Amanda Meuwissen's Blog - Posts Tagged "indie"

First, I wanted to share my rant after so many people backlashed on the most recent Game of Thrones episode. No spoilers, just a small soap box.

I don’t think I’ll ever quite get over people complaining about villains doing villainous things in any form of media. What are villains supposed to do? Be nice? Then they wouldn’t be villains, there would be no conflict, and subsequently NO STORY.

Villains are allowed to be sexist, racist, cruel, and everything in between, because they are representations of the side you DON’T WANT TO WIN. If their acts are too downplayed, it would almost be like saying it doesn’t matter that they do bad things. It matters. That’s why their villainy needs to be shown, so you can be outraged, and then cheer later when they get their due. And if they don’t get their due, it’s not glorifying villainy, but hammering home just how awful it is.

What a boring world of fiction we would have if censorship won. We’d have no stories, and eventually no morals, because how would we ever know the difference between a hero and a villain?

And on a lighter note, I got some fun Incubus fanart from a fellow author, and couldn't resist coloring it to match the characters more closely.





Thanks, C.B. Archer!

This all came about because CB started a thread on the amazing group I'm part of Support Indie Authors that anyone who IS an Indie author should definitely check out!

Sometimes I don’t think readers understand how much receiving an honest, positive review feels. Maybe not enough authors, especially if they become truly famous, have the time or wherewithal to express to their readers how much their comments mean to them. While having too many reviews to comment back on is a problem I’d love to have, I hope I never lose sight of how much fans drive me forward.

Recent Incubus review:
"I was lucky enough to get this book for an honest review. Well I didn't think I was going to enjoy reading this as it is M/M and the ones I read so far I really didn't like much, but this book, well, it rocked my world lol. I loved it, the characters were well written and you really got sucked into the book rooting for them all. There is so much more in the book than meets the eye and it wasn't distasteful. It was really a great book to read and if you never read any M/M books but love paranormal than this would be a super book to start with (wish that this would have been my first M/M). I really felt for Jim, Nathan and Sasha and couldn't stop turning the page because I wanted to know what was happening to them. I am so glad I didn't have to wait for the next book which I can't wait to read. I am giving this 5 stars; would give it more but there isn't any."

Recent Changeling review:
"This book is a great addition from the first. Still loving it. The characters really come to life and you get to know a little more from each one as you turn the pages. You can’t help but feel for them all, and keep your fingers crossed that it will all work out in the end. Really well written and the reader gets sucked into another world which is yet still so like ours. You can't help but fall in love with the main characters. Thoroughly enjoyed this book and will give 5 stars because there are no more to give."

-Reviewer for Paranormal Romance and Authors that Rock

But community as a writer isn’t just about getting comments from readers—though I love that part, and it’s one of the reasons I will write fanfiction until I die, because the ability to comment and respond to even a single chapter is made so easy online—but also in the community of authors themselves; other writers sharing ideas and support.

Being published through BigWorldNetwork is one way I’ve been able to hang onto the sense of community I love with fanfiction, especially since it has allowed me to get to know so many remarkable writers, narrators, and editors. As a BWN Team, many of us converse daily, and it never fails to inspire me when I see interactions happening.

After all, we’re not competitors. Books aren’t like other products where because someone buys another book, they won’t buy yours. Consumption of reading material is a constant thing. Just because someone doesn’t buy your book this month, or even this year, doesn’t mean they won’t eventually. So authors need to embrace being there for each other as much as themselves.

One great place I’ve found help with this—and goodness, do I wish I had more time to really make use of this site—is from groups on Goodreads, particularly Support for Indie Authors. If you’re an indie author, you should be part of this group too!

Being able to ask questions, share wins, review each other’s work, all with open, honest community is the best tool any author can have. So wherever you find that kind of community for yourself, embrace it. And if you’re a reader…be sure and leave a review from time to time. It keeps the muses happy.

While one tour draws to a close today with an interview at Deal Sharing Aunt and a guest blog at Fang-tastic Books, another begins, starting with the kickoff and full listing of stops with I Heart Reading for my Enchanted Book Promotions tour.

But to top off all of that excitement, blogger Kristen Burns had a treat for me this weekend, having read and reviewed the entirety of The Incubus Saga, with perhaps some of the most heartfelt words offered toward my work that I have ever received, and I was just thrilled to go through each of her comments and that her final review for the series as a whole was 5 stars.

Definitely check out her thoughts on the series HERE with some snippets for you below.

"The thing about these books is, I didn’t read them for the action or the mystery or even the plot (though I did enjoy those things, don’t get me wrong). I read them for the characters, the emotion, and the depth. And they never disappointed, especially this third book. The author has this way of describing things, of showing-not-telling, of making you feel, of imbuing such depth into everything that I often found myself tearing up, frowning, smiling from ear to ear, reacting in all these different involuntary ways to what seemed like the smallest and most insignificant of moments because she made sure to give them significance and write in a way that portrayed that significance. And she made sure it didn’t stop with Nathan–I was feeling things for all the characters, everyone from main characters, like Jim, to side characters that weren’t introduced until the last book."

Today I came online to discover that Kris from Joyfully Jay, who has read and reviewed all of The Incubus Saga so far, had the review up, and I cannot beam any brighter.

"This is the last book, the one where it’s all been leading. And after the set up in the first two books, it had to be epic. And it was. It is an action-packed tale, one event happening right after another with only a little time to stop, breathe, and explain thrown in. We got to see and hear from characters that appeared earlier. The author did a great job of tying up loose ends, and of showing us the seeds she planted early on that are now coming to fruition. It had everything, absolutely everything, a final book should. That alone makes this a worthwhile read."

Read the full review over at the Sidhe page here on Goodreads, or here.

I've also had a TON of great blog tour stops happening. Remember to stay tuned to my social pages for each of those for some excerpts, guest blogs, and interviews. Currently running is my tour with Enchanted Book Promotions.

You can also watch the full author interview I had recently with my publisher, BigWorldNetwork, here.

And hey, just for fun, if any of you are fans of The Flash on the CW, and enjoy slash fanfiction...my current obsession and distraction while I work up toward diving into my next book is a little ColdFlash fic I've been working on called Out Cold - that means pairing up The Flash with his nemesis Captain Cold, FYI. It's been a blast from the past to be part of a budding fandom and enjoy blogging and gushing with some amazing folks. Never lose the little things. They can mean so much.

I wear several hats in my professional life, one being writer and another editor. And I don’t just mean editing my own work; I am Managing Editor for BigWorldNetwork.com, and read chapters from around 20 stories each week. It’s a dream job really, though it isn’t the one that pays the bills, because I get to experience all of these different novels before they’re even finished and have a bit of my own hand in them as well.

For me there is an automatic sense of mentoring that goes into editing another person’s work, and it doesn’t matter if I’m older or younger, more or less experiences, or have more or less published novels under my belt than the person I’m editing for, because everyone needs an editor. More than anything it’s about expressing the reader experience to the author so they know how to tweak or react accordingly. Is what they’re writing evoking the reactions they wanted? Awesome!

So while copyediting is helpful, as well as comments about plot structure and pacing, the most important thing I can offer other writers is my honest opinion, so they can ask themselves if my reactions are in line with what they want readers to experience.

When I read and edit someone’s work, I always want to err on the side of the author so as not to impose too much of my own voice, or risk changing theirs. It doesn’t matter what POV they write in, whether they overuse passive voice, or over simplify descriptions; it’s about whether or not they are telling an engaging story the way they want. That is always the lesson I want to pass on to writers who give me their work to read.

Besides having to edit many stories for my publisher, I also beta friends’ work, and approach it the same way. I may not always have time to read, but I am always open for queries into how to approach writing and publishing, and adore people who recognize the value of a good critique. One thing I would never do, however, is tell someone how their last book could have been better, but would rather tell them how the current one they’re working on could improve, because that’s something they can still change, while an already published book is set in stone. Besides, no matter how good the book, there will always be enough bad reviews out there to cover that part for me.

Working with BWN gives me opportunity to mentor so many new authors along with making relationships with already successful ones, and over time it has grown out of straight up mentorship into community. The authors, editors, and narrators at BWN have a closed Facebook group where we share ideas, help promote each other’s work, and ask advice all the time. I also point aspiring authors toward valuable Goodreads Groups like Support for Indie Authors.

The most important aspect of mentoring is to listen. Hearing someone talk passionately about their story ideas and then want to share with me their actual writing is half the fun of being an editor (and author). None of us would be in this business if we didn’t love stories. People are always welcome to contact me, and I hope other writers approach mentoring this same way.