Nate Philbrick's Blog, page 15

‘Judgment Wheel’ out for preorder!

Hey all! Super exciting news. My short story Judgment Wheel is available for preorder at a discounted price! Reserve your download for 99c right here and receive it straight to your device on December 18th.

That’s a special price for preorders only for the next 10 days, so be sure to take advantage!

Please help spread the news by sharing this post on Twitter and/or Facebook. That would make my day!

“I killed the priests. Today I find out if their god has the guts to punish me.”

A convicted murderer faces execution for his crimes on the mysterious Judgment Wheel, a force that kills the guilty and spares the innocent. But the innocent don’t exist…do they?

Judgment Wheel is a dystopian short story that explores the themes of guilt and condemnation vs innocence and redemption. (May not be suitable for younger readers.)

Oh, and don’t miss today’s earlier post: The Writer’s Life According To Jack Sparrow

The Writer’s Life According To Jack Sparrow

Yo-ho, yo-ho, a writer’s life for me…I think. Here are 11 gifs that sum up a writer’s life quite nicely.

When a new idea hits you.
When your cat mocks your new idea.
Writer’s block.
This chapter needs some work…
The cat’s on the keyboard again.
The first time someone asks about your book.
When a friend/relative singles you out as a writer.
When you’re forced to socialize.
The one time you have company over.
When someone criticizes your writing.
When you get a good review on your book.

Persevering Through Frustration

In terms of my quest to become a full time writer, yesterday was a pretty frustrating day. To give you the general idea…

I hadn’t made any book sales in two weeks.
Spent my lunch break brainstorming marketing ideas, none of which would work because I live on a different continent than most of my readers.
What should have been a half-hour compiling task for a new ebook turned into a four-hour wrestling match with Scrivener.
Changed my mind about 15 times regarding the future of said ebook.
College loan payments…my soul ached for my bank account.
My laptop decided to update in the middle of all that, which not only interrupted my fine-tuned schedule, it also managed to screw up my desktop somehow (fixed it since, but still).
At the end of the day, I didn’t get a single word written on my novel, which I’m already behind on.

Okay, so it could have been a lot worse. But for a pessimist like me, those problems add up quickly. So…my dream of living off my various writing pursuits took a bit of an emotional bump.

But I’m not here to wallow, I promise! I only bring all that up because I want to drive home a point. It’s about perseverance.

Working hard to get to where you want to be is easy when things are more or less lining up nicely for you. It’s when obstacles start popping up that you really get a chance to prove your mettle. 

I know you all have days like I did yesterday, and much, much worse. Don’t give up on the small goals, and you’ll find yourself climbing towards the big ones. 

Today I’m going back at it as hard as I can. You can too.

As long as no one steps on a LEGO, there will always be hope.

Do we mistrust the self-pub market too much?

I made an early resolution to read more self-published books in 2016. I haven’t typically been an indie-reader. Partly because I’m picky, partly because I’m relatively broke, excuses, blah, etc.

I’ve seen a tendency towards distrust of self-published books, myself included. I’m often more hesitant to spend $1-$3 on an indie author’s work than I am to spend $10 on a traditionally published book.

Why is that? Right off the bat, the obvious reasons. Self-pubbed books typically go through fewer professional preparation stages, are more likely to fall short of market expectations/standards, and often lack the public backing necessary to convince me to buy them.

Not to mention the fact that out of 1,000,000 self-published novels, 999,000 are going to be, simply put, bad. That’s what happens when sites like Amazon make it so stinking easy to sell your work.

So when I’m looking at a self-pubbed book online, I ask myself if it’s one of the 999,000 stories not worth my money or one of the 1000 gems. You’d think the sample pages would be enough to answer that question, but I find that’s frequently not the case. I’ve read plenty of books so far where the writing/editing gets lazy halfway through.

And no, I don’t think it’s hypocritical of me to say this as an indie-author. As my first self-pubbed novel, I know Little One isn’t perfect, but I hold myself to the same standards as I’d hold any other writer to, and I aim to improve in that direction.

This brings me to my conclusion. Going back to my 2016 resolution, I will be buying (and hopefully finishing!) more indie-author books. Even if I end up with a dud now and then, I want to give my fellow self-publishers a vote of confidence because I understand we all want to provide solid fiction for our readers.

No book’s going to be perfect, not even traditionally published, major sales novels (there’s a lot of garbage there, too). So maybe it’s time for me to set aside my biases and discrepancies and put a little more trust in the indie market.

I’m still going to be a picky reader. That’s just the way I am, and I think it’s healthy to a degree.

But the self-published market has a lot of beautiful additions to it, and I’m not going to let the rock stop me from digging for the gems anymore.

Only Your Voice Will Do

Hey, writer friend. Guess what?

In a world where millions of novels compete for readers, you have a tool at your disposal that no other person on earth has access to.

I’m talking about your voice. Your unique, individual, never-heard-before voice.

Uhm, no. Not that. Your writing voice, genius!

It’s no big secret. You’ve heard this before. But it’s important, and I want to remind you again. Write with your own voice, not anyone else’s.

Your voice sets your writing apart. Does it make you better or worse than other writers? Not necessarily. But it makes you you. And that’s the key to unleashing your very best fiction.

It’s easy to look at successful authors and try to sound more like them. But don’t do that! Be you. Express yourself. Don’t settle for being someone else’s shadow.

I once thought I needed to write more like Neil Gaiman (don’t judge me). It lasted for about one chapter. That’s as far as I got before realizing that I was being an imitator, not an innovator. There’s already one Neil Gaiman, and he’s a much better Neil Gaiman than I could ever be.

So I may as well be a Nate Philbrick. And you may as well be you.

Discover and develop your voice, write your stuff. And who knows? Maybe years down the road there’ll be a handful of writers trying to sound more like you. Now isn’t that a thought?

The Many Trials Of Being A Writer

No one ever said being a writer was easy. More often than not we’re plagued by adversity and trials. The bright side is these trials can make for some great stories to share! Here are some examples, in no particular order…

Self-doubt and worry.
Finishing a final draft and having to say goodbye to the characters.
Distractions that blot out the sun like Persian arrows.
Interruptions at your moment of most intense concentration.
Chronic procrastination and/or writer’s block in all its devious manifestations.
Missed deadlines. Met deadlines. Deadlines.
That terrifying moment when you realize you’re out of coffee and/or tea and/or wine and/or chocolate.
Staring at what you just wrote with your fingers hovering over ctrl+alt+delete.
Headaches, bleary eyes, sore fingers, cramped wrists.
The barrage of rules and advice and having to sift through it all to decide which ones to break.
The lonely hours when it’s just you and the keyboard.
The even lonelier hours when not even the keyboard likes you.
Cat, get off my keyboaalsdagafwejrdfs…!
Waiting to hear back from editors, agents, and publishers. Your fingernails will never be the same.
Rewriting your opening line five thousand times and still not getting it right.
When your characters go on strike and don’t talk to you for a week.
LOUD NOISES!
Lost documents and crashed hard-drives.
Telling people you’re a writer and the ensuing blank stare.
The ‘well…poop’ moment when you read a book and realize the plot is pretty much the same as your work-in-progress.
When spell-check fails you…or when you realize you just can’t spell.
Frequent late nights or all-nighters just to fill that elusive daily word count quota.
When your friends are out having fun and you’re inside writing. You have friends, right?
Rude reviews, rude rejections, rude criticism…
Having to answer ‘What’s your book about?’ on the spot.

Of course, at the end of the day, it’s all worth it. And we wouldn’t want it any other way, because these trials make us stronger.

Which of these twenty-five writerly problems have you experienced the most? Which ones have I left out? Drop a comment, and don’t forget to subscribe/follow.

Keep calm and write on!

 

How to get clicks on your book (from a reader)

I’m not a marketing guru. I’m not a social-media expert. I can’t give a sure-fire way of improving your book marketing. But I am a reader, and I am on social media. A lot.

In other words, I’m the kind of guy you’re trying to get to click on your book links. So I’m going to help you out by listing five things that DO make me want to see more about your novel, as well as five things that DON’T.

(Disclaimer: this isn’t an always/never list. It’s just the general way I think and react to your marketing attempts as a reader. Don’t take my perspective as law. Also, when I say ‘do’ or ‘don’t’, I mean ‘probably will’ or ‘probably won’t.)

Things that DO make me click on your novel link

An original cover: your cover is the first thing I see, so if it stands out from all the other covers in its genre, I’ll be curious.
A reason to care about your protagonist: make me care about your protagonist and his/her friends (or enemies!) as quickly as humanly possible, and I’ll at least read your free sample. Guaranteed.
A genuine person behind the link: I’m much more likely to be interested in your book if I’m interested in you as a person first.
A title I can relate to: ‘The Chronicles of Mumbo-Jumbo’ is just too generic to grab my attention at all. Give your book a name that means something to potential readers.
Creative marketing: think outside the box, and you’ll find yourself standing outside the box. If you’re outside the box, I’m more likely to notice you and your book.

Things that DON’T make me click on your novel link

Discounts and free promotions:  I’m broke, but I’m willing to pay $2 for your book. But if I don’t want to buy it, telling me it’s half off probably won’t change my mind. Even if it’s free, I’m still investing time and energy by reading it.
A super-cool plot tagline: ‘Ben finds himself in the fight of his life.’ ‘Everything Liz thought she knew is a lie.’ ‘Hank discovers the power he never knew he had.’ Look, I’ve seen all this before. These taglines are supposed to grab my attention, but they just don’t mean anything to me.
Amazon ranking: these days, everyone and their cousin is a bestseller. With niche genre settings, it’s not that hard. Even my novel was #2 on Amazon’s free fantasy list for a few days.
Reviews: okay, so reviews DO make a difference, but I prefer to formulate my own opinions. Besides, and I don’t mean to be rude, there are some pretty bad pieces of work out there with shiny reviews. It’s a subjective system.
Attractive characters: I don’t give a gerbil’s fuzzy tuchus how good-looking your characters are. If all you’ve got to sell your book with are a couple of great bodies, I’m not interested.

That’s my feedback as a reader to you as a writer/marketer. But at the end of the day, do what works best for you. Try to think like a reader! They’re the ones you want clicking on your links.

 

Q+A with Author Nate Philbrick

Nate Philbrick:

I’m thankful for the chance to answer some questions about Little One and writing in general with the fantastic Lauren Gunter! Be sure to go check out her blog, too.

Originally posted on making the novel a better place:

Several months ago, I published an interview with novelist and writing mentor K. M. Weiland that was more successful than even I had hoped. If you were a fan of said interview, today I’ve got another treat for you! A few weeks ago, I contacted Nate Philbrick, author of Little One, a contemporary fantasy novel, and the writing advice blog You Write Fantasy (formerly Flash Flood Fiction), and asked if he’d favor us with an interview. Nate’s advice and self-admittedly snarky views on the writing life have kept me reading ever since I was introduced to his blog, and today he’s here to answer some questions!

It’s great to talk to you today, Nate! This next bit is required by law, so I’d just like to get it out of the way before we start: You have the write to remain silent, and anything you say may be taken out of…

View original 926 more words

Writing and Coffee – Why?

So I’m sitting here trying to figure out what makes writing and coffee such a brilliant combination. Is it safe to say that coffee is one of those sacred relics of the writing culture that is almost universally accepted? I think so.

It took four hours and thirty ounces of coffee, but I’m finally feeling more writerly. Writerish? You know. #amwriting

— Keith D Dolley (@IWriteWhenIRun) December 2, 2015

When you think you’re writing a really good scene, do you shudder in excitement? #amwriting #ya

10 Things Not To Say To Writers

We’ve all been through this before: telling a friend, co-worker, or relative that we write fiction, and then bracing ourselves for their reaction. Readers and non-writers, we love you guys, but you can be a handful sometimes!

Them: So what’s your book about?

Me: Okay, I’ve practiced this speech before…crap, I got nothing. *runs away*

Them: Yeah, but what’s your real job? 

Me: [insert cricket chirp here]

Them: Me too! I’ve been writing this one story since I was twelve.

Me: You and I clearly have different understandings of what writers are.

Them: I’m a writer too, I just never have time to do it. 

Me: … *sympathetic pat on the head*

Them: Hey, how’s it going! Are you still writing your little book thingies? 

Me: Aw, thanks for reducing my life ambition to a petty hobby. I’m so glad you care.

Them: You write fantasy? So, like Lord of the Rings? 

Me: The culture is strong with this one.

Them: Can you tell me what you think about this story I wrote when I was twelve? 

Me: *gasp* All those years of studying and developing my craft have prepared me for this moment!

Them: You should get in touch with my great aunt Edith. She’s a writer, too! 

Me: Oh, thanks! I’ve been looking for a way to network with other writers, but it’s such a vast, empty, cold world out there…

Them: Can I be a character in your next book? 

Me: Sure! How would you like to be killed off?

Them: Can I read what you’re working on now?

Me: Aaaagh! Get back, foul creature!

Disclaimer 1: I posted a similar article on an old website, and this one guy really got ticked off about it! He went on a comment-rant about how I was disrespecting my readers. So…to avoid a repeat, this is a humorous post. It’s for the funnies, not the angries. Let’s all try to have fun!

Disclaimer 2: I have nothing against twelve-year-olds OR great aunt Edith. I’m sure great aunt Edith is a lovely person.