Laura K. Curtis's Blog, page 9

The Jaws of Life

Several years ago, I was part of a charity anthology. (You can still buy it on Amazon—Feeding Kate—the profits go to the Lupus Foundation of America. Click the picture at right to see all the fabulous authors who contributed!) The original intent of the anthology was to help a friend of the crime-writing community get jaw surgery she needed that was not being covered by insurance, so many of them were food-related.

The story I contributed was called the Jaws of Life. It’s not about food. But I’ve now put it up for free here on the site in case you are interested in checking it out. It’s right here: The Jaws of Life. Enjoy!

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An Ocular Migraine in Four Panels

Until 2011, I had no idea that ocular migraines had a name. I thought everyone had them. But one day while I was working in a cube farm, my neighbor sent me a file and asked me to look at it. “I will as soon as my eyes clear up,” I said. “I have that thing going on right now, you know, with the spiky rainbows where you can’t see?” Well, no. She didn’t know. Because not everyone does have ocular migraines. In case you were wondering what they look like, after mine tonight I thought I would draw it. I am NOT an artist, but here is my rendition, in four panels, of what I see behind my eyelids when I close my eyes during an ocular migraine (aka the scintillating scotoma—isn’t that an awesome phrase?).

The charcoal gray bits are what are black when my eyes are closed, the parts I can see when I open my eyes. The white is just that—white. Eyes open, eyes closed, it’s just a bright white almost fluorescent glow.

Stage 1: I first notice a floating bit of brightness, a tiny squiggle that interferes with sight.

Stage 2: The squiggle expands, becoming larger, brighter, more colorful and with many sharp points

Stage 3: The squiggle for me almost always takes on a curving shape. Not pictured here, because I don’t have the talent, is the fact that it pretty much looks like a misshapen spiral made out of dozens of tiny bright prisms.

Stage 4: Basic whiteout with the squiggle still there but the glow having expanded so I can see only bits and pieces of stuff around it.

The whole process almost never takes more than half an hour and it doesn’t hurt except for the pain you’d expect if someone shone an extremely bright light in your eyes for several minutes.

So there you are. An ocular migraine in four panels.

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Danbury Public Library Event

This is what I’ll be up to on Sunday. I hope you’ll stop by if you’re in the area!

This news is from the Hamlet Hub.

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Danbury Public LIbrary Event

This is what I’ll be up to on Sunday. I hope you’ll stop by if you’re in the area!

This news is from the Hamlet Hub.

The post Danbury Public LIbrary Event appeared first on Laura K. Curtis.

Regional Conferences Rule

Back when I was writing cozy mysteries, my favorite conferences were Sleuthfest and Crimebake. Since I became part of the romance community, however, I’ve attended chapter meetings (very local) and national conferences, with nothing in between. National conferences are so expensive that I really had a hard time justifying the financial outlay for anything else. But for a few years, I’d been hearing about the New Jersey Romance Writers “Put Your Heart in a Book” conference and I’d always intended to go when I could.

And then I got really lucky—I’d submitted a proposal for a workshop on branding and it was accepted! I didn’t have to pay the conference fee! I could go!

I live less than two hours away from Iselin, where the conference was held, and I am under deadline, so I decided to drive home rather than spending Saturday night, but I understand the party was hopping!

Anyway, with the national conference in 2015 being in New York, I have a feeling some people will say “why bother with NJ?” Well, having been to both, I figured I’d write a post on that now, while NJ is still fresh on my mind. Here are some reasons to think about NJ next year:

Cost: I’m not saying you should necessarily judge what conferences you attend based on price, but face it, most of us have to consider our finances!
Access: This has a couple of meanings. First, because the conference is just a train ride from NYC, you get access to some great agents and editors. I wasn’t looking for either myself, but I had a lovely conversation with a couple of Harlequin editors at lunch. Second, because the conference is slightly smaller, you have more access to the people who are there. I had a fabulous chat with Madeline Hunter, which I cannot imagine happening at nationals where everyone is running around like a lunatic.
Democracy: This is sort of related to “access”  I love Nationals, and I’ve said—repeatedly—that I think people should go to them if they can. However, huge conferences are often where authors who are friends online see each other for the one and only time all year. They are also places where people are somewhat desperate for networking (see my post on Conference Tiffs and the Polite Lie). Because there are fewer people, it’s easier to chat with people, especially those you might be nervous about approaching otherwise. (Like Madeline Hunter. OMG. Madeline Hunter.)
Accessibility: This is an odd thing to notice unless you’re trained to pay attention to it, but one of the things I can appreciate about the Renaissance Woodbridge, where the NJRW conference is held, is that it’s very accessible. There are guest bedrooms on the main floor, which makes it easier to get to a lot of the events if you have mobility issues. (Not all events are on the same floor, but most are on the main floor.) The hallways are wide, so even if the “goody area” has table set up on both sides for people to put their stuff, there’s still room to maneuver a wheelchair through. And most of the sessions were in rooms that had plenty of egress and aisle space (which are things I notice now that I’m married to a firefighter).
Talent Pool: one of the reasons I like going to conferences is that I come home re-energized to write and to put into practice all the stuff I’ve heard. Obviously, national conferences have even more people available to them, but I was very impressed with the level of workshop at NJRW. Possibly because the conference has been around a long time and it’s well-known and respected, so they get good speakers.
Book Fair. I don’t know too many other conferences that have this and make it available to self-published authors. Book fairs are real problems for those of us who already have way too many books, but I can’t ever resist them! Running around, seeing all the good stuff people have out, finding new authors…so much fun! Making friends with the people on either side of you if you’re selling books…priceless.

K.M. Jackson with her Golden Leaf Award

For myself, I really enjoyed meeting people after my own workshop and I appreciated that they took the time to come and talk to me and tell me their thoughts. There were a couple of panels I really wanted to get to but missed anyway (it always happens), but the ones I did get to were high quality. I got to spend time with people I’d met once or twice but never really sat down with, and met others who I hope I will be able to continue a relationship with in the future. I connected with one author who writes romantic suspense and we talked at length about doing some co-promotion. Again, something that doesn’t happen when people are frenetically rushing from one event to another.

Of course, I had an especially good time because my friend K.M. Jackson won the Golden Leaf award for her novel Bounce. Lots of joy and happy tears! That always makes a conference better.

All in all, I’d highly recommend this conference. Even if you’re planning on going to nationals in NYC. If at all possible, I’ll be at both!

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New Look…

I am trying to get a new look for the blog, so I apologize to anyone who shows up here and finds it mildly (or even majorly) confusing as I sort through the various options. Things will go back to some version of normalcy shortly, I promise. It will be, as they say, “the new normal.”

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Why Self-Published Authors Should Care About Amazon, Hachette & Ellora’s Cave

Several things came together this week—the continuing uproar over the Authors United letters and/or the Amazon-Hachette issues along with Ellora’s Cave suing Dear Author—to create this post. I have many, many things to say about this, so the post is apt to be rambling and a little harsh, so I’ve illustrated it to make it a little more entertaining. And I won’t blame you if you abandon it in the middle going:

 

OK, got your coffee?

First, the Ellora’s Cave issue since it’s the one that got me started thinking of this post. A week or so ago, publisher Ellora’s Cave filed suit against blogger Jane Litte and her blog, Dear Author. Most of the reactions I saw were along the lines of “OMGWTFBBQ”, but several self-published authors also came out and said, if not in so many words, about the suffering Ellora’s Cave authors, “nah nah, now I bet you’re sorry you didn’t self-publish.”

This seems incredibly, unbelievably short-sighted to me. And it seems short-sighted in the same way as it did when these same authors went “Who gives a damn if Amazon bullies one or all the major publishers out of existence? They deserve it for offering their authors such crappy terms, etc.” And I say this as a self-published author.

Because here’s the thing: unless you’re selling your copies of your self-published book out of the back of your van, you’ve signed contracts with distributors. If you’re smart, you’ve signed contracts with multiple distributors. And I damn sure hope you read all of those contracts. Every last word.

I’m not talking about hitting the highlights of your contract with Kobo or iTunes or B&N or Amazon. Not just “this is how much I make per copy sold” but “this is what I am allowed to do and when I am allowed to do it.” Being self-published doesn’t mean being independent. In fact, unless you’re selling all your books directly off your own website, you’re highly dependent and you need to know what you’ve agreed to do or not do. Your contract with your book’s distributor is not like the latest upgrade agreement to Microsoft Word. (Does anyone actually read those?)

The Ellora’s Cave lawsuit is about stopping a blogger from discussing news important to the publishing industry. Whether you happen to like that blogger, like that blog, like the authors or the publisher involved, it is vitally important that conversations on topic like this not be stifled. Because as an author, as a producer who creates the content, you’re at the mercy of your distributors. (Yeah, some people can make enough selling direct off their websites or out of the back of their vans. But I’m betting the vast majority of us can’t.) So if you don’t know whether your distributors are fiscally healthy, or sane, or if they give contract terms that are standard in the industry, you don’t know what you should sign. And that matters whether you’re traditionally published, self-published, or anything in between.

And your distributor contracts may change during the course of your career, so you can’t just sign and forget about them, either. You may not be interested in Ellora’s Cave, but if EC should win that lawsuit (highly unlikely, IMHO), other sites will be less interested in exposing failures of other distributors. Since you read your contract with your distributor, you saw the part where it says that they can change the terms when they like, right? Well, when those changes happen, you read the information they send you about it, but what if you don’t understand it exactly? If publisher-agnostic sites are frightened to speak up because of lawsuits, where do you go for help?

Now, of course, you have the right to pull your books out of distribution if you don’t like what what your distributor wants to do, but that’s about the only card you hold. Which is basically what’s going on with Hachette and Amazon right now. Amazon wants something and Hachette wants something else. It’s as simple, and as complex, as that. Stop for a minute and consider this: Hachette has thousands of authors, millions of dollars tied up in Amazon and they can’t get any traction in a negotiation. Do you think you will be able to if you decide you’d like to alter your deal?

I’m not a big fan of the Authors United approach. Their letter to Amazon’s board smacks of egoism and “special snowflake syndrome.” But I am even less a fan of monopsonies. I have said before that it is my absolute belief that if Amazon controls the book market, everyone—including self-publishers—will suffer. Why? Because it is not in the nature of corporations to offer favorable terms unless they absolutely have to.

This is essentially what happened with Audible—once Amazon/Audible controlled the ebook market, they cut the royalties they gave producers/authors in half. Once they have the market, why should they pay more? And if they cut royalties, chances are authors will raise their book prices to make up some of what they lose. Which means consumer prices go up.

A competitive marketplace, with multiple distributors and lots of clarity and openness, where people are allowed to speak their mind and discuss the details of their contracts and sales, benefits everyone. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a writer or a reader. Anything that stifles discussion or creates monopolies or monopsonies should be fought tooth and nail, no matter what your publishing path may be.

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Midnight Ramblings

I may have mentioned here a time or two that I am an insomniac. Most of the time, I lie awake and toss and turn and worry and freak out about stuff I can’t handle. Occasionally, my brain turns to more productive matters. Of course, it’s never provides me with useful information about the work I am supposed to be doing (in this case, a project tentatively entitled Mind Games and set for release in November of 2015), but always something else completely.

Last night, it gave me the outline of Nash Harper’s book. If you’ve read Lost, you’ve met Nash, if only in passing. Over the next couple of books, he’ll become more important as his company, Harp Security Enterprise, begins to take center stage. But I hadn’t really considered Nash as a lead. He’s the man of mystery, the big boss, and even to me he was sort of a shadow figure.

Now, obviously, I’m not going to give you all thousand words I wrote last night…I don’t want to give away the story before I even figure it out. But I’ll pass along two paragraphs for the sake of entertainment. As usual, since it’s the beginning of the book, I’ll probably end up deleting it. But in case you’re curious about HSE, here’s a snippet.

Harp Security was not the kind of place that welcomed casual visitors. In fact, the name appeared nowhere on the outside of the building. Even the occasional lost tourist poking a head inside to ask the uniformed guard for directions could be forgiven for mistaking the 12-story building in Manhattan’s trendy TriBeCa neighborhood for nothing more than another expensive apartment complex. Which was just how Nash Harper liked it.

Only those who knew precisely what to ask for made it past that guard, and they were carefully screened by on-duty operatives before being allowed into the reception area. So when Nash’s assistant Lexie called him from reception to tell him they had a guest who wouldn’t give his name, Nash took a brief moment for a weapons check before stepping out of his office.

Now, back to work on the one that’s due!

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Midight Ramblings

I may have mentioned here a time or two that I am an insomniac. Most of the time, I lie awake and toss and turn and worry and freak out about stuff I can’t handle. Occasionally, my brain turns to more productive matters. Of course, it’s never provides me with useful information about the work I am supposed to be doing (in this case, a project tentatively entitled Mind Games and set for release in November of 2015), but always something else completely.

Last night, it gave me the outline of Nash Harper’s book. If you’ve read Lost, you’ve met Nash, if only in passing. Over the next couple of books, he’ll become more important as his company, Harp Security Enterprise, begins to take center stage. But I hadn’t really considered Nash as a lead. He’s the man of mystery, the big boss, and even to me he was sort of a shadow figure.

Now, obviously, I’m not going to give you all thousand words I wrote last night…I don’t want to give away the story before I even figure it out. But I’ll pass along two paragraphs for the sake of entertainment. As usual, since it’s the beginning of the book, I’ll probably end up deleting it. But in case you’re curious about HSE, here’s a snippet.

Harp Security was not the kind of place that welcomed casual visitors. In fact, the name appeared nowhere on the outside of the building. Even the occasional lost tourist poking a head inside to ask the uniformed guard for directions could be forgiven for mistaking the 12-story building in Manhattan’s trendy TriBeCa neighborhood for nothing more than another expensive apartment complex. Which was just how Nash Harper liked it.

Only those who knew precisely what to ask for made it past that guard, and they were carefully screened by on-duty operatives before being allowed into the reception area. So when Nash’s assistant Lexie called him from reception to tell him they had a guest who wouldn’t give his name, Nash took a brief moment for a weapons check before stepping out of his office.

Now, back to work on the one that’s due!

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New Books and a Discount!

So now that I’ve gotten my contract back and it’s all official and everything, I can announce that I have two more books coming from Penguin in April and November of 2015. They’re as yet untitled, but they will be romantic suspense, loosely related to each other and to TWISTED and LOST.

Also, if you’re interested in contemporary romances, I’ll have another one of those next year as well. I’d love to be able to promise you an exact date, but I can’t since it’s self-pub and highly dependent on the schedules of all the great people who help me get the self-pub work to market.

To celebrate all this fun stuff, I am offering 20% off my contemporary romance in both print and ebook (and the sweet zombie short story I co-wrote) through my Storenvy store. Just click the picture at right and use the coupon code 20BLOG at checkout. This coupon expires October 1 at 6pm Eastern.

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