Barbara Eberhard's Blog - Posts Tagged "publishing"

With each book I publish, I agonize over which book categories to use to list the books on KDP, which translates to their listings on Amazon. You only get to choose three categories on KDP, and obviously, those choices help readers find the books - or not.
With Maverick for the Built Environment, biography was the obvious choice. But...there are all kinds of biographies. I chose "biography: artists, architects, and photographers" - which is kind of a weird set of choices - "biography: science and technology". When I first published the book, it topped out at 272 on Kindle under "biography: artists, architects, and photographers". That was amazing; today, two weeks later, it's at 909, which is still amazingly high. Amazon also added the book to "biographies: scientists", which I would argue doesn't really apply. And also to "artist and architect biographies", which is somehow different than "biography: artists, architects, and photographers" where it is also listed.
To try to get more views on Amazon for my fantasy books, where there are millions of fantasy novels, I tried to be a little more selective than just "fantasy". Eric did some research, and between us, we came up with "fantasy: epic" - which I think of as tales with life-and-death choices - and "juvenile fiction: fantasy & magic". The idea of "juvenile fiction" was to get younger readers to consider the trilogies; Harry Potter and the Anne McCaffrey books have created young readers for fantasy series. KDP didn't like the combination, though. It didn't understand how a book could be both juvenile fiction and adult fiction. Clearly, the algorithm was not designed by authors. As with Dad's biography, Amazon also has added categories for the fantasy trilogies. The last book in the first trilogy, The Prophecy Fulfilled, is #48,072 in sword and sorcery fantasy and #83,774 in children's fantasy & magic books. Sword and sorcery fantasy is another category I thought I'd used for the trilogies, though KDP doesn't reflect it. There are not really swords in my fantasy trilogies. But there is lots of sorcery, aka magic.
The last category of books I write, though, has proved the most difficult to categorize. I called the novels I write about love and life from a woman's perspective (first person narration) fictional autobiographies or fictional biographies. In KDP, I'm using the choices of "romance: contemporary" and "women's fiction: contemporary". On Amazon, they have also categorized the books under "biographical fiction", which I don't think I knew was a category. The problem with these categories are that I don't think of my novels as romances, at least not the kinds of romances I've read since I was a teenager. While the women and men I write about fall in love, and often have sex as a result, there is not a focus on the sex part. I don't write sex scenes in graphic detail. I chose "romance: contemporary" as a category because a lot of women read from that category. I just hope anyone buying one of my books and expecting lots of sex isn't disappointed. Likewise, "biographical fiction" is problematic as a category - to me - because the novels are usually only about a small part of the woman's life, the meeting and falling in love - not an entire lifetime. There's usually some other elements to the novels, as well, generally related to how they get past themselves and do the falling in love part. So, in that regard, romance is the focus on the books. But "biography", to me, implies a whole life's novel. So, I worry, again, about whether people will be disappointed in buying the books with that category when they find out the novels only cover part of the main character's life. Overall, I think "women's fiction: contemporary" is probably the best fit. I've read other authors in this genre, like Emily Giffin, and I would say my novels are similar in nature. Girl meets boy. Problems get in the way. Girl and boy have to find their way past them to find love.
When and if I ever do full marketing campaigns for my writing, I'll probably have to rethink these categories. Again. Maybe.

As I've written before, I have hesitated to call my non-fantasy novels "romances". I demurred this was because I don't have a lot of sex in the books. Which is true.

But also I've tried, in this novels, to bring a realistic portrayal of relationships.

I based my first novel, Life Reimagined, on my life. It was a retelling of a relationship I'd actually had and two takes on what might have happened - good and bad - if he and I had been able to work through the reasons we didn't end up together. In the process, I realized that the reasons we'd had for not making it as a couple had, in fact, been good ones. And getting the fictional couple past them had required some changes for both main characters that I don't believe would have ever happened in real life.

Two more of my novels are loosely based on actual events: Pre-Bound Girl and The Drum Set. In Pre-Bound, the main character falls for men who are never quite everything she wants based on a checklist she created for herself of the perfect man. In the end, she marries a man who isn't perfect, but who is perfect for her. I believe this is a realistic perspective, though also a romance trope. No couple is ever going to be "perfect" for each other; as a favorite columnist has written (I'm paraphrasing), "You aren't going to agree on everything. But you have to be able to live with the things you don't agree on, and you have to be able to disagree with honesty and trust." The Drum Set was based, in part, on the trauma and drama of a life-or-death situation. And that sometimes, facing hard situations forces one to come to the realization of what one wants, or makes one be honest with oneself and one's partner. Whether that ends up positively is a whole other question. In the case of my novel, it did. But again, the resolution felt real, probably because it mirrored much of what had actually happened in my own life.

The Gift for Michael has a supernatural component. In that, it's not realistic at all. How the two main characters come to love seems authentic, nonetheless. And there's a bit of a denouement where we learn a bit about what happens after the book ends. While the story ends with some aspects being idealistic (she gets a job that barely exists and probably isn't one you could afford to have a family on), I'd like to think the relationship between Michael and Amanda is honest and forthright.

Best Meet-Cute Ever had one of my most "controversial" relationships, because Jake starts off lying to Tina. Getting these two characters to be honest with each other and get past his terrible behavior took some doing. I'm happy that at least one of the reviewers said something to the effect of "Tina believed in Jake, so I tried to, too, and eventually did." That's entirely how I thought about it as I was writing. What could Jake do to gain her trust again? It's incremental. It's not like some romance novels I've read where the couple have one heart-to-heart conversation, and all is forgiven. Jake has to earn Tina's love after hurting her.

I'm at the point now in Rich People's Problems of trying to get the main characters back on track without making it forced. Anna's mother just called her out on thinking Anna and Andrew know each other when they haven't really spent time together in a couple of decades. Having been best friends when they were kids is a nice foundation. But it's not enough. And they aren't the people they were then. So, a magical post-sex, all is well, let's be together forever isn't in the cards. They have a couple of hard conversations ahead of them. The good news is that they've already had a couple of those deep discussions. They know how. They are learning to trust each other again after a teenage drama broke them apart. But it's not going to be easy.

So, is there a genre called realistic romance? Because I'm a romantic, which is why I've read hundreds of romance novels in my life. But I'm also a realist, which is why I call my books fictional biographies - because I'd like to think the people and stories could have been real.

Yesterday, I wrote about a conversation between my two main characters. I called the chapter "An Attempt at Talking".
Because these two have trouble talking. They've been denying their passion for each other for weeks since Anna came to the ranch. Really, they've been denying their passion since they were teenagers when Anna's mother interrupted them before they had sex. There are decades of pent-up passion that have underscored their more recent interactions.
Because there is this passion, and because neither of them is sure about the other, there has also been a lot of defensiveness. And pushing the other one away. Or not listening, jumping to conclusions. Almost every conversation ends up in an argument.
Except Andrew finally told Anna about his childhood. About losing his mother. And why he calls her Raggedy Ann. I don't want to ruin the book for readers, so I won't say anything more about that. But it was something he needed to tell her. And it led to them having sex. Finally.
But sex doesn't always solve everything. In fact, most of the time, it just creates complications. Which is what it has done between Anna and Andrew.
Because they don't communicate well. And communication has to be part of any relationship, along with sex. Or to put it another way, they will only be having sex if they can't find a way to communicate and start making love instead.
So, the day after their first foray, they try to talk about things. Really talk about the challenges between them. Anna's mother has convinced Anna that she and Andrew don't really know each other anymore. Which is true because they aren't good at communicating. And being honest with each other. And being themselves.
Anna tries in this chapter. She talks about her life now. How she's a successful writer. She's gotten a movie deal. She's wealthy. She's got a life back in New York.
But Andrew is still being defensive, and he doesn't hear her. And so, she reverts to being defensive, too.
And their attempt fails.
My intent was to have the next chapter be called, "Another Attempt". For Anna and Andrew to talk to each other, and really listen.
But, as is often the case, the characters had different ideas. Anna had a conference call for her movie deal. And then she had to talk to her editor. And her publicist. In short, she had a morning being the businesswoman she is.
Then, she went to Cecelia, who is the heart of the ranch - and the heart/conscience of the book. Anna talks to Cecelia about the fact that she and Andrew don't communicate well. And Cecelia disabuses Anna of some of her defensiveness about Andrew.
And, so, now Anna is ready to talk to Andrew again. 12 pages later.

I've been writing books for almost 15 years now. I started writing my first novel in 2012 with the intent of publishing for my 50th birthday, which I did. I have always self-published, in part because I don't think finding a traditional publisher would be easy and in part because that way I have complete control of the process and the product. But it also means I sell few copies, and that means I make almost no money from my writing.
When I published my first novel, Life Reimagined, I had fantasies of it being "found" by some publisher, who would love it so much they wouldn't want to change a thing and would publish and promote it. I would make money - not a lot, perhaps, but more than I do now.
Then, I received high praise from the mother of a friend, who read the book "by accident" because they shared a Kindle library. She loved the book and asked my friend how she had found this author her mother had never heard of. My friend confessed that she knew me because she was my friend. :) Still, her mother read several of my other books and continued to tell my friend that she enjoyed my writing. It was a wonderful compliment.
Then, I started doing giveaways on Goodreads. In exchange for a free Kindle version of a novel, the giveaway awardees are supposed to write a review of the book. I've given away 100 copies of each of my books for several books now (I didn't do this for Maverick for the Built Environment, which is nonfiction). And gotten at most, three or four reviews of each. The reviews have primarily been positive, however, and the ratings have been mostly 4s and 5s. So, that gives me some hope that my writing is enjoyed by complete strangers.
But still I self-publish. And I make little money. And so, to a large extent, I've always said my writing is really a "vanity project".
If you look up the definition of a "vanity project", though, it says a vanity project is something released but failed. Usually financed by someone who has more money than sense. And just can't let go of what they "know" is a bad project.
In my case, however, I would define vanity project as something I do because I need to and because I enjoy it, and don't worry about whether it's going to make money or not. I self-publish because I love that my words are out in the universe. And seeing my name on the cover and spine of a book still brings a thrill, in my English major heart.
So, I guess it's vanity that I continue to self-publish with so little feedback on my work, except the three or four reviews I might get. But, you know what? I'm not hurting anyone by writing and self-publishing. So, I'm okay with that.

There are many considerations to make in writing. One of the most important is the type of narration.
First-person narration is used when the novel will be from a single perspective. I call my women's fiction novels "fictional autobiographies" because I use first-person narration when I write them. They tell the story from the main character's point of view, like a autobiography would.
But there are disadvantages to using first-person narration. It means that the main character has to be "in the room" for everything that happens and/or she has to hear about what happened in rooms where she was not. Other characters can - and do - recount things that happen elsewhere, of course. But everything is filtered through that one lens.
My fictional autobiographies require the life of the protagonist to change, often significantly. Such transformations are more impactful, in my opinion, when written from that person's perspective.
I suppose it might be possible to write a fantasy in first-person narration. But more often, as I have, authors choose to use an omniscience narrator. The narrator knows everything about everyone and everything. Thus, you can switch perspectives from one character to another. You can present information that the reader should know, but the characters may not yet.
For my Dichotomies trilogy, I'm combining the two. The first and last chapter are written in first-person narration. This establishes the main character - the title character of each book - in their own "voice". And allows the climax and denouement to also be from his or her perspective, adding more interest to those parts.
But the main body of the novels will be using an omniscient narrator, because that's just easier when telling a story with lots of characters with lots of their own ideas, not to mention a prophecy.
I personally have never seen this done before in a novel. I think it will give the Dichotomies trilogy an interesting twist.

Today, I gave one of my main characters agency. And she loved it!
Kymri is blind, and for all of her life, her family thought she was pretty useless. She helped with the farming, true. But she was a drain on their resources, without being able to do as much as her siblings. She didn't get much, as a result. Her clothes were hand-me-downs. Her siblings got more food, and certainly, only they got dessert. She did have a room of her own, but no control over anything she did in her life. She wasn't able to go to school, because there was no means to teach her in her small village. Concas - her only friend growing up - teaches her some things verbally, by explaining words to her. Kymri has never been taught to read, obviously, nor to write.
But now that she's with Sze, her mentor, he's given her agency. She's got say over when she wakes up, when she goes to sleep, when and how much she eats. And she gets dessert. She's training to be a warrior, so although she has agency over her body in the sense of being clean and clothed for the first time, in her own clothes and with her own bathing room, she has to listen to Sze to learn how to use her body, to learn to fight.
She's also going to learn to read and write, though only somewhat, through magic. Enough to be able to start educating herself using spell books - grimoires - and histories. But not enough to be able to see in the conventional sense of seeing. It's important for the books that she remain blind, but not helpless.
And because she now has agency, she is learning that she's not helpless at all.

As I wrote a while back, I'm writing a new fantasy trilogy.
Usually a trilogy follows a timeline - first book covers the start, second book the middle, and third book the finale. The challenge with these kinds of trilogies is making each book also have an arch. Otherwise, the reader gets bored or frustrated, not getting a sense of completion in any of the books until the third.
But this trilogy is different. I'm writing each book from a main character's perspective, covering the same timeline in each book.
This is similar to the very first book I wrote, which had three stories in one, each the same main characters but with a different perspective. In that book, the husband of the couple dies at the beginning of the first story, and the rest of the story is about how they met and how she will get along. The second story tells the story of them living and loving until old age. The third story is much of the truth of the tale, which is loosely based on real events.
So this trilogy is similar in that it's the same story - sort of - with different perspectives.
But it's different in that each book is really the story of fulfilling the prophecy from the perspective of one of the three chosen ones. It's not until the final chapter that the three come together.
And so, as I write, the three stories are separate but intertwined. Things that happen in one book may affect what happens in the others. And since things "come up" as I write - regular readers will know this about my writing - I'm writing the three books simultaneously. That way, I can incorporate the pop-up ideas in the other two books - if appropriate.
As a result, I don't think I'll publish until all three books are completed. So, instead of publishing every 9 months, as has been my norm, it might be a couple of years.
That's scary for me. I don't know that I have an audience waiting for my books. But it's still a long time between new books.
So we'll see. I may try to focus on one of the three and publish sooner than that.

One of the ways in which fantasy writers move the plot forward is with a revelation or a prophecy.
Revelations - in my definition - are things the characters realize, not necessarily divinely given, but that nonetheless change the direction of the plot or are the resolution of a breadcrumb. Examples might be when one character shares something they thought everyone else knew, but didn't. Or when a plot idea from the beginning of the book is tied to something that happens toward the end of the book, which makes the reader remember the breadcrumb from earlier - or go back to try to find the previous reference - and the reader gets a sense of satisfaction from seeing how the different sections connect.
Prophecies, on the other hand, come from the gods or powers that be or whatever higher power you may be using in your particular fantasy novels. In both the Reunion and Jewels and Gods trilogies, I had the same set of gods, one for each country. I'll totally admit I stole that idea from David Eddings' brilliant Belgariad, though I'm not sure he was the first to think of it either. At any rate, in those trilogies, the main characters get prophecies from the gods that point them in a different direction or confirm they are on the right path. In both cases, prophecies also started the quest.
So, it should come as no surprise that Dichotomies, my in-process trilogy, would also have both revelations and prophecies. In fact, one of the first things I did when I embarked on the process of this new trilogy was create a series of prophecies to be revealed as the quest went on. One, in particular, would help the "chosen ones" know where they needed to go to complete their question and fulfill the prophecy.
The second thing I did was determine where those prophecies would be revealed in the plots. Now, in the case of Dichotomies, because the three books are happening concurrently, the prophecies needed to come out in each book. But I decided they would not always come in the same order or at the same time. Thus, one main character might know something the others did not. I mapped each plot out by where the main characters were, with a rough sketch of what would happen at that point in the story. But then I also filtered in the prophecies. It was fun to try to figure out which prophecy's revelation would have the greatest impact during what part of which book. Got it?
There are also revelations, obviously. In this case, there are wise nagas who are mentoring each of the main human characters. They know things they share with their charges - the chosen ones - along the way. Some of these revelations are unique to that bonding. Others have to appear in each book of the trilogy. For example, how humans lost their magic is something humans don't know. But the nagas remember when it happened, and why. And the naga mentors to the chosen ones explain this to their charges, but not always at the same time or in the same way.
In today's writing, I came up with another revelation. This one is that the nagas knew when the humans lost their magic, and they knew it was related to the dichotomies that had divided humanity over time. But what they didn't know - and what they and the chosen ones will come to find out - is that the dichotomies not only severed the emotional connection among humans - as the Canian and Resani came to distrust each other - but also the loss of magic broke physical connections between the "can" where the Canians live and the "res" where the Resani live.
Because losing emotional connections can have the consequence of losing physical connections, and vice versa.

KDP has developed "Virtual Voice" - an AI-driven program to allow you to create audiobooks. I had created audiobooks for my women's fiction a while back. But today, I created audiobooks for my two fantasy trilogies and nonfiction works, as well.
Interesting thing about audiobooks for the two fantasy series, Reunion and Jewels and Gods, is how different the AI voice pronounces words I completed invented for these books. The world is, by definition, completely made up. And so are most of the names. So, I wondered how the AI would say them.
For the most part, I was pleasantly surprised at how the translation worked. But there were a couple of instances where I had in mind one pronunciation and the AI had another. Fortunately, there's a function in the Virtual Voice system to allow you to tell the AI how to pronounce words. It took me a few tries to get the system to say the words the way I wanted, though. There's no way to, for example, tell the system to emphasize the second syllable over the first. I tried capitalizing the second syllable; no go. I tried separating the two syllables, but that just put a pause in the middle of the word - very odd. So, in some cases, I had to go with what the system could produce versus the word I've heard in my head for almost 10 years.
Someday, when I'm rich, I'll get official audiobooks recorded. But for now, it's great to have another avenue for revenue.