Jon Carlin Shea's Blog
December 1, 2015
Soul Seekers Coming Dec.16
The Chosen of the Light series continues with Soul Seekers, coming to eBook formats and paperback on December 16th.
Soul Seekers by Jon Carlin Shea
Following the destruction at the city of Navda, the Soul Seekers have vanished from Ictar for a time, giving Darr Reintol time he desperately needs to continue on his journey. However, Darr is battling inner demons, and the Devoid, ever vigilant, is intent on turning Darr's guilt against him. What began as a quest to save Ictar is dangerously close to becoming a death knell.
Meanwhile, the races of Ictar prepare their defenses against the inevitable return of the Soul Seekers, but fighting alongside one another may be more difficult than expected. The races must find a way to work together for if the Elven city of Exed falls to the Soul Seekers, the Devoid will break free of its prison.
As Darr struggles with his losses and newfound summoning abilities, the races of Ictar struggle in their fight against the Seekers.
The Devoid waits and watches, letting its manipulations work against them both.
Soul Seekers by Jon Carlin Shea
Following the destruction at the city of Navda, the Soul Seekers have vanished from Ictar for a time, giving Darr Reintol time he desperately needs to continue on his journey. However, Darr is battling inner demons, and the Devoid, ever vigilant, is intent on turning Darr's guilt against him. What began as a quest to save Ictar is dangerously close to becoming a death knell.
Meanwhile, the races of Ictar prepare their defenses against the inevitable return of the Soul Seekers, but fighting alongside one another may be more difficult than expected. The races must find a way to work together for if the Elven city of Exed falls to the Soul Seekers, the Devoid will break free of its prison.
As Darr struggles with his losses and newfound summoning abilities, the races of Ictar struggle in their fight against the Seekers.
The Devoid waits and watches, letting its manipulations work against them both.
October 15, 2014
ThunderClap It!
The cool thing about Thunderclap is, if you reach the targeted number of supporters, you message will be cast around the web, all together, all at once. By lending support, you allow Thunderclap to post for you one time, and only if the target supporters are reached. Please share and lend your support!
https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/1... …
https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/1... …
June 28, 2014
Door to the Dark Tower
Stephen King has told many stories throughout his writing career. Many revolve around horrifying and oftentimes grotesque explorations into the human condition and the supernatural alike. Most would consider his writing to be strictly horror (even though that’s far from the case).
I hate to admit it, but I was one of those people.
I stayed away from Stephen King’s writing growing up because I made the stupid mistake of thinking his stories would be far too scary for me. Yes. I was scared of being scared. Kids are so crazy… Of course, I was making a far grander assumption, one more damning than “judging a book by its cover”. For almost three decades, I missed tons of great stories because I didn’t think I could “handle” Stephen King, thereby misjudging him and myself.
My introduction to King’s work came from a known scholar of his work, Patrick McAleer. Patrick and I have been friends since college, but it wasn’t until he began working on his first book, a study on the Dark Tower series, that I started to realize I needed to give King's work a chance.
The door peeked open, and I watched the gunslinger begin his journey across the desert in search of the man in black. I’ll admit, I almost gave up on the first book, The Gunslinger. The writing didn’t exactly blow me away, but I continued on, determined to get past my fears and to help myself become a better writer.
The door opened wider when I started on The Drawing of the Three, and it nearly blew off its invisible hinges as The Waste Lands and the Wizard and Glass tore through my mind. I became possessed by the Dark Tower series until its stunning conclusion, and then it left me wanting more, stunned, like Roland was in the dry heat of the desert.
For those of you who know nothing about the Dark Tower, I don’t want to spoil anything, but I will say this is a story that King has admitted is very important to him. You can see that in his writing. The Dark Tower is something he obviously wrote for himself and not for the masses. His gunslinger, Roland, is very much a part of him, and as Roland goes on his journey to find the Dark Tower, the world (and worlds) King has created begin to bleed into his writing, becoming like something alive. The story is a great one, but the ambition behind it is stunningly fascinating.
I read more of King’s work after that. The Stand, followed by Four Seasons. I haven’t branched much more than that sadly, but I have a queue of his books awaiting me. I’m no longer intimidated by his stories because I have so much more respect for him as a writer now. Reading the Dark Tower series again has made it ten times better, by the way, and I imagine a third reading will be even better.
And if you have any King recommendations for me, please fire away!
http://www.blogbyimagine.com/the-auth...
I hate to admit it, but I was one of those people.
I stayed away from Stephen King’s writing growing up because I made the stupid mistake of thinking his stories would be far too scary for me. Yes. I was scared of being scared. Kids are so crazy… Of course, I was making a far grander assumption, one more damning than “judging a book by its cover”. For almost three decades, I missed tons of great stories because I didn’t think I could “handle” Stephen King, thereby misjudging him and myself.
My introduction to King’s work came from a known scholar of his work, Patrick McAleer. Patrick and I have been friends since college, but it wasn’t until he began working on his first book, a study on the Dark Tower series, that I started to realize I needed to give King's work a chance.
The door peeked open, and I watched the gunslinger begin his journey across the desert in search of the man in black. I’ll admit, I almost gave up on the first book, The Gunslinger. The writing didn’t exactly blow me away, but I continued on, determined to get past my fears and to help myself become a better writer.
The door opened wider when I started on The Drawing of the Three, and it nearly blew off its invisible hinges as The Waste Lands and the Wizard and Glass tore through my mind. I became possessed by the Dark Tower series until its stunning conclusion, and then it left me wanting more, stunned, like Roland was in the dry heat of the desert.
For those of you who know nothing about the Dark Tower, I don’t want to spoil anything, but I will say this is a story that King has admitted is very important to him. You can see that in his writing. The Dark Tower is something he obviously wrote for himself and not for the masses. His gunslinger, Roland, is very much a part of him, and as Roland goes on his journey to find the Dark Tower, the world (and worlds) King has created begin to bleed into his writing, becoming like something alive. The story is a great one, but the ambition behind it is stunningly fascinating.
I read more of King’s work after that. The Stand, followed by Four Seasons. I haven’t branched much more than that sadly, but I have a queue of his books awaiting me. I’m no longer intimidated by his stories because I have so much more respect for him as a writer now. Reading the Dark Tower series again has made it ten times better, by the way, and I imagine a third reading will be even better.
And if you have any King recommendations for me, please fire away!
http://www.blogbyimagine.com/the-auth...
March 25, 2014
Author Interview by C.M. Michaels
Several weeks ago, Chad Michaels approached many of his fellow Wild Child published authors if anyone was interested in being hosted on his website. Never one to turn down promotion, I agreed.
Of course, I had no idea who Chad was.
After agreeing, I checked out his website to get a feel for the man, and I wasn't disappointed. As a writer of urban fantasy, we have a thing or two in common. More than anything, I was blown away by his presentation. He's gone the extra mile presenting his work, and I found it all to be most impressive, so much in fact, I'll be checking out his work very soon!
You can check him out, as well as my interview at:
www.cmmichaels.com/index.php/intervie...
Of course, I had no idea who Chad was.
After agreeing, I checked out his website to get a feel for the man, and I wasn't disappointed. As a writer of urban fantasy, we have a thing or two in common. More than anything, I was blown away by his presentation. He's gone the extra mile presenting his work, and I found it all to be most impressive, so much in fact, I'll be checking out his work very soon!
You can check him out, as well as my interview at:
www.cmmichaels.com/index.php/intervie...
March 23, 2014
Novel Length and the Modern Market
A recent post on my Amazon Author Page prompted to write about something that's interested me for a while now, namely novel length in today's market.
When I first wrote The Chosen of the Light, the novel was 400,000+ words at completion. At the time I was ready to begin submissions, I had no concept of the book market, but I kept telling myself I'd written an epic fantasy in line with Terry Goodkind or J.R.Tolkien in terms of length. I perfected my query and went to work with submissions, only to be let down time and time again. I tried agents and publishers alike, but after two years of submissions and nothing to show for it, I stopped and tried to figure out where I was going wrong.
I knew my book might not be the perfect model, but I believed in my story and in my writing. I wasn't about to revise yet again and put off submissions for another five years. I began popping into writing forums and connecting with bloggers, trying to find an answer why my book wasn't getting any attention. Ultimately, the overwhelming response I received was word-length. Even for an author with previously published works, 400k words was a huge investment from a publishing company. Take the fact that I had no previously published works and (I didn't know it at the time) an evident show VS tell problem in my storytelling, I had virtually no hope of being published by traditional means.
I didn't get discouraged, though knowing I'd written an unsellable book didn't feel the greatest. I had some options though:
I could self-publish, but I'd have to hire an editor and sell market the book myself.
I could try to get some of my short stories published and build a name for myself.
I could chop The Chosen of the Light up into a smaller chunks, making it more desirable in the market.
I agonized for a long time, but I decided to chop up the book. I did another quick revision, wrapped up my first "book" and hit the submission train again. Within about six months, I received my first bite with Wild Child Publishing, and the rest is history. Today, Spirit Summoner: The Chosen of the Light Book One is out in eBook and in paperback.
But why did this happen? What made the market this way? The first fantasy book I ever read was The Sword of Shannara, and it topped off at around 227k words. Chosen was considerably longer, but in today's market, it doesn't seem that Sword would've been picked up either. According to Chuck Sambuchino of Writer's Digest, most novels today should fall between 70k and 109k words, and the Epic Fantasy genre only extends this count to around 115k-124k words. So what happened between 1983 when Sword was published and today?
After doing some research I stumbled across some interesting information from Charles Stross, an author and blogger. Stross explains from the 60's to the late 80's (well before the advent of the internet) buyers relied on novel length as one indicator of a good book. The greatest change in word counts for novels came in the early 1990's when the wholesalers supplying books to retail stores suddenly consolidated. The mass market books sold in retail stores took a huge hit as a result, but the chain stores like Borders and Barnes & Noble gave rise to mass hardcover book sales.
But hardcovers are MUCH more expensive to print and bind. Hardcover books fall into a tidy $24 for a manufacturer's suggested retail, and increasing the price even $1 can affect sales by nearly a quarter. Keeping a novel's word count within that $24 suggested retail became a requirement for almost all publishers. That being said, if hardcover books are driving the big box stores, then paperbacks must follow even if they are cheaper because that's what the market expects.
Without doing further research, I'd be interested to know how the rise of the eBook has affected this trend. My publisher is largely an eBook publisher, and perhaps, this is how I got my foot in the door. I'd personally love to see a comeback of the larger length novels, and eBooks might just bring that about.
When I first wrote The Chosen of the Light, the novel was 400,000+ words at completion. At the time I was ready to begin submissions, I had no concept of the book market, but I kept telling myself I'd written an epic fantasy in line with Terry Goodkind or J.R.Tolkien in terms of length. I perfected my query and went to work with submissions, only to be let down time and time again. I tried agents and publishers alike, but after two years of submissions and nothing to show for it, I stopped and tried to figure out where I was going wrong.
I knew my book might not be the perfect model, but I believed in my story and in my writing. I wasn't about to revise yet again and put off submissions for another five years. I began popping into writing forums and connecting with bloggers, trying to find an answer why my book wasn't getting any attention. Ultimately, the overwhelming response I received was word-length. Even for an author with previously published works, 400k words was a huge investment from a publishing company. Take the fact that I had no previously published works and (I didn't know it at the time) an evident show VS tell problem in my storytelling, I had virtually no hope of being published by traditional means.
I didn't get discouraged, though knowing I'd written an unsellable book didn't feel the greatest. I had some options though:
I could self-publish, but I'd have to hire an editor and sell market the book myself.
I could try to get some of my short stories published and build a name for myself.
I could chop The Chosen of the Light up into a smaller chunks, making it more desirable in the market.
I agonized for a long time, but I decided to chop up the book. I did another quick revision, wrapped up my first "book" and hit the submission train again. Within about six months, I received my first bite with Wild Child Publishing, and the rest is history. Today, Spirit Summoner: The Chosen of the Light Book One is out in eBook and in paperback.
But why did this happen? What made the market this way? The first fantasy book I ever read was The Sword of Shannara, and it topped off at around 227k words. Chosen was considerably longer, but in today's market, it doesn't seem that Sword would've been picked up either. According to Chuck Sambuchino of Writer's Digest, most novels today should fall between 70k and 109k words, and the Epic Fantasy genre only extends this count to around 115k-124k words. So what happened between 1983 when Sword was published and today?
After doing some research I stumbled across some interesting information from Charles Stross, an author and blogger. Stross explains from the 60's to the late 80's (well before the advent of the internet) buyers relied on novel length as one indicator of a good book. The greatest change in word counts for novels came in the early 1990's when the wholesalers supplying books to retail stores suddenly consolidated. The mass market books sold in retail stores took a huge hit as a result, but the chain stores like Borders and Barnes & Noble gave rise to mass hardcover book sales.
But hardcovers are MUCH more expensive to print and bind. Hardcover books fall into a tidy $24 for a manufacturer's suggested retail, and increasing the price even $1 can affect sales by nearly a quarter. Keeping a novel's word count within that $24 suggested retail became a requirement for almost all publishers. That being said, if hardcover books are driving the big box stores, then paperbacks must follow even if they are cheaper because that's what the market expects.
Without doing further research, I'd be interested to know how the rise of the eBook has affected this trend. My publisher is largely an eBook publisher, and perhaps, this is how I got my foot in the door. I'd personally love to see a comeback of the larger length novels, and eBooks might just bring that about.
March 21, 2014
Spirit Summoner eBook on sale!
At participating vendors, the eBook version of Spirit Summoner will be on sale for $4.99 until March 28th!
http://www.blogbyimagine.com/spirit-s...
http://www.amazon.com/Spirit-Summoner...
http://www.blogbyimagine.com/spirit-s...
http://www.amazon.com/Spirit-Summoner...
March 14, 2014
Spirit Summoner Coming to Print March 18th
Sometimes the best stories transcend the page, but having a hard copy doesn't hurt.
The Spirit Summoner, tasked with saving the world, might be the catalyst that destroys it. Available in print March 18th.
EBook available today!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1617...
http://www.amazon.com/Spirit-Summoner...
The Spirit Summoner, tasked with saving the world, might be the catalyst that destroys it. Available in print March 18th.
EBook available today!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1617...
http://www.amazon.com/Spirit-Summoner...
December 2, 2013
Spirit Summoner is out TODAY!
A day earlier than expected, Spirit Summoner has been released by Wild Child Publishing. Pick up your copy today!
http://www.wildchildpublishing.com/in...
http://www.wildchildpublishing.com/in...
December 1, 2013
2 Days Left!
20 years ago, I began writing the book that would turn into Spirit Summoner. My manuscripts suffered multiple revisions and rewrites, and a couple solid years of editing. In two days, my dream of publishing this story will finally be real, and I'll be happy to share it with you all. In celebration of the remaining two days, here's something about Feywen and Lacdur, the two Dwarf warriors.
http://www.blogbyimagine.com/4/post/2...
http://www.blogbyimagine.com/4/post/2...
November 17, 2013
Spirit Summoner Cover Reveal TODAY!
Presenting the cover for Spirit Summoner, releasing December 3rd!
A young Spirit Summoner discovers he can control the four elements, but his magic could be destroying the world he’s trying to save.
Stop by Blog, By iMagine to check out a previously unreleased excerpt.
http://www.blogbyimagine.com/4/post/2...
A young Spirit Summoner discovers he can control the four elements, but his magic could be destroying the world he’s trying to save.
Stop by Blog, By iMagine to check out a previously unreleased excerpt.
http://www.blogbyimagine.com/4/post/2...
