Tudor Robins's Blog, page 22

Horse Lovers Blog Tour – Barbara Morgenroth

Today Barbara answers a question from yesterday’s spotlight author, Karen McGoldrick.

Karen wanted to know about the age of Barbara’s characters, and the relevance of writing for certain ages.

AGE INDIFFERENT

Some years ago, a friend read one of my books and observed “What people don’t understand about your work is that you’re writing for adults even though your characters may be young.”

Age appropriateness was a continuing issue in publishing until Harry Potter and now, since the digital revolution, it’s all but disappeared. Readers can easily find books that suit their interests, and categories have lost the importance they once had. Is a book a Young Adult because of the age of the characters or the situations? What makes a book adult fiction? Age or content? Was Harry Potter meant for children or for readers?

Do classifications matter as long as the story is compelling and satisfying?

In my equestrian fiction, Bittersweet Farm, the sisters were seventeen when the series began, and now are both eighteen. Home schooled, they didn’t have the social life of a teenager. There was no dating, no classes, no pressure to conform. Talia Margolin and her sister, Greer, are in the process of becoming adults and taking on the mature emotions and responsibilities of an adult. This is not always easy and they both often miss the mark they wished to achieve.

The audience for the Bittersweet series is largely adult readers. They tell me they appreciate the serious approach to life, horses, and competition. They appreciate that the information about horses and riding is correct, but also respond to the way the characters treat their horses and each other with kindness and respect.

Over the last eight books in the series, Talia and Greer have faced old demons, reexamined choices, mourned the loss of friends, families and innocence, and have created new relationships. There have been many lessons both on and off horseback. New horses have come into their lives and others have left. Knowing when to let go and learning when to hold on tight is part of becoming an adult.

The Bittersweet Farm books are for readers. No one’s age makes a difference.

Barbara Morgenroth is the author of the Bittersweet Farm series available at Amazon.

Drop by tomorrow when Natalie Keller Reinert talks about her experience on the racetrack, and how it shaped her writing.

Horse Lovers Blog Tour – Karen McGoldrick

Kim Ablon Whitney had this question for Karen:

Running a training stable and competing yourself is incredibly time consuming and all encompassing … What inspired you to write fiction and how do you fit your writing into your busy horse life?

Part of my mid-life crisis was to get off the labor intensive treadmill of running a training / boarding barn and create my ideal life of blending riding and writing. I no longer board horses, so I just have a handful of students. I have a young horse that I am training every day, and another horse that hacks over each morning for me to ride, and / or teach his owner.

Each day begins with my terriers and me stepping out my back door to the barn where I put on the pot of coffee, turn out my horse and do the Sudoku puzzle! Then I do barn chores, drag the arena, ride a couple horses and teach any comers. It’s important to me to always ride my own horse early in the day so that nothing crowds that out. No matter what comes up later, I have fed my soul, and my horse and I have both been exercised.

Then it’s lunch and the keyboard. I write critiques for a website called judgemyride.net and work on my novel, and sometimes I write articles for USDF Connection magazine or our local dressage club newsletter.

Like most writers, I am an avid reader. I went to Sweet Briar College and graduated with a degree in English and Creative Writing, and although I never taught, I did earn my certificate to teach high school English.

I was motivated to write The Dressage Chronicles because I felt that by teaching through storytelling I could add something unique to the catalogue of dressage books available. I’ve always loved historical fiction, and when it is done well, I find it the most palatable way to learn history. Why not apply the same concept to writing about dressage?

The other wonderful thing about fiction is that it gives me the opportunity to “speak the truth” as I see it about all sorts of things without getting myself into hot water! I create the characters and I put words in their mouths. Sometimes the characters come alive and take over the story … which is the best feeling ever as a writer. When that happens it is magical and my fingers have trouble keeping up with the dialogue. I sometimes have to go back and censor them though!

But just like training horses, passion is not enough. I am jealous of those writers who seem to be able to crank out a book or more a year. For me, training horses or writing a book is an act of discipline. To see a long term project all the way to completion is a huge commitment and sometimes feels like a burden. With horses it’s tough in the cold or wet or windy weather when the horses want to spin and buck or bolt. When writing it’s forcing yourself to concentrate and think and scribble something even when you know it is terrible and will probably end up in the garbage.

But, when I go into the show arena, or when I finish the final edit, I have to feel that I have done all the work necessary to please the judges. I want to break 70 per cent. On the other hand, I have come to understand that for many reasons, I simply will not please everyone. If I have pleased myself, (not an easy critic), then some days I tell myself “that’ll do.”

The external rewards in both businesses are long delayed and short lived, but the internal satisfaction of tackling a big project and seeing it through to completion is great.

Learn more about The Dressage Chronicles here.

Giveaway

Karen is a USDF Certified dressage instructor and is offering a “virtual lesson” via video clip. She is happy to work on dressage, eventing, or flatwork for hunters, as well as give basic seat and position feedback. Or she can offer help with a particular issue / challenge you’re having with your horse.

Email Karen to have your name entered for the draw.

Come back tomorrow when Barbara Morgenroth talks about writing with no age boundaries.

Horse Lovers Blog Tour Explained

As you may have seen, this week my blog will be home base for a Horse Lovers Book and Photography Blog Tour.

So, what is this, who’s participating, and why are we doing it?

Let’s start with the who - a number of talented authors (and a great photographer) – including:

Barbara Morgenroth, author of the much-loved Bittersweet Farm series.
Karen McGoldrick, who uses her in-depth knowledge of dressage to write The Dressage Chronicles series.
Karen Myers, talented photographer and author of To Carry the Horn.
Kim Ablon Whitney, author of equestrian books including Blue Ribbons and The Perfect Distance.
Maggie Dana, known for her Timber Ridge Riders series.
Natalie Keller Reinert, author of several horse-themed books, including my recent favourite, Ambition.
Tudor Robins, author of Appaloosa Summer and, most recently a new short story, Hide & Seek.

We’ll start tomorrow with Karen McGoldrick answering a question posed to her by Kim Ablon Whitney, and then Karen will ask Barbara a question and so on. The tour will take a week to complete and, along the way we hope you’ll meet new writers you’d like to read. There will also be quite a few giveaways!

Why are we doing this? Well, it’s pretty simple. We don’t believe those of us who write books for horse lovers are in competition with one another; instead we think we’re all trying to serve a great market out there of readers who like horses, and horse lovers who like to read. We can’t always write quickly enough to satisfy our readers, so we’d like to tell you about some of the other great writers who are out there writing horse books today.

We hope you – our readers - will keep reading the authors you already love, and try some new ones!

We’d also really like to get the “Tell a Friend” message out. The very best way you can make sure more books you’ll love are written by your favourite authors, is to tell a friend when you read a really great book.

We have a general graphic, or one just for horse lovers!

Feel free to grab either of these graphics and use them wherever you like – on Facebook, your blog, any place you can pass on the Tell a Friend message. If you need me to email them to you, I can do that, too! Just contact me at tudor (at) tudorrobins (dot) ca.

Please tune in tomorrow as the tour kicks off with Karen McGoldrick who is offering a very cool prize …

Coming soon!

Watch for details …

Saying More Things I Shouldn’t …

Sometimes I feel like I need to put the keyboard down and back away slowly because I have this blog, and I have these opinions, but I know some of my opinions are not ones that are popular or politically correct or what writers are supposed to think – but I still have them and then I’m tempted to write about them.

I’ve been thinking this for a while, but I’m just going to say it:

I MOSTLY DO NOT LIKE SHOPPING AT BOOKSTORES.

Oh. My. Goodness. Did I just write that? Really?

It’s true, though. I mostly don’t. And I was prompted to finally say this by the stories trickling out of The Booksellers Association Conference about how great bookstores are, and how Amazon is evil, etc. OH COME ON!

Get over yourselves. Even though the Authors Guild may not agree, books are products. Bookstores are retailers. I’m sorry if anyone doesn’t like those facts, but they’re true.

No retailer has the right to exist. As a Canadian, I used to think Eaton’s had a right to exist – I was wrong, they’re gone, and the world goes on.

If you want to exist as a retailer, you have to do things right. Some bookstores do things right. Those bookstores should continue to exist - although it doesn’t matter if I think they should continue to exist; they just WILL because people will like shopping there. The rest, well, here are some of the reasons I don’t like shopping at bookstores:

(1) I don’t like shopping, period. So, you may say I’m a bad person to be writing this. If I don’t like shopping, why would I like shopping at bookstores? Well, guess what? There are lots of people like me in the world. The internet lets us shop without going to stores. So there has to be a good reason for us to go to a store. When I think about the stores that I still actually go into, physically, they’re all stores that offer me the chance of discovering something. I go to Canadian Tire because every Canadian knows, if you’re not sure where to buy it, Canadian Tire will have it, PLUS they’ll have a dozen other things you never knew you needed but you can no longer live without, now that you’ve seen them. I go to Mountain Equipment Co-op to peruse the equipment which is useful and, often, pretty, and usually reasonably priced. I go to Boomerang Kids (consignment children’s clothing store) because I never know what treasures will be on the racks. I go to stores to find cool stuff which seems designed just for me. When I know exactly what I want, I click three times and buy it online. So, I’d say, bookstores need to have cool / unexpected stuff in them I’ll want to go in for.

(2) The wrong staff can make me swear I’ll never enter a store again. So, here’s my chance to talk about a bookstore that’s great! Kaleidoscope Kids in Ottawa – the store looks great, and the selection is good, but the staff members are hilarious! Book loving! Sociable! Great staff – I would never walk past Kaleidoscope without going in. (Unfortunately, I don’t seem to be able to link to their site right now, so hmmm …). Anyway, suffice it to say, my experience with bookstore staff has been poor, especially in independent bookstores. At Chapters / Indigo, I find someone will usually make eye contact with you, and say hi. And I’ve had some good recommendations from staff in those stores. In a city we travel to frequently, I used to have a favourite Indigo store (see – a bookstore I liked – because I ALWAYS found new stuff there that I didn’t expect to). It closed down which left the independent bookstore down the street. I had never been into that bookstore. EVER. With no Indigo, I went in. My sons and I camped out in front of the YA / Teen section. We were there for AGES. Staff walked by us many times on their way to the back room where there seemed to be some sort of staff inside joke gathering going on. Maybe they were laughing at us?

(3) For the love of God – make your store look nice! Seriously, the reason I’d never been into the above-mentioned independent was because the window appeared never to be clean. To the point where I sometimes wondered if it was still open. Once inside the carpets were – well – yucky. And I don’t normally notice carpets in stores. I think it’s really important for a store – any store – to have a theme / image / brand. Have a look. Be interesting. Be inviting. Have open space and sight lines – for the customers and the staff. Be bright. I worked in retail for quite a while. When we weren’t actually, actively selling, we were cleaning. We did creative displays. We kept the shelves neat and clutter-free. That stuff works! It really does; and it costs nothing if you have well-trained staff who get that they should work for their whole shift; not stand around and chat amongst themselves when their fingers aren’t actually on a cash register.

I get that it’s a hard time to open, and run a bookstore. Although, having said that, the way the publishing industry is currently set up, bookstores can return books that don’t sell, which is something most retailers can’t, so there’s that … however … I wouldn’t want to run a bookstore. Being successful would require a blend of people skills – customer and staff – an eye for design, a head for business, and a passion for books. It would be all-consuming. I know that.

But so is opening a restaurant. So is being a school trustee (talk about mucho hours for almost no pay). Writing a novel can also have its challenges.

I’m not denying there are challenges to running a successful bookstore, but I’d just like to hear more positives – what can we do? how can we keep up with changing times? what are great bookstores around the world doing to make themselves great? – instead of negatives and complaining.

And for those bookstores already doing it – great – but you don’t need me to tell you that; your customers show it with their feet. Keep up the good work!

Authors and Contracts and Taking Care of Your Business

Background for anyone new to me and my books:

My first novel was traditionally published.

I self-published my second novel one year later (June 2014). I self-published a short story three months after that. I’ll self-publish my third novel in about six months.

Do I see myself going back to traditional publishing? Not as things are now. No. Not a chance.

Why?

This is the kicker – what everybody wants to know – why do you choose to self-publish?

It’s easy to say (1) the royalties – about 10 per cent traditionally and about 70 per cent independently (although they’re not really “royalties”, but close enough). Or (2) the control – deciding when and what I’ll write and publish. Choosing my covers, selecting my design. Or (3) pricing - I’m guessing here, because I have no figures to back this up, but I think my first novel has sold in the neighbourhood of zero eBooks (list price is $12.99). My second novel sells eBooks every single day, in other countries and on other continents (list price is $2.99). Related to (3) is (4) – reporting. For my self-published works, I get hourly updates on which book has sold, in what market, in what format, vs. getting one sheet mailed to me once every six months with a total at the bottom.

There are more reasons, but there’s one easy way to sum all these up; because they’re all dealt with in – duh-duh-duh – THE CONTRACT!

The one thing everybody who is traditionally published has, is a contract with their publisher. To be fair, up front, I’m going to say I’ve heard rumours of some good contracts. I’ve heard of contracts that are of limited duration. I applaud any publisher offering these, and these aren’t what I’m talking about in this post.

I’ve also heard of some VERY bad contracts. Contracts that not only control the work in question for the rest of the writer’s life, and seventy years after they die, but that also control what they’re allowed to write in the future and whether they’re allowed to write and / or publish anything different, or anything the same, or – really – anything at all. Terrible.

Then there are the in-between contracts. Most contracts have similar royalty clauses. Most contracts have similar out-of-print clauses (most of these are bad for the author). There are industry standards and, in my opinion, most of these are skewed toward the benefit of the publisher.

I alluded to it above, but I’m going to say it clearly here – most contracts are designed to control the piece of work in question until past the author’s death.

In an industry that’s changing every year, month, week … well that’s crazy!

Is this the fault of publishers? Probably not. If you can get away with something, why wouldn’t you? That’s certainly one way of looking at things. All these years, and decades, these have been the industry standard terms of publishing contracts and there are always piles of authors tripping over themselves to sign them.

So, why have authors signed these contracts all these years? Well, in my opinion, there are a few reasons:

(1) There used to be little, to no, alternative. If you wanted your book published, without bankrupting yourself, or being ridiculed for “vanity publishing” you pretty much had to go through a third party. Since all contracts were very close to one another, there wasn’t much choice – you were going to sign one.

(2) “Everybody does it,” “They all say that,” “It doesn’t really mean anything,” “That would never really happen,” – aka denial. When we’re happy, and excited, and in the honeymoon phase of a relationship (personal, business, or that weird up-until-now-semi-hybrid “publishing”) we see only the good. No bad clauses will ever need to be invoked. We love each other! We want only the best for each other! I can safely sign away some rights because nobody will ever try to take them away from me anyway! Or something like that …

(3) My agent says it’s a good contract. Your agent is not a lawyer. Unless he, or she is, in which case I apologize. If you have an agent who’s a contract lawyer – good for you. If not, well, your agent is not a lawyer.

(4) I can’t afford a lawyer. You might be surprised. Get referrals for local lawyers specializing in entertainment / publishing. Ask about their rates. They know how much writers make. They’d rather get paid a little, than not at all. Believe me, in a few months you’ll forget that you gave a lawyer a few hundred dollars, but years down the road you may have reason to be glad you did. Or, if you didn’t, you may be facing thousands of dollars in legal fees, or the prospect of never having your rights back.

(5) They won’t publish my book if I push back. Maybe not. So be it. Is that truly a good business relationship? “You sign this contract, with no changes, or we won’t deal with you?” Think about it. If that’s the reaction you get, then you’ve learned something valuable right off the bat. Or, maybe the publisher is actually waiting for you to push back – waiting for your take on the contract. Maybe they won’t make all of your changes, but they will make some. You won’t know until you ask …

(5) Not knowing any better. I think this may once have been true. I think, as an excuse, this loses its validity a little bit more every day. Every single day, all over the internet, there are people talking about the problems with signing away your rights for the rest of your life, and then some. Talking about the problems they’ve had with cover art, or with non-compete clauses. Talking about not being paid their royalties on time, but still being bound to a contract.

Just like you shouldn’t sign an agreement of purchase and sale on a house “because they might not sell me the house” or “because I’m sure I’ll never have to test these clauses” or “because I don’t really understand it” – you shouldn’t sign a publishing contract until you understand what it means, and you’re good with it – even the worst-case-scenarios of it.

Take it from me. I know. I’m the Queen of pushing back on contracts. I’ve questioned every contract I’ve ever signed with an employer, and received concessions every time. But when it came time to sign my publishing contract I was so breathless, and desperate, I signed with almost no modifications. I thought I didn’t care about sales - I thought I just wanted to see my book in print. I was wrong, and now it’s too late, and it’s nobody’s fault but my own.

So learn from me!

Why Anorexia is So Complicated

For those of you who don’t know why I’m writing about anorexia, the main character in my first novel, Objects in Mirror, lives with anorexia, and the novel centres around her figuring out how not to let it take over her life.

I was nervous about publishing Objects because of exactly what I say in the title of this post. Anorexia is complicated. I absolutely believe that no two people experience it in the same way. I don’t think there is “a cure” or “a treatment” – I think there are many ways to approach it. Some will help certain people, at certain times. The same things may not help other people, or even the same person, at a different time.

In Objects, I wanted to portray one way of experiencing anorexia without alienating people who might not have experienced it that way.

Turns out, my nervousness was pretty much for nothing. Several people told me they identified with the portrayal in the story and I suppose anybody who didn’t is smart enough to understand I wasn’t saying “it’s like this for everybody” but rather “it could be like this for this character.”

At any rate, my parents forwarded me two articles this week. Both are from the Globe and Mail and both deal with anorexia.

I read the first one, entitled “What if anorexia wasn’t a disorder, but a passion?” with my head nodding. This article spoke to me. It resonated. It explains so many things people who haven’t had anorexia might not be able to understand. It was kind of like an article I came across during the writing of Objects, which linked anorexia to OCD. That, too, made so much sense to me.

I moved on to the second article – “What it’s like to live with an eating disorder” with my brow wrinkled. Really? People feel like this? That wasn’t want it was like for ME to live with an eating disorder. Not at all. Yet the writer experienced anorexia herself, and counsels others with it, so she clearly hasn’t made this up. Some people living with anorexia feel this way.

Which brings us back to complicated. Because there is no one truth. Anorexia can grip our whole lives, or lurk in the background. It can cause certain symptoms, and not others. It can start young and stick around for years – or forever. Even people who have experienced it, have experienced it differently so how do you ever create a comprehensive treatment system?

That sounds depressing, but it’s not meant to be. It’s still better to do something than nothing. It’s still better to try. We mostly hear about the most terrible, most extreme cases of anorexia. These are possible, but not necessarily typical. It’s possible to come out on the other side and recognize what you’ve been through and, possibly, even be able to point to some things you’ve learned, and be glad you learned them.

As usual when it comes to anorexia, it’s not like I have an answer to give, but I can offer hope. It will be hard at times, but it can be OK. That’s the message I try to give in Objects in Mirror.

Hide & Seek is Free today!

Download it on Kindle in Canada, the US, or the UK for zero dollars!

Oh! The Relief!

There’s a blog I follow by someone who is a lot like me in a lot of ways. She’s Canadian, and she’s a writer, and that’s how she identifies herself, and what she does, but she also is really, actively involved in home stuff and kid stuff, and she also exercises and runs a lot and so, like I said, kind of like me.

She’s very different than me in a few key ways. In the traditional ways that people are recognized as being successful in the writing world, she is FAR more successful than me. And, is probably more successful than I’ll ever be – in those ways, anyway. She’s also made far more money from her writing than I have. Yet.

The other way in which we’re different has really come about in the last year. A year ago there was more similarity in that I identified with her path, even though she was much further along it than I was. Probably, if somebody had looked at the two of us, they would have said “That one’s there,” (pointing far ahead), and “That one might be there in a few years.”

Then I self-published Appaloosa Summer and my world changed. Really, it was that big. My world turned upside-down. I still can’t believe I made this decision less than a year ago. Still can’t believe my book’s only been out since June. Because I can’t imagine going back.

The thing that’s prompted me to write this post is that I’ve been reading this other writer’s blog posts, and nodding along with her, and feeling such sweet relief.

She has a new book out, and writes about the difficulty of appearing in public to promote it. Of how doing so goes against many writers’ normal instincts. Of how it’s tiring, and overwhelming to put yourself out there, and how a recovery period is needed after each appearance.

Very true.

I don’t have to do that. I never have to do that again. Doing that doesn’t earn me sales – I’ve learned that – how can it, when most of my sales are thousands of kilometres from here? Not to say I’ll never do that. Especially in my local community, I’m happy to talk to other writers – young and old – to tell them what I know, and to hear what they have to say. But I only do it because I want to, and choose to. So, if I’m appearing at your school, or event, rest assured I’m doing it because I want to.

She also writes about the crushing disappointment – the shame – of not having your book appear on a list for an award you really, really, secretly hoped it would be nominated for. It was probably stupid, and naïve, and ridiculously hopeful of me, but there were a couple of awards I thought Objects in Mirror had a shot at, and I was so despondent and embarrassed when it didn’t appear on the long lists for them. It was a terrible feeling.

I don’t have that anymore. It’s not just that I know Appaloosa Summer isn’t eligible for those particular awards. It’s that I really don’t give a fig. Not one bit. I’m off the publishing roller coaster in every way, and that includes the breath-holding that goes on during award season. Like stepping away from that Bad Boyfriend, I don’t have to ride ups and downs – I can just be happy.

Happy that three new people signed up for my newsletter today. Surprised that a five-star review has appeared on Amazon for my new short story which I haven’t even officially launched yet. Delighted that 1,100 new readers are going to experience Appaloosa Summer after my recent free run. Touched when readers write to me and say “I loved the book” and “My horse is old, and your book made me realize it’ll be hard, but I’ll be OK when he dies” and “When is the next one coming out? Please soon!”

God, I love this. I’m buoyed by this, and driven forward by this, and energized by this.

I’m rarely exhausted, or despondent – at least not due to my writing – and I couldn’t have said that one year ago.

This is not against other writers on the more traditional path. Not at all. More people admire them, than admire me. Some would say I’ve bowed out, stepped down. I would beg to disagree, but my point is, I would never put other people down for the path they’ve chosen; especially when I know many would seek to put me down for mine.

What it is to say is, there is another way. There is a way with less stress. For those who say “stay with a traditional publisher so you can just write,” I say, “taking away all this over-exertion and drama from my life is what allows me to just write.”

For me, publishing the way I do is the very definition of relief, and I love it.

Free Lessons Learned (especially for Canadian writers)

Appaloosa Summer just had a free run on Kindle. For those of you who don’t know, this is one of the benefits of signing up for KDP Select. You agree that your book will only be available on Kindle for 90 days, and they give you certain perks, including the ability to set your book’s price to free for five days out of your contract.

I’ve now used up all five days, and each time, my free offering was in conjunction with something else I wanted to be part of.

The first time, I had postcards printed up advertising the free download so they could be put in the “loot” bags of runners in the Wolfe Island Classic 5 / 10K race. The second time it was to be part of Digital Book Day (great initiative, which I hope to participate in again). This last time was as part of the Trillium Hunter Jumper Championships - I sent 1,000 postcards to be inserted into participant swag bags, and handed out to volunteers.

What have I learned? Well, here’s some specific data from my most recent free run:

- Total number of free downloads: 1,100 even. This is not a big number. Established authors would be disappointed with this number. I’m thrilled. My first free run got me just over 300 downloads, so I’m definitely moving in the right direction.

- Countries where the book was downloaded: Brazil, Denmark, Italy, India, Japan, the UK, the US, and Canada.

- Promotion I did for this offer: 1,000 postcards handed out to horse-lovers in Canada. Half-page ad in the program at the THJA Championship show (read by horse lovers). Notices posted on a few “free book” websites which notify readers of books offered for free on certain days – not sure of their reach.

- Downloads in Canada: Twelve. That’s right – 1-2. Twelve. And, one of those was from a woman here in Ottawa who had the book personally recommended to her by my number-one fan, Lynn. So, really, eleven organic downloads. Remember, I directly informed a thousand Canadians of this book being free. I don’t even know if any of the eleven are from those people, or if they’re just Canadians reading free book websites.

- Biggest downloading country: The US! Thank you America! And I’m not talking peanuts, I’m talking 1,057 downloads from the US of A. Which is so important, because man those Americans read! They read a lot, and they read on their Kindles, and they buy tonnes of eBooks.

- Benefits of giving away 1,100 books: Exposure. Interest. Increased sales. Yes, that’s right – increased sales. Also, over a dozen new “to-read” adds on Goodreads. Several new Facebook likes. A new reader reaching out to me directly.

So, to sum up my free lessons learned, from my free days, I would say there are three main ones:

(1) Don’t be afraid to give your book away for free. You have to take a leap of faith and, if you do, you’ll see the rewards.

(2) It’s very hard to know how people find your books. I don’t know how those 1,057 Americans found my book. You can do your best, but you also have to just let readers and consumers choose. It’s kind of cool to sit back and watch.

(3) Canadian writers – you really need to understand there is a market beyond Canada. In fact, I would argue your main market is beyond Canada (for certain genres – please ignore me if you’ve written a non-fiction book on the Canadian political system). I could be wrong – I only have my numbers – but my numbers tell me Canadians are not nearly as big eBook adopters as the US and the UK (and Denmark – across all my campaigns I think more people in Denmark have downloaded my book than in Canada). I also have the suspicion that more Canadians have Kobos than people in other countries. Which is fine – you can publish your book to Kobo – but you miss out on some of the great things about Kindle Select (like keeping seventy per cent of your sale price).

Just to drive this Canadian point home – I could not be more Canadian. I’ve never lived in another country. I learned to write here, started my career here. I do school visits here, and participate in writing activities here. The majority of my newsletter list, and Facebook likes, etc. are in Canada. The last eBook I sold in Canada was on June 24. And, with a couple of exceptions, I’ve sold books every single day since then. Just none here in Canada.

I would say, if you’re only looking at Canada, you’re missing out. You’re not giving yourself the full business plan picture. There’s a whole big eBook-buying world out there and it couldn’t be easier to reach it. You just hit “Publish.”