Barbara G. Tarn's Blog, page 120

Sunday Surprise

So, today I’m not going to the book fair (it’s Sunday, Dear Nephew is at Mom’s and we’re celebrating that it was St Barbara on Dec.4 and blah blah blah) and I thought I’d do a summary. I might go again either this afternoon or tomorrow to meet with a gal who has posted great “reportage” on Facebook – she’s an artist, and I’d love to hire her, I have some rebranding to do next year, LOL!

But in the meantime! Five minutes of teasing my friends who kept talking about PayPaul – I left, sick of listening to them butchering English, but today I asked “Who is Paul? The alien from the movie?” I always wonder where they find their pronunciation of English words – how “pal” became “Paul”.

Luckily there was also an important guy from the Ministery of Foreign Trade who translated everything into Italian (and I was about to say “Yes, you don’t say ‘selfie’ you say ‘autoscatto’!”, since so many people, especially those who call themselves great managers, throw in a lot of English when it’s not needed – and I won’t tell you how they pronounce it).

Anyhow, this guy told us that Italy is actually very sought after abroad – and not just for Food, Fashion&Furniture. But we’re locked in and are afraid of sending our stuff abroad. Apparently Italian is the fourth language taught in the world (not spoken as first language, but that means there are a lot of people who want to learn). So… doh. Opened my eyes and reminded me of a talk with my Canadian workshop buddies last October who said “But look how successful is every author who writes about Italy!”…

I always thought everything would just get lost in translation – many things did when I turned Technological Angel from an Italian novel to an English novel (and then back into Italian, the original beta-reader was very happy with the rewrites and continuation), and I had to leave some Italian in, since it was dialect and untranslatable – but maybe all those people are actually right.

So, for 2015, I’ve put on the list to publish something set in Italy, but written in English. If it’s a short story, I might do a bilingual edition – as an experiment. Or maybe I’ll translate one of the novels I already published in Italian. I don’t know, but stay tuned for a Barbara Sangiorgio title in English sometime next year! :)

See why I need Writing World 2015 planner? Gotta schedule time for writing, time for editing, time for translating, time for formatting, time for uploading, and time to figure out how to do business in Italy! Gee, I’m tired already…

Just kidding. Being a Virgo, I only have to figure out times (like 1 hour of translation a day) and I’ll be just fine! ;) Have a great Sunday! :D

Random Friday

so, Smashwords chimed in with the European Union VAT thingy:

December 2, 2014 – (updated) On January 1, new VAT (Value Added Tax) rules go into effect in the European Union.�� In the past, retailers were able to locate their European headquarters in Luxembourg, and the VAT imposed on ebooks was based on the VAT rate for the country in which the retailer was based.�� In Luxembourg, the VAT was only 3%, a rate that was practically neglibible.�� Effective with the new EU rules that start January 1, VAT is charged based on the customer’s geographic location.�� This means that effective January 1, myriad tax rates will be applied to your ebooks when sold at Smashwords retailers such as Apple iBooks, B&N, Txtr and Kobo.�� What Smashwords authors need to do to prepare:�� At present, nothing.�� Smashwords has always distributed books through our global retailers at a VAT-inclusive price.�� This means that VAT for European sales was deducted from the sales price, and only then did the retailer take their cut before sending the remaining proceeds to Smashwords.�� With the new VAT rules, the VAT tax will range from 15% to 25%.�� The average across all the countries is 20%.�� The UK, a large market for ebooks, is 20%, even though the VAT rate for printed books is 0% (yes, ZERO).�� As one Smashwords retailer told me recently, “we’re all getting hit with the same stick.”�� It’s a painful stick.�� Authors and publishers are left with a difficult decision.�� Raise prices on consumers to make up for the tax bite, or eat the higher taxes to preserve low prices?�� The VAT change comes at a time when, as I wrote recently in a post at the Smashwords blog, the ebook market is facing slower growth and many indies are facing increased competition and lower sales.�� And here’s something I haven’t heard anyone talk about:�� This VAT change also comes at a time when the US dollar is reaching multi-year highs in the currency markets.�� Since Smashwords books are originally priced in dollars before we calculate currency conversion rates, it means that dollar-denominated books have already been getting more expensive to European customers since their Pounds and Euros don’t stretch as far as they once did.�� If you’re contemplating holding the line on your prices, you can take some solace that the strong dollar will mitigate some of your pain.�� Long term, however, indies will be forced to make that difficult decision:�� eat it or pass it on to reader?�� We’re not contemplating any immediate changes at the Smashwords retail store, though we’re investigating options and obligations.�� For the time being at least, your highest margins will be at the Smashwords store.

Which means if you’re in Europe, grab all your ebooks for Xmas, because come the new year, the party is over! ;)

Now heading back to the book fair, looking for more news… ya never know, they might discuss that during these 4 days! :) Will keep you posted… Have a great weekend!

Writer Wednesday

Sooo… haven’t started on the new parts of Star Minds Next Generation, but will soon. Still mulling about them. Have translated/rewritten an old story and written the sequel (10 years later), but I haven’t re-read it or sent it out to betas yet (I might add a final scene, but I didn’t have time to sit and edit). Am working on the prose version of a story formerly translated as screenplay that I never submitted.

And waiting for a cover to publish the last short story of the year. Oh, and am coloring SKYBAND #14, so maybe that will be out too before the end of the year. I’m on page 10 (of 22), then I’ll need to add the balloons and lettering… no pencil portraits until I’m done, though! ;) (that might be a good way to force myself to finish the damn thing, if I want to do Muse#1’s last drawing of the year, LOL!)

No writerly links this week – nothing worth sharing? I guess not, except the usual stuff. Oh, and change of theme because it’s December and it’s snowing on WordPress blogs as usual. Will be back to the usual layout in January. Just one thing I’d like to comment on, is KDP’s email on “How EU VAT changes affect your eBook pricing”.

“For example, if an author had previously provided a ���6.00 VAT-exclusive list price for amazon.de, amazon.fr, amazon.es, and amazon.it Kindle stores, the list prices including VAT will be ���7.14 (19% VAT), ���6.33 (5.5% VAT), ���7.26 (21% VAT), and ���7.32 (22% VAT) respectively.”

Actually Italy is passing a law to bring down VAT on e-books at 4%. I checked the dedicated Italian site and they say it passed the first legislation step, it’s now being voted by the Senato. So hopefully by January VAT on ebooks in Italy will be 4%, not 22% as it says above (which is the current VAT). That ORG also hopes the rest of Europe will follow us. So before you go changing all those prices (I’ll let Amazon adjust, I have too many! ;p), wait to see what happens with that law…

In a couple of days there will be the Italian small&medium publishers fair, so hopefully next week I’ll be able to tell you more about all of this. I hope to attend a few workshops and find out more. Sorry if this week’s links are all in Italian… Have a great week! :)

Happiness is…

This year Amazon.IT is actually the one that gave me the most royalties… But thanks also to Amazon.DE! :)

Random Friday

I was hoping to talk about a movie, but my DVD player got stuck soon after the intermission – I have 2 but one wouldn’t even read the DVD and the other… anyway, I’ll try to finish watching it on my mom’s DVD this afternoon, if that one works. Meh. It’s not even a pirate copy.

So, I’ll randomly ramble about… oh, look, it’s December already! Where did this year fly to? Since Serial Central has been dead for two or three years, I will be deleting it at the end of the year. I have written the other authors – except a couple who were not on the Yahoo mailing list, but then, I don’t know who is still receiving emails on that mailing list anyway – and I doubt any of them has objections. I’m tired of receiving WordPress fireworks for a blog I have long forgotten.

Hope you had a happy Thanksgiving (if you’re American, that is!) and are ready for the December rush. This year it seems less daunting and depressing than usual, somehow – maybe because I haven’t realized it’s here yet. Or maybe because I’m busy with projects, inventory and whatnot.

Oh, boy, this is so hard, I’m just giving up. I have nothing to say. There. Have a great weekend! :)

Writer Wednesday

I’m giving another shot at the pre-order buttons, so… you have one title out now and its sequel in a couple of weeks! ;)

Saif&Kilig is now out on Amazon, Kobo, Smashwords, DriveThruFiction,�� Apple and����Barnes&Noble! ;) Please admire the wonderful artwork by Marurenai…

Kilig&Hakeem – the complete story, including the unpublished sad ending – is already available for pre-order on Amazon, Kobo and Smashwords. It will come out also on the other three sometimes in early December (I can schedule DriveThruFiction publications, but no idea if Draft2Digital will manage to send it to Apple and B&N on time – they don’t have a pre-order button yet). The cover is by Cinzia Di Felice – cropped, you’ll see the whole masterpiece next year on the POD version!

Aaand! Another title is up – for FREE! It’s Guisarme, also included in both Wyrd Worlds 2 and Saif&Kilig. You can find it on Smashwords and NoiseTrade. Cover art by yours truly (meh. That’s why I’m not posting it on the blog next to the�� other two ladies! ;) But I’m a hobbyist artist, they’re pros! :D ).

Star Minds Next Generation update: since the short story I hoped could stand on its own turns out to be just the beginning of a wider picture and raises more questions than it answers, I’m incorporating it in the novel, expanding it. So I’ll have 4 parts, with one longer than the others –��as the main action is concentrated there – and the whole book telling the story spanning many years, instead the concentrated two years��of Star Minds Trilogy. So more like Star Minds Snippets with four stories pasted together covering a longer time span. In December I will complete this story, hopefully before the holidays (although I’ll try not to bother beta-readers during the holidays, I hope they’ll be available at the beginning of January).

There are still a couple of days to submit for the Anthology! Check the details here! And help us find a title!

Now, to the writerly links of the week! A mission statement from Writing World! If you haven’t subscribed to their newsletter yet, do it now. And get their Yearly Planner as well. I had it printed and bound and will try to keep a better track of my writing time next year.

Smashwords founder Mark Coker on ebook publishing and the challenges we’re facing. Here’s how to succeed! And remember, you fail only if you quit! ;) Or, for another view, self-publishing reaches the summit – although I’d still make a difference between self-publishers and indie publishers, but I don’t want to bother you here. You just find your own conclusions! ;)

A few more for newbies: stay away from vanity presses. I guess I should translate this paragraph into Italian, since Author Solutions is now tarketing the Spanish-speaking market (but then, that’s a much wider market than the Italian one, LOL!). Check out this latest post by David Gaughran – especially if you’re not American. Penguin Random House might be coming to your country, and you better be aware. I did receive a couple of emails from America Star Books, but I promptly ignored them. And remember what Joe Konrath says – DON’T PAY ANYONE TO PUBLISH YOU!

Take the DBW writers survey – published or unpublished as you are. And you can tell them you heard about it on Hugh Howey’s blog, much like I did! ;) (I’m linking to him because I’m not sure the link otherwise works…) And one more article with David Farland’s wisdom: provide your own inspiration. Nobody ever gave me cookies for writing, but kept doing it anyway! ;)

Have a great weekend! :D

 

Happiness is…

Sunday Surprise

Words of wisdom or writers on writing – from my collection of quotes. Have a great Sunday! :)

It���s all about choice.

It���s also about remembering the thing that traditional publishers have forgotten: The customers for our books aren���t ten buyers for chain bookstores. The customers for our books are readers worldwide. Individuals, who choose to spend their hard-earned money on our work.

Some of those readers move on to the next book they want to read.

Others become evangelists for the books they love.

You can���t beg customers to promote for you.

You can���t expect them to buy the next book. You can���t expect them to remember your name. You can���t even expect them to remember the book title.

Write the next book. Publis

h it well (with good covers and blurbs, in all markets). If you enjoy writing that book, someone out there will enjoy reading it. Trust the process. It works. And your inner reader knows it.

- Kristine Kathryn Rusch

But my main advice to wanna be writers is this:

1. READ. A lot. Look at how things are written and dissect them. Think to yourself, ���I like how writer x does that��� HOW does he do that?��� and try to learn from it.

2. WRITE. A lot. You get better the more you write. You really do. But don���t navel-gaze so much. Finish a damned project and then do some revision but then MOVE ON. Keep going forward. It will never be perfect. Accept that.

3. NETWORK. You need to meet other writers and make friends with them. You never know who might help you someday. How did I become a professional writer? Because a friend of mine worked for Marvel Comics and recommended me for a job. I didn���t submit anything to them ��� Marvel emailed me, on the basis of my friend���s recommendation. It went from there.

So��� here���s my suggestion for today. Stop reading this blog. Stop flipping through that Stephen King book on writing. Stop over-analyzing the act of creation. And then go CREATE.

- Barry Reese

That it���s all about momentum. Momentum in writing means momentum in reading. There is a prevailing school of thought that something good must take time, sometimes years to create and hone. I have always felt that the books I have written fastest have been my best ��� because I caught an unstoppable momentum in the writing.

- Michael Connelly

Once a writer – any writer – comes to the realization that the power in the publishing industry has transfered from publishers to writers, it opens up a new world of possibilities.�� Publishing no longer becomes an either/or question.�� The best writers will have the option to publish independently AND traditionally, or do one or the other.�� It’s their choice.�� Both options are worthy of consideration by all writers, and can be mutually complementary.�� Even if you’re a traditionally published author today, you’re an indie author because you decide what happens with your next project.

- Mark Coker

It was also an era of isolation because I didn���t even know what an email address was, let alone the internet. But most of all, I didn���t know a single other writer��doing what I was doing ��� writing novels. I wrote in complete and utter bliss. I look back on that time with wonder and awe because not only was I writing whatever I wanted how I wanted, but I was never once told that I was doing something wrong by another writer. If I felt that at any point, it was only because I was comparing my unpublished novel to published novels.

- Michelle D.Argyle

Random Friday

Let’s make it Art Friday! :) In spite of the sore eye, I did a lot of drawings the past two weeks! ;) First, you can check the portraits gallery for those pencil drawings of Da Muses… Unfortunately the latest didn’t make it to the calendar, but never mind. Maybe next year! ;)

Then I did some covers – that I might or might not use. I’m thinking of uploading Guisarme (currently in Wyrd Worlds 2) for free here and there, so I needed a cover. Here are the two attempts – the final is slightly different and you’ll see it shortly, probably some time next week. Composite of my dragon drawing attempt and the woman (two women, slightly different).

And then I toyed with the next generation and did more drawings of Shan-leo and Dadina while I tried to imagine Kay-low grown up. I do have a very loose outline for book 2 now, so eventually I might draw Kay-low as well, except his “evolution” might not be as good as Shan-leo and Dadina’s (I might pick two different people to show him as a child and as a 20-year-old instead of using the same models through the years…). But that’s on the December drawing list.

Now I hope to manage to color SKYBAND 14, so that it can come out by Christmas. Then next year I’ll do the final chapter (and then write the novel). Uploading a new title this weekend – stay tuned for the wonderful cover by Marurenai! And I might have another short story up with a brand new cover (it wasn’t published on its own before, always in a collection) – you can see the WiP here… Have a great weekend!

Writer Wednesday

I’m writing. And revising. And preparing to publish the next title. And making covers. And drawing my characters. Hopping from Silvery Earth to Star Minds and back. Moving between assassins and telepaths. Nice, varied inner life! ;) I’ll probably start a translation/rewriting this week, so I can write the “sequel” next week while I percolate more the next generation of Star Minds.

Yes, Shan-leo and Dadina’s story is done, but I’m thinking of doing a Book 2 with Dadina and Kay-low. I’m jotting down ideas, so I’ll probably finish November with fantasy, and go back to my science fantasy series in December. I want to write it all before publishing it, so I’m sure I have everything totally clear.

Hopefully it will still be ready for January publication, if not, February. Not a Valentine’s title (although there are a few love stories here, but it’s still a space opera more than a romance), but it will come out. Just throwing a few more obstacles at those characters to see how they react! ;)

And still world-building, or universe-building, since most of the next generation books don’t get too close to Earth (especially since Shan-leo’s stay on Earth has not so nice consequences – not deadly, but still bothersome). It’s mostly restructuring the Imperial Planet after the fall of the Emperor – what happened to the various aristocrat families and who has the right to join the Council of Five, or lost it.

I will also show Earth again in book 2, somehow. There is hope for this planet – at least in that universe! ;) Now, to the writerly links of the week!

5 things holding you back from becoming a writer. Just in case you still haven’t realized that writers write. So, apply butt in chair and just write. ;)

Amazon opens Dutch Kindle store, B&N moves into author services. And that’s why I don’t really trust Lulu anymore (not that I ever used their paid services, but I’m not distributing through their channels either, so things are available only on the Lulu store), so no calendars this year, and they’ll keep only the Italian novels and a few older things for now. Lots of new year’s resolutions will include “cleaning” PODs.

The book that writes itself – a possibility. Meh. Just when I had my alien telepath enjoying calligraphy for the sake of it (Shan-leo, in case you’re wondering – yes, he’s grown up!). Sigh. But then, he doesn’t write fiction! ;) Now let me grab a few more generators links… just in case! They do work as writing prompts! :)