Barbara G. Tarn's Blog, page 165

Happiness is…

Writer Wisdom Sunday

Every Sunday until November and unless I have a guest, I will share words of wisdom from writers on writing. Enjoy!

 

If you plan to write for profit, please understand that it is a long, congested road. I self-publish my books only in electronic format. This market has few barriers to entry, which both helps and hurts. I have invested in a professionally designed website and book covers. The burden of publicizing the book falls solely on my wife and me. The internet is crowded, and that crowd generates a lot of noise, which hides the book of an unknown author. Breaking through the background noise is difficult and at times feels like an impossibility no matter how good your book may be. That’s what I think new writers should know.

- Joseph M.Rinaldo, indie author

 

Most writers are so stupid about the business they think they sell stories (We don’t, we license copyright).

- Dean Wesley Smith

 

But aside from all that buzz about influencers and reputational analysis, let’s not gorget that whole social is social thing. And the thing about being social is that it’s fun!

Sure, you may be an introvert like, me, but you can pick and choose your experiences. You can make reach out to people, and soon enough those virtual friends may become your real friends. This is increasingly how we connect with like-minded people, and the best part is that it works.

It’s really fun to do, and you can make the experience whatever you want. If you like Twitter, do that. If you like blogging, do that. If you’re a Facebook maven, go for it. There’s no right or wrong way to go about it and you can invent your own way if it didn’t exist.

- Nathan Bransford

 

For hundreds of years, writers couldn’t reach readers without publishers. We needed them. Now, suddenly, we don’t. But publishers don’t seem to be taking this Very Important Fact into account.

- Joe Konrath

 

Art, whether it is visual or literary or musical or whatever, is a living thing that thrives on experimentation and exploration. The digital age is offering all of us the most mind-blowing scope for experiment and exploring. You could do anything. ANYTHING. The possibilities are beyond anything we have so far encountered.

All you need is imagination and a bit of daring to take that step forward and just try.

- Vivienne Tuffnell – author and blogger

Random Friday

I’m going to start this with the MoW (movie of the week) – could have been 2, but I preferred reading for once, so I watched only one DVD of my Bollywood pile: Aap Mujhe Achche Lagne Lage or “don’t fall in love with a mob boss daughter even if you have Hritik’s muscles”. We’re used to suspend our disbelief when watching a movie, but a half-dead man (meaning “supposedly beaten to death”) that gets up and starts punching baddies with just a few bruises is kinda unrealistic. Could have ended like Romeo&Juliet and would have made more sense! The dance numbers were great, the songs were OK, but I did feel it was kinda long. I mean, I could have told that story in 2 hours instead of 3 – much like Meet Joe Black, although you can contemplate Brad at his best, but it’s way too long. And lots of fake backgrounds as well – and it wasn’t even dream scenes like in Mission Kashmir.

Anyway, let’s hope I overdose so I can move on to the next muse, LOL! In the meantime, here’s where he got: on the wall with #1! *gasp*

See him between Larry Elmore’s elven prince, Terry Moore’s David Qin (2 of them, pencils both), the red girl (dunno who did it, but I loved the drawing, it’s all pencils) and my Keanus? Yeah, so I can be distracted and procrastinate – or find more inspiration for Star Minds, LOL! Want to see it better, go to the DeviantART gallery, of course. I also used him as secondary character in SKYBAND 12, but it’s still in pencils, so you’ll have to wait to see that version – but it’s not that much alike, haha! Much like SRK in SKYBAND 2 – you’d never recognize him unless I tell you he was  the model for that passing character…

Now I better go back to beta-read… mostly because I interrupted to re-read Star Minds 2 (bad author, bad beta, bad friend – apologies to the person who trusted me with her manuscript, I really want to get back to her in a timely manner – hence no more Hritik until I’m done, LOL). And try to write those last Varian Empire stories before the Star Minds characters come back to bother me.

Oh, by the way… they’ll take over the blog on Sundays in December, hence you’ll see a slight difference in the phrasing of Sunday posts… only until November now, the rest next year! Have a great weekend!

Writer Wednesday

Oookay, how’s your week going? Great I hope! If you’re a writer, are you suffering career block? If yes, you have both David Farland and Kris Rusch to help! Here’s Dave and here’s Kris’s post on numbers – with “war” in the comments. Personally, I don’t have a career block. I’m slowly and boldly going wherever I want to go. Yes, I’m handpicking my readers (which is something I was discussing with a friend who told me “one thing is to write for yourself, another is to write for others” – sorry to disagree, I’m my own first fan and write what I want to read, if it appeals only to 100 or 1000 and not millions or billions, fine with me. I’m sure those 100 or 1000 faithful fans will find me eventually) and yes, I keep writing what I want to write (hence the procrastination on Silvery Earth now that Star Minds characters have taken possession of my head. I hope they’ll be quiet for a few days so I can finish the Records of the Varian Empire and wait for the beta-readers’ feedback, because I’m sure that as soon as someone reminds me of them, they’ll suck me back in until I publish the darn books. Sigh).

About Kris’s post and numbers and sales and whatnot. Today I remembered to check my sales numbers and found sales from last week on Kindle (US&UK). When I check every day I never find any, LOL! So I’m not going to check again until next week, haha. Anyhow, that’s not what I wanted to say. I wanted to comment on the part numbers in non-English-speaking countries and the English Proficiency Chart:

So, as I began this, I decided to go for the numbers. I went to Google to discover the number of English speakers worldwide, and I encountered this: It’s the English Proficiency Chart, done in 2011, showing which countries have the most proficient English speakers. According to that chart, in my recent travels, I  visited one country with high proficiency (Germany, ranked number 8 in the world), one country with moderate proficiency, (France, ranked number 17 in the world), and one country with low proficiency (Italy, ranked number 23 in the world).

My humble opinion of Italy is as follow. Italians don’t read. And like Kris says, many don’t speak English. I know some indies who have sold on Amazon Italia. I haven’t. Not even the Italian titles. If you have sold there, either it was me (my Kindle is now registered on Amazon Italia, but I usually prefer Smashwords, so unless you’re an Amazon Exclusive, it might not be me) or one of the few who speaks English. Like I discovered last December, Italians use e-readers for everything but read. Yes, everybody has i-pads and i-phones, but THEY DO NOT USE THEM TO READ! Even the Sony e-reader, they use it to listen to music!

And then I talked to one of my first readers (meaning he bought my photocopied zines back in the 1990s, not that he beta-reads for me, LOL) who told me he doesn’t like e-books. And, unlike other friends, it’s not because he prefer dead tree books, but because E-BOOKS ARE TOO EXPENSIVE! Which is part of last December’s discoveries as well, e-books in Italy are from 10euros and up, so even the few who like reading haven’t discovered indie authors who price their novels lower… Next year I’ll experiment by publishing the Italian version of Star Minds (being science-fantasy it might sell more than the current titles), and I’ll let you know how the experiment goes!

Another thing I experienced myself with Italian e-books last week. I got 3 free downloads from DayJob (I had “points”, so I asked for one printed book for my parents and 3 e-books – I chose non-fiction titles, but there were fiction titles available as well). First of all (might have been a problem of that particular site, but it looks like it’s the download shop of one of the Big Trad Pub of Italy) the lack of formats. Either e-pub or PDF, only rarely both. Having a Kindle, I chose the PDF when available. So I ended up with 1 PDF and 2 e-pubs – ALL DRMed. One e-pub had a “social DRM” – I put it through calibre and turned it into mobi and PDF. The other two both had “adobe DRM” which meant that

1) I had to download the new version of Adobe Digital Editions because the old one wouldn’t open the DRMed file.

2) the PDF is not print-enabled and being DRMed, even if I try to open it with Adobe Reader it sends me back to ADE.

So I’m stuck with two files I can read only on my laptop and can’t print – which means I’ll probably never read them. Glad I didn’t have to pay for them. I ranted about it on my Italian blog, so I won’t bother you any longer. But I hate DRM. As an author, I don’t use it. As a reader, you just lost me by DRM-ing your e-book.Here’s another way DRM hurts the visually impaired and affects all readers. I agree we should get rid of it – it doesn’t protect from pirates and upsets the consumer. By the way, anyone has a way to crack that Adobe DRM?

A couple of Amazon related posts: laws in India might force Amazon to close it’s brand-new Indian branch. Any of my Hindustani friends know anything about this/these laws? Also risks and rewards of Kindle Select – both links found on Passive Guy’s blog, who didn’t really comment on them, so I’m not giving the link with an excerpt but the original full post.

Now, to the Blogoversary Giveaway! Because Joleene commented on both posts, she’s a winner anyway! She can choose between a preview of Star Minds (she will have to interview the characters sooner or later anyway, LOL!) or any of my titles. As for all the lovely ladies who commented on the Happiness is… post… well, because 5 is my favorite number, you’re all winners as well. So Katy, Shafali, Viv and Madison, please contact me to get your prize!

Thanks for the wishes and don’t worry… this blog won’t close anytime soon!

Happiness is…

BLOGOVERSARY!! 
Happy b-day, blog! Here’s to another 3 years and beyond!


The Giveaway will extend to commenters to this post… or Jo has won again as the only entrant!

Writer Wisdom Sunday

Every Sunday until December and unless I have a guest, I will share words of wisdom from writers on writing. Enjoy!

My mentor, Ernst&Young Entrepreneur of the YearAward-winner Gerald Chamales, taught me that it takes audacity and determination to achieve one’s goals. The four basic principles of success are 1) A burning desire. 2) a definite plan culled from the masters. 3) An elimination of negativity. 4) Align yourself with like-minded individuals who share your dream.

- W.Peter Iliff, screenwriter

A real writer is a writer who is actually writing and anything that keeps you from that is just so much fluff.

- Joleen Naylor, author and blogger

To be a happy, successful author, you have to be passionate. To be a selling successful author, you have to be organized.

- Helen Ginger @ Blood-Red Pencil

If you’re focused on what someone else is doing or maitaining some imaginary status, you will lose your freaking mind. Trust me on this one. It seems totally obvious, but when you get out there it is SO hard not to get sucked into all the drama and ego and blah blah blah and comparing yourself with what everyone else is doing for good or ill.

- Zoe Winters, author

There is no one size fits all when it comes to writing a book, publishing it, or marketing it. What works for one person isn’t necessarily going to work for another. This is why it’s crucial to pursue your passions in writing and publishing, and it’s important to focus on your strengths when you market your book.

- Ruth Ann Nordin, author and blogger

Random Friday

Last weekend I decompressed with another pencil drawing and it’s Arjun Rampal. You can see him in my DeviantART gallery. This is Hritik’s week, though (I have 4 movies to watch…) so here are the 2 I’ve watched so far (Not every night – gotta read and write too, you know? ).

Mission Kashmir went on my list because on some DVD I saw this song.

I didn’t really read the pitch (well, I probably did when I put it on the list, but that was months ago, so I didn’t remember much of what the story is about – that’s how I like it), but when the movie started and I saw Sanjay Dutt and then saw him kill Hritik’s father I went “Uhm… Agneepath!” Not that I had seen the latest, but I know it’s about a guy trying to avenge his father’s death.

Anyway, this is more about religious struggles in Kashmir – again, Muslim vs Hindu – much like Dil Se with a less tragic end. And it has Preity Zinta as love interest instead of Priyanka Chopra (but that’s very Koi Mil Gaya, LOL! Especially the wet puppy look “please forgive me”!). Also, being set in Kashmir, the clothes are slightly different (you can tell from the above video, right?) – no sari, but I think they look wonderful anyway. I loved the soundtrack as well! Here’s to peace in Kashmir (my mom and sis went through it last June on their way to Ladakh, it’s still war zone – quit killing in the name of God!).

Only negative thing – the Hinglish subtitles. I really need to go and get some Hindi lessons and avoid those darn things altogether. Here’s what I can say at the moment (and I’m “making this up” after listening to so many movies): namaste, mere Hindustani doste! Jayne kyu I’m doing this – crazy kya re! Or kuch kuch hota hai so I must keep trying – and that’s my song-lyrics Hindi for you! I hope I’m not destroying your language!

Then I watched Agneepath (I put them in order of length, from the shortest to the longest). Haven’t seen the original with Big B and heard mixed reviews about this remake, but I picked it because I loved the dance videos. So, great soundtrack. The story… well, there’s a negative hero and a bad guy, so if that’s your thing… lots of guns and blood as well, so be warned. I liked it, but I didn’t fall in love with it – the stubble probably got in the way along with too many muscles (less gym and more dance, Hritik, please! ). And if Mr Wonder Man stopped dodging bullets to get killed by blades it would make a lot more sense as well!   Talk about unreaslitic injuries in movies, sigh.

Finally, I managed to slip a short read in the busy week (I’m also beta-reading, so no time for new long fiction – and I keep adding titles to my Smashwords library, sigh) – fellow Chicon panelist Thomas has one short story out in English (he’s Dutch and his novels aren’t translated yet…) and you can find it here. The boy who casts no shadow is a wonderful story, so give it a try. Then we can all write to Thomas and ask him to have more things translated, LOL!

Writer Wednesday

Oookay, links first! Joe Konrath interviews Marcus Sakey, so if you wanna buy an ebook for a good cause, go check that post.

Parallels between the music world and the publishing world – James Taylor suing his record company. Here’s to writers suing their publishers for damages and under-reported royalties!

Kris Rusch on content is king – please check the comments as well, especially James’s story. And Konrath’s sales post has interesting considerations on the whole market – not that I have his sales numbers (maybe 0.1%?) but I still think he’s right in many ways. In my case royalties are evenly split between Amazon and Smashwords, so there’s no way I’m giving anyone exclusivity.

By the way, KDP has started sending an email when the title goes live – trying to lure authors into the Select/exclusivity trap. And because I uploaded the latest title twice, I got two of those. I’m used to that on Smashwords (where I also uploaded it twice because I didn’t like the epub version the Meatgrinder spat out), but Amazon… ah, well. Times they change, my friend.

Finally, a self-promoting link! Ha, you didn’t see that coming, huh? Anyway, another Silvery Earth story is out, a novella that follows CVE3. Ladies and gentlemen – The Warrior Woman! (Guess who the model on the cover is? ) Check it on Smashwords, Kindle and DriveThruFiction. Print versions of this year’s titles are in the works… no it’s not my nose getting longer, I’m not Pinocchio! Okay, maybe I am. I’m not really working on that yet. But I will before the end of the year, promise.

Which brings me to launch the 3 years blogoversary giveaway! Yes, this blog will be 3 years old soon – check the little counter on the sidebar if you don’t believe me! – so I will give away an e-copy of any of my books from Smashwords to a lucky winner. That’s 30+ titles to choose from (some are already free, so they don’t count). Please comment on this post only to be entered. Winner will be announced next Wednesday.

Last but not least – writer’s update. Still working on the Star Mind series, hoping to finish the Records of the Varian Empire before starting book 3. But then, I still have to figure out a couple of things before I start that one, LOL! So I’ll probably finish book 2 this week and get back to Silvery Earth next week. Then, if I have a decent outline, I can write book 3 of the science-fantasy series, or I can write a BG Hope longer work (novel or novella, dunno yet). Because I’m doing it for fun (although the money is appreciated), I’ll just follow my inspiration as usual. And no, I have no idea of what “writer’s block” is, in case you didn’t notice!

Aaaall this while inking (and then coloring and then lettering) SKYBAND 12! Have a great week!

Happiness is…

Writer Wisdom Sunday

Every Sunday until December and unless I have a guest, I will share words of wisdom from writers on writing. Enjoy!

That’s why I was able to do so much. Because, if it had been for money or any of those other things – fame, or accolades or whatever – I would never have been able to put the energy into it. It’s why I’ve been so prolific. Because if you’re having this much fun, you don’t want to stop.”

- Stephen J. Cannell, screenwriter

That’s what reminds me how much published writers have in common with aspiring writers. There’s no magic milestone at which professional writers become immune to any of the fears/doubts/concerns that emerging writers feel. Getting responses from fans or bloggers feels to me like the published writer’s equivalent of sitting through a workshop. I’ve certainly watched the look of horror on the faces of people being critiqued as the workshop careens off into speculation of where the writer’s story should go. Different venues; similar substance.

- David Anthony Durham

So, with all that said, I’m very excited. The ebook revolution means that I have the freedom to write whatever I want and get it out there as soon as it’s ready for mass consumption. No longer do I have to slave over a proposal and hope that an editor in New York understands the scope of the project, gets excited, can then pitch it to a room full of supposed experts, gets the green light to acquire it, makes a decend offer (lol), and then tells me the book will be out in about a year. Now, if I have an idea I think is cool, I can just write the thing and put it out. If it flops, no biggie. If it’s a hit – all the better. But the amount of time and number of hoops to jump through for me to reach my readers has now been drastically winnowed.

- John F.Merz, author

Like anything in this business, once new writers think that’s the only way things are done, they defend the practice like it’s a golden rule. And since traditional publishing was the only game in town for the last forty years, writers really had no choice but to write longer and longer, even though in many cases, it wasn’t a natural length for the story being told.

- Dean Wesley Smith

If you truly believe you’ve got something there, it’s important to not give up on it too quickly. Those first five drafts are probably not going to be good enough.

- Eric R.Cohen, screenwriter