Kevis’s Comments (group member since Jul 22, 2009)

Kevis’s comments from the I'm Trying to Get a Book Published! group.

I just want to thank everyone in this group for all the wonderful interest you have shown in my books. As a big thank you, I am offering free eBook copies of The Legend of Witch Bane to anyone in this group who would like one. All you have to do is to send me an email at (aragornisking@lycos.com) with the heading "FREE BOOK" or "WITCH BANE" and I'll send you a copy of my eBook via email.

However, since many of you are underage, please get permission from your parents first to find out if they will allow me to send you the eBook. Of course, if you prefer to purchase my book, that is fine too. :)

Again thank you everyone for your wonderful help. I look forward to sharing The Legend of Witch Bane with you all!

Welcome back, Brigid. Hope you had a great trip!

Lisa wrote: "I am new here also and those thoughts go through my mind as well. Does anyone who has been on this site a while have any information about the security of it?"

Lisa,

You should be aware that if you post your stories online that there is no way to keep someone from copying and pasting it into a word processing document.

You are justifiably right to be concerned about someone stealing your story. I have to be honest. Most writers and authors do not engage in the nasty business of plagiarism. In that case, you don't have a whole lot to be afraid of since anything you write is legally yours simply by the act of creation.

However, there is another thing to keep in mind. Even though another writer may not intend do so, sometimes they are inspired so much by something they read that it creeps into their work anyway. The possibilitiy does exist that someone might read something that you write and use parts of it without even being consciously aware. This IS a legitimate concern. If you think you have a wonderfully original idea for a story, you would probably be best not to put it online, but rather find an alternative means of getting feedback for your work. On the other hand, if you have some writing that you simply want to share with others and are not concerned too much about it being ripped off in any way, then you should post your work online.

Just as a bit of advice, if you haven't already, you should read the message Rita and I posted above to Lyssa. It will explain how copyright works so that you understand that if you do post your work online, the law does protect you if someone were to attempt to steal your work.

Maryam,

Thanks for sharing that link. That article discusses a subject that is very important for a writer. We could all do to remember it.

Rita,

I have to be honest. I have gaps in my knowledge too. But since you brought the subject up I started doing some research on Creative Commons. It seems Wikipedia has a few articles about it. If you haven't already, you may want to check it out. Here are the links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative...

And here is the link to the official Creative Commons website:

http://creativecommons.org/

Kirilee Fey Hycanth wrote: "so, to make ur name stick in peoples minds, it has to be unique right? so, my name, Caitlan Zufelt, is it going to stick in your mind?"

Kirilee,

Actually it does stick in my mind. Caitlinn Zufelt is already burned into my brain. It cries author to me. If you feel you can come up with a better name, then so be it. But I prefer to see Caitlinn Zufelt on your book cover, especially since it's your real name.

Lyssa wrote: "Wow! I just meant the simple read and steal! That's some intense stuff, though entirely true. I just was a bit afraid, I'm still not sure whether my paranoid self will post any stories, but thanks ..."

Good idea. It's always safer to do your research so that you know what your options are in case you do decide to post your work online.

Lyssa,

That is some very good advice Rita's has given you. But I'd like to add this caveat. Copyrights are simply a legal avenue to protect intellectual properties. Without it, there would be anarchy in the marketplace and everyone could steal everyone else's products. When you create a story or write a poem or even a letter as Rita says, it is instantly copyrighted because you created it. Hence your writing belongs to you. NOTE: You need do nothing more than to create your material for it to legally belong to you.

However, there is a reason why if you want to use your writing for a commercial purpose why you should register your work. Also, there is a major difference between the poor man's copyright (mailing a postage back to yourself) versus submitting it and having it processed through the U.S. Library of Congress. This is because a copyright is limited in the ways that it protects you.

If, for example, you posted one of your stories online and someone were to publish it under their name, you can sue them for financial damages and force them to remove the work from the market. However, if you do not submit your writing to the Library of Congress, you can not sue for punitive damages. In other words, as long as you can prove that you are the author of your writing in court, the person who stole your work would no longer be able to sell it or legally claim that it is theirs. But without having your work registered in the U.S. Library of Congress, you cannot sue them.

Ultimately the best advice I can give you regarding posting your work online is that if you aren't comfortable with it, you should never allow people free access to your work. Although it is unlikely that someone will steal your work, the possibility does exist.

One word of advice. Whatever you do, don't allow yourself to fall into the usual trap of writing a prologue that reads like a synopsis. Too many writers make this mistake. Your prologue should be as vivid and lively as any other part of the story. If your prologue reads like a bad history lesson, you'll be dead in the water before your story ever gets going.

Lyssa wrote: "That is exacty what I mean. Kevis said your name is your brand. From a certain person they will begin to expect a certain style or writing. That doesn't mean that we are our characters. Some of my favorite characters and stories of my own have been people nothing like me. I like my name, I just don't want the association to my family, or my friends. (not in a bad way..."

Lyssa,

It sounds like you are really leaning towards a pen name. Under the situation you describe I can understand why you might want to publish your works under a pseudonym. You are right that by using a pen name will help to shield you and your family from any unwanted accusations since no one is going to know that you are the writer. Outside of making a public appearance, no one would even know what you look like. So if your intent is to protect your anonymity, selecting a pen name for yourself would be quite effective.

I will add that so long as you publish all of your works under that pen name, you can still become a very successful author just like many others have who chose not to use their real names. Just remember that your name is your brand, not the genre of stories you tell. Publishers used to (and still do) sometimes discourage their authors from publishing books in different genres. But it's the name that matters most when it comes to branding yourself.

Where it would get problematic for you Lyssa would be if, for example, you chose to publish erotic books under one pen name and your romance novels under another name. This is where you start to create the problem I described earlier.

I can understand why some people such as Archer chose to publish their erotic fiction under an alias, but decided to publish their other works under their real name. Just remember that your success as an author depends on building up a readership. It takes too much work to create a following for your writing to do it under more than one name. As I said before, even if you choose a pen name for yourself, as long as you stick to that one name, you will make your life a lot easier and increase your chances of success.

A prologue can often work against your story. Sometimes it's better to get into the thick of the action than it is to try to set things up with a prologue. If you feel you need to add one, then do so. But be careful that you avoid creating a situation where you suck the drama out of your story by trying to set things up this way. In fact, if you don't create a successful prologue, a reader will not want to read the rest of your story.

Sagey,

I truly enjoy reading your story and have read all of your posted chapters. You have some very interesting characters. It seems with each chapter the tension slowly builds to its exploding point. You've set things up nicely in the fact that we are anticipating some kind of dramatic confrontation between Nora and the vampires. I already imagine Seth will play a big part in it. As a reader I'm anxious to see what's going to happen when they go to camp. As long as the emotional payoff of the scenes you are setting up can reward the anticipation of the reader you will have them hooked for the rest of your book.

Because Stephenie Meyers has totally turned the vampire concept upside down, I notice that she has inspired many young writers to make their vampires do uncharacteristic things. In your case, I notice that you also have been inspired by Meyers and your vampires echo of the breed she has created.

Because your vampires, like Meyers, have to this point not shown themselves to be vampires (not in the traditional sense), I think you should explain to us the nature of your vampires and preferably as early as possible in your story.

Vampires, as a rule of thumb, do not walk in sunlight, have an insatiable need to drink human blood (without it they die), and are in essence corpses who prey on the living. You need to explain to your readers why your vampires can move comfortably amongst humans during daylight. We also need to know why they are allowed to do so without impunity considering their nature as I described above.

My recommendation for you would be to address this issue. Just because Stephenie Meyers has recreated the concept of the vampire (the jury's still out on if her vampires are really vampires), doesn't mean that most readers are going to grasp this concept. In fact, outside of the Twilight crowd, no one, including myself, will understand why you have vampires in your stories that don't do vampire things.

Hi Laura. Welcome to the group. I look forward to reading your work. BTW, thanks for voting on my video!

Mizla,

BTW, thanks for commenting on my stories including The Fairest Dream. I am glad you enjoyed them. I just want to take a moment to answer your question about why it seems everyone has blue eyes in my stories. I have written a lot more material than I've either published or posted here on GoodReads. My characters come from every walk of life and represent a global view of humanity regardless of whatever genre I am writing in

But in the case of my mythology from which most of the stories you have read so far come from, most of the characters feature particular physical traits that is indicative of the racial group they come from.

The world of Arva in which my mythology takes place is an ancient world. Unlike our modern world where people can fly to the other side of the world in a few short hours, there is no real hegemony among the races. Different people live in different parts of the world and hence look differently. Most of the characters in the stories you read have fair skin and light colored eyes because they live in the very cold Northern part of the world. But if you were to have read one of my other stories which takes place in the Southern region which is a tropical climate, the characters are darker skinned with dark eyes--or others still who have oriental features. Both the Northern and Southern races of people have their own unique beauty which is indicative of their environment.

Soon as I get a chance, I'll try and post an excerpt from one of my other unpublished stories so that you can see that in my mythology the full spectrum of humanity is represented in every one of our beautiful shade and colors.

Sorry for hijacking your thread. I just wanted to clear the matter up for you. :)

Sagey,

I have to go offline for a while to run some errands for the rest of the evening, but I'll be sure to read the new chapters and comment on them for you ASAP. In the meantime, thanks for sharing it with us. Your story's a lot of fun to read.

Just letting you guys know that if I haven't read your work yet, it isn't because I'm ignoring you. There are lots of writers in this group and I try to give each and every piece of writing I read the same level of care and attention that I would like others to show to my writing. I am working through the list one writer at a time, but I'll get there. Once I'm done reading Sagey's work, I'll finish up with Brigid and CJ, then go to I'amber, and move on from there. So far I've enjoyed the writing I've read. Keep up the great work everyone!

I'amber,

There are so many writers in this group and it takes time to read all the material. But you are next on my list of writers whose work I'm going to read. I'll be sure to post my comments on your thread.

Sagey,

There are times when a pen name can come in useful. But if you want to build up a bibliography, you'd probably be better off sticking with the name you intend to announce yourself to readers. Remember, it's not easy to get noticed. There are over half a million books published every year. You are going to have to work very hard to separate yourself from the rest of the pack and can only do that by making your name stick in people's minds one book at a time. If you are publishing different works under different names, your readers are not going to know this. If they have enjoyed reading your vampire series which is published under your real name, those fans will not know that you have co-written a book under another alias.

Your name is your brand. By having more than one author name you are creating separate brands with different readership. Why wouldn't you want all of your readers to buy all of your books? By using a different name for your books, only certain readers will purchase some of your books, leaving the others to wonder why you are taking so long to publish more books. In actuality, it isn't that you aren't writing a lot of books, but you are dividing your audience and making it appear as though you are not publishing books on a regular basis.

It takes too long to write a novel to assume that you will be able to churn out books regularly for multiple pseudonyms. In fact, if I were you I would stick with one name so that you will be building up a fan base from the moment your name appears on any book, be it co-written or not.

Rita is right on about an author's name being his brand. Just like Toytota or Microsoft, your name is your brand. Also, like Rita I think it defeats the purpose of using a pen name that's different than your actual name since no one will ever know who you are.

For instance, everyone knows who Stephen King is. But unless you are one of his die hard fans, you won't know that he is also known as Richard Bachman and John Swithen. Stephen King is the brand, not Richard Bachman. When most people go into a book store to buy the latest King novel, they are certainly not going to know that John Swithen and Stephen King are one and the same. This is the downside to using pen names.

However, a pen name can come in handy if you want to remain anonymous. If you don't want everyone to know who you are then a pen name is great. But it also hurts your brand if you are publishing different works under several names, as many authors today are doing. Why build up the reputation of being a world famous romance novelist like a Johanna Lindsey only to be lost in a sea of anonymity by publishing your works under a pseudonym?

In the end, every author has to choose his/her path. But choose your author name wisely, because it's your calling card.

Sagey,

As I had suspected all along, your story is very good. Lot's of interesting characters. I could see the Twilight influence, but your characters are what drives this story. There is so much tension between Nora and the vampires that it almost made me start looking over my shoulder!

I am already hooked and want to read the rest. You have set up a situation that I am eager to see develop. I'm wondering what's going to happen between Nora, Seth, Rae, and Zach. Without a doubt, you have my attention! I'll keep checking your thread to see if there are any updates on your story. You are definitely on to something here and I'm curious to know where it goes.

As for criticism, it's tough to really nitpick a story that is still in its unpolished state, that is assuming that it doesn't have glaring weaknesses. The only weaknesses in your story that I see so far is the actual writing which can easily be addressed in the revision process.

If I have to pick one thing that I didn't like, it is the dream sequence in the beginning. Even if it is intended to set up future events, I think it's too abstract to have the effect you are looking for. I had no idea you were telling a story about vampires until I got past the dream sequence. I think you should either remove it, since your story doesn't appear to need it, or revise it so that it actually fits in better with the story you are telling. As it is, the dream led me to believe you were going to tell a traditional high fantasy story dealing with Elves and knights. In my opinion, you don't need it.

With that said, I can't wait to read the next few chapters. Two thumbs up so far!!! Everyone in this group should check your story out if for nothing else than to read what appears to be an exciting story. Well done!