Sable Aradia's Blog, page 65
July 26, 2017
Fifty Shades and the Martian Self-Publishing Marketing Secrets
By Zachary Jarvis
#30days30authors
When people think of an eBook success story, they tend to think about Fifty Shades of Grey. It was an eBook that was released by a small Australian company that also did print on demand and became a worldwide phenomenon. The Writer’s Coffee Shop didn’t have a big marketing budget, and so the legend that the success of the book came about by word of mouth began. But is the legend true?
Read the full article at The Independent Publishing Magazine.
Chip off the Ol’ Writer’s Block
#30days30authors
The information in this post comes from an SFWA panel on writer’s block I attended in June 2015. If you’re a speculative fiction writer and can afford to attend the SFWA weekend in June 2016, I highly recommend the experience. I learned a lot in this session and others, and I met a lot of great people too. Now, about that block…
What’s that? A blockage? Let me at it.
Authors Nancy Kress, Sarah Pinsker, Jack McDevitt, and Jack Skillingstead began the session with introductions and a definition of what writer’s block would mean in the context of their discussion. That’s more important than it might seem on first glance. See, the creative dry spells writers usually mean when we talk about being “blocked” are frustrating, but they’re actually not the debilitating condition a psychologist would call writer’s block. Everything here is directed towards problems of the “where do…
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Worst Reads
I must confess I’ve read a few of these and what’s more, I enjoyed them.”
http://crafty.house/worst-books-of-all-time/
July 23, 2017
3 Crucial Marketing Tips for Self-Publishing Authors
By Damon Freeman
#30days30authors
When it comes to self-publishing authors, marketing your book becomes just as important as writing a fantastic page-turner. The ability to sell yourself may seem difficult, but with some crucial tips, it is easy to do. With proper marketing, you can spread the word and convince people to purchase your book.
Read the full article at The Independent Publishing Magazine.
July 22, 2017
The 30 authors of the 30 day challenge… Meet them all here!!!
I’m slowly getting to grips with this challenge, how it all works, cross promoting others work and finally (I know it’s late) getting to know Twitter and use it better (Gosh I know, never thought that would happen lol) but what I thought would be great would be to have all the 30 authors names and author fan pages in one place (Easy for me to find but also easy for you guys to find them and read their works if you fancy reading something new from an author you probably wouldn’t really know before).
So let’s start it off with the woman who created the assignments and the leader of all things 30 authors…
Lucina Moebius – https://www.facebook.com/LucindaMoebiusAuthor/
Morgan Smith – https://www.facebook.com/morgansmithauthor/
Author Gibson – https://www.facebook.com/ProtectedBooks/
Greg Alldredge – https://www.facebook.com/G.Alldredge/
Mark McQuillen –
Jason Nugent – https://www.facebook.com/jasonjnugentwrites/
Assaph Mehr – https://www.facebook.com/AssaphMehrAuthor/
Merri Prudich Halma – https://www.facebook.com/authormerrihalma/
Ryan Batla –…
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Science and Science Fiction: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Written by Nancy Kress
#30days30authors
One of the scariest statements I ever heard came from a young relative of mine: “All the science I know I learned from your books!” To which I replied, gasping a little, “But you know I make it up, right?”
But not entirely—which raises a critical question. While much has been written about how to use science to create, plot, or enhance one’s fiction, not as much has been written about how speculative fiction impacts our understanding of science. Consider the following: Haijun Yao, editor of China’s major SF magazine, Science Fiction World, told me last year that the Chinese government, which banned SF during the Cultural Revolution, is now very enthusiastic about its publication. The reason, Mr. Yao said, is that reading science fiction encourages young people to learn about science.
Many, many more people see science fiction movies than read print SF.
Almost all SF movies, and much print SF as well, depicts science that is misleading at best, harmful at worst.
Read the full article at Tor Forge Blog.
July 21, 2017
Release the Wyrd West!
Hey gang! Just letting you all know that the third book in the Wyrd West, The Vigil, is alive! It’s about twice the length of the first one, so the series is a full novel’s read now. And now that there’s three, Amazon has even given me my own series page! Remember you can Pay What You Want for Showdown at DriveThruFiction.com, so you could get the whole series for as little as $3 if you wanted! Find them on your favourite e-platform! And don’t miss the awesome giveaways in last night’s takeover event, most of which are running to the end of the month!
Hey! Want first crack at all my new stuff before anyone else gets it? Join my Patreon!
July 19, 2017
Which Social Media Channel Sells The Most Books?
#30days30authors The answer might surprise you! It surprised me!
By Rachel Thompson
“Which one social media channel will net me the most book sales?” an author asked me recently during my weekly #BookMarketingChat (join any Wednesday on Twitter, 6pm pst/9pm est simply by typing in the hashtag).
Well, it’s not that easy. Wouldn’t it be great if we could just go to say, Facebook, because that’s the EASY button, and violá! They will come, we will sell, and yacht-life, here we come. Alas, it just doesn’t work that way because well, a few reasons.
Let’s deconstruct.
Read the full article at TheVerbs.com.
July 18, 2017
Book Review: Francesco Augustine Bernadone by Stan Faryna
Francesco Augustine Bernadone: A Brief History of Our Tomorrows by Stan Faryna
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Not at All What I Expected!
Read as part of the #30days30authors challenge.
This fast-paced novella is not at all what it originally appears. I haven’t read a lot of LitRPG, and what I have usually was either an 80s movie or it was written by Andre Norton for D&D. This story asks the question: what if life were a game like Second Life, only it was played like Call of Duty? With zombies?
You would expect a slaughterfest, and it certainly was exciting, except that there is a much deeper story here. What if life itself were just a game? What would you do, how would you treat other gamers, and what might the consequences of that be? I think in Stan Faryna I have found a kindred spirit. This is a deeply spiritual man who is concerned about the way we treat one another. No spoilers though!
Things I think could have used some improvement: there was a lot of telling and not showing at the beginning. I think he could have used some tighter editing.
Things I really liked: I loved his protagonist! Again, not at all what you expect. I also really felt his dystopia. I can’t wait to find out what happens next! But fair warning: it ends on a cliffhanger.
A great run in the spirit of Ready Player One Looking forward to the next one!
July 17, 2017
Novel Excerpt: A Game of the Forever Throne
#30days30authors I’m presenting a panel at the Virtual Fantasy Con #VFC2017 this October on “Realism in Fantasy Warfare.” It’s a stick in my craw that a lot of fantasy writers, especially writers of high fantasy, do not give enough consideration to the battles and wars that their characters are embroiled in. If you’re going to have vast armies that are going to fight for the fate of kingdoms, even if you don’t spend much time on those battles, you need to give consideration to how those armies are being supplied, funded, moved and maneuvered. You need to think about chain of command, morale, and methods of enforcing discipline.
In the high fantasy piece I’m working on, The Forever Throne, Vaughn is (at least apparently) a stock example of a lost heir who must reclaim his throne from the army that destroyed his kingdom. But he has been raised as the son of a forester (who is, in truth, a loyal knight who served his parents). The people of the land are not going to follow him just because he’s the heir. They need to believe he can win, and that he can keep and maintain the throne once he’s won it. So where does he start?
This is where.
Chapter 5
If you can’t get them to salute when they should salute and wear the clothes you tell them to wear, how are you going to get them to die for their country?
George S. Patton
“Good folk of Ford village,” Vaughn began. His voice cracked a little at the end of the phrase and his cheeks grew hot. That was not likely to help his case. He cleared his throat. “Thank you for coming.”
The villagers were crowded into the tiny Church of All Gods, which was the only church in the village because building them was expensive and labour-intensive. It was a pretty building with high archways, a real stained-glass window depicting Galena, the Earth Goddess (who was, Vaughn now noticed, cradling a Tree of Life in Her hands,) smiling up at laughing Silashandra while She spilled stars from the Holy Cauldron out into the firmament, and an amazing plethora of truly inspired wood carvings that crawled up those archways, mostly showing cavorting nature spirits and dancing land-wights. The front of the double church-doors, now propped open, were carved and stained with the Holy Star of the Faith and its radiating eight points of light; and there was a tempura mural ablaze with colour on the East wall depicting the Holy Phoenix of Resurrection. He thought that almost everyone in the village, or at least a member of their family, had come, and that was good; though he found it a bit intimidating to address that many people.
You’re going to need to address a lot more than this soon enough, he reminded himself, and that gave him the courage to begin.
“We’ve all heard the rumours,” he said, with a quick glance to Yvan. His guardian gave him a subtle nod. “Brigands; raiders; troublemakers; and now some priest of the Edification rolling through the land out of Betlic and the rest of South Peaks.” Here he gave a nod to the grey-haired priestess Aliana and the caretaker who tended the church; whom, Jeri had told him, had made no secret of her distrust of “organized religion.” “I think it’s time we created a means to defend ourselves. A small militia who are charged with the guardianship of the village.”
Murmuring began. Vaughn was pleased to see that a bunch of the villagers were nodding to themselves, especially Old Lady Dessel, who was a seamstress and the village gossip, and that was a good sign because people tended to listen to her. But then Dorn, the butcher, stood up; and Bailiff Grimm, who was directing the meeting, officially recognized him. He scratched at his dark beard and he said, “We can’t afford it.”
Vaughn had been anticipating this response and he smiled. “I’m glad you’re so frugal, Master Dorn; but actually, I think we can. If I might run it all past you?” The butcher scowled, but he folded his meaty arms and gave him a firm nod.
“Right then. I think we need to start with a half-dozen young men; perhaps a dozen within the year, if all goes well,” he explained. “Uncle Yvan would train them and command them. We’ll need armour and weapons.
“I’ve been studying a little about warcraft, and I’m thinking the most abundant material we’ve got to make armour is cowhide. We can form it into leather plates and cowhide round shields. If we have an old copper pot or something, we can hammer out a decent center-boss. Uncle Yvan can teach us how to build that stuff, and we can use quilted shirts with plates in the vitals until we get that all made. Eventually we can probably even work up to chainmail. But that will take time.”
“And money,” grumbled the butcher.
“Yes Master Dorn; I was getting to that,” he said, biting down on his impatience. “Now, weapons are the hard part. We can start with fire-hardened spears and simple war clubs or hammers. Then we can build up from there. We can trade for the metal; I’ve brought in a surplus of fox and wolf furs this year and I’d be happy to contribute them. Master Eric and Journeyman William could hammer out arrowheads easily enough since they already make ours; and pike-blades aren’t that different, though I’m sure it would take a little working to get the shape and balance right.” Among the books in the library was a spectacular arms and armouring manual, with detailed instructions and diagrams; though oddly, much of it was made with brass and not steel. “I understand swords are a little more complicated, and we should probably purchase them from a swordsmith; but we don’t need them right away. They can come later too.
“Supporting our militia is where the real expense is going to come in. Obviously, men who are patrolling and fighting can’t be doing other things, and they’ll need time to train too. We’ll have to combine the training and other forms of work any way we can. Fortunately, strength training combines well with farm work –” the audience erupted into a titter – “and patrols combine well with forestry and hunting.”
“You’ve been thinking about this for some time, haven’t you, Master Vaughn?” the Bailiff asked. His expression was contemplative and a little suspicious. It took Vaughn aback. He wonders if I’m trying to take over somehow, doesn’t he? Vaughn ruminated. And in a way, his suspicions were accurate; he just had no idea how far it went, and how little it would affect his position.
Yvan smiled at him encouragingly. Despite the misgivings, and stormy expressions, of the bailiff and the butcher, Vaughn could tell that the crowd was leaning his way. But he had yet to come to the crux of his argument.
“Yes, I have, Master Bailiff. But there’s more. We could possibly turn such a band into a means of making some coin for the village too.”
“How do you propose to do that?” Master Donovan, the tailor, demanded. “I mean; let’s be honest, young Master Vaughn. You’re proposing that we maintain our own military caste. And soldiers are a drain on resources; there’s just no way around it.”
“You’re absolutely right, Master Donovan; except when they’re a drain on someone else’s resources.”
He cocked his head and studied Vaughn curiously.
“How many merchant caravans in the area might want a few armed men to protect them from bandits?” he asked. “How many farmers might want someone to watch over their livestock as they take them to market? Or, alternatively, how would Ford like a small tariff to be paid to use the landing or the road?”
A low murmur spread through the crowd. There were a couple of affirming – and approving – nods. Avarice replaced suspicion in Bailiff Grimm’s eyes, and Vaughn knew he would have to watch out for him.
“What say you all?” the Bailiff asked.
“Aye!” the village shouted.
