Rod Raglin's Blog, page 35

Nominate The LOCAL RAG on Kindle Scout

I’ve entered my new novel, The LOCAL RAG, in Kindle Scout and it would be great if you took a look, read the preview and if you like it nominate it.

Kindle Scout is reader-powered publishing for new, never-before-published books. It’s a place where readers help decide if a book gets published. Selected books will be published by Kindle Press and receive 5-year renewable terms, a $1,500 advance, 50% eBook royalty rate, easy rights reversions and featured Amazon marketing.

If I win you get a free e-book – I get $1,500. That sounds fair – at least to me.

Here’s the link:

https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/NZC8IAXAK2V7

What are you waiting for – only 26 days left.

#3 To write romance or literary fiction? And what about your publisher?

Next Question: Did your third novel Not Wonder More, Mad Maggie and the Mystery of the Ancients resolve the issue of whether to write genre or literary fiction? And what about your publisher?

 

I had a list of topics I wanted to research for my next novel including mental illness, magic, natural healing, global warming and old growth forests as well as naked ambition, Nietzsche’s philosophy of “the Will to Power” and principle of cause and effect.

One of the reasons I write is to learn new things. I task my characters with personality traits, careers and philosophies I want to learn more about. How was I to achieve this in the context of my third and final romance novel, the last in the Eco-Warrior series?

How about having two people from very disparate backgrounds, with conflicting personalities, on the opposite sides of a seemingly irreconcilable issue fall in love?

Not too original, you say? Anyhow, here’s a snapshot of the story behind Not Wonder More, Mad Maggie and the Mystery of the Ancients.

Magic, mystery and madness versus logic, cause and effect. Can love find a middle ground?

Maggie talks to trees. Dieter talks to corporations.

Maggie embraces mystery and flirts with magic. Dieter adheres to logic and the doctrine of Nietzsche.

Dieter’s client wants to destroy the trees. The trees want Maggie to protect them.

Dieter has terminal cancer. Maggie is schizophrenic.

Maggie says she can save him, if he’ll save the trees. Dieter thinks she’s crazy, but what choice does he have?

A week together alone on Deadman’s Island changes everything for both of them.

Is it madness? Is it magic? Or is it love?

This novel was an adventure. Almost immediately the characters took on lives of their own. As a conduit I was channeled in the quest to learn more about schizophrenia and the stigma of mental illness, the logic behind Nietzsche’s doctrine of the Will to Power – the main driving force in humans – achievement, ambition, and the striving to reach the highest possible position in life. There was also an exploration of natural healing remedies and medicinal plants and the ecology of ancient forests.

As my characters developed so did their bond to one another – tentatively, intuitively and finally passionately.

But these characters were flawed. There is no cure for Maggie’s schizophrenia. Happily Ever After wasn’t possible. The best that can be hoped for was an uneasy truce with the illness.

Did I care? Not one bit.

I’d been taken on an adventure without maps with no clear destination and accompanying me were these fascinating characters. It truly was a life within a life. If you’ve had this experience you know what I mean. If you haven’t I sincerely hope you do.

My entire perspective changed. I no longer was frustrated by my lack of success. It seemed almost irrelevant. I shutdown my Facebook page and quit my time consuming, unproductive writer chat/critique groups. The key to this other world was to become a better writer. I wanted go there and bring others with me.

To think that I could set parameters for my writing now seemed ridiculous. I would simply go where it took me or as Norman Mailer put it, “Until you see where your ideas lead to, you know nothing.”

My next book was already taking shape in my mind and it wouldn’t be a romance, more likely it would fall into the category of literary/commercial. That made it unlikely my publisher would want to take it on.

I didn’t care.

What had my publisher given me so far – slick, cheesy covers that didn’t represent the story, no editing, no proof reading (readers said they liked the stories but not the typos) and they were reluctant to publish them in paperback which Amazon would do for free.

It wasn’t like they’d mislead me or provided more or better services for other authors, but my books deserved better than what they were getting.

I resolved to do two things – not renew my publishing contracts and self-publish my next book.

Besides, it now seemed untenable to abandon the fate of my books to someone else. I wanted to control their destiny – to set their prices or for that matter to give them away, to promote or not without restriction.

I understood self-publishing would mean doing my own promotionl. I began researching book marketing techniques and was astounded and disturbed. Most “marketing experts” encouraged you to pander to friends, family – anyone and everyone to get them to post flattering reviews and ratings. There were sites that would write positive reviews for money and authors who would “swap” positive reviews.

It was then I decided to make writing my one true thing. If I was going to fail I’d at least do it with my integrity intact. It wasn’t that I’d lived an immoral life up until then, but I’d cut a few corners.

Full disclosure seemed the best way to do this. I began to write my blog, “Writing – the experience” https://rodraglin.wordpress.com/ , chronicling my progress, or lack of it, and sharing what I discovered along the way and how I felt about it in regards to writing, publishing and marketing.

I felt relieved and renewed. I was not going to be a best selling author. The pressure was off.

 

Question #4: So how did your new direction – writing and self-publishing literary commercial fiction, work for you?

 

 

 

Can you do the same thing and expect different results? Maybe.

I once had a friend (yes, I did) who was just recovering from his second divorce. Given the emotional (two kids with each wife) and financial (dividing of community assets) devastation I asked him what he would do differently in a new relationship?

My understanding is if we do everything the same how can we expect a different result?

I ask myself this question as I’m in the process of launching my seventh novel.

You could say, start by writing a better book (ouch) and you’d be right. But that’s kind of like my friend saying he’d find a better partner, which he actually said and did – though I’m not sure if she’s better.

My novels are far from being perfect, but – and I hope I don’t sound too delusional, egotistical or like everyone else who has written back-to-back-to-back flops – they’re at least as good as some books that have had way, way more success (sales) than mine.

And my books aren’t alone. In my reviewing the books of new self-published authors (Not Your Family, Not Your Friend Book Reviews https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH45n8K4BVmT248LBTpfARQ) I find about twenty percent have written remarkable books and yet they have zero success.

So enough talk about failure (and justifying it), the question is what to do different with the launch of The Local Rag, so it has more success than the others have achieved so far?

At the time of writing this I have 394 followers on BookLikes, 39 on Twitter, 13 on Goodreads and 61 subscribers to my blog. Some are actually people. I’ve been told by the experts if I want your support I need to interact with you, build a relationship, give if I want to get.

Okay. This is tough for someone as misanthropic as I am, but here’s what I’ll do. If you comment on something I’ve posted I’ll respond. Will I “like”, “friend” or “follow” you? Let’s go slow, one step at a time, this is, after all, a new relationship.

I’ve listened in on some webinar’s on marketing and have tweaked my social media sites adding my Amazon Author Page link to my profile and a list of my books and plays on my Twitter header photo (like this will make a difference).

The most interesting thing I learned was from Chris Syme of Smart Marketing for Authors https://cksyme.com/ when she presented a graph showing the Funnel Influence By Network broken down into which social media sites performed best when it came to Introduction, Awareness, Purchase Point Conversion and One Touch Purchase.

Of course, she could have just told the listeners which sites sell more books but apparently obfuscation is the key when it comes to good marketing or at least the presentation of if.

Anyhow, according to this graph you’re just not happening unless you have a Facebook presence.

I stopped using Facebook about seven years ago when my wife asked me if I was interested in any of the people I had “friended”. I said no. She said, “Then why do you think they’re interested in you?”

Most recently a young acquaintance with over five hundred “Facebook friends” invited them all to her birthday party. The only people who came were a few of her immediate family.

Despite my moral misgivings and uncertainty about the effectiveness and authenticity of this social media site, I revisited it.

What I found is that I can link my Twitter feed to my Facebook page so I won’t have to double post (probably I’m the only one who didn’t know this). That was encouraging.

So here’s what I’ve resolved. I now have a Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100013287676486 where you can view all my tweets and some more stuff on writing, community development and the environment. I’m not “friending” anyone because I think it’s dishonest to pretend to be interested in someone when you’re not. However, you can still “follow” me and get some good information from my timeline.

My problem is I have this integrity thing – it’s a proving to be a real liability. Writing is my one true thing and I won’t sully it with chicanery and deceit.

So all this time (and words) you’ve been wondering about my twice divorced friend, did he do anything different?

No, but here’s the thing – even though his third wife (unbelievable, I know) is very similar to his previous two, his circumstances have changed and so their relationship appears successful (so far).

Does that just negate everything I said?

What do you think?

Stay clam, be brave, watch for the signs

 

Facebook link https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100013287676486

Not Your Family, Not Your Friend Books Reviews link

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH45n8K4BVmT248LBTpfARQ

Amazon Author Page link http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003DS6LEU

 

 

 

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Did you find your second novel, Loving the Terrorist, restricted by genre?

QUESTION: Did you find the plot and the characters in your second novel, Loving the Terrorist, restricted by the confines of this genre?

 

Despite the lack of success of my first novel, Saving Spirit Bear, my publisher was still keen on publishing two more novels as part of the Eco-Fi series, Eco-Warriors, and I was still keen on writing them. The plan (remember the plan?) appeared flawed, but perhaps not fatally.

As a journalist I’d been following and commenting on a local protest where residents and hardcore environmentalists had joined forces to boycott the development of a highway bypass that would destroy Eagleridge Bluffs, a very rare  eco-system, home to migratory birds and at least one endangered species.

Despite a number of other viable options the government was intransigent. In frustration the protestors set up a blockade and eventually were arrested and literally dragged off to jail.

I’ve spent the best part of my life climbing and hiking in the local mountains. I’ve seen some awe-inspiring scenery, moments when I truly felt if I died in the presence of such magnificence, well, that would be just fine.

But Eagleridge Bluffs was the best. These ancient rock faces, carved by eons of Pacific storms roaring down Georgia Strait, and decorated by gnarled Arbutus Trees emanated benign energy that soothed and uplifted the human spirit – no kidding.

When they dynamited The Bluffs they destroyed something very special and to this day I feel guilty. I should have done more to save this wonderful wild place that I loved.

But what could I have done? Loving the Terrorist – Risking it All, is that story.

Miriam is forty and frustrated. In an attempt to enhance her living-just-to-breathe life she joins some neighbours protesting a highway bypass that will destroy Eagleridge Bluffs.  Not only are the Bluffs her special sanctuary, they’re also the beautiful home of rare and endangered plants and animals.

The protest gains the support of environmental organizations including the attention of a group of eco-radicals lead by an enigmatic younger man named Zaahir.

Miriam is mesmerized by this charismatic leader and sees him as someone that can save her as well as the Bluffs. But is Zaahir just using Miriam to help him further his radical political agenda?

As legal channels fail and civil disobedience falters, Miriam is seduced into the murky world of eco-terrorism.

The plot of this story follows the actual events that took place over three months that summer – up to a point. I literally lifted dialogue for my characters from news clips and stories. Then I took it further.

I wanted to explore the theme – is violence justified if the cause is just? Furthermore, is violence effective?

I wanted a sympathetic villain because as an author if you have a political agenda (and boy, did I) the only way to keep from sounding didactic is to also present it from the point of view of the antagonist – and do it fairly. I gleaned this from Robert Boswell’s book,  Not only does this approach work, it was a good idea since I wasn’t quite sure where I stood on this issue myself.

I took the criticism of my first novel to heart and “sexed up” this one.

This presented a challenge and I wondered how I could write explicitly about sex without it being gratuitous? I decided to make Miriam a virgin, her lover fifteen years younger than her, and she white and him brown. My idea was to let my readers discover sex along with my heroine.

I hit most of the points including a “Happy Ever After” ending but even as I was writing the novel I could tell I was straying beyond the confines of the romance genre. Despite the ending, this wasn’t a happy story, how could it be – innocent creatures were wiped out, a beautiful, spiritual place was destroyed, and for no good reason (as if there ever is one).

I couldn’t help it, I couldn’t change it. It bombed, but I felt better.

By the time Loving the Terrorist was published I was well into the third novel for the Eco-Warriors series. I’d learned quite a bit about writing and about publishing and even more about myself. This would be my last romance. I knew I was leaving genre even as I was writing Not Wonder More, Mad Maggie and the Mystery of the Ancients. I was also becoming increasingly dissatisfied with my publisher (and no doubt, she with me)  and had begun exploring other options.

Next Question: Did your third novel Not Wonder More, Mad Maggie and the Mystery of the Ancients resolve the issue of whether to write genre or literary fiction? And what about your publisher?

How did you come to write your first novel, Saving Spirit Bear?

Many sites I post my books on have a question and answer component – the readers ask the authors questions. I’ve never actually asked a question of any author whose work I’ve read, though sometimes I pose them in my reviews, and I’ve never received a question from a reader.

Most of these are stock questions generated by the site.  The questions that aren’t I’ve come to believe are also bogus – asked by a friend or even the author themselves with hopes the answers will spark some sort of dialogue or?

We are a desperate lot, aren’t we.

Here’s a question I often ponder and so I asked myself and am sharing the answer with you. If you find this exercise slightly distasteful than consider yourself partly to blame for not asking me your own questions.

How’s that for rationalization?

QUESTION: How did you come to write your first novel, Saving Spirit Bear?

I had a plan to become a successful, published author.

I would begin writing romance novels because they have the most readers of any kind of fiction and are the easiest to get published. This is not to say authors of genre fiction aren’t good writers. I have subsequently learned that writing within the confines of genre is more difficult than doing otherwise.

Back to the plan.

Once I had a bit of a publishing track record traditional publishers of mainstream, literary fiction would be more likely to consider me. Right?

Saving Spirit Bear was my first novel. The theme I wanted to explore was whether the end ever justifies the means? I wanted to present real moral dilemmas for both the protagonists and the antagonists, not just the desire for profit or power. For example, is it all right to compromise your integrity if the goal is just and noble?

As well as presenting a satisfying romance, I hoped to address this issue by introducing a subplot about an environmental issue, in this case endangered species and destruction of their habitat, something I feel strongly about.

The story’s about Kimberly James, an ambitious, young, junior executive in a New York corporate relations firm who sees an opportunity to advance her career by doing whatever’s necessary to push through the development of a mega ski resort in Canada.

Jonah Baker is part owner of a lodge on the land of the proposed ski resort. He’s an ardent environmentalist and not about to permit a development that threatens ancient rainforests and the habitat of the rare and endangered Spirit Bear for any price.

Kim begrudgingly respects his principles before profit, but cannot allow a tree-hugging, bear-loving zealot to derail her fast track to success. Jonah admires her determination and worldliness, but will fight to the end to stop a materialistic corporate climber from destroying something rare and unique.

You likely know the rest of this story because genre literature is formulaic and if you read romance you know what’s going to happen. If you don’t and you want to find out go to my Amazon Author’s Page  at http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003DS6LEU and buy a copy.

Anyhow, after striking out with agents and traditional publishers I sent Saving Spirit Bear to three e-publishers. All of them wanted to publish it. I chose one and rationalized my failure to attract any real publishers by saying e-books were preferable – less impact on the environment.

It would be an overstatement to say sales were mediocre. Reviews were almost non-existent. No agents or traditional publishers came knocking on my door.

At the time I was a member of the local chapter of Romance Writers of America (eighty-five women and two men). Since I wasn’t getting any significant reader response I asked the published writers in my RWA chapter what they thought the problem(s) was?

Saving Spirit Bear, I was told , was not popular with romance readers for a number of reasons. I didn’t introduce the love interests soon enough. My ‘Happily Ever After’ was lukewarm or not at all. I needed to ‘sex it up’. My subplots overshadowed the romance. My heroes lacked testosterone. My heroines didn’t show enough vulnerability. My words were too big, my plots too real, my characters too unlikable. My stories were out of control.

However, I was encourage by my publisher who dubbed the book Eco-Fi (environmental fiction) and asked for two more with a similar theme for a series entitled Eco-Warriors.

There was never any question about letting the lack of success of my first novel defeat me. I love to write – successfully or otherwise and during the process of writing Saving Spirit Bear I experienced glimpses of something very exciting – the story following it’s own course and the characters taking on lives of their own.

I eagerly set about writing my second novel but I was worried. Would I find my next story and it’s characters restricted by the confines of this genre?

Next Question: Did you find your next story and it’s characters restricted by the confines of this genre?

The answer is forthcoming.

Stay calm, be brave, watch for the signs

Inkitt – The fairest publishing house in the world?

Here’s an email I received a couple of weeks ago.

Hey,

I’m Marvin, Head of Growth at Inkitt and I wanted to reach out to you personally. It seems that you have not entered our new novel contest yet, is there a specific reason for that?

It’s now or never – the contest will end in two weeks and all you have to do is gather 100 readers for “Loving the Terrorist” to be considered for publication!

I’d love to shift your story into the contest. What do you think?

Best,

Marvin Wey

Head of Growth | Inkitt.com

I thought you might find my response and the subsequent reply from Inkitt’s founder and CEO, Ali Albazaz interesting. First a bit of background.

In the past few months I’ve written two  articles about Inkitt and the concept which you can find in my blog archives.

Briefly, Inkitt is a site where you can upload your stories for free. Besides the opportunity for crowd critiquing, Inkitt claims to have created an algorithm that identifies best sellers (sic). If your story is chosen by this “objective”, computer generated program Inkitt will either set you up with an established, traditional publisher or publish it themselves.

So here’s my response.

Dear Martin,

Just how do you guys make your money? Certainly not as a publishing company with eighty-five percent  going to the author though there’s a little bit of word play involved – is it net earnings or a royalty on the price of the book? There could be quite a difference.

I see you’ve changed the criteria of your contests – it’s not longer the top few who get the nod, but everyone who exceeds one hundred reads – that would be downloads.

I imagine somewhere in the process the hopeful author will run into additional fees – maybe paying for those cool covers you design. No? Good for you.

So maybe you make it with print on demand. Just how many books have to be ordered to start showing a profit? Can it be made up with sales from the family and friends of all those really bad authors you’re publishing?

But that’s not what I find disturbing about sites like Inkitt , Kindle Scout  and HarperCollins’  now defunct  authonomy. It’s that they encourage bad writing – or put another way,  they don’t encourage new writers to improve their craft.

The peer critiquing system is like , “you vote for mine and I’ll vote for yours” regardless of whether the writing is good or not.  It’s a mutual admiration society and a phony one at that.

But who I am to be critical – a nobody with the sales to prove it.

So, for me is there a downside to having you “shift” my novel  Loving the Terrorist into to the Story Peak Novel Contest?

I’m still trying to figure that out, but until I do why don’t you go ahead and put it in.

Thanks,

Rod Raglin

Hi Rod,

Marvin forwarded your email to me and it makes me very sad to hear this from you.

Me and my co-founder, Linda, started Inkitt because we want to make publishing more fair, transparent and objective. We had seen from the outside how unfair and subjective publishers can be. Linda and I are both coming from a technical / IT startup background. Three years ago I had the idea that we could track people’s reading behaviour, and analyze it to find consistent patterns. This way it would be possible to predict bestsellers. Long story short: we built it. We then found investors who believe in our idea to democratize publishing, and raised over a million dollars to make this dream come true. Now we are a team of 17 people working day and night to make the publishing process fair and objective.

Since we launched Inkitt to the public around 1.5 years ago we had a rocket speed growth. Over 20.000 writers have uploaded their works (from short stories, poems to novels) on Inkitt and we’ve just started publishing them. The first book our algorithm picked is getting published by Tor / MacMillan (see links below). The second book: we’re publishing with the Inkitt imprint and it’s doing great (links below). Since this month, we started publishing 1-2 new books every month, and have plans to grow that number by 4 times each year. Every book gets a professional cover, editing, a dedicated online marketing team with a minimum of 6,000 dollars in marketing budget. With clear guidelines in place for budget increases based on performance.

In cases where Inkitt publishes a book we receive 50% of the net revenues (50% royalties for the author) and in cases where we re-sell the rights to another publisher on behalf of the author, we receive 15% agents-fee. Authors do not pay anything for our services – we are their publisher and it’s our duty to take care of all costs.

We want to give the spotlight to the authors because they deserve it. I don’t want to see the next J. K. Rowling receiving a rejection from an old-school publisher and give up her writing dreams. Me and the entire team, we’re all in this game because we want to build the fairest publishing house in the world.

Best wishes,

Ali

Ali Albazaz

Founder & CEO | Inkitt.com

Mobile: +49 170 8647236

P.S. It appears Inkitt has indeed shifted my novel Loving the Terrorist into the competition. It needs one hundred readers to be considered for publication. So far it has zero.

Stay calm, be brave, watch for the signs

30

Sifting through the minutiae of the Smashwords Sale

Throughout the month of July I gave away one hundred and thirty-seven e-book editions of my novels during Smashwords SummerWinter Sale 2016.

As an author who has published his books with Smashwords I was contacted and asked if I wanted to participate. You could offer whatever discount you wanted for what ever period of time you wanted during the month of July. Once you registered, Smashwords applied a coupon code to your dashboard and anyone who wanted the book just entered the code and got it free.

I’ve had no more success with Smashwords than I’ve had with any other sites selling my books – which is just about nil, but since I’ve been giving my work away on other sites lately, which entails a sweep-stake and then actually sending the e-book to the individual winners via email, this seemed way easier.

It was.

Giving your work away on Smashwords was free and unrestricted. One might think that’s not a lot to expect considering the time and effort that went into it, however, to give away a single title on StoryCartel costs twenty-five dollars, on Goodreads – one hundred and nineteen, and Kindle Select (Amazon) wants exclusive rights for ninety days.

LibraryThing and BookLikes don’t charge for their giveaways but they generate about a third of the results and, as I mentioned, you have the labourious job of sending out individual emails with your e-book attached to the winners.

I have six works on Smashwords – five novels and a play. I decided to go for broke and offer them all free for the month.

Just a brief aside here. Have you ever noticed how people without success pour over meaningless minutiae like the numbers hold the secret to fame and fortune if only they could decipher them? No? Well, I have, probably because I’ve begun to do it – and now you get to experience it.

The Smashwords giveaway was interesting to me on a number of levels – though, like I said, not likely interesting to anyone else.

This was the first time all my writing (barring one of my better novels yet to be released by the publisher) was presented to the public in one place, at one time and on equal terms.

Here’s how they fared in regard to free downloads:

Harry’s Truth – A Play in One Act – 33

Saving Spirit Bear – What Price Success – 31

Abandoned Dreams – 22

Loving the Terrorist – Beyond Eagleridge Bluffs – 20

The Big Picture – A Camera, A Young Woman, An Uncompromising Ethic – 18

Forest – Love, Loss, Legend – 13

What does it mean that my one act play, Harry’s Truth, only sixty pages, ranked first? Or that Saving Spirit Bear, my first novel with the least positive reviews (and rightly so) was second? What does it mean that the better I write the less popular the book?

Any suggestions?

Other than those conundrums it appears giving away one hundred and thirty-seven books does not generate any reviews – at least not on Smashwords, or likely on any other site for that matter. Free, it appears, is the equivalent to no value – or, more specifically no downside.

Stay calm, be brave, watch for the signs.

 

Links to associated sites:

Smashwords http://www.smashwords.com

Kindle Select   https://kdp.amazon.com

Goodreads   https://www.goodreads.com

LibraryThing   https://www.librarything.com

BookLikes   http://booklikes.com

StoryCartel  https://www.storycartel.com

 

30

 

My novels and play Harry’s Truth – A Play in One Act, FOREST – Love, Loss, Legend, The BIG PICTURE – A Camera, A Young Woman, An Uncompromising Ethic and Abandoned Dreams and

The ECO-WARRIORS series:

Book 1, Saving Spirit Bear – What Price Success?

Book 2, Loving the Terrorist – Beyond Eagleridge Bluffs

Book 3, Not Wonder More – Mad Maggie and the Mystery of the Ancients

are available as e-books and paperbacks at

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003DS6LEU

 

Cover Art of books by self-published authors at

https://www.pinterest.com/rod_raglin/rod-raglins-reviews-cover-art/

 

Video book reviews of self-published authors now at

Not Your Family, Not Your Friend Video Book Reviews: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH45n8K4BVmT248LBTpfARQ

 

More of my original photographs can be viewed, purchased, and shipped to you as GREETING CARDS; matted, laminated, mounted, framed, or canvas PRINTS; and POSTERS. Go to: http://www.redbubble.com/people/rodraglin

 

View my flickr photostream at https://www.flickr.com/photos/78791029@N04/

 

Or, My YouTube channel if you prefer photo videos accompanied by classical music

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsQVBxJZ7eXkvZmxCm2wRYA

 

To fail alone or succeed with collaboration?

I use to want to be a playwright.

I took a program at Playwrights Theatre Centre in Vancouver and with the help of professional dramaturg’s and the other members of the group developed Harry’s Truth, A Play in One Act.

“Harry” even had a “reading” – professional actors read the play aloud. I was blown away and, believe it or not, so were they.

The next step was to take it to production, maybe in conjunction with a couple of other one act plays by other playwrights – make an evening of it.

Whether that would have happened or not I’ll never know. You see, I’m not much of a collaborator and theatre is all about collaboration. By the time Harry’s Truth was ready for production I’d about had it with the affected (def.: artificial, pretentious, and designed to impress) people I’d been working with, and believe me the definition fits when it comes to theatre people.

If you come right down to it I’d rather go it alone and fail than have to work with someone and succeed, which is probably one of the reasons I’m where I am at this point in my career, alone and a failure. Hmm.

Recently I came across Harry’s Truth when I was searching the hard drive of my old laptop. I clicked and remarkably it opened. Nine years had passed and as I read it I thought this isn’t half bad.

The play asks the question, “are there cosmic truths?” Harry thinks there are and he’s discovered one which will make life easier, simpler and more fulfilling. He wants to share this epiphany with those he loves but not only do they not want to share in his enlightenment, they feel threatened by what he has to tell them. Much is at stake – careers, lifestyles, power – if Harry pursues his truth.

Seven scenes, forty-four pages and eleven and a half thousand words later Harry has his answer – the truth doesn’t necessarily set you free, but it can sure make you unpopular.

Harry’s Truth is now available as an e-book (should that be e-script?) at Smashwords. Until July 31st you can download it free as part of Smashwords SummerWinter Sale. Go to https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/649522

Actually, five of my novels are also available free at Smashwords during the same promotion. You can go to my website http://rodraglin.com for direct links.

In a week or so it will be available on Amazon as an e-book and eventually a paperback at http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003DS6LEU

Stay calm, be brave, watch for the signs.

 

30

 

Author services sites thrive on the newly naive and eternally hopeful

The byzantine behavior of author services sites continues to intrigue and repulse.

Intrigue because of creative ways they come up with to be disingenuous; repluse because they take advantage, both emotionally and financially, of the newly naive and eternally hopeful.

These services can provide manuscript assessment, developmental editing (?) formatting, design, distribution book launch, marketing, PR, social media management – in other words they can do everything for a price except guarantee the success they insinuate or imply.

What’s disconcerting is many of these services are unnecessary and those that are necessary can be accomplished by the author at no charge except in time and patience.

I suppose when you’re chasing a dream, time and patience are not something you’re considering and that’s too bad, because that’s what these services are counting on.

I recently investigated one such service to see what they could offer by way of book distribution.

Not surprising it was less than what I have achieved through my own initiatives and with the considerable assistance of Amazon, Smashwords and Google.

For their distribution service they were asking a ninety-nine dollar membership fee and fifteen percent of royalties from sales generated from Amazon and any other sites. This for something any author can plug into free.

I can understand why these services might intrigue a new, self-published author. Why not to let someone else do the publishing and distribution while they focus on writing best sellers. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely the new author will sell enough books to recover his costs, which to me has always been like adding insult to injury.

Giveaways generate little meaningful response

While we’re on the topic – that being insult to injury, let’s revisit Goodreads http://goodreads.com/the site that claims 40,000 of their members enter giveaway contests everyday.

For the month of April I ran a giveaway for one paperback edition of my novels Abandoned Dreams, The Big Picture and Forest. Here’s the results

Abandoned Dreams: 422 requests, 160 added it “to read”

The Big Picture: 381 requests, 129 added it “to read”

Forest: 437 requests, 171 added it “to read”

At the time of writing this, 923 people “want to read” at least one of the six books I have on Goodreads and yet I’m still stuck at twenty-four reviews since March 2016. These people are awfully slow readers. I’m still hopeful that at least the people who won the books will review them.

I gave away forty-six e-books of Forest on LibraryThing http://librarything.com/this month as well but at least it didn’t cost me anything.

New multiple query site draws a blank

Despite claiming to be “the easiest, smartest and most rewarding way for writers, agents and publishers to connect” Authors.me has yet to make a connection for my books after being on their site a month now.

Inkitt’s offer so simple it’s suspicious

Inkitt http://inkitt.com/appeared in my in-box asking if I was “Interested in having your novel in the spotlight.”

The email went on to say, “We’re featuring six of your novels in upcoming editions of Inkitt’s newsletter to help promote your work and recommend some great summer reads!”

All I have to do is “Send a 200-character catchy teaser and the link to your story”.

The loglines have been sent and I’ll let you know what happens since I’ve only uploaded one of my novels to their site.

The Local Rag up next

My new novel, The Local Rag, a story about what it’s like to be the publisher and editor of a community newspaper in these changing times, of which I know a fair bit, was completed April 9 and is now resting. I plan to resurrect it mid-July for rewrites, beta readers and formatting. The plot also includes infidelity, murder and drug smuggling for good measure.

WIP East Van Saturday Night – anthology of short storys plus a novella

I’m currently doing a rewrite of Hitchhike, a 30,000 word novella and part of a book that includes an additional five short stories. The stories all have the same main character and are a chronological accounting of major life events from the age of five to nineteen. The title of this compilation is East Van Saturday Night, taken from one of the stories.

Stay Calm, Be Brave, Watch for the Signs

30

 

 

New streamlined process for multiple submissions – but it won’t improve your writing

The creators of https://www.authors.me say they have designed a site “for the writer who wants to get read and get published.”

Hey, that’s me. Just a second, isn’t that every writer?

What they say they’ve done “is hone the submission process” with a questionnaire that is not unlike preparing your manuscript to be self published.

Anyhow, you answer the questions and the people at Authors.me plug it into a template and make it available to agents and publishers who have also registered on the site.

The benefits for the writer are you don’t have to research and prepare multiple submissions, a process that makes writing a novel seem easy.

The benefit for the agent or publisher is they have a standardized and thorough submission, which they can review within minutes and accept, reject or refer as easy as forwarding an email.

So, what’s the catch?

Well, until July 15, 2016, there isn’t one because until then you can submit your completed manuscript, the first thirty pages or even a non-fiction book proposal free.

After that, well, the creators of Authors.me aren’t saying.

Once a price is attached to your submission the question will be how many agents and publishers have signed on, are they using the site and will it make any difference?

Sure the submission process is a pain but if you’ve persevered and done the research, meticulously followed instructions as to what to submit and what not to submit, incurred the expense, and still haven’t got a publisher or agent then is a new, streamlined submission process going to change that?

Put another way, an improved submission process won’t improve your writing.

So until July 15th why not submit your completed or even partially completed manuscripts since there’s no downside (I’ve upload three of my books).

After July 15th you might want to reconsider and if you’ve already gone the traditional submission route to no avail perhaps the money Authors.me will no doubt be charging might be better spent on a writing course, a how to book or membership to writers’ club.

Stay Calm, Be Brave, Watch for the Signs

30

Book Giveaway Win a copy of

FOREST – Love, Loss, Legend

Enter at

https://www.librarything.com/er/giveaway/list

 

Video book reviews of self-published authors now at

Not Your Family, Not Your Friend Video Book Reviews: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH45n8K4BVmT248LBTpfARQ

 

Cover Art of books by self-published authors at

https://www.pinterest.com/rod_raglin/rod-raglins-reviews-cover-art/

 

My novels, FOREST – Love, Loss, Legend, The BIG PICTURE – A Camera, A Young Woman, An Uncompromising Ethic and Abandoned Dreams are available on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003DS6LEU and as e-books at https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/raglin

 

The ECO-WARRIORS series:

Book 1, Saving Spirit Bear – What Price Success?

Book 2, Loving the Terrorist – Beyond Eagleridge Bluffs

Book 3, Not Wonder More – Mad Maggie and the Mystery of the Ancients

are available as e-books an paperbacks at

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003DS6LEU

 

More of my original photographs can be viewed, purchased, and shipped to you as GREETING CARDS; matted, laminated, mounted, framed, or canvas PRINTS; and POSTERS. Go to: http://www.redbubble.com/people/rodraglin

 

View my flickr photostream at https://www.flickr.com/photos/78791029@N04/

 

Or, My YouTube channel if you prefer photo videos accompanied by classical music

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsQVBxJZ7eXkvZmxCm2wRYA