William Amerman's Blog, page 8
July 3, 2011
Thoughts on independent writers
On various writer's forums, topics vary from how to sell more books to how to deal with bad reviews and so on. One thing we tend to tip-toe around, though, is expressing opinions on the quality of each others work. We try to be supportive and encouraging because insulting a writer's work is a bit like insulting one of his children. But it's hard when some guy is whining about a bad review and this same guy has pumped out 4 novels in a couple years, an aggregate word count of about half a million words, and it all reads like a 10th grader's B- book report on Lord Jim.
You know he's locked himself away every day for a couple of hours, roused himself into a self-absorbed frenzy of caffeine-induced egotism to put thoughts to the screen, but the cold truth is it's all worthless. It's wasted time. And I have a hard time advising him to buck up, cheer up, ignore the bad review and just press on. Because I'd rather that he didn't.
As a writer, I empathize, though. Almost every writer thinks his/her book is a gem just waiting to be discovered. That if only people could find it, would buy it, would read it, that it would quickly become a bestseller. God knows I fall into that description as well!
As a reader, though, my experience has been that most independently published books are, to put it delicately, crap. In ye olden days, agents and publishing houses acted as quality control owners. Even if they did let through a lot of what I considered "crap" years ago, compared with the independently published books of today, there is an obvious difference. It used to take quite a lot of effort and luck to get an agent to take you on or a publishing house to publish you. I racked up quite a few rejection letters over the years.
Today, though, any author can publish any work at any time. All you have to do is pound out a few thousand words, whip up a cover, format in Word and upload to a site and slap a price on it.
How do readers sift through all that noise? How do I do it? I just bought my kindle last month. I downloaded a lot of free books at first, but quickly moved on to .99 books. After a couple weeks of suffering through the .99 books, I've decided I'm going to have to move up in price. I'm finding a rough correlation between price and quality, but am wondering if that will hold as I move up into $2.99 and $3.99 territory. At least the sample chapters seem better. I wonder how others do it.
You know he's locked himself away every day for a couple of hours, roused himself into a self-absorbed frenzy of caffeine-induced egotism to put thoughts to the screen, but the cold truth is it's all worthless. It's wasted time. And I have a hard time advising him to buck up, cheer up, ignore the bad review and just press on. Because I'd rather that he didn't.
As a writer, I empathize, though. Almost every writer thinks his/her book is a gem just waiting to be discovered. That if only people could find it, would buy it, would read it, that it would quickly become a bestseller. God knows I fall into that description as well!
As a reader, though, my experience has been that most independently published books are, to put it delicately, crap. In ye olden days, agents and publishing houses acted as quality control owners. Even if they did let through a lot of what I considered "crap" years ago, compared with the independently published books of today, there is an obvious difference. It used to take quite a lot of effort and luck to get an agent to take you on or a publishing house to publish you. I racked up quite a few rejection letters over the years.
Today, though, any author can publish any work at any time. All you have to do is pound out a few thousand words, whip up a cover, format in Word and upload to a site and slap a price on it.
How do readers sift through all that noise? How do I do it? I just bought my kindle last month. I downloaded a lot of free books at first, but quickly moved on to .99 books. After a couple weeks of suffering through the .99 books, I've decided I'm going to have to move up in price. I'm finding a rough correlation between price and quality, but am wondering if that will hold as I move up into $2.99 and $3.99 territory. At least the sample chapters seem better. I wonder how others do it.
June 29, 2011
4th of July coming up!
Not going to do a sale on my book this holiday. Lots of writing. Looking forward to buying fireworks this week. My three boys going wild with anticipation. We have a neighborhood tradition for the 4th. Wake up and head over to one neighbor's house at 9am for pancakes and mimosas. After an hour or so, back home for a nap. Then noon at my house for light lunch, swimming and the first true beers of the day cracked open with vigor, enthusiasm. Then around 2pm out to the cul-de-sac for bbq, basketball, football, soccer, etc while 20 kids run wild, getting blackened bare feet, being rushed to the sidewalk when the occasional car comes gliding past.
Some years we have a margarita machine and an extension cord, but some years not. Then right at dark, drag out the saw horses and tortured, burned plank of wood from previous years. Set the fireworks up. Let the big kids (11 years old and up) help and try not to spill beer and/or get your eyebrows burned off as you rush in to the seething, colorful inferno of 15-20 fireworks going off at the same time, frantically trying to light the small nub of a fuse on the "California Assassinator" cannon as the hair singes on your arms. Quite a treat!
Some years we have a margarita machine and an extension cord, but some years not. Then right at dark, drag out the saw horses and tortured, burned plank of wood from previous years. Set the fireworks up. Let the big kids (11 years old and up) help and try not to spill beer and/or get your eyebrows burned off as you rush in to the seething, colorful inferno of 15-20 fireworks going off at the same time, frantically trying to light the small nub of a fuse on the "California Assassinator" cannon as the hair singes on your arms. Quite a treat!
June 21, 2011
Book giveaway
I had a thought on how best to deal with the 1 negative review I've received on Aries at Dawn. Despite having 3 five star reviews on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Aries-at-Dawn-e...), unfortunately the 1 star review is the only review on Goodreads.
So to the first 10 people who email me at wamerman@gmail.com (just put the word 'giveaway' some where in the title), I'll send you a coupon code to pick up a free copy of Aries at Dawn at Smashwords.
All I ask is that you consider leaving a brief review in return. It can be something as simple as "loved it," "hated it," or "it touched me in places I didn't know I had." Anything to get some more feedback than that lonely, ugly 1 star!
So to the first 10 people who email me at wamerman@gmail.com (just put the word 'giveaway' some where in the title), I'll send you a coupon code to pick up a free copy of Aries at Dawn at Smashwords.
All I ask is that you consider leaving a brief review in return. It can be something as simple as "loved it," "hated it," or "it touched me in places I didn't know I had." Anything to get some more feedback than that lonely, ugly 1 star!
June 17, 2011
First one star review on Amazon - yeah baby!
I had gotten spoiled by all my five star reviews on Amazon. This week I randomly checked in and saw I'd gotten a new review--a one star review! What a fabulously dark, soul-crushing moment that was. After a total of 18 months or so to write the original draft, starting in Denver, finishing it in The Netherlands, holed up in the attic of my mother-in-law, a total of 20 or so full re-writes over 8 years, resulting in what I still view to be the tightest, most pruned and efficient sentence structures I could make (this sentence is getting loooong but I'm going to press on) with every word serving to advance the story, I'll admit that the 1 star stung a bit. But on reflection, I'd rather have the 1 star than a 3 star review.
The temptation to respond via the comments, to point out all the flaws in logic I saw with the 1 star reviewer was strong. But I resisted. I'm also resisting responding to it here, as well. But I thought I'd at least talk around it. You can't please everyone. This is the first reader of this book who has ever expressed any negativity at all about the book so, to you my dear cantankerous muse, I dedicate this morning's blog entry. Cheers!
The temptation to respond via the comments, to point out all the flaws in logic I saw with the 1 star reviewer was strong. But I resisted. I'm also resisting responding to it here, as well. But I thought I'd at least talk around it. You can't please everyone. This is the first reader of this book who has ever expressed any negativity at all about the book so, to you my dear cantankerous muse, I dedicate this morning's blog entry. Cheers!
Playing hooky from writing
There was a funny saying I heard in grad school. A professor said that when she was getting her post-grad degree, her apartment had never been cleaner than during finals week. How can the most mundane tasks suddenly seem so appealing? That same principle is driving this blog entry.
The situation is that I am midway through the second book in a futuristic trilogy about a man living in a "world" that has been sealed up, that has had to grow vertically due to population overgrowth and other reasons I can't go into because it would give too much away. The weight of all the unfinished stories that will be captured over the course of three books, spanning maybe 40 years of narrative time, is a bit daunting. In fact, I have a spreadsheet with 11 separate worksheets just to keep track of everything. It feels like the most important thing I've ever written, and the opportunity to make it golden, to make it shimmer in glowing full-cycle perfection, keeps me plugging away at it. But my goodness, it's a LOT of story to tell!
Ok. Enough whining. Back to work.
The situation is that I am midway through the second book in a futuristic trilogy about a man living in a "world" that has been sealed up, that has had to grow vertically due to population overgrowth and other reasons I can't go into because it would give too much away. The weight of all the unfinished stories that will be captured over the course of three books, spanning maybe 40 years of narrative time, is a bit daunting. In fact, I have a spreadsheet with 11 separate worksheets just to keep track of everything. It feels like the most important thing I've ever written, and the opportunity to make it golden, to make it shimmer in glowing full-cycle perfection, keeps me plugging away at it. But my goodness, it's a LOT of story to tell!
Ok. Enough whining. Back to work.
June 5, 2011
Summer sale - .99
I decided to continue the discounting and plan to lower the price of my novel, Aries at Dawn, from $1.99 down to .99 for at least a week or so to get the summer reading season off with a bang.
Pick it up here at:
http://www.amazon.com/Aries-at-Dawn-e...
or at Smashwords:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/...
Pick it up here at:
http://www.amazon.com/Aries-at-Dawn-e...
or at Smashwords:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/...
May 29, 2011
Memorial day book sale
Just lowered the price of my book, Aries at Dawn, to $1.99 for the Memorial Day weekend. Check out a copy now for good by-the-pool reading.
May 23, 2011
Characters, plot and description
It's Monday. Full day of work and escalations but tomorrow brings a fresh early morning. Up by 6am, fresh coffee, some sit-ups, re-read a chapter that brings me up to the current stopping point in the book, then let fly with. . . .
Yes, the moment of truth. What happens next? Tortuous lingering in front of blank white space while the characters mill around, not doing anything, not cooperating? Or do they take off in a rush and it's hard to type fast enough to keep up? And perhaps more importantly, when they take off in a rush, are they all going to the right places at the right times!? And in a witty, intelligent manner. So much to keep track of. And if I don't do this because the process is entertaining of itself, why do it? Let's leave that for another post. Still don't have the hang of this blogging thing. How does one draw the line between self-absorption like a diary or twitter feed and detached lecturing? Hmmmm.
Yes, the moment of truth. What happens next? Tortuous lingering in front of blank white space while the characters mill around, not doing anything, not cooperating? Or do they take off in a rush and it's hard to type fast enough to keep up? And perhaps more importantly, when they take off in a rush, are they all going to the right places at the right times!? And in a witty, intelligent manner. So much to keep track of. And if I don't do this because the process is entertaining of itself, why do it? Let's leave that for another post. Still don't have the hang of this blogging thing. How does one draw the line between self-absorption like a diary or twitter feed and detached lecturing? Hmmmm.
May 20, 2011
I say hello
My first blog. Pondering over what one says in their first blog. The sun is sinking but still shining over the tops of the Redwoods in my backyard at 4:30pm on a Friday work from home day and there's cold beer in the fridge. Yet here I sit. Trying to think of one true thing to kick off this blog with a fantastical kick of literary inertia. And? I guess I'm torn between the allure of Sierra Nevada and daydreaming out in the backyard about being one of the original angel investors for LinkedIn.
Maybe a beer and then continuing this entry? Given that I'm an author, I suppose I should mention the writing here, soon. Aries at Dawn. Book for sale. Second book I ever wrote. Best of the three that I've written. Took maybe 6 months to write a first draft, and about 7 years of rewrites to deliver a final draft. A tad bit obsessive? Well, at least there are no regrets. It's as good as I could make it and now I'm on to a trilogy. Note to self, discuss the trilogy in another blog post. Ok. This is going nowhere. The beer allure has finally overcome all honest intentions of entertaining and educating you, my patient audience, so I'll close with that.
William Amerman
Maybe a beer and then continuing this entry? Given that I'm an author, I suppose I should mention the writing here, soon. Aries at Dawn. Book for sale. Second book I ever wrote. Best of the three that I've written. Took maybe 6 months to write a first draft, and about 7 years of rewrites to deliver a final draft. A tad bit obsessive? Well, at least there are no regrets. It's as good as I could make it and now I'm on to a trilogy. Note to self, discuss the trilogy in another blog post. Ok. This is going nowhere. The beer allure has finally overcome all honest intentions of entertaining and educating you, my patient audience, so I'll close with that.
William Amerman
