Lana Hart's Blog, page 2

What's Kindle Unlimited Paying its Authors? Unfortunately, We Have No Idea

You'll recall that in a previous blog post I talked about putting The Spellbound Spirit into Kindle Unlimited, and deciding if it was worth offering exclusivity to fickle Amazon versus the potential payout for authors.

Before I get into my experience thus far, let's remind ourselves of a few things:

Kindle Unlimited (or KU) is a program through which self-published authors grant Amazon three months' worth of exclusivity (meaning they cannot sell their work through any other retailers) in exchange for making money per borrow. Traditionally-published authors are not held to this same standard and can continue to publish on Barnes & Noble or any other retailer they desire.Amazon has been decidedly non-transparent about their numbers, meaning that every month, the amount of money you receive for borrows changes. As an author, you are not privy to the amount you will earn per borrow until the 15th of the following month.Payouts are based on the number of KU subscribers vs. the amount placed into the "Global Fund" every month. These two numbers fluctuate drastically on a month-to-month basis.

Keeping those three things in mind, let's get to the entrails of the experiment I've been running.

KU's first month was July. It was announced halfway through the month and the Global Fund was set at $2m (so effectively, $2m for 15 days). Borrows were only meant to be paid out if the reader finished at least 10% of the book, so if someone borrowed your book and didn't read it, you got nothing.

Unfortunately, KDP didn't fully have its shit together, so every borrow regardless of reader progress was paid out. On August 15th, the information on the payout was released: $1.81 per borrow.

In short, authors got paid a lot more than they were expecting (because of the inflated borrow number), but the actual amount per unit was right around what we were promised, and that was a great way to start the program.

Even skeptics such as myself were intrigued by this. Obviously I out-earned what I would have made on any other retailer (especially since The Spellbound Spirit never gained much traction on any other retailer's site, anyway). Unfortunately this didn't give me much "progress" to report, as everything fell in line with what was originally said and we hadn't had another month to compare it to yet.

“Why is there no way for me to know NOW what I’ll get paid for the month? Why is Amazon allowed to set the price fifteen days after the month has already ended? In what other business would this be considered okay?”

When I saw the Global Fund listed for $2m for August, however, I was a bit alarmed. $2m for 31 days whereas July had $2m for 15 days? That seemed like the price would surely go down. Add to it that partway through the month every author's borrows number was massively reduced (due to KDP working out the kinks in its reporting system), I was concerned about the totals.

Yet I was assured by some that we'd see no real decrease. $1.75, maybe. Probably more. After all, it was only KU's second month. Why would Amazon want any bad press?

Still, an issue niggled at the back of my mind: "Why is there no way for me to know NOW what I'll get paid for the month? Why is Amazon allowed to set the price fifteen days after the month has already ended? In what other business would this be considered okay?"

Today is September 15th. The numbers for August have just been released. The result?

$1.54 per borrow.

For those of you keeping score at home, that is a whopping $0.27 per unit drop in price between July and August... and we weren't even told until September.

This is why I criticize Amazon's lack of transparency. This is why I tell people to be apprehensive and skeptical. Because it may not seem like much, but if this is setting some kind of precedence, authors can expect a much lower payout next month.

And with a contract which requires three months of exclusivity, there's not much we can do about it.

“If your employer told you that you’d work all month and then they’d decide your rate of pay after the fact, would that be all right with you?”

Now, I'm not reporting the sky is falling (yet). But think of it this way: would you be likely to, say, go to your grocery store today and tell them, "Hm, well those $400-worth of groceries I bought and ate last month... they now feel like $200-worth to me," and then expect the grocer to be all right with that? Would you go to your pharmacist and pick up your prescription, then fifteen days later tell them that you'll pay them 75% of what the cost was supposed to be? If your employer told you that you'd work all month and then they'd decide your rate of pay after the fact, would that be all right with you?

This is effectively the deal that Amazon is forcing self-published authors to accept, and it is not okay.

For the moment, however, most authors are satisfied with the arrangement. They're still making more than they would have from other retailers. They're still netting over $1.50/borrow. In short, it still makes fiscal sense for them to remain enrolled in the program.

But in my opinion, as it stands right now, those authors are not thinking clearly about the long-term.

KU is a program Amazon has put a lot of work into. It's a subscription-based program that they have every intention of using to supplant a large part of the buying process. In other words, they are looking to rely on subscription-based customers rather than those who buy books individually. That means that it's expected to grow, which means in turn that a few months down the line, those authors may find that their number of borrows vastly exceed their number of sales.

After all, who wants to pay $2.99 per novel—or more—when they could pay $10/month to read as much as they'd like?

What happens when those authors, instead of earning 70% royalties on a sale, are now mainly earning money based off of their borrows—and when the amount of subscribers have increased to that point, that means everyone gets a smaller share of the pie.

They might be making $0.50/borrow. $0.30/borrow. Less.

And you might say, "Well, you've no way of knowing that's a certainty."

You're right. I don't. Because Amazon refuses to set a fixed price.

This, besides being bound by exclusivity, is my largest problem with the KU payout model. It allows Amazon—which is a corporate entity, don't kid yourselves there—to decide the rate of pay for self-published authors based on how much money they (the corporation) feels like contributing. Without a fixed price, that number could be $1m. That number could be $2m or $5m. It could be $500,000 with over a million subscribers. This model is one that functions off of uncertain, ever-changing variables and submits authors to a guessing game in which they never quite know what their work will earn them until it's too late.

It is not an acceptable way of doing business. Not if it stays as-is, anyway.

In October, my option to renew my KU status for The Spellbound Spirit will become available. Depending on how Amazon reworks its payment structure—or doesn't—I may pull out. I don't like being jerked around, and I don't like knowing how much money I'm receiving this month based on a decision made after I've already committed to the program. It's unethical at best and preying upon self-published authors at worst.

But for now, is it still a lucrative option for authors? Yes. It is.

Just remember to check the temperature of the water they've got you sitting in every once in a while. If you don't, they certainly aren't going to do it for you.

EDIT: Amazon just released this report on the matter:

“Announcement: KDP Select Global Fund Updates

Hello,

We have continued to see significant early trial response from customers to Kindle Unlimited (KU). Similar to what we’ve done in the past around holiday spikes in borrowing activity, we are adding a bonus of $2.7 million in August on top of the regular base fund amount of $2 million.”

My only commentary is this: if you're already growing at double the rate of your first month, and you have to shove nearly $3m into the fund just to keep borrows over $1.50 per, it does not bode well for future expansion. At least, not for authors, anyway.

Stop, Children—What's That Sound?

Why, it's Lana Hart! And she's recording an audio book!

I promised you that you'd be hearing from me soon. And I'm making good on that promise by letting you in on my little secret: I'm recording an audio book version of The Magic Mirror!

This is part of a bigger project to eventually record The Spellbound Spirit, but man oh man is this a difficult and time-consuming process! It takes me over an hour to record even one chapter, and then four or five hours to edit it. It's a huge undertaking, one that is equal parts enjoyable and challenging.

Want to hear how it's going so far? Just follow this link to Soundcloud, where you can hear the opening to The Magic Mirror narrated by myself with accompaniment by Kevin MacLeod from Incompetech. Incompetech is a site that allows you to use their music under the Creative Commons License as long as you make attribution. Kevin's work will be attributed during the ending credits of the audio book, but the tracks I have used in the prologue thus far are:

Quinn's Song: A New Man
Quinn's Song: The Dance Begins
Ghostocalypse: Crossing the Threshold

So, tell me what you think. How does the audio book sound? Do you like listening to audio books in general? Leave me your thoughts in a comment below!

Also, don't forget about my Goodreads giveaway where you can win a FREE signed copy of The Spellbound Spirit!

And for those of you who didn't get the blog post title:

The Tale of a Sale and a Giveaway

Have I been watching too much of Nickelodeon's former hit show Are You Afraid of the Dark? Yes, probably. But my six-year-old daughter loves it, and frankly so do I. You'd be surprised how inspiring a lot of the stories can be, and to be honest, I feel like I may have wasted my life by not forming a Midnight Society of my own when I was younger.

But that's not what this post is about. It's about this weekend's sale and this month's giveaway!

Until Monday, August 11th, The Spellbound Spirit will be on sale for just $0.99! It's listed exclusively on Kindle Unlimited right now, which also means that if you've signed up for their program, you can borrow it for absolutely free. At the very least the book is $3.00-off, so hurry up and get your copy before Monday morning!

But let's say that you're someone who still likes to hold a book in their hand. I'm right there with you, and I've got something that should make you smile.

Until the end of the month, I'm running a Goodreads giveaway! You can win one of TWO autographed copies of The Spellbound Spirit for free! Just log in at Goodreads and sign up to win, and hopefully I'll see your name at the end of the month!

That's all the news I have for now. As I'm sure you know, I'm steadily working on the sequel, The Bejeweled Bottle, and hoping to announce a release date soon. But I've also been working on a secret side project that I'm just dying to share with you. Look for an announcement on my blog over the next few weeks... you'll hear from me soon.

Diversification vs. Kindle Unlimited: An Experiment

In my last blog post, I talked a little about the Amazon vs. Hachette dispute and why diversification is so important to authors, particularly self-published ones.

Which may seem hypocritical now considering I just enrolled The Spellbound Spirit in KDP Select, and by extension, the newly-launched Kindle Unlimited program.

For those new to the self-publishing game, KDP Select is Amazon's exclusive program which seals authors into a 90-day deal wherein they cannot sell their books through any other distributor. Once that agreement is made new tools are made available to the author, including Kindle Countdown Deals, Free Days, and enrollment in the new Kindle Unlimited program.

Since I'm a pretty vocal proponent of catalog diversification, it would seem incongruous with my belief system to enroll in a program that forces authors to choose exclusivity. But hear me out.

Kindle Unlimited is basically set up as the Netflix of books. For a monthly fee of $9.99, readers can read as many books as they want (10 can be downloaded at a time), provided that those books are enrolled in the Kindle Unlimited program.

As of today, the number of authors already enrolled is staggering. The number of readers even more so.

I mean, why not? It's a great deal for readers. That much is clear. But what about authors? What are they getting out of this?

Well, as Amazon puts it:

“Once a customer reads more than 10% of your book, or a Kindle Owners’ Lending Library customer downloads your book, you’ll receive a share of the KDP Select Global Fund.”

So far, that share is being quoted as roughly $2.00 per "borrowed" book based off of Amazon's explanation of the Global Fund.

“We base the calculation of your share of the KDP Select Global Fund by how often Kindle Unlimited customers choose and read more than 10% of your book, and Kindle Owners’ Lending Library customers download your book. We compare these numbers to how often all participating KDP Select titles were chosen. For example, if the monthly global fund amount is $1,000,000, all participating KDP titles were read 300,000 times, and customers read your book 1,500 times, you will earn 0.5% (1,500/300,000 = 0.5%), or $5,000 for that month.”

Some authors are all but salivating at this opportunity, and in theory, they've got every right to be. Offering books to readers in a way that makes them more accessible is something we all want to achieve, and getting paid a decent amount to do that is even better.

But what happens in the long run? What about when Kindle Unlimited has more subscribers? Won't the royalty rate afforded to authors decrease?

In short, yes. It absolutely will. And there's no way around that. It's pretty basic math. Amazon isn't going to operate at a loss for very long, and that's where my experiment with offering my novel for the next three months to Kindle Unlimited subscribers comes in.

As usual, there's a lot of controversy surrounding Amazon's decision. If successful (and again, why wouldn't it be?), it will change the face of online book distribution forever. Competitors like Barnes & Noble will have to adopt a similar program or risk getting phased out just like Borders and Walden Books. The program is here to stay whether we like it or not.

That being said, consumers will benefit so greatly from it that it's likely Amazon will end up with the edge they've always wanted. And once that happens, authors can anticipate seeing lower royalties just like what happened with Audible earlier this year. And since authors have all their eggs in a single basket, it's likely that they'll have little choice but to continue accepting Amazon's ever-decreasing royalty rates.

Heck, by the time signing our books into exclusivity really becomes an issue, we may have nowhere else to turn in order to make a profit at all.

But as always, there are detractors. Many authors who are so enamored with the company that they refer to it as "Mother Amazon" shout "conspiracy theorists!" any time criticism is lobbed at the corporate giant. They're excited about the possibilities, all of which they see through rose-colored glasses and the mindset of an idealist operating on the assumption that Amazon will "take care of them" since they currently offer the highest royalty rate around outside of Smashwords. They don't foresee the hammer coming down and I believe it will take documented proof of Amazon's tactics in order for them to see the light.

Which is why I've got The Spellbound Spirit married to the Kindle Unlimited program for 90 days. I expect Amazon won't renege on their $2.00 figure this month, but in August and September, I'm betting the payout decreases substantially. And I'm willing to document that here as proof that programs like this are eventually going to back self-published authors into a corner.

But why am I singling out the self-publishing experience here, you may ask. Why aren't I addressing all of the traditionally published authors—such as J.K. Rowling—whose books are also enrolled in the new Kindle Unlimited program?

Well, in short, that's because Amazon doesn't force traditionally-published authors to enroll in KDP Select or offer their books exclusively through Amazon in order to benefit from Kindle Unlimited. They can continue to sell through any distributor they like while also gaining all the perks of Amazon's new subscription-based program.

Remember when I said that Amazon definitely has a bias toward self-published authors just like any other publisher, but they choose where to apply that bias first? I wasn't just blowing smoke. They are treating self-published authors worse than traditionally-published ones and forcing us to adhere to standards they would never inflict upon those tied to the Big Five, et al. They do it out in the open, right in front of the public eye, because they know there's no bigger marketplace for self-published authors to flock to right now. And what do you think will happen once they've secured even more of it?

"Mother Amazon" is not your friend. They're a company. They're a distributor. They are not going to "take care of you" unless it benefits them.

And at the end of this experiment, I believe I'll have proof of that.

Do I think Amazon is a monster? No, absolutely not. Do I think they're a bad company overall? No, though they do have bad policies. Do I think it would be bad if they monopolized the self-publishing marketplace, and the retail marketplace overall?

Yes. Absolutely. And until they prove otherwise, I'll continue to champion diversification amongst self-published authors' catalogs.

If Kindle Unlimited weren't tied to the KDP Select program, we probably wouldn't be having this conversation. But as it stands, I don't see how this could possibly be a good thing for authors in the long-term. I guess we'll find out in about three months!

The Spellbound Spirit is still available for purchase on Amazon.com, despite its enrollment in the Kindle Unlimited program. If you'd like to take advantage of its limited-time enrollment, you can find it here. Happy reading!

My Perhaps Unsolicited Opinion on the Amazon vs. Hachette Feud (It's More Complicated Than You Think)

As a self-published author, Amazon has been more or less good to me (we'll get back to the "more or less" in a minute). They've provided me and thousands of others with the ability to publish our work online for the price we want, set us up with a staggering 70% royalty rate*, and have consistently sought to redefine consumer experiences with their Prime shipping policies and streaming media program.

When you go to purchase a book on Amazon, you get a user-friendly experience. There are reviews for you to peruse. If you've got Prime, you get FREE two-day shipping. And if you're not so much into physical books these days, you can download the book onto your kindle in... minutes? Seconds?

And of course, the Kindle itself is a revolutionary device. Even the Kindle Fire models, which feature functions far outside the realm of e-readers, are priced considerably lower than their main competition, Apple's iPad. Amazon is consistently at the forefront of change, which is a good thing.

More or less (told you).

See, everything I've just told you is only the surface of what and who Amazon is. There's a dark side to Amazon, one many people don't or choose not to see, but one that is totally valid and just a little bit scary.

Let's start with their censorship practices.

If you were, say, an erotica author, you might want to look closely at Amazon's content guidelines. Although it's clear they don't accept pornography, there's another section below that called "offensive material." Reading the description reveals a single sentence:

“What we deem offensive is probably about what you would expect. ”

That's about as vague as you can possibly get. And what's worse is that it's constantly changing. There are no rules.

What happens when you violate this content guideline is that your book is either ADULT filtered or is blocked completely from sale. This may happen with or without notification (if it's the former, it's always without) and as of this month, it's bordering on irreversible.

Accounts have been completely shut down over users attempting to change the content they assume is tripping Amazon's filter and resubmitting, a practice that has long been standard when dealing with KDP's reviewers. Notices have been sent by KDP stating that if the user attempts to create another account, that one will be blocked as well. Basically, you can never publish on Amazon again.

Now, you may say, "well, I'm sure if you just e-mail them about your book, you'll find out what they find offensive about it." But this is also not the case.

When one enquires about their filtered or blocked title, they receive a form letter. It looks something like this:

“Reasons your title was filtered: cover/title/description.”

That's it. Nothing more than that. And if you continue to ask, they'll continue giving you the same answer.

It forces authors to play a guessing game. And now when we guess wrong, our ability to publish at all is being threatened.

When the Pornocalypse occurred back in 2013, erotica authors were divided. Some were in an uproar over censorship being a slippery slope, while others insisted it was merely the "outliers" who were being targeted—i.e., anything to do with incest or bestiality. But it's been a year now and we've seen that's not the case. Titles as innocuous as Selena Kitt's "Babysitting the Baumgartners" have been censored because "babysitting" is a word that now triggers their filter. And as of last month, Amazon is now targeting BDSM fiction for filtering and/or removal.

To take it a step further, Amazon applies these restrictions only to authors of self-published titles. So while a self-published author might see their entire BDSM catalog wiped from KDP, E.L. James, author of the obscenely popular Fifty Shades of Grey series, will continue to be front and center on the digital storefront for erotica and even romance (something self-publishers also can't do, by the way, is publish in both romance and erotica—publishing in erotica disallows you from publishing in any other category).

It's only now that authors are becoming uncomfortable with Amazon's policies, and only because it's now slipping its tendrils of censorship into other genres. But if you'd kept up with Amazon's strategies, you might not be so surprised at all.

For instance, in 2011, Amazon ran a promotion that if you went into any of its competitors' stores and used their Price Check app to scan an item, and then bought that item at Amazon.com instead, you'd get a 5% discount. They were actively encouraging their customers to walk into stores, scan their products, and then give their business over to Amazon. While that's certainly not illegal, it's dirty and shady at best.

Then in 2013, Amazon began offering a "deal" to small bookstores right around the time Borders went out of business. They'd allow them to stock Kindles for six percent off of the retail price while earning ten percent of the royalties off of any eBook sales purchased through those devices for up to two years from the date of sale. Indie stores were rightfully outraged by the idea that they'd be approached to sell their competitors' stock, effectively offering their customers a way to put them out of business.

Yes, Amazon is used to fighting dirty. Which is why I'm not so sure I side with them on the Hachette feud.

True, Amazon has opened the door to vastly higher royalties for authors—rates we deserve and currently can't find anywhere else. True, big, traditional publishers like Hachette offer very low rates in comparison and force authors through the tedious, years-long process of publishing their novels (which has its own set of pitfalls that are too numerous to cover here). True, the dispute seems to be over publishers still trying to control the price of eBooks, which they are not suited to do (nor have they ever been). None of this is to say that Hachette is in the right here, either.

But Amazon handled it poorly from the start by listing Hachette authors' books as "two-to-four weeks for delivery" and including a huge banner at the top of their Amazon pages that said, "readers can find books like this for less from these authors." This is the very definition of dirty pool, and while it's not out of character for Amazon or Jeff Bezos, it's startling, to say the least.

It's for these reasons that when extremely popular self-published authors like Hugh Howey (who I respect and admire in all other ways) write what's basically fanfiction about how eternally awesome and benevolent Amazon is, it makes me worry. Amazon has dominated a multitude of markets thus far, and a monopoly is never a good thing, even (especially) when it comes to publishing. As we've seen in the past, they're more than willing to step on freedom of expression and muddy the waters so that authors can no longer even tell what will or will not be blocked, banned, or get their accounts permanently deleted. While we may cheer for Amazon today when it does things like go toe-to-toe with the Big Six or tell France to go pound sand with their ban on free shipping, I wonder how we'll feel if years from now, when we've all sided heavily with Amazon, they bring down the hammer.

In my experience, and in many other authors', it's a distinct possibility. It's one that we've already lived.

So while I appreciate Amazon's ingenuity and the good it's done for self-published authors, I also recognize the bad, the ugly, and the outright appalling. Make no mistake that Amazon still holds the same bias toward self-published material that other publishing houses do. It's just a matter of where they apply that bias first.

And as Laura Miller said in her phenomenal Salon article:

“While there’s not much self-publishers can do to influence the outcome of the Hachette-Amazon dispute, this affair should serve as a cautionary tale about placing too much power in the hands of a single retail outlet. Amazon may seem like your best friend right now, but so it also seemed to traditional publishers when it appeared in the late 1990s, as a counterbalance to chain bookstores.”

This is how frogs boil. And we should all be wary.

* - 70% royalty rate only applies to books priced over $1.99. For everything else, the royalty rate is 35%.

New Cover, New Title, New Blurb!

Long time no see!

Mercury went into retrograde in late June. That was right about the time my laptop decided not to work anymore and pretty much everything I did fell apart at the seams. For those of you who don't know, Mercury is supposed to command technology and communication, so when it's in retrograde, those things tend not to go so well.

So, what have I been up to during that time? How about a complete overhaul of The Haunted Lingerie?

What happened was this:

When I originally started writing The Haunted Lingerie, I had intended it as an erotic short story. It was a silly little idea that grew into something much more serious, a paranormal romance/mystery/thriller series that I just can't wait to write more of. It spawned a free prequel, The Magic Mirror, which to date has been downloaded over 6,000 times (and counting!) and has ranked #1 in all subcategories thus far. It's well on its way to breaking into the top 100 in the Kindle free store. And for Camp NaNo this July, I'm diligently penning the sequel.

In short, the project outgrew its title and cover image, which were both intended for the erotic short. Not that there's anything wrong with erotica—I've supported my family from writing it—but there's a big difference between marketing that and marketing romance, and one I initially failed to account for.

I thought the semi-inflammatory/controversial title would work in its favor. Instead, it sent out the wrong message that my novel was some kind of joke.

I received this harsh but fair criticism from Aubrey Rose, bestselling author of Me, Cinderella? and the Shifting Fates series. A few of my ARC readers mentioned they probably wouldn't have picked the book up if they hadn't gotten it for free. There generally wasn't much love in the romance community for my cover.

The erotica community loved it. But for once, that wasn't who I was marketing to. It was time to change strategies.

I obsessed over a new cover for weeks before I found the perfect Stock image. It was, of course, the most expensive one I could have chosen, but I think the results were well worth it. A new title was a challenge too, one that didn't have the word "lingerie" in it and yet still encompassed what the story was about.

It is my pleasure to present to you the second edition of my debut novel, The Spellbound Spirit!

I'm not trying to be dishonest about my work or anything. I just want to represent it in a more fitting way. And since I didn't change its ASIN, if you've already ordered the novel from Amazon, they will tell you so. There won't be any risk of you purchasing the same book twice, which was the intention when I chose that method.

Another issue that was very important to me was not to slap a half-naked guy on the cover, which is exactly what several sources advised me to do. Misty is the main character here, not Jack, and although he plays a significant role in the story, it's not all about him. I wouldn't have felt right putting anyone but Misty or the spirit herself on the cover, and thankfully, I was able to make that happen.

Will I pay a price for it? Maybe. We'll see. But I think more of my readership than that. Readers crave something engaging and unique, and that's what I'm here to provide.

And if not, just knowing that people like it so far is good enough for me. With fifteen five-star reviews on Amazon, I really couldn't ask for more.

And if just one of those 6,000 people enjoys The Magic Mirror, then it was totally worth the effort.

Speaking of The Magic Mirror, it's a totally FREE prequel starring everybody's favorite Sanctum Harbor sheriff's deputy, Jack Snow! Taking place ten years prior to the events of The Spellbound Spirit, this 102-page novella tells the story of how Jack and Misty drifted apart and what a certain magic item might have had to do with it...

You can pick up your copy from almost any major retailer, including Amazon.com.

I'll have some additional updates on the rest of the Curious Collectibles Series soon, so stay tuned if you're eager to learn what happens next!

The Haunted Lingerie: One Week Check-In

Wow, has it been busy around here!

As you may already know, I released my debut novel, The Haunted Lingerie on May 30th. Since then, it's seen an incredible amount of positive reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, all of which make the experience worth it.

The Magic Mirror, its free prequel, missed the launch date, and right now it's sitting roughly 2/3 complete in front of me. And that's just the first draft. I'll have to edit it before I can think about publishing. I like to ensure everything is up to snuff before letting other people see it.

Which is ironic, considering how my initial release went.

But that's a story for another time (and a longer post). Right now I'd like to thank all my readers for growing as attached to Sanctum Harbor as I have and reward your patience with an unedited glimpse of what's in store in the pages of The Magic Mirror.

Part OneThe Three Cards

“One need not a chamber to be haunted
One need not be a house;
The brain has corridors surpassing
Material place.”

—Emily Dickinson

Jack Snow stared at the photo album in his hands, wondering why every picture looked so damned strange.

It was an eclectic mix of subjects to begin with. No two were the same, including the family portraits. Only the composition remained consistent: they were all daguerreotypes. It must have been a photographer’s portfolio.

He thumbed through the collection of nineteenth-century photos, brow furrowed as his gaze snagged on every peculiarity. Why were some of their faces blurry while others were perfectly in focus? Why did so many of them look like they were sleeping? And what in God’s name was wrong with that child’s eyes?

With each turn of a page, a sense of unease coiled tighter and tighter in his stomach. By the time he got to the last picture in the series, it had morphed into a feeling of cold dread.

The photo was of a young boy, maybe five or six years old. He was fully limp in a chair, his little fingers only tenuously clutching a polished wooden stick against his palm. A large, thin hoop rested against his knee. It looked like one of the simple toys children had played with many years ago.

But why was the boy so still?

Jack’s eyes dropped to the half-degraded type below.

Why should our tears in sorrow flow
When God recalls His own? 

A chill seized him. He wasn’t sure why, but that enigmatic phrase nibbled at his nape, bringing his hairs to stand on end.

“Do you like it?” a honeyed, crackling voice called from behind him.

Jack turned to face it. It was coming from Mrs. Clathermont, the owner of the small antique shop on Blackwood Street.

He closed the album. “I dunno,” he answered at length. “I’m not sure what it is.”

Mrs. Clathermont’s Curious Collectibles had been one of Sanctum Harbor’s most recognizable staples since as far back as Jack could remember—or at least, it was to its residents. The influx of tourists the town saw every fall were often too busy staring at the changing leaves to notice it, and the few who did always seemed to be the sort who were looking for key chains and personalized mugs rather than any of the ancient baubles Mrs. Clathermont had for sale.

Jack had rarely stepped foot in it himself. But today, it was the first place he’d stopped.

He was on his way back from the police academy up north in Sanctuary. It had been an intense six months away from home, and while he was sure his mother was dying to see him, he wanted to pick her up a little gift first—something thoughtful, something special. Something that wasn’t this creepy old photo album.

Mrs. Clathermont smiled at him. She was a wizened woman with a mane of thick, gray hair she kept pinned to her scalp in either a bun or chignon. Her body seemed frail—she walked only by way of an old mahogany cane and the backs of her hands were mottled with liver spots—but her eyes were so vivid and bright they almost glowed.

Jack stared into those cerulean portals until the old woman’s gaze fell to the velvet-covered album in his hands. The corners of her eyes crinkled.

“That,” she said, unlatching a small wooden box with brass hinges, “is a record of some of the first photographs ever taken.”

“The first?” Jack echoed, glancing back down at the plush maroon cover. “Is that why some of the people look so weird?”

Mrs. Clathermont chuckled crisply, less like the tittering of birds and more like dead leaves rustling underfoot.

“No,” she said. “I’m afraid that’s not the case at all. You see, daguerreotypes required absolute stillness for portraits to develop properly, and as photography was in its infancy at the time—and therefore quite costly—it was reserved for only the most momentous of occasions.”

She reached slowly into the box before her. When she withdrew, she cradled a deck of cards in her hand.

“Those people don’t look strange because of the camera,” she continued. Another smile quirked at the edges of her lips. “They look that way because they’re dead.”

Jack’s mouth was suddenly dry. He grasped the album firmly to quell his instinct to drop it to the floor. “Dead?”

Mrs. Clathermont bobbed her head in much the same way a pigeon might. “Oh, yes. Post-mortem photography was all the rage in the Victorian era. Corpses remained quite inert, as you can imagine, and easily posed. What photographer could ask for a better subject?”

“But…” He risked another disbelieving glance at the book. “There’re a bunch of children in here…”

“Childhood mortality rates were steep in those days,” Mrs. Clathermont explained, laying each of the gilt-trimmed cards face-down on her front counter. “And since photography was only just blossoming, it was a rare opportunity for grieving parents to keep the memory of their lost child alive.

“Of course, the Victorians were also obsessed with death,” she added once several of the cards were arranged before her. “They were a truly fascinating society. Not since the days of ancient Egypt were a people so consumed by the inevitability of their passing.” She shifted her eyes to the album again. “Poe is in there. Would you like me to show you?”

“That’s okay,” Jack said quickly, returning the book to its place on one of Mrs. Clathermont’s packed and swollen shelves. “I’m actually lookin’ for somethin’ for my mom.”

Mrs. Clathermont looked up from her cards. “Your mother?” She paused, cocking her head as she looked him over. She drummed her fingers softly on the counter. “How old are you now, dear?”

He puffed his chest. “Nineteen, ma’am. And a half.”

“And one half,” Mrs. Clathermont murmured, nodding pensively. Then she swept the cards back into their deck.

“Your mother was in here a few weeks ago. She bought a lovely silver hand mirror—one of my favorite items. Perhaps you can find her something to go with it.”

“Like what?” he asked, looking around the store. It was stuffed to the brim with everything from jewelry and ceramic figurines to sprawling Baroque mirrors and Edwardian settees with rich damask upholstery. It was all very beautiful, but overwhelming.

“What about a brush?” Mrs. Clathermont suggested. “Your mother has exquisite hair.”

Jack frowned. A brush hardly seemed sufficient. He wanted something more personal.

He cast his eyes down to the reassembled deck of cards. “What are those?”

Mrs. Clathermont lifted them, brushing her fingers lovingly along their golden trim. “These are tarot cards. Are you familiar with their use?”

Jack shook his head. The old woman continued.

“They’re used in cartomancy, a practice which dates back to the fourteenth century. Some believe that each deck holds a special power to divine questions about the past, present, and future—if one knows how to interpret the answers.”

He wrinkled his nose. “Like fortune-telling?”

She nodded. “Yes. Exactly like that. This particular deck is one that has been in my care for…” She trailed off, her eyes searching the ornate designs on the backs of the cards. “…well, it seems like an eternity.”

Then she looked up at Jack. “Would you like me to do a reading for you?”

“I’m not sure I have the time,” he said, glancing at one of the many clocks strewn throughout Mrs. Clathermont’s shop. It was almost noon. His mother would have lunch ready soon.

“It’ll only take a moment,” the old woman said, expertly shuffling the deck between her surprisingly nimble fingers. “Three cards is all it takes.”

Jack shifted, running a hand through his chestnut hair. “I don’t really believe in that stuff.”

Mrs. Clathermont smirked slyly. “Then what harm can it do?”

His eyes fell again to the cards ruffling and shifting within her palms. Had they been regular playing cards, he would have bought them for his mother. She loved card games and was especially good at solitaire, and while she often played it on her computer, he knew how much she loved the tactile experience of laying a deck of cards out in front of her.

Mrs. Clathermont seemed to enjoy it too. There was a twinkle in her eyes that intensified with every pass of the deck along her fingertips.

Three cards. He regarded the time again. That shouldn’t take much time at all, and since he was probably going to leave her shop without buying anything, it would be polite to at least humor her.

Well, if it’ll make her happy…

“All right,” Jack said as he approached the opposite side of the counter. “What do I do?”

“Not much,” Mrs. Clathermont replied. With a sweep of her hand, she fanned the deck out across the wooden countertop. “All you have to do is pick three cards—any that you like. I’ll do the rest.”

He hesitated, his eyes scanning each filigreed design. They were identical, but he was convinced there had to be some kind of trick.

But what did it matter? It wasn’t like fortune-telling was real.

He pointed to one of the cards. “This one…”

Mrs. Clathermont shook her head. “No, Jack. You have to touch them.”

Jack frowned. He opened his mouth to ask why, then decided against it. It was probably just some weird occult thing, and he didn’t have time for another of Mrs. Clathermont’s rambling explanations.

He obediently touched a finger to the card, pulling it part way from the deck. Then he did the same to two others and nodded to Mrs. Clathermont.

“Very well,” she said, condensing the remainder and setting them aside. “Let’s see what choices you’ve made.”

He watched as she overturned the first card he’d picked. On its face were a man and a woman standing on opposite sides of a small river. They were both naked, hands clasped above the water as they traversed the shore beneath the boughs of what appeared to be peach trees. A cherub presided over them, bow and arrow at the ready.

His eyes trailed down to the words below the picture. The Lovers.

“This card represents love and communication,” Mrs. Clathermont said, studying the figures with a critical eye. “Because this is the first card you drew, it refers to some event in your past—a prior encounter that weighs heavily upon your mind. You are in the midst of making a decision about this matter, and this card implores you to look to your heart to discern your true desires.”

Jack’s cheeks burned as he stared at the naked couple. Only one name came to mind as he considered Mrs. Clathermont’s words: Misty Ryder.

They’d been best friends for what sometimes seemed like forever, ever since he and his family had moved to Massachusetts from Blackstone, Virginia. Jack was used to small towns, but Sanctum Harbor was nothing like the rural Nottoway County.

For one thing, Blackstone only had about half of Sanctum Harbor’s population. For the first few months, Jack had been in awe of how many people there were, especially during the tourism season. He’d never been past the county line before, and up to that point, he’d imagined every town was like Blackstone. He’d hardly known what to do with himself when his family eventually made a trip to Boston.

For another thing, the people in Sanctum Harbor were different. Few of them possessed the long, slow drawl that oozed from his mouth in comparison to the clipped, staccato tones they always spoke in. The other kids in his class had made fun of him for it at first—all except Misty Ryder, who had approached it with something like fascination.

She’d even adopted an accent of her very own—similar to his, although a little more effervescent—for an entire year just to keep the bullies at bay. It would prove just the first in a long line of sacrifices on her part to prove how much she really cared for him.

It hadn’t gone unnoticed.

He recalled the last night they’d spent together before he left for the police academy in Sanctuary. It had happened right after her father’s funeral. He’d picked her up early and driven her to the harbor with nothing but a thick blanket and a six-pack of beers he shouldn’t have had. He remembered his own father’s funeral and how he’d wished someone would have done the same for him. It was the first time he’d been able to make a sacrifice for her.

She’d looked radiant in the twilight, the stars reflected perfectly in her silvery eyes as she cried and laughed and then cried some more. She’d made him a little paper fortune-teller’s note with a scrap from his car and forced him to play with it until a proper prediction was made.

I’ll never leave you, the fortune had read.

Jack’s cheeks burned brighter. Maybe he did believe in that stuff. Or at least, he wanted to.

He watched as Mrs. Clathermont turned over the second card. She raised her thin, ashen eyebrows.

“The card that represents your present is the Hanged Man,” she intoned, gesturing to the figure suspended upside-down from a tree. His foot was caught in a snare of some kind and his hands were behind his back, but eerily, his expression showed no trace of concern. “It’s a card of sacrifice.”

Jack met her gaze. “Sacrifice?”

Mrs. Clathermont nodded. “You must let go of that which you love in order to improve your situation. To achieve your goals, you must give up something of great importance to you.”

Jack stared at the card. He couldn’t imagine anything he’d sought more in his life than his father’s pride. It was part of the reason he’d gone to the police academy. Hank Snow had been one hell of a cop. He shouldn’t have died the way he did. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair.

He could have learned so much from his father if he’d just stuck around a little longer. But he was gone, and Jack had to make up for that somehow—not just to himself or his mom, but to the world. Following in his footsteps seemed like a good place to start.

But what did the card mean? What would he have to give up in pursuit of those dreams?

“Shall I show you the third card?” Mrs. Clathermont asked, her laudanum-laden voice stealing him from his reverie.

Jack stuffed his hands into his jacket pockets and nodded mutely. For something he didn’t take much stock in, this whole process was making him uneasy.

The old shopkeeper gingerly flipped the very last card, revealing a single word that made knots of Jack’s guts.

Death.

He grimaced, resisting the urge to step back away from the counter and the grim skeleton grinning up at him from it. But Mrs. Clathermont only smiled.

“Ah,” she said.

“What’s that s’pposed to mean?” Jack said, his gaze flitting between the card and Mrs. Clathermont. “Am I gonna die?”

Mrs. Clathermont’s face split into a too-wide grin. “Aren’t we all?”

Then she slid the card nearer to him.

“The Death card does not always represent death,” she said. “In fact, it usually signifies a great change in your life—the opportunity to begin anew. In the context of your previous cards, it would seem that if you follow the path lain out before you, it will change your life. For good or ill, that is up to you.”

Jack ran his tongue over his teeth behind his lips. He stared at the scythe-wielding skeleton sweeping crowns, palettes, medals, books, and banners into a pile at its feet. Even without an explanation, the message was clear: whether princes or paupers, all men die.

A chill slithered up his spine. He clenched his hands inside his jacket.

“Well, uh… thanks, ma’am. For the reading.”

“Oh, thank you, Jack,” Mrs. Clathermont replied, returning his cards to the deck and placing them lovingly in their box lined with crimson felt. “For humoring me.” She closed the lid with only the softest of squeaks from its brass hinges.

“Now, were you still considering the brush?” A look crossed her face suddenly—of what, Jack couldn’t entirely tell—and she gestured toward the back of her shop. “Or perhaps something from my private stock would be more appropriate?”

“Private stock?” Jack asked, frowning as he followed the motion of her withered hand. “You mean there’s more?”

“Oh, yes!” Mrs. Clathermont said, her eyes shimmering so brightly they were nearly hypnotic. “I can show you. They’re just over here in my back room…”

He peered beyond her, past the shadows of the gas lamps burning on the wall and into to corner of her shop. His brows knitted together as he squinted into the dark.

Finally, he fixed his gaze back on her. “What back room?”

The old woman paused. Her face betrayed nothing as she turned over her shoulder, staring in the direction Jack’s eyes had only just left. She remained quiet for a moment, studying the empty shadows until she burst into shrill, hysterical laughter.

“Oh!” she cried, splaying her hand across her chest. “I must be getting old! Here, I’ll get you the brush…”

Jack waited at the counter, listening to the rhythmic clicking of Mrs. Clathermont’s cane against the hardwood floor as she hobbled into one of the many aisles. It was getting late, and he hadn’t been able to find any other gifts for his mother. The brush would have to do.

He rubbed the back of his neck, looking at the little wooden box on the counter. The Lovers. The Hanged Man. Death. What the cards revealed hadn’t exactly been untrue. But what did it all mean?

Don’t be stupid, he urged himself. It wasn’t the cards. It was her. She’s the one who decided what they meant. You probably gave somethin’ away…

Jack nodded to himself, his anxiety dampened slightly by the logical reassurance.

“Here you are, dear,” Mrs. Clathermont said from behind him. Jack jumped. How hadn’t he heard her approach? “What do you think?”

He turned and looked down at the objects in her hands.

One was an immaculately polished silver hairbrush with a large, ovular head. Upon its back, flowers bloomed around a maiden holding a lyre. Something about her seemed melancholy, but Jack couldn’t quite place it.

The other object in Mrs. Clathermont’s hands was a comb with ivory teeth. Its designs matched those of the hairbrush, although they were far less ornate.

“They don’t match her new mirror precisely,” she said, “but they are beautiful nonetheless.”

“I’ll take them,” Jack said. She was right. Both the brush and the comb were astonishingly well-kept, and his mother’s recent purchase made them seem more personal than he’d originally imagined.

“Wonderful,” Mrs. Clathermont said, smiling as she tucked the items beneath her arm to lean heavily on her cane once more. “I’ll ring them up for you. Shall I gift wrap them as well?”

“That’d be kind of you, ma’am,” Jack replied, a faint smile touching his lips as he fished his wallet from the back pocket of his jeans. Maybe his trip to Mrs. Clathermont’s hadn’t been a waste, after all.

He watched her deceptively dexterous fingers carefully mold a few sheets of golden damask tissue paper around the items. She was careful to engulf them entirely, ensuring they would not clatter together on his way home.

“Do you know how to treat silver?” she asked him.

Jack shook his head. “No, ma’am. But I reckon my mom does.”

“I’m sure you’re right,” Mrs. Clathermont agreed as she arranged both pieces inside a shimmering golden gift bag. She slid it to him across the counter.

“There you are. Give your mother my regards, won’t you?”

“I will,” Jack said, slipping his hand into the straps of the bag. “And thanks—y’know, for helpin’ me decide.”

Mrs. Clathermont’s face stretched so wide he thought it might shatter.

“You’re welcome,” she told him. “I assure you, the pleasure is all mine.”

Jack looked at her for a moment. The striking color of her eyes seemed brighter, more luminous than before. Though her skin had been wrinkled before, it now looked taut, pulled flat against her skull as she grinned from ear to ear, revealing a maw of magnificent teeth.

He almost thought there were too many. But perhaps that was just the light.

He offered Mrs. Clathermont a smile and a nod in return. It was, after all, the polite thing to do.

Release Date Countdown: Five More Days

Oh, boy. There's a lot going on.

First, the good news: I've finished formatting both the digital and paperback print versions of The Haunted Lingerie and made significant headway into the freequel, The Magic Mirror. We're still on schedule for the release date of the 30th.

The bad news is that I won't get my proof copy until Wednesday, May 28th (yikes!), a mere two days before the release... and I'm not convinced it will be perfect.

I've had some issues with CreateSpace, namely with their cover generator. Although I uploaded my own PDF in accordance with their specifications and template, I can't seem to rid myself of this ugly black border present on the digital proofs.

A very kind Amazon rep has assured me that this black border won't print... but from what I've heard from other authors, it absolutely will.

Which means that if I get my proof on Wednesday and it's wrong, I won't have time between then and the release date to order a new proof, so I'll either be flying blind on offering print copy in tandem with the digital release, or I'll have to delay the print version until I can obtain a satisfactory copy.

I mean, I have Amazon Prime. Why can't I apply that to my CreateSpace order?

Sadly, I'm more inclined to go with the latter option. It's important for me to provide you with a quality product, and if that means instituting a delay... so be it.

In the meantime, I'm working on offering Advanced Reader Copies in exchange for honest reviews. If you have an interest in receiving one of these copies, e-mail me at lanahartwrites@gmail.com.

Stay tuned for another update on Wednesday... this one will have pictures!

Release Date Countdown: Nine Days to Go! Plus a Sneak Preview of Coming Attractions

I can hardly believe that in less than ten days my debut novel will hit the market.

I'm so excited to share the world of The Curious Collectibles Series with others. I'm over the moon that Misty's story will be told in a way that gives millions of people access to it. I'm looking forward to writing the next installment, and a few other surprises too.

But enough of my musing. Let's move on to some sneak peeks at all the work I've been doing!

One of the things I had to do was design a full-spread cover for the print version, which will be published through Amazon's Createspace. I took some graphic design classes at a technical school several years ago, so I felt pretty comfortable embarking on this mission.

Boy, was it difficult. The restrictions for trim edges were killing me, and on top of that, none of my images seemed to want to mesh properly. Then there was the fact that I forgot to save two separate layers—one with Misty and the other with the background image—in Photoshop, meaning that I couldn't adjust her position once I started working on the print copy.

Still, I think it turned out all right:

The empty space on the left is where the bar code will go.

Next up, I had to work on my interior. Print interiors are an entirely different animal from ePub interiors. The up side was that I got to do a lot more in the print version than I did using SIGIL (an ePub formatting program). The down side was that I had to work around some contradictory instructions, section break drama, Word's infuriating default setting of "reduce all images to potato quality," and much, much more.

For example, proper book formatting dictates that all new chapters begin on odd-numbered pages. These are the pages that occur on the right side of the book when you're reading, and it's a great way to allow your eyes to jump from one section to another. Hell, Createspace even suggests this is the way to go.

Unfortunately, following these guidelines necessitates a few blank pages to ensure that the chapters start on the odd-numbered side. But do you know what Createspace doesn't allow?

Blank pages.

This is true of the front matter, too, which is completely contradictory to how traditional publishers format books. Seriously, grab a fiction novel from your shelf and look inside. I'll wait.

Did you notice that the first page on the left is often blank? Did you notice that in between the numerous title pages, dedication pages, copyright pages, and the beginning of the novel, there are a couple of pages that are blank on one side or another? Did you notice how nice this looks when your eyes aren't constantly searching for the information?

How are self-publishers supposed to compete with traditional quality if we're not allowed to commit ourselves to the same formatting standards?

Despite the frustrations surrounding this process, I did find a suitable workaround. I took the glyph from the eBook version that didn't make it into the print copy, enlarged it, reduced its opacity to 20%, and pasted it onto every blank page as a sort of decorative watermark. This forces Createspace to regard the pages as not blank and allows me to give The Haunted Lingerie the formatting it deserves:

Despite how it shows up in Word, the splash page will be on the right side.

Here you can see the custom chapter header graphics, as well as my headers and footers. Do you know how long it took me to get them to display consistently across all pages? Trust me, you don't want to.

Given the results, it feels like it was worth it. Plus I now have a template I can work off of next time, so yay!

Now for some additional news: The Haunted Lingerie is getting a freequel!

What's a freequel, you ask? Why, a free prequel, of course!

The Magic Mirror is a short story leading up to the events of The Haunted Lingerie. It centers on Jack Snow and his return to Sanctum Harbor after six months of training at Sanctuary's police academy. He finds that not all is what it seems in the town he left behind, including a silver hand mirror which has mysteriously appeared in his mother's home.

And now, for the cover reveal:

Innit purdy?

Why yes, I did design that all myself! I bought my own stock images, purchased the license for the fonts, and even used an assortment of Photoshop brushes to custom design the glowing arcane tendrils and symbols on the mirror face. You can purchase your own set of these brushes here.

The Magic Mirror will also feature a sneak preview of the prologue and first chapter of The Haunted Lingerie in its back matter. Remember, it's also FREE, so you've got nothing to lose by downloading it as soon as it's available!

Once I get my proofs back from Createspace, I'll be making another, more formal post about formatting your books based on what I've learned through my own process of trial and error. I'll also offer a comparison—with pictures!—of the matte vs. glossy cover and cream vs. white paper, because seriously, it was next to impossible to find any examples without having to order samples.

More updates are on the way! Stick around. We'll have fun.

From Damsel to Heroine: How Young Adult Novels Have Changed Romance

I'm sure most of us remember the old Harlequin romance novel covers. The formula was a pretty basic one: a guy and a girl in a "clinch" pose, where the obviously muscular, alpha male gripped the woman with desperation while she reclined submissively in his arms, nearly swooning in the face of his passion.

Passion. He haz it. (Harlequin Romance)

There was nothing inherently wrong with these covers. Romance, after all, is largely about embracing a fantasy—but they were indicative of the type of story one might find within.

For a long time, romance was lambasted as a genre, particularly by intellectuals or feminists who remarked on the lack of agency displayed by many of the female protagonists. These women wanted nothing more than their man, or if they did have an ulterior motive, it vanished once the male love interest was obtained. The women took largely passive roles in the story, allowing the man to make decisions and affect change upon the world while they were merely witnesses to that change.

In short, they were the objects of the story while the men were portrayed as the subjects.

Of course, this was not true of all romance novels, but it was a prevalent trend particularly in the eighties, nineties, and even throughout the early two-thousands.

But something has changed. Many romance covers have moved on to a new formula, one that was decried in the late eighties as "something no woman wants to see."

The unthinkable has happened: romance novels now feature women alone on their covers.

Sarah Painter's The Secrets of Ghosts, for example—a novel currently in the top 100 romance category on Amazon.com—has a woman's back turned to us as she zips up her dress. Patricia Briggs' Bone Crossed cover has a woman with tattoos and and a tool belt striding through a junkyard with no man in sight. The cover of Bella Forrest's A Shade of Vampire is dominated by a lone woman in a flowing white dress staring almost defiantly at the reader.

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For the first time in decades, independent, strong women are the subjects of the novel—the heroines—and this is swiftly becoming the norm.

It's an interesting time to be a writer when you're catering to an audience who craves this type of character rather than relegated to crafting ones who are not active participants in what ought to be their own stories.

Even more interesting is how widely-accepted this trend has become. Quiet, submissive, and eternally-compliant female characters with no agency have become aberrant in romantic and young adult fiction, while just a few short years ago, they were almost required by publishers and audiences everywhere.

Evident change has been affected in romance. And it all started with young adult novels.