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January 13, 2013

Guest Post: Are Indie Books Worth Reviewing?

Rayne Hall has published more than forty books under different pen names with different publishers in different genres, mostly fantasy, horror and non-fiction. Recent books include Storm Dancer (dark epic fantasy novel), Six Historical Tales Vol 1, Six Scary Tales Vol 1, 2 and 3 (mild horror stories), Six Historical Tales (short stories), Six Quirky Tales (humorous fantasy stories), Writing Fight Scenes and Writing Scary Scenes (instructions for authors).

She holds a college degree in publishing management and a masters degree in creative writing. Currently, she edits the Ten Tales series of multi-author short story anthologies: Bites: Ten Tales of Vampires, Haunted: Ten Tales of Ghosts, Scared: Ten Tales of Horror, Cutlass: Ten Tales of Pirates, Beltane: Ten Tales of Witchcraft, Spells: Ten Tales of Magic and more.

Her short online classes for writers intense with plenty of personal feedback. Writing Fight Scenes, Writing Scary Scenes, Writing about Magic and Magicians, The Word Loss Diet and more.

For more information about Rayne Hall go to her website.

Certain book blogs state categorically that they won’t review self-published books. I understand their motivation: They get inundated with submissions and are trying to keep the numbers down.

However, No Indies is as arbitrary as No Jews or No Women.

The reviewers aim to filter out low-quality works – but is the publishing method a valid quality filter?

It used to be. In the late 20th century, the established path to publication was author-agent-publisher-bookseller-reader. Each book had to pass three gates on its journey from author to reader, and each gate represented a quality test. Self-published books were inevitably those that had failed at the first two gates.

Times have changed. E-publishing makes it possible to reach the readers directly, and many authors choose the direct route instead of queuing at the gates.

Without gatekeepers barring entry, many poorly-written and under-revised books get published. A lot of indie (i.e. self-published) books are not as good as their authors think. Frankly, there’s a mass of indie dross – but there are also many indie gems.

The boundary between “good book” and “bad book” doesn’t happen to coincide with the frontier between indie-published and legacy-published books.

Consider the authors who use both publishing models: Amanda Hocking, John Locke and Michael Stackpole submit some of their works to legacy publishers and self-publish others. Are these authors’ legacy-published books better than their self-published ones?

Or how about the authors were successful with legacy-published books, but then decided to go indie? Consider Joe Konrath, Barry Eisler, Kevin O. McLaughlin and Dean Wesley Smith. Have they lost their ability to write good books?

Then there are the authors who took their previously legacy-published out-of-print books and self-published them as ebooks – Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Piers Anthony, for instance. The books are the same, so how can they suddenly be less worthy?

Over three decades, I had twenty books published by several legacy publishers before choosing the indie route. Does this mean my old books are worth reviewing, and my new books are not – even though I have grown as a writer?

Not long ago, a book blogger approached me. She had enjoyed the stories in Six Scary Tales Vol 1 and asked for review copies of Vol 2 and 3, so she could review the series. Shortly after I sent the books, I received an email “Your books are self-published and therefore not worth reading or reviewing.”

Excuse me? When she assumed that the books were legacy-published, she liked the stories and wanted more. On discovery that they were indie-published, the same stories were suddenly not worth reading. What does this say about the reviewer’s judgement?

Most stories in the Six Scary Tales series were originally published the legacy way in magazines and anthologies. Did inclusion in the self-published collection damage their quality?

I appreciate that book bloggers decline to read certain books, e.g. No Erotica, No Horror or No Romance, because if a book isn’t to their taste, it would be tedious to read and difficult to review.

But to decline all indie-published books because they can’t possibly be good is like refusing to read books penned by women or by Jews because no woman or Jew could possibly write something worth reading.

So how can a book reviewer assess which books are worth reading? I think the answer is obvious: by looking at the book itself. Reading the first few pages will show the reviewer whether it’s their kind of book. Often, a quick glance at the first paragraph is enough to weed out the obvious dross. If reviewers can’t form their own opinion of what they’re reading, they shouldn’t be reviewing books.

January 13, 2013

Opportunities Lost

In April 1667, an signed an agreement with Samuel Simmons, a London bookseller, to publish 1,500 copies of his book.

The author earned five pounds.

He later earned another five pounds for the sequel, which he sold in 1669.

After his death, the author’s wife granted the rights to both works, in perpetuity, to the publisher for a whooping… eight pounds.

The book?

Paradise Lost.

January 9, 2013

Lord of the Rings By Ponies

January 6, 2013

in Uncategorized by Tara Maya

Guest Post: Writing Short Stories to Promote Your Novel

Her short online classes for writers intense with plenty of personal feedback. Writing Fight Scenes, Writing Scary Scenes, Writing about Magic and Magicians, The Word Loss Diet and more.

For more information about Rayne Hall go to her website.

Short stories are excellent promotional tools. You can offer free stories to attract new readers. If they like the short, they’ll be hooked and look for more by the same author. Make the story free, and charge for the novel.

What Kind of Story?

The story must appeal to the same readers as the novel. Don’t write children’s stories if you want to promote adult novels. Make the story as similar to the novel as you can. Here are some ideas:

* Same genre. This is important. Paranormal stories promote paranormal novels; horror stories promote horror novels; chicklit stories promote chicklit novels.

* Same mood. If the novel is funny, the story has to be funny too. If the novel is scary, gritty, thought-provoking, tear-jerking or sexy, then the story has to be scary, gritty, thought-provoking, tear-jerking or sexy.

* Same location. Are your novels set in South Carolina or in Hong Kong? Choose the same setting for the story.

* Same period. To promote contemporary novels, you need contemporary stories. If you write historicals, using the same period cuts down on research and has the greatest promotional effect.

* Same characters. Involving the heroine and hero in another story can bring problems, but minor characters are a safe choice. Consider promoting members of the novels’ supporting cast to a starring role in the story.

How to Plot the Story

If you’re new to writing short stories, here are some quick guidelines.

* Keep the story short. 750 – 5,000 words is ideal.

* Give the main character a goal, something they desperately want to achieve. Then give them obstacles they must overcome to reach their goal. The story ends when they have (or haven’t) achieved that goal. The more urgent and important the goal, the more exciting the story.

* Use few characters. Three to five are enough.

* Unlike a novel, a story doesn’t stretch over a long time. Ideally, everything happens in one day, or even in a single hour.

Of course, all the other guidelines for good fiction also apply.

How to Publish Your Free Story

* Upload it on your website, to give your visitors interesting content.

* Upload it on someone else’s website, to give their visitors interesting content, and to reach new readers who hadn’t heard of you before.

* Publish it as a free e-book, to attract new readers – the type who wouldn’t spend money on a book by an author they don’t know, but are keen to try new things if they don’t cost anything. If these readers like your free story, they’ll trust that your novel is worth money. (Note: making an e-book free at Amazon requires some jiggling).

* Submit it to magazine or e-zine, if possible one specialising in your genre. Some zines even pay for the use of stories. However, most editors are inundated with submissions, and you may get many rejections before you get an acceptance.

* Submit it to an anthology (a themed collection of short stories by different authors). Anthologies are even better than zines, because they have a longer shelf-life. An e-anthology will be available forever, and a print anthology will continue to circulate in second-hand bookstores. If you place your story in an anthology, it will continue to promote your writing for years. Genre fans love anthologies. They know that a book filled with stories in their favourite genre will contain at least some gems they’ll enjoy. Most anthology readers pick a favourite story or two, and look for more fiction by those authors. The drawback is that most anthology editors are inundated with submissions.

* Use the story as a giveaway. When you give author interviews or write guest blogs, the hosts may ask you to give a prize to a prize draw, or give away free copies of your book, or something like that. This stimulates interest. However, it’s an old marketing adage never to give away the product you want to sell. If you write a guest blog promoting your book, and offer to give away four free copies, then none of the blog readers may buy the book. If they’re interested, they’ll enter the prize draw, and hope to win it for free. By the time the winner is announced, they’ve already forgotten about your book and bought something else.

Consider promoting your book – and giving away free copies of your short story. This way, you get the benefits without the drawbacks.

* Donate it as a competition prize. There are lots of contests for all kinds of things, always looking for donations of prizes. You may want to favour contests which raise funds for charities, so you’re doing a good deed which doesn’t cost you anything. The best contests are the ones which target your typical reader. For example, a horse-painting contest for teenagers is perfect if your write YA fiction with horse-riding heroines.

* Upload it as free reading at Wattpad. People who like the free story may become fans who buy your books. Wattpad has can give your story exposure to a huge potential audience, and works especially well for YA and Paranormal Romance.

* Upload it at various other sites.

Think about the Rights

When you allow someone to publish your story, you need to know which rights they claim.

“Non-exclusive rights”: This means they may publish the story only in this book or on this website. You own all rights and can publish the story elsewhere. This is ideal for promotional stories.

“Exclusive rights for a certain period”: This means you can’t publish the story for a year or whatever that period is. This is often the case with magazines and e-zines. If the magazine has many readers, or if the readers are your target audience, it’s worth it.

“First serial rights”: This is tricky. It means the publisher wants to be the first. It’s the story’s virginity: you can give it away only once. Some prestigious magazines demand first serial rights. It can be worth it because it gives your story first-class exposure. The editors will probably pay for the story, too. The problem is that this type of magazine has a long response time. You may have to wait for a year before you hear from them, and in the meantime, you can’t use the story anywhere else.

“Exclusive rights” or “All rights”: Caution! This means you will never be able to publish the story anywhere else, ever. This is seldom a good idea. Agree to this only if it’s a very prestigious publication and if they offer you a lot of money.

Plan Your Strategy

You can combine several of these actions, but some exclude others.

For example, if you make your book available free on your website, you can’t offer it as a prize or giveaway.

If you submit it to an anthology which demands exclusive rights, you can’t also publish it in a magazine, at Wattpad, or on your website.

When planning your strategy, consider this as your guideline:

“How do I get this story read by as many people as possible who are my target audience?”

You may be able to do a lot of things with your story, as long as you do it in the right order.

Here’s the most effective strategy

You may be lucky and a prestigious genre magazine publishes it on a “First rights, exclusive for a certain period” basis. Once that period is over, you get it published in other magazines and anthologies on a non-exclusive basis. At the same time, you offer it as a giveaway for guest blogs, prize draws, and contests. Let a few more months pass, then upload it as free content on your own website, as well as on friends’ websites and Wattpad.

However, this strategy requires luck: Your chance of getting a story accepted by a prestigious magazine may be as small as one in ten thousand. Even the more modest publications are taking months to respond and accept only one in a hundred or one in a thousand. It also requires patience: Some magazines and e-zines keep you waiting for months before they give you a decision. Since most refuse simultaneous submissions, you can only submit to one at a time, which may force you to wait for a decade before the story is published – and in that time, the story could earn its keep in other ways.

Here’s the easiest strategy:

Upload the story at once on your website, at Smashwords, at Wattpad etc, without bothering with magazines, e-zines, anthologies or giveaways. This puts the story to work immediately.

But it limits what you can do with it. Once the story is published, it has lost its virginity and you can never submit it to a “first rights” market, and if it’s free, people won’t value it as a giveaway or contest prize.

January 4, 2013

in Uncategorized by Tara Maya

5 Secrets of the Kickass Heroine

Kickass heroines are all the rage. But it’s tricky to do right. I’ve read some books that do a terrific job… and others that aren’t convincing.

1. Less Talk, More Action

The first time we meet Katsa in Graceling, she is knocking out guards, breaking into a dungeon and rescuing a prince. A quick flashback shows her accidentally killing a child-molester with one blow when she was only eight years old–the first time her Grace showed up. Since we have seen her amazing martial arts skills and innate ability to defend herself in action, her position as Utterly Badass is secure.

However, I’ve read other books where characters keep talking about what a badass the heroine is… without much evidence. They mention that she trains or that she “could beat any guy here” but when we finally see her in action, she’s sick at the sight of blood, or doesn’t want to kill. Huh?

2. Morality is Relative

A badass heroine needs to be strong, even ruthless, without being devoid of compassion. This is true for a hero as well as a heroine, but the fact of the matter is that readers are less forgiving of a unforgiving heroine than a hero. People even complained that Katniss was too hard, although her character was perfectly consistent.

To try to make a heroine sympathetic, some writers will try to emphasize how she hates what she’s doing… killing disgusts her, or blood makes her sick. Pushed too far, however, and these kinds of reactions make it hard to believe she would make much of a fighter.

The key is to remember that if she is fighting someone much, much worse…or to defend someone much more innocent… she will come across as strong yet heroic rather than cold and unfeeling.

3. Defeat Lesser Baddies First

There are two opponents who will typically throw the Badass Heroine for a loop. One is the Big Bad. Naturally, he / she /it has to be pretty crazy awful or the final battle will be anti-climatic. A Big Badass deserves a Big Bad. But… don’t have them fight all at once. Because the first time, the Big Bad is going to wipe the floor with the heroine, and it has to be clear this is because the Big Bad is THAT POWERFUL not because the heroine is a timid little girl.

The other one who will nix the mojo of any hotblooded heroine is the Hot Guy. He may be her equal of the field of martial arts or he may defeat her by some other equally powerful but totally different kind of talent or he may freeze her with Pure Hotness.

To truly display her awesome, a badass heroine needs to easily dispatch lesser threats before she meets a threat — or a boy — that she can’t immediately overcome. In Paranormalacy, we see Evie bag a creature, and understand this is ordinary business for her. Only after that does she encounter a bigger danger than she can handle… an invisible boy.

4. Juggling Gender Roles

Another issue that always faces a badass heroine (but not a hero) is how much her society approves her martial prowess. Even if she is a contemporary urbanite or a futuristic soldier, she may encounter people who think a woman “shouldn’t”. If she is from a feudal, quasi-medieval world, or from a sexist, quasi-medeival dystopia, she’s going to have to oppose everything her people believe in to fight for herself. It has to be convincing that she could learn to fight, want to fight and have the opportunity to fight.

It might help if she belongs to a subculture or has a “special” circumstance that works against the majority culture. But if she, alone, out of all the world, has contemporary feminist values, that’s going to be pretty hard to believe.

5. Opposites Attract

Traditionally, the strong, silent gunslingling cowboy had a soft, peace-loving but verbally sharp female to stand beside him. Now that the heroine might be the strong, silent gunslinger, it makes sense that she might fall for a peace-loving, verbally sharp guy. Right?

Sure… but this is tricky because of the lack of symmetry when it comes to switching gender roles. As unfair as it is, when you say a girl is boy-like, it’s a compliment, but if you say a boy is girl-like, you insult the boy. And unfortunately, one place this rule still holds sway is in Romance stories. (Even more in stories than in real life.) The ideal Romance hero is still an Alpha male… and if the heroine falls for a guy she has to physically protect, rather than someone who protects her… some people still have a problem with that.

If the hero has feminine strengths, never play it for laughs (even though three thousand years of literary convention will encourage this). Show those strengths as power. As they should be. In the three examples I’ve mentioned, Graceling, Hunger Games and Paranormalacy, the heroes possess many traditionally feminine strengths, such as empathy, and are often in need of protection from the heroine. But they are still an equal and a match to her.

January 2, 2013

in Uncategorized by Tara Maya

Guest Post – Happy New Year – Flash Fiction

Gumyaria was a sad, sad place. Full of Gumyarian poets who had not wriggled the bon-bon-boofa in decades. Full of girth, but dearth of mirth. Whole towns devoted all of their time devising ways to escape Gumyaria. Even the Doobulinger missionaries planted a do-not-visit beacon to warn off fools who read in outdated field guides about the great bon-bon-boofa wriggling orgies held there on annual quarter-moon-and-a-half festivals. Alas, those were sodden, wrung-out dreams of of the past.

But for its misery, Gumyaria had one wonderous thing that nobody else did, one thing that did not exist anywhere else on their joy forsaken planet. The one thing that kept all those unemployed Gumyarian poets sane. An internet connection.

January 1, 2013

in Uncategorized by Tara Maya

Skyrim Dragonborn Duel of Minstrels!

December 30, 2012

Guest Post: Speech Patterns

Her short online classes for writers intense with plenty of personal feedback. Writing Fight Scenes, Writing Scary Scenes, Writing about Magic and Magicians, The Word Loss Diet and more.

For more information about Rayne Hall go to her website.

Every character speaks differently. They use different phrases, according to their age, education, background and personality.

Whenever one of your characters says something – even if it’s just a greeting or thanks – let their personality shine through.

Here are four different characters talking about the same things:

Annie is self-centred.

She begins everything she says with “I…” The words “me”, “my”, “mine” also feature a lot in her conversation.

“I’m sorry I’m late. I had to wait a precious hour in a queue, as if I didn’t have more important things to do.”

“I tell you, I’ve never been so frightened in my life. This was my home, my shelter, my everything. I stood there watching my belongings go up in flames, and my memories with it. My husband was as helpless as I. I’m just glad my kids are safe.”

Barbie is insecure, indecisive and weak.

She uses qualifiers and excuses. Her conversations contain “rather” “quite” “somewhat”, “I would like to say”, “maybe”, “On the other hand”, “If I may say so”, “Forgive me for being so outspoken, but”, “This may sound strange, but”, “I think that perhaps”, “More or less”, “sort of”, “possibly”, “or so”.

“I’m sorry I’m rather late. There was quite a queue, maybe an hour.”

“The fire was quite fierce, and spread rather quickly. We all got out more or less in time, but if I may say so, we were somewhat shaken.”

Claudie is gushing, effusive, and highly strung.

She talks in superlatives: “the cutest”, “the worst”, “the most terrifying”, with additions of “absolutely”, “totally”, “completely”, “utterly”, “ever”, “never”, “forever.”

“I’m soooo sorry I’m late. The queue there was absolutely appalling, and I had to wait forever and ever.”

“It was absolutely horrifying, the worst nightmare. There was this unbelievably tremendous heat, the hugest flames you’ve ever seen, and the biggest column of the darkest smoke. It went on forever and ever, and I lost absolutely everything. It was utterly devastating.”

Dorrie is a bossy charge-taker.

She phrases almost anything as an order: “Do this.” “Take that.” “You mustn’t think like that.”

“Don’t think I’m late on purpose. Imagine standing in a queue for an hour.”

“Imagine the flames, the smoke, the heat. Believe me: nobody could have saved anything. Never let your own kids play with matches.”

Beginners sometimes invent speech patterns and graft them on the characters. The result can be clunky and unnatural, and call attention to itself. Instead, think of how a character’s personality trait shows in the way they speak. That’s subtler, funnier, more realistic.

Exercise

Choose a speech pattern that reflects an aspect of a character’s personality. Apply the pattern to something the character says. Perhaps you can post a “before” and “after” version as a comment so we can see the difference.

December 29, 2012

Author Interview: Paul Dail

Today, Paul D. Dail, author of The Imaginings, joins us to answer questions about his fiction.

1. Describe the flavour of your fiction in six words.

Thought-provoking, unpredictable, spiritually ambiguous, darkly humorous.

2. What do you enjoy most about writing horror fiction?

Absolutely everything. I’ve loved horror movies and books since I was little, so while these days I enjoy reading almost any genre, when it comes to writing, I’m happiest when I’m writing horror.
Oh, and I love the opportunity to give someone the creeps. I recently read a story of mine to my classes that I thought was fairly innocuous, but was pleasantly surprised when many of my students said it was “freaky.”

3. Many people enjoy reading stories about undead creatures – ghosts, vampires, zombies.
What do you think is the appeal?

I think these three examples appeal on different levels. If I were to oversimplify, I would say people like ghosts because it gives them a sense of something beyond death. Vampires is a desire for immortality. Zombies… well, for that one, I think it’s more about the characters other than the zombies that has the appeal. People want to believe that in a zombie apocalypse, they would be able to survive.

4. Have any of your stories been inspired by mythology?

Actually, yes. My story “The Interview” was heavily influenced by mythology, specifically the story of Phineus, a Phoenician king who was blinded by Zeus for his ability to see into the future.

5. Your story “Another Oldie But Goodie” in Undead: Ten Tales of Zombies (edited by Rayne Hall) starts with a retirement home resident hearing music nobody else can hear, and leads to raising a long dead person from the grave. Where did the ideas for this story come from?

This was originally a flash piece for the Vamplit Publishing blog. The theme for the week was “Love in the Cemetery,” I think. Then it was kind of a perfect storm of events that brought the actual story together, the biggest of which being when my 99 year-old grandmother, who doesn’t move very fast but is still sharp as a tack, informed my father and I one day while we were visiting that she had been hearing the song “Ave Maria” at various points throughout the day where no one was actually playing it. At that point, I started putting together the story of the nursing home resident, and I knew it was her dead husband that was singing to her (don’t worry, this comes out in the story pretty early). From there it was a matter of picking out the song, something fitting for the time. And the rest of the pieces just fell into place, especially the ending.

Thank you for joining us, Paul. May 2013 be a year of many more creative ideas and fantastic success.

==========================

About Paul D. Dail

Paul D. Dail is the author of The Imaginings, a supernatural/horror novel, as well as several other horror short stories. While he will quickly tell you that the people he has met in the many places that he has traveled have been the best schooling he could get, Paul received his formal education in English with a Creative Writing emphasis at the University of Montana, Missoula.
In addition to his fiction, he has had a non-fiction submission published in The Sun magazine’s Reader’s Write section entitled “Slowing Down” about the birth of his daughter.
Currently Paul lives in southern Utah, amid the red rock, sagebrush and pinion junipers. He teaches Language Arts and Creative Writing at Tuacahn High School for the Performing Arts.

Blog and Additional Contact Info:

www.pauldail.com A horror writer’s not necessarily horrific blog
www.amazon.com/author/pauldail Amazon Author Central page
@PaulDail Twitter

December 28, 2012

Author Interview: Douglas Kolacki

Douglas Kolacki writes exciting fantasy stories, often with a Christian flavour, about zombies, pirates and almost normal people. Today he tells us about his writing pleasures and inspirations.

1. What do you enjoy most about writing fantasy fiction?

Remaking this world into a place more to my liking, where all the rules change and fantastic things come to life.

2. Many people enjoy reading stories about undead creatures – ghosts, vampires, zombies. What do you think is the appeal?

I think that in the case of ghosts and vampires, it’s the mystery of it all–who hasn’t been intrigued by ghosts and the undead? In the case of zombies, there’s a sense of adventure in combating all these people-turned-monsters that can’t be parleyed with, bribed or placated; you have to use your wits and whatever you can scrounge, do or die.

3. The story selected by editor Rayne Hall s for the anthology Undead: Ten Tales of Zombies features a human who adjusts to life in a zombie body. Where did this idea come from?

I wanted to tell a story from the zombie’s point of view, and not only that, one that has a conscience. What if, as one of those who’s been “initiated” into that kind of existence, he’s seen how they get that way, and along with that comes a possibility of gaining your eternal rest at last? Most zombies don’t have the awareness anymore to understand it, but this guy does. He determines to do something about it.

Thank you, Douglas. We wish you and your stories a successful 2013.

============

About Douglas Kolacki

Douglas Kolacki has lived in Australia and in Naples, Italy, where he began writing. His specialty is creating fantasy worlds out of everyday modern life. He currently lives and writes in Providence, Rhode Island. His novels are Elijah’s Chariot and On the Eighth Day, God Created Trilby Richardson. His stories have been featured in Weird Tales, Dragons Knights and Angels, Big Pulp, The Devil Eats Here, Haunted: Ten Tales of Ghosts, Bites: Ten Tales of Vampires, Cutlass: Ten Tales of Pirates, Undead: Ten Tales of Zombies and Spells: Ten Tales of Magic.

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Category Archives for "Uncategorized"

Guest Post: Are Indie Books Worth Reviewing?

Opportunities Lost

Lord of the Rings By Ponies

Guest Post: Writing Short Stories to Promote Your Novel

5 Secrets of the Kickass Heroine

1. Less Talk, More Action

2. Morality is Relative

3. Defeat Lesser Baddies First

4. Juggling Gender Roles

5. Opposites Attract

Guest Post – Happy New Year – Flash Fiction

Skyrim Dragonborn Duel of Minstrels!

Guest Post: Speech Patterns

Author Interview: Paul Dail

Author Interview: Douglas Kolacki