Barbara G. Tarn's Blog, page 181

Last links of the year

First, Dean Wesley Smith on dreams and goals (which will be tomorrow's post – sort of New Year Resolutions): the first on Failure and Quitting, the second on Dreams and Goals. Gotta analyze those fears and set those goals.

Check also Joe Konrath's Resolutions for Writers – from 2006 to 2012, you can see the evolution (or not? ) of his thoughts.

What Ruth Ann Nordin has learned in 2011. What did I learn? That I can meet my self-imposed publishing deadlines, and I'm ready for the new publishing year, LOL.

And from Kris Rusch's post on the Holiday surprise… I didn't see any bump in MY sales, so I didn't really bother! I'll just keep waiting, and publishing more books!

Now, here are some predictions for 2012 from Bob Mayer…

Here's to hoping no more writers fall in the net of Publish America or similar sites and then ask if we have to pay for the service they offer (like e-book formatting, which is free both on Smashwords and with Calibre). Like I said, self-publishing doesn't have to be expensive.

A new form of scam for readers from Robin Hobb's blog. Please check the comments for more links on the topic (Seth Godin or John Scalzi among the links).

On Amazon – from Self-published Author's Lounge and Smashwords itself. I had noticed the KDP-Select-friendly dashboard when I was looking for the link "See this in the US store"… not sure I'll ever enroll, but we'll see.

And in case you didn't notice, there's a new "gift" feature on Smashwords, although I have no idea who would use it or why. Authors can give coupons for free downloads of their books. But then, if you wanted a friend to absolutely read your other author friend's book, I guess that's handy!   I don't know if I can make my Library (aka the Smashwords Wishlist) public so you could gift me with a book… Mmm, needs some thinking!

That's it for this year! Here's to 2012!

2011 reading

As I'll finish the year with a manuscript, I guess I can look back and see how much and what I've read this year…

4 manuscripts (2 have been published since)

4 non-fiction on various subjects (includes some historical research)

"Classics" in the sense of Chansons de Geste – 4 of Chretien de Troyes + La chanson de Roland + Le Roman de Brut (available for free at Project Guttenberg) needed for my historical novel research

30 fiction titles of various lengths and genres.

Could have done better, but I was busy… uhm… writing!

I have given reviews at the time of reading, but let's see what lights a bulb in my head at reading a title: if it's on the list, it means I recommend it, because I still remember what it's about!

OK, the memory Amaranthine series is still quite fresh, all three books of them (although I might have read the first six months ago, but that's how good books work. You can't let them go!). So if you're a vampire lover, go check them all (and then we can poke the author in putting out the next book together, LOL).

Jonathan Gould's lovely little novels are also still on my mind, for their humor and wisdom behind the satire.

I loved Dicky's story as well – maybe precisely because it didn't fit in one specific genre (the author says Inspirational, but it wasn't a boring Inspirational read – and I'm very sensitive to someone trying to preach to me! ).

Then I'd recommend C.S.Splitter's Tom Crayder series for some action and mystery, and of course Dean Wesley Smith's Think like a publisher for the non-fiction recommendations…

My TBR pile isn't going down – I have even more paper books than before + a long list on my Smashwords library of ebooks to buy + some titles on my Kindle (they don't send reminders to review, so I bought a batch, but still have to go through them), so please DO NOT send me any reading recommendations. I'm afraid I'm all set until 2015!

I'm not making plans on how much I want to read next year (so I won't put my goal on Goodreads either), but I hope to go through at least half of the list… (wishful thinking, I'm afraid! ). Anyway, I'll post reviews whenever I find something I like – no reviews under 3 stars because I feel there's enough negativity on the internet, so that's my policy!

Happy reading!

on reviews

because tomorrow I plan on doing a post on what I read this year and what I recommend, I thought it would be a good timing doing another post on reviews. There's an ongoing discussion on Goodreads about the importance of negative reviews and how one should (or shouldn't) react to them, as well as Michelle's way of dealing with reviews.

Personally, from 2012 I won't be looking at reviews of my books anymore. I'm sick of waiting for reviewers and I won't bother with what they have to say anyway. I thank you in advance if you have one of my books to review, but I won't comment on anything you say. You're free to love it or hate it, but please do post something.

Considering the number of downloads, I should have like 10 reviews per title, especially the free ones – which are the ones that get less reviews. So I'm giving up trying to have people review my books and offering review copies. Hopefully eventually my readers will find me and tell me how I'm doing.

Indifference (lack of reviews) is the worst, actually, because I have no idea of how I'm doing. So I'll just keep churning stories and reading other people's works and keep going my way.

I'm ending this with the drawing I did yesterday (black pencil on yellow sheet) and I'll now go back to inking SKYBAND 10… Although I'll probably soon start on Chronicles of the Varian Empire 2 because I like to alternate drawing and writing, haha!

Dear Reader, be patient with this author, you'll get the next Omnibus of SKYBAND sometime in January, promised!

da Muse

Holidays non-break

Hope you all had a great Christmas. Me, I just spent it at home, apart from the obligatory visits to mum's (24th evening and 25th lunch) – also because I ate too much (or too differently) and was sick on the 25th afternoon!

So I spent this long weekend as usual, reading, drawing and watching movies. Oh, and because Dear Techie Bro gave me a brand new laptop for Xmas, I experimented on it a little. It has Linux installed instead of Windows, so I have to get used to some stuff. It has Firefox and Open Office exactly like the old PC, but no Photoshop yet – I'll have to wait until he moves all the data from the old one to the new one.

Where I'll have to download the Linux versions of Skype and Calibre to continue my experiments with e-pub books – not sure if I can copy Kindle for PC or just use my Kindle from now on either. Ah, well, I have time to learn (don't listen to the little whine of Technophobe Me, I'll get over it! ).

As I couldn't find any equivalent of Windows Movie Maker (I'm sure there is one), I decided to do all the book trailer changes I needed to do before switching computers. So new and extended  SKYBAND trailer, same with author trailer and the one and only Italian trailer for the only Italian novel I've put out so far.

I don't think I'll waste any more time on book trailers, I've never bought a book because of the book trailer (OK, I've sold one copy of SKYBAND thanks to the book trailer! ), so I'd rather be off writing or drawing the actual story or more covers instead of doing book trailers. It was fun, but that's 2011!

So, I'm inking SKYBAND 10 – I happened to be doing #5 last Holiday Season. So 5 chapters a year means next year I'll finish it! OK, hopefully before the Holiday Season… and then I'll decide what to do next. I might keep drawing covers and stop the graphic novels altogether (which might leave me time to do some pencil drawings, if I have less digital art! ). I have an idea, but maybe I'll just write the prose version. We'll see.

And as I wasn't happy with the first cover of 2012, I re-did it – twice. I think I'll stick with the last version, and will work on the second cover soon – again, I'm not happy with the first try. I'll leave you with a gallery of the characters you'll meet next year, the drawings for the Chronicles of the Varian Empire were done before I started translating and I'm not using them for covers, so enjoy them here.

Click to view slideshow.

Happiness is…

Six sentence Christmas

I wanted to post an excerpt even if Six Sentence Sunday is off, but I don't have anything suitable for today.

I guess I'm not a Christmas person after all – not as a writer either.

That's why I write mostly fantasy, I can make up my own holidays!

More excerpts will be coming in the new year, so stay tuned.

I wish you a Merry Christmas.

In six sentences – well, actually six words!

Writers

I can't believe a writer friend paid thousands of dollars to self-publish, buying cover&interior design + copy-editing as additional services. I didn't ask which company he used, I don't think it matters. OK, he has the money, still, I don't think it's worth all that money. Especially since he's a friend and knows 1) I'm indie, 2) I have a blog full of advice (OK, I wish! ) and 3) I'm always available to answer questions.

You don't have to pay for those services. If you don't want to play with Power Point or Photoshop, I'm sure on Fiverr you can find someone to do you a cover for, well… 5 bucks. Editing fees might be slightly more if you don't have any friends willing to copy edit, but the maximum I have spent was 500GBP (which is approx.600US$?).

I did spend thousands of euros this year, but I had 5 covers done (not for free even if she's a friend) and editing fees for 5 novels, not 1. And I put in the expenses of Dean's workshop. That's why I'm still very much in the red, BUT I do have 20 titles out, not 1. Self-publishing doesn't have to be expensive.

Anyhow, leaving you with a couple of links. Dealing with reviews and some gifts for my novelist friends, debut or aspiring – with special thanks to Ficfac for creating those lists: you know how to please us, man!

Merry Christmas!

Bollywood movies for your Christmas escape

Here's some suggestions for your Holiday Season. First, know I rarely follow directors and that I choose movies either based on the pitch (i.e. I think the story might interest me, or it's a beloved genre) or on who is in it (I won't list my favorite actors here, although you know who #1 is). But I've watched all of 's movies, either directed or produced by him, and loved them all. Otherwise my Bollywood DVDteque is made of or 's movies.

Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham… has all three of them, Karan Johar as writer-director, SRK &HR as brothers in this family drama. If you want love stories (with or without happy ending, if you want the spoiler write to me privately) I recommend KANK, KKHH or Kites – one forbidden relationship, one friendship-love and one mixed love-story (Indian/Mexican) – the first 2 also have a great  soundtrack.

Period movies – highly recommended Jodhaa Akbar about the first India-born Mogul emperor who married a Rajput princess, and the very dramatic Devdas.

If you want to laugh, Dostana is for you. Or the road-movie Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (a.k.a. The Trip… to Spain!).

A story of revenge by spreading love: Mohabbatein – but be prepared, it's 3 and a half hours long. More drama with My name is Khan, or how SRK can be as good as Dustin Hoffman and Sean Penn at playing autistic characters.

If you want some action-adventure, are my favorite also for the great great songs. #1 is Point Break meets Lethal Weapon, #2 is Ocean's Twelve meets Lethal Weapon – with songs and dances, but also lots of stunts with motorcycles or cars or whatever.

And before you ask, no, that's not my whole list. That's only the recommended titles, the ones I'd watch over and over again if I had the time – considering most are around 3 hours (Dostana only 2 because it's a comedy). What I like the most about Bollywood it's the colors.

And then the dances and the music, and men crying and dancing and not worrying about their manhood (In&Out comes to mind No, I don't think that if a man likes dancing or cries he's gay. I actually think he's the real deal. Pity can't find him in western culture.).

And I love sari and Indian women and dances as well (I'd rather marry in a sari than in a white dress, sorry Lalita-of-Bride-and-Prejudice! ). And they can do action, and probably sci-fi (haven't watched Ra.One yet and wasn't impressed by the other 2 I have bought, so I won't mention them).

And good old fashioned melodrama and that wonderful slow-motion that seems completely gone from Hollywood movies. Sigh. And if the musical interruptions bother you, you probably don't watch musicals either. But if you do watch musicals, please give a try to a Bollywood movie!

So, happy viewing and let me know if you enjoyed them as much as I did! Happy Holiday Season!

busy time

OK, I'm squeezing this in between socializing before Xmas (not something us introverts like to do, as it drains our energy, but well… friends are friends and you have to see them sometime!) and crazy mornings at Day Job.

The printed versions are now live on Lulu, although I'll wait for the new year to send them to Amazon and other marketplaces (also because I don't seem to be selling there anyway, so why waste the money? ).

I'll be studying an excellent research on beta-readers AND reading a couple of manuscripts for the holidays. When I'm done, I'll comment – on the research, not on the manuscripts! – and let you know how I view the whole beta-reading thing.

I'm still reading Stories for Sendai, but hopefully I'll be able to post a full review soon (I see the Kindle version is no longer available, but someone is reselling the paperbacks. I'm not sure that goes for a good cause, so check with Michelle & JC before buying those). Busy time, not much for reading – OK, I admit it, I'm too tired for it and prefer watching again those Bollywood movies, haha!

That's all for now!

Meh

My link at Six Sentence Sunday wasn't active for whatever reason, so nobody showed up. I'll make one last attempt at signing up for the first Sunday of January, and if again the link doesn't go live for whatever reason, I'll give up participating. It hasn't generated any sales anyway (although I've met some wonderful people), so I might change it to Sunday Excerpt and just post something short from any of my works – not six sentences, but not 1500words (as requested by Indie Book List) either.

Smashwords hasn't send BoI – Earth to premium distribution yet because they want me to add a ToC. In a novel. And #4. Those trainees at Smashwords aren't helpful at all, and they obviously don't own an e-reader or they'd know you don't need a damn ToC to read a novel on your e-reader (unless you're a person who likes to read chapters in random order, but then you'd probably buy the paper book, as that's not easy to do with e-books! ).

Anyway, this adds up to my list of frustrations with indie publishing of lately… I stare at my sheet of things to do and go "No way, next year!"… I guess I'm tired! But I do need to contact editors now to know when they want the next manuscript so I can follow my publishing schedule – luckily I did manage that, but the other experiments or things I plan to do… I'll just wait for January.

I've experimented with Calibre, trying to do e-pub and mobi files of SKYBAND, but they don't come out right, so I'll have to experiment some more. If only I could figure out what size of JPG fits the Kindle screen, for example… the excellent suggestions of Jeff Thomason work for the Smashwords meatgrinder, but not on Calibre, sigh.

Anyway, off to drawing some more, although I doubt I'll be able to finish SKYBAND 10 before the end of the year… I mean, I can probably draw and ink it, but will have to color and letter in the new year. Sorry, dear reader, and be patient with me!