Vote for Timebound (AKA Time's Twisted Arrow) for ABNA!

[Rysa]

Hi, everyone. I've barely been on the boards at Goodreads for the past two weeks because I was sworn to secrecy by Amazon's lawyers until they made the big announcement. The duct tape has now been ripped away and I can say openly that my book (which now has a new title--Timebound, a publishing contract and, soon, a spiffy new cover)is the YA winner for the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. I've had two weeks to get adjusted to the news, but I am still a bit stunned.

The next stage is the grand prize and I really, really need your help. If you read Time's Twisted Arrow and liked it (or haven't read it, and would still like a time travel book to win) please stop by and cast your vote at www.amazon.com/abna. Pass the word along to friends. I would really appreciate it, and so would my kids' college fund. (Not to mention my I'd-rather-write-than grade-papers fund :)

Thanks again to those of you who read and reviewed Time's Twisted Arrow -- err, Timebound. (That's going to take some getting used to!) The positive feedback from reviewers like you helped me muster up the nerve to submit the book for the contest and kept me from getting discouraged.

Vote Timebound!

[John, Moderator in Memory]

I cast my vote yesterday. Best of luck, Rysa. Just don't forget about all of us here in the time travel group when you become rich and famous.

[Rysa]

Thanks, John! Rich and famous isn't even on the radar, except in my 10 year old's vision of the future. (He claims he's a time-traveler, but I've yet to see proof.) Personally, I'd settle for being able to pay the bills with writing rather than correcting grammatical errors all day.

And how could I forget such a fun, snarky group as this one? I'll have to come back to find out what's happening in the Neverending Time Travel Story. :)

[Heather(Gibby)]

Best of luck Rysa-I feel honoured to have been one of the first to have read your book!

[Tej]

Congratulations on being a finalist in the first place, that's quite an achievement itself regardless if you win or not. I voted and wish you best of luck.

I noticed the kindle version still has the old title.

So out of curiousity, would you like to reveal why the title change? I like both, no preference but Timebound sounds more snappy and catchy in its one word summation, it also makes it easier to reference as a series, ie "Timebound 2: The Cyrists Strikes Back" whereas "Time's Twisted Arrow" has an appealingly exotic title for scifi readers.

[Rysa]

Thanks, Tej! "Timebound 2: The Cyrists Strikes Back" Hmm...that does have a certain ring to it.

Amazon is working on pulling the Kindle version -- they've got to archive the reviews first, because I really don't want to lose sixty reviews and have to start from scratch, even with a publisher behind the book...

The title change was a marketing decision on the part of Amazon. Not my idea, but after some reflection, I think they're right. The editors at Skyscape (Amazon's new YA imprint) felt that the original title was a bit of a tongue twister. They also were concerned that the series name, The CHRONOS Files, wouldn't resonate with a lot of YA readers, so the goal was to have a title for this first book that could work as the name for the series as well, as is the case for a lot of YA books. When you click on Lauren Oliver's Requiem at Amazon, for example, you see (Delirium) after the title. They wanted something shorter that wouldn't push everything over to a second line -- and something, as you so aptly put it, "snappy and catchy."

Their first suggestion was The Medallion, but I totally and completely hated that one. It got a pretty visceral "yuck" from my family, as well. After mulling it over a bit, I came up with Timebound and the editors said they like it even better than their original option. And I have to admit I like the way it looks on some of the preliminary cover designs I'm seeing. :)

[Paul]

Congratulations, Rysa! And good luck with the "Final Final" Grand Prize. My ABNA vote is in.

My thoughts were similar to Tej's, fine with both titles, but wondering why now? But I see that it makes perfect sense in terms of the series. Good decision. We wish you the best.

Paul

[Rysa]

Thanks, Paul! Skyscape now seems to be waffling on the "Book 1 of The CHRONOS Files" part, since it showed up on the cover concept they sent me yesterday. Either there is disagreement among the editors or, more likely, the graphic artist didn't get a memo ;) The book title is definitely Timebound, however.

[Tej]

I see that there is no graphics cover for Timebound but at least temporarily they have an ABNA award entry in the placeholder!

There seems to be 12 reviews on the Timebound page and 63 on the old Time's Twisted Arrow, hopefully they merge them for you. Also, there seems to be 2 Kindle versions of Timebound, one with 12 reviews, the other without (one free and the other at normal Kindle price). Just so you know.


I have a question for you. How do you feel about the synopsis? Did you write it, or was it by the publisher? I have just actually read it for the first time. I normally avoid reading synopsis for any book that I know I will read, or I would try to just get a feel for a book from the first few lines. Reason I ask which no doubt you would have figured out already, is I feel it gives too much of the story away. Yet, its a compelling synopsis at the same time but it tells every turn of the story...even to some extent, the end. The only thing it omits is (view spoiler)[Grandma's existence erased from the present but even that would be assumed when the synopsis states her murder at the EXPO (hide spoiler)].

I know its hard to draw the line in how much information you include in order to attract the readers but I feel in this case it might be too much, compelling though it is. Having said that, the same goes for so many other books hence my limited approach to reading synopsis.

What are your thoughts?

[Rysa]

Hi, Tej -
The freebie Kindle version is just an excerpt that they post so that people can get a peek at what the books are like. It basically ends a few pages into Chapter Two. Some of the books in the competition haven't been self-pubbed, so I think Amazon is having to walk a thin line until the voting is over in order to avoid giving an advantage to my book and the one by the Mystery finalist, Jo Chumas, since those are the only two with actual copies currently for sale. For the other three, you can can read the excerpt or pre-order the full version (as is the case for Jo & myself), but there is also the option to purchase ours in full (even though it will be tweaked in the editing process) so it's a bit odd. (I haven't seen a *huge* spike in sales for the old version, but there has been a slight uptick.) I think Amazon is waiting to pull the reviews from Time's Twisted Arrow over to the Timebound pre-order page until after the voting ends, otherwise it would be pretty unfair to the rest of the bunch, since I'd have about five times as many reviews showing. :/

The synopsis is mine. I hate, hate, hate writing those. I spent longer writing those paragraphs than I did writing a number of the entire chapters. I'm currently working with the developmental editor and that's one thing I'm hoping she'll help me revise.

The key here was that the synopsis was also the first stage of the competition. If you didn't make it past that stage, based on just those few paragraphs, you weren't among the 400 to move on to the point where they read the first few chapters, or the next stage where Publisher's Weekly reads the whole book. It may well be that having that much info in the mix is what helped my case for the contest, so I have a certain attachment to the current synopsis, even if it caused me agony. But it's probably not the synopsis I'll want *after* ABNA is over...

And I usually don't read more than the first line of the synopsis, either. Then I skim the most helpful positive and negative reviews. If I can't decide at that point, then I might go back and skim the synopsis, but I've usually already figured out if it's something I want to read by that point.

[Tej]

Well as I said, Rysa, it is a most compelling and attractive synopsis and in that respect very well done and it certainly rewarded you. I'm sure it pained you to give away so much but of course you had to do it. Perhaps, for the sake of maintaining that level of attraction to your book, the synopsis should remain as is but perhaps slightly refined to not at least give away every turn of the story. Besides, a veteran reader would know by now not to read a whole synopsis completely if they dont wish to have too much of a story given away...if its a concern for them. I am fussy, I wont every single page from page one to surprise me :)

[Rysa]

I like surprises too, Tej. And I have to get them when I read, since I have kids who like to tell me the contents of any birthday or Christmas gift :)

[Lincoln, Temporal Jester]

How are things going now Rysa?

[Rysa]

Things are going really, really well Lincoln! Doesn't seem like this thread was 18 months ago, and then in other ways, it seems like it was much longer. I can honestly say that I never imagined -- even in May 2013 once it was in the finals -- that I would be paying off my gargantuan student loans this year.

Just crossing my fingers that readers like Time's Edge when it hits the shelves next month!