R.J. Blain's Blog, page 84

The First Days of an Editing Project

Demystifying how I edit a novel for a client is one of my favorite subjects to talk about. I love working on novels for clients almost as much as I love working on my own novels. As I’ve mentioned before in other posts, I find the entire process of working on an editorial project to be extremely rewarding.

I figured since I was starting on a new project today for a new client, I would talk a little about the first few days of editing a project, as well as what is involved in determining if a client is a good fit with me.

First Contact

An editorial job begins with the first contact with a new client. Most of the time, the client contacts me, be it via Google+ or by e-mail. The first thing I do is direct them to my Editorial Services page. This page goes into what I do, how I tend to operate, and my rates.

Negotiation

Once a client has had a chance to go over my rates and what I do, it’s time to talk shop. This is the stage where I’ll send a sample of my editorial if they’re interested in working with me. I have several clients who have agreed to let me share the first chapter of their edits with clients.

I do not edit a section of a potential client’s work as a sample. Why not, you ask? The first part of a novel often represents the most time investment on an editorial job. While I’m very happy to show examples of the work I’ve done for others, giving away a chapter worth of edits just doesn’t work with my editorial style. It takes me a lot of time to work my way through the initial chapters.

I will ask for a basic synopsis of the story (back of cover blurb) and a sample of writing. This is also where there is a discussion of trigger subjects in the novel.

I am an extremely flexible editor; it takes a significant amount to actually offend me, so I will tackle on projects involving explicit material. However, depending on target audience, I may make recommendations on how to tone the subject matter down to ensure the best reception from readers possible.

My job is not to cater to the egos of my client, but to help them strengthen their novels and turn it into a selling story. I also don’t have any attachments to the plot, the characters, and the writing as the author does.

I try to make certain my clients are aware of this prior to working with me.

The Contract

I use a very simple contract to lay out the terms of the editorial agreement. I don’t believe in complex contracts; my client needs to be able to understand the terms without requiring a lawyer. This contract is in place to protect both of us. Once the contract has been approved by both parties, it’s time for the deposit.

The Deposit

I require a 50% deposit before I start working on a client’s project. This mitigates the risk of non-payment for me. It also proves that the client is serious about wanting the slot, too. I request the deposit before I begin work, but after the contract has been agreed upon by both of us.

Some clients opt to pay entirely in advance due to their financial situations. On occasion, I will make special payment arrangements with a client. However, since I have been burned in the past by non-payment for work, I only do this with trusted, returning clients.

Receiving the Novel

Once the deposit is sent and the contract confirmed, I get a copy of the novel, preferably in a word format, as I work on both a windows desktop and an ipad. I confirm the novel file opens and works properly, then file it away until the client’s starting date, which is usually the first of a month.

Beginning the Work

Every novel is different. Every editorial job is different. Every author is different. This is a bit of a mantra of mine when I start editing a project.

One thing doesn’t change, however. I start editing the first page(s) with a vengeance. The opening sequence of a novel makes or breaks a novel when it comes to sales. If the first scene isn’t strong, people won’t be interested in buying the book. If there isn’t that intangible ‘something’ that makes the beginning intriguing, people will turn away and find something else to read.

The start of a novel can set the tone for the entire book. As such, I spend a lot of time and effort focused on the first chapter. So, what do I do when I edit the opener of a novel?

Here’s a list! This is just the start of the list, however. There is a lot of stuff that goes into the first scene and chapter of a book when I edit. This is meant to just give you a basic idea of the things I look for when I developmentally edit for a client.

Does the first sentence intrigue me? Why or why not?
Does the first paragraph intrigue me? Why or why not?
At what point did I become interested in reading the story for pleasure? Why?
Who is the main character and why should I care about them? I both ask this of the writer. I also ask this of myself as I read to determine what is either turning me on or off about a story.
What is keeping me from getting absorbed by the story? Why?
What can be improved in a stylistic way to help capture the ‘intangible’ elements that turn a good story into a great story?
Is the plot interesting? Why or why not? What can I suggest that makes the plot stronger?
Are there any inconsistencies or holes needing addressed to make the story make sense?
Which characters do I like? Why? Who do I dislike? Why?

This list changes depending on the story, too. I will ask different questions for a science fiction versus a fantasy, and a mystery versus a romance. No one set of questions will work for all novels.

One thing that does stay the same is the fact that I have to explain and justify every comment I make. I recently did the first round of edits on a client’s first six chapters of a episodic story. The section in question was approximately 20,000 words long.

My notes were 13,000 words long.

This is why I do not offer samples of the clients work being edited, instead opting to use a portfolio system. I am thorough. I feel that just saying “this is telling” isn’t sufficient. I have to say “this is why this is telling.”

Just as I will ask a writer ‘why’ over and over again, I will answer those why questions of myself as I leave notes. There are times where I say, “I just don’t like this because I don’t like this — personal preference.” That’s okay. We’re all allowed to have our opinions on something. I never expect a client to change anything I recommend, either. They’re paying me for my opinion. What a client does with my opinion is entirely up to them. I just try to do my best to offer suggestions that will strengthen the story.

Most importantly, I try to make suggestions I feel will help strengthen them as writers. I have one of those careers where if I’m doing my job correctly, they’ll learn all of the skills they need to really start developmentally editing themselves, so they only need beta readers and proofing editors.

Some clients will always want someone to confirm their development of a novel. But, I always love it when a client doesn’t need me anymore because they’re telling strong, wonderful stories on their own. That’s my ultimate goal.

Communication

During the first-read edits, I’m pretty communicative. If I’m not e-mailing updates to a client on a daily basis, the client knows what’s going on with me, be it through my Google+ stream or via an e-mail. The second reading tends to be a lot more casual and laid back, because most of the work has been done, so instead of daily communications, it may take me a few days to get back with my thoughts and comments, especially if we’re doing the second reading by chapter. If I get the entire novel for the second reading at one time, I tend to take a few afternoons to mark the entire thing up.

In some rare cases, I can get the turnaround for the second reading done in a day if the novel is really clean compared to the first reading. (These are my absolute favorite moments of editing, too… it’s rare, but when it happens, I think it makes both me and the author feel really accomplished.)

Time Invested

Every client is different. On average, I estimate it takes about 80 hours to complete a project for a client. This varies by client, of course. One client I had approximately 120 hours worth of investment in. Others I’ve done is as short as 50 or 60 hours for a 100,000 word-long piece.

Later Parts of the Editorial Process…

The first three or four chapters often represent the bulk of time investment, as I don’t believe in beating a dead horse. Most stylistic problems in a novel will make an appearance in the first three chapters or so. Once I have dealt with all of the recurring grammar errors and stylistic issues, I can focus on the characters, the story, and the plot line — the hardcore structure of a novel.

Formatting Editorial Notes

I use the comment feature of word and inline editorial to make notes. More often than not, I will use inline editorial, as it’s easier to convert to a list of notes. Once I am done the inline editorial phase, I create an outline for the client.

The outline is used to comment on the scenes as a whole, making important recommendations and suggestions for the scene (or chapter) and also list all of the inline editorial notes so the client has all of the notes in one easy-to-reference location. This way, the author can also see exactly what I wrote for each scene and find things easier, without having to dig through their entire novel file.

That’s about it, folks. I hope this glimpse helps you understand the process of editorial a little better.

The Risks of Taboo Subjects in Fiction

I was asked a very disturbing question today. It was so disturbing that I quickly finished the notes I was working on for a client, stopped, and stared at the question. A mix of horror and dread raced through me as I tried to figure out just how to answer this one frightening question.

Is it legal to write about an adult raping a child in a fictional setting in Canada?

This question is a hard hitter. My first reaction was ‘Oh my god’ quickly followed with ‘That’s horrible!’ and a bunch of other thoughts, each one less pleasant than its predecessor.

I actually had to take a few minutes to think about how to answer this one. First, declaimer time: I am not a lawyer. I’m writing about this from my personal experiences, media exposure of child rape cases, and my understanding of censorship and sexual-related laws in Canada.

To get a good answer to this question, ask a lawyer. If you’re even considering writing a story with this content, you are at serious risk of imprisonment if you are judged to be in violation of child pornography laws.

Written media isn’t exempt from prosecuting laws in Canada.

So, to get back to the main question at hand: Is it legal to write about?

The answer to this is convoluted. I can’t say yes / no. Because yes / no doesn’t cover the entire story here. Is it legal to write about the existence of child rape in Canada?

Yes.

Is it legal to explicitly show the scene in which an adult rapes a child? 

No.

Fictional or factual isn’t what’s important here. The existence of child rape is a very unfortunate reality. Reporting its existence isn’t illegal. Writing a story about a child who has endured this horrible, terrible crime is totally legal.

Showing the instance of rape, however, is a different story altogether.

I can hear the anti-censorship people screaming right now. Fine, scream. But, in Canada, they’re pretty serious about pursuing child pornography. We hear about busts several times a year as these rings are infiltrated and broken up. And each time, the horror and dread associated with the mere thought of a disgusting, pathetic excuse of an adult who would even consider doing this to a child is brought to the forefront.

Rage is a pretty good descriptor of the reactions to the news reports.

While there is a difference between film and photography medium and the written word, the fact remains that by being explicit detail about the instance of this type of rape toes some very unpleasant lines. In Canada, written and illustrated forms of child pornography are banned. It’s illegal. It is punishable in a court of law. ISPs are required to pursue any believed instances of written or illustrated forms of child pornography.

That’s the law.

It doesn’t matter if the situation is fictional or factual. They don’t distinguish between fictional rape or factual rape in pornography in Canada.

I hope that if you’re considering writing a story involving this sensitive subject, you’re smart, you’re wise, and you never even dream of showing the rape.

You can write a powerful story without having to contribute to this disgusting, horrific crime. You can include the consequences of such a terrible circumstance without having to ever show it.

Sale for UK readers!

As most of you are aware, I did a countdown promotions deal for Storm Without End in December. For those in the UK who happen to like my writing, both novels are now on sale for 0.99p!

If you like traditional fantasy with a heavy Roman influencing but with so many twists you might be hard-pressed to find some of the references, you might want to take a peek at The Eye of God. 

If you like action, adventure, and sweeping epics, you might want to take a peek at Storm Without End!

The Reality of Paperbacks versus E-books for Indie Authors

There is an opinion going around that I wish to address. Here it is: Paperbacks provide more value to their author.

I have encountered this several times. A few fans believed that paperbacks are more valuable to me in terms of royalties and exposure.

This simply isn’t true.

I make approximately $1.00 per paperback sale on both of my paperback novels. Their equivalent e-books bag me $3.45 per book for The Eye of God and $4.14 per book for Storm Without End. 

So, why the royalty differences between The Eye of God and Storm Without End? The Eye of God, as my very first published novel, is far more flawed than my second book. Like others, I was learning. I captured a lot of what I wanted to, but I had a lot of fledgling errors. Some I’ve fixed. Some will never get fixed.

The book is also only 80,000 words. So, I priced it at $4.99.

Storm Without End rings in at 100,000 words, and is a far stronger novel, in my opinion. It’s much closer to where I want to be in my storytelling skills. So, I think the price difference matches the novels very well.

Both of these books get me 70% royalties on the e-book versions.

The paperback novels essentially get me production costs minus amazon’s cut, then my cut thereafter. I don’t know the exact figures, because it was something I was giving to my fans rather than something I ever expect to make real money from. That said, traditionally published novelists often get a big, bad $0.25 per printed copy sold. (That used to be the standard. I’m not sure if that still applies.)

Honestly, I included the paperbacks because I felt some people still just love the feeling of a paperback book, so I wanted to make sure I could give that to them.

That’s all.

Book Review: We will Destroy Your Planet: An Alien’s Guide to Conquering the Earth by David McIntee

So, you’ve been hiding out on Earth, waiting for your chance to conquer and take over, haven’t you? Or maybe you’ve been lurking in space, hiding behind the moon, waiting for your chance to strike? If you were smart, you would have acquired a copy of We Will Destroy Your Planet: An Alien’s Guide to Conquering the Earth by David McIntee. But, you weren’t smart, were you? So here you are, stuck without a whole lot of options, without a good plan, and at high risk of losing instead of the victory you traveled so far to acquire.

Well, you can rectify this. Go and get a copy. It will teach you all about your mistakes and how to avoid them (and others like them) in the future, as well as ensure that you turn your disadvantage to victory.

Warning: You might learn something.

On a serious note, this is a really fun book. You need to go in expecting to learn stuff, because there is an equal amount of fact and fiction. This seamless blend really let me get involved with this book, so much so it took me a notable time longer to read than I normally spend on a book. Some of the content, for the less scientific of us (read: me), can be heavy. It’s definitely written to make you think about the various tactics one could use to take over Earth.

I don’t want to spoil any parts of this book, because I think this is such a good read for the geeks and nerds among us, that spoiling the tactics discussed would soil the brilliance of this novel. I’ve read (and reviewed) guides on conquering before, but this one is by far the best. The art is perfectly campy, fitting the subject well. The content is streamlined, flitting for subject to subject in a logical, smooth fashion. It reads like any good reference book; engaging yet informational. It can be dry in places, but there is an underlying tone of humor that makes the actual lessons about space and the Earth go down really smoothly. There is just enough of the absurd to ensure that any astute reader will be able to distinguish fact from fiction.

All in all, I loved the book, and would recommend it to any alien seeking to take over the planet. Alternatively, I would recommend this to any human wishing to mount a successful rebellion against the invading aliens, as it is vital that the last dredges of humanity are aware of the challenges they face.

I especially think that you should take care to read the section on caring for your pet humans. It might come in useful for those alien species who are interested in expanding their empire rather than completely destroying life on Earth prior to taking over the planet for resources.

It’s hard for me to find flaws in a book like this, which bends the normal rules of conquering, delivers it with humor coupled with facts, and turns it into something engaging and entertaining. The writing style is smooth and easy to read without being dumbed down. It crosses barriers, I think, allowing those who have a strong understanding of sciences to get as much out of it as those of us who aren’t as good at sciences. While there are some numbers thrown around, you don’t need to be highly skilled in math to get the idea of what McIntee is talking about as he discusses how your race might best handle conquering Earth.

In short, this is a great, fun read, and I really recommend it to anyone who enjoys science fiction (movies or books!) and wants to think a little about how smart aliens would go about conquering Earth — and I promise you, it isn’t as far-fetched as you might think.

Author Services – Diving into the World of Marketing & Promotion

Writing a novel and posting it on amazon/smashwords/goodreads isn’t enough. In order to become a truly successful novelist, you need to spread the word about your book. Some people do this the old fashioned way. Others hire from a plethora of author services.

This series is a compilation of my experiences with various author services, including cover artists, graphic designers, book review services, book tours (blog-based), and newsletters designed to expand your brand and awareness of your novels. There will be other services also reviewed. What kinds?

Who knows? You’ll find out when I do!

Each review will be based on my experiences and should be treated as such. What doesn’t work for me may work for someone else. What does work for me may not work for someone else. Ultimately, how you handle your promotion and novel career is your choice.

I am hoping by being honest and forthcoming about my opinions on these services, you will be able to make the best choice for your career.

There will be three basic rankings for services:

Recommended
Neutral
Writer Beware

I will use the writer beware flag when the service is either a confirmed scam, or a good idea with horrible implementation, or a service that simply did not provide any beneficial results.

Recommended will be services I would use again.

Neutral services are those I’m on the fence about. While I didn’t love the service, I’m undecided on whether or not I would use the service. Sometimes I may not use the service again because it didn’t work out as well for me as I would like. Either way, Neutral Services are those I do not view as a scam.

I will also try to be fair in my reviews of each service or individual — for example, my initial proofers were those who were more skilled with developmental editing than copy and proofing editing. This was my fault, and not theirs. (In other words, don’t try to make a cat act like a dog. Developmental editing is much different than copy and proofing editing.)

A final note:

Some of the posts in this series are older, as I wrote the posts prior to creating the series.

Book Rooster – A Review

A while back, someone recommended Book Rooster to me as a way of promoting one of my novels and gaining some reviews.

The first thing you will have noticed is that I have not linked the site.  I tend to link to sites I back, agree with, or want my readers to draw their own conclusions about. For books, I’ll link whether or not I liked the book.

My experiences with Book Rooster have been so unsatisfactory that I refuse to help them even by improving their SEO via a link. Before I go into the how and the why of my feelings, I’ll talk about what Book Rooster is about — and why it could possibly work if they were able to deliver what they claim.

Book Rooster is a non-paid review site: by this, I mean, the readers are not paid to review the books. This part is legitimate. I signed up for their services as a reader/reviewer about six months prior to when I actually tried it myself. As a reviewer, I was able to easily acquire the book I was interested in reading and reviewing without any hassle. Whenever a book was available I wanted to read / review, I just followed the instructions and got the book for reading. Easy, peasy.

That part looked very promising — my experiences as a reader / reviewer were good. That boded well for being an author in their system.

Because it came recommended to me, I decided to dip my toe in these waters to see how well their system worked. At the time, their $60ish dollar fee for the mailing list didn’t seem all that extravagant, and it was something I was in a position to gamble with (and could afford to lose entirely on.)

I also went in anticipating writing this blog post about their services.

Now, before I go into the performance of the campaign, I’m going to talk about what the process is like. You buy the service. Like many other author services, non-refundable — which is why I didn’t think much about it at the time. Most of the author services I have seen are non-refundable, thus no red-flag went up.

From there, you fill in information about your book, provide a copy of the cover art, and the book in either mobi or doc format. They’ll take care of formatting the book to mobi if you provide a doc. I was notified fairly quickly (within 24 hours) of when my book would be scheduled to be sent to the mailing list. It was sent on time. (Since I’m a member of my genre’s mailing list, I was able to see when the email was sent. Yes, I used two different email accounts to confirm there was a mailing for my book done.)

Thirty days went by. No reviews.

Book Rooster sent another mailing of my novel without me having to ask them.

At this point, they fell off the face of the planet.

I didn’t receive a single review from their service. While I can understand that the number of reviews is dependent on who reads the book, Book Rooster has one flaw fatale which I did test.

They do nothing to encourage their readers to review the books. How did I test this? I acquired a book for review and didn’t review it. I wasn’t given a notice or anything stating I had gotten this book for review. Nothing to indicate or remind me to do this review. I’ve been sitting on this specific book for three months.

This service could work, if the operators made a little effort or ran a script checking that review A didn’t review Book B and send a reminder to do so. So, I’m out $67, with nothing to show for it.

Short and sweet point? Avoid Book Rooster. There are other services and book tours that will land you reviews at a much lower risk of your income.

I don’t feel bad about sacrificing the $67. I went in expecting to either get some reviews, the proposed ~10 reviews, or no reviews. I did this to get a good look at this service and how it worked.

My opinion? You’re better off going with a book touring service. At least that way you get the boost to your book for search engines as the other blogs link to your book and your personal website. That’s worth the fee on its own. (Of course, depending on the touring group.)

Writer, Beware. Book Rooster, while it does maintain a legitimate mailing list, is as close to as scam as it gets. IF their mailing list was more robust, it could work.

Right now? Run and hide, because you’re wasting your money.

Creating a Story Bible: Turning Concepts into Facts

Some people create their story bible as they write. Others work on it after they’ve finished. Some want to have their story bible created and ready for them before they begin writing.

So, how do you turn a novel’s concept into facts for your story bible? That’s hard. It’s one thing to take concrete ideas and events in a story and write down the important world building notes. It’s another entirely to build a world from a basic story concept.

This post is designed to walk you through how I handle turning a concept into a world I can write a novel in. I’m also going to cover what pieces of information I feel need written down versus the things I will write down after the book has been completed.

The Culture of My Character

The first thing I focus on is the character and the culture required to produce the type of character I want to write. This is the best starting spot for me because I find that cultural differences often offer ample conflict sources, both internal and external.

So, what do I need to create a culture for my novel? Remember, I work with traditional and epic fantasy, so I can’t just list a real culture and get away with it. I can base a culture on a real culture, but it won’t be sufficient to work with. Once again, this is what I need to create a world, so your mileage may vary.

Step One: Dominance Type

I establish whether it’s a male-dominated community, a female-dominated community, or an equally-dominated community. This impacts how my character may act depending on their gender. For example, The Eye of God takes place in a predominantly male-dominated cultural community. This is an extremist culture type, as well. Storm Without End has many different cultural types, but the realm the main characters are from are from an equally-dominated community with a few caveats. There are gender roles, but each gender group has equal power in the grand scheme of things. At a glance, many may believe it is a male-dominated community, but the women control just as many elements of life within the Rift as the men do.

They’re a practical people, however, so the men will do the more dangerous things in order to ensure their people survive. The women take up other roles. Equally-dominated communities are rare in my opinion, and require a certain set of circumstances to actually happen.

Most cultures in the world are either male-dominated (Patriarch) or female-dominated (Matriarch).

Step Two: Religion in your Culture

Religion plays a huge role in culture types. When you’re establishing your dominance roles, don’t forget to consider your religions as well. Religion often helps form the gender dominance roles.

Just take a look at the Catholic community, or at a Muslim community. Gender roles are well defined, and they are directly tied to the religion of the people within the community.

Religion matters. You may not delve deep into the religious aspects of your world, but you should at least be aware of how the religion of your people impacts their culture.

Step Three: Trade in your Culture

How did your people get to be where they are? Trade and resources is probably the answer to that question. Look at the resources around them, and consider how it would impact their culture. A community of people living on the shores of the ocean likely fish versus raise cattle. A community of people living in the desert may not know what a fish is and believe it a spawn of demons the first time they see one.

Are your people reclusive without reason to mingle with other cultures? Xenophobia is a large risk for them, then, especially if their religion dictates that they should remain as a pure race.

I try to list out the big factors of trade based on their environment and ecology of where they live. This gives me a solid foundation for how characters from this area may behave.

Consider this: In the eastern United States, the Amish people shun many modern contrivances. This cultural group is often looked down at with a certain amount of scorn for being extremely different. It’s hard to understand people who have beliefs far outside of your own, and this should show in cultural interactions in your novels, be it a fantasy, a science fiction, or a general literature book.

These three things are the foundation for all of the characters in my novels, so I try to have it clarified in my mind before I start writing — even if I don’t necessarily add it to my story bible until later.

The Magic of the World

While this is relevant to me as a fantasy (and sci-fantasy) writer, you can exchange magic for technology for science fiction and modern UF/USF stories. You can even convert this to modern literature, if you’re recording the type of tech your characters carry around as a general rule.

For magic, I typically build one system I share across all universes. In a way, I pretend Earth is just a single planet in a universe, and the worlds from my other stories are connected to the same universe, be it through worm holes, on the other side of black holes, or other wibbly-wobbly time magic stuff. In a way, I tend to view each world I create as a spin-off of our own universe, although the magically charged sections are in a galaxy far, far away.

Step One: Define the Level of Magic/Technology

Knowing what sort of world you need to create helps. Define what sort of technology or magic your world and story needs to work. Both The Eye of God and Storm Without End are high in levels of magic, although most of the characters don’t actively work in magic. (Though some do!) This lets me build the story accounting for that extra bit of magic.

High magic worlds include things like sorcerers, mages, access to magically-imbued items, and Gods or Goddesses who meddle in the affairs of men.

Medium magic worlds have limited access to these things.

Low magic worlds have very little access to these things.

No magic worlds would be crafted to be like Earth: No magic, but science, when not understood, can look like magic…

Step Two: Identify the Function of Magic in your Story

Adding magic for the sake of adding magic may not be a good idea. Identify how magic should impact your story, and build your magic system with that in mind.

Write down the most important factors of magic in your world. (See Step Three.)

Step Three: Build the Basics

Magic can be built in an infinite number of ways, but here are the things I think about when I’m building a magic system:

The Source

This is how magic is created or functions. If you have a divine powering spells, you would list down information on the being who fuels magic powers. If it’s the elements, you would define these elements and how they interact with each other. The source is the natural state magic occurs without human intervention.

How the Source is Accessed

Go into some details about how a character would gain access to magic or divine powers in your world. Give them rules, rituals, or anything that would help them use magic without blowing themselves (and others) up.

The Limitations of Magic

Magic is more fun when there are limitations and rules to its use. If you have a character who can do anything just because he or she wants to, it gets boring to read. Limitations make things interesting. Figure out how your characters might be limited. For example, a flame element user might not be able to work any sort of magic during a rainstorm… come up with limitations that serve as challenges for your characters.

Write these things down.

The Price of Power

Power, magic or otherwise, shouldn’t come free. Note down what prices your characters might be forced to pay in order to access their magic. It could be insanity. It could be risk of death from exhausting themselves. It could be the loss of their soul. There are lots of things you can do to attach a price to power and magic.

It makes the reading of the book more interesting if the characters actually have to sacrifice something in order to be powerful.

When you’re brainstorming all of these things, write down the important bits of information so you can be consistent in your world. Don’t be afraid to layer it like an onion. The key to building a strong, viable world lies in depth. Like with cultures, the world isn’t just an isolated group of people — usually. Find the connections between people and the world they live in, and it becomes possible to create a world that feels real even though it isn’t.

Don’t be afraid if you miss anything before you start writing. You can always add depth to your story bible after you have finished drafting and editing, especially if you’re working on a series.

Aftermath: Countdown Deals Promotion

After 168 hours, my countdown deals promotion with amazon has come to an end. I’m both happy and sad, as it did help generate a great deal of awareness of my novel. It also gave skeptical readers a change to try out the book without taking a risk on it at full price. It also gave me a feel for how I might be able to use this in the future.

So, onto the numbers. Prior to the start of the promotion, I had three sales for the month of December. Here are the stats (with a couple clutter columns removed) so you can get a feel of what to expect in terms of access of data if you run a promotion of your own. Note: During the promotion, I had 2 lending library sales and 5 ineligible sales.

Phase
Price
# Hours
Earnings
$/Hour
Sales


1
$0.99
33
$38.69
$1.17
61


2
$1.99
33
$69.04
$2.09
52


3
$2.99
33
$38.76
$1.17
19


4
$3.99
33
$54.80
$1.66
20


5
$4.99
36
$30.96
$0.86
9


Totals

168
$232.25
$1.38
161

A few things to remember:

Gift Sales are assigned to the increment they were gifted during. So, if someone gave a gift during increment 1, but the person didn’t claim it until increment 5, it’ll update in increment 1′s section.
Only eligible sales show — a Canadian purchasing via Amazon.com will not show in these statistics.
You can’t make changes to the promotion 24 hours before, and you can’t change your sales price for a period after the promotion ends.
Amazon’s stats are fickle; they update at random, so refreshing to see new stats may be futile. I noticed it would update in bursts rather than one here and one there.
The rules about whether it’s a 70% or 35% sale apply to the promotion.

So, in order to better put into perspective how effective this promotion was for me, I’m going to share the novel’s Amazon history with you, by week:

Range
Sales
%
Price
Delivery $
 Royalty


11/03-11/09
2
35%
5.99
0.00
 $  4.20


11/03-11/09
5
70%
5.96
0.08
 $20.53


11/10-11/16
1
35%
5.96
0.00
 $  2.09


11/10-11/16
4
70%
5.99
0.08
 $16.56


11/17-11/23
2
70%
5.99
0.08
 $  8.28


11/24-11/30
2
70%
5.99
0.08
 $  8.28


12/01-12/07
3
70%
5.99
0.08
 $12.42


12/08-12/14
5
70%
5.71
0.08
 $19.70

Since the launch of the novel until the promotion deal began, Storm Without End earned $92.06 in royalties from US sales, before lending library royalties. My income from outside of the US is extremely minor.

Here are my thoughts about self-publishing now that I’ve seen a very limited amount of success — and yes, I do view this promotion as a success. More on that after this list.

I call this list ‘lessons learned and warnings reinforced’ as well as potential reasons for why people say the things they do about self-publishing versus traditional publishing.

Self-Publishing a good book isn’t cheap. It could (potentially) take years to recoop the ~$1,200 investment I made in the novel. (Romance authors and those who can use photo manip’d covers may have cheaper costs.)
New books by unknown authors will not magically fly off the shelves under normal circumstances. (This applies to traditional as well. Traditional publishers just tend to have a bigger budget to gamble with.)
You’ve no one to blame but yourself for your successes and failures — including editorial mistakes. (Yes, even if you hire an editor, it is ultimately your mistake.) Piece of advice: When someone tells you there is a copy error in your novel, just STFU and fix it, don’t make excuses. It wasn’t your editor’s fault. It was your fault — it’s your book after all.
Slow and steady wins the race; because your book won’t magically fly off the e-shelves, expect to be in there for the long haul.
Reviews make a huge difference on sales — and anything ranked between 3-5* is a potential sales motivator. 3 & 4 * may hurt your pride, but if these reviews say positive things about your book, it may convince a potential reader to buy. (I got my first reviews during the promotion and noticed a spike in sales thereafter.)
Editorial mistakes can kill a novel’s chances — or get it a lot of bad reviews, even if you write a good story. Yes, it was worth mentioning twice in this list.
Perception of value matters; people like sales. I think this is rather obvious.

The Impact of A Sale

One thing I definitely noticed was that the countdown promotion impacted my sales for The Eye of God — after soul searching, I’ve decided that Storm Without End is the better book on all accounts (I’ve learned a lot from writing The Eye of God) but the sale of one book has kicked in the backlist, for all my backlist is one whole book. Here is the proof:

Date
Sales
%
Price
 Delivery $
 Royalties


11/03-11/09
2
70%
5.86
 $  0.06
 $  8.12


11/10-11/16
1
35%
5.96
 $     -
 $  2.09


11/10-11/16
1
70%
4.99
 $  0.06
 $  3.45


11/17-11/23
4
70%
4.98
 $  0.06
 $13.78


11/24-11/30
1
35%
6.99
 $     -
 $  1.75


11/24-11/30
2
70%
4.99
 $  0.06
 $  6.90


12/01-12/07
3
70%
4.99
 $  0.06
 $10.35


12/08-12/14
10
70%
4.99
 $  0.06
 $34.50

As a note, there were two additional sales after December 14.

The jump in sales on The Eye of God is definitely noticeable, comparing the original peak of sales (4) with the promotional peak of sales (10).

The conclusion? It’s just like everyone sales — a backlist will help you generate more sales because fans will buy other books by the same author, even if that other book isn’t quite as good as the first one they read. It has crystallized one thing for me, however:

I’m going to make Royal Slaves even better, to make up for the fact that The Eye of God just isn’t as good as I think it could be.

I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions, but the countdown promotions deal was a huge success for me, as far as I’m concerned. I didn’t become a runaway #1 bestseller, but I think my novel performed very well for a fledgling novelist.

I also think that my performance as a starting novelist is on average with the starting performance of any novelist in his or her first six months of release.

I hope this information proves useful to you.

A Year of Finances – The Reality of a Writer & Editor

I’ve talked about this before on Google+, but I think it is something worth revisiting on my blog. Finances are something a lot of people don’t want to talk about. It’s something that scares a lot of people. For some, there is a fear that not making a lot of money will somehow cheapen their skills and hard work. For others, there is a fear of being ostracized by the community.

Maybe I’m stupid, but maybe I’m brave. Maybe I feel that the truth about my finances will help others understand the reality of being a writer. I feel like I’m a very average self-publishing author. I can’t survive on my writing alone, although I’ve been making (and implementing) plans for 2014 to help me make my novel writing a true career.

I’m going to be extremely honest about my household, our finances, and the burden my writing puts on the household.

My husband is the breadwinner. He expects me to work hard and pull my own weight. I have to pay for all of my novel-writing finances. I have to contribute to bills and household repairs. When I fall short (and I do more often than not) we argue. His expectations are perfectly legitimate, fair, and reasonable.

He makes approximately $80,000 plus bonuses. In 2013, this will probably be close to $100,000. (I don’t have an exact amount for you because I won’t get his t4s until later, so it’s an educated guess based on his every-two-weeks paychecks and bonus estimates.)

He’s a software developer, in case you were curious. He has been extremely supportive in the face he has floated the household while I’ve been desperately trying to make my own way in the writing world.

It hasn’t been easy on either one of us.

I have 2 weeks of missing data on my income for 2013, but it’s close enough to give you a really good idea of the reality of my work-at-home life.

$5,812.51

There, I said it. That’s my earnings from January 1st, 2013 to December 14, 2013. $5,812.51.

In Canada, that income level is so low that the basic tax credits for poverty-level individuals will waive all owed amounts. I will owe $25 to Revenue Quebec for some health care fee. (This is with a spouse tax credit transfer.)

Here is the breakdown of my earnings:

I earned $2,650.00 from client editorial. Most of my projects were for $200 a piece, taking, on average, 80 hours per project. One project was for $1,000, with an 18 hour turnaround time. So, this represents 11 clients, some of whom are in phase two of their edits, which means I haven’t received the second half of my fee at this point. Some clients gave me a bonus, which is super awesome!

All in all, this $2,650 represents 818 hours of work. This is 20 weeks (or 5 months) of 40 hour weeks of editorial work. That’s a big $3.24 an hour. That isn’t a complaint, by the way. I made the decision to set the rates I did in 2013 for a reason. It’s also a part of why I increased my rates in 2014 to a minimum of $500 per project.

When I’m seriously working, I put in 14-16 hours of work in a day, just so I have time to work on my novels.

In 2013, I released two novels. In order to produce those novels, I needed to gather funds to pay my cover artist and editors. Generous friends, family, and Google+/Twitter/Facebook peeps contributed $2,442.73 to make these two novels a reality. This almost exactly covered my costs for my perks, my artist, and my editors, as well as other little production fees. Shipping ate a little of my editorial funds, as I had significantly underestimated the costs of shipping paperback books. The one shipment cost $400.00. Oops. (Let’s just say my husband was really unhappy about that and leave it at that, shall we?)

What does the $2,442.73 dollars in indiegogo contributions mean? It means I started my novel writing career even. My costs were covered.

So, how did my novels perform in 2013?

$474.36

The Eye of God released in July of 2013, and has made $181.07.

Storm Without End released in November of 2013, and has made $293.29.

Whenever I receive funds for my novels, I earmark editorial income and reserve that amount in my paypal account to pay for my novel fees. My entire income for 2013 from my novels will pay two of my proofing editors for one project.

I plan on releasing four novels next year.

What does 2014 hold for me?

It’s somewhat easy to project how the first part of 2014 will pan out for me. I’m already booked through June for client editorial work. I’m going to list all clients at the $500 mark in order to keep things confidential. Not all of my clients have opted for the $500 payment level, but most of them have. That’s all I feel comfortable sharing.

I have double booked myself for two months during 2014 so far for various reasons.

So, for five months, two of which are double booked, I will make a minimum of $3,500, . This is already a lot better than 2013 for me! Believe me, I’m waving pompoms and otherwise doing a dance of glee.

Then reality struck, and it struck hard. Here are my production expenses for 2,014.

Cover Art: $2,000 ($500 per cover.)

Editorial: $2,400. My base editorial fee is, on average, $200 per editor per book. I am looking at hiring three proofing editors per book next year. It’ll actually be a bit more, likely, but those are expenses I will cover on my own.

Copyright Expenses: $240. $60 per copyright.

Grand Total: $4,640

$3,500 != $4,640.

Now, assuming I’m able to book one client a month for the rest of the year, I’ll be okay. I’ll make more than $7,000 for the entire year. But, that financial situation is terrifying. I want to release 4 books next year to build my backlist and treat my novel writing like a true career. I can handle two books in a year, especially when I control the number of clients I take on at one time.

It is a reasonable number.

My answer to the novel-funding dilemma is to once again go down the shadowy road of crowd funding, although on a much simpler level than before. I’m going to use it as a preordering system instead of a perk system. The perks are, as expected, copies of the novels. This lets me open sales up to those who want e-pubs and don’t want to deal with amazon’s system.

(I really hate smashword’s requirement to brand their distribution system directly in the front pages of my novel. Long story.)

I doubt I’ll make goal. But, every dollar helps, even with the 9% that indiegogo will siphon off for not reaching my goal. It’ll help me stockpile all of the funds I need to pay artist and editors. It’ll put me on a somewhat firmer ground financially.

It’ll help me contribute decent money to the household.

I wish I knew how much royalties I would make on my two current novels, but some things will remain a mystery until after time has gone by.

Writing isn’t an easy career, not at all. That said, I don’t regret it, even if it causes a lot of frustration and tears few may be aware of. Either way? I’ll make it, one way or another.