William Amerman's Blog, page 2
December 26, 2015
Tyranny of subjectivity
The flip side of selling a "ton" (a nice subjective term there) of books is receiving more ratings. Some of these are high. A couple of these are low. Well, a few high and one low. What the heck causes one person to love something and another to hate it? What different combination of life experiences, body chemistry, or neural pattern variety cause such wide variance in opinion?
To be academic about it, I'm sure I could do some research and uncover lots of little nuggets explaining why people rate as they do.
However, the Indian buffet closes in an hour and the boys are hungry so let's just short-cut to intuition, gut feel on top of some subjective prejudice?
As a wise man once said/sang, people are strange.
I suppose there's no use fretting about human nature. Just do your best and don't try to please everyone. However, that doesn't mean ignoring critics. For example, having several people call out word choice issues--"he always says his characters' heads bob, not nod"--is a useful detail.
Okay. The butter chicken is calling too loudly, derailing all my thoughts. Happy day after Xmas.
To be academic about it, I'm sure I could do some research and uncover lots of little nuggets explaining why people rate as they do.
However, the Indian buffet closes in an hour and the boys are hungry so let's just short-cut to intuition, gut feel on top of some subjective prejudice?
As a wise man once said/sang, people are strange.
I suppose there's no use fretting about human nature. Just do your best and don't try to please everyone. However, that doesn't mean ignoring critics. For example, having several people call out word choice issues--"he always says his characters' heads bob, not nod"--is a useful detail.
Okay. The butter chicken is calling too loudly, derailing all my thoughts. Happy day after Xmas.
December 24, 2015
Christmas Eve
To all the Moms and Dads out there who are just about to put the kiddies to bed and get to work on some serious bike, jungle gym, helicopter, train set, etc construction . . . good luck! And from personal experience, I can tell you that a nice glass of your favorite adult beverage can make those directions just a tad bit easier to read!
Merry Christmas, all.
Merry Christmas, all.
Hugh Howey's Beacon
To the reviewer who once wrote, "I would read anything Hugh Howey writes, including his grocery list," I applaud and agree with you.
Well, Sand never really did it for me. But for a lesson in building likable characters, rip-tight pacing with fun, frivolity, artful wording and other aspects of fine writing, his other works hit the mark close to that tiny little red center one.
Just picked up Beacon 23, the complete series. And (I love to start my sentences with conjunctions when my editor can't slap me) whereas Sand felt rushed, flat and reminded me of my own travails in "getting character A to point C by way of point B, and we'll go back and spruce it up in editing," Beacon hearkens back to Wool. The writing--meaning word choice, and pacing--is better than Wool, too.
Beacon also provides a fine example of monetizing writing in the e-book era. With no fixed costs and minimal variable costs, authors can publish more frequently and charge less. The benefit to readers is they don't have to wait for 12-18 months for each new book to come out. The downside to the readers is it can feel incomplete and frustrating to finish each installment in what feels like the middle of the overall story. That's why I abandoned the Pennsylvania series--well, also for the reason it pissed me off how glowing reviews and praise from established authors contrasted harshly with what I considered poor writing.
For all its benefits, though, it seems hard as hell to write that way. 1) how long is long enough for each section? Ignore the 3 act structure and perish. But each chapter should basically be a miniature 3 act as well, I can hear you say? True. But what's the construct between a chapter (comprised of 3 acts) and a novel (comprised of 3 acts)? Come on . . . you've almost got it . . . it's right on the tip of your tongue . . . yes, the short story. Which seems to be what Beacon is trying to do. In a short story there's a beginning, middle and end. Conflict is raised. Conflict is resolved, at least enough to feel complete. But is stringing together 5 related short stories going to feel like a novel? Howey's been writing this way for a long time and been hugely successful, but I've always waited until the full compilations were complete (except Sand) before reading.
2) I better be damned sure I don't need to change anything at the beginning of the story to fit the end of the story.
3) how do I get my editor still to love me when I'm pumping 15-20k snippets at her?
4) is it worth turning off readers like me who will buy an installment because they loved the previous books, then feel empty when the installment ends and
5) most importantly, what if an installment sucks? If it's just the middle 100-150 page section of a 300 page book, there's plenty of chance a reader will stick with it and get to the good, fast sledding part after slogging up that steep, boring hill. If installment 1 or 2 is that boring hill, though, then installments 3-5 aren't going to move at all.
However, especially to authors just trying to build a following (and thank you again to the over 3,000 new readers who have picked up Sky1), it keeps his/her name out there with something fresh to read every three months or so. Looking at my own reader habits, though, I left off Turkot's Rain series right about the time they hit the snow and while I still have foggy intentions of finishing the story some day, I haven't been back to see if he's got enough published to pick up the next volume.
Ok. I had no intention of inspecting serialized novel as art form this morning. But it's a relief not to agonize over word choices and more importantly, delays by ever so few seconds the drudge task of descending into the pits to hack out the ending of the in-process novel.
Well, Sand never really did it for me. But for a lesson in building likable characters, rip-tight pacing with fun, frivolity, artful wording and other aspects of fine writing, his other works hit the mark close to that tiny little red center one.
Just picked up Beacon 23, the complete series. And (I love to start my sentences with conjunctions when my editor can't slap me) whereas Sand felt rushed, flat and reminded me of my own travails in "getting character A to point C by way of point B, and we'll go back and spruce it up in editing," Beacon hearkens back to Wool. The writing--meaning word choice, and pacing--is better than Wool, too.
Beacon also provides a fine example of monetizing writing in the e-book era. With no fixed costs and minimal variable costs, authors can publish more frequently and charge less. The benefit to readers is they don't have to wait for 12-18 months for each new book to come out. The downside to the readers is it can feel incomplete and frustrating to finish each installment in what feels like the middle of the overall story. That's why I abandoned the Pennsylvania series--well, also for the reason it pissed me off how glowing reviews and praise from established authors contrasted harshly with what I considered poor writing.
For all its benefits, though, it seems hard as hell to write that way. 1) how long is long enough for each section? Ignore the 3 act structure and perish. But each chapter should basically be a miniature 3 act as well, I can hear you say? True. But what's the construct between a chapter (comprised of 3 acts) and a novel (comprised of 3 acts)? Come on . . . you've almost got it . . . it's right on the tip of your tongue . . . yes, the short story. Which seems to be what Beacon is trying to do. In a short story there's a beginning, middle and end. Conflict is raised. Conflict is resolved, at least enough to feel complete. But is stringing together 5 related short stories going to feel like a novel? Howey's been writing this way for a long time and been hugely successful, but I've always waited until the full compilations were complete (except Sand) before reading.
2) I better be damned sure I don't need to change anything at the beginning of the story to fit the end of the story.
3) how do I get my editor still to love me when I'm pumping 15-20k snippets at her?
4) is it worth turning off readers like me who will buy an installment because they loved the previous books, then feel empty when the installment ends and
5) most importantly, what if an installment sucks? If it's just the middle 100-150 page section of a 300 page book, there's plenty of chance a reader will stick with it and get to the good, fast sledding part after slogging up that steep, boring hill. If installment 1 or 2 is that boring hill, though, then installments 3-5 aren't going to move at all.
However, especially to authors just trying to build a following (and thank you again to the over 3,000 new readers who have picked up Sky1), it keeps his/her name out there with something fresh to read every three months or so. Looking at my own reader habits, though, I left off Turkot's Rain series right about the time they hit the snow and while I still have foggy intentions of finishing the story some day, I haven't been back to see if he's got enough published to pick up the next volume.
Ok. I had no intention of inspecting serialized novel as art form this morning. But it's a relief not to agonize over word choices and more importantly, delays by ever so few seconds the drudge task of descending into the pits to hack out the ending of the in-process novel.
December 21, 2015
Monday rain
It's Monday, first day of two weeks off from work, and the words are flowing for the fourth book. No, I'm not pretending that they are particularly inspired or beautifully wrought. No, some days writing is just laying one brick on top of the other. Knowing that I'll come back and tidy up the mortar, level things up and get it nice and neat.
One of the things I'm most thankful for as a writer is a reckoning and understanding about the writing process. Knowing where the story is going is paramount. Then having a high level outline. Then blocking out each scene. Then actually writing each scene. Then going back over each newly written scene the day after writing it and shoring it up a bit. Then once a week or so going back over the previous week's writing and shoring up even more. And that pretty much gets a book's first draft completed. After that, the rewrite process kicks in, which is where all those days of writing without inspiration are paid for, massaged, pruned, shaped into cohesion.
The reason this process works for me is I've finally realized each day's writing doesn't have to be inspired, just functional. Plenty of time to go back over it.
Unlike blog entries. Which I push out using pretty much a stream of consciousness method. Apologies for today!
One of the things I'm most thankful for as a writer is a reckoning and understanding about the writing process. Knowing where the story is going is paramount. Then having a high level outline. Then blocking out each scene. Then actually writing each scene. Then going back over each newly written scene the day after writing it and shoring it up a bit. Then once a week or so going back over the previous week's writing and shoring up even more. And that pretty much gets a book's first draft completed. After that, the rewrite process kicks in, which is where all those days of writing without inspiration are paid for, massaged, pruned, shaped into cohesion.
The reason this process works for me is I've finally realized each day's writing doesn't have to be inspired, just functional. Plenty of time to go back over it.
Unlike blog entries. Which I push out using pretty much a stream of consciousness method. Apologies for today!
December 20, 2015
Back to work
Why am I munching cereal with earplugs (try it sometime and tell me if it isn't an interesting experience), sitting in front of my laptop?
It's because I've found that the damn "Update Report" button is MUCH more attractive (think cocaine or chocolate cake) than the 101 keyboard keys waiting to be pressed in combinations that will spit out new fiction.
While the boys play in the other room as loud and noisy as they normally are, I'm buckling down. Gearing up for the final push to complete Sky4 - [name TBD]. After gaining over a thousand new readers in 24 hours, the urgency and pressure to finish the 4th book is like nothing I've ever known. I picture this huge new crowd racing through the first book. Then on to the second. Then hopefully on to the third and if I imagine that takes a few weeks, I'd like to be able to provide them the fourth book to fall into immediately after the third.
The fourth book resumes where the first one left off and begins to get to the part of this story where we find out why the World was created, who created it and what lies in store for the World and its people in the near future. It's over-sized right now--about 130k words that will be about 145k when finished, but then hopefully pared back to 130k after 1st and 2nd edits. Which is almost enough for two books, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Off to it and thank you to everyone who helped propel Sky1 - Foundation to the best-seller charts on Amazon (#1 in Post Apocalyptic Fiction), on the front page best-seller list at Barnes and Noble (right next to Star Wars and The Martian....what a feeling that is!).
It's because I've found that the damn "Update Report" button is MUCH more attractive (think cocaine or chocolate cake) than the 101 keyboard keys waiting to be pressed in combinations that will spit out new fiction.
While the boys play in the other room as loud and noisy as they normally are, I'm buckling down. Gearing up for the final push to complete Sky4 - [name TBD]. After gaining over a thousand new readers in 24 hours, the urgency and pressure to finish the 4th book is like nothing I've ever known. I picture this huge new crowd racing through the first book. Then on to the second. Then hopefully on to the third and if I imagine that takes a few weeks, I'd like to be able to provide them the fourth book to fall into immediately after the third.
The fourth book resumes where the first one left off and begins to get to the part of this story where we find out why the World was created, who created it and what lies in store for the World and its people in the near future. It's over-sized right now--about 130k words that will be about 145k when finished, but then hopefully pared back to 130k after 1st and 2nd edits. Which is almost enough for two books, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Off to it and thank you to everyone who helped propel Sky1 - Foundation to the best-seller charts on Amazon (#1 in Post Apocalyptic Fiction), on the front page best-seller list at Barnes and Noble (right next to Star Wars and The Martian....what a feeling that is!).
December 19, 2015
Bookbub - mid-early results
Ok, the anticipation and (internal) hype was not misplaced about the bookbub ad. My goodness, that sales line has never been so vertical.
More importantly? The boys won our last game of the season at U11 boys soccer this morning against the club we were with last year. Before the game, I talked to the boys about the importance of leaving a legacy, how it had been an honor to coach them for six years. We did a cheer for each of the three team names we'd had during those years (they outgrew Silver Rhinos and Iron Men). Then took the field and won a close game 1-0.
After the game, I gave a season recap to the parents, emphasizing how well we'd done (won the league, a tournament and came in 3rd State Cup), despite the mom who thinks we did so poorly that she wants us to disband or me to be "fired" because we didn't win every game.
Then, while everyone left the field,I climbed up on the levee and watched the river for a while with tears in my eyes. It has been a long and rewarding road and an honor to help teach young boys become young men. I'm sure this sense of loss will leave me in good time.
More importantly? The boys won our last game of the season at U11 boys soccer this morning against the club we were with last year. Before the game, I talked to the boys about the importance of leaving a legacy, how it had been an honor to coach them for six years. We did a cheer for each of the three team names we'd had during those years (they outgrew Silver Rhinos and Iron Men). Then took the field and won a close game 1-0.
After the game, I gave a season recap to the parents, emphasizing how well we'd done (won the league, a tournament and came in 3rd State Cup), despite the mom who thinks we did so poorly that she wants us to disband or me to be "fired" because we didn't win every game.
Then, while everyone left the field,I climbed up on the levee and watched the river for a while with tears in my eyes. It has been a long and rewarding road and an honor to help teach young boys become young men. I'm sure this sense of loss will leave me in good time.
Early results - ad convergence
To get as much momentum as possible, I placed ads for Sky1 - Foundation at .99 with Kindle Nation, eReader News in addition to the superhuge Bookbub ad.
Woke up this morning about 6am and checked sales. Nothing. 30 mins later a blip. Something must have gone live. Not bookbub, but one of the other two. Checked five mins later and the total had doubled. Wow. Now, in the past 45 minutes sales are already almost even with the entire year's worth of sales for this book. And this is just the warm-up.
Ok. Yes. A bit of gloating. But my God writing is a solitary effort. Years of being locked away, writing, re-writing. Creating worlds in my mind. Characters who I've lived with so long they feel like friends I used to know. So taking a moment of true appreciation feels warranted.
So now I can go deal with the soccer parents today (re: previous post). Life is not dull!
Woke up this morning about 6am and checked sales. Nothing. 30 mins later a blip. Something must have gone live. Not bookbub, but one of the other two. Checked five mins later and the total had doubled. Wow. Now, in the past 45 minutes sales are already almost even with the entire year's worth of sales for this book. And this is just the warm-up.
Ok. Yes. A bit of gloating. But my God writing is a solitary effort. Years of being locked away, writing, re-writing. Creating worlds in my mind. Characters who I've lived with so long they feel like friends I used to know. So taking a moment of true appreciation feels warranted.
So now I can go deal with the soccer parents today (re: previous post). Life is not dull!
December 18, 2015
Back in Black
Parents work hard for their families, their children. I've gone through 20+ years of education to get a job that feeds, clothes and houses them. Have driven (or coached) them to thousands of sports practices. Trips to the urgent care. Presents for Christmas (oh crap I really need to finish that for this year--thank you Amazon Prime!) and the millions of other things we do to provide for them.
But does that make us "cool" in their eyes? No. We're like indoor plumbing....always been there, never fails.
However, bring home daddy's black Fender Stratocaster guitar, plug it in to daddy's Vox amp and thrash out Back in Black for the boys? Yeah, suddenly I'm seeing jaws dropping and eyes widening. Who knew it was so easy to get a grudging "yeah, that's pretty cool, Dad?"
Life's lessons continue to amaze.
But does that make us "cool" in their eyes? No. We're like indoor plumbing....always been there, never fails.
However, bring home daddy's black Fender Stratocaster guitar, plug it in to daddy's Vox amp and thrash out Back in Black for the boys? Yeah, suddenly I'm seeing jaws dropping and eyes widening. Who knew it was so easy to get a grudging "yeah, that's pretty cool, Dad?"
Life's lessons continue to amaze.
December 15, 2015
A coup is brewing
How about a quick non-writing entry? Something more for my own release than for anyone else to read.
I've coached my youngest son's soccer team for six years now. Over these years I have bonded with these boys, they have bonded with each other and the parents have bonded, so that we feel like one big family. Or rather, felt like one big family.
Two years ago I realized we had a problem. We needed to play against stiffer competition so that the boys would continue to progress.
However, very few clubs would let us join them as an intact team. The focus of competitive soccer in the US is on developing individual players to be the best they can be, NOT on keeping teams together. Which is a fine aspiration, but realizing that 90% of all these players will never play college soccer and even fewer will play pro soccer, I've always felt that the non-soccer aspects of learning teamwork, respect for authority, and other life lessons were just as important as learning a chest-trap then volley shot on goal.
See, we've always been a club that is just about the social aspects of soccer as much as the game of soccer. All the boys are friends and we've kept the same core 8 players together over six years. However, we were beating the recreational level teams in our league 8-0 and could have beaten some by 15-0 if I didn't purposefully throttle us back, so it was time to move up in competition.
It took a LOT of investigation, finagling and negotiation, but I finally found a club that would let us move to them as a team and play at the competitive level.
First year in comp was a complete mess. We joined the club of my oldest sons' and they were disorganized, well-intentioned but insisted on splitting coaching duties with one of their coaches. Great guy. Knows more than I'll ever know. Not effective at getting 10 year old boys playing to their potential. We lost every game until I and my assistant insisted that we basically run the show, then turned it around somewhat.
This year, we switched clubs. Getting through tryouts, picking up two players, fending off the higher level team's coach from poaching our players, etc, was a good two months of stress.
It's been a looooong season. Maybe 50 games this year at U11. We progressed a ton, but this age group seems to have a greater variability in day-to-day performance (with a noticeable correlation in lack of attention if any girls team was practicing near us :))
We won a tournament in the summer. And we won the fall league. In state cup we made the semi-finals, winning our quarterfinal came on a come back and then penalty shoot-out. Last tournament lost 2 and won 1.
The main reasons we lost this season were; one, we have three or four boys who are not physically able to play against the top level of competition we faced. Because I insist every boy plays at least a little bit of every half of soccer, even tournaments, we were exposed. Second, variability in performance. Still, when we lost playing the "right" way (possession-oriented) I didn't mind as when we lost the "wrong" way (lack of focus, laziness, lack of desire).
Due to idiotic US Soccer new regulations adjusting the age cut-offs for each cohort of players, 5 of my 12 players can't play for us next year.
Which brings us to the coup.
Yesterday, I fielded a call from my assistant coach that the remaining 5 parents have gotten together and want to "fire" me as the head coach and instate my assistant as the new head coach. Apparently, we aren't winning enough (every game) and the boys aren't progressing. Wow. What a shock. Especially, that they didn't want to meet with me and consider it a "done deal."
Now, I realize you readers don't know me. I could be a towering tyrant on the sidelines, screaming at every mistake, arguing every bad call and displaying every other bit of counterproductive coaching behavior I've seen over the years. But I'm not. I hold the players accountable to their responsibilities, which means pointing out their mistakes (mental mistakes only . . . physical mistakes are expected and fine), but you will not hear a more vociferous cheering when they do all the right things.
I believe that you have to strike a balance as a coach. If you're nothing but a cheerleader, the boys don't take praise seriously after a while. If you're nothing but a nagging criticizer, the boys won't have any self-esteem, will play scared, etc. I thought I had that balance figured out. Maybe not.
One might think that six years of coaching their children would imbue some slight loyalty? That's over 200 games coached. Maybe 1,000 practice sessions. Countless strategy emails and phone calls with my assistants. And finally, most importantly, the bond I've developed with these boys as they grow from little boys to big boys to soon-to-be grown men.
Okay. Enough weepy poor me stuff. Life has been so good to me. I have three beautiful boys who I love more than anything in this world.
It is more than enough.
I've coached my youngest son's soccer team for six years now. Over these years I have bonded with these boys, they have bonded with each other and the parents have bonded, so that we feel like one big family. Or rather, felt like one big family.
Two years ago I realized we had a problem. We needed to play against stiffer competition so that the boys would continue to progress.
However, very few clubs would let us join them as an intact team. The focus of competitive soccer in the US is on developing individual players to be the best they can be, NOT on keeping teams together. Which is a fine aspiration, but realizing that 90% of all these players will never play college soccer and even fewer will play pro soccer, I've always felt that the non-soccer aspects of learning teamwork, respect for authority, and other life lessons were just as important as learning a chest-trap then volley shot on goal.
See, we've always been a club that is just about the social aspects of soccer as much as the game of soccer. All the boys are friends and we've kept the same core 8 players together over six years. However, we were beating the recreational level teams in our league 8-0 and could have beaten some by 15-0 if I didn't purposefully throttle us back, so it was time to move up in competition.
It took a LOT of investigation, finagling and negotiation, but I finally found a club that would let us move to them as a team and play at the competitive level.
First year in comp was a complete mess. We joined the club of my oldest sons' and they were disorganized, well-intentioned but insisted on splitting coaching duties with one of their coaches. Great guy. Knows more than I'll ever know. Not effective at getting 10 year old boys playing to their potential. We lost every game until I and my assistant insisted that we basically run the show, then turned it around somewhat.
This year, we switched clubs. Getting through tryouts, picking up two players, fending off the higher level team's coach from poaching our players, etc, was a good two months of stress.
It's been a looooong season. Maybe 50 games this year at U11. We progressed a ton, but this age group seems to have a greater variability in day-to-day performance (with a noticeable correlation in lack of attention if any girls team was practicing near us :))
We won a tournament in the summer. And we won the fall league. In state cup we made the semi-finals, winning our quarterfinal came on a come back and then penalty shoot-out. Last tournament lost 2 and won 1.
The main reasons we lost this season were; one, we have three or four boys who are not physically able to play against the top level of competition we faced. Because I insist every boy plays at least a little bit of every half of soccer, even tournaments, we were exposed. Second, variability in performance. Still, when we lost playing the "right" way (possession-oriented) I didn't mind as when we lost the "wrong" way (lack of focus, laziness, lack of desire).
Due to idiotic US Soccer new regulations adjusting the age cut-offs for each cohort of players, 5 of my 12 players can't play for us next year.
Which brings us to the coup.
Yesterday, I fielded a call from my assistant coach that the remaining 5 parents have gotten together and want to "fire" me as the head coach and instate my assistant as the new head coach. Apparently, we aren't winning enough (every game) and the boys aren't progressing. Wow. What a shock. Especially, that they didn't want to meet with me and consider it a "done deal."
Now, I realize you readers don't know me. I could be a towering tyrant on the sidelines, screaming at every mistake, arguing every bad call and displaying every other bit of counterproductive coaching behavior I've seen over the years. But I'm not. I hold the players accountable to their responsibilities, which means pointing out their mistakes (mental mistakes only . . . physical mistakes are expected and fine), but you will not hear a more vociferous cheering when they do all the right things.
I believe that you have to strike a balance as a coach. If you're nothing but a cheerleader, the boys don't take praise seriously after a while. If you're nothing but a nagging criticizer, the boys won't have any self-esteem, will play scared, etc. I thought I had that balance figured out. Maybe not.
One might think that six years of coaching their children would imbue some slight loyalty? That's over 200 games coached. Maybe 1,000 practice sessions. Countless strategy emails and phone calls with my assistants. And finally, most importantly, the bond I've developed with these boys as they grow from little boys to big boys to soon-to-be grown men.
Okay. Enough weepy poor me stuff. Life has been so good to me. I have three beautiful boys who I love more than anything in this world.
It is more than enough.
December 10, 2015
I'm in!
Wow. After eleven straight rejections over 18 months, Bookbub has finally agreed to give me a spot in their daily newsletter. On December 19th, Sky1 will go out as a .99 sale to, um, 1.6 million people. Yeah, slightly terrifying. I've had to resist the urge to do an entire rewrite of Sky1! It's fine. It's good. But it was so many years ago that I wrote it, that I know I'm a better writer now and would like to inject some of that "better" writing into it.
However, the reviews have always been good and the editing is crisp, so that sucker will have to stand on its own. The blurb, however, will be completely overhauled.
Audio-book is in the works, but unfortunately I didn't start that until last week and the narrator needs more than just a couple weeks to produce it.
And Sky4, the behemoth that won't end, continues to amass a personal record word count. Up to 125k words and probably 15k from being done. At least my readers won't feel cheated out of buying a book that's over too soon!
However, the reviews have always been good and the editing is crisp, so that sucker will have to stand on its own. The blurb, however, will be completely overhauled.
Audio-book is in the works, but unfortunately I didn't start that until last week and the narrator needs more than just a couple weeks to produce it.
And Sky4, the behemoth that won't end, continues to amass a personal record word count. Up to 125k words and probably 15k from being done. At least my readers won't feel cheated out of buying a book that's over too soon!
