Christina Bauer's Blog, page 79
February 16, 2015
CB’s Blog: What I Know About e-Book Publishing
In the spirit of sharing best practices, here’s some of what we’ve learned about publishing so far:
1. Be at peace with your inner businesses guru
A lot of people will tell you to ‘write from your heart.’ In my experience, that’s asking for trouble. Let me explain.
I come from software marketing, and software engineers are some of the greatest artists around…But they don’t ever program from their heart. They start off with a target audience and a goal and then work towards both. They find creative expression within the confines of that structure. In an ideal world, would we all be able to create whatever we wanted? Sure. But in the world you and I live in, we still have to put food on the table, so that means creating within constraints. And honestly, I don’t see it as constraints. I could write ten different books. I kick one of those ten to the top because it has the best chance to make it possible for me to write another.
Long story short, great publishing results start with business planning. Boring? Yes. But isn’t everything that makes money? There’s a reason accountants make more than freelance writers, as a rule. Part of our reward is in the work itself.
2. Start with your target audience.
Finding this out involves asking a lot of questions. For me, the big ones are:
Who are you writing for?
What do they like to read about?
What other books are out there in your space?
What format does your reader like?
In the case of Ink Monster our answers were 1) girl geeks, 2) kick-ass chicks, 3) not a lot, and 4) ebooks. That sounds easy, but it took months for Aileen and I to hammer that out. We built our business plan for more than a year before we launched our first book.
3. Focus on your distribution channel.
For Ink Monster, our readers are tech-savvy, so that meant we needed to focus on ebooks. Here are some of the things we learned about that market:
Release regularly. Some people swear by small novella releases once every three months. We do two a year on average. That means you need to:
Plan. Okay, planning sucks, but you will hate yourself unless you do it. In a series, we plan three to five books out before we start writing book one. Sometimes we go as far as ten books out. Yeah, ten.
Take time to make a great cover. Some people will tell you to invest in PR or something. Covers are king.
Select your distributor carefully. For us, we debated between Kindle Direct Publishing and INscribe Digital. INscribe has relationships across all the major etailers–as well as a focus on working as a partner instead of an online form–so we went with them and have never looked back. Love you, INscribe!
4. Be brutal on yourself, both as a writer and a business person.
I suppose the writing side is obvious, but I think the business aspect gets short shrift all too often. For what it’s worth, I’d suggest that for every hour you write your first book, you also spend an hour on your business plan. Write out your thoughts. Show your plan to people who are tough and honest. Ask them how to make it better.
5. Be patient and systematic.
For every awesome idea that worked gangbusters for us, we tried out at least two that died. My motto is ‘the first time you fail, it’s just good data.’
6. Be honest about what it takes to run your own show.
Running your own company is a lot of work. Luckily for me, Aileen and I are perfectionists who hate giving up control. We don’t mind the extra work. That said, don’t let anyone tell you that you should or shouldn’t be your own boss. Going with a publisher to handle the business side is the perfect choice for many writers.
Okay, that’s all I can think of for now. Hope you found it helpful! Want to check out other things the Ink Monster team has published about writing? Check out these posts below:
The Best Writing Advice
My Ultimate Enemy
Writing Action Scenes
Everything I Know About Worldbuilding
Resource Round-Up
On Collaborative Writing
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February 12, 2015
Book Review: RADIANCE by Grace Draven
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Book Review: Radiance by Grace Draven
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February 2, 2015
Book Review: NEANDERTHAL SEEKS HUMAN
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Book Review: Neanderthal Seeks Human
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January 26, 2015
Kicking Ass @ Work: Words to Kick Ass By
This week, I’m sharing my favorite work sayings, beginning with…
If everyone owns it, no one owns it
This one happens whenever you have multiple owners for a single project or employee. Dotted-line reports, anyone? What inevitably happens with shared ownership is that everyone fights over the fun stuff and thinks someone else is doing the shit work. When I’m in these situations, I do a kick off call, list out the tasks and assign owners/deadlines. Saves everyone a lot of hurt feelings and finger-pointing later on.
Three kinds of employees
It goes like this: There are three kinds of employees: angels, assholes and zombies. Of these, which do you think is the worst?
Assholes, right?
Wrong. Assholes you know to fire, angels you know to promote. It’s the zombies that kill you. They’re never moving fast enough to get shit done. You have to aim a shotgun at their heads to do anything, and then they only lumber along into their task. Once the bare minimum is complete, they stand around going ‘uhhhhh’ until the next gun is at their temple. It’s no fun. In my experience, the best solution here is to hire angels. 90% of employee management is hiring someone who’s smart and motivated, I don’t care about job skill (a smart and motivated person will pick that up anyway).
Now, if you inherit a zombie (by moving into to manage a set team or whatever) there’s not much you can do but ride it out until you can find a subtle way to kill them. They move too quickly when the gun is at their heads, so this usually means restructuring their job so they aren’t in it anymore. It sucks, but it is what it is. Zombies are your biggest liability.
There are exceptions, of course. Sometimes you can move a zombie into a role where they become an angel. Other times, they’re just so damned much fun to work with that it’s worth keeping them around. My favorite kind of zombie, actually.
The Monkey Tree
When I got my first direct report, my father-in-law poured me a shot and said ‘Welcome to the Monkey Tree.’
“What’s a monkey tree?” I asked.
“Imagine there’s a tree full of monkeys,” he said. “The monkeys at the top of the tree look down and what do they see? A bunch of monkeys working hard away. The monkeys at the bottom of the tree look up and what do they see? A bunch of assholes.”
The point is this. Once you get into management, you’re going to be an asshole. God knows I was. You forget to thank people, set out dumb projects, the works. In other words, you’re human. The trick is not to be everybody’s friend or manager, but their leader. Set objectives, get resources and move out of the way of the angels (see saying above.) Which leads to another saying…
Do you want to be liked or respected?
I suppose it’s a little obvious, but it’s true. Whenever I am in a meeting and the not-liked vibe comes through, I ask myself the question: “Am I being an asshole?” If the answer is no, then the next question is: “Am I here to be liked or respected?” Most times when others gripe, it’s because you’re pushing them. If you’re pushing them for something that is best for the business, then keep pushing.
Torture the data enough, it will confess to anything.
It really will. The only way around this (sort of) is to designate someone as the ‘single source of truth’ and follow the same conventions in pulling and analyzing data.
Some data is better than no data.
No data analysis is perfect. People will point out all the whack-a-doo scenarios where your data is flawed. And in truth, I have never worked for a company where folks have said ‘Wow, we are really happy with our accurate analyses.’ Still, if you get some data, at least you can make some assumptions based on that data and test them out. This is always an eye-opener. We are never, ever inside our target customer’s heads as much as we think they are. Decisions made on some data are always better. And better, in a lot of ways, is the most we can hope for.
Like how I pontificate about kicking ass at work?
Check out these articles…
Tips for Working Parents
How to tell who’s aligned with whom
3 Strikes and I Call Your Manager
Rule of the 3 Ps
Get anyone to back to fuck off
Work means never having to say ‘I’m sorry’
The single biggest red flag of all time
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January 20, 2015
CB’s Blog: What I’m Working On (Updated 1-20-15)
Here’s what I’m working on now:
SPOILER ALERT
Hey, did I mention that there would be spoilers in here? Well, there are.
ON ANGELBOUND
I’ve been flipping between writing books 3-8 for a while now. For me, it’s the only way I can set everything up properly. I plan to take a break after Book #5, which I consider the Prophecy Cycle. Book #8 marks the end of the first full cycle.
I also do inspiration boards for my characters. Book 5 is about the grown-up adventures of Myla and Lincoln’s son, Maxon. This one is much heavier on the romance than I’ve done before. As Rudolf said to Clarice, “I think it’s cuuuuuuuuuute!” This is an inspiration pic for Maxon; I have a ton more inspiration pics on my blog:
Maxon is an intense guy.
Book 6 is about their daughter Portia. This is another heavy fantasy-adventure-romance mix. Here’s an inspiration pic for Portia:
Portia has issues, that’s all I’m saying.
NEW SERIES: SHADOW RAVENS
My character is a Superheroine called Maker. This one is due out in October, 2016. She is so fucking cool I can’t stand it. She’s a super-powered chemist and engineer. Here’s an updated inspiration pic for her:
Maker is a smarty pants.
Tom Hardy is one of the inspirations for Maker’s love interest, Thorne.
The best pic of Tom Hardy ever.
NEW FANTASY SERIES: CURSED
Another new unique fantasy universe, yay! This one asks the question: what if we lived in a parallel medieval and magical world where the beauty of our souls became the beauty of our bodies? You do something shitty, your eye withers or whatever. Seems like a good deal right? Wrong. People still find ways to rig the system. And if you’re one of the few who can easily lie their asses off and not get ugly, you are hunted down and cursed. This will come out after Angelbound #5.
The girl in this one is Beatrix. She’s raised in the Cloisters but becomes a con artist extraordinaire. Guess what she can do?
Beatrix is a smart conniver who’s inspired by the young Octavia from Angelbound.
And Bea’s match is Asher. You’re welcome.
There’s a swimming scene with magic and Asher. That’s all I will say.
And since I can’t help myself, here’s one of Asher in his clothes:
Yeah, I may have a thing for Asher.
NEW FANTASY SERIES: PRIESTESS
Haven’t you always wanted a fantasy series based on ancient Egypt? Yeah, me too. Here’s an inspiration pic for our priestess main character:
And I’m so psyched for this series, I can’t stand it.
Right now, both Cursed and Priestess will be three novellas released within a month of each other. Something different.
In any case, that’s all for now! Must get back to writing!
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January 9, 2015
Top 10 Reasons I’m Glad Scala is a 99 Cent “Big Deal”
Here are my Top 10 reasons why I’m so excited about this news:
10. Now I know what to tattoo on my ass
9. Wiccan spell I cast over distributor Inscribe Digital totally worth the 5K
8. Snappy comeback now easily available for when someone asks me “Who do you think you are?”
7. Additional cover so no one suspects my secret life as the infamous Superheroine, Cupcake Girl
6. Time to party! And when I say party, I mean eat a lot of crap (see item #7)
5. Awkward teenage years suddenly have meaning
4. Social!
3. Independent validation for my narcissism
2. Excuse to buy a lottery ticket
1. Totally reasonable to make husband address me as ‘Oh you big deal you’ for at least a week
Check out the big deal yourself by clicking right here. Please share the love!
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January 5, 2015
CB’s Blog: My Sweetest Things
This will fucking blow your mind. Each kernel is perfectly popped and evenly topped with buttery caramel. They’ll try to push some other flavors on you, but I’ve tried them all and they’re not worth your time. Caramel. Corn. End of story.
These have no reason to be as yummy as they are. They’re also not incredibly bad for you either, as dessert foods go. They do something with the cake filling where it’s not totally baked or something. So good! My favorite flavor is salted caramel, but there really isn’t a bad cake pop out there.
3. Burdick’s Chocolate Mochas.
This stuff is so good, it isn’t funny. Now some of you may be a fan of the hot chocolate, and I can see where you’re coming from. It’s like a melted bar of chocolate in a cup. I’m a fan of the mocha because it’s a little lighter and has that awesome caffeine kick. The stores are in the Boston area, but you can buy the candies online, if you like. The caramels are super and yes, I have a thing about caramel.
Like the way I blog about stuff? Check these out:
Our corporate offsite and Candypants
Stuff I love (hint: food is involved)
Drug-dealing tampons
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December 31, 2014
CB’s Blog: For Jane
Best wishes for a wonderful new year
Christina
From Armageddon…
Acknowledgments
Armageddon was a gut-wrenching bitch to write and I don’t care who knows it. In my creative process, I try to follow my little muse wherever it wants to go, and with Armageddon it wanted rehash one of the toughest periods of my life, when my son was diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder. At that point, my sweet two-year-old boy experienced the world as an overwhelming and often terrifying place. He exhibited many of the classic signs of trauma. My husband and I were at a loss for how to ease his suffering.
We were incredibly fortunate when Jane Koomar came into our life and family. She taught us how the brain remains plastic through old age and that we all have the potential to grow and heal, whatever the pace. She showed us that our child’s sensory challenges were a puzzle that could be solved, and that our family could have a fun time doing it. Sensory integration therapy with Jane and the wonderful team at OTA Watertown (now OTA the Koomar Center) made all the difference in our son’s development as well as our lives as a family. We are one of many that were blessed with her presence.
Jane was also a friend. She and I shared an intense way of soaking in the world and new pursuits that may seem odd to outsiders, but made perfect sense to us. We’d email esoteric brain development research back and forth, geeking out on the implications for days. When I’d join in my son’s therapy sessions , Jane had no issues pushing both of us on the platform swing if I had to take an emergency call from the office. “That’s how it is when you’re a working Mom, Christina. Watch your head.”
Jane wore a different, more official face when she was her public-self versus the private, effervescent think-tank who brainstormed how to end third-world poverty with stationary bikes (and yes, she had a concept that would totally work!) She read my books and encouraged my writing. She was taken from us far too soon.
In summary, I can only end these acknowledgements by recalling Walker’s sentiments to Myla on the Plains of Fire. With some people, there are no goodbyes. Only see you soon.
Jane, you are missed. See you soon.
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