R.J. Blain's Blog, page 81

Multi-Services Review, Part 2: Organizing your Release Day Extravaganza

Releasing Inquisitor (Yes, that is a buy link you’re seeing) has been quite the adventure. My original plans involved a stealthy soft-launch release of the novel, going undercover to get buy links for the bloggers participating in the official release day extravaganza.

That all changed when I had an idea. I’m still new to promotion. The idea of selling myself (and my work) is still hard for me to accept at times. I like to experiment, however.

It’s an interesting blend of character traits, and it usually manages to get me into some form of trouble or another.

What sparked the idea was the fact that Inquisitor sold a copy before I knew it had launched on Amazon. This startled me quite a bit! I figured people were finding the book somehow anyway, so I would make the most of it.

I decided for the soft launch of the novel, I would turn to my normal roost, the Google+ community. Google+ has been a huge support for me as I’ve been working on this novel. There were a lot of people wanting to read the book and help with its release there.

I decided to go for gold and posted to the community that the novel was in the first stage of release.

Doing this made me realize something: It is a smart business move on my part.

I’m going to talk about how I’ve been handling the organization of my release day extravaganza. If you think this will work for you, by all means, steal my ideas! Make them yours–make them better, too.

Your mileage may vary.

There will be two different step-by-step instructional guides in this post. The first group of steps is the basic workflow of planning a launch extravaganza, as experienced by me.

The second group of steps is how to keep track of everything you’re doing in the first set of steps.

This is less of a review of services and more of a making the most of the services you’re going to be using.

We, as authors, can be our worst enemies, especially when it comes to promotion. I feel that in order to make the most of a service, you need to have a solid approach to using them. A review of a service’s strength isn’t enough, in my opinion.

Step One: Determine your official release day.

Your soft release will happen several weeks before your official release date, but your soft release date is when you are ready versus the official’s you must be ready.

I picked May 16. Why? That’s my birthday. Happy birthday to me!

Why: A hard, official deadline ensures that you are ready for your book release. When you hire a tour group to promote your novel, you need to be ready when you say you will be ready. There will be a lot of people depending on you. In my case, there are over one hundred different bloggers who are relying on me to have ARCs and a buy link ready for them.

Setting this hard, cannot-be-missed deadline is important.

Step Two: Set your budget. Add $50.

This lets you know how much you can afford to spend. The addition of $50 will let you cover those little but unexpected opportunities. I overshot my budget by below $50 because I stumbled on a sale from a group I had worked with before. It hadn’t been anticipated, but I took the opportunity because it was there.

Why: The idea of promoting your novel is to establish your brand, your name, and sell your books. Budgets help you stay financially stable. Most of us don’t have a huge budget to spend.

There is no guarantee you will make back your investment. Throwing money away is a very real risk. There are a lot of reasons someone might not buy your book. Promotion gets your name out there. It makes readers aware of your novel.

It does not guarantee a single sale.

Step Three: Research and hire book tour group(s)

It’s hard to tell how a book tour group will work for you and your novel. It involves a lot of luck, picking a good team, and knowing if the tour group has bloggers who will like your style of novel.

Research each and every tour group. Ask questions. Here is a short list of things I look for when researching a book tour group:

Is the book tour group listed in any scam listings? If so, read all entries. Remember: Authors who produce 1* material will use tour groups… and the bloggers will react accordingly. Use your judgement. Research who is making the complaints.
Does the book tour group come recommended? Recommendations are a huge boon when picking a tour group. But remember, just because a tour group works for one person does not mean it will work for another person.
Has the book tour been around for a while? This is important, because it takes time for a tour group to establish a strong blogger base.
What sort of traffic does the book tour group push? Check their Alexa ratings. Look over the blogs associated with the tour group.
Is the tour operator responsive? If you’ve inquired, and you haven’t heard back from them for a week… this is not a good sign. Expect 1-3 days for a reply. Some operators will often use auto response messages if they aren’t answering emails for the weekend.

After you are satisfied that the group is a good fit for you, hire them. Don’t enter an agreement with any company you don’t feel 100% comfortable with.

Why: Because you and your book are worth the extra effort–your comfort levels with the groups (and how you spend your money) is really important. If you aren’t confident in the group, you likely won’t be happy with the results.

P.S.: Read all material from the tour groups. If they say engage with the bloggers, do that! It helps. Watch the comments of the posts, and be ready to say ‘thank you!’ when necessary.

Step Four: Bust tail on your novel

Most independent authors work on their book right up to their release date. It’s one of the freedoms of being an independent. We can turn our books into selling products when we reach that moment we believe the book is done.

This date becomes your soft release date. When it’s ready, let it go.

Why: Your book is ready for sale. Why not start making money? You also get access to your buy link on Amazon at the same time. When your book is available for sale, readers can also leave early reviews.

Step Five: Hunt Reviewers

These individuals are outside of your book tour groups. Find people who are willing to leave reviews of your book on amazon.

Why: Reviews help sell books. If you have buy links, reviewers can post their reviews of your title. When you have your official release extravaganza, you will have an advantage: Potential readers will be able to see reviews right away.

Tip: Ask your fans and readers to leave reviews of your book. And remember–don’t be one of those writers who flips if you don’t get the perfect review. If you’re criticized, learn from it or not. That’s your choice. But if you flip on a reader or fan, you’ll be doing yourself a lot more harm than good.

I find saying ‘Thank you’ is sufficient. If there is an opportunity to talk to a reviewer about a really positive review, with an emphasis on connecting over a common trait, do so! Just avoid falling into the trap of arguing with a review. It doesn’t end well.

Step Six: Fulfill all of your obligations to your tour groups

This means making sure you have all of your interview questions turned over to the tour group, that you’ve written all of your guest posts, and so on. Try to have these as quickly as possible, as this makes the job of the tour organizer that much easier.

Why: Tour groups can’t do anything to help you with your novel release if you don’t give them all of the resources they need. That means you’ll have to invest work and effort into your book. Guest posts and interviews can be stressful, but the sooner you sit down and finish it, the happier you–and your tour group operator–will be.

Step Seven: Wait for the official release day extravaganza!

Waiting, I think, is the worst part of the whole thing. Patience is a virtue.

Personally, it’s a virtue wasted on me, but I’m going to do it anyway. Ignore the gnaw marks on my desk.

Why: Because it’s hard to change scheduling for tens to over a hundred different people. Strict deadline must be strict.

Organizing your Release Day Extravaganza

When working with multiple blog groups, independent reviewers, and other individuals who want to help you make your launch a success, you need to be organized. Forgetting even one person can be a PR nightmare for you. You don’t want to piss off your readers, your fans, your friends, and people who are trying to help you succeed at your writing career.

Step One: Create a Spreadsheet

If you’re only working with one or two groups and a very limited number of book reviewers, you might be able to remember everything without a spreadsheet.

At the time of this post, I’m working with over 125 different bloggers. This includes a list of 19 individual reviewers and book bloggers.

I can’t remember all of this, not without a lot of help. So, in order to stay organized, I created a spreadsheet. It is really simple.

On sheet 1, I have the following columns:

Tour Group / Individual :: Buy Link Sent :: ARC Sent :: Cost :: Giveaway :: Giveaway Cost :: Total Cost :: Number of Bloggers :: Type of Stop (Review, Tour, Blitz, etc) :: Link to Group / Individual’s Website

On Sheet 2, which is dedicated to individuals, I have the following columns:

Name :: Post Type(s) :: Count (number of expected posts) :: ARC Sent :: Buy Link Sent

Your mileage may vary, and you may want different columns for your spreadsheet, including contact information, email addresses, and so on.

Step Two: Set up a Calendar

Each tour group and blogger will have different requirements for when they need materials from you. Setting up a calendar to remind you to send over the material is a great way to ensure you don’t miss anything.

Step Three: Update all of your sheets / organizational tools immediately

Don’t wait. Don’t push it off. Make sure you keep your spreadsheet, calendar, or organizational tool of choice up to date. It really sucks if you have to dig through all of your emails in order to make sure you didn’t miss anyone because you got lazy one day.

I may have had to do this twice already. Take it from me, it sucks. Especially if you’re working with the volume I’m working with for this release.

After Everything is Finished…

Consider reviewing all of the services you used and posting it to your blog. It can help other writers in the future, and it’s really difficult to find good references and reviews of author services.

Just try to be objective. Did the service work for you because you were active and engaged with the organizers? Is it possible the service failed to work for you because you didn’t fit the bloggers using that tour?

Look at all of the possibilities. These type of services are highly dependent on your book. If you don’t have a book that appeals to the audience you’re selling to, you won’t see much movement in terms of sales. This is why matching your book with the tour group is so important.

It isn’t always better to cast a wider net.

Good luck with your novels, writers.

Review: Morningside Fall by Jay Posey (Angry Robot — Science Fantasy)

Morningside Fall by Jay Posey

Morningside Fall by Jay Posey is a a novel that slips between a variety of different genres. For the sake of simplicity, I’m defining this novel as a Science-Fantasy Western.

Morningside Fall is the second novel in the Legends of the Duskwalker series.

About the Book

The lone gunman Three is gone. 

Wren is the new governor of the devastated settlement of Morningside, but there is turmoil in the city. When his life is put in danger, Wren is forced to flee Morningside until he and his retinue can determine who can be trusted. 

They arrive at a border outpost to find it has been infested with Weir in greater numbers than anyone has ever seen. These lost, dangerous creatures are harbouring a terrible secret – one that will have consequences not just for Wren and his comrades, but for the future of what remains of the world.

New threats need new heroes…

The Short Review

I really liked this book. It has a lot to offer, and I think it’ll appeal to a very wide audience. It has the action and adventure I associate with a good western-themed novel, and it also has some really interesting science fiction and fantasy elements. I found the front end of the book to be a little slow, but once it takes off, it’s a real nail-biter.

This is a 4 to a 4-1/2* novel, in my opinion. Almost ranked up there among my favorites, but not quite.

The Long Review

Before I begin the actual review, I want to make a note for potential readers: Read book one, Three, first. If you’ve already read Three, you might want to consider re-reading it before diving into Morningside Fall. I know some readers will happily dive into the middle of a series and figure things out as they go, but this novel has a good number of references to Three.

This isn’t a bad thing. Jay Posey doesn’t spend a great deal of time covering old ground. I like this about the novel, because I get frustrated when there is too much exposition regarding what happened in a previous novel. Some readers might find this disconcerting, however.

I’m going to start with the one thing I viewed as a flaw in this book before I wax eloquent about all of the things I really enjoyed about this novel.

I found the start of this novel a little slow for my liking. It took me a couple of chapters before I really got sucked into the story.

Part of this is my fault.

Wren is a young boy–younger than ten years old. He’s in the unfortunate position of being Governor of Morningside. This dichotomy of age, role, and maturity level threw me for a loop. Sometimes, Wren is exceedingly mature and wise for his age. It strained my suspension of disbelief quite a bit. Then there are the moments where Wren acts exactly like I expect a child of his age to behave. This also exists in Three, though I found it was to a lesser extent.

I don’t usually read a lot of books where one of the heroes of the novel is so young–especially as a POV character. But, Posey does a really good job balancing these bursts of wisdom and maturity with Wren’s behavior as a child. Wren has circumstances, and a lot of them.

He’s a good character.

It just took me longer than I like to get behind him and get used to how he is portrayed in Morningside Fall.

With the exception of my personal issues with Wren, the characters in Morningside Fall are what really make this novel stand out. They’re different. They’re unusual. They are interesting. Posey’s portrayal of all of the secondary characters is what really brought this book together.

When combined with the plot, featuring problems created by the characters and problems from outside influences, it’s a really powerful combination. After the first quarter or so of the book, it becomes a real nail-biter. It took me several sittings to finish the book, and the closer to the end I got, the grumpier I got about having to go to bed. I ended up losing a lot of sleep one night to finish because I couldn’t go to sleep wondering what would happen next.

I like when a book does that to me.

What really drew me to this book was the mix of elements. It’s post-apocalyptic. It’s a western in styling. It’s science fiction–sometimes rather hard science fiction. It’s a bit of a fantasy, too. The blend of fantastical elements with the science fiction ones, which are in turn harnessed to the western post-apocalyptic setting is a matter of brilliance on Posey’s part. The setting is a character, and by the time the novel ended, I felt like I had walked through the desolation right along with Wren and the other characters.

In closing, I want to mention one more thing: I specifically avoided spoilers telling what this story is about, instead relying on the book blurb from the novel for the introduction. This is the type of story where I feel spoiling the events–even the little things–will really take away from the reading of the book. Little things matter in this novel, and the impact of a single conversation or a small event is often huge.

This is definitely a book I’ll re-read again. I recommend it for anyone who enjoys a young hero, an action adventure, science fiction, post-apocalyptic, and soft fantasy. I think because this novel so seamlessly melds these elements together, it’s a great introduction series for those wanting to try a hybrid novel out.

Morningside Fall defies genre in all of the right ways. This book isn’t quite one of my absolute favorite novels out there, but it’s close — 4 to 4-1/2 * close.

Recommended.

Note: I received this novel as an ARC from Angry Robot Books in exchange for an honest review.

Why I Don’t Write ‘Strong’ Women

I started the process of talking about this on Google+, but I felt this is a discussion that really belongs on my blog. You can read the original post here. 

In the original post, I begin by stating that I am amused when people get upset over the lack of strong women in two of my novels.

The two books in question are The Eye of God and Storm Without End. 

These novels are traditional and epic fantasies. The Eye of God is more of a traditional fantasy, focusing on one region, while Storm Without End is far more of an epic, telling the story of how a few good people–men and women–can change their entire world.

I write stories that are realistic to the situations of the men and women in the societies they are from. While this will earn me negative reviews–it already has–I do not write in strong women for the sake of writing in strong women. The odds are against women in this world. If they want to be strong, they have to get off their skirted asses and make themselves strong.

That is not easy for them. In The Eye of God, women are treated like slaves. They are prizes, adornments, and property. The so-called ‘free’ women must work from the shadows, using diplomacy, coercion, and silky words to manipulate their men. Power, for them, is a poison-laced cup given on the sly. It is not in strong–or strong as we see it–personalities.

The strong women of this world become slaves in all things, and if they do not bow to the will of men, they die in the arena.

It takes a very special sort of woman to rise above that, and that sort of woman is rare. I write them to be that way; rare, prized, and a force capable of changing their world.

But they must earn it. It can’t be cheapened by handing it to them on the grounds that they were born with breasts. There, I’ve said.

I don’t write women who are strong for the sake of writing strong women. Women make their appearances as their personalities allow. A woman who becomes strong in a culture and world like this has to be special. Special women, women who are willing to risk everything, do not come along every day. They often do not live long, either. That’s an unfortunate truth about history.

I look deeper than the feminist approach of needing a strong woman in a fantasy world dominated by men. These cultures are realistic, and even in modern society, there is a dire lack of truly strong women.

I do not write women who are strong for the sake of their inclusion. When a woman comes along who rises above the men, it is because she is special. She has something that lets her stand up against the history of her past and her upbringing. She has something that forced change on her. Women are not born strong in a world where men are expected to live and die by the sword to protect their families–their women, and their children.

Women must be motivated to break free of the chains of tradition and heritage.

In Storm Surge (Book 2 of Requiem for the Rift King), they begin to rise–quite notably among mercenaries. And these women are not shining, they’ve endured a lot to get where they are, including coping with rape–a very realistic issue for a woman in a male-dominated group in this sort of world and era.

And these women are all the more strong because of what they’ve endured, but I don’t just write a strong woman character in for the sake of writing one in–they need to have reasons to endure the risks and consequences of participating in a war in a society where men are viewed as superior. They are a society where in court, their words are their swords, and their influences are often not known, manipulating things to their liking from the background.

The story doesn’t take place in the societies where women are equals and strong; it takes place in the societies where change is needed, not where change has already happened.

And some people just will not like that; nor will they want to sit around and wait for these women to finally decide the only way they’re going to get change is if they reach out and seize it on their own.

I may be a woman writing epic fantasy, but I don’t give my women in these novels anything.

They have to earn it.

This is a choice I made on purpose with my novels. I may be a woman writing epic fantasy, but because of that, I want truly strong women. I don’t want women who have power, strength, and courage handed to them in order to pass the Bechdel test for novels.

I want people to see weak women who rise above it all. At the end, I want people to see these women for the strengths they have earned. When a woman rises, only to fall as consequence of being something rare and special, I want them to reach for a tissue because they understand what the world has lost. I don’t want a strong woman in my novel who is there just because society thinks all women deserve to be strong.

I want to create real women, women who claw their way from the bottom and rise to the top. I want to see them struggle, endure, and become more than just a weak woman in a world dominated by men.

If anything, I have a higher expectation for my women in my novels. They must, time and time again, prove their worth–to themselves, and to the men who have been raised to believe it is their duty to protect or use women.

I’m going to take a minute to draw your attention to the cover art for Royal Slaves. This is for Book 2 of the Fall of Erelith. The Eye of God is the first book of this series.

Royal Slaves is where the women begin to rise, and where change begins. It started in The Eye of God, although it is extremely subtle. It started with the salvation of a single woman, who at the time, had a spark of stubborn pride–it was that spark that sent her to the arena to die.

She was spared, barely. And her salvation becomes the seed of her rising above her status as a slave to become something more. But she is still a slave, to her past and to her culture. But she will be given the chance to become something far more than a beautiful slave–if she makes the right choices, and works hard to become something more than what she is.

I am not afraid to write real women. I am not afraid to write strong women, either.

I am afraid of writing a story adhering to the expectations of society. No, I will not write in strong women for the sake of writing strong women.

I will write women who are the product of their environment and society.

Then I will give them the chance to become strong.

It is up to the women to decide whether or not they become strong. I will not give it to them. It is something they must earn on their own, through their actions, through the things that happen to them that force them to change, and through the choices they make.

I am not ashamed of this, nor will I be. I will not cheapen the women in my stories because they’re women.  But when they rise, they will burn in a blaze of glory–for better or for worse.

And it is my hope they will be remembered because a truly strong women in this sort of world is a rare and special thing.

There is nothing wrong with a ‘weak’ woman. They are real, they are products of their environment. But they haven’t made the choice to rise above it all and seize their strength with their own hands. I will not write women who are added in as strong for the sake of having a strong woman in the story.

When you find a strong woman in these novels, she made herself that way.

Go ahead, ladies and gentlemen. Have the strength and courage to write ‘weak’ women. Then give them the chance to become strong.

It’s far more satisfying to see a woman rise above the odds and become something special, than to read and write about a woman who was made strong for no reason other than society thinks women should be strong.

That’s the price of writing a truly strong woman in a world where women are not expected or raised to be strong. Most women will be weak. They will have bowed to the yoke society has given them. And they will take pride in what we perceive as weakness; they believe they are good women, doing the right thing. And we are shocked, as always, that women are content in these roles they have been given.

When a woman makes herself strong in one of my novels, I want my readers and fans to remember her, because she is special and she is rare. I want my readers to see all of her, from what we perceive as weakness, to the strength many desire. And I want my readers and fans to appreciate her more because of all she endured to become strong, and understand the price she paid to become that way.

And when her flame goes out, I want her to have risen so far above expectation that it is understood that the world has lost something truly precious.

And to me, that is what a strong woman is: Someone precious, who can’t be replaced, who can’t be found under any old rug, and who has earned everything she has gained with her sweat, tears, and blood.

And if that means having one hundred weak women for each strong one, so be it.

I will not be afraid to write women as they are: Diverse–weak, strong, and somewhere in between.

Multi-Services Review, Part 1: Preparing for a Release Day Extravaganza

On May 16, 2014, I will be releasing my third novel, Inquisitor. Unlike my other two novels, Inquisitor is a paranormal urban fantasy. Because of the popularity of the genre, I made a very important decision for myself and my career:

I decided to pursue a launch party extravaganza. What does that mean? Instead of focusing my efforts on one service, I am approaching the launch of this novel using several outlets at the same time. I’m combining book tours and single-day blast promotions to spread as much word and hype about the novel as possible. I am also looking into potentially doing a press release in order to spread word of the novel in other venues.

That venture is still up in the air, as I do not know anything about this branch of marketing. It’s taking a lot of research. I’ll go into that a little later, however.

First off, I want to talk about the basics and the inherent flaws with my release day extravaganza.

Unlike my other experiences, I am running a lot of promotions at the same time. Unfortunately, I do not have the capability of tracking the performance of each specific campaign (or promotion) that I am running. This means some may do well, others may not. I’m looking at the entire extravaganza for the end-game result.

My hope is to learn if the time and monetary investment will pay off in the short term and the long term.

Here is what I am doing so far:

I’m working with two blog tour groups for 7 day blog tours.

I am working with three other groups for single-day blast tours.

I am working with bloggers and book lovers directly to help spread news of the release. If you’re interested in hosting my novel on May 16 as a part of the release party, please email me at blain . rj @ gmail . com (remove spaces.)

I am considering investing in a press release to spread news to traditional medias, including newspapers and other print resources. This is something I have to think long and hard about, as I do have a limited budget on what I can use for this. (It took quite a bit of extra work on the side to be able to afford this experiment at all.)

I will not reveal the amount of money I have invested or will invest in this project just yet. Why? Because the numbers aren’t confirmed yet, so I’m not comfortable with saying them. However, I will state that I have already invested over $200.

Preparing for a Blog Blast / Release Day Promotion

Creating a release day promotion is a little different than a standard book blog tour. Unlike a standard tour, which is typically scheduled after the novel has been released, these tours are scheduled prior to release. For an independent author without the ability to set up preorders, this is a little tricky.

Before you contact any blog tour group about a release day promotion, there are a few things that I recommend you do:

Set a definite release day. This cannot be changed. This is not flexible.
Prepare promotional material in advance. If you have your materials ready, you look like a professional. Tour groups want to work with professionals.
Research the tour groups. Not all groups are created equal, and you want to use the groups with the most sway for your release-day promotion.

1: Setting a definite release date is important. You won’t be working with five or six bloggers. You will be working with hundreds of bloggers. Imagine having to apologize to each and one of these individuals! Or, worse — making a tour group you paid good money to have to apologize to these individuals.

It is a good way to be banned from using these services again. Just because you want to hire a service doesn’t mean that the group has to let you hire them. Abusing their services and their hard work is a good way to get blacklisted.

Make sure you’re 100% capable of being 100% ready for your release on the day you set.

2: Preparing the promotional material in advance means you can just attach everything you need for each and every tour group or blogger. No thinking, no hassle, just attach everything and send. This makes sure your posts are all uniform, and you don’t have to invest nearly as much time.

You will want the following promotional material:

1 to 3 or so excerpts from the beginning of the book. Try to stick within the sample limit on Amazon.
An author biography
Blurb for the novel
All Social Media links (Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest if applicable, etc)
Cover Art
Review Copy — if you don’t have it ready, have a set date it will be ready.

Each tour group has different requirements, so make certain you follow all of the instructions you are given.

3: For a large-scale release promotion, I tried to stick with reputable groups with a lot of social media and blogger sway. I also stuck with groups with a good reputation. To find out a group’s reputation, I researched their blog group on the internet. Over half of the groups I selected came from recommendations from other authors.

Working with Blog Tour Groups

In order to do a truly large-scale release promotion, I feel it is necessary to work with outside groups. It takes a lot of work to get a group together. One of my tour groups is putting me in touch with over forty bloggers. This is a staggering amount of work on the coordinator’s part.

Working with nine people individually has cost me a couple of hours. I don’t have the time to work with hundreds of bloggers. That’s why I hired several different tour groups to help me.

When you’re working with a blog tour group, there are a few things you will want to do (and remember.)

First, you want to reply to organizer questions as quickly as possible. Second, you want to make sure you pay your invoice when it is sent to you. Request that the company invoices you so you can use the invoice as a part of your taxes. Finally, make sure you give them all of the promotional material they need as soon as you can so they have time to organize your tour.

Because you have to do this with each and every group and blogger, I really recommend that you make a spreadsheet tracking which groups you are working with and where you are at in the process.

Make sure you do not delete any of your emails from the tour groups or bloggers you are going to work with. You may also want to make use of google calendar to track when you need to send interviews and guest posts to bloggers who need that material.

So far, working with five different tour groups and nine individuals, I have invested some 6-10 hours of work. I expect to invest another 4 or so hours before I’m finished setting up all of the tours.

Future posts in this series will cover specific tour groups and the types of blog tours available for someone releasing a novel.

The State of the Union — Blog Tour Monday

I was invited to come play on a blog tour Monday thingie — I’m not even sure what it is, except people getting together and blogging about writing on a Monday. But hey, I like writing, and I like blogging, so I figured why not? Nothing to lose, and a chance to procrastinate a chance to let you all know what I’ve been up to lately.

David Ellis invited me to come play. He’s one of my clients this year. Go say hi to him!

The biggest thing on my plate is the publication of Inquisitor on May 16, 2014. I’m really hoping this urban fantasy does well… and not just because I need to rewire my house.

The second biggest thing is that I need to rewire my house. Badly. The breaker needs rewired to industry standards, and I have several blown outlets, and an entire circuit that no longer works upstairs. Bathing will be a candlelit affair for the next few months. Why? I’m a writer. While my husband makes good money, we don’t make ‘drop $10k on electrician repairs on a dime’ good money. I’m increasingly making better money as I release more books and get a feel for how to reach out to readers, but I don’t make good money. Yet. I may never. But, at least until the foreseeable future, I will be spending all of the royalty money I do make on fixing my house.

On days like today, I wish I had a winning ticket for the lottery jackpot. Then I could completely renovate my house room by room.

At least it wasn’t the circuit with the fridge or the freezer. It is, however, the circuit with my office. Cue sadface and saying goodbye to all of my plans for spring writing in my office on my laptop.

Well, okay, I’ll buy a really long extension cord so I can run power to my office that way to charge my laptop as I use it. Maybe not entirely goodbye to my spring writing plans.

For other writing-related news, I’ll be having another installment of my Orangeberry blogging tour review in the next month or so. We started a new phase of promotion, so I’ll have more data for you soon. I’m also gearing up for another blog tour with a different group for Storm Without End.

Speaking of Storm Without End, I have over 75,000 words of Storm Surge drafted. Storm Surge will be the next novel I release this year. I’m tentatively planning on August. Right before I go on vacation to Las Vegas. Worst plan ever. 

City of Clocks is over 20k drafted now, and it will likely become the third novel I release this year, leaving me in a mad scramble to finish Royal Slaves for the end of the year.

On a client editorial front, I have a lot of second reads to do, and with the problem with the wiring in the house, I didn’t get anything done today. Cue more panic and things.

In short, I’m going to fondly remember 2014 as the year I completely lose my sanity. You’ll find a lump of something gibbering in a corner. Go ahead and ignore it.

It is just me.

I’m tagging Lisa Cohen & Ryan Toxopeus for next week. Why? Because they’re really cool writers. It doesn’t hurt they’re past and current clients.

Publisher Announcement: Missing Chapter in Blades of the Old Empire

Angry Robot has released an announcement regarding a missing chapter in its newly-released title, Blades of the Old Empire.

Read more directly from Angry Robot here.

kboards promotions: A Review

kboards is a popular forum for kindle fans, both readers and writers. They offer advertisement on their forums, their blog, their facebook page, and their twitter account.

I purchased their one-day package, which cost me $20.00.

Setup for the promotion was extremely simple. I was given a very short list of things needed in order for the book to be promoted. The folks at kboards handle the creation of all advertising material from your amazon buy link.

I did this promotion in conjunction with a countdown deals.

Turnaround time was extremely fast for the promotion. It was live within 48 hours of me submitting my order, which makes it an excellent immediate boost — if your book matches reading desires of their audience.

While I don’t want to say this service was a wash, I only recouped 50% of my investment. Unlike the other tours I have done, there is little interest in ‘backlog’ of posts, and a lower SEO value.

This is not a service I will be purchasing again, and I don’t really recommend it — at least not for someone who writes epic and traditional fantasy. Other genres might enjoy more success, but while kboards does have a 50,000+ following on facebook, it didn’t result in as large of a burst of sales as I needed to make this promotion worthwhile. The SEO benefits from one site linking to a product without a review isn’t significant enough, in my opinion, to make up for the lack of sales.

Considering I ran this in conjunction with a countdown deal to optimize the sales, I don’t think a longer run or different promotion package would make a significant impact on how successful using kboards for advertising is.

Another mark against this service, in my opinion, is the lack of discussion and conversation created by their promotions. This lack of conversation prevents the books featured from being really branded, lowering the value of the service for those who are interested in establishing their brand.

kboards might be a useful venue for romance authors or for popular, established authors.

Writing Product Review: Swarovski Crystal Pens

Swarovski Crystalline Lady Ballpoint Pen Rose Pearl, Vintage Rose (1097050)

It seems only appropriate that the very first pen I review is the one I write most of my books with. I have tried out many different pens over the years, and have yet to fulfill my life-long quest to find the perfect pen. Swarovski has come close with two different models of pens I have fallen hopelessly in love with. They aren’t perfect, but that’s okay. This is the closest to perfect I’ve found.

TL;DR Version: I really recommend these pens.

I will start with the pen I usually write with. I have it in several different colors, but I’ll focus on the one I bought first. The pink pen, imaged above, is Swarovski’s breast cancer awareness pen. All profits from the sale of these pens, when purchased in store, go to breast cancer research. I’m a sucker for that sort of thing, since breast cancer is something that has impacted most people, myself included. So, when I went to purchase my first pen, the Swarovski ambassador (I believe that’s what they’re called in store) recommended the pink one.

So I purchased the pink one. It doesn’t hurt that I really like pink.

I have written two completed novels (by hand) with these pens and their refills. I have also written large chunks of other books with these pens.

The Design

Swarovski USB Crystalline Pen White Pearl 1116963

These pens come in two different styles. The first style is imaged above, featuring a slim shaft designed for female hands. I mean, let’s face it. It’s a pen filled with lab-created crystals. The target audience is women. The shaft is a good length for someone with small hands, allowing precise control of writing.

The second pen, featured here, has a very special surprise located within the shaft of the pen. It is a USB drive! And a pen! All in one! This is my go-to travel pen. I load up all of my novels on it as a backup, as well as a zip file of scrivener and my license key. This way, I can access my novels anywhere I go. Now, granted, if I’m going to a less-than-savory part of town, I leave my precious pen at home.

In the image here, you can see where the USB is by the black line. When the USB is not out, the silver completely pairs to the white part (or fuchsia, as my specific pen is) so the elegance of the pen is not ruined by the presence of the USB part of the pen.

The USB stick features 4 gb of memory, which is overkill for the standard novelist.

The Writing

This is the most important part of the review, right? Just how well do these pens write? Well, let’s just say I’ve introduced this pen to some gentlemen I know. I had them give it a whirl.

Despite all of its feminine charms, the pen was impressive enough they’d consider writing with it.

This amuses me to no end. In short, this is a good product. The pen uses Schmidt pen refills. These are easy to replace when they run out. You unscrew the cap of the pen, pull out the refill, and separate it from the little plastic cap on the end of the refill. You put the cap on the new refill, put it back in the pen, and screw it into place. Done! The first time you take off the cap from the refill (it screws into place) you may need to use a pair of pliers. I have had to use pliers twice on the four pens I own. But, once you take it off the first time, it unscrews easily for very quick replacement of the cartridge.

I find I can get anywhere from 50-100 moleskine pages worth of writing on a single refill, which costs about $1 to replace. One thing you may want to be aware of with the brand-new pens is that age matters on these refills. If the pen has been sitting in the store or a warehouse for a long time, you may not get as much longevity in the first ink cartridge. Buy a few extras when you first get your pen, so you don’t run out of ink at a bad time!

The ink flows reliably, though sometimes I need to take my nail and clean the ball. Since this is a ballpoint pen, this is a universal problem with all ballpoint pens I’ve encountered. The pen will, over time, pick up all of the little bits of crud on the paper (no matter what paper you use) and potentially clog the ball. This is fixed with a quick drag of the nail over the ballpoint.

Another good thing about this pen is that the ink really does last until the dredges of the cartridge. However, once it gets near the end of its lifespan, the pen has a tendency to get spotty and temperamental. This is when I replace the cartridge for a new one.

I buy my pens and my refills directly in store. The slim-shaft pens come in a velvet sheath. The USB pen comes in a proper box. If you go into a store, request a sheath used with the slim-shaft pens. My store was more than happy to give me one, as I like putting all of my pens their little cases before storing them in my purse.

The Materials

These pens are made of lightweight metal with enameled surfaces. So far as I can tell, the clear casing for the 200 crystals is a strong plexiglass or resin, not a cheap plastic or easily-broken glass. The pen is very durable. I’ve dropped my pens multiple times, because I’m clumsy, and have not scratched the ‘glass’ or the enamel of the pen.

Price vs Value

At $35 and $75+, these pens aren’t cheap. However, the value and reliability for what you get is stellar. Considering the low costs for the refills, these pens are a much better investment than many others I’ve experimented with, which have refill costs of $5+.

A Little More about the Refills

As I mentioned before, the Schmidt Mini Ball Pen Refills cost about $1.00 each at regular retail price, and are available in store or online. I usually buy 5-10 refills at a time due to how often I am writing by hand. I would not purchase refills in more than a three to six month supply to prevent problems with the flow of ink. (Ink, despite common belief, does go stale!) It’s very difficult to revitalize the ink in a cartridge like this, so I would use your best judgement on the frequency of purchasing your refills.

Writing Product Review: Semikolon Tabs, Assorted Colors

Semikolon Sticky Tab Markers, Assorted Colors (5100002)

As a writer and editor, I use many different writing products on a daily basis. When I started transcribing Inquisitor, I decided I would use these Semikolon tabs in assorted colors I received for Christmas. One of my closest friends knew my favored product of choice is no longer manufactured, and took it upon herself to try to find a replacement for them.

I have a love-hate relationship with these tabs. In the real life, the colors are not nearly as neon, which I like a lot better than the overly-bright presentation on amazon’s product site. Please see the pictures below of the tabs taken with my not-fancy camera in horrible lighting. (I want a camera box for products. Oh well.)

The Adhesive

(c) RJ Blain

Sticky tabs are only as useful as the adhesive used to keep them stuck to their partner pages, and here is where the Semikolon sticky tabs really shine. It’s like the super-glue of tabs. So far, once I stick these tabs to something, they stay stuck… unless I purposefully remove them. I can do this three or four times before the adhesive gives up the ghost and mocks me for my perfectionism.

Appearance

Almost as pretty as my believed Note Tabs. Almost. Colors are nice and appealing.

Materials

(c) RJ Blain

This is where the ‘hate’ part of this review comes into play. While the stock for the notes is nice and thick — almost a card stock — it is an epic fail in how the adhesive bonds to the sticky tab beneath it. The result? Tearing. Lots and lots of tearing. Because the adhesive bonds right up to where the tab begins, I tear almost every single tab trying to get it out of its booklet. This is frustrating!!

The stock isn’t thick enough to make it resistant to potential curling, however, so this is something I’m wary of. That said, because I’m using them in moleskines, curling isn’t an issue. On research projects? It’ll be an issue. You can see a little bit of the curling on the Chapter Two tab pictured above.

The solution to these problems would be to either laminate/plasticize part of the stock, or use a much thicker, sturdier stock. As is, the stock is too thick to make good mid page markers. They’re also too large. But at the same time, they’re also too flimsy to be used as binder dividers or markers for file folders. They’re somewhere right between being ideal for either purpose.

Still, for a novelist marking chapters as I am, they work. They do the job. I’ll probably invest in another booklet of them when I go through all of these, if only because they are strong enough to withstand me grabbing the tab and flipping to the page in the moleskine.

Size

These are twice as large, approximately, as my beloved note tabs. This makes them a little awkward to use in my moleskines. Without the transparent foot on the tab, I have to peel the tab off to see the text beneath, so I have only been marking the chapters when I no longer need to reference the writing on the page. This is definitely a con for me, and unfortunately, Semikolon doesn’t offer a smaller sized sticky tab — yet.

Conclusion

For the number of tabs you receive, this is a reasonably priced product. The ‘booklet’ the sticky tabs come in is clever, letting me store them in an attractive book rather than in a loose mess like other brands. This is majorly appealing for me. Still, that said, this product could use improvement, so I’d rank this as a 3*. Tearing most of the tabs is a pain in the rump, and it’s very difficult to get them out of the booklet without them ripping.

While I’d buy them again, I’m not going to necessarily jump up and down and recommend every writer gets them for their arsenal.

 

Release Announcement: Inquisitor – Coming May 16, 2014!

Cover art by Chris Howard

When Allison is asked to play Cinderella-turned-Fiancee at a Halloween ball, the last thing she expected was to be accused of murder on the same night. She has to find the killer and quick, or she’ll be put to death for the crimes she didn’t commit. To make matters worse, the victims are all werewolves.

On the short list of potential victims, Allison has to act fast, or the killer will have one more body to add to his little black book of corpses.

There’s only one problem: One of the deaths has struck too close to home, and Allison’s desire for self-preservation may very well transform into a quest for vengeance…

Inquisitor is an Urban Fantasy. It will release on amazon May 16, 2014.