Reena Jacobs's Blog, page 51

NaNoWriMo – Update 2

Yesterday started the second week of NaNoWriMo. I have to admit, I'm quite pleased with my progress thus far. My original goal was to write 2300 words a day, five days a week, and leave the weekends for other things.

I kept my 2300 words/day goal, though at times it was a struggle. On top of that, I deviated from my weekend plans and decided to do the 1667 goal set by NaNo. Technically I did my 1667+ words over the weekend, but the NaNo folks must not have been hip to the end of Daylight Savings cause I ended Sunday short and started ahead on Monday.

Oh well, everything'll be back on schedule today, and my words will have evened out. So, how many words did I get the first week? According to my count, my Sunday ended with a total of 16042 words. Not bad.

On top of that, I managed to finish polishing a couple of chapters of Shadow Cat. Still waiting for the beta feedback though.

This week, I plan to continue my awesome progress with my NaNo novel (Alley Cat) and incorporate the feedback I received on chapter 10 and 11 of Shadow Cat. What say you about the cover art for Alley Cat?

Novel Review: Darkest Lies by Gena Showalter

Okay. I have to admit, I was not looking forward to Gideon's story The Darkest Lie by Gena Showalter. I cannot tell you how bummed I was to see he'd be next, but I was willing to give him a try. The thing is, he was just lame in the past books. His comebacks… oh my gosh… I just couldn't imagine a book full of lines like "You so do not suck." haha At the same time, I'd hoped to learn more about Paris. So, I finally purchased the book. The blurb from Ms. Showalter's website:

Forced to his knees in agony whenever he speaks the truth, Gideon can recognize any lie—until he captures Scarlet, a demon-possessed immortal who claims to be his long-lost wife.  He doesn't remember the beautiful female, much less wedding — or bedding — her.  But he wants to . . . almost as much as he wants her.

But Scarlet is keeper of Nightmares, too dangerous to roam free, and a future with her means risking everything.  Especially as Gideon's enemies draw closer . . . and the truth threatens to destroy all he's come to love . . .

Unlike the last novel, The Darkest Passion (see review here), where the first six chapters dragged and gave me a feeling of deja vu, The Darkest Lie started quite well. Gideon was the first Lord I've seen who actually got along (somewhat) with his demon. It added an air of originality. And the voice for Gideon was also quite different from the other Lords. It was almost as if the YA novels Ms. Showalter's been writing filtered into this one. Because he so like totally used the lingo, if you know what I mean? Okay. I've dated myself to the 80s and haven't a clue how kids talk today. Let's move on. Later in the novel, I didn't notice the kid talk so much. So maybe Ms. Showalter needed to make the transition into the adult world.

So opposite day with Gideon Lord. How did it go? Well, as I suspected, it got on my last nerve. And really, I didn't think it had to be so bad. I swear 100 words could have been shaved off the book if Ms. Showalter had let me think for myself. But no, she insisted on interpreting EVERYTHING Gideon said. "I hate you." Which in Gideon talk really meant I love you. "You, devil." Devil as in Angel. Yes, the entire book was like that, I kid you not (I wish I could add a smiley face with the mouth drawn across in a straight line, but I don't know how.)

And I hate to say it, but when Gideon told the truth it got on my nerves even more, cause it was pointless. Remember how he lost his hands in the first place? Come on… let's not be stupid.

Scarlet was okay. Actually, she started out great. She's the first female Lord who's had a major role. Tough? Yep. Spunky? Double check. An unlike the other Lords, she really knew how to use her demon to be most effective. I love that she didn't shy away from going all kickass. Unfortunately, she lost some of her backbone as the story possessed. I swear she turned into a totally different person. Not until the end did she become the Scarlet I grew to know and love from the beginning. Odd, I always thought the characters were suppose to experience growth, not decline then end up where they started. Go figure.

So I liked the beginning. Then we hit chapter 6. I don't know what the deal is with chapter 6 and the switch to a secondary character POV, but it happened in the Darkest Passion also. Only this time, there were more switches to secondary characters than before. All I could think about was, "Please don't do to the Lords of the Underworld what J.R. Ward did to the Black Dagger Brotherhood." Oh my word did I hate the billion and seven story arcs in Lover Mine (see review here).

The other thing about the POV switches for the Darkest Lie was they were awkward. It'd go from a sensual scene to a blood and gore scene, then back to sensual again. My mind was like, WTF? After visualizing folks getting beaten to death with their own arms, I'm so not down with a tender caress. Not only that, but a lot of the secondary character scenes trumped the Gideon/Scarlet scenes. I found myself caring more about Strider and Amun than any of the horizontal tangos the hero/heroine had planned. Which is a shame, cause the couple really deserved their own book rather than share the glory with folks soon to have their own titles.

I guess my bottom line is that the book didn't have to be 444 pages long. Cut the translations and the side character arcs, and I think the book would have been okay. Not the greatest, but certainly a lot better than it was.

Favorite Lines:

Look away before you get an erection, he told himself.
Good bye, testicles. We had a good run.
Foot massages every day, her enemies heads delivered to her doorsteps like the morning papers. (Does Gideon know his way to a woman's heart, or what?)
Working together. Killing together. (anyone got the Yo Gabba Gabba song going? Teamwork! Teamwork!)

Okay. Something odd. Does anyone notice how much face scrubbing, running tongues over teeth, and fisting go on in the Lord of Underworld series? I don't know. I noticed this a few novels ago, and maybe that's why they stand out so much now. Paris did a lot of running his tongue over his teeth in the last novel. I figured it was just him. I bet those folks have a lot of raw faces, polished teeth, and cramped hands.

By the way, and I don't think this is a spoiler, but Paris didn't appear even once in this novel. Anyone remember what happened to him? I totally forgot what happened to him in the last novel.

The Darkest Lie is available at the Book Depository!

Interview: Kait Nolan on Pricing

First I'd like to apologize for getting this posted late. I was happily doing NaNo when I realized I hadn't received an email stating Kait Nolan's Friday interview had posted. A quick check revealed I'd forgot to set it to schedule. Please give a warm welcome to Indie Author Kait Nolan as she gives advice on pricing indie novels.

Tell us a little about your books.

My debut paranormal romance novella, Forsaken By Shadow, was released in March of this year.

Cade Shepherd is on top of the world as this year's Ultimate Fighting Champion. He doesn't even remember his life as Gage Dempsey, a Shadow Walker with the ability to magically transport himself from shadow to shadow. In fact, he can't remember anything before waking up in a cheap motel room ten years ago with mysterious burns on his hands–not even the woman he almost died for.

Embry Hollister has picked up the pieces of her life, learned to control her ability to generate flame, and now works an enforcer for the Council of Races. But when her father is captured by the human military and the Council refuses mount a rescue mission, Embry has no choice but to go rogue. All she has to do is find the man with the new name and new life who was completely wronged by her people, give him back the memories they stole, convince him to join her on what's probably a suicide mission, and hope that after ten years of living as a regular guy he still remembers what her father taught him.

And after that, she just has to leave him. Again.

The first of a planned series, Forsaken By Shadow is an introduction to the world and my new mythology.  You won't see any sparklay vamps here!  I have a freebie (Devil's Eye), set in the same world, that I hope to release in November or December.  I also have an unrelated foray into paranormal YA planned for next spring.  Red puts an interesting new spin on the Red Riding Hood mythology.

$0.99, $1.99, $2.99, $999.99. Okay, maybe not $999.99, but you know what I mean. What are some of the benefits of pricing low? high?

Well, I speak to this coming from the perspective of a newb to the publishing world.  Readers don't know me from Adam's housecat, so I absolutely feel that starting low is the way to go to begin creating visibility (without getting into the ins and outs of social media and how that contributes to visibility).  If you start at $0.99 (or straight up $1, which is what I did), you automatically place yourself into the impulse purchase category.  Consider it the Super Value Menu of books.  Given the wide variability of quality among independently published books, people are a LOT more likely to drop a buck on you to give you a try.  Now, sure, that may appeal to a demographic who may buy your book to be supportive but never actually read it.  But the thing is, every single purchase puts you higher in the Amazon rankings.  When you're starting out above 100k in the rankings, you need every sale you can get to push you up the ladder and onto those top 100 category lists, which will really boost your visibility.  There are others out there who will say that $1.99 and $2.99 are still impulse buys, and that's true for some people.  I know for me that the author has to work harder to get my $1.99 or $2.99.  They must have good cover art, a good blurb, and not turn me off when I read the sample (which I do, religiously).  Sometimes I don't want to do that much work to pick a book, and I'll stick to the $1 range.  I know I'm not the only one.

The benefits to pricing higher are, of course, that you get more royalties per sale, but you do have to consider your conversion rate (how many people who come to your book's purchase page actually ultimately buy the book).  When you're starting out, you cannot let it become a money game.  You have to build an audience and a backlist, and offering cheap, quality reads is a good way to do that.

And to those Big 5 Publishing houses who think an ebook is worth $9.99…well, I have to say that they're smoking something.  I will not pay more for an ebook than I will for a paperback.  Period.  Now length certainly plays a role in this.  For a short story, no I'm not paying more than a buck.  For a novella, if the sample really impresses me, I might go up to $2.99.  For a full length novel, I'll go as high as $4.99 under the same circumstances.  Anything higher than that and I'm requesting it from the library.

What about the cons?

So the cons to these price points.  Well at the buck range, you don't make a lot per sale and it takes a while to recoup your startup costs for copyright registration, cover art, etc.  I recouped my costs within 3 months of release of Forsaken By Shadow, so I don't consider this con to outweigh the pros of the visibility I gained.

At the slightly higher price points of $1.99 to $2.99 or higher, you risk turning away impulse buyers because they don't know anything about you.  I did ultimately raise the price of Forsaken By Shadow to $1.99, just to see how it would impact sales, and as it's turned out, one of my distributors through Smashwords hasn't updated the price since June, so right now Amazon is selling it for $1 and I'm still getting royalties on the $1.99 list price (a happy accident and not something I suggest trying on purpose).  As the bulk of my sales are through Amazon, I haven't switched back to a $1 list price, though I might in the future.

I think it takes time to build credibility as an author who puts out quality work, whether that's through reviews on the purchase site, book blogger reviews, etc.   You have to remember that practically nobody but Stephanie Meyer ever got rich quick via publishing.  It's a long haul game and you must have strategy when considering your pricing.  Yes, you may make more money on the front end with a higher price point, but fewer sales overall translates into less visibility to start, which then impacts number of sales overall (e.g. generally lower because people aren't finding you as well).

Some say with Amazon's new 70% royalty, $2.99 is the new $0.99. What are your thoughts on the matter?

This comes back to the issue of making money.  Now don't get me wrong.  I want to make a living at my writing eventually.  We all do.  And some people with well established backlists and the credibility to ask that price are doing really well at $2.99. For full length novels, I don't have a problem at all with this price.  Forsaken By Shadow is a novella, so I personally do not feel comfortable asking readers for more than $1.99.  It's a short read and I'm still building my reputation.

There are some indie authors who want to see everybody jump on the $2.99 bandwagon.  They're tossing around notions like "anything less than $2.99 devalues our work."  What they really mean is, "there are still all these cheaper reads and people are buying more of them than my higher priced book."  Okay, that's not a blanket statement, by any means, but certainly there are those out there who are lambasting those of us who choose to keep our books at very low prices in perpetuity.  The thing is, it has absolutely NOTHING to do with devaluing the work.  We are not saying that all books are only worth $1.  We're not saying that readers ought to be conditioned to that price point and anything higher is horrible.  But we absolutely have the right to price as we choose and to recognize that there are benefits to low pricing that far outweigh the precise monetary income generated from it.

I think pricing is a very personal decision and one that everyone should give a lot of thought.  For me, I don't have any intention of ever listing my novellas for more than $1.99.  They're the short, bite-sized introduction to a much longer series, and it will ultimately benefit me far greater to continue to have a cheap read to pull people in for the full length novels to come.

Introductory pricing, promotions, and free reads. How do these work for or against an author?

I'm going to attack these backwards, actually.

I have to say that the number one thing (in my opinion) that can benefit authors is free reads.  Now this falls into two categories in my mind:

1) Permanently free reads that are offered up on your website or Smashwords or wherever.  These are great because what better low risk way for readers to try you out?  It costs them nothing but time, so if they hate it, it's no skin off their back, and if they love it, well then they go buy your other stuff and tell their friends.  There's nothing better than an enthusiastic fan.

2) Free review copies of your book.  This probably isn't what you meant by free reads (and it probably counts as promotion too), but I want to mention them anyway.  These are, hands down, the best way to garner many reviews pretty quickly.  I offer up my crit partner, Susan Bischoff, as a case study.  Her debut Hush Money went from unknown to the top 1k in the Kindle store in 8 weeks as a result of the reviews generated by her giveaway.

As for promotion, I think that there's no need for big dramatic, expensive giveaways (like "Win a Kindle!").  That's not targeting your audience.  That's targeting everybody who wants a Kindle.  You'll get more return on your investment of time if you properly utilize social media to build your platform.

Regarding introductory pricing, I'm going to start sounding like a broken record here—start low.  Even if you plan to ultimately raise the price, starting low will invariably raise you up the charts to higher visibility faster than if you start with a higher price.

Do debut novelists have additional pricing considerations? and if so, what?

Yes, absolutely.  As I said before, if you are a debut novelist, nobody knows who you are.  Maybe you've been active in social media and have developed some kind of reputation among other indie authors, but for the most part, debut novelists haven't got the reputation with readers that existing novelists do.  Your book could be the greatest thing since peanut butter met chocolate, but readers don't know that, so you have to work extra hard to wow them with your cover, your blurb, your summary, and yes, your price.  The economy is in the toilet, and people have less and less discretionary income.  They are much more likely to try an unheard of author if it's not going to cost them more than a cup of gas station coffee.

Any additional advice on pricing you'd like to give to authors?

That pretty well covers it. 

Where might readers find you?

I be found at my website where I blog almost daily about my writing life and topics of interest to writers and indie publishers.  I can also be found on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, MySpace, and the Indie Book Collective, of which I am a founding member.  You can also find me at Pots and Plots, my cooking blog, where I concentrate on recipes that reduce fat, calories, and hopefully, my time in the kitchen, so that I can get back to my writing.

Thank you again, Kait. The information you shared is wonderful, and I learned quite a bit myself.

We Got Winners!

I'm really happy with the arrivals this week. Both the novels are outside my normal genres but really pique my interest. First up!

I've wanted Touched by an Alien for a while now. I'd never heard of sci-fi romances until I saw this book advertised on a blog. I'm not a fan of contemporary romance, and my interest in romances wasn't  revive until someone introduced me to paranormal romances. Here's the thing. I've read very few sci-fi novels. In fact, I can only think of two: Jenna Starborn and the Ender's Game series. Okay, Ender's Game is a series, not a single novel, but still. You get my drift. Anyway, I'm really looking forward to this book. As soon as I finish Darkest Lie, this one's next. Thanks, Monica (The Bibliophilic Book Blog).

This book I can see myself reading right after Touched by an Alien. I won Rampant for my second place entry on Melissa Barlow's blog Surviving Writing a Book in her Zombie vs Unicorns contest. Go Team Unicorn! Yum! Apparently this novel is about killer unicorns and a young girl's quest to destroy these useful beasts. If you follow this blog, you know I'm new to the YA genre. I'm thinking this will be a fun read. Thanks again, Melissa.

Software Review: Power Structure

I really have no idea why I decided to give Power Structure a try. If you're the one who recommended it, please let me know and I'll give you credit. One thing for sure, I doubt I would have found it on my own. With NaNo on the horizon, I decided to give this piece of software a try for my manuscript. Before I get into my review, a little about this nifty little (BIG) program.

Whether you write screenplays, novels, plays, or other fiction, Power Structure software helps transform your good ideas into great stories.

The 90 second walk through from the website describes this program as a "tool that writes the way you think." In many ways, I agree with the statement, but the program is not a no brainer. This wasn't a piece of software I jumped right into. There were so many features, I ended up referring to the quick start manual, which I found very detailed and easy to follow. I probably would have been a frustrated camper without it. One thing I would have liked to see were descriptions of the archetypes in the quick start guide, but perhaps it's available in the full version.

So the first tab (Story/Theme) is the overall synopsis of the manuscript. It's quite useful and includes quite a few prompts to get a writer going. If you're the type who starts with the big picture, I'd definitely suggest starting here.

The next tab involves the character creation. As an all-in-one product, I have to admit, this area was quite well done. It isn't as extensive as Character Writer (see review part one here and part two here), but it is thorough and and has quite a few prompts to help a writer get a good sense of a character. It's actually quite nice and pleasing to the eye.

For my review I chose the Campbell & Vogler's Mythical 12 Steps (Hero's Journey) template.

So plotting. If you're using the Hero's Journey template, the stages are preset making the task quite easy. Simply add scenes in the Journey Stages tab. What I found early on is as I inputted my entries, the program synchronized my data across the board. This was a good thing, as it reduced the need to duplicate entries. I liked that. If you decide to freestyle it with the Novel template, it takes a little more planning, since the program doesn't automatically place the chapters in specific Acts.

One of the aspects I loved with Power Structure was the Plot Arcs. When I wrote Shadow Cat, I noticed I had quite a few loose ends when I went back to read. I had to patch them up and reread several times before I was sure I got them all. This helps prevent that. The story I used (Alley Cat) included 6 different issues (Arcs) I needed to address as I went through the story. Some were easy to forget as I plotted. But having them listed, I could easily identify which plots fell to the wayside and needed scenes to address them before the ending. Absolutely magnificent.

Another  feature I really enjoyed as I entered the scenes into the program was the Conflict section. Stories are supposed to build, the problems escalate until it reaches a climax. The software includes an option to introduce a new story arc, heighten a story arc, and/or resolve a story arc. At the bottom of the respective tab, the writer can specify the tension level at the particular stage in the story. As I mentioned, the tension in stories build until the explosion. If the user flips to the Conflict Overview tab, the program displays a line bar graph depicting the tension level as the story progresses. It's a nice feature for a quick look at the dips and whatever is the opposite a dip. One limitation with the conflict. The program only allows the user to heighten and/or resolve one conflict per scene. As it was, I encountered at least one scene where the tension heightened for two conflicts.

Okay. The short comings from the eyes of Reena.

Power Structure provided the basics then leaves the user on their own. Unlike Character Writer, Power Structure does not include additional questions to help define the character, plot, or scene. Take for example the subheading: Physical Attributes. Power Structure provides the prompts "Distinguishing Physical Attributes," "How would an observer describe him or her?" and "How would he or she describe himself or herself?" Simple prompts such as these are pretty much standard throughout the program. Character Writer, on the other hand digs deeper: Scars? Hair color and style? Unusual heights and weights? Dress? All the things I fail to think about until asked. In truth, this isn't a limitation to Power Structure. It just doesn't baby the user the way some programs do.

One feature I didn't spend much time on was the word processor. I will say it has a nice thesaurus, a spell check feature, and basic font formatting. What I didn't find was paragraph formatting.

Other than some fields being a little glitchy (Sometimes I was unable to type in the field I wanted until I clicked out of the feature and clicked back again.) I didn't really find too much wrong with the program. Really it's quite a powerful tool. If I had extra money to blow, I'd certainly purchase it.

NaNoWriMo – Update 1

So yesterday kicked off the first day of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). To help keep me on track, I'm going to post updates every Tuesday on my progress, starting today!

My first day of NaNoWriMo started of quite well. I figured I'd get a head start on the task and typed in my first words a bit after midnight. It was late; I faltered. With a little over 600 words under my belt I hit the sack.

I rose when the sun was at its highest, ate a late breakfast (cause I'm a late riser and all that), and got started. By five o'clock with many distractions and much needed breaks, I threw in the towel. But I'm proud to say I had over 3k words written when all was said and done.

I feel like a writer again. I probably haven't written this much in a day since I first started querying Shadow Cat. I'm so glad those days are over.

Three cheers for NaNo! And good luck to all the participants!

Novel Review: Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris

As some of you might recall, Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris was one of those books I desperately wanted to win. Well, I didn't win it. So I bit the bullet and purchased it myself.

One aspect I enjoyed was being able to read it with the voices from True Blood, particularly Anna Paquin as Sookie.  I even put a little Rutina Wesley as Tara, but she didn't have the same 'slap my boss' kind of spunk as in the True Blood series. Oh…I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start with the blurb from Goodreads, since I couldn't find it on Ms. Harris' website:

Sookie Stackhouse has finally settled into a relationship with the Viking vampire Eric, and her errant brother Jason seems to have his life in order, too. But all the other people in Sookie's life – Eric himself, her former lover Bill, her friend and boss Sam – are having family problems. Eric's maker shows up with Eric's 'brother' in tow, the ailing Bill can only be healed by a blood sibling, and Sam's brother's marriage is about to take place… or will it? The furor raised by the coming out of the two-natured has yet to settle; some people are just not ready to sit down to dinner with a man who turns into a dog. And Sookie herself is still recovering from her last ordeal. She's definitely improving, physically and mentally, but she's always going to have some dark moments now. The werewolves tell her that there have been strange and ominous passers-by in the Stackhouse woods; now Sookie is about to come face-to-face with one of her more distant relatives…

There!

Okay, the first 36 pages of my book, which happened to be seven chapters, had the feel of a prologue (back story) and lead to the start of the book (Chapter 1). Normally, I'd think it's a waste of paper. However, it'd been over a year since I'd read any of the Sookie Stackhouse stories, so it was a nice refresher.

And then the story started! I dove in all excited, cause I knew what was going on and didn't have to look up anything in prior books. Only thing, the story didn't start. Not really. I just followed Sookie through her drab life. She woke up, had breakfast, went to work, drove home, and went to sleep. Day after day, the same routine. The only difference between one chapter and the next was the people she met.

I swear, it was the cast of a thousand characters. EVERY SINGLE character from EVERY SINGLE novel was mentioned in this book. I think Sookie said it best on page 183, Whew. I felt like I'd run an introduction marathon. And through it all NOTHING happened. NOTHING! And I'm wondering, how in the world someone write a mundane paranormal book? If that isn't an oxymoron, I don't know what is.

On page 212, Sookie thinks, And why hadn't anything already happened? It was then I realized Ms. Harris must be toying with me. This had to be her test to see how many people would buy her books regardless of how mundane the storyline. Yep. I fell for it. You got me real good, Ms. Harris. One point for you! Not only that, but I actually finished it! haha Two points for you!

Let's see if you trick me again.

By now, you probably realize this was my least favorite of the Sookie Stackhouse series. I do have to give Ms. Harris props, though. This novel provided closure. Between reintroducing me to every character ever invented, she managed to wrap up all the loose ends from the prior books. At least the loose ends I can think of. As such, I'd say if the series ends here, I'm all for it.

If you're looking to add Dead in the Family to your own collection, it's available at the Book Depository!

Guest Post: Scott Nicholson on Blog Tours

I put out a call to Indie Writers a week or so ago, and was lucky enough to have a quite few authors hit me up. Despite being eyeball deep in blog tours right now, Scott Nicholson was generous enough to offer a guest post. Thanks for joining us today!

90 Days of Nightmares

By Scott Nicholson

http://www.hauntedcomputer.com/

I like to create nightmares.

Mostly, I create them for myself.

I'm an "idea person." I get an idea and I write a book about it. I get an idea and I create a lot of work. I invent trouble, and I stay open-minded. I prepare for the worst and live through the worst, and occasionally it all comes together.

I've always been a tireless promoter of my books, mostly from working in media, but the Internet has changed everything about the book business as well as most other businesses. Newspapers rarely review books, and book blogs are now where most of the enthusiasm and conversation generates.

I've done a few "book launch" events where I tried to do flash mobs and spur a flurry of sales, but noticed that the work involved wasn't worth the temporary buzz. So as I was driving to work one late-August morning, I got the idea of doing a tour and launch for ALL my books at the same time. After all, I had none of the artificial panic caused by the traditional publishing system and its insane, upstream distribution system in which you have 30 days from release to determine the entire fate of your book sales (let's skip the more complex reality that your book's fate was determined long before you even signed the book contract).

Lots of authors were doing 30-day blog tours for a new release, often organized by a corporate publicist who could ply the bloggers with boxes of free books and other goodies. I decided to do mine the hard way, researching and personally contacting book bloggers to ensure a good match.

Originally I was going to give away one paper book at each stop (I own a few hundred copies of my first collection I bought cheap when the publisher went out of business). Including postage, the entire tour would have cost about $300. But then I realized my audience is primarily Kindle owners, and my future audience is future Kindle owners. So I decided to give away a Kindle. I contacted Amazon and asked for their support and they agreed to donate a Kindle DX and Kindle 3 for the tour, since I would be promoting Kindle and ebooks. I could then afford to throw in bonus Kindle giveaways if any books hit the Top 100.

I hit the ground running, with only a few weeks before the tour started. The whole thing was going to be improvised along the way, and as of this writing I still haven't scheduled all the stops. But the response has been wonderful, and we've created a new community where authors, readers, and bloggers are meeting. Some just want to win a Kindle and that's cool, while others are having fun, which is cooler.

It's also been a great opportunity to learn about the blogging world. I admire those who use their spare time to share a passion for books. They are a critical force in this new era of indie publishing, helping overwhelmed readers decide which books are worthy of time, money, and attention.

I haven't become an overnight success, and the highest I've hit on the bestseller list is #148, but my sales have steadily improved and my audience has expanded, mostly with people who spent some time on the tour getting to know me before trying my books. I've always been fairly reserved about my private life, but the tour has allowed me to open up a little and show my different interests and passions, as well as explore my real motivations for writing and connecting with readers.

Ninety blog stops. That's a lot of extra writing, probably 200 pages by the time I'm done. I've probably emailed 300 or 400 different bloggers, which takes some time, but also has allowed me to build personal relationships with some of them. I probably could have used a professional agency to set up the tour, but I doubt they could have reacted as quickly as I did and it would have taken months and months through formal channels. Not to mention it probably would have cost me a few thousand dollars, which I'd rather spend on more Kindle giveaways or other prizes.

If you're a writer, I'd say "Why not set up your own tour and have some fun?" Beats continually hyping yourself on the same old overcrowded, noisy forums. Whether it's seven days or 30 days or 90 days, each stop is a chance to meet someone who has never heard of you. If you're a reader, then I recommend hanging out at some blogs and catching the buzz and sharing the joy.

Best of all, it's a chance to build new relationships and meet cool new friends who dig books. And that's worth a little work and a few nightmares.

————-

Scott Nicholson is author of 12 novels, including the thrillers Speed Dating with the Dead, Drummer Boy, Forever Never Ends, The Skull Ring, As I Die Lying, Burial to Follow ,and They Hunger. His revised novels for the U.K. Kindle are Creative Spirit, Troubled, and Solom. He's also written four comic series, six screenplays, and more than 60 short stories. His story collections include Ashes, The First, Murdermouth: Zombie Bits, and Flowers.

To be eligible for the Kindle DX, simply post a comment below with contact info. Feel free to debate and discuss the topic, but you will only be entered once per blog. Visit all the blogs on the tour and increase your odds. I'm also giving away a Kindle 3 through the tour newsletter and a Pandora's Box of free e-books to a follower of "hauntedcomputer" on Twitter. Thanks for playing. Complete details at http://www.hauntedcomputer.com/blogtour.htm

Special Post: Running out of Ideas?

Sometime last week, I chatted with Ingela F. Hyatt on twitter. Her father passed this year, and she mentioned he wouldn't get the opportunity to read her second novel.

Of course it got me thinking about my dad, who's spent the last 7-8 years recovering from a stroke. I constantly worry he's going to kick the bucket out of the blue, cause his health isn't so great. On top of that, he doesn't take care of himself the way he should. Then again, he might outlive me.

So I'm thinking, I've never shared the writing aspect of my life with my dad. I'm pushing the 1 1/2 year mark, and my dad doesn't know how I spend most of my time. Well, I finally got up the nerve to tell him last week.

At first he was surprised. I droned on about my plans to self-publish and rattled off some random statistics about the traditional route which may or may not be true. When he asked me what type of books I write, I started with Paranormal Romance. He seemed quite interested in that. Then I decided to take the plunge and managed to get  "Erotica" out loud and clear…not a squeak in my voice.

Dad: What's that you say?

Me: Erotica

Dad: Hmm…I don't think I've heard of that before.

Me: It's about sex, Dad. Sex.

Dad: Oh…I…thought that's what it was. I…I just didn't want to say.

Yeah, neither did I, but I was on a roll. So we chatted a bit more. A bit of skepticism started to creep into my dad's voice. "Eventually you'll run out of ideas."

Dad doesn't know me very well. Coming up with ideas is no problem. My ideas folder currently has 68 items in it. Ideas are no problem, getting them on paper…now that's a problem.

Shadow Cat came to me August 2008. It was my first complete story idea. I spent a month writing it before I put it aside for a year and returned to it in August 2009. The next month, I started my ideas folder. 68 items not including the random stuff I jot on paper at odd moments–in my bible, slips of paper, notebooks–probably never to be seen again.

"Dad," I said. "I'll probably be dead before I write 68 pieces. Trust me, I won't run out of ideas."

What about you? How do you track your ideas? Are they easy coming?

Software Review: WordWeb

Okay, if you've read my past software reviews, you know I'm falling in love with StoryBox (see review here and here). For a while, my lovely StoryBox lacked a dictionary and thesaurus. Mark Fassett (the developer) did get around to putting in a dictionary and thesaurus. (Three cheers! )However, before then, I had to make do with what I had.

Now I'm big into using a thesaurus and dictionary. So not having one drove me batty. I often pulled up MS Word for the thesaurus feature or head to Visuwords (see review here). Then!!! a couple of folks in a writing list I frequent mentioned WordWeb and how invaluable it is to them. I decided to give it a try. Before I go any further, let's look at the blurb WordWeb has for us:

WordWeb is a one-click English thesaurus and dictionary for Windows that can look up words in almost any program. It works off-line, but can also look up words in web references such as the Wikipedia encyclopedia. Features of the free version include: Definitions and synonyms, Related words, 5000 audio pronunciations, 65 000 text pronunciations, 150 000 root words, 120 000 synonym sets, Look up words in almost any program

Bottom line is, I love it! I can set this program to run in the background. Any time I need some help, I just push a couple of buttons (based on hotkeys I personally chose) and voila! It's there. It has a copy and replace feature which makes substituting words very simple. For many programs, all I need to do is select a word, press my hotkeys and it automatically inserts my selection into the WordWeb program with the list of synonyms. I can see why so many individuals love it.

Built in dictionary not extensive enough? No problem. WordWeb has a feature which allows the user to add dictionaries. Pretty cool.

There's also this nifty feature which allows you to link to the web and search databases such as wikipedia. Very neato.

All-in-all, I have to say this program is an A+.