Some Literary Waves

Quite a lot has been going on in the indie publishing world as of late, with a couple of these things personally affecting my titles. First, the good news: Kindle Worlds is now making its titles available through Kindle Unlimited. Now if you are a KU subscriber, you can read Melody of Love and Haunting Melody for free! Just make sure to read at least 10% of the book so everyone gets paid. ;-)

Second, the not so good news: Inktera is temporarily suspending distribution of titles coming from Draft2Digital, so my books won't be listed there for awhile. Actually no one's books will--Inktera is revamping the whole brand, so until that's complete, their catalog is not available. Full disclosure: I never had any sales from this channel anyway, so it's not really going to affect my bottom line when it comes to royalties.

NaNoWriMo: If you're following my progress on the site, you know that it's kicking my butt this year, for real. I should be sailing closing to 30k right now, and I haven't even hit 20k. But I'm not giving up. I just have to pour some extra fuel on the fire and see how far it goes. No matter what, I'll still post an exclusive excerpt of the novel at the end of November on Patreon.

I hope your weekend will be filled with writing. I know mine will be!

The Marathon Has Begun!

I mentioned a couple of months ago I was setting up a reading project for myself, but stayed vague on the details. So, what's the project? I've embarked on a reading marathon. I'm giving myself a year (hopefully that's enough time!) to read the entire Baby-Sitters Club series by Ann M. Martin--plus Super Specials, Mysteries, and spinoffs. Thanks to a user on this BSC board for the complete list, I know that it is 367 books. But they are children's books, so maybe I have to invest an hour and a half to each, including note-taking time.

Why am I doing this? Honestly, I don't entirely know. There was a hankering to do it, so I decided now is the time. I know what it's not--it's not some desperate attempt to recapture my youth, because most of the time I spent reading these stories as a kid I finished each book wishing I was a character in it and totally jealous that I wasn't. Though I can see it being beneficial to me as a writer, because it's a deep study of a successful series that's stood the test of time. And I never got to read them all as a kid, so now I can fill in the gaps.

Originally, this marathon was supposed to be for Sweet Valley High and all of those spinoffs because I only read a few Sweet Valley University titles in middle school (and loved them, of course), but there were a few problems with a SVH marathon--the major problem being the spinoffs are not available for Kindle yet. And I'm a stickler about reading in chronological order, which means there are three or four spinoffs that take place before the original series. The additional problem with a SVH marathon is that there is no single list of every title available like the BSC has, and as far as I can tell while I'm putting one together myself, there has to be close to 600 books. I'm a good reader, but whoa... maybe that marathon needs a little more planning.

Along with this is all that regular, mundane adulting I have to do. Like finishing the third installment for my Kindle Worlds series. It's going slow, but it's going. I still hope to succeed with 10k words before the end of the month. I just need to give myself a little boost to get through that first draft.

Melody of Love: Year One (And What Comes Next)

It takes a great amount of courage to come up with a story, to play with fictional lives like they were plastic dolls. And it takes a mountain of confidence on top of that to think you can pick up someone else's pile of dolls and put them into your own little world.

This is the one-year anniversary of publishing my novella, The Callaways: Melody of Love. I took it upon myself to sneak into someone's toy chest and start playing with their fictional characters because this novella was based on The Callaways series by Baraba Freethy. I was able to do this through Kindle Worlds, a pretty fantastic place (though not really well known) where authors of popular series offer up their worlds and their characters for some of us to experiment with. I did this because I was in the middle of reading the series when I found out that it was available on Kindle Worlds. And when life smacks you in the face with a sign like that, you've got to take your chance.

Diving Right In

I think the reason I didn't find this project as daunting as I should have was because I wanted to be immersed in the world, not necessarily with the lives of the specific characters. One of my favorite novels in the series was the one about Sean Callaway--the black sheep of the family because he was into playing music and not being a firefighter, doctor or other public servant like the rest of the big Callaway brood. His novel led to finding his love, Jessica, and helped her reignite a desire to dance like she used to before she was widowed. The novel ends with Sean and Jessica opening a recording/dance studio in San Francisco. And that's where I found the perfect place to create a love story of my own.

I used original characters to create Melody of Love, but without Sean and Jessica in the picture, the story couldn't have taken place. This was my first attempt at romance, so I had to navigate the waters of what type of romance it would be. There's a huge sliding scale in this genre where from one end the goal is the story ending with the couple holding hands for the first time all the way to full-on smut that you only read on an e-reader so no one can see the cover. I decided to stick with a more middle-of-the-road approach because that's where this series falls, and it can be hard to please romance fans, especially when they are coming from an established romantic world.

Publishing Through Kindle Worlds

Once the story was written, the work had to go through more steps than I had before with previous independently published work. The formatting had to be correct, sticking to a few specific rules like not including a photo on the author bio page, which I happened to forget when I first submitted it. After all of the little things were taken care of, I submitted it and still got it rejected. I was totally and completely disheartened. What could I have done wrong when I spent weeks getting it just right? Turns out, it was something very simple and something I should have been aware of before submitting my work.

The problem was in my book's description. I can't believe I would overlook it, but I didn't mention a Callaway family member. Not once. And because the book is based on a specific series, something needed to be mentioned, not just the two original characters I created. After taking care of that problem, it was smooth sailing. This probably gave me a better idea of how traditional publishing could go--lots of back and forth, getting everything just right before it's finally published.

I must also address this point to any authors looking to publish something through Kindle Worlds: just like any other major publisher, there is a lot of fine print and not a lot you have control over once you submit your work (heads-up for authors: you don't get to set your own prices). Be sure to read all of the fine print before you publish so that you are aware of what rights you hold and what rights the original author or the publisher holds.

A Built-In Audience

Writing a book doesn't guarantee you'll find an audience. Writing a book based on someone else's popular romance series doesn't guarantee you'll find an audience either. This discovery surprised me. I thought that super fans of this series would be all over my novella, even if it did veer off to another, non-Callaway couple.

Guess again.

Like anything you create, you have to get the word out about it yourself. I know I have a few fans out there (okay, maybe just two), but nothing like the the fan base of the original series. I was banking on bringing a few of them over to read my work, but as of writing this post, none of the readers who read and reviewed Melody of Love were actually readers of The Callaways series. I can't tell you whether that's a good or a bad thing. Maybe it doesn't matter at all since I put a lot of effort into making it a standalone story while still honoring the atmosphere of The Callaways. 

My biggest setback in the marketing game is that I'm reluctant to use the original author's name in the way I advertise the book. For some reason, it feels wrong to bring up her name just to make a sale, even though she clearly gave permission for authors to come in and write. (Just to be clear, I also feel the same way about books advertised as Stephen King-meets-Judy Blume or whatever big-name authors they choose to compare themselves with.) I've also purposely not approached Facebook fans of hers or posting about my work on her fan group pages (of which I am, of course, a fellow fan) because it seems like it would be in bad taste. So I haven't yet found out what her fans think of my work--and readers coming in as non-fans all have the same issue: it's too short.

That is a problem I can remedy. I wouldn't mess with Melody of Love to make it longer, but I would provide more novellas featuring my original characters. In fact, the novella I was working on last fall was a continuation of this story. So this October I'm going to be releasing a second novella called Haunting Melody (you heard it here first, folks). There is also a third novella in the very early planning stages, which would take my Kindle Worlds experiment from a good little story to a mini-trilogy within the world of The Callaways.

It was a thrill to work with someone else's characters with permission, especially since I spent some of my high school years honing my writing skills on unpublished fan fiction. It was also a great learning experience to publish work through Kindle Worlds. Even though Amazon is a giant in the world of all things written and published, it's nice to see that they have programs to help provide the space for independent authors to grow.

#NaNoWriMo 2015: DAYS 14 & 15

Before I start writing about my NaNo adventure, a little promo:

From November 15 - November 22, I'm running a Kindle Countdown deal for Seeing What Develops on Amazon UK. So if you live in the UK or just like to shop in that part of the world, you can get my latest novel for  great discount. Now back to the writing...

This weekend had been unnecessarily hectic. There wasn't a single thing I accomplished to its fullest. There are still boxes of junk on the floor from last week's closet cleaning. There are still Christmas-y things to prep. There are still household chores to complete. And of course there are still words to write.

As much as I would like to brag and say I blasted through almost 6000 words today, I didn't. My NaNo stats are skewed because I forgot to update them yesterday. That was split over the past two days, which is still impressive for someone who's behind, but not quite there yet. I should have hit 25k, but I'm a little short. Oh well. The night is young...

Scouting Kindle Scout, Phase 1: The Nominations

Before I venture into the realms of submitting a book to Kindle Scout, I though I would check out how the process works from the reader's side. Because, presumably, those voting for each project are dedicated readers.

First Impressions
I started looking through the projects a few weeks ago. I didn't instantly find something that stood out because of one major problem: bad covers. Now, I don't mean a cover that has the wrong font or a photo that doesn't accurately describe the contents. I mean absolutely atrocious covers. Ones that a first-time self-published author wouldn't even want to publicly represent their book. I would never consider wasting one of my three votes on a book that you know won't make it through the vetting process, because I assume the people that run the show behind the scenes are smarter than that.

Just to make sure I wasn't being too harsh on these nominees, I checked out all of the titles published by Kindle Scout so far. In my opinion, out of all the published titles only one of the covers wasn't up to my standards. Of course that's all subjective, but still. First impressions matter.

Casting My Votes
I did eventually find books that I wanted to nominate for publication. They had good covers, the blurb was intriguing and the sample provided hooked me. All I had to do then was wait for the results.

50/50
So far I have voted for six books. Two titles are still currently in the nominating process. Two titles have been accepted for publication and when they are released, I will be provided with a free copy for my vote.

And then there were two.

These two titles didn't make it to publication. I don't know how I feel about that. These were the two titles I was most excited to root for. The two votes that went to books which won a contract weren't that interesting, but were professional in their presentation. So what does that say about my taste in books? More importantly, what does that say about the Kindle Scout process?
 
The Aftermath
Without access to voting numbers, no one could tell you what distinguishes a book that makes it to publication with Kindle Scout and what books fall short of the finish line. I know the two biggest factors are the professional appearance of the project and the marketability, but which one is weighted more heavily is only known to the Powers that Be. What I can tell you by going through this nominating process is that I've found one significant drawback on taking a chance with this program. No matter what happens to the books you vote for, you as the voter will find out.

Think about it. You get dozens of nominations. Hundreds, maybe. Then your book isn't selected. Every single one of those voters will get an email telling them that your book didn't make it. That it wasn't good enough. That, in the words of certain political candidates, you're a loser. Do you really want your readers to know that your project didn't succeed? Would it matter to someone enough that they no longer had an interest in reading it?

I happened to be reading an article the other day about the downside of Kindle Scout and browsing through the comments. An author who submitted a project (which I happened to nominate) talked about the fact that they didn't win a contract. Not only did possibly hundreds of that author's current readers take the time to vote for the project, they also got that "sorry you didn't pick a winner" email. The author admitted to being embarrassed by it, and wondered how much of a setback it would be.

However, some may actually find this email to voters as a benefit. It could spark interest in previously published work. And the email also promises to let voters know if the book is eventually published on Amazon through KDP. So even the pros and cons of the program have their own pros and cons.

Marching On
Does this deter me from going ahead with submitting a book? I don't think it has changed my mind, but it is making me rethink my approach to the project before submission. Do I have a solid, interesting book to submit? Yes. Do I have a decent cover? It was designed by a professional, so yeah. Do I have the backing of a big enough audience to prove it's marketability? Unfortunately, no. And I know this. So the question comes down to whether I would submit a project knowing this and hoping there are enough Kindle Scout lurkers (who didn't come there specifically to vote for a project someone asked them to vote for) willing to give my project a chance.

And maybe I should move my expected submission date. Right now I have it scheduled to start in the middle of December. I'm thinking that's probably not the time a lot of people are hanging around, voting for books. Then again, a truckload of votes could be my one Christmas wish come true--that is, if I lived in a Hallmark movie. ;-)

What are your thoughts on the nominating process?

Seeing What Develops is Coming -- PreOrder Your Copy!

It's been nearly a year in the making, and the release date for Seeing What Develops is finally here! The book will be released on October 15th. Pre-orders for the Kindle book start TODAY, and the paperback version will be available by the 15th. And don't forget to to add it to your Goodreads shelf!

I wouldn't be here on the brink of the release of my first full-length novel without the place where it all started--National Novel Writing Month. It was November 2014 when I took this short idea I had scribbled on a piece of paper and just ran with it. I didn't stop until I hit 50,000 words. Not only was this a product of NaNoWriMo, it also gave me my first NaNoWriMo win. Seeing it in print only makes it feel like every grasp for a word, every edit of repetitious phrases and every hour spent glaring at a computer screen to get here was worth it.

And this is just the beginning. I have many more writing projects in the pipeline, so I know that I'll be busy throughout the final months of 2015 and into 2016. This year's NaNoWriMo is coming up too and I have a doozy of an idea for it. If all goes according to plan, I'll have the first draft of the next Great American Novel by December 1st. Maybe. ;-) 

I hope you continue to join me on my journey!

Publishing Year One: Hindsight

**Note to readers: I rewrote this post five or six times. Half of those posts had a positive spin, half went into the other direction. My attitudes about writing and publishing fluctuate on a daily basis. While this post may not be the most positive, know that I do still have moments of unfettered hope about the future of publishing my work. Ask me again tomorrow and the outlook may not be as bright.

Regrets—I have a few. 

It’s a big deal to publish a book no matter how you go about it. But the biggest lessons from it all are the things you have learned while you were standing right in the middle of all that planning and stress and hope. 

There were many things I could have done differently, starting with choosing a completely different form of writing to publish. Haiku is great, but half the world scoffs saying it’s easy, others say that it’s so challenging each one is a masterpiece in simplicity. I’m definitely walking the middle road on that topic, but creating a book of free verse poems or a novel would have probably provided a better vehicle for sales. 

That being said, the book is what it is. I could have tried different ways to advertise the book. I could have given out more free copies to avid readers. I could have made sure that paperback version and the ebook version came out on the same day. I could have just thrown money at the problem with paid advertising and paid book reviews (which I would never recommend). I could have simply waited and waited and waited until maybe someday, finally a real publisher or agent saw some talent in my work. But I didn’t wait around. I self-published because it the best way I knew how to get it out there at the time. 

A Career Changer?

The big question I know that I had at the beginning of this process was whether this would significantly change my career in any way. I’m very open about what I write, how I go about it and the struggles I have trying to make it my life’s work. But even I have to admit when I send a short story or some poetry to literary journals, Unfolding Life is never mentioned in the cover letter or the short bio. Self-publishing still has a stigma because the quality is unregulated. I will tell you this—after spending the past seven or eight years reading A LOT self-published work, the ratio of good-to-bad is about the same as traditionally published books. That’s because it is all about the reader’s perception and how they emotionally connect or disconnect with each story. Yes, formatting and grammatical nightmares are much more common in the self-publishing space, but even a great story can overcome all of that (think of your favorite trilogies-now-blockbuster-movies set). 

Lessons Learned

Learning throughout this process did give me one thing that I don’t regret—it made me happy to know what to expect for any potential future projects. Will I continue to self-publish? Maybe. I would still love to have a traditional contract with a major publisher, but I also know that the contract negotiations would be fierce—I’m no fool when it comes to royalties on ebooks. 

Will I continue to write? Come on. That’s like asking me whether I will continue to breathe. 

My motivation for writing will never change—it entertains me and I can’t think of anything else I would rather spend my time doing. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean I actually spend enough time writing—it takes a lot to cut through the demands of trying to make a living (not always succeeding at it) and trying to convince everyone around me I’m not at their beck and call just because my office is located where I live. Then when there is a time to write, I feel so guilty that I’m doing something people consider unimportant the anxiety starts to block out all of those ideas that seemed to be good in my head, but once on the paper seem like a whole lot of nothing. 

My motivation for publishing will need to change if I ever want to enjoy the process again. I can’t think about it as just doing this project to get to the next project. Right now I’m still in the mindset that if Unfolding Life had made more money, I could have hired an editor for my novel In Another Life. And if that project sold enough copies, it would give me the money to hire an artist for my comic book project. With the profits from that comic book project, I would be able to finally find a way to shoot some of the short films I’ve written. It’s a vicious cycle, but I don’t think it’s all that unreasonable. It’s not like I thought about making a full-time living from a single book. I’m certainly not that naïve. I just wanted to reinvest the profits in future projects which may or may not have led to the one perfect project that finally provided the means to write full-time.  

The self-publishing world will absolutely crush me if I dwell on getting paid what I think my work is worth. Yes, I do believe that writers are more than entitled to make a living from writing alone. And by alone I mean no parent, sibling, spouse, sugar daddy, trust fund, anyone or anything else providing additional financial support. This background support is often hidden by both beginning and well-established writers. Very few actually talk about struggling, which leads me and their audience to believe that they don’t. But they won’t tell you that—they’ll lose their starving artist street cred. 

Most consumers (and *ahem* those who hire freelance writers for their businesses) do not believe that writing can or should be a full-time job, and they certainly don’t want to pay a writer what they are worth. I can’t say I blame them. I am that consumer. The ONLY ebook I have ever purchased is my own to fulfill giveaways and review copies. I have hundreds of books on my Kindle and my Kobo that I downloaded for free. I haven’t bought a physical book in the past three years—I’ve been lucky enough to be given the opportunity to write reviews in exchange for free books, so I am that consumer. Unless the book seems like it will absolutely change my life, I’m a little reluctant to pay for it. I don’t have the resources to make as many book purchases as I want, and there’s your full circle—if I made more money writing, I could buy more books. 

So I get it. I get why this project was not what I would consider a success. 

I’m smarter for going through the process, but I’m also realistic. Whether any future writing will ever see the light of day is a serious question I’m still struggling with. I know that hard work is the key, but when you feel like you have given it more than your all and it still brings no results, you have to keep asking yourself whether it is worth all the time, effort, stress and guilt for not spending time trying to be better at making money instead of keeping focus on being creative.

Previous drafts of this post were a lot more positive, but that attitude made it feel like I was lying to myself and to everyone else. I'm disappointed in the sales numbers. I’m frustrated that even though I know a whole lot more about online marketing than most first-time writers going into this, I still couldn’t get the project in front of the right audience. I’m angry that it feels like there’s some secret to success that I just haven’t figured out. 

Right now, I don’t know where to go from here. I don’t want to spend the next six months working hard on another writing project only to have the same outcome. The future of my career as a professional writer in any capacity is uncertain, and it’s not a feeling I like carrying around each day. It’s decision time and I still don’t know where I’m going. I know that wherever it is I have to move forward in some direction, with or without writing projects in my hand. 

Get Unfolding LIfe Now--For FREE!

To celebrate National Poetry Month, I have a little surprise for you. This is a one day only opportunity, folks. Today (4/25/14) my haiku collection Unfolding Life will be available on Amazon for free! If you have resisted so far, now you have no excuse to pick up a copy. I really do appreciate my readers and fans, so this is for you.

I also appreciate my reviewers... so if you pick up a free copy today, I would love to hear what you think about it!

You Don't Need a Kindle to Read a Book

...even if they are Kindle books! As a new author I'm hearing all the excuses, including the easiest way for people to get out of an awkward situation when I ask if they've bought my book yet. They say "Oh, I would but I don't have a Kindle. Sorry!" Mmm-hmm. An amateur might believe that, but I know what's up.

Instead of accusing people of dodging the book bullet, I'm simply going to assume that you do not know about all of Amazon's Kindle reading apps. So let me tell you right now--you don't need a Kindle to read a Kindle book! Kindle offers a FREE Kindle reading app for a TON of different platforms. This includes iPhones, Android phones, Windows phones and even Blackberrys. Also, you can get it for your Mac or Windows computer, iPad, Android tablet and Windows tablet.

What? You don't own ANY of those devices? That's okay. I know if you are reading this, you have access to a computer. Well, Amazon handles that too--you also have the option to read instantly in your browser.

Now you are telling me you don't have an Amazon account. Well, if you are going that far to make an excuse, at least I know you care about my feelings just a little bit.