Gerald Dean Rice's Blog, page 68
January 14, 2013
#Review of Corn Bred by @JimmyPudge #kindle #thriller
Corn Bred needs an editor. With that out of the way, I loved this book. I got it for free on the 11th and just finished last night (the 13th) at 11pm. I’ve read or seen so many Jekyll and Hyde stories but Pudge captures it in a new and oftentimes hilariously dark manner. This is such a simple story but the author’s 100 hundred mile an hour writing style and proficiency in writing dark characters made this a blast. I first read Bit** Gone Crazy in the Attic and one I’d stumbled across something special. Now I’m gonna have to start working on his other stuff. I would definitely LOVE to work with Pudge some day.
Visit Jimmy Pudge’s website here, although I don’t know if he’s actually still blogging.
January 13, 2013
#NOVEL #EDITING (can be done through online)
It’s been a while since I wrote on this topic. I found this ad on Craig’s List and I honestly think the author of this ad doesn’t realize what he/she is asking. I think this is someone who legitimately is looking for editing on the cheap and unknowingly is asking for someone to sign off on their dreams for nothing. Read on:
Ive recently written a novel and I’m only on my first draft and I need some help with editing and I’m looking for people who will want to edit at least a chapter or more whatever you/they have time with.
This will be something great you can add to your resume and great exposure if this gets successful!
Please email me and let me know if you are interested
‘if this gets successful!’ Isn’t that really key here? There are so many ‘ifs’ that it’s baffling anyone would consider responding to this ad at all. If the novel is a success. If this is a legit opportunity. If the poster doesn’t rip the responder off in the off chance the novel actually makes money. So many ‘ifs’. In all I’ve learned in the relatively short amount of time I’ve been editing professionally, I would prefer to have my money definite and up front. I don’t want to worry about what steps the author is taking to publicize a novel and how many copies have to move before he/she considers the book to have achieved the floaty goal of ‘success’. Hey, I would be ecstatic if I moved 100,000 copies of Fleshbags, but would they want to sell 1,000,000 copies before they paid 1/3 of one percent or however much they’re going to cut me in on (if that even happens)? And am I just trusting their count? Would I be provided information verified from an independent source that they had indeed sold only as many copies as they were telling me?
There are just too many variables, too many things that could go wrong for anyone looking to make actual money to invest their time and talents in ‘if this gets successful!’. Posts like these that don’t have a dollar amount attached and truly guarantee nothing aren’t worth the time of anyone- not even anyone doing this as a hobby.
January 10, 2013
The bubbles are coming #amwriting
I’m trying something new. In fact, I’m doing it right now. I’m using the voice command feature on my smartphone to dictate this post. So far, so good.
But I’ve been conducting an experiment over the last few days. I’ve been using my smart phones quick word app to dictate I short story. You may have noticed that previous sentence wasn’t quite right. While I am enunciating and being careful 2 separate each word, sometimes my smartphone doesn’t hear me right. It is so difficult to not go back and correct that sentence.
Dictating a story into the quick word app has been even more trying. Just about each time it hears the words 1 and too, it represent them with numbers even if I am using the actual word instead. Now I did recently upgraded my phone, and the dictation feature is superior to my old droid. But there are somethings missing.
The bubbles is a short story based on a nightmare my daughter had when she was 3. Or maybe even a series of Nightmares between the ages of 3 and 4. But they were real to our daughter. We were able to resolve the issue when she woke up by taking a spray bottle filled with water and Springs generally around her room until the bubbles were gone. That word was supposed to be spraying not Springs.
I had been hesitant to write this story because I wanted to do it justice in the manner in which it had unsettled me. Maybe in my mind that can never happen because it’s a strange thing to be frightened by something that frightens your child.
I’m still adding the story because there are many errors in dictating, but there are also some author issues as well. I just can’t tell a story as well as I can write it. And it’s almost like a new story to me because of so much that I said that was off the top of my head that I don’t remember. But look for it in a couple of days.
January 9, 2013
Wednesday’s Writer’s Tip On heroes and heroines #amwriting
I found this blog post so good, I just had to steal it. I was over at the Eclectic Writer and this just helped unstymie me in the midst of drafting Heartbreak Hotel. Read on and enjoy…
Still finding gems to help a story grab reader’s attentions and make for a good story using How To Write Mysteries by Shannon OCork. This time there’s something she said about heroes and heroines that struck home and something every writer should know.
Give your focus character problems and keep them in trouble. Why? This keeps a reader turning the pages. Make these problems small ones that can be solved but then have the solution lead to another problem. There are two areas where this can occur. There are the outside areas and the inside the character problems. I never realized I’ve used this method until I read this book. How does this work in genres other than mysteries.
Read the rest of this great blog post here.
#Publishing on the #Nook
You may have read my prior post on how to publish on Kindle. Publishing your ebook for the Nook is slightly different, but just as easy. The complicated one will be publishing on Smashwords, so I’m saving that one for last. It’s also the one I typically base my Kindle and Nook files on as it is the most thorough in screening out errors. But first things first, go to www.pubit.com.
You’ll need to create an account, so click on that link in the upper right hand corner.
It’s a standard registration process, but once you have your log-in information confirmed and log-in you will be on the default ‘My Titles’ tab. There other three are for tracking your sales, entering or changing bank account information (so you can get paid) and if you have any questions. Right now, you want the one you’re already on.
Click the ‘Add a Title’ button.
There are six sections here and you need to supply the information in each before you can publish your title. Section 1 asks the basics regarding your book. What’s it called, how much you’re charging for it (including your UK price—that’s a new feature where you can have it calculate on the US price **recommended** or give it a different cost). Then you’ll enter a publication date. My guess is that’s going to be the date you get all this done, but you can set the date as far back as you need. You can’t set it up to publish on a future date. At this point, Amazon and Barnes & Noble are not allowing independent publishers to upload their books ahead of the actual release date. It would be all kinds of convenient so far as pre-sales and marketing are concerned, but no.
I suggest having a publishing name of some kind, just to give yourself at least a bit of branding, but you can put your name as the publisher if you don’t feel like bothering. Because there is a little more background work so far as registering your company name with either your state or local government. ‘Contributor 1’ is you, the author. Or the author on whose behalf you are uploading this file. You can click the button just below to add other contributors like the editor, illustrator, introduction, etc. For my novella, Fleshbags, I gave Russell Dickerson a credit.
Section 2 is where you upload the actual ebook file:
Just click browse button, locate your file and upload it. It’ll take a moment or two and you can upload your cover image in section 3 by following the same process.
If you have an ISBN for your ebook (which really is unnecessary as B&N, Smashwords, and Amazon all will assign their own in-house version of an ISBN if you don’t have one and you’d have to have a completely different one for a print book) section 4 is the place to enter it. I was so geeked up at having a load of them, I used one for Fleshbags.
But go through the letters A-G, supplying the requested information until you get to section 5. Here you’ll enter the categories for your ebook and enter keywords. Keywords are important because they help people who are looking for a book in your genre find yours. B&N gives you a certain amount of characters (Amazon gives you seven keywords total) and then you supply information like the description, About the Author and any editorial reviews, if you have them. One thing Amazon does better here is the Author Page. I don’t have to re-enter About the Author information for each book because it all falls under my Author Page, whereas you do have to supply that each time you upload a new book.
Finally, it’s time to put your book on sale. Just click that box, confirming you have the legal rights necessary and then click the button, ‘Save & Post Changes’. It will take about 12 hours or so, but you’ll get an email from Barnes and Noble telling you you’ve been published if you’ve followed these easy steps! Make sure to go back through those other three tabs to be sure you’ve given them all the information required, but you’ve done it—congrats!
January 8, 2013
January 6, 2013
January 5, 2013
January 4, 2013
Frayed
To say Frayed is a fantastic piece of fiction is to sell the story short. I absolutely loved it. Great character development and a storyline with twists all over the place. I must have suspected the main character of being the killer a half a dozen times all the way up to the last thirty pages of the book!
But Frayed does suffer from poor editing. I seriously, seriously hope the author comes back to this or hires an editor to do some clean-up because the typos are going to definitely knock some people out of the story. There are more than a few, but the story was so good I got accustomed to them after a while. Are you reading this, Mr. Harrington? FIX THIS AWESOME BOOK!
The author handles the scientry in this book with ease and without being overly heavy-handed in explanation. He makes me believe there’s a grain of truth in the stuff I know nothing about. Then he pulls back before I feel like I’ve been whacked over the head with a caduceus.
I’ve really only read one or two other authors who write in this genre and The Broken Hearts Club is absolutely one of my favorite books of ANY genre. Frayed easily competes with anything Ethan Black has written and I’ll definitely be buying his next book.
You can get a copy of Frayed on Amazon.
