S.M. Boyce's Blog: My Journal, page 38

The Art of Understanding Conflicting Book Reviews

This is part of the Dissecting Reviews series, a component of my Indie Author How-To Index that’s meant to help authors learn from the reviews people leave on their novels. No, the Index is totally free. Have fun.

 

Very often, authors will get reviews that conflict with each other. One review will say they loved something, while the other will say they hated the same thing. It’s all very confusing. Some authors get hurt and lash out. Others brush this off entirely and just ignore it—but not you. You’re a professional. You want to constantly improve and constantly learn.

So what’s a professional author with thick skin like yours to do? It’s hard to learn from reviews when they contradict each other.

Well, the answer is actually pretty simple. It sucks, but it’s simple. It all boils down to preference.

Sometimes, the opinion of the masses is the same. If a bulk of your reviews comment on a certain element of your novel that is unclear or needs work, consider it. The Dissecting Reviews Indie Series is designed to help you do just that, so make sure to check out the whole string of posts.

But what about when the reviews are tied? What do you do when just as many people love something as hate it?

A review is an opinion. Bottom line. It always will be, no matter how it’s worded or who wrote it. So when you’re analyzing reviews to improve yourself as an author, you have to keep that in mind. One reviewer may have loved something another reviewer thought was cliché or underdeveloped. One reader might have detested a line of dialogue, while another reader thought that line made the book truly memorable.

In my writing classes, my professors always taught me that the author is the tie breaker. Bottom line—you get to choose. It’s your book. If just as many people love something as dislike it, you get to choose what you want to do. If you loved it, keep it. If you didn’t, change it. If you’re ambivalent…well, stop being lazy and pick a side.

 

An Example

In my debut novel Lichgates (Grimoire Trilogy #1), I’ve been walking a tightrope when it comes to the beginning of my book. Argh. I know—not a great place to have a great divide in readers. Your beginning is supposed to hook readers and draw them in. Keep them reading.

The problem with Lichgates’ beginning seems to be one of three extremes:

People love the almost-immediate action and magic.
They think I didn’t give enough exposition and character development before starting the story.
They think the beginning is too slow.

Seriously. Isn’t that a crazy range? Even I’m scratching my head, thinking…well, wow. The debate is pretty much evenly divided, so I have to pick a side.

With magical novels, the concept of the magical or paranormal needs to be introduced as soon as possible for the reader to be able to fully suspend belief. In that vein, I wrote in magical elements within the first few pages of Lichgates—at a cost. The cost was we don’t see Kara’s (one of the main characters) family or experience the life she had before she discovered the terrifying and beautiful world of Ourea that dominates the Grimoire series.

My tradeoff was exposition for action. As for it being too slow—well, this is the first in an epic trilogy. I can see how the world building could clutter the story line in parts, but I did my best to minimize that.

I personally am a rather impatient reader. I want to get to the meat of the story and discover the characters along the way. I don’t want to learn about their science classes or why they hate gymnastics until it’s relevant to the plot. Thus, how my Lichgates intro came to be.

However, plenty of successful novels have lengthy exposition. I mean, look at Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I swear that a fifth of The Fellowship of the Ring was spent in Hobbiton.

Alternatively, plenty of successful novels start out with an unexplained element that is later expounded upon. In Harry Potter, for example, we see Dumbledore in the beginning carry the infant Harry to his aunt’s house.  The magical element is introduced when he’s taking out the streetlights with his little flashlight-thing. We don’t really know who he is or what’s going on, so the reader survives on the tension-building magic and waits it out.

These conflicting examples of successful novels make me wonder what the right answer is. When I’m reading reviews that dissect my intro or just say they stopped reading, I absolutely want to consider what I could do to improve and make them happy. After all, I want to build a readership that enjoys my novels, since I’ll be writing for the rest of my life (a real writer never retries). However, I have to balance making those readers happy with the multiplicity of readers already in my target audience who think the intro works great. Ultimately, it’s up to me to weigh my reviews against my writing style to decide what I want to do with future books.

 

Important Note: I said future books. Don’t go drastically changing the content of your book between editions. Reviews teach you to improve on future novels, not the ones you’ve already published.

There are only two exceptions to that I can think of:

1) The comments are editing-related. Hire a proofreader to tweak the spelling mistakes or hire a copyeditor to fix plot inconsistencies. This can be uploaded as a new edition. However, sweeping changes in plot and characters should be avoided unless:

2) You have only a few reviews and no one is buying—that might be the only time you can unpublish and start fresh with edits. But read my whole indie index, read books, read blogs. Take the advice you like and do it right the second time. You can’t drastically change your book’s content a lot—it’s unprofessional and contributes to the “indies pub crap” mentality that I loathe with all my being.

 

 

What I Learned from Lichgates’ Conflicting Reviews

Though the rest of the Grimoire Trilogy doesn’t apply, since this is a continuing series, I will be working on tweaking my intros—among other things garnered from reviews—in my future novels. I want to push myself to strike a balance between exposition and action in the first few chapters of my novels. This is something I’ll research and look into, since I think it’s an area where I can improve as a writer. In subsequent novels, I’ll ask my editors to keep a sharp eye out for this in particular.

 

The Bottom Line

My point is: it’s all preference. When conflicting reviews aren’t really helping you, it’s ultimately your choice. Do what you think is right, and maintain both your and your book’s integrity.

On Choosing a Small Press Publisher

As many of you know already, I recently joined the Immortal Ink Publishing team as an Acquisitions Editor. Go me, right?

 

The Old Publishing Model

Independent publishers are not new. BUT—and this is big—the Immortal Ink business model is a freaking awesome one. It’s new, innovative, and I believe it’s the direction independent publishers will take thanks to the indie boom. Honestly, I hope traditional publishers get the hint, but we’ll see.

 

Most publishers—independent or Big 6—don’t help with marketing at all. Small publishers run on the traditional model, but have less distribution power than a bigger house. This is why I originally steered clear of them. Why the hell should I give up a hefty percentage of my profit to someone who reformats, edits, and sticks their label name on the spine? It didn’t make any sense to me.

 

Some people don’t care that they have to market the book themselves—having someone else front the costs for editing, cover art, and formatting is enough. I can respect that. But really, you are a brilliant person. I’m sure you can figure it out, especially with my help tutorials.

 

What to Look For

In my opinion, an independent publisher is most useful when they help you market your books. When they teach you about PR and the stress of reading reviews. I’m not talking about a babysitter—I’m talking about a partner. Someone who shares in your success. To me, that is a successful publisher. If I’m going to give up rights to my book and share the profits, I want someone who is going to be there for me.

 

That’s why I love Immortal Ink. I wouldn’t have joined their team if I didn’t believe without a doubt that they kick ass.

 

Here’s what they offer:

2 year renewable contract
Copy-Editing & Proofreading
Cover Art & Design
Marketing Assistance
PR & Social Media Tips& Support

 

As you can see, Immortal Ink does more than formatting and editing. The formatting for the Immortal Ink books is gorgeous (The Forever Girlby Rebecca Hamilton, Four in the Morning by Christi Goddard, Mirrors of Anguish by R.P. Kraul,  and more). I’m lucky enough to have Rebecca as my editor and good friend, and their other staff editor Stewart Kirby is my proofreader. So, I personally know their editing is top-notch already. I will also be doing some editing on the team, primarily for characterization, action scenes, and dialogue.

 

Point is, Immortal Ink goes beyond the typical gimmies and gives you marketing power. The Forever Girl is already an international best-seller with hundreds of reviews and an agent pitching sales to dozens of countries for translation. That book released this year. The marketing powerhouse that is Immortal Ink is pretty freaking fantastic. They also make suggestions for how to manage your PR, which is really yours to do no matter what. I mean, come on. No one should write your tweets for you.

 

Where to Look for Publishers & What to Do When you Find Them

You have to be careful. There are so many chances for fraud in our budding and relatively unregulated industry. However, there are good ways to filter out the bad houses.

 

Start with a simple search for “Small Press Publishers” in your genre—that’s a big point, too: don’t apply to a Horror publisher if you write Fantasy. They’re going to deny you, and you’re just going to waste everyone’s time by querying.

 

After you have a solid list of publisher names, start looking at their sites. Are they professional? Well maintained? Up-to-date? That’s a good sign. It’s a good indicator that the publisher takes an active role in their online presence. But don’t stop there.

 

Go to Predators & Editors and search for the publisher. Try to find an entry. If they don’t have one, there are a few possible reasons. The most likely one is that they’re too new, which is usually not the best sign. On average, most publishers go out of business in two years because they never get traction. Those first two years are spent establishing themselves, learning the ropes, and figuring things out—houses that go under are often the ones that don’t figure things out.

 

Now, you don’t have to delete that publisher from your list if there isn’t an entry for them on P&E. Go back to their site and check out their titles. How are those books doing? How many releases do they have? Get in touch with one of their authors on twitter or through their site. Is that author happy? Did they like the process of getting published?

 

Point is, look at multiple sources. It’s good to get a full view of the publisher’s strengths and weaknesses before you submit your book, and one source (even P&E) isn’t going to be enough to do that.

 

When you do submit your book, follow their guidelines to a T. Honor their genre requests. Submit what they want in the format they want. If they’re closed for submissions, do not submit to them.

 

Doing any of the above will frustrate them, sometimes to the point that they won’t consider future work. They are looking for a partner as much as you are—be professional and expect professionalism from them.

 

The Bottom Line

There is no right answer when it comes to choosing an indie publisher. It’s going to be different for everyone. When I first published, I definitely didn’t want a publisher. Now that I’ve found Immortal Ink, I’m ecstatic to join the team and put my books under their label.

 

Some of you will want to maintain your indie status, and others will want to apply to publishers. No matter what you choose, just make sure it fits your life, your goals, and your style. I wish you all the best.

 

Who of you is signed with an independent or small press publisher? Do you like it, or do you wish you were indie again? Indies, do you think you’d ever go to a publisher?

 

Book Review: Fractured Light, a Paranormal Romance by Rachel McClellan

The Short Version

Fractured Light is a fun, easy read with fantastic imagery and an interesting story line. I did have some qualms with the formatting and editing, and some plot elements either predictable or glossed over. However, I did enjoy the story and I connected with the characters. I would recommend it for paranormal fantasy nuts without hesitation.

 

The Details

I’m hosting Rachel McClellan on a blog tour today for her novel Fractured Light, a paranormal fantasy that I think we can safely label as YA despite its couple murders. There are some chilling images that left me writing notes in all caps, I was so excited. I really hope it’s okay to post a block quote, because I want to share my favorite moment from the whole book (McClellan let me know if I can’t do this):

The last of my bravery shattered to pieces when the paint directly in front of me began to peel back as if a claw were scraping it away—on the inside of the glass. I watched in horror as five thin strips of black paint fell to the carpet. Again, the invisible nails scraped at the glass, leaving a clear slash mark in its wake. It sounded like nails on a chalkboard; a violent chill rocked my whole body.

One last time, the invisible hand clawed off paint, leaving a narrow view to the other side. What I saw melted my insides. A bloodshot, yellowed eye peered in at me as if I were a mouse in a hole.

Me: Eeeeeeeeeeeee! I don’t even think you need context for that. For those of you who didn’t read the synopsis (you always should, silly), I will give you context anyway.

Fractured Light is about Llona, a girl with a secret: she’s not normal. She has a gift that gets those like her killed, and life has become a deadly game of knowing who she can trust. Because she’s afraid of dying at any moment, she pushes everyone else away…until she meets love interest Christian Knight.

So, on to the review.

McClellan sets up the chilling images like the one I mentioned in the quote pretty well. Imagery is really her thing, and she took us to some great locations throughout the book. Setting up the background and the sense of “where” is not easy, but she does it with grace. The story itself was interesting, and while I was lost in parts just learning all the rules of this new world, I was still curious to learn more.

There were plenty of moments that induced chuckles. I love it when a book can make me laugh. There were jokes littered throughout the book, and they caught me at the right moments. There are also great details, especially in the beginning of the book, that describe Llona as an outcast. Maybe she gets her name from being a loner (her name is pronounced “LONA” haha) or maybe it’s has something to do with the word “lunar” since her power is tied to the moon (which we discovered in a weird and slightly confusing manner, but whatever, it worked).

I liked the main character, which is frankly rare for me when it comes to first person narrations. I usually can’t relate, but I liked Llona’s spunk. Llona did have a stupid moment or two, which I’ll touch on later, but all in all she discovers the joy of truly living and just wants a chance to have a full life. I can definitely stand behind that and, consequently, was rooting for her. She’s a smart ass, which I also love, and often hides nerves or other emotional messes behind quips and laughter. I can definitely relate to that. She had some bad ass moments where she just took control, and I adore her for that. She is a good heroine (most of the time) and a strong role model (usually).

The other characters were pretty believable, too. The love interest was an adorable roller coaster, one which I honestly wasn’t expecting, so I enjoyed that. The friendships Llona creates when she breaks out of her shell are wonderful to see and really shape her as a person, rather than a character, which made me love her. So yes, characters get bonus points in my book.

The drawback to characters was the villain. I just…I hate to admit it, but I totally called it from the first time we meet this particular character. It was too easy, in my opinion, and we even got a monologue at the end. While monologues are great for explaining what’s going on, it makes the villain look like a cliche hunk of wood. The villain was fearsome until that moment, and then I kind of balked. The way evil is portrayed here and earlier in the novel is just too cookie cutter for my taste. Evil is evil and that’s that sort of thing. I made a couple notes along the way to the tune of, “so that’s how evil works, huh?”

The climax itself had a Twilight too-stupid-to-live twist (you’ll see what I mean when you read it, because I still recommend this book even though I’m being hard on it). While I like Llona’s growing spunk and spark, I just thought she was smarter than that. I was writing angry notes to her telling her, in so many colorful words, just exactly what I thought of her at that moment. The perk is this led to a pretty great climax scene, one which differentiated this novel from Twilight in a distinct manner.

Spinning off that, I thought the ending was great. It had the perfect balance of resolution and tension for subsequent novels.

As for the writing style, I liked it most of the time. There were a few cases of flowery language (the use of “for” instead of “because”) that made me twitch a little…that usage doesn’t come to me naturally and thus looks forced when I read it. There were tense breaks (present instead of past), some formatting issues with dialogue from different characters being on the same line (and once, a character answered themselves as if the other character had spoken, it was weird). There were also some mistakes that irked me, like a few misused words (“who’s” instead of “whose”) and dramatic language:

“A hook ripping open my insides would’ve felt better than having to say good-bye.”

Mmmm pretty sure that’s not true, but whatever. High schoolers can be a little dramatic; I just thought Llona above that.

This book covers Llona’s entire senior year, which means a lot of time is covered in one book. Because of this, weeks sometimes sped by in a few paragraphs, leaving me grasping for a when and where. On occasion, details aren’t expounded upon enough. A few times, the transitions were too rocky to give me a set sense of time and place. Some plot developments also seemed forced, which kicked me from the story at times as I questioned the characters’ motivations to do such a thing. This sometimes-rocky narrative knocked off the points in the style/voice section.

Click here for spoilers–ye be warned
To go into a bit more detail of what I mean by “forced plot developments,” take a look at how loner Llona tries out for the basketball team. Sure, she has all this pent-up energy, but she has to fit in and lie low to survive. I needed more explanation to really buy that she was just being competitive, and we don’t see her competitive nature really shine through until she has her mountain training session with Christian. I just wanted more of an explanation in the moment to believe she was trying out for the team because she wanted to and not because it was a plot movement to get her in a position where Christian could take care of/save her. On another note, the mountain training session with Christian kicked ass. Hahahaha literally.

There’s also prom. When Llona, May, and Tracey are getting ready for prom at Llona’s place, they do their hair and then leave to go home and get dressed, only to arrive separately at prom. What? When is that normal when you go as a group? It really caught me as a “oh no, things are going to happen now.” And they did. That felt too easy. There are other cases like this, but I don’t want to beat a dead horse. You get the point.

I know it sounds a little like I tore the book apart, but I didn’t. I really enjoyed reading Fractured Light, and I will most likely pick up the sequel (there’s a teaser in the back of Fractured Light when you grab your copy). I mean, I usually drag my feet if I don’t like the book and I read Fractured Light in a day. A day! I’m proud of me. It’s okay. You don’t have to be.

I just mentioned these nuances because they made Fractured Light slip out of the 5-star rating spot for me…and it was close. I do really love Llona, Christian’s grown on me, and May is my homegirl. So scratch what I said before. I’m definitely going to read the sequels. I’ll run off and put Fractured Soul on my TBR list now.

McClellan, if you still like me after this review, I’m game for an ARC of Fractured Soul. *pleading grin*

 
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Movie Review: Disney Pixar’s Brave is beautiful, yet lacking

The Short Version

Brave is a fun story about family and overcoming personal flaws that keep someone from becoming stronger person. I agree with other reviews that Brave is “visual magic,” because the attention to detail was just stunning. The story itself was all right, and while most of the characters were stereotypical, I still enjoyed watching it—just not as much as I’d hoped.

 

The Details

So I haven’t really done that many movie reviews, for obvious reasons (*cough* this is a book blog *cough*) BUT I saw a few big movies recently and wanted to share.

Today, we’re tackling Brave. Here’s the trailer:

 

 

Brave is cute. Is it epic? No, not as much as I’d hoped. It was hyped. Visually, it’s beautiful, but the story is lacking. I won’t give away the plot, since there isn’t much of one, but we follow a Scottish princess who wants to change her fate and not be forced to marry a man she doesn’t know. She dabbles in magic and, lo and behold, there are consequences! Hilarity ensues. Here’s a clip from the movie, since I can’t find the scene with the witch:

 

 

Like I said, it’s cute. The movie is pretty funny, but the story itself lacks the substance I’ve come to expect from Pixar after movies like Up. Men were painted as mostly-bumbling idiots with a violent streak, which I think was a ploy to make the women appear more powerful by comparison. I really just think that could have been handled in a less stereotypical way.

The characters themselves, though, weren’t sugarcoated. I loved that. Merida is anything but graceful and constantly stuffs her face or trips on things. She seems as if she’s barely hanging on. Merida’s mother is obviously imperfect but desperately trying to do right by her children, and Merida’s father…well, he’s funny.

There’s some subtle adult humor woven into the narrative, which keeps us children ages 18+ entertained without tainting the precious young ones. You know, because Disney does that.

All in all, it was cute. I enjoyed seeing it in the theatre, where I believe the depth of the visual elements could be truly enjoyed. Is this what I was expecting after gearing myself up for this for months? No. Oh well.

 

Overall impression

Pretty good. Yeah, go see it—but get a matinee if you can.

Movie Review: Madagascar 3 is a fast-paced ball of fun

The Short Version

Madagascar 3 was a fun adventure with a good story and plenty of visual stimulation to keep almost any audience entertained. If you like silly feel-good movies and fast-paced humor that makes fun of just about everyone, you should really enjoy this one.

 

The Details

So I haven’t really done that many movie reviews, for obvious reasons (*cough* this is a book blog *cough*) BUT I saw a few big movies recently and wanted to share.

I didn’t expect too much going into Madagascar 3, but I’m so glad I went. It was funny, creative, and fast-paced. I was probably grinning through the entire movie.

Here’s the trailer:

Now, is this an incredible new plot that will change the world of entertainment? No. But it is incredibly fun. There are a few logic jumps I didn’t quite make, and the plot itself speeds by like nobody’s business, but it still had me laughing the whole time. Besides, a plot any slower would get us too wrapped up in the details of the situation, rather than the humor in the characters’ reactions.

Basically, the gang is still trying to get back to New York. Right from the get go, we’re kind of left in the dust when we get an odd dream sequence that may or may not be partially real, so that wasn’t the strongest way to start the movie. Luckily, it (mostly) gets better from there. Along the road to the NY Zoo, the oddball herd ends up chased by a psychotic animal control officer and run off to join the circus to escape her.

The characters themselves are entertaining. We have the same group as always—Alex, Marty, Gloria, Melman, the penguins, and the goofy lemurs. The penguins almost seem to have gotten more entertaining, in that they no longer care about anything. They were by far my favorite.

In terms of human cast, we primarily have the animal control officer. The woman is crazy, and that’s the joke—her psychotic animal tracking ability involves impossible feats and ridiculous super powers that leave you laughing and shaking your head, saying, “seriously?”

The two scenes where we see the new-and-improved circus are by far the coolest scenes of the entire movie. I was grinning like a kid.

All in all, I really enjoyed Madagascar 3. I might even buy it—and I never buy movies. It’s a feel good movie that will pick you up if you need it and make you laugh.

Ah, what the hell. I’ll use the circus afro song as a sign off. That’s how you know about this movie anyway.

Overall Impression

Yes, go! I had so much fun.

Why you should create your marketing plan before you even publish your book

Many authors (including me when I first released Lichgates) wait until their book releases to think about marketing. Don’t make my mistake!

New releases are a great way to excite people into reading the book. It’s important to use this time effectively and to market yourself strongly in the first 4-6 weeks after your book is released. Is it the end-all, be-all for your book’s success? No. But it’s the most forgivable time for you to have few reviews, and it’s a great springboard to propel your book’s notoriety. So before you set your release date, create your marketing plan!

There are too many components of marketing to list in this post. It’s a huge task, one that requires a lot of research and understanding. However, I do want to give you a start.

 

Books on Marketing

To get a good idea of how to create your marketing plan, read books on marketing books. Here are some great suggestions:

 The Complete Guide to Self Publishing
1001 Ways to Market Your Book
Frugal Book Marketing
Guerrilla Marketing for Writers
Plug Your Book
Sell more Books!
Promote Your Book

These are all books I found and purchased after scouring Amazon for a few hours, reading reviews, and researching the books’ authors. Of the books I found, these appear to be the best.

Networking

You want to start building your network if you haven’t already. Find authors you like and start discussions with them. Talk to readers and just get to know them. Reach out to book bloggers and start to make connections with them. Have conversations, make friends, and build your writing network.

 

Blog Tours

Next, you want to look into scheduling a book tour. Tours are a great way to create buzz, though they usually aren’t great for sales because of all the giveaways frequently associated with tour stops. Still, a tour is important because your name and your book essentially go on tour in a similar way to traditional book tours. The perk of blog tours, though, is that it’s cost effective.

A traditional book tour is when authors travel around to various book stores for book signings and speeches. You, however, can stop at multiple blogs across the country on a single day without spending a dime. Over the course of the week, you can be international. Blog tours are cost effective and arguably a more effective marketing tool for this reason, and thus you will see many of them if you frequent book blogs.

For now, just research what it will take. Look at tour schedules from successful authors or from authors you like. You can make mental notes of people in your network you’ll want to ask to be a stop on your tour and return favors for them. It’s the give and take of networking. Also, though, begin researching other book bloggers who aren’t in your network. See what their policies are on tours and begin to compile a list. This will help get you started when it’s time to actually plan your tour.

 

Advanced Review Copy (ARC) List

An Advanced Review Copy is a great way to get reviews before your book even releases. It creates a push for the book that gets people excited, but also gets you reviews before your book is released. Not all ARC reviews will be glowing or even positive, but the important thing is to be reviewed.  BTW, ARCs are free for the reader in exchange for a review. Just in case you didn’t know.

Create a place for people to sign up for a free eBook copy of the novel like I did with Treason. A good tool to use is Google Docs because you can create a form pretty easily and embed that into a post. These forms can be managed using Google Docs and even exported. It’s a nice way to manage data.

If you don’t want to let just anyone get onto your ARC list, you can also invite people quietly by tweeting or emailing them. Whichever way you choose, it’s important to have this list. The goal is to get as many people who like your genre or your writing style on it as you can.

 

The VIP Email List

Some people just want to hear updates. They don’t want to review, since they think of themselves as just readers. Give these readers a chance to still know when you plan to release the book by giving them a place to sign up for updates. I use Mad Mimi to manage my email blasts and weekly blog update email subscriptions, so I highly recommend them. They’re great and make editing, sending, and managing email promotions very simple.

Another perk to having an email list is that you can send them promotional emails about the series, like when a free chapter goes up or when sales go out. Readers don’t want to be blasted with information all the time, so I recommend sending these newsletter type emails at most once or twice a month.

 

These were all just ideas. You can ultimately do whatever you want, but the important part is that you should create a marketing plan before you release your book. Do something every day to market your novel, even if it’s small. I’ve heard you should do 5 things a day to market your book, and I think that’s a good start. Pick your plan and stick to it for the most part, but always be on the lookout for fun new ways to make it better.

What other ideas do you have to help someone who’s just starting out? Let’s get a discussion going.

 

You Can’t Shatter Me: an unusual young adult magical realism novella by Tahlia Newland

Today we have an excerpt from You Can’t Shatter Me by Tahlia Newland. This heart-warming novella is written in a unique magical realism style where magical elements are presented in a straightforward manner that places the “real” and the “fantastic” in the same stream of thought. The story inspires and empowers teens and adults alike with its solutions for the bullying issue.

 
Synopsis: You Can’t Shatter Me

Sixteen year old Carly wants to write her own life and cast herself as a superhero, but the story gets out of control when she stands up to a bully and he turns on her. His increasing harassment forces her to deal with flying hooks, giant thistles, deadly dragons and a suffocating closet. Dylan, a karate-trained nerd who supports her stand against the bully, turns out to be a secret admirer, and while he struggles to control his inner caveman, Carly searches for her own way to stop the bully.  An old hippie shows her an inner magic that’s supposed to make her invincible, but will Carly learn to use it before Dylan resorts to violence?

 
Excerpt – 800 words, Breaking the Habit

(You Can’t Shatter Me is told from the point of view of both Carly and Dylan. This excerpt is from Breaking the habit, one of Dylan’s chapters.)

 

At school, up until now, I’d rather be alone with a book or a computer than a girl, and a group of girls was just plain scary, but if I wanted Carly, I had to deal with her friends too. This hard drive just wasn’t programmed right anymore.

I looked at my watch. Still ten minutes until the bell. Was I going to hide, or reprogram myself so I could just amble up to her and say “Hi, what’s up,” or something equally as lame, without my face going red and my palms sweating?

My nerdy habit was as rigid as a lump of concrete. It sat on the ground in front of me, a clump of intersecting geometric shapes with smooth planes and unblemished edges painted in earthy tones, practical, no nonsense, well ordered. I kicked it and clenched my teeth at the spike of pain that shot up my toe. The habit didn’t budge. I suppose that shouldn’t have been surprising. I’d spent years building it.

“What ya doing, wuss?”

I spun around. Justin thrust his leering face into my personal space. I stepped back, trying to keep my disgust from showing.

“Dreaming about a bit of pussy, are you?” he continued.

“Nothing so gross,” I replied.

“If you think it’s gross then you ain’t never tasted any,” he jeered then sauntered off with a smirk, his buddy Ty trotting at his heels.

He was the gross one, but maybe I should be thankful for that. If he hadn’t threatened Carly, I might never have had the courage to talk to her. Urgency cuts through reticence pretty quickly. I didn’t have his help now though. Or did I? He still provided a topic of conversation. Would it be enough to draw her away from Kirsty? I figured it was worth a try.

I tried to walk towards her but my legs wouldn’t move. Heavy metal chains shackled my ankles to the habit. I yanked my foot against the weight, trying to break free, but only managed to rattle the chains. Better brains than brute force here, I thought, and examined the comfortable lambskin-covered shackles. For years they’d kept me close to an attractive lump of concrete that provided a seat, a desk and even a footstool. My laptop had buffed its well-used spot on the desk to a shine.

I turned at the sound of Kirsty’s laugh. She walked around the corner of the hall with Carly, but Carly didn’t laugh. She looked miserable.

I needed a block splitter or a hacksaw, or some machine to break this habit into tiny pieces so I could get away from it and cheer up my girlfriend. With a flick of my finger, I created a magnificent tool of destruction. A polished dark wooden tripod sat over the concrete habit. A large silver weight hung beneath the apex, connected to a silky white rope that ran through a series of golden pulleys into my hand. I held it with ease, the ability to break the nerdy habit at my command. All I had to do was let go.

I glanced at Carly then opened my hand. The rope whizzed through the pulleys, the weight dropped and smashed the concrete into several chunks. I stared at it, my heart doing strange little flip flops. It’d taken so long to make that habit with its comfy seat and nooks for every gadget a good student needed.

I took one step towards Carly then jerked to a stop. The chain on my left leg was still attached to a lump of concrete, one too heavy for me to budge.  I had to smash this thing so completely that it would never weigh me down again.

Take two.

I took a step back, hauled the weight up again and dropped it. Repeatedly, I lifted the weight and dropped it until I had the scene in the can, the chains had fallen apart and all that was left of the habit was dust. Freedom!

Cue actor.

I strode down the path – to a gently building guitar rift – and touched Carly’s arm. “I need to talk to you for a minute,” I said, drawing her away.

“What?” She looked surprised but happy to see me.

I took her hand and looked her in the eye. “Is he still hassling you?”

She shrugged. “A bit.”

“I’ll help sort him out,” I said, feeling kind of heroic.

“What’s so private you can’t share?” Kirsty asked peeking her head around Carly.

I swallowed. My feet felt heavy and I thought I heard chains clanking, but I must have imagined it because I’d smashed my nervous nerd habit into dust and there was no way I was going to build another one. “None of your business,” I replied.

“Ooh, feisty.” Kirsty grinned and turned away.

I slipped my arm around Carly and drew her close. She looked up and me and smiled. My nerdy habit had given me safety, but without it, I had the excitement of a girl on my arm. I decided to go back later and bury the dust, just to make sure.

 
Book Links

Goodreads page

 Book trailer: http://youtu.be/ysXMYoJUsO0

 

Purchase links

Ebook

Amazon (US) | ePub (for Nook, Kobo, Sony) | Smashwords

Paperback

The paperback will be available via all major book retailers worldwide. If you would like to be notified when it’s released please fill in the form here.

 

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Author bio & links

Tahlia is an avid reader, an extremely casual high school teacher, an occasional mask-maker and has studied philosophy & meditation for many years. After scripting and performing in Visual Theatre shows for 20 years, she is now a bone-fide expatriate of the performing arts. She lives in an Australian rainforest, is married with a teenage daughter and loves cats, but she doesn’t have one because they eat native birds.

 

Weblog | Happy Honkers Blog | Facebook |Twitter

Goodreads Author page |Amazon Author page | Smashwords author page

 

 

Good News, Everyone! LICHGATES (Grimoire Trilogy #1) is a Semifinalist in The Kindle Book Review’s Best Indie Books of 2012 Contest!

I got an amazing email the other day.

Lichgates (Grimoire Trilogy #1) is a Semifinalist in The Kindle Book Review’s Best Indie Books of 2012 Contest. You know, in case you missed the title. I get a flashy award and everything.

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They’re moving into the finalists round, and I’m incredibly excited. I just wanted to share the news. Thank you for all of your support and encouragement. I really could not have done this without the amazing people–you–who support me. You kick ass on so many levels.

Stay awesome!

Should Writers Respond to their Reviews?

The short answer? No. Never. Just don’t do it.

 

A review is a reader’s opinion. They should feel safe and able to be honest. A writer doesn’t have to hit the like button on negative reviews or anything, but it is important to remember that not everyone will like your work. That’s the beauty of people—we’re all so different and have such unique tastes.

 

I actually stopped reading a lot of reviews, and I usually only read them now if I need marketing materials. I realized that a review is just an opinion, one everyone is entitled to. So why get worked up over them? It’s inevitable that someone, somewhere isn’t going to like my book, so I just don’t get stressed out over it.

 

Other writers read every review, and there is good in that, too. Some reviews have great advice that can teach the author a lot about their work. Others have nothing helpful to share, but do it over the course of ten paragraphs and a one-star. Reading your reviews is going to be a gamble.

 

Positive reviews are awesome. They make you feel great, especially when it’s a glowing review! But still, you shouldn’t respond with more than just a ‘like’ if that’s an option. In most cases, it’s just not necessary and the reader doesn’t want you to respond. They’re just sharing their opinion.

 

Negative reviews can hurt, even when we have our thick skin on. If a book didn’t cut it for one reader, you as the author have to remember that it’s okay. As long as the reviewer present their opinion in a ‘this doesn’t work for me and here are my thoughts on it’ sort of way, it’s still a professional and courteous review. Sometimes, we can even learn as writers and grow from the experience. That’s always awesome!

 

But sometimes, the review is mean. I’m not talking about negative, either; negative reviews can be helpful. No, mean reviews attack something besides the book, usually the writer, on a personal level. Sometimes, it even attacks the author’s readers. Are those reviews acceptable? I sure don’t think so. But an author should never ever respond, unfair review or not. If it’s not about the book itself, you can flag it as inappropriate, but that’s it.

 

A mean review is kind of like seeing someone checking their phone in the front row of a movie theatre at the best part of the movie. You don’t ruin everyone’s experience by shouting down at them to turn their phone off.  You just make everything worse if you do that.

 

Just remember that reviews are opinions. Keep your chin up and focus on the positive. You can’t please everyone, and you’ll go crazy if you try. Some people will leave negative reviews or overly-critical comments on your work, but grab some wine and mourn over a rerun of your favorite show because responding to negativity will not get you anywhere. I’ve seen authors duke it out with reviews like this (and I’ve seen authors pick fights for no reason, which is so much worse). It always ends the same: everyone’s unhappy and the author has a whole lot of bad press. Be the bigger person and let it slide off your back.

 

Have you learned any lessons (the hard way or from someone else) that help you in dealing with reviews?

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How to Hire a Book Formatter

Meh. I don’t think you need to do this unless you really don’t want to learn how. But I’m stubborn.

 

Joe Konrath has a book formatter he uses for every one of his books so that he just doesn’t have to worry about it. I see the benefit of spending money to spend more time on your books, but Joe Konrath also has a lot more money than me.

 

I’ve looked around and found that book formatters cost about $99 – $200. That’s just one format, too—if you want someone to format your print and eBook editions, you have to pay double or choose a combo package or something.

 

For basic formatting, I don’t think it’s worth it. I’ve included guides on how to format your eBook and print editions, and that works for a majority of books. Now, if you want fancy formatting—images and the like—I can see the benefit of hiring someone. I sure don’t know how to do that, and I’m not completely convinced that I want to know. Maybe hiring someone is easier. Or what if you have a book that requires a lot of HTML editing? Maybe it’s worth hiring someone then so you don’t have to deal with it.

 

There are pros and cons everywhere. But say you do choose to hire someone. How do you find a book formatter?

 

My go-to is Google, always. Do your homework. Look for formatters who have good reviews and happy clients, who have good examples of their work and prove they know what they’re doing. Look for evidence of quick response time and professionalism.

 

Now, Google returns companies, mostly, instead of individuals with a small business. I wouldn’t recommend you go to the big companies because in most cases, they’re going to try to upsell you to something else. Createspace offers formatting services, for example, and it’s a lot easier to find those services than it is to find the easy-to-use templates. That’s why I added the link to the templates in my post on formatting your print edition. That’s kind of slimy of them, really. Still, Createspace is great otherwise. I just wouldn’t recommend you pay them to format a basic book.

 

The benefit of going to a company to format your book is that they’re more accountable if you’re unhappy. They want to keep your business, so it’s easy to assume they’ll redo it if you don’t like it. With individuals, there’s more of a risk that their process won’t mesh with the POD vendor you’re using. Still, that risk is small when compared to the cost savings and growing professionalism in the indie vendors market.

 

Individuals who format books can be best found my recommendation. Send out a tweet asking if anyone knows any good formatters. Here, I’ll even give you an easy one to copy and paste:

Does anyone know a good book formatter? I need a talented professional to format my print edition for Createspace.

Change print edition to eBook if you need to, or change the POD vendor if you aren’t using Createspace. The point is you need to give as many specifics as you can.

 

Working with a book formatter is like working with any other vendor—they’ll likely ask for half up front and expect the rest on delivery. Some may want it all up front, but as long as they have a long list of happy clients, you should be fine in giving it to them.

 

I always recommend you barter and ask to put a down payment on the work. It keeps some of the power in your court to ensure they deliver on time. Remember, you don’t have to work with them. There are plenty of vendors who will accommodate you. Don’t be disrespectful in your negotiations if you have to haggle, but you don’t have to be a doormat either.

 

Who out there has used a book formatter? Let us know how that went for you, who you used, and if you’d use them again. I’m curious to see if there are many people who prefer to hire book formatters.