Teagan Oliver's Blog, page 7

Contractions are Killing Me!

And I don't mean that I'm having a baby. I can't even speak on that since I had two c-sections (too much TMI, sorry!) Anyway, I decided that before I try to submit Obsidian I was going to go back through and see what needed to be edited. After all, it may have been edited professionally and my copy editor is now a multi-published mystery author, but there is always room for improvement. Or in my case, I think there was a mansions worth of room left. Let me explain...

Back in college I took a wonderful writing course from a Professor who was published in Literary Fiction (I gave it caps because that was the way she talked). She was wonderful and gave me tons of encouragement, but she was very specific about the tone of the writing and one of her biggest pet peeves was the use of contractions. Because she was nice to me and encouraging, I wanted to make her happy with my work and so... Yup, I cut all the contractions from my writing. Not a single we're, they've, couldn't or I'm in the whole bunch. But unfortunately it didn't help my fiction writing. I've been told before that I have a good voice, but my sentences tend to be more formal than most editors like. That's because the voices in my head have been well trained to root out any contractions and speak in a more formal tone. Dang!

Now, I'm given the odious task of adding contractions back into my work. Don't laugh! I can hear you. Yes, I need to actually add them. Yesterday I spent the day go through and changing the following:
we are
they had
it would
could not
should have
I am
would have
he had (she had)
I would
You would (yes, I know I could just look for "would" and change them both)
I will
you are
he would

This took me the better part of the day and then I ended up the love fest by condensing a 5 page synopsis to a 2 page synopsis. It's really a love/hate thing. I love the work, but for those who think it's easy... think again. The upside is that if I do these corrections enough I'm hoping that my brain will rewire itself. It's only been *& years. But since I'm stubborn, I'll just keep plugging away it.

What are the bad habits in your writing that you picked up along the way?

Reasons for Backing Up Work and Not Throwing Out Anything

Okay, confession time... I've been sitting on the new version of Obsidian for quite some time. Mostly like a year. I've had the rights back for awhile, but with working on the Darkness Paranormal Series I put Obsidian on the back burner. Time to bring it to the front.

But that brought up a very big problem. The original book was on my laptop which fried itself last year. I've yet to get a new laptop and all the old information is stuck on the old hard drive. I didn't have a digital version of the book. Ackkkk!!!!! The prospect of typing it all back into the computer is a daunting one. And what if I make big mistakes when it's already an edited copy? Worse, I knew that at some point I had made a copy of the book on disk, but for the life of me couldn't find it. It wasn't on my hard drive, my thumb drive and on any of the piles of disks that I still have. This was bad.

But, since I am an optimist at heart I concluded that eventually my copy would show up when it was the right time for me to work on it. Low and behold, today was the day. I happened to look into the box of disks that contain my older ghost investigation information and found a disk marked "word backup". Light bulbs went off over my head, fireworks lit the sky and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir was singing a chorus of Hallelujah! Sure enough, all the copies, included the edited version to the original publisher were on the disk.

But wait... that wasn't all I was looking for. Yup, there was more. I decided that since it was time to repub Obsidian that I would include a partial scene from the original manuscript. One that I had taken out to make it more in line with the original publishers "more suspense, less romance" mantra. Now, where had I put that? After all, I wrote it back sometime around 2002 and Obsidian wasn't published by Five Star until 2007. That was several computers and lots of gray hairs ago. I really thought I was going to have to go back and recreate the scene. It was then that I remembered the huge binder I had been shuffling from place to place in the basement. A folder that I'd threatened to throw out multiple times and burn the contents, but never quite got around to it.

I shuffled off to the dank basement, next to the table I once envisioned as a work space (no more) and dug through the old binder. There is actually original work going back to 1995. Not all of it is good, but it's there and it's was all a great big learning experience. But there, buried in the back was the original version of Obsidian with the scene I'd been looking for. It would seem that the writing Gods are smiling on me today and I really appreciate it.

Did I learn my lesson? I've been learning this lesson since my daughter erased my first novel off my Brothers Word Processor. I'm a slow learner so I figure I've probably got a few more panic attacks in my future. But for now.... I alllllll good! 

All Aboard the Airship!

Happy Birthday to Innocent Darkness and it's Airship Commander, Suzanne Lazear! It's finally here! Release day for the first in her Aether Chronicles Series, a Steampunk Extravaganza that is being release from Flux (one of my favorite Pub Houses!).

Innocent Darkness...
Noli Braddock and her best friend V’s incident with a flying auto have landed them in a heap of trouble. And when Noli is sent to a spirit-squelching reform school in San Francisco, she’s sure that her rebellious adventures are over.
   Meanwhile, Kevighn Silver has been ordered by the Faerie Queen to bring a mortal girl back to the Otherworld. The magic requires a blood sacrifice every seven years, and only a mortal girl who shines with the Spark—a girl like Noli—will keep the Otherworld from complete destruction.
   When an ill-timed wish sends Noli tumbling into the Otherworld, she’s more homesick than ever . . .  until V arrives to save her from an untimely demise. But who exactly is V? And if he helps Noli escape, who will save the realm of Faerie from utter annihilation?

Suzanne is gearing up for a great launch with plenty of partying to send the book off right. There's an all day party going on at Bitten By Books in her honor. Next the next flight on over and check out all the excitement! Check it out at http://www.bittenbybooks.com/55891/su...

She's also got some great book parties lined up for anyone in the California area. Unfortunately, it's too long of a flight from Maine and and my dirigible can't make the distance. But if you're in the area you check it out. She's promising goodies and great reads and is encouraging everyone to show off their best Steampunk and Fairy attire.

Innocent Darkness Launch Party At Vroman's! Sunday, August 124:00 PMVroman's Bookstore695 E. Colorado Blvd.Pasadena, CA 91101 There will be cupcakes and swag, feel free to wear your steampunk or fairy best!  Keplar's Signing August 18, 20127:00 PMKepler's Books1010 El Camino RealMenlo Park, California  94025 There will be cupcakes and swag.  There will a steampunk costume contest so wear your steampunk or fairy best!
 Changing HandsSeptember 15, 20126:00 PMChanging Hands Bookstore6428 S McClintock Dr, Tempe, AZ 85283480-730-0205 There will be cupcakes and swag, feel free to wear your steampunk or fairy best!
But when all is said and done I hope you'll hop on over and get her book! Suzanne has done an incredible job of supporting this fantastic genre and Innocent Darkness promises to be a fantastical read! I'm off to pop an aether port to grab my copy for myself.

Lessons Learned from Marie Force

I've been very busy lately. Very busy. I'm not making excuses because a good amount of what I've been doing has had to do with writing. But I've also been working long and strange hours and I've also been putting together another blog, this one on my other loves... vintage and creative projects for the home. I'll let you in on that one later, but for now I want to talk about some of the writing related things that I've discovered when it comes to formatting your ebooks and books for Createspace.

These are the things that would have been done in-house by a traditional publishing house. I remember when I got my first contract and had to submit a style sheet listing information about the story and the characters and even how we envision our covers. I got none of it on my covers. Want to know how bad it can get? Check out my post here on the evolution of a cover. Thank God for Sabrina's Digital Imagery because she saved my book from the dreaded goat cat that was on the original cover.

Anyway, there is more to making a book memorable then having a great story, giving it a good cover and making sure it is error free. Those are all really important, but if you want to grow your readership then you need to make it as easy as possible for the reader to connect. Marie Force visited a recent Maine RWA meeting and she talked about all the things that she does to sell her books. Here's just a couple... (I'm paraphrasing, but the sentiments the same).

1. You have to have inventory for the customer to read . Write. Write. Write. If you don't have the next book ready when they finish the first will they really come back and get it later? Besides, who needs a store with just one item in it. You've got to have the inventory. 

2. Make it easy for the reader to find your books . Sounds simple, but try picking up one of Marie's books (You can start with Maid for Love from the Gansett Island Series. At the moment it's free on Amazon as an ebook) and taking a look at how she lists her books available, adds links to the where the books can be purchased and encourages readers to follow her on social media.

3. Give them a taste . At the back of each book she adds an excerpt to the next book with a link at the end that takes them directly to the spot to purchase it. It's worked so far for me. I'm on book 4... or is it 5? Either way, I'm making my way steadily through the series. It works.

Then there are some other things that I don't think she mentioned, although I may have been writing furiously and missed them. But I have noticed a few things about her books that make them stand out. 

4.  Forgo the boring formatting . I'm not talking about throwing caution to the wind and making crazy indents, but I'm talking about little things like changing the fonts on the chapter headings. Varying the size of the fonts and style. Those little things make it feel more like reading a bound book then an ebook. Take a look at some of the books out there. Not just read them, but take a look at the transition between the chapters, the way the pages are formatted and the over all presentation of the book. Play with the formatting. Nothing is hurt by trying something new.

5. Make them personal . The more you can make the readers feel familiar with you, the more they'll read your books. Make them relate. Make them believe that they know you and you've got a reader for life.

6. CYA : Otherwise known as "cover your butt". Sort of. Make sure that you've got all the legal stuff in there to protect yourself and your work. It's your work, don't give it away because you didn't bother to learn how to protect it.

7. Making it hot doesn't hurt . By hot I mean SMOKING HOT. She doesn't categorize them as anything other than romance, but a good portion of each book is the characters not being able to keep their hands off each other. That's not to say that they have indiscriminate sex. The basis is all there for the hot and sweaty stuff. But that just proves that most readers don't mind a little hot.

8. Consistency . Follow through on all books, not just on story, but on content. Give them all of the information on all the books. The great thing about pubbing indie-style is that you can go back and change and edit to your liking. I'm working on that project now. Maybe that's why my eyes are crossing. ;)

Lastly, there was something else that goes along with making it personal and making it easy. Marie has said that she tries to respond to all her readers, that she acknowledge s their comments and makes them feel treasured. That goes a long way with relationship, but it's really important if you want to bring them back.

A debt of gratitude, I offer to Marie. She has no idea how much she's helped me. Well, maybe she will if she reads this post. There is always something new to learn and I thank her for showing me some great new ways to look at my own work. As for me? I'm off to download the next book in the Gansett Island series. After all, who needs sleep...

More Adventures at Createspace

Some of the things you should never do when you are exhausted...

1. Make life altering decisions. No jumping into marriage. Buying a house. Having another child... you get the picture.
2. Drive. As an example, you should never try to drive the almost 10 hours from Maine to Pennsylvania and back in one shot just because you are convinced it'll be no problem... it will probably be a problem and no amount of caffeine and blasting 80's music while you sing at the top of your lungs will keep you awake when you are that tired.
3. Buying groceries... sounds innocent enough, but I can tell you that there are a whole lot of bad decisions that are made when you have to rush into the grocery store after working all day and can't figure out what you want for dinner. Hamburger Helper anyone? How about my friend Bun's choice of sardines in a can or Moxie over ice cream with potato chips. Yes... I'm serious. But he is an original.
And lastly...
4. Don't do anything embarrassing. Never try to proof read simple cover copy when you've been working insane hours at your day job. It won't work well and you'll probably post something to Facebook that you'll be mortified by.

In my case, I misspelled the name of my book and then missed it completely. Duh!!!!! But Createspace was very nice and helpful and had it changed at all the Amazon venues. I'm very happy. And very mortified. But the mortification is dissolving at the shear fact that the book is now available  to hold in you hot, little hands. Thank goodness that Blogger has spell check!

Want a copy? Here's a neat little widget to help you satisfy your cravings....

Adventures at Createspace

I've taken another leap of faith... or should I say imagination this time and gone the route of having Three Truths published in book format through the POD-Amazon-Linked Createspace.com. I've been hearing about it for some time and still I hesitated. When going the indiepub route I find that I sit on my decision longer than usual, mostly because I'm afraid to make the wrong jump. Was Createspace the right jump to make? Only time will tell.

The process is not unlike publishing through the KDP Dashboard (Kindle Direct Publishing). It walks you through the process and there are safeguards in place, such as being to opt-in-or-out of a professional editing service. I opted out since Three Truths has already been out there in print format in another incarnation as The Three Truths of Katie Talmadge. It was originally published through a small press that offered no distribution and little else. But again, that was a choice I made in the beginning of the pubbing part of my writing career. I tend to look at everything as a learning curve and this was one of those curves.

But as for Createspace I found the process fairly straight forward. It walks you through the whole process and gives a handy little check off system to make sure you don't miss any steps. There are optional sizes for your finished product.  I went with the 6x9 which makes for a nice trade paperback size. You want to make the most of your pages. Extra pages means extra cost that will get passed along to customer. Createspace does require that you purchase a proof copy of the book, but this can be a very good thing as I found a couple of formatting mistakes and choices that I wanted to change before the final.

For the cover I was given the choice of uploading an already formatted book cover, but since I had the front cover image, but not the entire book jacket format I decided to go with a customizable cover from their selection. This allowed me to use the great image that Sabrina's Digital Imagery created for me and create a back cover option that optimized the selling points for the book. I did come up with a longer blurb for this than the selling blurb that is required for most ebook sites. Be sure to pay attention to the image guidelines when you upload your image. It needs to be a certain size and file type for it to work. Play around with it for the best options.

Once all that was done and my proof approved it goes to the distribution channels. There are three options (all Amazon related) for free distribution and another three channels that can be had for $25. I opted out on the additional channels since this book had already been in print once before. Plus, being new to Createspace I wanted to see how the process went before coming up with the additional money.

So, the book is set and complete and the distribution channels picked. There are additional marketing options like bookmarks, postcards and sell sheets (also press releases and the like), but these are also available at an additional charge. Places like Vistaprint can do postcards and bookmarks for you at really good prices depending on your level of comfort at manipulating your images. It's all up to you.

Createspace gives your book a page on their site, but I don't see how there is much selling going on directly from their site. In 3-5 business days my print book should be available on Amazon directly. I'll let you all know how that progresses and whether this generates any sales. Until then, it is nice to have the option to hold my book in my own hot little hands. As nice as the convenience of ebooks are there is nothing like holding a book to ground you. But both are nice options when you need an escape.

Want to see how the Createspace page looks? Check it here.

An Over Extending Arc

Last night was one of those nights where the story kept me awake. I should say "stories", since the thing that has been bothering me the most is how to best utilize Obsidian now that I have the rights back to it. This seems like an easy enough thing. After all, the story is already edited and had an audience. I can either choose to find another publisher for it, or I can I can choose to put it out there myself. The problem with a new publisher is that most don't want a previously published work. It's really too bad since it's a good book. The second problem is that I have another book that I wrote as a semi-sequel to the book. I pitched it to the original publisher, but it was too off for them to want to publish it for a line that is primarily a library line. That was okay with me. I loved the characters. But what really threw me off was when I realized that out of the two fulls that I wrote after Obsidian was published, the one that I thought was the sequel wasn't the sequel. And the one that I thought was a stand alone was actually a sequel. Doesn't make sense, does it? It all has to do with the over extending arc of the story.

My haphazard definition of an over extending arc is... a plot in the story that spans the length of a series and slowly unfolds during each novel. The over extending arc is wrapped up (hopefully in the last novel). Case in point is my favorite Nora Roberts' series that deals with the keys. Each heroine in the series has their own missions to accomplish, but there is an over all arcing theme that runs throughout the books and that is how to accomplish all that they need to do and to free the sisters in glass. Nora is a genius when it comes to these series because she tied them all together so effectively that you are dying to get to the end of the series to find out how they did it. She does it with all of her books. As I said, she's really good at this.

So, why was I awake all night? Obsidian has a subplot of the uncle who is not who he appears to be. He talks about his brother dying and how he came to Maine to protect his niece and nephew. He disappears at the end of the book giving a great segue to the next book in the series. Not the book I thought I'd written.

The next book was Irish Rain (or Once a Hero) and this takes place in New Orleans. I start off the book with an explosion and a brother being killed, but the book has another underlying theme of a group of powerful men who have sent someone to kill him. My problem is that I didn't set up the brehon in the first book, Obsidian. What I did set up was a sequel featuring a USCG Communications Officer, Tom Kearsage. It was only when I started working on the over extending arc that I realized that MoonCussers is the sequel to Obsidian and that leaves Once a Hero as the first in a series with a tie in to Obsidian. Anybody confused? I am. I think that's what has always bothered me about the stories. I love all my stories and I love all my characters. That love has gotten me into the mix of it all. I don't see a problem with the tie in to the original book, but they are different series in the making. The Obsidian series is basically a New England setting centered around a coastal mystery/suspense theme. Once a Hero is set in New Orleans and the books that follow it (yes, they are partially written) take place in London and Northern Ireland.

Want to know how this is all going to turn out? Me, too! But I think this is just the beginning of a fantastic and confusing journey. Care to come along for the ride?

How Much is Too Much and How Much is Not Enough?

If you've been in indie-publishing for any length of time and done any kind of research then you know that the market is as fluid and volatile as the river behind my house. One minute things are calm and smooth, flowing along in a steady, peaceful manner and the next a flood of information comes along that makes the current kick up and the urgency levels to rise.

What am I talking about? Pricing.

I was one of those that jumped on the KDP Select Program bandwagon, signing up for a limited three month term with my novella, STEALING DARKNESS. I set the price at a .99, believing that since it was a novella the limited price would make it attractive to buyers. I was also interested in the free days promotion that is part of the Select program, but what I have discovered is that I may not have made the best choice. You see, I undervalued my work. In order to put myself in a competitive place for selling my novella I put my price lower than would be a benefit to me... the person who labored and loved over the work to bring to market. I was also guilty of giving prospective readers a faulty sense of lack of value. What????
Really what I mean to say is that by valuing my work at a lower price I lowered the expectations of my readers. Isn't the work worth more?

About a month ago, around the same time that I put Three Truths up on Smashwords, I raised the price of the book from .99 to 1.99. I did this believing that the difference in price was justified by the size of the book I was offering. If I was offering a novella at .99 I could surely offer a full book at 1.99. It wasn't long after that the Smashwords founder published his own findings on the buyers reactions to pricing. Myself, along with a host of other authors out there began to realize that maybe we had taken the wrong route when it came to pricing our work.

So, as of today, as I prepare my next novella in the Darkness Paranormal Series for publishing, that my prices need to reflect my work. I raised Three Truths to $3.99 and I've raised Stealing Darkness to $2.99 in hopes that this will bring my work more in line with the current market and maybe give them a fighting chance at finding a readership that will appreciate them as much as I do.

It may not work. I may find that it discourages more than encourages more readers, but for now I'm willing to take the chance.

Teagan

Weekly Catch Up

I was going to sacrifice one of my rare days off to painting the trim and base boards in my house. But since it turned out overcast, gray and slightly muggy I decided that you all would benefit from my distraction and I would share a few things I've seen this week.

The first thing is from a post from Jen Talty at Write It Forward Blog. She posted about  Promoting your book in iBooks  and offered up tips to make it easy for your prospective readers to jump on over to iTunes and download you latest. Thanks to her post, I now have a nifty little button to help me offer Three Truths to my readers.

See...


Isn't it lovely? I wish all the ebook stores had these nifty little gadgets. It would make my life so much easier. There is also another gadget that can be added in case you have multiple books that you want to offer in a scrolling box. Very lovely and handy! I would suggest that if you have a book to sell on the iBookstore that you go grab a gadget for yourself and put it on whatever spot is needed on your blogs, websites... etc...

The second thing that I wanted to post about was an online posting from PJ Media on 10-reasons you should skip the traditional publishers and self publish ebooks instead . I got to this through my link up to J.A. Konrath's blog. It makes some interesting arguments for doing it yourself. I would advise anyone wanting to go it by themselves to take the time to research and to limit your expectations. We all can't be the J.A. Konraths or the Marie Forces and sometimes new authors enter into the field expecting the same big sales. These huge sales are the exception, not the rule. But that doesn't mean that you can't make this way. It just takes time and a whole lot of effort and the ability to multitask... a lot!

Off to stick some widgets on my sites! Enjoy the day everyone!

Teagan

Modeling and Master Groups

I have very little time to actually read, so I'm usually apt to grab something on a whim that appeals enough to me to carry me through a 30 minute lunch break and maybe my 2 15-minute breaks (if I'm lucky). Anyway, the pick this week is a book I've had on my shelf for some time. It's Writing For The New Age Market by Richard Webster (Llewellyn Worldwide, 2003). For some time now I've been working on the idea of writing non-fiction. As if I didn't have enough on my plate I thought I'd add something else to the mix. But I have a desire to share some of what I've learned and to help "pay it forward" when it comes to what I've had the opportunity to experience. I'm a firm believer that we are here to learn some very important lessons during this lifetime and part of those lessons includes passing along what we know so that others can be helped. I'm by no means some know-it-all-expert intent on bringing followers to some cause. But I think there could be a definite benefit to helping others.

So, (getting back off my soapbox) I thought I'd share some interesting insight that Mr. Webster shared in his book. The first is MODELING. No, I have no intention of posing for pictures or finding my face plastered to the side of a wall or bus. But what he talks about is using your observation skills to model your experience after someone you admire. If you want to write prolifically, perhaps you'd model your writing behavior after someone like Nora Roberts. Or if you wish to create a following of loyal readers you might want to consider modeling your career after your favorite author.

WHAT MODELING IS: Observing, creating skills and practices for success, and instituting traits and behaviors from people you admire in order to achieve results similar to what you have observed.
WHAT MODELING ISN'T: Stalking, plagiarizing, creating an expectation that is outside of your own karmic identity.

I never really understood that there was a name for this until I read his passage in the book. I'd been doing it for years. I started out wanting desperately to teach classes on writing, but lacking the confidence it took to stand in front of strangers and put myself out there. For years, I watched and waited and when the opportunity came to present to a regional and then a national conference I knew it was going to take a gigantic leap of faith and a whole lot of preparation in order for me to give the workshop without running for the door. I watched how other presenters offered up their pearls of wisdom and I practiced how I wanted the workshop to come from me. I actually practiced visualization in order to convince myself that I could do what needed to be done. In the end, I modeled myself against every presenter that had ever made a lasting impression on me and it worked.

MASTER GROUP  

Master group is the idea that we should surround ourselves with like-minded individuals with whom we can share experiences and offer support. This is usually a smaller group than perhaps a RWA regional chapter, usually limited to enough members that can be counted on one hand. But the idea is that even if you don't talk trade or critique work, you do find support in being around other writers (or whatever is your goal).

When I read this I immediately thought about the group of us that met after the Maine RWA's recent Writer's Retreat last weekend. In the time after the retreat we all gathered together in the lobby for conversation, fun and relaxation. Yes, there was some talk about shop, but it was more a moment to commiserate, celebrate and just enjoy each the company.

If a Master Group offers nothing else, it should offer you a chance to recharge your creative batteries. A chance to relax away from those who don't understand what you do at that computer each day and to feel at home with those who do understand it. It's important.

Do you model your career or your writing practices after someone who inspires you?