Jo Robinson's Blog, page 110
October 28, 2013
Monday Funnies - Especially for Authors, Writers and Scribblers
Reblogged from Chris The Story Reading Ape's New (to me) Authors Blog:
Does THIS sound familiar?
Maybe you need a Ghost Writer?
Other people keep interrupting you?
Maybe you need someone else's advice?
Wouldn't it be nice to do this?
Don't worry, you are a member of an exclusive club called:
AND WE ALL LOVE YOU TO PIECES :)
:D
October 23, 2013
The Dog Ate My Homework
Life’s been getting in the way of my writing world lately. It doesn’t look like it’s going to let up either. Whenever I’m not able to go online for a day or three, opening my email on my return generally has me falling off my chair, having multiple simultaneous panic attacks, and rushing off to tremble in the wardrobe for a bit before I gather up the courage to force open an eyeball and get stuck back in to everything. I don’t know if I’m just a whole lot less on the ball than everyone else, or if there are thousands of other scribblers out there regularly falling off their chairs and cowering in terror at the thought of all that they missed. Anyway. I’m out from under the desk now, and attempting to move swiftly on. As well as life insisting on getting all up in my face right now, I’ve broken off a big bit of tooth (extra tough toffee) so I have a toothache, a looming visit to the dentist, and I’ve somehow taken some gluten aboard also. So. I’m a bit of a sour bunny with a bellyache. Never mind. Life would be really boring if it was all just smelling the roses. Blog catch up first.
I must say though, I’m always really impressed with bloggers who produce consistent, daily, professional posts. Especially writers. I know that as self published authors we’re expected to be businesslike and maintain a constant online presence, but sometimes that really isn’t possible. I don’t mind when the authors I stalk follow disappear for a bit, then resurface with a sorry tale of woe, or huge rant about whatever in the world it was that kept them away. Keeps things interesting. When I’m in the throes of writing a new story or editing, my brain is useless for pretty much all else apart from cheese pancake production or watching dodgy television programmes. I TRULY believe that dodgy TV is the best place to go for inspiration for future scribbles by the way, so I consider it RESEARCH, and not procrastination in any way.
For instance, a while ago I happened to eyeball a series called Extreme Cheapskates that’s definitely got a load of great characters in it. I’m all for living a non-wasteful life, but…. One lady always peed in a bottle and had her boyfriend take it out and toss it on the compost heap – so as to save all that money you waste when flushing the loo. Ha haaa! Ya sexy thing ya! Another one made good use of dumpster dive cake and road-kill to produce squished bunny stew and dessert for her delighted friends and family. Then there was the chap who zoomed from table to table in restaurants bumming peoples leftovers to take home with him. You can’t make that stuff up.
I’m working on the ending for the second Shadow People book – Return to Lapillus, as well as tweaking and getting already published books as polished as they can be before loading them up on Createspace and Lulu. That’s the thing with self-publishing, you learn as you go, so you often have to fix as you go too. These things always take much longer than I think they will though – hence my personal brand and sly marketing tactic of always being late for everything. I really do need to stop with all the self-inflicted deadlines. Anyway. Much more on the ball than I, Chris Graham, my cover designer – yip, got my own cover designer now – has produced the new cover for the first in the Shadow People series, and the book has been updated on Amazon, Smashwords and Goodreads with its new look. I love it, and can’t wait to see his vision for book two.
October 20, 2013
Feed My Reads Event and Freebies
At 11am UK time I’ll be off to partake in my first ever event over at Feed My Reads Event on Facebook. This event is for authors, bloggers, illustrators and writers of all descriptions. Each person gets an hour slot at a time to share their work in their own way. I find this appealing in many ways. Firstly it’s not like one person running the whole deal and ending up under the table feeling like a piece of burned out charcoal at the end of it, and also because of the diversity of the participants. It’s great meeting new people.
This is Feed My Reads first event, and the first event quite like it that I’ve ever seen. I’m pretty sure that it’s going to be a huge deal in time to come. At the helm is Fraser Stoopman, who is setting up Feed My Reads sites and groups on all platforms, so that this will not be a one off event, but an ongoing activity sharing news and promotions for writers and artists across the globe. Definitely a great concept and a fantastic foot in the door for all of our future work. Being as this is the first event, there are still slots available, so all you bloggers, scribblers and artists zoom on over and PM Fraser to get your hour. He’s a very nice guy and you can be sure of a warm welcome.
I’m sure that any of you guys who wanted my two short stories on Amazon probably have them already, but for any of my new friends who don’t, I’ve got them up for free today again. Shadow People and African Me & Satellite TV will be .99c for a while from today too. Zoom down to your left – the links in my blogroll will take you straight there.
October 18, 2013
Read Tuesday: We need your help to get the word out!
Reblogged from mybrandofgenius:
All you Facebookers: We need your family and friends. Help us promote this event with a post to your Facebook account. This event is like Black Friday or Cyber Monday, but it is all about books. It can read something like this:
“Authors interested in promoting your books? It is easy to sign up. Gift Givers: Support the Indie Author & the Traditional Author and give the gift of books for Christmas this year.
I'll be back very soon to tell you what I did with my manuscript - and then all the madness to fix my latest toolishness. In the meantime please share this awesome event. It's going to be the biggest EVER reader/author event.
October 13, 2013
Found this great little article in February 1977 National Geographic Magazine
Reblogged from Chris The Story Reading Ape's New (to me) Authors Blog:
Sometimes, for professional writers, anything can be preferable to putting words down on paper. Some Geographic staffers pace the floor aimlessly, some stare intently out the window – at nothing in particular. Still others admit to sudden urges to tidy up; somehow, the worst chores are welcome when you're waiting for inspiration.
Assistant Editor Mike Edwards, who has produced 40 stories for the magazine, offers this advice to aspiring writers:
Well - yes I do....
October 9, 2013
Yacking It Up
October is Depression Awareness Month. I’m not qualified to comment on the terrors that extreme mental illnesses might bring, but all those who suffer these things have my deepest sympathy, and respect for trying so hard to overcome their inner demons. Way down the scale, every human experiences sadness and depression to some degree. If you’ve never been sad or depressed at all then I don’t want you anywhere near my space. I imagine that totally unfeeling people could be a little dangerous. Everyone’s had the blues at sometime. Maybe just for a day, but sometimes for much longer. And certainly weeks of depression should raise alarm bells as it could be caused by much more serious anxiety issues.
Over the last few weeks I’ve seen a lot of depression about on the web. Maybe it’s the time of year. Sometimes the change of seasons brings on sadness and anxiety – this is an actual condition. Could be some sort of collective internet unconscious depression. It is possible for groups of people to get collectively sad. I think Jung actually did a study on it. The internet is a place where you really do get close to people and very involved with groups, especially as a writer. In a way sometimes, I think that people give more of themselves there than they do in their physical lives. Blogs and groups are often places to share your innermost thoughts and feelings, safe in the knowledge that your second cousin twice removed, or your brother, or whoever is in your actual space, isn’t going to be howling with laughter and telling everyone they can what a tool you are.
We form very real connections on the web. I’ve made friends with many people who I not only respect but truly have deep affection for as people. And it pains me when I see them hurting. It’s no secret that writers are a crazy but incredibly sensitive bunch. You have to be. How can you share life’s tribulations and pains in your scribbles if you don’t – to some extent at least – feel them? After the review barnies, which really made me wonder about my own current course of action with my scribbling, we’ve had a couple of bigwigs talking smack about independently published authors. One guy said that by not going the traditional route we aren’t actually published authors at all. He said we’re merely writers who share stories online, or something equally disdainful. I won’t go into all the self-published success stories in our defence – but those didn’t change the fact that I did indeed feel like a tiny piece of turd, and got a little blue when I read that. Jonathon Franzen said that, “While Jeff Bezos of Amazon may not be the antichrist, he sure looks like one of the four horsemen.”
He went on to say,
“Amazon wants a world in which books are either self-published or published by Amazon itself, with readers dependent on Amazon reviews in choosing books, and with authors responsible for their own promotion. The work of yakkers and tweeters and braggers, and of people with the money to pay somebody to churn out hundreds of five-star reviews for them, will flourish in that world. But what happens to the people who became writers because yakking and tweeting and bragging felt to them like intolerably shallow forms of social engagement? What happens to the people who want to communicate in depth, individual to individual, in the quiet and permanence of the printed word, and who were shaped by their love of writers who wrote when publication still assured some kind of quality control and literary reputations were more than a matter of self-promotional decibel levels? As fewer and fewer readers are able to find their way, amid all the noise and disappointing books and phony reviews, to the work produced by the new generation of this kind of writer, Amazon is well on its way to making writers into the kind of prospectless workers whom its contractors employ in its warehouses, labouring harder for less and less, with no job security, because the warehouses are situated in places where they’re the only business hiring. And the more of the population that lives like those workers, the greater the downward pressure on book prices and the greater the squeeze on conventional booksellers, because when you’re not making much money you want your entertainment for free, and when your life is hard you want instant gratification (“Overnight free shipping!”).”
Charming, isn’t it? Over the past few weeks I’ve seen a couple of really well-respected indie writers bow out entirely too. I don’t know if it’s because it’s just that time of year when we’re all just a little tired of all the work over the last nine months, with Christmas approaching, and then the time to look back and see what, if anything, we’ve accomplished, or if it’s because the indie industry seems to be taking a lot of loud and public knocks lately. But it is saddening to see people who really are great authors – traditional or not – take themselves and their future bookworlds out of my life.
It is true that there is an ocean of really terribly bad books self-published on Amazon. We can’t deny that. I got to wondering if mine were too after reading those things, and thinking that maybe I was living some sort of delusional, self-involved pipe dream and wasting a whole lot of my life trying to be something that I’m not and never could be – a pucker author. Then I thought, the hell with that Dagwood! The whole point of Amazon is that anyone anywhere in the world can publish their work, regardless of whether it’s a steaming pile or not. That’s the whole point of Amazon. If that has a nasty result on your traditionally published bank balance, again, so what? If only one in every ten thousand books self published on Amazon turns out to be a gem, it’s worth it. Better than ending up on some slush pile because somebody in the traditional world had a lunch date and no time to glance at more than your title. It’s what Amazon IS. Nobody is forcing anyone to buy a single thing. And if you do buy it and you don’t like it you get to say so, even if you’re not Kirkus. So what if people give away free books? If they’re good then they’ve served their purpose, and if they’re not, they’re not stopping anyone from buying a traditionally published book.
Why on Earth would hundreds of apparently illegible free books give any reader worth his or her salt any joy? Do you want those kind of guys to read your book anyway? Amazon is the most fantastic thing as far as I can see. They’re still new, and I seriously envision a future not too far away where it won’t be possible to self-publish any old thing you like. It will get top heavy and have to think of ways to prune. But they aren’t the antichrist at all. They’re giving thousands of possible geniuses the platform to showcase their work for free. Not everyone can afford an editor, but just because they can’t doesn’t mean they’re not someone I want to read. Go Amazon!
They actually do have a couple of rules that seem to be being bypassed by way of both perfect editing and content. But so what? That’s the nature of the beast. I have found typos and grammatical errors in all of my published scribbles, and I’m fixing them. At the end of the day my books will be as perfect as I – the totally self-published “person” – can get them. I like my scribbles, and there are enough honest reviewers out there, who will hopefully share what they think of my stories – good or bad – to eventually sort the wheat from the chaff as far as future readers are concerned. Maybe one day I will find out that I’m such a rotten scribbler I should be dragged out and shot at dawn, but until I do I’ll just carry on having a blast with my books – or “online shares”.
So you can tell me that I’m a yakker and a tweeter and a bragger, and that I’m not an author. Call me a writer. Hell, you can call me anything you like, but I’m not ready to hop off the bus yet. I reread Jonathan Franzen’s article after a few days of real black gloom and self doubt, wondering if I should do what I’ve always said I wouldn’t and hand my scribbles over to publishers just to be “legit” – I have had a couple of offers believe it or not – and then I saw the rest of his diatribe for what it really was. The pompous pontificating of an arrogant tool. So I’ll stick to being the indie that I love to be. We’ll be just fine at the end of the day. Independent writers will sink or swim, make millions or not a dollar, but we aren’t going anywhere but where we choose to go, no matter how loud ya all yell fellas. Now I’m off to do a bit of yakking. Don’t let the bigmouths break you down scribblers. Just do what you do and enjoy it.
October 7, 2013
Guest Blogger in the Hut – Glen Perkins
My good Google+ and blogger friend, Glendon Perkins has bravely agreed to join me in my hut, and share his views on the review rating system, and reviewing in general. My favourite thing about my guest bloggers is that we don’t always have to agree – although we might. I really think that this is a subject that needs to be delved deeply into by indie writers especially, on both sides of the fence.
So here we go! But first, please tell us all about yourself Glen.
I was born in Colorado Springs, CO, but raised in Wyoming, spending all my childhood growing up in Gillette. I attended Campbell County High School, and as a Freshman, starting writing. In 1991 during the first Gulf War, I wrote a poem depicting my views about war. I submitted the poem to the local newspaper in Gillette where is was published. I submitted a short story to a state contest for school-aged writers and received a second place score.
After graduating high school I joined the U.S. Navy. I shipped off to Chicago, IL, where I attended boot camp. From boot camp I went to San Diego, CA. In San Diego I went to school to become a Hospital Corpsman and an X-ray technician. Once I completed my training, I was shipped overseas to the country of Bahrain. Bahrain is an island country in the Arabian Gulf. I spent three and a half years in Bahrain where my military career ended.
I was honorably discharged from the navy in May 2000. I returned to Gillette to go to college. I went to Gillette College and earned a certificate in Diesel Technology. A short time later I attended Casper College in Casper, WY, to earn a degree in radiography. I graduated from Casper College in 2006 and am currently a radiographer in Newcastle, WY.
In January of 2011(after a twenty year hiatus), I returned to writing–mostly as a hobby–when Eastern Wyoming College in Torrington, WY, offered a Writing Workshop. Through the constant encouragement of the members in the writing workshop, I submitted a short story to a writing competition in the summer of 2011. I was rejected for publication, but my desire to be published didn’t wane. After another contest submission and subsequent failure, I continued to plug along.
I am now a three time published author of short stories and flash fiction. I am currently working on more short stories and a novella titled “Under the Bridge.”
Is The Five Star Rating System Flawed? by Glen Perkins
Is the five star rating system for book reviews flawed? Yes, and that could be the end of this post, but it’s worth a deeper look.
For a few months now I’ve become increasingly put out by the rating system books are reviewed with, a star system from one to five. One being unreadable and five being the best thing since root beer floats. The burr under my saddle first happened when an author I knew asked me for some feedback. I made the mistake and said sure. I mentioned one word was being overused and mixing it up or cutting it out altogether would improve the story. The response: well that’s how people talk around here. Okay…so put it in dialog and delete it from narrative. It never happened. The following books are just as littered with that overused word. Fast forward to a few months back. I read a book by a fellow author and rated it three stars. I was contacted by the author and asked why I didn’t like the book? I responded I did like the book but I didn’t feel like it was worthy of five stars. Well, why not? Because it needs to be improved. I explained I rated the book against top books in the same genre; books that were five star rates because the masses rate it that high. And that boys and girls is what brings us to our problem, the flawed rating system.
What if I told you a book hardly readable had an overall rating higher than a Pulitzer Prize written book? Would you think I am lying? Well, I can assure you I’m not. I’m not going to identify either the unreadable book nor the prize winner but if you would like to do a little research on your own I think you would be surprised what you find.
Fundamentally, the five star system is deceiving because it doesn’t allow enough input to properly rate anything. Ideally, each star would have a set of check boxes attached and the score would be an average of each box checked for each score. For example: what if under each star there were questions pertaining to readable, flow, interest, relatable, and not applicable. And the questions get more specific for each star, providing a more accurate portrayal of the book’s value. Maybe the N/A box is for things like grammar and spelling, something the average reader may not be familiar with nor care about–my dad being a good example, if he can read it, he will and he likes it or not (he doesn’t have much middle ground). Would this solve all the problems? No way in hell, but it would be a start.
Another significant issue with the five star system is the spamming. I’m not talking about filling the comment boxes with drivel, we will always face the white-knighters and flamers. What I am talking about is the blatant spamming of your own book to boost ratings. I, like many others, have heard of authors creating false accounts and boosting their books ratings by giving fake reviews. Why anyone would choose to lie like this is beyond me, but I guess we can’t count on everyone to be honest, which is going to lead to my next point: who should be rating books?
I recently read a blog post about who should be writing reviews and who should not be writing them. It was stated that only non-authors should be writing reviews. I categorically disagree with this notion. Think about it for a moment. Who better to write a review than someone who knows the flaws? Thousands of books a year top the bestseller list and they all have reviews written by people who write. They may not write fiction, but they certainly write. And they write for nationwide or worldwide publications. But, let’s forget that for a moment. The blog also suggested some authors are publishing books, and are learning from the experience. Okay, fine. So what. If authors are putting out the books to be purchased then the books are subject to bad reviews from anyone. There’s something I will say to defend the authors who are learning: keep the reviews to the books. Bashing the author on a personal level has no impact on the book being reviewed.
In closing, it’s apparent to me the rating system is flawed and should be reworked. If a person sells a book or short story or any writing for that matter, it is subject to review from anyone. Receiving a bad review is part of the learning process and having only readers who may not see the flaws making the review is at minimum deceptive.
Glen Perkins
Thank you Glen for being here with us today, and sharing your review views. I love that we’re all allowed to say exactly what we think here in the hut – it’s my bloggerverse version of Switzerland.
Find the gorgeous Glen Perkins on the following links:
Google Plus profile: https://plus.google.com/u/0/113966284153651041891/about
Google Author page: https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/101807588369500620502/101807588369500620502/about
http://www.glendonperkins.com; http://www.glendonperkins.blogspot.com; twitter.com/glenperk.
Interview by Phil A Davis
I had the wonderful opportunity to be interviewed by architect and an author I greatly admire all the way over in Hawai! Thanks so much Phil!
http://padaarch.wordpress.com/
October 6, 2013
Book and Author Sign-Up Forms Now Available at Read Tuesday
BOOK AND AUTHOR SIGN-UP FORMS NOW AVAILABLE AT READ TUESDAY
(It's Going to Be HUGE!)
Give the gift of reading this holiday season.
Enrollment forms are now available to add books or authors to the Read Tuesday catalogs. If you are an author or small publisher who would like to participate in the event, click on the links below to open and complete the sign-up forms.
In case you writer guys haven't spotted this yet - it's going to be amazing!
October 2, 2013
Before You Say You Suck
Before I started writing I read all the time. Not having a book to read filled me with dread. I’ve been known to read the backs of cereal containers, toilet paper blurbs – anything. My writing trip started very recently, but it really is all encompassing now. I live and breathe my book worlds. Just lately there have been all sorts of troubles with fake, nasty, and jealousy induced reviews popping up. This really pains me. If you look at my reviewer profile you’ll notice that I only ever give five star reviews. This doesn’t mean that I’m a sycophant. If I think a book is worth less than five stars I don’t leave a review at all. I just really, truly believe that as a writer – and a newbie writer at that – it’s really not my place to trash and burn any other scribblers efforts at all.
I take more notice of a book review written by someone who has never so much as scribbled an essay than an award riddled author. I’ve been a reader all my life, and I have hero writer guys who I would defend to the death, regardless of typos, weird characters, or outrageous plots. Hello Robert Rankin. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – if you are an indie author – and not Stephen King – be careful who you trash. Not purely for the possibility that the guy – or girl – who you rain turds on might have a staunch following and squish you like a bug on the old world wide web, but because it’s just not cool.
It’s really true. Everyone’s a critic now, but think before you leap into the fray as a writer. You know how hard it is to pen a book, and you know how painful it is to be told that you suck. Think before you head under the four star train smash. Sometimes it’s kinder to just shut up.
