Barbara G. Tarn's Blog, page 209
March 26, 2011
Six Sentence Sunday – Air
Welcome Sunday visitors and all-week readers. I'm continuing my series introducing the characters of Air through somebody else's eyes (which MIGHT mean you get some physical description. Maybe). Here I give you Princess Indira, who has just been rescued by Kumar, who actually sees her for the first time.
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Kumar turned to look at her. In the growing daylight he could actually see her, and she was beautiful. Brown doe-like eyes stared at him with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension; her delicate hand toyed with a lock of hair that curled on her shoulders and halfway down her back; her nose wasn't small, but not big either, and looked good on her oval face. She was fair-skinned and wore jewels; a yellow bodice, a long golden skirt and a bright blue, silken sari with golden embroidery was wrapped around her slender figure.
Kumar looked at her in admiration, then regained control of himself.
"On elephant back," he replied as Maya came out of the forest to join them. "This is Maya."
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Air should be out in April. You can check the cover on my Facebook page (the badge on the blog isn't always updated, sigh).
Now hop off to the official blog for more Sunday goodies!
Have a great Sunday!
Saturday links and end of Indie Publishing Week
As of this post scheduling, I still don't have a web page. I'll probably work on it during the weekend.
The book trailer is done, but I found TWO great music tracks by Kevin McLeod (thanks, Joleene! 
), so I'll wait for my map-maker friend who comes on Monday to help me choose which is better. You'll probably see it all on Tuesday.
I added a teaser (unedited) of the beginning of Fire on both the Lulu PDF and Smashwords file – will have to add it on the Kindle file. I've obviously carefully read the Smashwords Marketing Guide, haven't I? 
I've also signed up on Goodreads now – already friended Michelle and Prue, is there anyone else? – but only Goodreads for now (of all the places suggested in Mark Coker's guide). I'm still upset with the WeRead ineffective page (check this post of over a year ago – can't open the page now, it's too slow and just gets stuck so I have no access to my author profile anymore), I'll have to access it and move all my books from those shelves to Goodreads. Give me some time, please…
Now, to this week links – yes, I did manage to check blogs in this whirlwind of work! 
Blood-Red Pencil on pros and cons of first person viewpoints. Personally I don't like "I" stories, but I've very much enjoyed one that I will review next week (and more last year, but I can't come up with titles at the moment). So if it's your thing (but remember it's NOT the easiest POV to handle), check the post.
Colleen Doran on art, which includes writing even if she's mostly an artist and I'm mostly a writer, but I think her take on art as work is a very insightful one – as usual. And she's always the creators' paladin, so read also her post on the Google Book Settlement, which might look great if you're a reader and really bad if you're an author. Thank the Department of Justice for rejecting it!
The big publishing news of the week: a NYT bestseller author refused a 6figure deal with St Martin Press, but Amanda Hocking signed a 7figures deal with them! Read all in Amanda's words here (with my comment) and here. Barry Eisler's words as speaking with Joe Konrath here. And Dean Wesley Smith on Amanda and Barry&Joe.
And for you writers out there who still think legacy publishing gives security… check Dean Wesley Smith and watch him dismantle that myth!
From former agent Nathan Bransford: it's never too early to start using social media. Now I better update that FB author page and get back to work on the web page… but no, I won't be twittering yet, sorry.
About the book tour: I've just discovered an Australian Smashbook author through Mark Coker's aforementioned marketing guide. Here's his interview and (past) blog tour. Doesn't look too hard… which makes me wonder if I could postpone the virtual book tour to later in the year when at least two books will be available… Worth thinking about it!
Have a great weekend!
March 25, 2011
Love-story with… Indie Publishing
You might think it's something I started this week. But actually, it's not. Back in the days of paper zines a.k.a. self-published ventures, I was one of them. I have mentioned it on this blog already, but I guess it's time for a re-cap.
My really very first indie publication was a single-copy hand-made (meaning hand-written and drawn on notebook fillers) that lasted 3 or 4 copies and maybe a year in the very early 80s. The typed version (mid 80s) didn't even reach the end of its first issue.
Then I started Day Job, and going to comicons. I saw other artists "making" their own zines and distribute copies at the fair. By 1996 I started my own. The very first was A4 (approx US letter size), but then I discovered A5 (half the size) which was good for cheaper, neater booklets. Black and white, of course, as color photocopies were waaaay too expensive! Maybe I had one with color cover, but it didn't last much – I didn't sell enough copies to recoup the costs.
In 8 years I published 2 long sagas (500p approx – each), 2 short sagas (150p. approx – each) and a half dozen of one-shots (let's say another 200p.) – that's a lot of drawings, no wonder my style improved in spite of my lack of talent and total ignorance of human anatomy! I also worked with other artists, from Japan (Masayo), Indonesia and Italy. AND I issued bi-monthly the International Mag, a collection of drawings, poems, short-stories, short comics from my pen-pals and beyond (that one ran from 1996 to 2001).
By 2004, after a "misunderstanding" with She-who-shall-not-be-named (she's an excellent artist, but she will not get free publicity from me), I was burned out and withdrew. Even from drawing for myself (except drawing my Muse all day long, haha! Now I don't have time for those pencil drawings anymore and I do less than 10 a year – used to be around 30 + the illustrations for the stories I was writing).
In 2008 I picked up drawing comics again, experimenting coloring with Photoshop (after discovering through illustrations that it came out much better in print). By late 2009 I had a blog and started putting work on Lulu. E-readers don't read graphics very well (and no colors, except the i-Pad) and I didn't feel web-savvy enough to do a web-comic. So comics and graphic novels are confined to Lulu, and unless you're bold enough to download a PDF to read on your PC, you're stuck with the costly paper version.
We'll see what happens with e-publishing! It's just the beginning of this adventure, and I know that at least for novels (or short stories collections) I'll do also a print version – for those who hate e-readers and for my little shelf space. It's much cheaper and easier to prepare an e-book (what's formatting for Smashwords compared to preparing the pages to be photocopied and then stapled and then put in envelopes, and then sent through the world at costly mailing fees? ), so I can invest on hiring a copy-editor or buy some music for book trailers.
I still like the feeling of doing it all myself, it adds to the creation. It's like dressing up your baby after you've given birth. On the contrary, the thought of querying (which I have done, while trying to conquer Hollywood) or dealing with publishing contracts is too daunting. I hate legalese, at least I don't have to deal with any of that!
Besides, the world of publishing is changing fast, and I'm usually fast to adapt… we'll see what happens in the coming years! At the moment everything is very exciting!
March 24, 2011
Indie Publishing Week 3
Middle of the week and already procrastinating. Daunted by the prospect of working on a web page (in spite of WordPress support) and learning that Saturday I'm free – so one more day to work – I decided to do some extra work. Well, not completely.
I uploaded Air on Lulu, and I have problems fitting the cover on the Lulu Cover Wizards. So I'll have to adjust it with the help of the cover artist. Sigh.
Then yesterday it occurred to me that I've worked with a Japanese artist in the past, and I haven't heard from her. I e-mailed her, but she didn't reply. She never does. She drops me an e-mail for my b-day or around Christmas and then disappears again. She lives south of Tokyo, so the tsunami shouldn't have hurt her place, but…
So, after seeing JC Martin launching an anthology for Japan (check her guidelines here), I decided to upload on Lulu a compendium of our works – it's manga, of course. I wrote them, Masayo did the drawings.
Except I have all of them on paper – I had one saved on a back-up CD, but half of it isn't readable… – so today I spent the day scanning and preparing the PDF for Lulu. As soon as I check the proof copy, it will be available on my Lulu store.
All earnings will go to her, or, if I fail to get in touch with her, to her country (I will go to the Japanese Embassy in Rome to ask where it's more needed).
Here's a preview of the cover images - I did the coloring, so blame me if it's not so good. I have some drawings she did in color, but not the mangas, as we didn't have color covers back then.
A bloody story of vampires
Tomorrow BOOK TRAILER!
March 23, 2011
Indie Publishing Week 2
I wish I had brought my camera as on my way back I saw a wonderful sunset with a very red sun. It was gone by the time I got home, sigh.
Anyway, after struggling with Photoshop this morning, here's what we came up with:
Ladies and gentlemen, the book cover for Air, now on my Facebook profile like I've seen done by so many published authors! It's so exciting to see the publishing date coming closer and closer!
Her cover represents Air itself in its Dancer incarnation. I will use my own drawings for the book trailer, so they won't be as good!
A friend of mine offered to re-do my map(s), but I might play with some map-making software anyway. What's a fantasy novel without a map? Exactly. I don't know why my beta didn't like my maps, but I'll see to it I have one that looks professional!
So, what's left on my list? Lots of things, actually… I better get back to work!
Have a great week!
March 22, 2011
Indie Publishing Week 1
So, here's the schedule – and it's already all corrected! 
Ahem, well… cover artist had forgotten she was busy on Monday, so I'm seeing her today – hence the switch.
SO! Saturday I did the final edit of Air and worked on the book cover (and printed a first draft of Earth as well, so I can give it to my first beta). Sunday was off to take care of the spirit/soul/inner writer (AND it's Six Sentence Sunday – I DO visit all the other 90+ blogs, even if I don't leave comments… which isn't something everybody else does! ) and Monday had the usual Happiness is… post scheduled. But what did I do of the things on the list?
"Opened" the Kindle account – first a new one, then I realized I can actually use my Amazon account, even if it's under my real name. Have no idea of how to close the second account, though – Amazon feels free to close accounts, but doesn't allow users to opt out easily? Maybe I just can't find it. I'll just leave it dead and use the older account.
Then I read all the Kindle fine-print and again wished I lived elsewhere. That 70% royalty rate? It's only for UK, US and Canada. MUST find a husband in one of those countries (and my Muse has a Canadian passport… maybe I really should propose! JUST KIDDING! ). Or stick to the 35%. Have to get on the Kindle anyway, because as Mark Coker himself says "Amazon is 2000 times larger than Smashwords" so if I want to find my 5000 readers, I must get on the Kindle. Somehow I'm relieved because the exclusion includes also an English-speaking continent (Australia), so it's not only a question of mother tongue.
Then I did my Smashwords formatting, but I don't have Word, I have Open Office at home. And I'm away from Day Job where I have Word. So I'll ask my cover artist if she has Word so I can add the hyperlinks to the Smashwords file (couldn't figure out how to do it with Open Office) – otherwise I'll have to complete the file next week. Sigh.
Oh, and I managed to finish all my handwritten Zero Drafts, so anytime I'll switch off the computer to give my eyes a rest, I'll be drawing SKYBAND chapter 6 – no more procrastinations excuses (and if you wonder where this fits in the schedule, look at the last column).
What I haven't done yet, but is on the list, is check how much is a book tour with a company that contacted me to be part of someone else's book tour (so next week I'll have a guest post), if it's worth the expense or if I should just try to organize it myself like Krista D.Ball is doing. Has anyone done a virtual book tour? Did you organize it yourself or paid someone to contact people for you?
Next: the meeting with the cover artist!
March 20, 2011
March 19, 2011
Six Sentence Sunday
Hello everybody! It's Sunday again, which means you're treated to sex sentences of my upcoming novel Books of the Immortals – AIR. I got it back from the editor and am working on the cover with the artist, I really hope to put it out there soon for you all to enjoy. In the meantime, here are today's six: I'm back to my main characters, seen from someone else's POV. So, please welcome the Sila Winged Jesminder!
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"Noble and divine creature, show yourself!" the king called.
Sarita hid a chuckle behind her hand. Her mother elbowed her with a frown and she regained control of herself. A rustle of large wings came from the dark interior of the temple. A brown haired young woman with big brown wings protruding from her back appeared at the door. She wore tight fitting clothes (shirt and trousers, not the gowns women usually wore), and her sky-blue eyes viewed the small crowd with a hint of panic.
________________
Now please do check the other entries of this wonderful idea by Sara Brookes here. There are almost 100 authors by now, it's overwhelming but so much fun!
Have a great Sunday!
Links and introducing Indie Publishing Week
Wow, another week gone. Geez. So, lots of links this time. First guidelines (genre writers, I'm afraid).
Daily Science Fiction (and fantasy – mostly flash fiction, delivered daily to your inbox) – submission guidelines.
Angry Robot is open to unsolicited submissions (SF/F/H only) for this month only – you have another 10 days to check the guidelines and submit.
Writerly advice!
Literary Lab on one sentence about your book. The good and the bad.
Blood-Red Pencil about dealing with fear of criticism & rejection. I have no advice here, so please check them.
Other writer-related things!
Colleen Doran points to a Newspaper Guild call for strike against Huffington Post – and how being featured there hasn't really helped her.
Blood-Red Pencil again about Days of Kindle. On the same topic, Nathan Bransford on Amanda Hocking and more Kindle thoughts. It's been months since I visited Nathan's blog, but these were mentioned in Rachelle Gardner's posts about publishing myths part 1, part 2 and part 3
Smashwords on DRM – noticed the neat new badge on my sidebar?
On INDIE publishing in the words of
Ruth Ann Nordin at Self-published author's lounge.
Yours truly will entertain you on the topic the whole of next week, as I've taken if off Day Job to concentrate on the production of Books of the Immortals – Air. I'd post my schedule now, but maybe it's better at the end of next week, to check if I've done everything and in the order I've written it! Just know it's handwritten… maybe I'll scan it during next week, if I have a very short post!
As I will also be working on a web page, in the meantime I thought I'd update the blog in a more professional way, as suggested by good Michelle in her post about 5 basic things every writer's blog should have. It's a little late to change the blog title, but did you notice the differences?
Final link – if you'd like to see me making a fool of myself, just hop off to Shafali's blog, where she did the caricature of my Muse… Some day I'll have to discover who HER muse is and present her with a drawing!
Have a great weekend!
