Maegan Provan's Blog, page 16

A Paranormal Rant

Maegan Provan:

I think Joleene has taken the words right out of my mouth. And of course, Amazon has taken far too much genre control out of their authors hands. I mean, since they’re struggling as a company to hit their projected quarterly profits (yes, I work side by side with a financial planner and I am learning a lot about the market) they should not be trying to mess with the people still very much responsible for what profit they do make. With sites like Smashwords, Kobo, etc. there are a lot more self pub friendly publishing sites that we as authors can use. They really need to get themselves in check.

Originally posted on Amaranthine by Joleene Naylor:

It was recently brought to my attention (thanks to the Sensational Christmas Sale Event) that Amazon has classified Shades of Gray as a Young Adult/Teen novel.

Say What??

When an author/publisher uploads a book to Amazon they are allowed to choose a category to place their book in from a rather small list. Amazon then – apparently randomly – sticks the book in several other categories – like sci-fi shorts that you can read in two hours (This is a real category). And, as I said, they put Shades of Gray in the YA category. But why? How do they choose these seemingly odd extra categories for our books?

The question has been answered by Amazon help:

Hello Joleene,

Thank you for contacting Kindle Direct Publishing.

I understand you’re concerned about the category of your book, “Shades of Gray.”

Looking at your account, I see that based on your keywords…

View original 293 more words

Under the Microscope- Matthew Santos

 

You know, I’ve never been approached to review music before. Well, save the time I reviewed Over It for my school newspaper (who you should totally check out if you have a chance.) Even though I am on hiatus, I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to bring this to you.

I was sent a review request by Brielle Poland with Candyrat Records to listen to Matthew Santos’s new single “Under the Microscope.” I was instantly in love with it. Definitely within the current genre I’m listening to, and I felt like the song captured the feelings in a certain relationship within my books. In the past, Mattew has worked with Lupe Fiasco on his track “Superstar.” With four albums currently out under Candyrat, “Under the Microscope” is the first single off of his soon to be released, new album “Into the Further.”

Here is a little “what you need to know” from the wonderful people at Candyrat:

Matthew is a Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter from Chicago. His music focuses on a unique hybrid of alternative/indie-rock/soul and folk genres.

“Under the Microscope” is the first video from his new record Into the Further. Matthew is currently running a crowd funding campaign to help finish the record and to get his fans more involved in the process. Here is the link: http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/matthewsantos

Matthew’s website: http://www.matthewsantos.com/

Matthew’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/matthewsantosmusic

Please take some time to check him out, like his page, and all of that other wonderful stuff you beautiful people do so well.

 

News

As you all have seen, I’ve been struggling to get posts out in a timely manner. Work on Jeremy is still struggling along and I haven’t hit any goal I’ve set for myself.

Coming off of hiatus so quickly was a bad idea. There is so much going on in my personal life that I��can barely find time to write, let along maintain a blog. I would tell you all the long and painful story, but it is not something that I want to share with the internet at the moment. I am going back on hiatus, and I don’t honestly know how long it will be for. I will be participating in NaNoWriMo and hopefully Jeremy will be out soon enough.

 

Thank you all for your support.

Choosing A Character Name

Originally posted on :

photo credit:

katmary

via

photopin

cc

Character names are the bane of my existence. Yes, occasionally a name so perfect pops out of nowhere and I apply it��quickly to the character I���m writing. Though usually, more often than not, I spend hours surfing the web in hopes that I will find something that fits the character I am creating.

I am plotting a fantasy at the moment, and I had no idea that a name for a fairy would be so hard to come up with. I���ve never written a fairy story before, but I have read fantasy. Does that make me qualified to name my character without hours of internet research under my belt? Obviously not. . .

Surprisingly enough, the fairy wasn���t even the hardest to name! It was the traveling man in the story that gave me the most trouble. I tried every name I could���

Blog Monday

Still not a lot going on. I am really mad at myself for Jeremy taking longer than necessary. If I don’t finish this weekend, I will be going chapter by chapter and making it my NaNoWriMo project. I want so badly for it to be done so you all can read it.

 

Hope everyone has a fun and safe week

Late Inspiration Friday- Sorry!

I couldn’t think of a good song to share with you today, so I thought I’d share my Writer’s Block Pinspiration Pinterest board. It’s got some great exercises and quotes on writing that help me when I’m stuck

Follow Maegan’s board Writer's Block Pinspirations on Pinterest.

Book Review Thursday- What am I reading?

I am in between reviews right now because I am currently reading a couple of really good books right now!

I will let you guys know that I did just finish beta reading “Unbound (Spellbrings Book 3)” by Tricia Drammeh and it is AWESOME!! When it is released, I will be bringing you a review for that.

Currently, I am reading “Tarnished (St. Croix Chronicles Book 1)” by Karina Cooper. It is a Steam-Punk/ Psuedo-Historical/ Dark Romance fiction that is actually much different than my normal read, but it is pretty good thus far.

Up next on my to-review list is “Alexander Death (Paranormals, Book 3) by J.L. Bryan. If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know that I am absolutely enamored with the Paranormals series and I cannot wait to get started on this next amazing piece!!

I hope you guys stick around to check out these reviews!

Guide to Self Publishing- Wednesday

So I am officially tired of fighting my software. I will go back and film these typed sections but I am tired of making you guys wait. Here it is!

Today we are going to be talking about what to do after you have completed your first draft.

 

A huge mistake that a lot of self published authors make is that they publish after they’ve completed the first draft of their book. That’s a no no. Because self published novels have the stigma of being poorly edited and formated, we have a responsibility to our readers and ourselves to put even more effort into polishing our work before it’s released.

When you first decide to enter the self publishing world, it can be kind of overwhelming. Perhaps you don’t know anyone that self publishes so you’re left to navigate the world all on your own. I mean, where do you go to get to know people and make connections? Where do you go to find unbiased opinions of your book before it’s released? And most importantly, where do you do to publish?

Let’s start with that last question. Almost everyone in the self publishing community go through Amazon to publish. Their Kindle Direct Publishing set up is incredibly easy to use. It’s so popular that there is actually a forum site set up for the authors that are active with publishing to go and share ideas, plots, covers, and all sorts of stuff. I will warn you by saying that there are a lot of trolls and rude people on there, but I think that’s kind of with any forum website. If you plan on visiting that forum, just be warned.

Another big site pretty common is Absolute Write. This is another fantastic forum site for selfpublishing and I think it’s a little more active than the Kindle Publishing Forum. A lot of authors use Absolute Write to hash out story ideas, discuss frustrations, share expirences and branch out. This along with SFWA (also known as Writer Beware) is a great resource for any would be or expirenced self publishing author.

I also bring up the forum sites because they are a great place to not only network, but to find beta readers, editors, cover artists, and more to help you refine your novel. Pretty sweet, right?

When you’ve completed your first draft, you inevitably will have to find people to read your book, and that’s where Beta Readers come in.

Beta Readers are important because they should be your right hand people. They’re the people you rely on to read your book before anyone else to help you make sure that it’s good and point out any flaws. Once you’ve written two or three novels, you get a little more expirence with who you enjoy working with and who you know will give you honest feed back. I suggest you take a look at my recent Vlog where I talk about scam beta readers, plus take a look at my blog posts Reviews Truths and Extortion and Self-pub Authors Beware! There are Scammers Afoot. I’m very outspoken about self published authors getting scammed, and I want to make sure I can help you start out on the right foot. If you’re worried about getting scammed, then talk to your friends and relatives, those you trust to be honest with you, to see who would be willing to read your book. Of course, I will be doing a more in depth video with the section, talking about the main types of scammers that you might come across, so please look out for that.

Now, you do want to ensure that you can trust your Betas. If you recruit someone you don’t know, you run the risk of having your work stolen, or even having it spoiled before it’s released. After having spoken with a lawyer, I was told that it is definitely a good idea to shell out a couple hundred dollars for a standard non disclosure/ non compete agreement to protect your work. I’ve been told that that idea is stupid and narcissistic, but let me ask you this. Is it better to shell out $300 for an NDA/NCA or spend thousands taking someone to court because they stole your work? Let me spell this out for some of the comments I know I’ll get for this. It does not mean that you are preventing someone for honestly reviewing your book. Once a book is released, the non disclosure part of that contract goes out the window because the work has been disclosed to the public. You protecting yourself from plagiarism and spoilers by having a lawyer write up a contract like that. But of course, if you don’t think your work is good enough to protect, why are you trying to publish in the first place?

I hope this part wasn’t too rambly, but I think I made a good bit of sense. If you have any questions, please be sure to leave a comment. Once I have my editing stuff back in working order, I will do a Q&A video. If you think I missed something, please be sure to let me know. Hope you guys enjoy it.

What the HALE is happening to the writing community?- A special Writing Tip Tuesday

I work from 9am to 4pm, Monday through Wednesday. I get up in the morning, lightly browse Facebook, get ready, and I’m out the door. Typically when I come home from work, there isn’t a lot going on. I mostly talk to Tricia, attempt to write and inevitably get distracted by shiny things on the internet. The reason I wanted to give a break down of my day is because it’s boring. I look at reviews, I check in with my other author friends, and that’s about it. The real life of most self-published, or small named authors is pretty boring. Or, at least I thought it was.

Today, I logged on Facebook and I saw one of my friends had shared an article from Buzz Feed entitled “This is What Happens When an Author Tracks Down a Critic in Real Life.” I was completely shocked. I mean, I know that the battle between bullies and the rest of the publishing world has been raging on in the background for years, but I never thought it would turn into something in the public eye. If you decided not to take a look at the aforementioned article because you found it TL;DR, I’ll explain:

Author Kathleen Hale wrote an article for the Guardian called “‘Am I being catfished?’ An author confronts her number one online critic” and it talks about her brush with a pseudo-book blogger, sock puppet type. The article spoke about Hale’s descent in to obsession about one particular reviewer named “Blythe Harris.” The bulk of the article touched on Hale’s own insecurities about the reviewer and how the reviewer went on to cyber-stalk her. With several alcohol fueled investigations, she did everything from pay ($19) for a background check on the name used by the reviewer, to requesting the reviewer interview her as part of a blog spot in an attempt to get more information. She even obtained the reviewer’s address (which she said would be for a giveaway) and Googled it, finding out that the reviewer used a pseudonym. Hale went on to rent a car, drive to the reviewer’s home and showed up at her door. Even though she chickened out, she still managed to call the reviewer, not once, but twice, in regards to the entire situation.

 

Every author deals with bullies at some point in their career. Most have their worst experiences at the beginning, when they’re still young enough in the community to get upset by bad reviews. The social websites, like Goodreads, are full of trolls look for people like Hale. They harass and attack authors in hopes of getting a reaction. Of course, there are authors who try to “counter attack” by using sites like Stop the Goodreads Bullies, under the guise of “protecting themselves.” If you know about STGRB, you know that the majority of the community look at them as sick, twisted psychos who stalk and harass anyone they feel they can by claiming that they’re trying to counteract bullies. STGRB has been on the black list for a long time due to their shameless sharing of private information (real names, addresses, phone numbers, etc.) and they’re considered the scourge of the writing world. Kathleen Hale contacted “Athena Parker,” one of the founders of STGRB (pseudonym) ((shocker, there, right?)), to get some more insight into how to respond to the bully. I went into a bit of detail about STGRB because I wanted you to understand that when Hale mentioned them in her article, I lost what little empathy I had for her.

Now, don’t get me wrong, “Blythe Harris” was just as much in the wrong as Kathleen Hale. Harris stalked Hale by over commenting on any positive review that was left on Hale’s book. She even “live tweeted” Hale’s tweets, mocking them mercilessly. Considering “Blythe Harris” probably won’t be commenting any time soon, let’s assume Harris’s recount of the situation is mostly spot on.

I don’t know how many times I’ve said this, but you NEVER comment on your own reviews. You NEVER respond to bullies. You NEVER harass them, because then you’re no better. I kind of though “don’t STALK them” would be a given, but maybe I’m being to optimistic. Regardless of how you feel about a reviewer, regardless of how merciless they become, you are better by not responding. You are better by not finding out who they are and going to their house.

Needless to say, both parties were wrong in this, and both should take serious looks at their own lives. The fact that Hale wrote an article about the situation makes her look more like the wrong-doer in the scenario, but I want to be clear that I don’t feel one has more guilt in the situation than the other. I think it’s wrong that either side is getting sympathy.

So when you sit at your keyboard, in hopes of starting your first/next book, think about this situation. Think about how both parties looked at the end of the situation. Think about how you want to look if something like this happens to you.

Writing Tip/ Moral of the Story: TWO WRONGS DON’T MAKE A RIGHT!!!

Blog Monday

Well, not a whole lot has gone on here, honestly. I’ve had to back track a bit with Jeremy since I’m a bit stuck, but I think things are going well.

I took my dogs to a SPCA sponsored event over the weekend and they won second place in the costume contest. I am very proud.

I hope that you all have a fun and safe rest of your week!