Alex Laybourne's Blog, page 78

Paperback or Hardcover; You Decide

For a while now I have been reading, and yes, even wrote a post about the battle between books and ebooks. But you know what, I have kind of grown bored of the debate. Technology will always win the battles, but the war will never end. I honestly believe that with a slight adjustment to the process, both will coexist in harmony with each other.

What I wanted to talk about today, in the interest of getting a good discussion going, is…

Paperback vs Hardcover

Personally, I never by Hardcover books… ok, usually. I did buy the Hardcover edition of The Wind Through the Keyhole, but only because the price was awesome and the paperback was not out.

I don’t know what it is, but the feel of a Hardcover novel just doesn’t sit the same with me. Paperbacks get old, they get dog-eared with wrinkles on the spine that tell you how often they have been read.

That being said, I can understand the aesthetic appeal of Hardcovers, especially when they are all neatly displayed in the bookcase of choice.

So now, I turn the floor over to you my good friends.

Let the discussions begin:

 

 

(How To) Publishing Short Stories

I have found myself in a quandary, and as always, who better to turn to that your good selves.

When I first bought my kindle, I expected to be downloading full books; novels, to read. While I found this to be the case, I also notice that there are a lot of short stories being developed, and uploaded onto site for free or in some cases $0.99. I am talking about stories as low as 7,000 words.

This stuck me as odd, it is clearly a by-product of the Indie publishing revolution, because I cannot recall seeing bookshops carrying 7,000 word books (outside of the children’s fiction that is). What has me confused is where the point is behind it.

I have a host of short stories written, which I have roughly shaped into two anthologies. One is 70k and the other is 60k. Judging by the trend I have seen, I  could easily split this further into 4 anthologies, and then maybe only two or perhaps 1 print edition (ala Books of Blood by Clive Barker – collections I-III and IV-VI)

However, this just doesn’t sit all too comfortably with me. I guess the real confusion for me is if I am holding on to some semi-archaic view on publishing and short stories, or has the self publishing community taken a step too far with this tactic?

I can understand the idea behind giving away short stories, and wouldn’t charge more than 99 cents for mine anyway, but should I be thinking about breaking them down into 4 collections of, say, 30k words? Is that more suitable to the current e-reader market?

I really do not know which way I should turn, and so I am turning the floor over to you, my faithful readers…

Review: My Soul to Keep

My Soul to Keep by Sean Hayden

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I started this book, and could not put it down. I had to finish it, and did so in less than a day. I cannot rememebr the last time I read a full novel that quickly. The characters were well balanced and seemed … well, lifelike. There was a real sense of presence in every page. Sean Hayden does an incredible job at building the character-reader relationship. The dialogue and exchanges that occur were for lack of a better word flawless.

The paranormal angle, the family and social dynamic of highschool and the delicately handled romance all come together to form what I consider to be a YA Masterpiece. Don’t let the YA aspect put you off, it is a book that can easily be enjoyed by all ages, and has something to offer everybody.

I cannot wait to read the second in the series, there is a flow to the tale and the style of writing that will hypnotize you and hold you captive right the way through to the final page.

To summarize in but one word… unputdownable.

View all my reviews

Fear: What Scares You?

Only a short post today, but it is one I have been wanting to talk about for a little while now, and actually links to  a few posts that I want to write.

Fear.

I don’t want to discuss what it is, not yet at least, but rather I want to ask, what scares you?

With this I don’t mean, spiders, or clowns, or in my own case… butterflies. These things creep us out, they are phobias and things we strongly dislike, but I mean fear in the sense of if you just think about it, you feel darkness invade your every pore and begin to strangle your soul.

True fear doesn’t hide behind a phobia, it doesn’t even necessarily lurk in the dark.

For me, the one thing that truly scares me, and I mean to the very core of my being, is loosing my mind; Alzheimer’s Disease.

The very knowledge that I may one day lose my mind in the very literal sense, plain out terrifies me beyond words. Not being able to recognize my wife and kids, dare I say one day grandkids etc, not knowing who I am, what is happening, but knowing that I should know it. I am creeped out just writing it.

On that note, I should say that a friend of mine, LM Stull is doing a sponsored event to raise money against this disease. Please visit her site and consider donating to this great cause.

So please, tell me, what is it that terrifies you?

A Classic Image For You All

They don’t make em like they used to.

A Prompt

I thought I would try something different today. My site has had a surge of new followers recently, and I feel that I am at the stage where I can try this without completely tanking.

 

Get your creative juices because it is time to have a little fun.

 

The rules are simply. The image below is a prompt for a short story. I’m talking Min 100 words – Max 500 words.

If you are interested, leave a comment to let me know you are working on something, and then email me the finished article at a.laybourne[at]hotmail.com with the subject being August Prompt – [name] and [title].

I will read all of the entires I get, and depending on how many come back to me, will post the top three on my site at the end of the month.

The deadline is 25th August. There are no prizes up for grabs, other than the wonderful pieces of fiction I am sure you will create. It doesn’t have to be horror. Any genre is fine with me.

Right, here we go….

 

A Smorgasbord and We're the Meal

Reblogged from fuonlyknew:

Looks good doesn’t it?

I really love reading books about Bigfoot(also called Sasquatch or Skunk Ape). Part of it stems from wondering if they could or do exist.

I’ll tell you this much, I wouldn’t want to meet a Sasquatch like the ones you come across when you read Bigfoot Hunters by Rick Gualtieri.

“The creature opened its mouth wide and let loose a roar that sounded as if it had escaped from the gates of Hell…

Read more… 511 more words

If you are a fan of horror, then I think you are going to love this book.

Will e-books change the shape of writing?

The other day, I was reading the paper (which I do from time to time) and I saw an article discussing e-books and the way they are changing writing.

This made me pause for a second. I have read countless articles debating and discussing the effect the e-book revolution has had on the publishing industry, but what about the effect it has had or is having on the subject matter.

The ability to self publish has meant that getting work out there is easier than ever before. I will not talk about books not being ready or people expecting fame for fortune from the very first hour, and would rather ask you to assume, for the rest of this post, that all books publishing in this way are actually ready for publication.

I will save my views on this article until the very end, and am rather presenting the argument that was raised for your deliberation first.

Now that we can upload a book whenever we ‘want’, have we ever stopped to ask if the shape of a novel is changing as a result. Sure, the boundaries between genres is blurred, and a writers ability to move freely between genres is certain more pertinent today then in years gone by, but what about the end product.

Is it all too easy for a writer to create a book of around 50,000 words, and call it a novel? It’s over the standard novella limit of 40,000 so it much be ok right? Is that a novel? or is it merely the basic idea.

Indie writers are delving deep into ‘craft’ books, and learning all the right phrases and approaches to writing a story, but is the overall development still the same? Are writers really pushing themselves to the edges of creativity? I know that many are, but let’s not look at genre specific items, but rather writing as a whole.

Is it not too tempting nowadays to see that acceptable word limit, round off the story line and edit it, without considering the addition of an extra plot line that could be woven into the background?

The other point this article (which I for the life of me cannot find anymore) made is about chapters. Do writers still use cliffhangers at the end of their chapters, to hook readers and get them eager to find out what happens next? Is the chapter structure of a book the same as it was ten years ago, or twenty?

I can tell you, that this article, was part of a speech given by a traditionally published author at an awards ceremony. I don’t know about you, but it almost came across as if she was afraid of e-books and the surge of new writing talent available. She does raise an interesting point on book length, but to lay the blame or the suggestion of blame at the feet of e-books seems all too easy. Maybe it is the demands of an ever changing world that have lead to certain genres shortening their lengths. It certainly isn’t a problem with writers being lazy or not wanting to go the extra mile.

On chapters I cannot really comment. I mean I have read books with and with cliffhanger chapter endings, and you know what, not all books need them.. All in all, the points raise in the article were interesting but should not have been aimed towards ebooks or indie publishers, but rather at the ever changing shape of fiction. I mean, is it fair to blame indie writers for the changing way of biography writing? Or to say the new branch of biography writing that tells the true story weaved around a light tale of fiction? No, it is merely… evolution.

E-readers, and e-books are a different read to a physical book. That I truly believe. It is neither a good nor a bad, but rather a change, and who are we to standing in the face of change.

So I ask you, have you noticed books changing over the years? What do you thin is the biggest change in fiction since you were a child reading books and now as an adult, writing them. (and yes, I know, we still a read a lot today, but you see what I mean.)

Stop the Hate! A Cyberbullying Campaign

I don’t often create posts like this. While I am always in favor of putting the cat among the pigeons and causing a bit of trouble. It normally focuses around the figures of authority in my life and my seemingly unconscious desire to piss them off.  However, this issue annoyed me enough to warrant a comment.

Bullying is never nice, it is something I have personal experience of, and something I will always speak out against. Today I was left appalled when I saw a shameful case of cyberbullying in action.

I follow a number of blogs, and while I may not read every post from every single one, I certainly cast my eye over the email alert that comes through. I will also admit that I read a lot more posts that I may get credit for because I read the email rather than follow the link.

One such blog is one run by a young lady called Talin. Now, her blog is generic in terms of content, she writes posts regularly, on topics that are on her mind at that moment in time. It is a blog in the very diarized essence of the word. Now, do I agree with everything she posts about? No. Do I need to? No.

Her blog is not without its faults, I will be honest. However, neither is mine. I very rarely edit my posts more than a cursory glance through. Her grammar does leave something to be desired, but her message is always clear and understandable. I will say at this point, that Talin is from Albania, and now resides in Canada. However, English is not her main langauge – or so I believe. If I am wrong, then my apologies, my assumption has not basis around the above mentioned comments.

I was reading a post of hers this morning, and as I got to the bottom, I took a cursory glance at the comments. They were horrible. They were not just criticizing, but down right mean and hurtful. While some were even personal attacks. The majority were conversations, actual conversations between commenters talking about how they only follow her because of how embarrassing she is, or how her blog is a train wreck. How much they wanted to see her fail and be humiliated.

To those people, I cry, shame on you!! You are the embarrassment, not Talin. Your comments (especially the vulgar ones that I refuse to mention) do nothing but show how foolish and ugly you all are.

I follow a great many blogs where the blogger in question does not answer every or even many of their comments. It is not something I personally agree with, but it is up to them. If you are so offended by this, stop following the blog. To insist on spreading your hurtful venom around is not doing any good, to anybody.

It is people like you that should face criminal charges (if only it were possible to track you down… oh wait, it is.) for your actions.

You should never attack someone for doing what they enjoy, you can disagree with their post, and do so respectfully. The actually promotes healthy discussions and even encourages people to learn, to improve their skills. I saw people in the gym once, all standing around making fun of a larger woman simply because she was there. I told them, how can you attack her, you don’t know her, and she is here, standing up, working out and getting healthy. There could be all manner of reasons that have led her to where she is. The same applies here, everywhere in life.

So I dedicate this post to Talin, and saw you carry on doing what it is that you love, and those hater be fucking damned!!

We are always learning, and improving in this craft, and I will always stand there cheering you on.

To prove my point, I have purposefully not edited this post! Why, to show I am not perfect, and I challenge you all to write your next post without thinking, and to post it without editing. If not for me, or for Talin, then simply because you can, and you care.

 

What About the Readers?

The Indie explosion has revolutionized the writing / publishing world. There can be no doubt about it. It has changed my life in many ways. However, everything comes with its drawbacks.

You will see a lot of people online talking about the negative impact this same explosion has had on writers. Sure, it has made getting published that much easier, but at the same time, it has become that much harder to be noticed.

I just completed an interview with T.W. Brown, and in it I broached this very same subject. In fact, it was his question that inspired this post.

I guess we could equate it to the pleasure-pain theory, or to be a little professional for once, let me reference Newton… Sir Isaac (as I am sure his friends called him all the time.)

“When two bodies interact by exerting force on each other, these action and reaction forces are equal in magnitude, but opposite in direction.”

or in layman’s terms.

“To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction”

The ease with which one can now publish their books has made it that much harder to get noticed.

The reasons for not being accepted before this ‘movement’ – to stick with a theme – would derive from a need to further develop ones skills, to better the weakest areas and to further strengthen all over. Yet nowadays, the reasons for rejection, on the scale of sales and review numbers is not necessarily based on skill as a writer, or editing abilities, but rather who can shout the loudest.  In itself, this is fine, because I like to believe that those who have the true ability, those that do the grunt work, make sacrifices for their love of story telling will succeed. Why? Because good conquers evil, and those who work hard get the results. Those who cut corners will eventually fall behind.

However, the question that came to me today is, during this explosion, did anybody ever consider the reader and the effect this has had on them?

We may find it hard to find our place in the rankings lists, and feel out names are being tarnished by all of the badly constructed books out there, but what about readers. When it comes to picking new names to read, it was always a case of Russian roulette, but at the back of your mind you always knew that the work itself would be of a certain quality. Now however, there is just no way of knowing. It makes it not only harder for readers to find us, but it makes it all the harder for people convince themselves to give us a try.

This in turns I am sure could lead on to a discussion about the pricing of our books, and how the .99 cents mindset works because it is less of a gamble people have to make, but I do not want to get into that today.

As writers, we have a clinical eye, or at least we develop one. We are involved in things, and the names of those who merit a read are passed around. In short, those in the know are generally more advised when it comes to these matters. Those on the outside looking in a blind.

If I was to search Amazon (or any other book site around) I would feel completely lost by what I saw.

As the indie culture continues to develop, then do we risk pushing readers further away? It may sound strange, but the harder it comes to separate the wheat from the chaff, the more potential readers we will lose.

To this, we could all simply stand up even taller and shout even louder, but what would that achieve? Sure, maybe the reader could do some more research, but if we want them to dip their toes in the indie pool, there needs to be a way for them to find out where they should start.