the prior written consent of the Author… including uses in storage and retrieval and information systems, and/or whether through computer, computer-stored, mechanical or other electronic means now known or hereafter invented…

Two conclusions can be drawn from this.
There is no end to the shameless rapacity of Harper Collins (and the rest of Big Publishing). Here they cheerfully sued an author in her nineties who had made them millions.

Do not trust a professional to draw up a contract for you. Read and make sure you understand the implications of every word yourself, because you are the person signing the contract, and you will be bound by it.For more on this story, see Publishers Weekly .

Indie authors are the cool kids now

I started writing in 2006. In that time, there have been three distinct phases of self-publishing:

1. Only losers self-publish. It's an admission that your writing isn't good enough - and besides, you're using up your First Rights and no publisher will ever consider a book that's been self-published. (I've never found anyone to satisfactorily explain what first rights are.)

2. Self-publishing can be a good way to get the traditional deal you've always wanted - but you have to sell loads of copies on your own before a publisher will be interested.

3. Self-publish and you'll make more money, retain your rights and have full control. Who wants a trad deal anyway, giving away your rights in perpetuity for a measly advance, no marketing, and a couple of months in the few remaining bookshops before your book is pulped?

Because these days, indie authors are the cool kids.

On rich and poor characters in fiction...

So, do you like the heroes or heroines in the novels you read to be rich or poor? I find poor heroes more appealing, and I suspect most readers agree with me. Though in real life money gives you more options and can indeed make some problems disappear altogether, being rich seems to have a desensitizing effect. Rich people come to believe they deserve their wealth, and that the poor are simply slackers. The knight in the picture looks as if he's being a bit sniffy about the poor man: "Good Lord, man, is this what you call a cloak?"

I'm a fan of Dick Francis's early novels, where the heroes are working hard to achieve their goals but haven't yet made it. As he became a very successful author, understandably his heroes got richer; when the baddies are after them, they hire Mercedes and book into five star hotels. And I find them more difficult to relate to.

Famous poor heroes: Cinderella, Katnis Everdeen, Harry Potter (briefly, till he turned out to have all that gold in Gringotts) Winston Smith, Cassandra in I Capture the Castle, Jane Eyre, Elizabeth Bennett, David Copperfield, Pip, the March sisters, Sam Spade, Jim Dixon, Han Solo, Rose Tyler, Dave Lister, Madame Bovary, Flora Poste, Gabriel Oak, Becky Sharp, Tess of the d'Urbervilles . . . add your suggestions in the Comments.

Famous rich heroes: Hamlet, Emma, and all those brooding kinky billionaires in that weird new genre, Billionaire Romance, that takes the Jane Eyre meme to ridiculous extremes. Have I missed anyone?

In Disraeli's novel Sybil, published in 1845, a working-class radical, Walter Gerard, describes England as being:

“Two nations; between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other’s habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets; who are formed by a different breeding, are fed by a different food, are ordered by different manners, and are not governed by the same laws.” 

“You speak of — ”said Egremont, hesitantly. 

“The rich and the poor.”

And things haven't changed all that much, providing plenty of material for authors to get their teeth into.

Mailing lists and Mailchimp

If you're an indie author, have you got a mailing list? Only writing is more important. If you haven't yet started one, do it today, and comfort yourself that most of us get round to it later than we should.

I use Mailchimp for my list. You can see my sign-up form here. The link is on my blog, my website, and at the end of my ebooks. I only email readers when I have a new publication out, but some authors use it to send newsletters to their fans. Seeing your list grow is satisfying - it belongs to you, and is a form of insurance in case something unwelcome happens with a platform you sell on. It's another component of self-publishing you have control over.

Mailchimp is free and provides a fantastic service, but its interface is not totally user-friendly. If you get stuck, Desmond X Torres has written a how-to guide on Kboards, which also mentions an alternative option for Wordpress users. Unable to customize your sign-up form? Kay Bratt has the answer here.

URGENT - Hugh Howey's dynamite report

For the real, genuine lowdown on what is happening in publishing, who is earning what and how, read Hugh Howey's report here. Those of us who self-publish and keep up with information on the web have suspected some of this, but to see the figures and charts is just staggering. They are from Amazon US.

You need to read this, now. Here's just one of the fascinating charts:



Don't hang around here! Off you go!

N.B. So many people have rushed to access the site that it's currently down. It'll be back... UPDATE: it seems to be working again now.

JKR, I only hope you're reading this...

This week JK Rowling revealed she has changed her mind about the suitability of Hermione and Ron marrying and having two children called Rose and Hugo. (Too much information, anyway. I agree with Jason Black that tying everything up at the end of a novel is a Bad Idea - read his excellent piece here. You should leave the reader something to mull over.)

Nothing JKR can do about it at this stage, you mutter? There is! I came across this idea of genius on Kboards from Landon Porter , an open letter to JKR:

"I am about to offer you two words that will transform that mountain of money into a money continent. I understand completely how you might have overlooked it, but as a fan of comic books, it was thankfully not lost on me. 

Ready for the two words:

Alternate. Timeline.

Seriously, you've already introduced time travel into your universe with the time turner. It's time to stop worrying and love the paradox.

Imagine if you will, the loved ones of one of the victims of the final battle deciding to stop it before it even starts by using the time turner to go back to the first rumbles of trouble: the Chamber of Secrets scare. There (er... then) they set in motion events that end with Dumbledore explaining exactly what the book was then and setting up the quest to destroy the other clearly-no-a-lich's-phylacterys then and there.

Of course, this will involve sending his crack team of The Chosen One and plucky sidekicks and will put into play a whole new sequence of plots for a whole other series of books where you can rearrange your pairings however you want (and also let Sirius live).

As a bonus, killing Voldy early will allow the next set of movies to have a Big Bad who doesn't look like The Master from Buffy got it on with a seal."

I see no flaw in this plan.

If there's a button, why not push it?

My resolution for 2014 is to push more buttons, and I shall be actively seeking out new buttons to push. I'll also be giving up pushing old buttons that no longer work, which is a failing of mine. I find it hard to abandon something that has served me well in the past.

Jeff Bezos said, "If you double the number of experiments you do per year, you're going to double your inventiveness." He's also quoted as saying he doesn't think consistency of thought is a particularly positive trait. It's healthy to have an idea today that contradicts the idea you had yesterday. The smartest people constantly revise their understanding and reconsider problems they thought they’d already solved. They're open to new points of view, new information, new ideas, contradictions, and challenges to their own way of thinking.

You have to accept that most buttons you push won't make anything happen. Acknowledge that you're going to feel foolish and discouraged after several duds in a row - but still keep looking for another button to push.

So far, I've paid for a Bookbub ad (successful). I've got out my half-finished screenplay of Replica, finished it, and emailed it to a professional screen writer who was rash enough to volunteer to look at it. I've decided to leave KDP Select (again) and really try to make it work on the other platforms this time. And I'm trying to think up an idea for a series...