Category Archives: On Writing

The Pretty Leaf (A free story)

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On the last Self-Publishing Round Table, John Ward, one of my co-hosts, made a comment about flash fiction, and specifically stories that often have a character contemplating the pretty leaves. So, I responded by writing a story entitled “The Pretty Leaf”.

I wanted to have “The Camera” out by now, but it’s going slower than I thought. I know what needs to happen, how it happens, and where everything goes. The words just don’t want to come out.

So, instead of putting out “The Camera” this week, I have “The Pretty Leaf” for you, thanks to John Ward.

The story is below, in its entirety.

I encourage you to let me know what you think of it. How it strikes you. I know that it struck me, personally. I hope it does for others as well.

 Follow the “more” tag to read the story.

 

Continue reading →

Things get Tough Sometimes

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I’ve had a lot of changes lately. Mostly in my attitude.

Not so long ago I wouldn’t have had enough confidence in myself to attempt self publishing one book, let alone eight. And here I am, eight finished and more on the way.

I’ve noticed other things. My tenacity is growing… the simple ability to stick to something no matter what.

Writing isn’t always easy. Sometimes it’s tough. Some days the words don’t click, or the story frustrates you. Some days you have to power through, find a voice, and go with it.

Small Bites has done a lot to encourage that tenacity. Some of the stories have been incredibly easy to write. Others incredibly hard. But I keep writing.

This last book, three science fiction stories, has been the hardest to write so far. Not because I don’t know sci-fi, but because they are all relatively new story ideas, not quite complete, requiring a but more thought then some of the others. Plus, I have lot more going on right now, and if I skip a day of writing I usually can’t write much for a while, so I try not to skip days.

On the other hand the words seem to flow so much better when I just let go and write.

Regardless, the fact that I know I can sit down and write, even if I don’t feel like it, is a valuable thing. I may not like what I write, in fact I probably won’t… but the act of writing, and fleshing out a story, is usually enough to “get me in the mood”, which is when the true story comes out.

I took a break from publishing this week so I could redo a lot of things, and get a little ahead. I reformatted the print copy of “Osiren’s Tears”, and decided that “Small Bites” would also go up as a print book.  Got most of that formated, I just need the last three stories.

I don’t know which is coming out next week, “Small Bites 4” or “the Camera”, but I hope they will both be done by friday morning so that I can publish, one, have the other for the next week, and then work on “Forgotten Ones”. Another 20-30k word book.

Really… I just love writing.

Self Publishing – $1500?

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I’ve been following Joanna Penn since she appeared on “The Self Publishing Podcast“. She’s a very interesting, thoughtful, and educated woman. She’s got her stuff together, and her books are pretty good too.

She often links to interesting articles about writing and publishing on her twitter and facebook. That is where I get a lot of my “This week in publishing” links.

Today she linked to “How Self Published Books are Made Start to Finish“.

The first thing I notice is a list of “things you should have” and one entry:

  • Money to invest in said book. I wouldn’t start this without $1,500 in the bank marked ‘I can lose this’

Who can afford to just mark $1,500 dollars as “I can lose this”?

Okay, I understand her reasoning. There are editors, book cover designers, marketing, print books, advertising… Ya, there are a LOT of things that go into writing, publishing, and selling your books. Even if you go with a simple cover design that you put together you probably need to buy a licenses for the art work, unless you have some art skills.

But… $1500?

I’ve got 8 books out now. I’ve spent a total of $400. All of that went to editing one book, “Osiren’s Tears“. Granted, I wasn’t completely satisfied with the the editing. It seemed rushed, and I know someone who could have done a better job for a little more money, but he wasn’t available then.

Editing is worth the investment. Some day, I hope, I will make enough to have everything I have already put up re-edited, and then re-published as a new, better edition. But I’m on a budget, and my budget does not include $1500 to blow.

The nice thing about going indie in ANY industry (movies, music, writing, theater, art…) is that you can invest what you have. You can outsource, barter, scrimp, save, and adjust.

Here is what you really must have for self-publishing:

  • An idea
  • Time
  • Patience
  • Persistence
  • A plan
  • A finished manuscript
  • The ability to take criticism
  • An edit
  • A cover
  • More patience
  • The willingness to ask questions.

Only two of those things might cost you some actual hard earned money, and there are ways to get around that too. Got a friend who is an artist? Suggest a trade. You’ll do something for them (babysit, cook, clean, wash their car) if they design a cover for you. Got a group of friends that like to read? Will they be your beta readers and give you some good feedback on cleaning up your prose? Writers workshops are free, and often help a lot.

Another wonderful part about indie industry is that there are a lot of people doing the same thing, and willing to help out in many ways. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, ask for help, look for tutorials on youtube, read a how to book, and ASK QUESTIONS!

Now, granted, just throwing your book up on amazon will not bring a lot of sales to you. That’s where marketing, and word of mouth comes in. But if your book is good, interesting, and well written, and you put yourself out there where people will see you, then you have a good chance of getting some readers.

Then the trick is to start the whole process over again. The more you publish, the more noticeable you will be. This is true even for really bad writing. There are some terrible books out there with awful covers, and horrible grammar. But they keep producing, and there are people who read their stuff. Go figure.

Point being… you can produce a book for the low cost of ZERO dollars. Doesn’t mean it will be good, or sell, but you can do it. 

And if it is good, or just pretty good, and you get some sales, then maybe you can start saving up for that $1500, and a proper release of a bigger project later.

Move over! I’m coming through!

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Early a friend tweeted a link to this article, in which Joe Abercrombie (a traditionally published writer) said self publishing is too much work. He doesn’t want to publish, he wants to write.

Yep. He’s right. Self publishing is a LOT of work. There are covers, editors, formating, and months and months of writing with little return.

But it’s worth it!

For centuries art has been funneled through publishers of one sort or another. Book publishers, music producers, game developers, TV executives, art curators… you name it! There was a gate keeper set in front of your goal that you had to get through.

It’s like a lottery. Someone wins, and a whole hell of a lot of people lose.

And publishing, like any lottery, wasn’t dependent solely on talent or content. It was also marketability, how much money they could make off you, and sometimes your ability to stroke their ego.

Guess what? It isn’t a lottery anymore. The gate keepers are starting to notice wholes crashing through the walls, bypassing the gate they so carefully erected.

Indie game designers have produced, sold, and created major hits among gamers. Like Limbo, Journey, Minecraft, and Bastion. Games that skyrocketed past all the game publishers, earning millions.

Indie authors, like Hugh Howie, and Amanda Hocking proved you don’t need a publisher to make it big. They refused to give their rights away for someone else to make money off their talent, and they succeeded.

In film we now see some amazing special effects, animations, dramas, and story telling available right on youtube. For free. Netflix is offering some of them, like the Guild, streaming. Theaters are playing others, like Plurality, as ‘pre movie vignettes’. Others will follow suit. Indie films will get longer, and better, and eventually be available along side everything else.

Musicians, like Maclemore, are hitting the top charts without signing their life and their music over to some producer.

Even physical objects, and hand made goods. You can go to Etsy and by something directly from designers, artists, and makers. Or you can download designs from Thingaverse and print them on your 3D printer.

Publishers… the gate keepers who so carefully erected that wall so they could decided what was published, and who succeed, are starting to see that their wall looks more like swiss cheese then brick.

The status quo use to be that people produced things, and the person who sold it and distributed it, was the one who made the most profit off it.

I see a future where the person who designed, created, wrote, painted, filmed, or made an object…. they will be the one who makes the most profit off their IP. They made it. They should.

Copyright is broken. DMC is bulky, and intrusive. Publishers are more interested in the bottom line then the creators they say they serve. We’ve known this for a while, and now we have ways to combat it.

Move over publishers, I’m coming through.
If all that’s standing in my way is a little hard work, then I’m rolling up my sleeves, and I’m doing it.

Small Bites 2 available now!

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Late last night I published Small Bites 2.

Like the previous title, this also contains 3 short stories. However, I wasn’t quite able to stick with the less then 1000 words goal. “Carmine” is double that.

This title also comes with a bonus at the end of the book. The other two stories, “Scarecrow” and “Price of a Book” follow the less then 1000 word flash fiction rule.

“Scarecrow” is also in “Twilight Tales”, but as it is my most popular flash fiction story I had to include it in the Small Bite series. It just happened to fit in this collection.

“Small Bites 2” is only 99 cents.

Some Authorly Love

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Got some really great reviews from the guys over at The Story Telling Podcast.

“She’s great at flash fiction” V.C. Coll (author of The Miscellaneous Adventures of Princess Leona)

Prophecy by Barlight is “Cute and humorous.” Garrett Robinson (author Hit Girls, Non-zombie, etc)

And Z.C. Bolger (author of Danny Calloway and the Puzzle House) just got inspired to write something when he read “Necropolis“, but he’s waiting until I finish “Forgotten Ones”.

*Happy dance!*

Sales and Confidence

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When I first started publishing I was a little worried. Worried no one would like it, worried I would make a bad name for myself, worried I’d never sale one… etc. etc.

But it’s actually going better then I thought it would. Sure, I’ve only had 22 sales, and 48 freebies… but that’s 60+ people that read my book.

What’s even better, I have only 4 and 5 star reviews. That makes me think I’m on the right track, even if it is a slow track.

sms2mall

On that note… I’ll be putting out Small Bites 2 next week. Now that I have some momentum I want to keep that going. I am working on several projects at once so that I will (hopefully) be able to publish something new every Friday for a while.

Books will come out as 99 cents for the first weekend, and then go up, except the Small Bites series. They will stay 99 cents as they are really short.

Then, once all the Small Bites are out, I will stick them up as one set for 2.99 (which gets you one book for free). And I will also be working to put out a big book of all my short stories eventually. No idea what I will price it at yet.

But for right now… Small Bites 2, and we’ll worry about everything else later.

Adventures in a Book Warehouse

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A friend called me up the other day and told me about this amazing sale. A book warehouse was selling everything, just $10 for one bag of books. And you brought the bag, any size.

Well, I had a rolling cart. I could fit a lot of books in that thing. Maybe even a couple hundred. Didn’t matter, she said. Ten bucks.

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The warehouse was actually three buildings FILLED with shelves of books. The shelves were pretty close together, too.

Enough that I sometimes had to squeeze through to fit. 

Books upon books, stretching out as far as you could see. All of them mixed together in no logical order.

We were hunting for hours to find any that we might like.

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Many of them were romances. A lot of mystery. It took me hours to find some sci-fi and fantasy, or paranormal. But I eventually came away with a nice stack of books. I grabbed some Nora Roberts, who seemed to be one of the most prolific authors there, and a few Dean Koontz, and then a bunch of random books with interesting covers.

And you know what I discovered while crawling through those three buildings with thousands and thousands of books laid out before me? Mind you, I could throw as many as I wanted in my cart, and price wasn’t really an option….

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Book covers are boring.

Nora Roberts, Dean Koontz, John Grisham, and more… all of them.. boring covers.

You have the authors name in HUGE letters, a boring picture, and not much else. Most of them just labeled them as “fiction” so I couldn’t even get a read on what kind of fiction it was. It was frustrating… three warehouses worth of books and not much time to pic out a book, and this is what I had to choose from.

2013-06-01 08.18.28I did manage to find a lot of books with good covers… but it was hard to find them. And a lot of them were meant for younger children.

I notice that Sci-fi and Fantasy are more likely to have expressive covers. Romance is likely to have two people kissing, or something like that. Paranormal will often have an expressive cover.

This is why I work so hard on my own covers. I want someone to be able to look at a glance, and get an idea of what’s inside the book. So far I think I’ve done alright… You be the judge.

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