Old Hillside Cemetery in Reno Nevada – the Civil War plot for those who served in the Civil War.
It’s the middle of October and time to start getting organized for this year’s NaNoWriMo. I’ve been working on my character sheets for the next novel in the Funeral Singer series. I have an outline and the next step is to organize all this in Scrivener so that when I start writing on November 1st, I will be ready to knock out a bunch of words from the get-go.
November is not without additional challenges to the writing. I will be out of town three days of it and Wizard World Comic Con in Reno will take another three days out of the writing time although I will still try to write each day, even if it’s in a notebook to be typed in later.
In spite of that, I love the extra push that writing during NaNo gave me last year and I hope to have as great an experience this year. If you’re a writer and haven’t gotten involved with your regional group for NaNo, you might be missing out on the “we’re all in this together” group feel that writing, even online, at the same time and comparing word counts with others incentive that you get from the program. It’s a great boost and it really helped me to turn off the internal editor and just write. The first draft needs work, but you’ve got a book when you’re done.
So over the next month, I’ll post about my progress on the next novel during NaNo. I do have a title and the story line is really a good one, I think. But then I’m a little biased. Suffice it to say that Gillian Foster will still be dealing with the consequences of the first book while learning more about her “gift”. I’m looking forward to the story myself and can’t wait to learn what she has to tell me.
Speaking of Funeral Singer, thus far, the first novel of the series, A Song for Marielle has been pretty well received, although I’ve only gotten eight reviews at this point. Seven are on Amazon and one is on Good Reads. I really encourage any of you who have read the book to please leave a review on Amazon and/or Good Reads. For any author, the reviews are important feedback as well as a way to let other readers know how a book is received. Thank you to all who take the time to leave reviews.
I am so excited to announce that my book is now published at Amazon in both paperback and e-book for the Kindle. While this is not the first book I’ve written, it is the first one to be published.
My thanks to everyone who has supported my efforts on the book and is following me. My heartfelt thanks to the beta readers and editors who helped me whip it into the shape it is. If I’ve missed any spelling or punctuation errors, it is entirely my fault although after eight times through you’d think I would have caught them all.
You can check out the information on my book at my launch page.
Here’s the best part. Today only (September 1, 2015), the e-book version of my book can be downloaded for FREE. This is my way of introducing myself to you and giving you the opportunity to read it soon. I do ask that if you enjoy it that you will at least rate it at Amazon and maybe even write a review. Even if it’s not your cup of tea, please leave the feedback. Reviews are really important to all writers, so it will help me out tremendously to have a few reviews, good or not so good, on the book.
Thanks and I really hope you enjoy the read! Feel free to post comments and questions here or on my Facebook page.
Wow! It’s nearly the end of July and I am still editing “Funeral Singer” to get it ready for publication. I’ve had it out to my second round of beta readers and have gotten some great feedback on it. I am hoping to see a little more in the next few days. I am still making some changes as I go through and make spelling and punctuation corrections.
It definitely pays to have other eyes on the manuscript because I managed to miss quite a few things in the last two edits I did on the book. It is so easy for your brain to just correct or ignore the mistakes you make in your own writing. I took a class on proofreading once where the advice from the teacher was to read your work backward. This takes away the familiarity with the project and you are more likely to catch the errors. Other suggestions from writers are: 1) Change the font type and size so it doesn’t look the same. 2) Print the entire manuscript out and read through it with a highlighter, marking the errors. 3) Read it out loud a few times. This also helps with hearing the dialog and if it sounds natural. 4) Use an automated reader program to have it read the book to you so you can listen for odd phrasing, omissions and other errors. This one is really strange to listen to since there is no inflection in the reading.
In a few more days, I will be ordering my first Proof copy of the book so I can read through it to make sure I caught everything. Once I feel comfortable that I’ve done everything I can do to get out a clean copy, it’ll be time to finalize it and release the book. Right now, I am targeting mid-September for the release, but it won’t fly until it’s ready.
One of the things that took a little time was writing the book blurb. These are the back pages of the book where you give a little synopsis of the story to give the potential reader an idea of what the story is about. This is an art and a tricky skill to develop. You have to wonder how much is enough? How much is too much? Have I put in any spoilers? Will this be enough to entice someone to read it?
I am excited to get my first novel out in the world and I hope that it is well-received by those who choose to read it. No matter how you look at it, it will be an adventure. Look for release information to come up next month.
Within the last few days I’ve seen many posts from authors who are upset with the proposed new plan that Amazon has to pay authors, whose books are in the Kindle Select program, by the pages read rather than by if the reader turns the pages on at least 10% of the book as they are now doing. First off, this applies to the Kindle Unlimitedplan, the one where clients pay $9.95 a month to borrow any book that is in the plan and it only applies to digital books. If they read the whole book, then the author gets the full royalty payment on it. If they only read 42 pages, then the author gets paid for the percentage of the book that is read.
Unfair, the authors scream. How is this unfair? First, the author has the choice of enrolling the book in the Kindle Select plan for 90 days. The author can also remove the book from the plan. As it is, the author is committing to giving Amazon exclusive digital distribution in order to enroll it in this plan. Once the plan expires or it is removed from the plan, then the author can place the digital book with any and all distributors. In return, Amazon markets the book, places it on sale, and may make it available to the Kindle Unlimited plan for a period of time. Meanwhile, the writer promotes it on social media or via a web site and collects royalties every time the book is sold and for whatever percentage of the book is read on Kindle Unlimited. Incidentally, if Amazon puts the book on sale or in their free for a few days, it’s my understanding that the author still gets the royalties.
Short Books
With the current plan, any book that gets the target percent read will receive an equal share of the pool, based on the book price the writer sets, that Amazon has for royalties for the month. I have seen more than one “writing guru” advising followers to write shorter books or even put short stories on Amazon. People are paying 99 cents for a 25-page short story. Is this fair? Is getting the same royalty for it as someone who writes a 150-page novella for the same price fair? Authors have been complaining about this. I have a book that is 330 pages and someone else has one that is 510 pages and we both sell the book for $2.99 (theoretically), is it fair that we both get the same royalty?
I have heard that some authors are breaking their books into chapters and selling them chapter by chapter to take advantage of getting 10% of the book read so they can get paid if someone only reads 5 pages and they can increase their sales by turning a 20 chapter book into an almost $20 series of Kindle books.
The new payment model that Amazon is proposing will address this issue by paying according to page count, not book. Amazon will also ensure that the books are not padded with extra pages by using their own format for size and word counts, so extra spaces between lines and extra large print won’t increase the pages.
It’s a Library
Consider this. If you have a book on Amazon, on another distributor or in a bookstore and someone purchases it, then you are paid a royalty for the book. If the person then loans it to someone else, swaps it for another book at a used book store or gives it to a library where others may read it, the author does not get a royalty. If you think of Kindle Unlimited as a lending library, which it is –the reader does not keep a copy of the book – then you are getting paid if someone borrows the book and reads part or all of it. You just don’t get as much if the book isn’t the reader’s cup of tea or doesn’t hold attention. Is that unfair? I don’t think so.
As I will be publishing my first, actual “for sale versus free fan fiction”, book soon, I am looking at the Kindle Select program. If it helps to get my book out to potential readers, then I am a step ahead in the marketing. If the readers like my book, then I will get a royalty. If they only read 30 pages and drop it, I still get a little money and some important feedback. If Amazon will let authors know how far the reader got into the book by letting us know the page count, then we can look at the pattern of drops and see where they reader might have lost interest in it. This then allows the writer to see if there is something at that point that could be improved to keep the reader engaged. This can be a valuable tool.
Mindless Lemmings?
Artist unknown
Will this stifle creativity, as a few authors have cried? Will this force them to conform to the same standard that traditional publishers require with the same format of arcs, highs and lows that sell books? Will everyone become lemmings following the leader off the no-creativity cliff because that is what the publishers expect? I don’t believe that will be the case. I do believe that the book will need to interest the reader and be well-written. It doesn’t have to follow the standard but needs to be coherent. You can write and publish any kind of book you want through Kindle, but it needs to engage the reader or your book won’t find any takers.
If you write about something you’re passionate about and no one else cares, then you won’t sell that book to anyone. If you put it under Kindle Select and the description is misleading, it might lead a reader to download it, read a chapter or two then decide this isn’t what was expected. This happened to me recently. The book sounded like something I would enjoy, but when I started reading it, I found it wasn’t what I thought it would be. While I normally read a whole book, even when it isn’t the best, I had to abandon this one. Under this new program, the writer would get paid for the 50 or so pages I read. It doesn’t mean it’s a bad book, just that it wasn’t one that I enjoyed.
Not Ready for Kindle Writers
More people than ever are writing books and Amazon and other publish-yourself publishers are making it easy for them to get their books published without it costing the fortune that vanity presses charge. I priced one many years ago and it was about $3000 to publish a book, which I would then have to go out and sell myself. It’s much more expensive now. Amazon publishes the book for no cost to the author. Anybody can write a book. That doesn’t mean it’s a good book. It doesn’t mean they are good writers. I have read some that really needed work before they were published, some that didn’t make any sense and I tried to read some that were really poor books. Possibly this approach from Amazon will help to weed some of the books that need more work, editors and better writing to be a success out of the pool. If readers consistently dump the book after the first chapter, then there’s a problem with the book. It failed to hook the reader.
Preview the Book
Most books on Amazon have the first chapter available to read before you purchase and this is true of the Kindle Unlimited books as well. You can read a few pages to see if you like the writing, the author’s voice and if the story sounds like something you’d enjoy. From this standpoint, with Amazon’s policy of refunding money if the customer isn’t happy, I feel that any book that is purchased, whether it is Kindle or hard copy, should not be refunded if the purchaser reads it, then claims not to like it and asks for their money back. I couldn’t believe that people do that with a book. You can’t do that in a book store. Especially when you can preview the book. You read the covers, you read a few pages, then you buy the book or put it back on the shelf. You don’t buy the book, read it, then return it and get your money back. That’s a scam as far as I’m concerned.
So bottom line, I am willing to give the Kindle Select program a try because:
It will help to get my book out to my potential readers, which will help me build my brand.
It may bring me royalties I wasn’t expecting to get from readers willing to read new authors.
If it doesn’t get full reads, then I may gain insight into why the reader quit reading the book, even if I don’t get a report from Amazon, but I really hope they will provide some feedback to the writers.
Readers who really like a book they read on Unlimited do sometimes buy a copy to keep on their Kindle or even purchase the print copy.
I have nothing to lose by trying this program and all the above to gain.
For the past two weeks, I’ve been working on a rewrite of my NaNo novel, “Funeral Singer”. While I received good feedback from a few of my beta readers, the total lack of response from the rest leads me to believe that the book is not compelling enough for them to continue reading it. I could be wrong, but that is the interpretation. After reading it through again, I do see some pacing issues and places where it needs more zing. With that in mind, I started a rewrite of it. While I haven’t thrown everything out, I am looking for places to tighten it up and make it more of a page turner.
I have read so many books on how to write, articles on things to do, ways to hook the reader and other tips for writing that my head is drowning in all the do and don’t tips of other writers. I almost find it crippling to approach my novel this way. The mechanics of trying to write a book that applies these rules at every line practically stifles the writing. Then I open a best-seller and most of these so-called rules are tossed aside. Good writing and telling a good story are what are most important, I feel.
Does every book have to read like an action movie? It seems like that’s what these writing advice tips are advocating. Even action movies are getting over-inundated in the action and lacking in the actual content of the story. For my movie dollar, I want a story that involves me in the story, the characters, and the emotions. Star Wars was a successful film because we cared about the characters. We fell in love with Luke and saw his hopes and dreams and felt his longing to make a difference. We fell in love with Han for his spirit, his sense of adventure, and his good heart. We loved Leia for her courage, her humor, and her dedication. We even loved Threepio and R2D2 for their human-like behavior and devotion to their owners. These are what made Star Wars work. While the action and the special effects kept the story rolling full-throttle, we still needed those telling moments, like Luke gazing out longingly at dusk to feel the yearning in him, Leia standing defiantly before Vader and showing her courage as she defies him, and Han getting drawn into the rebellion despite all his words of independence.
It’s also what makes a successful book work. It’s the part of writing that pulls the reader into identifying with the main characters and caring about what happens to them. It’s not throwing them into one crisis after another, but allowing for the ordinary and everyday part of their lives that the reader can grasp and identify with that builds the bond. Once you have that, then the reader will be pulling for your main character through the crisis and turning the pages to find out what happens next.
I call myself a writer and I want the words to be lyrical when I write. I love words and how they link together to form exquisite sentences. I like to read something I’ve written a few days after it’s done and think. “Did I actually write that? Where did it come from?”
Once, in a piece of fan fiction, I wrote this line: “Quiescent words fell on him, patient little architects constructing a long-forgotten world— a place both so distantly removed and foreign to his experience that it could have been an alien civilization.” Upon reading it, my friend, another writer, turned to me and said, “I wish I had written that.” And I thought, I can’t believe I wrote that.
When the creative brain is in charge, the words come from the soul and not from the logical side that is saying. “How does this advance the story?”
At the end of the day, the book I write is mine. It’s the story I want to tell and while it may not be a big hit with anyone, it is nonetheless, my story and I want to tell it as purely and elegantly as possible. I can only hope that someone will want to read it because it’s a good story.
Writers and readers alike, what do you think about this? Do you agree or disagree?? Let me know.
Exploring barriers between reality and other realities… Is it fantasy or just a step through a dimension portal?
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