M.G. Herron's Blog, page 34
August 31, 2015
Introducing THE AURIGA PROJECT (and Book Launch Date!)
Hello everyone, and welcome to the show!
Today, I have the pleasure of presentingthe cover of my upcoming novel,The Auriga Project. Let me just pull the curtains aside…
Ah…Er…Right! There we go.
Without further delay:
Meanwhile, her inventor husband, Amon, whose revolutionary but controversial machine is responsible...
August 24, 2015
Understanding the Publicity Puzzle with Elena Meredith
Book publicity is one of the most vital pieces of launching a book and building its visibility in the marketplace. Outreach typically begins 6 to 8 months before the books pub date, but PR should be a part of every authors plan well before the book is written.
As the level of PR, outreach varies from publisher to publisher, and self-published authors are on their own during this process. The followingdiscussion focuses on what you can do to generate publicity for your soon-to-be-published boo...
August 10, 2015
An Overview of Intellectual Property Law for Indie Authors
Disclaimer: the information here is educational. It does not create an attorney client privilege between the author/presenters or the reader.
The focus of our meetup today was Intellectual Propertylaw. Notes taken from slides and presentation prepared by Nicole Sallie Franklin and Elizabeth K. Stanley (bios below).
The ecosystem of Intellectual Property law includes:
Patents Trademarks CopyrightPlus, specific IP considerations for indie authors:
Trademark: Branding and Titles Copyright:...July 26, 2015
How to Make Multiauthor Boxed Sets Work For You
NY Times and USA Today Bestselling Author, Lori Ryan joined us today to discuss boxed sets from soup to nuts. How to set them up, what works and what doesnt, what they can do for you as an author, and how to make them as successful as possible.
Notes from the sessionLori is a romance author, and multiauthor boxed sets are huge in Romance. First one she did was 1.5 years ago. At the time, they thought they were in on the tail end of a bubble, but multiauthor boxed sets have only gotten more...
Indie Pub Austin Discusses Scifi and Fantasy Genre
Lets get together and talk about the state of the scifi/fantasy scene, and how that relates back to indie publishing in general.
Who are your favorite indie authors in SFF? Least favorite? What events should an indie SFF author be attending? How to vet an editor for your scifi/fantasy story How to find beta readers for your scifi/fantasy story Finding Beta Readers Finding cover artists Copyright law (We have an upcoming meetup on this topic) Conventions? Questions from Authors and Notes Wh...June 16, 2015
Final Fantasy VII Remake Confirmed!
Holy. Shit.
Final Fantasy VII, an RPG that haunted my childhood dreams, is being remade for PS4 (and probably later for other platforms). I don’t even own a PS4 and I am ridiculously excited. Check out this epic trailer:
The trailer makes it look great.My favorite part is the meta tone the voiceover takes:
The reunion at hand may bring joy. It may bring fear. But let us embrace whatever it brings. For they are coming back. At last, the promise has been made.
That mix of emotions is exactly h...
June 15, 2015
Navigating the Non-fiction Gauntlet with Steven Statham
Created by Steve Statham, with an accompanying talk given at the June 14thIndie Publishing Austin event.
The nonfiction world is huge:
Business copywriting Newswriting Feature writing Magazine writing etc.The business of writing non-fiction requires you to put on your reporters hat, start thinking about journalism ethics and journalism law (which you can ignore in fiction).
You also need to structure your story wellnon-fiction is a much more news oriented approach. Most non-fiction writing...
June 9, 2015
Using Archetypes in Character Development
This presentation is geared for people who want to write commercial fiction.
The goal of commercial fiction is to reach out and touch the reader.
We read to become, invest, feel for, root for a character.
So how do you make compelling characters?
By following the rules of character creationCharacter-driven books are focused on the arc of a character.
When creating characters, they should be:
Believable EmpatheticYou can have the most amazing world for your book, but i...
May 25, 2015
How to Self Edit Your Work with Sarah Beckham
This guide isdesigned to help get an author into the right mindset to self edit their own work. The goal for an author is not to be the only or final editor of theirown workbut tobe a capablefirsteditor.
Created by Sarah Beckham, with an accompanying talk given at theMay 24th Indie Publishing Austin event.
Think like an editorEditing is just a part of writing
No matter how many times we read Anne Lamott talking about shitty first drafts, I think there’s still something in us as writers (or a...
May 16, 2015
First Look at DC’s Legends of Tomorrow
I try not to post every trailer for a new movie or TV show I come across, but I thought it was worth a look at DC’sLegends of Tomorrow.
It caught my attention because I’ve seen these same characters introduced through DC’s other popular shows on the CWArrow andThe Flashand I’m fascinated asa writer to see how they planted the seeds for the newshows early in existing shows, and foreshadow events to come. Historically, TV spinoffs are contrived and often come after the fact. This is an opportu...
