Rain Trueax's Blog, page 50

November at the Oregon Coast

A week-end at the Oregon Coast with the family where we experienced pretty near every kind of weather possible for a coastal late fall. It was a good time with the grandkids, kids, and for thinking. As usual, I took a ton of photos. The quiet time without my computer was something I needed.  I returned to the farm feeling  inspired about life, beauty and possibilities. The Coast, in all its moods, is always rejuvenating to me.

What to do instead...

Sometimes a writer or painter or sculptor or whatever is just plain flat. Not that it means nothing is happening inside, but there is a feeling of mental fog. The question is often asked-- what do you do then?

Some say just keep doing it. It doesn't matter if you feel it. It's that you set yourself up a schedule and hew to it. So you paint even though everything you are doing is coming out blah or looks like everything you earlier did. You write so many words a day and it doesn't matter if you feel it. You stick to a schedule and it will work itself out.

Frankly I've done that. I've written and painted when I didn't 'feel' it. It's both worked and not worked. Sometimes as I start to write, the energy changes and I see where it's going. Like that film Field of Dreams-- build it and they will come. It's a fantasy but it has some truth to it but not always.

Mostly when I don't feel it one place, I am better off to switch to something else. For instance with writing fiction, I might have a good idea where the character is going but need some time to consider it. The reason I don't feel the inspiration is because what I'm trying to do is the wrong way. Giving it some time can help to develop a better sense of what comes next.

Some of the things I do when I'm in one of those in between times is move to a different media. I might look for photos that fit the stories I am writing, photos to inspire me. Now I have mentioned my favorite source for this is CanStock. I try only to buy photos that I know I can never take for myself. That means scenery I almost never buy. I also have a lot of wildlife shots; but lightning strikes, which are symbolic of both power and threat, those I am unlikely to ever take to the level I can buy.

What I learned this last year is that buying images of heroes, heroines, and secondary characters helps me get a feel for them.  I didn't think it would work that way, but it has ended up bringing a level of reality and inspiration to my books that my dreamlike imagination wasn't managing.

When I was going through one of my rather flat times (election hasn't helped with this), I began to play around with improving book covers. One led to another. It was a break from plots and character development and ended up surprisingly upgrading a couple of covers.

The one at the top is an example. I had been satisfied with the cover as it had that couple with a black background. The hero of Her Dark Angel is going through a bleak time when the book opens. He's in the midst of something very dangerous. The last thing he wanted to do was fall in love especially with a woman he knew he could never have. Lightning is apropos for his situation as well as later plays into one of the critical events. When I originally did the cover, I had no lightning photos. Now I have a couple and they prove useful every so often.

On such a day when the words aren't flowing, I will also do something I dislike but is essential to getting books out-- marketing. I go around, see what subjects are being discussed in forums, put up an advertising blurb (something I have yet to see sell a single book), write a Twitter, put up a Pinterest image, just generally do something to show I am still out there.

Finding something else to do, something to do instead, keeps me from feeling I am accomplishing nothing. Writing when the energy isn't right often just means I later go back and take it out or totally rewrite it; so it's not the best choice for me. Finding something else is because while doing that there will be those ideas  swirling around in my brain for what would happen next in the plot. When I get back to it, it'll go smoother.

Sticking to a genre

 Now I am not sure about this, but think it's mostly true and publishers long ago discovered it. If you write, you are better off to stick to a definable genre. Some writers can bounce all around, and it seems to work out. The ones that appear to sell the best-- they stick to their genre.

This isn't just true in writing. A few years back there was a painter whose work I admired for its color, lighting, subject matter, but never purchased because it would not have fit with other work I owned. She did mostly landscapes of wildlife. Beautiful images and romantically traditional. She had an auto accident. In injuring her 'painting' arm, she decided to try painting with the other. The work surprised her as it turned out to be very impressionistic, full of vibrant colors and nothing like the others.

Not long after having read about her change of style, I was visiting a gallery and saw they had her traditionals; so I asked if they had the others. They did and led me to a dark corner of the gallery and there they were. They said it wasn't what the clients wanted. Recently when I checked out her work, it was all the traditional animal paintings. Beautiful but the buyers wouldn't go for the others, which I had thought was great, very exciting work.

Another example of how it works with painting was in Jerome, Arizona. A couple had taken over what had been a school as well as at one time a hospital and turned it into a gallery for their paintings (this is one place that really should have had ghosts). They kept the styles in different rooms, but they did all kinds of work. I said something to them about galleries not liking that much-- and they said it's why they now had their own.


Is this need to fit a niche a good thing? Not so much for the creative personality where many like to experiment with different approaches to depicting their idea. That said, I suspect it's true of many things. It sells best if the creator sticks to something that they can develop, get people to admire, want to purchase, and not disappoint them with something totally different. Basically at some point turn it into a craft instead of an art and voila!

I have not felt that my books, even though they are romances, fit their genre's expectationsy. And they aren't going to. This will be even more true when I begin to bring out the historical romances. Even before that though they simply didn't fit the niches that help to sell a lot of books. Most have some adventure in them, maybe suspense, but also other kinds of interests from art to ranching to detective work and on it has gone.

Although my plots are always going to have a love story at their center, they're not series type of romance. I remember one editor telling me that my writing was good but they wanted the heroine more 'vulnerable' with more angst. Another didn't like the hard issue one of my heroes had to face. I have a story where the hero wrestles with commiting suicide, something I can't recall seeing in another romance.

If a reader loves western contemporary romances, I have a couple... Romantic suspense, some of that (if they don't mind some art thrown in), paranormal, etc. But I can't say these books fit together. The romances have some sex; so aren't 'sweet' but they also don't go far enough to be erotica.

The reason for my plots comes I think because of my own interest in so many different things. Tell me a Libra who isn't like that? I am eclectic in my home decor, interests, and it follows through with my writing.

Maybe someday the marketing world will change or humans will not want 'more of the same.' Maybe someday the cross-genre writers will have their own genre... Except, what would it be?

Image at the top was created from a purchased CanStock photo and then digital painting to play around with possibilities. It was part of redoing a cover. When I do that, I save the stages by different names in case what comes next doesn't work. I liked this one well enough to keep it when the cover was redone. If these had all been oil paintings, I might have a photo of the stages but that'd be all. The ability to save the levels is what I love about digital painting.

reviews of books-- the downside

I wrote about the upside of reader reviews particularly for indie writers who are not going to get reviews from professional reviewers (short of paying for them). There is a downside, but it's as much for readers as writers. Reviews aren't always reviews.


A lot of readers apparently decide on what book to read by looking at the reviews below the blurbs. There can be a lot of them. Readers also rely on the likes. If a lot of people liked the book, positively reviewed it, what could go wrong?

Well one thing is fraud. The best book reviews money can buy.  You see the reviews full of effusive praise for the book, and you think it must be a great read. You get it and wonder what they read when it's poorly edited with stereotypical characters and a ridiculous, manipulative plot. The link tells you how some are getting those wonderful reviews. Some of this buying of reviews comes from the difficulty of getting independent books even seen by the reading public.

Amazon has done what they can to let the reader check the validity of a review by a notation above the review certifying it's a purchased copy. Since legitimate reviewers also request a copy, I am not sure this helps much.

A sneaky tactic suggested, even in some of those books on how to sell a million copies, is to acquire a bunch of emails with various sites and names. Then the author can flatter themselves with effusive reviews from say five different people, who are all them.

Various places, I've seen the writers come in asking for 'likes' for their book. You don't have to buy it, just 'like' it for me. They know that it will influence some purchases, maybe enough to get their book into the top 100 list of some category.

Sales are the only way readers can find a lot of these books. The average reader will not go to Amazon Forums to get recommendations. They will do a search and if they go past the first 100 titles in that category, it would be surprising. It's not hard to see why writers do whatever they can to get their books there.


Writers who mean well ask for the likes if the others like their book but it's implicit in the asking that they want it and will do it in return. It pretty well makes the 'like' category meaningless since it can be based on friends clicking the button without reading the book.

So what's the answer for someone who wants to purchase books they will enjoy and not be defrauded? I'd think checking out the blurb for whether the plot sounds good, and then taking time with the free sample chapters. (If they aren't offered-- most are-- skip the book as there is a reason).


For writers like myself who don't ask for reviews (a few of my friends have read my stories and done reviews without the asking), what is the answer to getting them? Pretty much I think independent writers have to stick to writing the best story they can and do what they can to get the word out-- but honorably.

I do more reviews now than I ever did before I got into the ePub world. Back then the only place I would write a review of a book was in my blog and had never done one at Amazon. I understand how important it can be to a writer, but I won't do one by request and don't write something I don't believe.

Basically I don't do negative reviews as I tend to think one person's poison is another's delight. I've seen some poorly edited books; but what if I put that in a review, they get it fixed, who's the one with a review looking foolish? Mostly I think that if the problem is a plot device and say discussing it would give away the plot, then a review would not only be mean but unfair to readers. The next reader might and often does love what I, as a writer, feel was a gimmick.

Finally I have read the opinion that writers should not do reviews at all. I  disagree with that. Their logic is a writer cannot be fair. They might do a negative review to squelch competition or a positive one as payback. That implies writers are all dishonorable which is ridiculous. Writers are like anybody else with the honorable, who write because they have a story to tell, but also those who'd sell out their mother to get a book in the top 100. I think writers should do reviews and can offer tips to another writer for why their book works or does not.

Either way reviews should come from those who read the book, truly liked or hated it, and are willing to take their own precious time. If they were all done that way, they'd be of value to readers and writers.

From August, the photos are of summer gardens along the Oregon Coast. I love gardens there as they can grow things that would freeze out here. Some are lush, overgrown but with a rush of colors. They bring back memories to me of the years my grandparents lived on the Coast. I like the funky sense of style mixing flowers, lanterns, planters, and colorful beach buoys.

reviews of the books-- the upside

 Of all the things I have learned through becoming an indie writer, I'd say near the top of the list is the value of reviews by readers. I do not get a lot of them; but between those at Amazon and the ones I come across elsewhere on the Internet, I have gotten enough to see their value for any author.

Reviews by someone who likes my books are of course the most pleasurable. It makes a writer feel good to meet the needs of someone else. It's a little wahoo or a big one sometimes. It's even better when it comes from someone I personally know who tried one of my books. I feel the most potential responsibility and nervousness when a friend has taken the risk of buying one. If they like it, it makes the reward of a positive review even sweeter. I do not have the kind of friends who'd lie about it or write a positive review somewhere that they did not mean. I wouldn't do that for their art or writing either.

Part of reviews, of course, is the negative ones. Now if they are about something I cannot change, I simply have to accept that I can't please everybody. I've had a few where they said they'd have liked the books better without the sex. Well I consider healthy sexuality to be an important part of my stories. I don't go on for pages and pages, am not too graphic, but in the end, writers have to write what is their story.

One reviewer wrote that they read 80% of Bannister's Way, got bored and quit. That was like wow-- really! Not even curious enough to skip to the end for how it worked out? That's what I do when a book is turning me off.

Well I went looking for what happened at about that time, had to guess, but decided any of the possibilities were things I would not want to change. They were an important part of the essence of the story. I just have to feel bad for that reader that they wasted their time, but it's part of the deal for a writer to accept that it happens. Our stories simply won't need the needs of everybody.

When a negative review deals with something I can change, a mistake that I made, or that I should look at, that's when I truly feel reviewers do the most for me. One of those occurred coincidentally (or not) for Bannister's Way.

I have to say this book has had some of the most disdain from readers of anything I've written, but it was usually involving its title or cover. It had another title when it began, Golden Chains. It seemed apropos to the story because it's about love which can be a sort of chain (but one worthwhile) and also about Prometheus where chains are part of the mythology and the sculpture for which the hero will be posing. That title really turned off readers. I was and always am open to thinking of a different title-- hence was born Bannister's Way which also suited the story.

Once in awhile I write a book that does fit into a series and Bannister's Way is one. It arose from another book, Desert Inferno, where David Bannister was an important secondary character. I had liked him enough that I began to think of writing a book using him.

That led to five years later when David went undercover to solve a murder as he hoped to reconcile with his ex wife. I set it in Portland and gave my artist heroine the kind of home along the Tualatin River that I'd love to own. (Incidentally, two of the secondary characters in this one were the hero and heroine of Evening Star ).

Now the review, that led to a changing this book once again, was actually positive regarding the book itself, but the person said that was despite its cheesy cover. Huh!!! I had some concern that the hero might look a little too young on its cover but cheesy? I looked the word up although it's hard to say if it meant that to the writer. It said-- inauthentic, trying too hard, unsubtle. hmmmm

I was a bit in shock but reconsidered it once again for the umpeteenth time. You know, our books deserve the most we can give to them; so I began looking through the model images I had purchased this year from CanStock. Some I'd gotten after I had done that cover. When I saw the right face, I knew this was going to be a positive move and went looking for some of my recent ocean photos.

Thanks to that negative comment, I am soooooo much happier with how the cover portrays David Bannister. I think he now looks stronger, the right age, has more of the Michelangelo's David look, and seems tough enough to do what I wrote he was doing. Yes!

It did require redoing the trailer too but that wasn't too difficult (other than giving up the viewer numbers I had had for the old one). Good things come with a cost but that is a small one. And that reader, who made the cheesy comment, will never know how much they helped me.

Positive and negative reviews really can be good for the author. You can't run around changing everything that someone else doesn't like, but sometimes what they don't like can lead to an improvement.

Bannister's Way Trailer

Another free eBook-- November 5

To be able to ePub my books on sites other than Amazon, I have cut down to three (by mid-December that will be two) the number of them in Select. When you are in Select, you cannot have your books anywhere else. Having them there is what enabled a free day now and again. November 5th, Bannister's Way, will have one of those.

David Bannister was a secondary character in Desert Inferno. This story opens five years later in Portland, Oregon. It is about a couple who were married young, divorced, and now meet up when the husband comes to Portland hoping to reconcile as he sets out to find a murderer; there are four (what I considered) delightful old ladies in it.


The two above, have a Seaside bed and breakfast, and helped David before. They are there for him again with their wisdom as he takes his ex-wife, Raven, to the Coast hoping they can iron out their differences. I enjoy writing about elders because I have had some wonderful ones in my life. Of course, at 69, I am an elder now too but not yet to their point.  I'm getting there-- hopefully.
Bannister's Way is an adult romance with some mystery, danger, mythology, and art. For anyone not familiar with Kindles, you can read them on your computer and other eReaders by downloading a free app from Amazon. A free book is a good way to try out a new genre or writer.
Free time begins at midnight and in this case, being only one day, ends the next midnight. Always double check to be sure they are still free by seeing a line through the price and it will say-- you save. In this case that means $2.99.

The trailer for Bannister's Way

Energy of covers

If you have never self-published a book, my writing so often here about covers might seem kind of a so-what kind of thing. Why does it matter? Isn't it all about the plots, characters, dialogue, editing, words?

It's important because if I have learned one thing through my time of reading reviews and the forums--  readers won't even get to the words without the right cover. Title and cover are the first things to attract someone. Many won't go beyond that to the blurb or sample chapters if the first two don't hook them.

Now if you are self-publishing and paying a graphics artist, you don't have to do your own work, but you will still have to care. It's up to you to help that graphics artist understand what the energy of your book is about.

Whether you pay for it or you do it, your cover is an attempt to capture the energy of your story in one image.  With a trailer, you get the opportunity to find more images and music to go a little further-- assuming the possible reader is intrigued enough by that cover and title to take time with the trailer.

When I began doing covers, I thought I would have no problem since I'd been doing digital paintings for a few years as well as had a lot of beautiful photographs. What could go wrong? Well turns out you need to satisfy the genre. So what I write about with a romance cover won't be what you would run into if you write a memoir, spy drama, or book of poetry.

When it was suggested my cover for Hidden Pearl wasn't matching up to the others, I was torn on it. I liked that cover. Even though photographic, it was very painterly, I thought.

Here's where the conflict between attracting readers and the energy of the book must be considered. I wrote Hidden Pearl to explore how people can look for that thing of great value and think they have found it in various ways-- some of which are beneficial and some not so much.

Pearls are hidden behind shells. They are created by irritation as they grow into what will be found by humans and regarded as of great value. If this book wasn't a romance, a pearl in a shell might've made a great cover-- but it is a romance as well as adventure. If I had been a well known author, I also could have probably used the pearl in a shell; but I think, as an indie writer, I have to attract hero to my hero or heroine through the cover.

Hidden Pearl, for a title, works because its hero, S.T. Taggert, is a man who has achieved much despite coming from a difficult background. He's wealthy, successful as a builder and architect. It would appear he has it all. When his mother asks him to find his sister, a woman he's never seen as an adult, he only reluctantly agrees. His past is something he's put aside. When photographer Christine Johnson comes into his life, he doesn't want anything she offers. Irritations build up for S.T. but as with the pearl, those irritations lead to him to becoming a stronger man one of more value even to himself.

I think the new cover is probably better at capturing the interest of a reader browsing through books. I didn't change the trailer though and left the original cover there as I still have a good feeling about it. I think the change, however, is a positive one with less clutter and more emphasis on the key players in the book. . It doesn't hurt to re-evaluate the books and covers every now and again. Are they still the best I can do? For now, with this book, I think they are.

networking and such

In looking at how you get your books seen, when you aren't part of a major publishing network, the emphasis is on finding networks. Mostly this appears to mean joining into groups and there are a lot of them out there. You join, get others to support your work (or buy it) and hence get the sales you need to become visible to the broader population of readers.

It is very logical because a tiny drop of water is nothing. Put it together with others and you have something. A writer alone has less power than one in a group etc. etc.

That all sounds good but then arises the question of how you do it and what is the actual cost-- emotionally and physically. Suppose you are part of a group for your type of book, say science fiction, you visit the site, spend time chatting, encouraging others about their books, discussing sales, making friendships, and hence upping your own visibility in that world-- how many hours a day will that take? If you get them to buy your book, do you then buy theirs and how does that average out for you all?

Besides finding those who write and support your kind of writing, there is another type of group. It's when the writers all agree to write in a certain region, a certain length of book, around a certain topic. It becomes like a small Harlequin for romance novels. You lose some control over your work, but you have more than you out there promoting it.

Networking is a big part of selling anything; and, of course, it's logical writers who are 'going it alone' would look for a way to not go it alone. I can see the value of it and maybe if I hadn't gotten into chatting when I first came to the web, maybe I'd be more willing to do this. As it stands, I am not because to think about putting in chat time just to get books sold (even if with nice people), it makes my teeth hurt. That's always a sign to me that it's not a good idea.

I am not sure I could do such groups even if I wanted. My books don't exactly fit category writing. Maybe the historical romances would but they don't seem like it when I look at what is currently out there.  My contemporaries are all based in a geographic region-- the American west of today; but they don't have a common theme other than the love story. It's possible that even if I wanted to try to join such a group, I'd be out of luck.

However, I write this blog for more than me; so for writers who may be looking to put out their books, I can see value (especially if you weren't burned out on chatting years ago) in trying to find groups of those already doing the kind of thing you plan to publish. It could be informative for the pitfalls, but might also help you get the likes and reviews that so many readers rely on to decide on a book for themselves.

Amazon's Meet Our Authors forum is one place to begin to find those writing what you write. Go there, check out the threads, click on the names of those commenting, and you might find groups other places. Another possible place for such networking is GoodReads. They are two places I do go and have established a kind of sort of bit of a presence. I haven't yet done though what might help me get those 'reviews and likes' there and maybe won't... although if thinking about doing it ever doesn't lead to my teeth hurting, maybe I will :)

I created a new cover for another of my books. One that I hadn't intended to do at all but my publisher (Farm Boss also referred to as husband) said the one I had wasn't working  as well as the others. I had asked him to look at them for just such a thing-- but that cover? I loved that cover. Very arty... Then I remembered some of my recent waterfall photos, and I began to think how a change might work better than I was imagining. More on that next blog.

Samhain and Sky Daughter

Being today is Samhain, it seemed a good time to promote one of my books-- actually the only book (so far) that has a witch, more accurately wiccan, as a character... two and possibly three of them.

Samhain is the time when the veil between the worlds grows most thin. It is when the distance between the dead and living is most easily breached. It's celebrated by most people as Halloween or All Hallow's Eve and many have long since forgotten from where it came. But witches know...

  Sky Daughter is not set at Samhain but does climax with another important Celtic celebration-- Lammas, which is significant in the plot. The story is of a young woman who, after a series of disappointments, has returned to her grandfather's Idaho mountain home. She has come with no clue what she would find, but it was definitely not the love of her life nor an experience that will open her eyes to a whole different definition of reality.

Do monsters exist? Can humans find spiritual power other than through a godlike being? What about those witches? Are they truly evil or might they be those who most understand that thin line between our side and what lies beyond? Might they be the ones who sometimes stand between us and them?

Of course it has a trailer...

And so the story is once again-- covers

 When I create a cover, it often is as much instinct as it is plan (my oil paintings are a lot like that also). Such was the case when I decided to redo the cover for From Here to There. It had been out since January with the heroine in front, looking a little mystified and the hero riding a horse up toward her-- a barbed wire fence between them. The couple came from two purchased CanStock images that I had set into one of my own photos of the part of Montana where the story happens.

When the book stopped getting attention this fall, I put it on a free day which got more free takers than I expected but led to nothing in sales afterward. When it comes up for renewal in Select, I will pull it with the idea of putting it as with some of the others onto other publishing sites. I think the free days helped originally but aren't anymore. Some say Barnes and Noble has increased sales and Kobo is a possibility with perhaps less competition than Amazon with it having over a million a year new books being added. How anybody finds anything there is amazing.

Thinking about the book's future led to deciding to change the cover. It had begun to seem flat to me. From Here to There is a love story of the land, the West, and of two sets of lovers. How does a cover depict that?

The contemporary story of Helene and Phillip seemed most important but underlying their story were Helene's expectations where it came to what a marriage should be. Although her Aunt Rochelle had been dead a few years as the story opens, she is still a major factor in Helene's heart and thinking.

Helene, who ends her new marriage between the ceremony and the reception, is operating with a mix of fantasy and reality for what a marriage can be. Returning to Montana at her uncle's invitation, she finds a sense of peace as well as a journal her aunt had left for her. It was the story of Rochelle's own first year in Montana.


Rochelle had come to Montana as a young woman, leaving behind an aristocratic family and trying to find her way in a place she'd never been. She got a job in a cafe and fell in love with the land and eventually a man. Reading the journal is interspersed with Helene's experiences as Phillip follows her West-- much to her chagrin.

I enjoyed writing this book because it encompassed my own experiences with ranch life as well as being set in a state I have loved since the first day I drove into it which was now over twenty years ago. I remember coming down the freeway and feeling as though I had been there before. I loved it from that first day.

Montana is the very western feeling as well as wilderness, and the feeling of living as pioneers did because in some areas, it's how people still live remote from our so-called modern improvements and yet with the benefits of cities like Missoula and Bozeman with more sophistication than some might expect. It has artists and writers with a creative environment that is always seeming alive.  I go there whenever I can which isn't nearly often enough.

The cover for the book has gone through several metamorphoses as it has had an embracing couple (digital painting), a country road (photo), and finally where it is today. As I redid it this time, I saw it was showing for the first time the story of two women. Without my really planning it, the cover has come far closer to telling the story of this book than any earlier version.

But that's a kind of complicated view of a cover. How many readers would get its deeper meaning just from looking at it? Although I do covers for the readers, hoping they will entice a sale, they are also for me.