P.J. Fox's Blog, page 7

Agni the (Feline) Music Critic

“How do you know she likes a song?” my husband asked.

“Because when she likes it, she purrs really loudly.  And when she doesn’t like it, she bites me until I change it.”

Agni, the third and youngest of our cats, is in fact still a kitten.  She’ll be six months old right around Christmas.  She’s already quite large, though, and she already has quite the highly developed taste in music.  Her favorite songs include “Rise Above This” by Seether, and “Peaches” by In The Valley Below.  She does not like Justin Timberlake.  She seems ambivalent about CHVCHES, but will listen to them if there’s nothing else on offer.  She’s not a huge fan of classical.  Any classical.  Her least favorite opera appears to be Turandot.

Cats are, I think, really underrated as communicators.  In my experience, though, the more you respond to their efforts, the more sophisticated those efforts become.  It’s like, finally, there’s that ah-hah moment where they realize, “I’m getting through to the big, fat, hairless one!”

What do your cats communicate (or not) with you about?

Happy Thanksgiving

pjfoxwrites:

Happy Thanksgiving!

Originally posted on James Cormier:

This year, I am thankful for opportunity and knowledge, for art and life, as every year.  I am thankful for the public school system, for teachers and medical professionals, for flannel toddler jammies and organic free range turkey.

I am thankful for wine, and family, and butter.  I am thankful that I live in a country that allows me the freedom to both enjoy the trappings of a holiday while intellectually disagreeing with the moral rectitude of its history.  I am thankful for the teaching justice of diversity, and for the enduring power of friendship.

I am thankful for books, and the smell of leaves on the grass, and for the music of the seasons.  I am thankful for Roomba vaccum robots, which entertain cats and children alike.  I am thankful for the Internet, font of dubious curiosities that it is.

I am thankful for New England and its rolling…

View original 86 more words

Twenty-One Things You Didn’t Know About The Black Prince

Have you read The Black Prince yet?  Did you like it?  Here are some things about the book, and the series as a whole, that you might not know:

The character of Arvid is based on one of my best (female) friends.
The name Arvid comes from the Old Norse for forest of eagles, which I found fitting for her as the eagle (which name in Old Norse roughly translates to corpse-gulper) is a symbol of strength and perseverance in the face of challenge.
The character of Maeve is based, in part, on my own biological mother.
The idea for the entire series came to me while I was bedridden during a serious illness–so maybe you can blame the medication!
I tried every recipe (food and drink) in every single book.
My obsessive fascination with the minutiae of (real) medieval life comes from the fact that I, myself, love it enough to have earned a degree in the subject.
The inspiration for Tristan (and especially his sense of humor) was my husband.
My choice of the surname Cavendish for Isla’s family was an homage to a favorite feminist from history, the Duchess of Devonshire.
Hart is named after her son, the 6th Duke of Devonshire (but there the similarities between them end).
The name Tristan is Celtic for tumult.
The name Rowena comes from a conjoining of two Germanic words meaning fame and joy; in other words, Rowena is literally a fame whore.
Piers, First of His Name, is loosely based on England’s King Stephen.
The line of poetry that Lissa’s shopkeeper friend recites was penned by Hildegard von Bingen–another woman famous for her rejection of societal mores, and for her long term affair with a man she could not marry.
Attic, as a language, is this world’s term for Latin.
Fuck you was a common medieval insult.
My inspiration for Solene’s character came from, in part, living near (and studying the horrors committed in) the famous and infamous Danvers State Hospital.
The name Asher comes from the Hebrew word for happiness; one named Asher is, according to the Old Testament, blessed with a life of both fulfillment and abundance.
The version of Christianity in the series is based on that of the medieval Cathari.
I got the idea for Father Justin’s botched embalming after attending a wake where that actually happened.
Loch Addanc is based on Lake Michigan (although the rest of Darkling Reach is based mostly on Northumbria).
Bragi, meaning chieftain, is another name for Odin.

The Black Prince is OUT!

Just in time for Thanksgiving, the Kindle editions of both books (The Black Prince: Part I and The Black Prince: Part II) are out!  The print editions will be following shortly, available online and in bookstores by December 1.  I really hope you enjoy these two final installments as much as, over the last year, I’ve enjoyed writing them.

You’re Not Fooling Anybody

There are a lot of posts out there amounting to some version of, “for my thirty-second birthday, thirty-two things I’ve learned.”  I’ve learned too many things in the past thirty-two years to list (and yes, yesterday really was my birthday but I didn’t get to finish this post then because, well, it was my birthday), so instead of cobbling together an incomplete list I’m going to focus on one thing: friendship.  Specifically, the importance of not abusing friendship for one’s own gain.  Respect friendship is, perhaps, one of the simplest lessons to be learned and yet, sadly, any true understanding of its meaning seems astonishingly rare.  A fact of which, incidentally, I was reminded on my birthday.  More than once.  By people who a) don’t understand why they’re not more major players in my life and b) why they’re not happy with their own lives.

To better elucidate what I mean, I’ve broken down this particular exploitation into three discrete sub-types: the means to an end friend, the How Do You Like Me Now friend, and the ATM friend.  There is, of course, some overlap between the categories and some “friends” won’t fit into any of them.  In which case, tell me what I’m missing (and why) in the comments!  But for right now, we’re going to examine each of the three in turn, along with what those who do fit into them, in whole or in part, are missing.

Shall we?

The means to an end friend is someone who pretends to a friendship she doesn’t feel, in order to achieve some unrelated end.  Her communications almost always follow the same track: a sentence or two about how great you are, interspersed with a question or two (oh, blah blah blah, you’re so great, blah blah blah, how are your books selling?), followed by a request: can I [add you to my VIP selling circle, put you down for a thousand dollars’ worth of my daughter’s wrapping paper, etc]?  This person is pretending to a friendship she doesn’t feel, in order to–in my experience, almost always–enrich her own coffers.

I got a message like this from someone, yesterday, who hadn’t been on my friends list for over eighteen months.  And had never noticed.  I de-friended her because my friends list is tiny, and the reason it’s tiny is because I only keep people on it who I’m actually friends with in real life.  Random, essentially strangers, don’t need to see pictures of my son.  But, more specifically, it had gotten to the point where every conversation I had with her felt like a sales pitch.  She only wanted to talk to me when she needed to sell me something–including trying to guilt me into buying things I didn’t need, when I was bedridden during my serious illness–and basically had no interest in me otherwise.  Since I do, in fact, have more to offer the world than a credit card, I cut the cord.

Which, clearly, made such an enormous impact on her that she didn’t notice until she started hawking her MLM’s Black Friday “deals.”

What people like her don’t seem to notice is that their two to three sentence intro isn’t fooling anyone.  Want to convince me that you’re interested in me as a friend?  Ask me about myself just to ask.  Have a conversation with me that doesn’t, at any point, include a sales pitch.  It’s okay if someone’s selling something.  I sell things (books) indirectly.  And it’s fine, now and then, to invite someone to Facebook “party” or post a status about your awesome new vitamins, nails, or whatever.  But there’s a big difference between that and literally only using your personal contacts as sales tools.  Some or all of them.

The really sad thing, here, is that whatever one might gain in terms of material wealth is going to pale in comparison to what will be lost.  Friendships aren’t replaceable, and certainly not with commissions.  I feel bad for people who see their friends, not as friends, but as a means to an end–with or without the help of corporate-sponsored lectures about the “downline”–because they’re missing out on what is truly one of the best parts of life.  My own friendships are everything to me, and have greatly enriched not only my life but also my son’s.

How Do You Like Me Now, by Toby Keith, is one of my favorite songs.  At least in part, I suppose, because I relate to the message: that others measure our worth, often, as a function of how they imagine we might serve them.  They’re loyal, not to you, but to their need of you.  So when they think you’re not serving that need–for example, by not being adequately rich or successful–they move on.  Never realizing that the potential they missed out on, do to their own limited mindset, was there all along.

Which is why, when they come back, they’re surprised by the reception they get.  They might think of you as a brand new person, but you don’t.  You’re still the same person; you just look different now.  Different because you lost weight, different because you took your stupid startup public, different because your book hit #1 on Amazon.  But Will Smith put it best: “if you’re absent during my struggle, don’t expect to be present during my success.”

They do, though, because they’re thinking only of themselves and what they need.  You existed to serve them before, which is why they left; you weren’t serving them adequately.  So really, from this perspective, what’s changed?  You’re more capable of serving them now; you should naturally want to do so.  The idea that she might somehow play a role in the events of her own life is anathema to the narcissist, who sees herself only as a victim and who appreciates people only in terms of what–she believes–they can offer her.  Money?  Time?  If you have it (again, according to her own internal assessment), then you should give it.  If you don’t, you’re wrong.  And evil, to boot.  End of story.

And, finally, the ATM friend sees your success–however meager–as a threat.  Or, conversely, as an opportunity to criticize, guilt, or beg.  Did you go out to dinner on your birthday?  She would have liked to have gone out to dinner on that random Wednesday, but she didn’t have any money.  Conversations with this friend also tend to follow a specific pattern: a question about what you’re doing, designed to elicit a certain type of response (because the questions are never about things that don’t involve, in some way, spending money), followed by a pointed comment about how she couldn’t do this.  But would really like to.  With the follow-up question, if unspoken, clearly implied: what are you going to do about it?

The other hallmark of these conversations is that, as soon as the answer becomes clear (nothing), she loses interest.  I can’t tell you how many people have never so much as read a single chapter of a single one of my books, even when I gave them those books for free, who’ve never once asked me, sincerely, how my husband and son are doing, who’ve never taken an interest in any aspect of my life or theirs, who have then expected me to really care about their bottom line because they think I have money.

Friendship–real friendship–is reciprocal.  Friends can, and should, help each other.  But the key portion of that sentence is each other.  The ATM friend, conversely, doesn’t see you as a real friend; they see you as an object of resentment to be exploited, because what do you care.  You have everything; they have nothing.  You think you’re so special, and awesome, and wonderful because blah blah blah.  That you worked hard for everything you have is irrelevant.  That you can’t, in fact, support the whole world is also irrelevant.  They’re not concerned about your wellbeing, financial or emotional; only what you’re offering them.

I’m going to close this by saying that, while these descriptions have at times matched people in my life, they don’t now.  Anyone who makes accepting their poor treatment a condition of having them in your life doesn’t deserve to be in your life in the first place.  Friendship should be one of the best things in life, not one of the worst; and you have the right to assert boundaries.  If someone doesn’t respect you, and treat you in a way that makes you feel good about yourself, tell them to fuck off.  There’s nothing “mean” or “wrong” about recognizing your own worth.  To be honest, if there’s one thing I regret, it’s not telling certain people to fuck off a lot sooner.  I spent a lot of years buying into a lot of self-serving rhetoric that essentially boiled down to, my only worth was as some sort of servitor.

Once I started asserting myself, yes, I lost some friends.  Or people who called themselves such, when it suited them.  But I also gained new friends and, more importantly, I gained a sense of self.  You should never let other people, and their treatment of you, define your self worth.

Want To Read My Novels, But Can’t Afford Them?

Here are some suggestions that will definitely work with me, but will most likely work with other authors as well.  At least the nice ones.  Yes, we’re all trying to make a living but to me, reading is one of those exceptional life pleasures that should never be denied.  And there are those miserly types out there, who really, really feel strongly about squeezing every last nickel out of their readership.  I am…not one of those authors.  Perhaps to my detriment.  But, as it’s only comparatively recently that I’ve enjoyed reliable access to adequate food and the other luxuries of a civilized society, I have a different perspective than some of my peers.  And I really, really enjoy free.  And I don’t need an extra trip to Starbucks more than someone else needs a (hopefully!) good book.

So here’s what to do:

Email my publisher and ask for a review copy.  The catch here, and this is sort of the honor system, is that you will in fact leave a review on Amazon, or wherever, for the book.  Yes, ideally, a positive one.  But if you hate it, that’s fine, too.  Plenty of people hate books (just look at my massive collection of one and two star reviews!)
Follow me on Facebook, where I regularly post announcements about promotions I’m running on Amazon.  Per Amazon’s rules, I can only do them once every three months, but I do try to alert fans to the opportunity when it arises.  Also too, if there’s a certain book you’re just dying to see up for a promotion, let me know!  I’ll see what I can do.
Enter one of my periodic giveaway contests.
Sign up for a free trial of Audible, if you’re not yet a member, and you get one free book.  You can then, if you don’t like Audible or it’s too expensive or whatever, cancel your membership.  Of course.  But The Demon of Darkling Reach (and, eventually, the whole series) is on Audible right now so that’s another way to score a free book.
Ask your local library to carry my books, if they don’t.
Read my newest book, Book of Shadows , on Wattpad entirely for free.  Wattpad is easy to sign up for and easy to use, and there are literally millions of books available on it.  Some are great, some are awful, but most are–at least–pretty good.  What I like the best is that you can read to your heart’s content, message your favorite authors and comment on each new chapter they post, and it’s all just really casual and awesome.

I hope this helps!

How Do You See The World?

This post is for a fan, who asked me this question.  Along with several others, all of which were both unusual and insightful.  In order to answer it, I’m going to go through her more specific questions first.  Starting with: “[y]our writing reflects a non-conventional norm,” she says.  “Does that make difficulties for you in your own life?

My writing is unconventional, because I am.  Kisten and Ash (The Price of Desire and The Prince’s Slave, respectively) are both based on my husband.  Which, to longtime readers of this blog, is no secret.  Nor is it a secret that, in many respects, both books are somewhat autobiographical.  They’re both fiction, yes; but they both, also, tell part of my own story.  Specifically, the story of how I met my husband.  In an attenuated sense, yes; he hasn’t, to the best of my knowledge, ever been in space.  Nor do we currently live in a castle.  But that’s not really the point; the emotions the characters feel, and their conflicts, the knowledge behind them–the knowledge necessary to craft them convincingly–comes from a real place.

As a writer, you have to–if you’re going to be successful, at least–write what you know.  Alienation is a major theme in my books, because it’s a huge part of who I am.  We all have baggage; I just choose to put my baggage into writing.  Although, admittedly, some books are heavier with it than others.  Which doesn’t mean, though, that each story is the same or that each narrative comes from the same part of my heart–or brain.

I wrote POD during a very difficult time in my life.  I was bedridden and in danger of dying.  A lot of the original manuscript, I wrote while in the hospital.  Because, let me tell you, when you’re in the hospital for three months there’s not a lot to do.  POD is definitely one of my darker books; in it, I was working out a lot of feelings about my biological family, my decision to leave my community of origin, and what that meant.  My childhood was…not good, and years of abuse had left me with a lot of anger.  Anger I thought I’d processed, and let go, until I started writing.

“Malignant narcissist” doesn’t really convey what I grew up with.  I don’t blame the religion of my youth for my family’s mistakes; I blame them for twisting an otherwise simple and beautiful faith into something wretched.  Into a justification for doing just about everything that can be done to another human being.  I ran away from home, because anything had to be better.

Almost a decade later, POD dredged it all back up.  And, in so doing, gave me the release I needed.  It’s an angry book, about an angry topic.  A series of angry topics, really.

Whereas, while TPS was also written in response to a difficult event, it was one of a much different nature.  A modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast, it is, in some ways, a retelling also of my own story.  From a more mature (I like to think) perspective, and with attention to different issues.  It’s focused much more on the relationship between the primary characters and less on their troubled relationships with their families.  For those who don’t know, this time, the catalyzing event that made me sit down and write was the death of one of my best friends.  Someone whose loss devastated me but who, in his life, brought me a lot of hope.  The hopeful tone of the book, I think, reflects his impact on my life.

And he, like another friend of mine, is also in the book.  Most of the time, when people  from my so-called real life creep into my characters, it’s entirely by accident.  One I only notice after the fact.  But in this case, it was a conscious inclusion.  My friend is the “fairy godmother” character, whom Belle meets at the end.  He gives her the same gift my friend gave me.

The House of Light and Shadow is, of course, only half complete as a series; but I think, here, the difference between the two books is quite similar to the difference between King Lear and The Tempest.  In The Tempest, Prospero forgives.  Which, in the end, makes all the difference.  Because, ultimately, our happiness is determined by our own perceptions.  Not what we convince ourselves to believe, or believe that we should believe, but in our honest belief in our power to be self-determining–and how, in turn, that belief motivates us to act.

All of my protagonists have one thing in common with me: they did what was right for them, and rulebook be damned.

Has living a life similar to that of my protagonists, at least in that sense, caused problems for me?  I can honestly say that, in the thirty years since my birth, not forging my own path has caused me a lot more problems.  Other people may have an opinion about my life, but they don’t have to live it.  They don’t have my dreams; they’ll never have my deathbed regrets.  And, conversely, I can’t hold them responsible for me–or my happiness.  Only I can determine my own course.

So much of unhappiness, I think, comes from not understanding this.  From living a life according to others’ dictates and then wondering why one isn’t happy.  When the answer is, in fact, obvious: what other people tell you is going to make you happy, won’t.  There’s no magic power in the telling.  Some of the unhappiest people I know spent their lives doing what they thought they “should” do, and are now looking to that same source for a return on their investment.

Not everyone likes me.  And that’s okay.  I like myself, and I’m confident in my decisions, and in the decade since I left home me being me has provided me with some really genuine, wonderful friendships.  I’d rather deal with the problem of being me than the problem of not being me, if that makes any sense.

The next question is: [t]here is a common theme throughout your stories of the male character not adhering to sexual monogamy even while in an emotionally committed relationship with his primary partner, who is conversely required to be strictly monogamous (or only shared within the framework the male controls). My question is not on the morality of monogamy but rather on the lack of mutual balanced reciprocity and power. 1) What is the point of this theme in your stories, other than the obvious of males cheating with impunity and 2) are the female characters truly happy and fulfilled in this power dynamic or is it a matter of accepting what they cannot change and making the best of it (living a half-life or settling for less than would honestly make them happy?)

I’d begin this portion of the event, first, by suggesting–respectfully–that this is indeed a question about the morality of monogamy.  Because, within its framework, lies an assumption: that sexual fidelity is about power, and control.  That the apparently dominant partner, moreover, would be fulfilled in a relationship where–in this case his–partner was unfulfilled.

To me, a healthy relationship is one where love and respect are equal.  Where both partners value, not simply the relationship but each other as human beings equally.  Where there is true mutual reciprocity.  Whereas–again, to me–a person who was happy hurting another person, actively or passively, would be the opposite of moral.

Kisten, as a character, isn’t presented as anything close to a perfect model of manhood.  He’s a deeply flawed individual, a drug addict and a sex addict who suffers from PTSD.  A major point I’m making, in this series, is that he seriously needs to get his shit together.  He’s incredibly lucky that Aria loves him, not because of what he can offer her materially or out of some twisted sense of loyalty because he rescued her, but because of who he actually is.  And she does love him.  Truly and deeply.  As he loves her.

Love doesn’t, despite what the average romance novel would have us believe, occur only between perfect people.  Nor can the depth of one’s love–or satisfaction with one’s relationship–be measured in one’s partner’s lack of flaws.  Aria is happy and fulfilled, not because everyone would be but because Kisten is the right partner for her.  He doesn’t need to make everyone happy.  And yes, he has sex with other people; but he can give her the one thing no one else can: complete and utter devotion.

Aria has never experienced true love before.  Not from her parents and not from her former fiance.  To them, she was expedient.  And it’s coming to terms with that, which causes her the most pain.  Kisten is everything she’s been told she shouldn’t want–which, apart from everything else, is the strongest proof that she isn’t settling.  She has to, rather, make a conscious choice to be with him in spite of what she’s been raised to believe is “right.”  To choose what actually makes her happy, as opposed to what she’s been conditioned to believe a woman “should” want.  Essentially, she’s choosing authenticity over rhetoric.  She’s choosing love.  Not what love should look like, but how love feels.

Kisten might be highly flawed, but he’d sacrifice himself for her in an instant.  And she knows that.  And it means everything to her.

A lot of people are faithful with their genitals, and nothing else.  They spend their nights on the computer, or watching television, rather than engaging in meaningful conversation with their partner.  They fantasize about other people.  They make jokes about how awful their partner is to everyone who’ll listen and regale their friends with stories of the latest catastrophes in their households.  Never asking themselves: if things are that bad, then why are they there?

I’m not talking about domestic abuse, here, but the kind of low grade resentment that erodes the soul over time.  Sexual fidelity is used as a barometer of relationship health, I think, because it’s obvious: a person either is, or isn’t.  But how important is it, really?  And what matters more: the fact that Kisten likes to get around or the fact that he supports Aria, wholly and completely, in all of her endeavors, encourages her ambitions, and sees her as his intellectual and emotional equal?  As his equal and, indeed, necessary partner in all things?

I’d argue that they have a much healthier relationship than the average couple, because they do respect each other.  Because they talk.  Their relationship is, indeed, at least to me, characterized by a tremendous depth of intellectual and emotional intimacy.  They’re each other’s best friend–and that, to me, is beautiful.

It’s interesting to me that some people view Aria as passive, when to me she’s anything but.  Leaving home takes real courage; as does deciding, before one does, that one has to.  That one deserves better.  I deserve better, when you’ve been told your whole life that you don’t, is a revolutionary thought.  Embracing it as one’s mantra is a revolutionary act.

She’s not shy, either, about telling Kisten what she thinks.  About his world and, indeed, about him.  A dynamic, incidentally, which has also marked my own relationship.  I think I fell in love with my husband, first, because I loved debating with him.  He was truly the most interesting human being I’d ever met.  Now, certainly, the fact that he had a cute butt didn’t hurt!  But a cute butt does not, also, a decade of wedded bliss make.

And let me be clear, too, that I’m all for the woman wielding the whips and chains.  That’s just not a dynamic that speaks to me, or with which I have any personal experience, and so I leave its discussion to different writers.  What a couple does in the bedroom–with each other or, indeed, with other adult and consenting parties–really is irrelevant.  What gets one off says everything about…what gets one off.  And nothing about one’s relationship with their primary partner outside the bedroom.  Maybe, if we as a society stopped confusing great sex with love, we’d have fewer divorces.

Finally, to those who’ve asked, no.  I’m not offended if you don’t like Kisten.  Or Ash.  Or, for that matter, Tristan.  Who is also, although to a somewhat lesser degree, influenced as a character by my husband.  I really, really like my husband.  I spend a lot of time with him.  He’s my best friend and, I’m sorry, the sexiest man on earth.  He makes me happy and I make him happy but, you know what?  We’re not either of us for everybody.  Nobody is.

And that, I think, is part of what makes love–true love–so incredible.  That, within that sea of humanity, you find your person.  Someone who understands you, who wants to understand you, and who loves you–the real, unvarnished, warts and all you–for exactly who you are.

My books aren’t roadmaps to anything.  They’re certainly not relationship advice.  They’re just stories with a lot of gray, and not a lot of black and white.  If you want to know what I think about politics–in or out of the bedroom–ask me.  And feel free to follow my personal profile on Facebook, which is where I post my rants.  I try to keep them off my author page as much as possible because certain topics can be divisive and pretend, because that, ultimately, is all it is, should be for everybody.  I get to pretend for a living, and for that I’m extremely grateful.

Why Some Free Doesn’t Work

This is a sad story about a writer who, for right now, isn’t making it.

What’s she doing wrong?  How can I criticize her approach, when I’m advocating giving the fruits of one’s labors away for free?  Simple: she and I are talking about two different approaches.  Now, I feel for this girl, I really do, but her present circumstance–“broke and unemployed,” in her words, after quitting her job to travel the world–is entirely of her own making.  And no, this isn’t one of those situations where someone gave it their all and things didn’t work out.  This is, rather, a situation where she sat back and waited for a miracle to occur.

Somehow, she was “just going to become” popular and in turn parlay her newfound fame (as a blogger) into cash.  “Somehow” was the part she never worked out.  And a vague sensation that “other people appear to have done this” isn’t a plan.  Nor can one really categorize her efforts as the “hard work” she claims.  Because they largely constituted her having lots of hard-partying fun and then writing about it.  She, in short, traveled for herself and did what she, herself thought was interesting and expected everyone else in the world to be just as interested in her as she was.

Blogging can sometimes translate into money.  But, as with any kind of writing, there has to be a plan.  The plan I propose in Indie Success, which is essentially what I’m doing with this Wattpad experiment, is to get people interested in my writing so that they buy my other books.  It’s the same reason I offer sample chapters of all of my books here, on my site: so they can decide, for themselves, whether they’re interested and if they are buy my book.  Telling people to “buy my book” works about as well as knocking on doors and trying to get people interested in Greenpeace.  While naked, smearing yourself in dung, and singing the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

“I find my own travels fascinating, therefore you should to” is the blogging equivalent of tweeting ten (or more) times a day about how your book is fabulous and everyone should buy it.  I have friends who do that, on Twitter and Facebook; I’ve unfollowed them because spam annoys me.  Yes, I get it.  You want money; you want me to give you money.  But there’s that hitch: what’s in it for me?

There has to be some rhyme or reason to the plan other than, “I really, really want this to work for me.”  There has to be an end game.  With free book promotions on Amazon, etc, my end game is pretty obvious: the first hit’s free, and all that.  With Wattpad, like I discussed the other day, my primary goal is to reach a new audience.  I have enough confidence in my work to think that, if people are exposed to it, they’ll like it.  And no, I really don’t plan on making any money off of this particular book.  Although I do plan to eventually release it as a real book, through Amazon and all the usual channels, I’ll also most likely be leaving it up on Wattpad.  For some time, possibly forever.  There’s no gimmick; free is free and everyone who wants to read it should be able to.

Which would be a terrible idea…if Book of Shadows were my only book, or the last book I ever intended to write.  Which it isn’t.  My next book, after BOS, may also begin life on Wattpad or I may introduce it directly through Amazon, as I’ve done with all my previous books.  But, however I do so, my goal is to do so with a new and expanded audience that I otherwise wouldn’t have reached.

A New Author At Evil Toad Press!

Cadence writes smut.  Really captivating, intelligent smut.  Her first book is coming out this spring.  You can learn more about her here, and you should definitely give her a follow on Facebook.

Why Write a Book For Free?

I’ve done free promotions, before, through KDP.  But this is the first time I’ll be giving a book away, in its entirety.  Possibly forever.  Because although I absolutely do plan to release Book of Shadows in actual book form (e-book and paperback), I’m not planning to ever remove it from Wattpad.  So the question becomes…why am I doing this?

Well, a couple of reasons.

First, I’m hopeful of reaching an entirely new audience.  Few writers are so successful that they can afford to just sit back and say, “oh, everyone who might want to read my books has heard about them.”  I might be more or less paying my bills with this writing thing, but I’m no Stephenie Meyer.  Wattpad is a goldmine of readers, all looking for something interesting more than they’re looking for a name brand.  And there’s a lot to be said for, as a coach of mine put it when I was in high school, going where you’re wanted.  If your claim to fame is that you’re new and undiscovered, then your best bet is to go somewhere where people are looking for…you.

Second, I’m excited at the possibility of what amounts to unlimited beta readers.  Feedback on every chapter!  Potentially, at least.  I’m not sure I would have taken them out, but it was a bit of a shock that literally everyone who took issue with The Demon of Darkling Reach took issue, among other things, with the handful of paragraphs on cheesemaking.  Something my editor, and every other reader, found fascinating.  But, you know, people who’ve chosen to work with me…however honest they’re being with me, they’re also going to have the bias of shared interest.  They liked my writing well enough, in the first place, to bet on my success.

Readers, meanwhile:

Which is priceless.

The best feedback, I’ve learned from doing this as a professional for awhile, is from people who don’t know you and don’t wish to.  Even if you have hundreds of them, the beta readers you pick are people who already know you.  Who already talk to you, more or less of their own volition.  They like how your mind works; they like how you express yourself.  So of course they’re going to like your writing!  It’s the difference between joking with friend and standing alone, on stage, at a comedy club.  Both have their values, but the two should not be confused.

Finally, there’s the dubious issue of money.

The first time I ran a free promotion for The Demon of Darkling Reach, I gave away about three thousand copies.  Now, it’s very easy to look at that as 10,500 USD in lost revenue, but that’s a red herring.  At the time, I was completely unknown.  Now I am still more or less completely unknown, but at least there is the “more or less.”  No one was breaking down my door to buy my book.  Rather, it was I who had to do the convincing.

So the choice wasn’t between 10,500 USD and no 10,500 USD but between selling one book a day and maybe enticing some new readers into giving me a try and maybe, just maybe, if I was really lucky getting a couple of reviews.  I’ve since calculated that I receive roughly one review for every 750 copies I sell (and Amazon keeps taking them down!).  But why some books attract reviews and others don’t is a topic for another day.  My point here is that imagining all the money you’d make if your book cost more is pointless.  It doesn’t matter what something costs, or doesn’t cost, if no one wants to buy it.

The fact that so many bestsellers (from The Martian to Fifty Shades of Grey) started life as freebies should bear testament to the claim that, apart from free being a draw, it isn’t hurting anyone’s bottom line too much in the long run.  Books that are any good build followings, regardless of how they’re released.  The question becomes, in the long run, how long building a following is going to take.

There are no shortcuts, to anything, but free allows one to reach an entirely different set of people than Amazon.  Or even an end cap at Barnes & Noble.  One source of exposure is not a replacement for the others, and should not be viewed as such.  Nor does letting a certain group of people read a book for free mean that one has somehow “used up” all one’s chances at selling it.

I like to experiment with new things.  I know what it’s like to release a book the regular way, and generally what happens after.  This will be a new experience, with a whole new group of people.  As a reader, too, I’m excited to see what else is out there.  I like reading other people’s stuff, good and bad.  I also find Wattpad’s open community platform very appealing.  It’s casual, and that’s on purpose.

What about you, dear reader?  What are your thoughts?  Are you on Wattpad, either as a writer or a reader?