James Alexander's Blog, page 5

Confession

OK, so I have a confession to make…and it’s a doozy. I have not yet started writing the next book for Conduit. Gasp! I know….I deserve a kick in the butt. I have however mapped most of what I intend to have in the sequel to the first book. It’s all stored safely away in one of the dusty vaults in my mind.

Do I have an excuse? Sure! I have a bunch. Get ready for the sob story and queue the violin.

First, writing is an escape for me – a way to get away from the typical work week that I put in that actually supports me and my family. So unfortunately, work has to come first for me and it’s eating up my time and has become extremely busy of late. Second, I do have a two year old daughter who is a treasure and I don’t want to miss a moment of her toddler life – even at the terrible two’s stage that she is going through filled with tantrums and crying fits. Honestly, aside from the really bad mood days, the terrible two’s aren’t so bad. Third, it is summer time and whatever time I get, I like to be a lazy bum like everyone else out there. Yes, I’m sure there are those that will tell me that I need to write everyday for x amount of time – but I’m human, not a machine.

So have I been completely lazy and will I never write another story? Heck no! In fact I’m still busy getting my novella, “Beautiful People” ready to go – I’m aiming for fall this year. I’m really excited about this story as it really fits to a lot of what is happening with society today. Now here is the exciting part if you’ve managed to make it this far in my rambling: I will be following a slightly different release plan for this story and will first load the book to Smashwords. This means that I can offer coupons for free on advance copies as a contest promotion. I will cover the details around the free copies in another post shortly.

I’ve also been working on a long running novel about alternate timelines – which still remains to be titled. I’m approximately 40,000 words in and believe I’ll finish the story with at least 60,000 words. I don’t usually talk about word counts because I’ve grown to believe that word counts and setting targets of word counts are a thing of the past. I don’t want to be an author who fills pages upon pages of extra wording in order to satisfy a word count target. The story is complete when the story is complete – regardless of how many words are in the book. I only reference the word count as a way to gauge how complete I think this story is – roughly 67% on the first draft. Yes, still more to go but I’m getting there.

Hopefully some of the above explains my absence from the blog and lack of news surrounding the sequel to Conduit: The Beginning. I promise I’m working my way into picking up where the first story left off. There is a lot to add and it will be worth the wait.

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Edit….Edit….Edit….

I’m really tired of editing my next book, “Beautiful People”. It seems every time I feel like I’m close to getting the story complete and ready to go, I find something else I want to fix. I tend to be a person that jumps too soon in a lot of cases – as has been identified in some reviews of my first book “Conduit: The Beginning”. The fact is though, at least for me, is that if I get caught up in trying to provide a perfect version of my work, I’ll never have anything available for others to read.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I know how important editing is to a story and I know how distracting numerous typos or grammatical errors can be to a reader. The point I’m really trying to focus on is that there can be too much editing where a story is completely changed – the flow is ruined and the author’s voice is buried in a sea of refined substance.

I’m an indie author. I take pride in that title – even with all the negativity received from those that hold indie work in contempt. As the name implies, I’m independent. I’m not held to the rules set forth by old processes and those driving them. Therefore, I have the ability to do things the way that I want to do them. I take all responsibility for poor grammar or broken writing rules that I do not know I’ve broken. I never claimed to be a literary genius. What I do claim to be is a storyteller. My goal is to help others escape from their daily life pressures and find some enjoyment at the end of a hard day. And with a handful of negative reviews about my writing style or lack of, there have been numerous comments about how much my story was enjoyed. So I guess I must have done something right and that’s all that matters to me.

I have taken on writing as a hobby. Everything I do is on my own and with the help of other indie folks (editors/graphics). I’m as indie as indie gets.

So what does this mean? It means that after countless edits on my novella, “Beautiful People”, I have come to the realization that there can be a thing as too much editing. I am always working to improve my craft and I do pay attention – sometimes too much – to comments that I have received. I have made edits that I have gone back and erased because as I re-read tem, it didn’t ‘feel’ right. It was at this point that I came to the conclusion that my story was ready to go. Whatever additional edits I could make have become more of a detractor than an enhancement to the story.

Grabbing hold of my indie spirit and regaining my confidence, I’m ready to take the plunge release my baby to the world. I hope to release “Beautiful People” this summer/fall as it takes a considerable amount of time to working out the kinks before posting a story. I hope others find the read an enjoyable one – now I’m off to work on my next project!

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Posting a Story to Amazon, Part 3: Formatting Oops!

Self-publishing is quite a journey. As hard as I tried to make sure everything was in order when publishing my story to Amazon, I succumbed to stupid mistakes – one of which applied to the formatting of my story.

I really wanted my story to stand out and look pretty on whatever electronic reader was being used. I love how the drop cap format looks at the beginning of chapters and tried countless ways to apply it to my book in the Kindle format.

For those of you that may not know what the drop cap is, here is a paragraph from my story, “Beautiful People” (Yep, it’s my latest story that isn’t even out yet – so here’s a sneak peak – but you will have to squint!), with the drop cap format:

So yes, I spent hours trying to figure out how to implement the drop cap. I could do it in Word, but it wouldn’t transfer to the Kindle format. I tried everything. First, using the drop cap function in Word – no luck, then I tried forcing the format by making the font bigger for the first letter – looked horrible, finally I went through every chapter of my book and pasted an image in of the first letter and wrapped the text around the image. OK, yes, tedious. But I wanted my book to look a certain way. The next step was to import the story and check to see if the format transferred. Guess what? It did!

At this point, you are probably wondering where my big mistake was? I’m getting to it. It’s a good one.

I scanned my story for 50 pages or so and it all looked great. Pleased, I patted myself on the back and took myself out for a coffee.

It was about a week or so later that I was notified by a reader that the very last chapter of the book had a bunch of random formatting. After the last sentence of the book, it had random chapter headings such as, Chapter 20 Chapter 30 Chapter 10 – these were all listed in random order. Evidently the import didn’t like some of the chapter and drop cap images and moved them to the end of the book. I’m sure it left some wondering what my intent was or if there was an issue with their download. So if you are one of those with my uniquely formatted book, yes, you have all the content. Please consider it a one of a kind. I do have a planned sequel to “Conduit: The Beginning”, so I like to think that the random chapter lingo at the end of the book can signify the chapters in the future books to the series!

So what have I learned from all of this?

1) Check every page with every fresh import for your story, even if it’s small change.

2) Use a tool such as MOBIPOCKET eBook Creator

To my second point, I dabbled with the MOBIPOCKET eBook Creator to fix the format of my book. It will import a Word file with special formatting and convert it to a .mobi file which is easy for the Kindle import and it appears that it will accept a lot of special formatting without much hassle. From this point on, I will always be using this tool. You can grab a free copy here:

MOBIPOCKET Creator

Now some may be wondering why I’m sharing my stupid mistake with everyone. It’s my hope that others can learn from my error. E-publishing is a new world for all and though it is easy to post a book out on Amazon, there are plenty of pitfalls that need to be avoided as well.

Good luck if you are in the process of getting a book out there and I hope I have helped in some way!

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Amazon Giveaway Results!

I have been away from my blog for some time as I’ve been busy trying to get my second promotion off the ground.  If you have followed my book at all on Amazon, you may already know what a success it was.  Obviously, planning is a very important part of the process.

A month ahead of my promotion, I broadcasted the dates that I would be holding the free drive of my book, “Conduit: The Beginning” with the hope that some other sites might pick it up.

During the morning of the first day of the promotion, no one had listed my story.  By 10:00, I had given away around 150 copies.  Shortly after, the numbers doubled.  I realized then that someone had listed my giveaway.

By evening, I had surpassed my first giveaway by 3000 copies!  I was excited beyond words that so many people had downloaded my story.

My story ended up snagging the top 100 list for all free kindle books.  I can’t find words to explain how excited I am at achieving that ranking.  The total number of downloads for my two day promotion totaled to 5980!  The second day closed a truly exciting week for me.

Top 100 Best Sellers:

As always, I really hope those that downloaded my story find it to be an enjoyable read.  I look forward to seeing what reviews come in.  It is an extreme motivator for me to hear about someone who enjoyed my work.

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Characters in Conduit: The Beginning (Meagan)

When I thought about Meagan as a character in "Conduit: The Beginning", I wanted to show how a young woman would cope with the events that take place in the story.

Smart, pretty, and a bit selfish, Meagan must learn to adjust to the situation she's been forced into. All her life, she has been able to rely on her looks and popularity but when life makes a sharp turn for her, she must learn to use her wits and recognize others for their true selves instead of their looks.

Meagan is the daughter of Maggie and Max and sister to Sam. She has always had the support of her family and is well loved. When tragedy strikes, Meagan is alone, without the support she's always known.

Thankfully, there are those that can help her, yet there are also those that mean her harm and her journey will not be an easy one.

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Characters in Conduit: The Beginning (Rick Marnell)

As I mentioned in my previous post, "Conduit: The Beginning", while there are many good people in the story, it has its share of evil people as well.

Rick Marnell, is a troubled young man, and like Joe, has had bad childhood experiences. Starting at eight years old, Rick begins a downward spiral and is not happy unless he is surrounded by death and blood.

I enjoyed writing about Rick. I know; that sounds odd based on what I just wrote above. Rick is interesting character because I wanted to show Rick as a person that has an incredible dark side to him, but what he does, he does because he feels it is necessary.

Because of his history of being raised with an abusive and alcoholic father, Rick cannot tolerate evil people or people that he believes to be at fault in some way. As a result, he takes matters into his own hands, which, usually ends up with someone's demise.

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Characters in Conduit: The Beginning (Joseph Baxter)

With the many good people in "Conduit: The Beginning", there are quite a few evil characters as well. Joseph Baxter is a very evil person who enjoys seeing others suffrage.

Like many bad people, much of their behavior can be traced back to their childhood or events that took place in their pasts.

Joe is the son of Reverend Baxter who has an extreme dark side to which Joe is exposed to as a child and is forced to accept. Not only does he not receive any parental support from his father, but his mother, Belinda, is an abusive woman who only cares about her wealth and status in the community.

Joe is expected to take his fathers side and carry on his legacy to which Joe wants more then anything else. He grows to enjoy his family's fame and wealth, all the while keeping his family's dark secrets hidden from the community.

When I think of Joe as a personality, I think of these words: charismatic, smart, handsome, and a pillar of the community. Yet underneath the surface is where his true character is, and it's not anything close to what his exterior shows. Joe has a dark story to tell and it's only begun.

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Characters in Conduit: The Beginning (Dwight Zeller)

Keeping my promise to describe the characters in "Conduit: The Beginning", the next character is Dwight Zeller.

Close friend to Tim Eddins, Dwight's personality is quite a contrast to that of Tim's. Reserved and introverted, Dwight, often finds himself deep in thought to which others around him tend to feel that he is ignoring them. Dwight is a brilliant scientist with a tendency to be too blunt, usually and unknowingly, hurting the feelings of others that do not share his views.

A big critic of religion, Dwight has a long standing argument with Tim, who believes that religion is ultimately a good thing. Dwight's belief is that religion holds society back from advancing in science. His stance often leads him into arguments with proponents of religion.

Although Dwight may come across as a jerk, deep down he has a want to do good for society, and make others lives better through science.

A tragic event turns Dwight down a path that will put him in the middle of humanity's struggle for survival, and much like many other characters in "Conduit: The Beginning", Dwight is a hero in his own way.

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Characters in Conduit: The Beginning (Tim Eddins)

Continuing with the topic for the characters in "Conduit: The Beginning", next on the list is, Tim Eddins.

Arrogant, handsome, and rich, Tim Eddins, is a wealthy and well known surgeon. Though he may come across as egotistical, Tim is ultimately a good human being who truly wants to help others.

When I thought about Tim as a character in "Conduit", I wanted to show that even people we meet that we tend to write off for one reason or another because of some flaw that we see in their personality can turn out to be a good person.

Without Tim, little hope would be left for humankind. Because of his abilities and drive to help those in need of medical care, his actions will play an important role in the Conduit storyline.

Tim, unlike his friend, Dwight Zellar, holds a belief in God and solidifies his belief by the miracles that he sees from his own experiences in the medical field. If one wrote Tim off as a shallow human being, they would never see the deeper side of him. He loves life and has a longstanding argument with his friend about religion.

I never realized how hard this would be to write about all the characters in my story without giving everything away! I hope I haven't said too much already.

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Characters in Conduit: The Beginning (Adrianna)

Continuing the posts on the characters in "Conduit: The Beginning", Adrianna is next on the list.

Beautiful, feisty, and an incredible shot with a gun, Adrianna, is not a woman to be pushed around. Though she may come across as short tempered, Adrianna is a person one would want around when times are tough.

Wife to Jack Connor and like Jack will not tolerate any sort of harm to those she loves. Having grown up in the country, Adrianna has learned how to get by through hard times and with little help.

Sometimes she may appear to be a cold person and slow to accept others, Adrianna loves with all her heart. Emotional and sometimes too quick to judge, people on the outside of her circle my write her off as mean and unyielding.

When the world is turned upside down and catastrophe strikes, Adrianna's true colors show and she is shown for the beautiful and courageous person that she truly is.

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