E.L. Tettensor's Blog, page 4

Darkwalker giveaway!

Interested in the Nicolas Lenoir series, but leery about jumping in at Book 2? The good folks at Penguin have got you covered! They’re giving away 15 copies of Darkwalker, Book 1 of the series, over at Goodreads. Now you can catch up just in time for Master of Plagues!

www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/11891...

Good luck!

MASTER OF PLAGUES giveaway!

We don’t get Halloween out here in Burundi, so what better way for me to celebrate than to give away two signed Advanced Reader Copies of MASTER OF PLAGUES, Nicolas Lenoir’s latest creepy adventure!

Winners can choose either to receive their copies immediately after the giveaway closes (i.e. copies to be mailed out 17 November) or they can wait a bit longer for a signed copy (which would be mailed out closer to 17 December, which is when I next pass through NYC).

To enter, simply use the Rafflecopter below to follow me on Twitter (if you’re already a follower, you get a free entry). You can also tweet about this giveaway, like my Facebook page, or leave a comment on this post. Each of these things entitles you to a separate entry, so go nuts!

EDIT: as predicted, I messed this up a bit and needed to re-launch. I’ll be in touch directly with those of you who tried to enter. Sorry about that — like I said, not tech whiz. :/

a Rafflecopter giveaway

On Genre

I’ve been thinking a lot about genre lately.

With THE BLOODBOUND in full publicity swing, and advanced reader copies of MASTER OF PLAGUES about to start making the rounds, the question of how a book is categorised — how it’s labelled and marketed — has become an important one in my world. And it got me thinking that reading is a lot like eating: what you expect to taste can greatly affect the extent to which you like what you actually taste.

Let me explain.

Have you ever gone out for dim sum, or tried dessert at an authentic Chinese restaurant? Have you bitten into a sticky bun expecting it to be sweet, only to be disgusted when you taste salt instead? I’ve long had a theory about this, that it’s less to do with the fact that you don’t actually like salt — I mean, really, who doesn’t like salt? — and more to do with the fact that you were expecting to taste something very different. Your taste buds were primed for sweet. When they got savoury instead… ew. Whereas if you’d gone in expecting salt, you might have had a very different dining experience.

I think it’s like this with books, at least to some extent.

I’ve drawn this conclusion not only from my own experience as a reader, but from reading loads of book reviews (not just of my books, but of books by authors I admire). So many reviews refer to expectations, and the extent to which the book did or didn’t meet those. Fair enough. But what shapes those expectations? Lots of factors. The cover. The blurb. For lots of people, though, it is heavily influenced by where the book is shelved, or what book blog they found it on.

Enter marketing.

When DARKWALKER came out, it was reviewed on a lot of urban fantasy sites. As a result, it was read by a lot of urban fantasy fans, some of whom were disappointed that it didn’t meet their expectations of the genre. Again, fair enough. But the thing is, I didn’t write an urban fantasy book. I didn’t write a Victorian book (for the record, it’s much more 1800 than 1900, but let’s not nitpick). Maybe I wrote a paranormal mystery book — I’m still not sure. But I’m convinced that these ‘cues’ influenced how people consumed the book. For example, people who picked up the book because they saw a Sherlock Holmes-like figure on the cover will have been primed to expect an arrogant detective, and were probably more tolerant of Lenoir’s moodier moments. On the other hand, people who are used to reading about badass vampire killers with katana blades running around the sewers of New York were probably not very entertained by the comparatively slower pace of the novel’s plot.

I think it’s easier if you write novels that fit cleanly into a category. DARKWALKER doesn’t do that. Neither does THE BLOODBOUND. YA readers are looking for more angst. Epic fantasy readers are looking for more worldbuilding and less angst. Romance readers are looking for more bedroom time. There is no way to please all these markets. There is no point in trying. So the question is: which one to target?

And that’s where I am with MASTER OF PLAGUES at the moment. Do we go the urban fantasy route again? Mystery? Something else? You can go all of the above, but at the end of the day, the book is shelved somewhere, and as the author, you have little to no control over where. That’s frustrating, since where it sits = expectations, and unfulfilled expectations often lead to disappointment. Of course, many readers love crossover fiction — the warm reception of both DARKWALKER and THE BLOODBOUND attests to that. Even so, as an author, you don’t want people to feel they’ve accidentally picked up the wrong book.

So in case anyone asks, MASTER OF PLAGUES is an early 18th century mystery with light paranormal elements following the rough format of a zombie apocalypse.

There’s a shelf for that, right?

Halloween Giveaway

If you’re thinking about checking out DARKWALKER, or just want to refresh your memory before MASTER OF PLAGUES comes out in a couple of months, Halloween is the perfect time to slip into the Five Villages and hang out with the champion of the dead. Fresh Fiction has you covered! Today is the last day to enter to win! http://freshfiction.com/contest.php?i...

On World Building (and Fluff)

For those who haven’t already seen it, I dropped by the Bibliosanctum earlier this week to offer my thoughts on world building, among other things. Though I refer to my latest novel, THE BLOODBOUND, the approach to world building is the same in both series, so I thought I’d cross-post here. bibliosanctum.com/2014/10/07/guest-po...

When DARKWALKER came out, I saw quite a few reviews that contained some variation of “I’d like to know more about the Adali/the Darkwalker/Lenoir’s past/the Five Villages”. To my mind, that’s not a criticism; in fact, it’s good thing. It means the reader wants to spend more time in the world. If I tried to cram everything a reader could possibly want to know into the first book, what would be the incentive to stick with the series?

Anyway, as I say in the post, your mileage may vary. Like romance and humour, world building is a deeply personal taste. In this, as in most things, I tend to minimalism.

Double Review and Giveaway!

Double the fun! The good folks at the Qwillery are running side-by-side giveaways of DARKWALKER and THE BLOODBOUND. Enter to win, and check out the reviews!

In Praise of the Pre-Order

I have a humble request for you folks on this happy Friday.

For those of you planning to pick up a copy of THE BLOODBOUND or MASTER OF PLAGUES, please consider pre-ordering. These links are for Amazon, but you can pre-order in any number of ways, including at your local bookstore.

Pre-order numbers are taken very seriously by publishers, and can be a crucial factor in determining the success of the series. Intuitively, you’d think that would be less true for debut authors and relative unknowns, but it’s not — we get no quarter, no consideration. We need to compete out there on the vastly crowded marketplace, or our sequels don’t get picked up. If pre-order numbers are flat, the publisher takes it as a sign that there isn’t much enthusiasm for the book.

So far, there are no plans for a third Lenoir book. If sales of MASTER OF PLAGUES aren’t lively enough, there won’t be. Pre-orders are important. If you love a series and want to see more of it, pre-ordering (along with spreading the word) is one of the most helpful contributions you can make.

For those of you who have already pre-ordered, huge warm heaps of thanks.

On Eerie Coincidences

So, perhaps you’ve been watching the news recently, and have seen toe-curling stories about Ebola virus in Africa. Ebola, for anyone who’s not familiar with it, is a particularly horrible hemorrhagic disease that crops up from time to time in West and Central Africa. There are various types of hemorrhagic fever, of which Ebola is one, and their characteristics vary from outbreak to outbreak, but in general, they are highly contagious, and extremely deadly. In this latest outbreak, those stricken with the disease have only about a 50% chance of survival.

I’ve been familiar with the virus for some time now, as responding to outbreaks is something that falls within the mandate of my organization (the day job), and anyway this is the kind of thing you have to be aware of when you live in Central Africa. Recently, though, I learned a lot more about it, as I was researching for MASTER OF PLAGUES.

That’s right: the “plague” in MASTER OF PLAGUES is based on Ebola virus. A major outbreak hasn’t occurred in years, and now all of a sudden, mere months after wrapping MoP, we’re seeing an epidemic of unprecedented proportions.

If that wasn’t weird enough, recent events in West Africa, and Liberia in particular, are an eerie echo of events that take place in the book.

Coincidences happen. Diseases come and go. A major outbreak of Ebola was always on the cards, and in this globalized world, the danger of it spreading quickly and reaching pandemic proportions was always there.

I know all this. And yet, I have to be honest — this kind of gives me the willies.

Introducing erin-lindsey.com

At long last, it’s Go Time over at my new website, erin-lindsey.com. Another collaboration with the incomparable Sarah Semark, with illustration by Gary Hannah, this second site is for now dedicated to the BLOODBOUND series, and anything else I may write in future as Erin Lindsey.

It’s another beautiful site, and I’m really happy with it! Stop by and say hello!

Technology Fail #2

For a while now, not sure how long, there’s been a problem with the site whereby it’s been impossible to post comments. I had a suspicion something was wrong, but it was confirmed earlier this week by friend of the site ediFanoB. Turns out this is a result of a highly over-zealous spam filter.

The issue should be resolved now, so for anyone who attempted to leave a comment but was unable — please feel free to do so!