Writing and reading fiction

Libbie Hawker rants at traditional publishing at the link. Even if you aren't open to being convinced, you'll probably be entertained. Enjoy.

I've opted out of this debate and haven't posted about respecting indies for some time. The SP versus trad thing often gets silly and repetitive. I'm not sure anyone convinces anyone of anything, either. Minds are hard things to change. However, propaganda requires a reply that uses facts. In the anti-SP camp, The Guardian and Salon have, with few exceptions, declared their allegiance with traditional publishing's party line. That's why I decided to link to this article today.

There's a lot to consider here, like how much help the writer recruits in the editorial process. How much help is needed? Are most self-published books crap because the majority of everything is crap? Since Libbie Hawker's piece is as lengthy as it is thought-provoking, I'll hold back on that topic today and let you ponder those issues at the link.

~ Chazz

After promoting books everywhere you can think to do so, it's especially fun for an author when something nice comes along that you didn't expect. Book promotion can be a cheerful exercise or it can be a frustrating chore, depending on what you're doing. Not to get all unicorns and bubble, bubble, toil and trouble on you, but when help arises organically, it feels kind of magical and makes my heart grow three sizes. 

The first time it happened, I stumbled across a conversation about one of my books through Google Alerts. Two readers I didn't know were talking about a book of mine in a favorable way. When that happens, it's almost like I don't need cocaine. It's such a happy thing, the world has a caramel coating and the spinal columns of my enemies hang decoratively from sentient trees singing Bohemian Rhapsody.

Then yesterday I noticed my Twitter stream blew up with Cover Wars from over at the Masquerade Crew. A couple of my covers from the Hit Man Series were doing battle to the death in a poll over which was the better cover. Cue the Kirk versus Spock combat music and click the link below to cast your vote.

Both were created by Kit Foster of KitFosterDesign.com, so no matter which one comes out on top in the poll, he wins. The Hit Man covers are an ode to James Bond paperbacks from the '80s and I love them both. (A later version of Bigger Than Jesus added the tagline: "Thou shalt not steal" and I got a nice cover blurb from Claude Bouchard, author of Vigilante.) 

Many thanks to the Masquerade Crew for this pleasant surprise and promotional bump. I love it when things like this come out of the blue...and when singing, sentient trees rip out the spinal columns of my many enemies. I'm so happy, the pine tree by front step just burst forth with a medley of Queen's songs from Highlander. It's an awesome feeling. Later I'll go shovel what's left of my rude mail carrier into a mailbox.

Follow the Masquerade Crew, go to KitFosterDesign.com and have a happy and surreal day!

~ Chazz

This post by India Drummond at The Writer's Guide to E-publishing is funny and sad.

I sent the link to my graphic designer immediately. He'll enjoy it, I think, but I told him that if I was guilty of any of the above, I didn't want to know. 

Learn what not to do at the link.

~ Chazz

At the link you'll find an interesting list by Jeff Bullas of jeffbullas.com. I was pleased to see I've read four of the books he recommends. (4-hour Workweek; On Writing by Stephen King; Rework; and the War of Art. You've probably read those ones, too. If not, hearty recommendations!)

One thing that caught my eye in particular was e-junkie. An evolutionary step I believe we must take as authors is selling more of our stuff straight from our websites. Mr. Bullas notes that e-junkie is for downloadable content. I've heard good things about e-junkie. However, I'm planning on selling t-shirts, print books and some e-content, so perhaps I need something a little more comprehensive.

Are any of you selling stuff from your sites and what's your experience? I'm considering Shopify. (I want to source the shirts myself, so I'm avoiding the usual suspects. For instance, my experience with CafePress was underwhelming. Also, someone in the know told me they didn't care for CafePress shirts' graphic reproduction. Someone else informed me that Zazzle raised their rates recently so they take a deeper cut.)

Any thoughts on which e-store tool is best for authors? 

At the link, you'll find an interesting article on how non-fiction migrates into fiction by percolating through the mind of authors. That's a key to creating compelling fiction: providing a context of verisimilitude. As I write, I'm frequently in deep research mode to give the reader a context that makes it easy for them to suspend disbelief. (Yesterday I spent the morning with a hiking and survival expert plotting a journey for Season 2 of my horror serial.) Have a look and learn at the link.

This might turn out to be the summer of zombies. (Gee, I hope so.) Between the release of the new Brad Pitt film, horror author Armand Rosmalia's Summer of Zombie Blog Tour and my release of This Plague of Days, it's going to be zombie-riffic! (Horror fans should check out Armand's blog at armandrosamilia.com.)

Full disclosure: I use the term "zombie" loosely in This Plague of Days. It's more 28 Days Later and rabies/rage virus-oriented than it is The Dead Won't Die! Also, my infected cannibals are fast and it's a terror/disaster thriller with a strange autistic twist. So there's that.

Find out more about my coming serial at ThisPlagueOfDays.com.

1. Check out this great post on ebook box sets by DD Scott at The Writer's Guide to E-Publishing to make more money and sell more books.

2. I'm always researching how to best proceed in the book business. I run across great stuff all the time. When I want to keep a link for future reference, I dutifully click "Add to reading list." The article is added to the nigh-infinite cyber pile of stuff I'll never look at again. RSS feeds pile up and notes get filed under: "Stuff to definitely get to once I become immortal."Scoopit! is my solution.

3. I add value to this blog by using Scoopit! links to point readers to useful stuff they might have missed. My blog is the surest way I have to avoid losing useful information to the "Add to reading list" button.

Enjoy DD Scott's suggestions at the link below.

Author India Drummond noticed that Amazon has new categories, subcategories, theme categories and character categories. Learn at the link to The Writer's Guide to E-publishing. They're pretty detailed, cool and interesting (though they've got elves, dragons and pirates, but no zombies, darnnit!)

Um, hello, Amazon? I've got a bunch of books on your site. I'm grateful to India for pointing this out, of course, but shouldn't Amazon go out of their way to let us know about something like this? Did I miss a meeting or a memo? Lots of things happen on Amazon and sometimes it seems like they rely on osmosis to announce changes. (Like one day you wake up and the tags are gone.)

It's a good idea to revisit your book's categories from time to time. If your work isn't moving in Mystery, you might have more luck in Action/Adventure (assuming your book could reasonably fit both categories.)

You're allowed two categories on Amazon, so explore your options so readers can find you. The more specific your list, the greater your chances of book buyers discovering you're awesome (assuming you're awesome.) You could be ranked 1,786,023 in sci-fi, but you could potentially be huge  in a subcategory, like First Contact, Galactic Empire or Cyberpunk.

It's an exciting marketing opportunity if we work it right.

~ Chazz





 

Here's an interesting survey of authors' experiences with free promotions. Have a look at The ebook Author's Corner at the link.

Most of us still try free promotions on Amazon. They are still the big dog by far. However, after 90 days with KDP Select, we move on to propagate on other platforms. Since free often isn't effective, ninety days of exclusivity often feels too long for those five days of giveaways. We have to be clever about leveraging those promotions.

It would be encouraging if we heard about wild success on a platform other than Amazon at least once in a while. However, no one listens to Chazz so the distant second, third and fourth runners in the sales platform race still aren't stealing the best ideas from each other to optimize their effectiveness. Ergo, anonymous reviews suck; anon reviews with stars but no explanatory comments suck harder; being unable to find a book you know is there is freakin' ridic! (I've never used the phrase "freakin' ridic" before. Once in a lifetime is sufficient.)

My horror serial, This Plague of Days, releases soon. I will be going with Amazon first, but I suspect for only one 90-day period and I don't even plan to use all five days of free promotion. I'll let you know how my clever leverage tactics work out. Gee, I hope they're clever enough. 

To battle. Squire! My armor! 

~ Chazz

I especially like the idea of identifying top reviewers of your genre and offering them a free copy to review. Lots of ideas about tweaking the basics on this advice blog from How to Successfully Self-Publish. Learn at the link below.

~ Chazz

On this week's edition of the Cool People Podcast, I talk to author Jessica McHugh about many aspects of writing: Readers' expectations about sex versus violence, marketing and more. It was a really fun interview. Check it out at the link and enjoy! (Also on video at the YouTube link at CoolPeoplePodcast.com.)

Jonathan Gunson talks about what makes a great book cover at the link below to Bestseller Labs. Learn at the link!

Book covers are much on my mind today as my graphic designer (Kit at KitFosterDesign.com) and I make the final tweaks to Episodes 1 - 5 and the Season 1 covers for This Plague of Days. There will be a different cover for the print version, as well. (Still super secret and amazingly ambitious, but if anyone can pull it off, Kit can.)

Some graphic deisgners welcome less back and forth on covers. Kit isn't happy until I am, so the covers always arrive at a good place. I don't know how Kit does what he does. His art is amazing and he's a multiple award-winner. I trust his skills and sensibility to guide me toward creating covers that grab eyeballs.

I know what I look for in a good cover:
 

1. It has to pop at thumbnail size as well as full-screen.

2. Contrast. Too many covers out there are tough to read.

3. Author branding. The author's name goes big because there are many titles but the author brand remains as an identifiable anchor to all the books. Ultimately, I want readers to be searching for my name rather than titles. That way, the fans of what I do buy all my stuff.

4. Clean typography that reflects the nature of the work. (If you've just written the great American novel, you probably don't want Comic Sans for a font on your cover.)

5. I want my covers to convey something about the book without trying to tell the whole story on the cover.

For the Hit Man Series, for instance, the covers have the look of the James Bond cover makeovers from the eighties with a saucy tagline that tells you it's going to be serious fun. My Cuban assassin, Jesus Diaz, is no James Bond, but he falls in love too easily and my heroines are worhth the long drop into doom. (Adding taglines from the 10 commandments was Kit's brilliant idea. Great tweak!) At a glance, readers have an idea what they're in for and with titles like Bigger Than Jesus and Higher Than Jesus, I had to give them a heavy clue they're crime novels.

Jonathan Gunson touches on this issue in the link, too, and it's crucial. Readers judge books by their covers and the covers for This Plague of Days convey isolation, desolation and civilization's collapse. This serial is  a serious story about an autistic boy and his family fighting for survival in the face of plagues of zombies that's taking over the world. When I reveal the covers (soon!) you'll get instantly that there's plenty of trouble and a journey ahead. The title elements, blurb, tagline, art, typography and color all say something about what This Plague of Days is about. (There's even a hint at a big secret that isn't divulged until a long way down the road.)

The mood, colour and look of the cover for the first episode actually reminds me of a Neil Gaiman book. That's what we all crave: unique, eye-catching images that evoke the happy familiar and draw readers of similiar books in the genre. Kit's working on finalizing the covers as I write these words and I can't wait to see what he comes up with.

Big stories and great covers build exciting times! 

~ Chazz

As I write this, "erotica" is still available on Amazon US but, as reported by The Telegraph at the link below, it's deleted as a category from Amazon UK. If readers want it, they have to go searching by book title instead of by category. No word if this will happen elsewhere on Amazon. Perhaps this is a trial balloon to gauge reader reaction. Policy formation at the mighty Zon is an opaque thing, so if it happens, it happens to you without warning, polling or discussion. 

That's their right, but this is an odd choice on several levels, and hypocritical at that, since Fifty Shades is still for sale loud and proud. I'm confounded. Amazon generally gives people what they want. That's why they are so much more successful than other players. The move is a blow to reader choice, author free expression and zaps my backup plan for the fall if This Plague of Days doesn't take off.

B&N has had issues with erotica, too, limiting an erotic book's ability to rise past a rank of 126, as Wool author Hugh Howey discussed on his blog recently. I've never understood this conundrum: all kinds of violence is fine but get sexy and we have to put a leash on you.

(Thanks to loyal blog reader M.L. Sexton for the tip about Amazon UK!)

~ Chazz

Click the link below to see the full article by Lauren Indvik at Mashable.

I'm linking to this FYI, but not because I think it will work. It's kind of the Kindle Singles program without the power platform, numbers, audience and store experience to push the ebooks. They're only taking "three to five works" of 5,000 words or more six times a year and trying to sell them for $1.99.

For this to take off for Nook, the scheme will require name authors. However, authors with a brand would already have a platform and a more compelling deal elsewhere (probably on Amazon). Perhaps that's one reason why the stories are only exclusive for 60 days.

Am I missing something? It's far too early to call the attempt a fail, but it does look like a weak flail. There are good practices to imitate across the various sales platforms. This latest from Nook seems half-hearted and priced wrong.

This is a new storyboarding tool from Amazon. Check it out at the link.

One of the things I want to do is create graphic novels in the future. This won't replace working with an artist, but it's still a pretty cool app with an expanding library of props, backgrounds and actors and interesting potential. I can't wait to experiment with it.

~ Chazz

Great suggestions (with even more helpful links) from Joan Stewart on The Book Designer's website. For instance, Locus.com wasn't really on my radar.

I do wonder about the real value of blogging sometimes. Blogging success (as in eventually gathering a base, driving traffic and selling books and/or monetizing in an author's case) depends on how you do it, your target audience and your goals. I justify this blog for writers by gathering publishing allies, building community and turning years of blogging about writing into two books, for instance.

If blogging takes time away from writing books you should be writing, blogging hurts you. An author page *is* necessary and you do need to at least blog that much so you have web real estate you own. Your blog is where you build your mailing list and you can't do that on Amazon. (Subscribe to my mailing list at www.AllThatChazz.com, BTW.)

I'm not saying don't blog (I have five blogs.) However, blogging must be pursued strategically, using time management and prioritzation. How do I do it? I don't blog on all my blogs daily and the books come first. I'm getting better at writing shorter blog posts that are easily done and quicker  for readers to digest: Less Tolstoy, more Seth Godin.

Learn more about publicity from Joan Stewart at the link to The Book Designer below.

 

At the link, you'll find an interesting how-to breakdown on DIY audiobook creation by Geoffrey Goetz. Learn at the link!

The post brings up a question that isn't much dealt with in this particular article. It's not a how-to question. It's a should-you? Would you be comfortable putting a DIY audiobook up for sale on iTunes?

Standards for what's acceptable vary.

A comedian friend refused to sell a recording because the audience wasn't on mic. Without their reactions, he didn't feel the funny was legitimized to the listener (even though he killed.) He thought selling that recording would be "mercenary". Meanwhile, another professional comedian performed a special for an audience of two: Her parents. (The review was on the Slate Culture Gabfest and they loved it.)

I record author readings on the All That Chazz podcast. I do the podcast for free, but I'd worry about production quality if it were on iTunes. But maybe I'm being too shy or plain wrong about that. Maybe I've been indoctrinated with historic audiobook rules instead of looking to the future.

Do you need a full studio to produce something to sell? A video engineer friend of mine announced recently that he's ditching the heavy, $6,000 camera and making movies with an iPhone now. You can produce high production values with relatively inexpensive equipment. New tech can often deliver higher production value than what the richest Hollywood studios had a few years ago. If you can rise to the occasion in employing that tech, you could come pretty close to par. The first no-budget Paranormal movie comes to mind.

Back to audio:

On Podiobooks, audiobooks are given away free. There are still hoops to jump through, but since it's free, few listeners really expect perfection. Up the capitalist foodchain, if you go with ACX, you've got professional voice talent and an expensive production that's still much cheaper than it used to be and you maintain control of your art.

As the bar to entry has lowers through easily accessible technology,will the audiobook production industry undergo an influx of independents as has happened with the book industry? Audio purists will likely be resistant to that idea.

We touched on this issue in a post last week: Experts recommend their services and condemn all intruders in their realm. This isn't just in publishing. To illustrate, let me paraphrase an old medical adage: If you go to a surgeon for advice, his advice is going to be, "I'll cut you" Every specialty is predisposed to recommend their intervention.

Could we sell a DIY recording on iTunes (through CD Baby)? Yes.

Should we? Before we rush to judgment, consider that independent musicians reach professional standards from their garages and basements all the time. People who call themselves "Indie" in the music and film industries get much more respect than Indies in the book industry. Musicians and filmmakers are called brave, innovative and entrepreneurial. In the book industry, outdated views still hold with the term "vanity press".

I can't fathom why this is so. I'm not pretending. I'm publishing. 

~ Chazz

I write crime novels in which the cops never show up. However, my first love in the mystery genre was Agatha Christie. I also like Ian Rankin's books very much. You'll enjoy Rankin's article on building your whodunit.

Learn at the link below and enjoy!

~ Chazz 

Click the Scoopit! link below to scoot over to JW Manus's blog for an excellent take on the nature of advice, advice-givers and how we might look at the cost/benefit analysis of self-publishing. Love this! Subscribe over there, too. It's a solid blog with lots of advice about ebook formatting, too.

(When you're done that, check out author Jordanna East's guest post on my blog, www.ThisPlagueOfDays.com. Recent tragic and insane weather events underline our needs for disaster preparedness and Jordanna asks what's in your BOB? Check it out. It's important.)

Cheers!

~ Chazz