[Note from Steve: this blog newsletter appears most Fridays.  If you miss an issue, back numbers are filed in the blog category with the same name.]

Wattpad.  I’m trying it.  I posted “The Call,” a short, short story seen here in “Steve’s Shorts.”  It’s probably not going to do much for me.  AFTER I joined, I googled “pros and cons of wattpad” and found it’s a mixed bag.  It seems to be used more by authors seeking traditional publishing contracts, and focused on romance-related stories.  I’ll be a duck out of water, I guess.  Any experiences with this?  I figure, if I’m giving away some free short stories, I might as well try to increase the audience.  BTW, I was motivated to do this because I saw that Margaret Atwood gives away free stuff here.  I’m not holding my breath because Atwood clearly already has a vast following.

Critique groups.  Wattpad isn’t a critique site.  It’s more like American Idol—the idea is to collect followers and create a brand name from the author’s perspective.  From the reader’s, it’s more about finding free stuff to read.  I couldn’t find anything like critique groups.

When I started way back when, I had a lot of writing already behind me, so I tried to help young authors at the now defunct critique site EditRed.  I put in some time, but I probably didn’t help all that much.  Of course, many MFAs are based on the critique group paradigm, and there are many other sites now on the internet.  If you’re a newbie author, they could be useful, I guess, but you’re always running through a gauntlet of “experts” who think the right way to write is how they write.  In other words, your voice, in the colloquial and technical sense, can be drowned out by the cacophony of “experts.”

I guess a critique group is better than NaNoWriMo.  Why anyone in her/his right mind thinks s/he can write a novel in one (!) month is beyond me.  In both cases, though, your time is probably better spent writing and self-critiquing what you write after perusing published suggestions about how to do it.  Know the rules before you break them certainly, but don’t let any so-called experts squash your creative spirit.

Indie v. traditional?  “I’ve always maintained that no publisher should make more money off a book than the writer does.”  Sounds like an argument for going indie, right?  Traditional publishing’s contracts give meager allowances (which the author has to “earn out” before s/he gets royalties), 10 to 15% royalties, and exclusivity clauses that you have to buy out if you want rights to your novel later.  Moreover, there are fewer benefits offered for signing said contracts every year.

With the indie paradigm, an author holds all rights, and s/he receives 35% to 70% royalties from Amazon (Smashwords percentages are less than Amazon’s except for ebooks sold on their website, but even ebooks they distribute as wholesalers to retailers receive more royalties than traditional).  Financially, that means that every indie writer can make more than his publisher because there is NO publisher.  (Yeah, I know many of us create or use a phantom publisher—that gives us something to fill in on that Amazon or Smashwords form.  Phantoms, real or virtual, don’t make money off a book after it’s published—only the indie author.)

So, who made that indie-supportive announcement?  David Baldacci, that’s who!  The now mostly formulaic wunderkind, supporter of Hachette, and detractor of Amazon in the recent Hachette controversy was interviewed by WD (Writer’s Digest—I think this was my last issue because 99.99% of it is a waste of time and money for me).  A change of heart?  Nope.  He’s probably talking about traditionally published authors.  I’m sure he’s never read an indie-written novel in his life.  That’s a shame, of course.  He might discover how to write new and interesting stuff—as a reader and reviewer, I’d say it’s becoming scarce among the traditionally published drivel, which are generally inferior products at inflated prices.

Book marketing.  Yeah, it’s a slog.  No indie or midlist author likes to do it.  And help is expensive and not particularly designed with indies in mind (see my 9/24 blog post).  Be aware of advice from “the experts” here too.  And don’t put the cart before the horse: you can market the hell out of your ebook, but if it’s a crappy story to begin with, no one will care.  In this business, you have to begin with a quality product and then see if anyone’s interested.  But no one owes you anything for that quality product.  I’m the prime example of an author without an audience.  It’s a tough business, or, as James Rollins puts it more gingerly, “It takes time.”  I’ll keep writing, though, because it’s too much fun to quit, and I love to provide quality entertainment at a reasonable price.

Let’s get physical.  Do you like the feel of a pbook (that’s paper book, either hard bound, paperback, or trade paperback)?  Do you NOT like electronic gizmos?  I respect that, and I’m sorry—I only publish ebooks now.  But I thought it might be appropriate to point out the physical advantages of ebooks.

First, I read a lot.  Even my old Kindle has the advantage of changing the font size to make reading easier for vision-challenged readers.  You can’t do that with pbooks.  I received a bio of Churchill as a gift.  While I’m happy with the book in general, I immediately noticed my eyes straining with the small font.  1000+ pages of reading it in small font is definitely a challenge.

When you go on a long trip, do you take pbooks along?  Do you ever finish those you took and desperately look for something new at an airport or train station kiosk?  You can take many books along on your Kindle, so the latter probably won’t happen, and, if you’re near wi-fi, you can just download another one.

Do you have sagging bookshelves from all those pbooks you’ve read and want to keep, thinking you might want to reread them?  I used to that.  My Kindle has solved the bookshelf space in my house.  In fact, I often don’t save pbooks I receive as gifts, because I buy the ebook and keep it on my Kindle.  This “storage feature” of the Kindle has also solved the problem of what to do with those pbooks sent to me for reviews—if they weren’t ARCs, I’d have to pack them up and cart them off to a local book sale.  I always ask now for the ebook version, if available.

I couldn’t live without my Kindle now.  Your opinions might be different, and I respect that.  I resisted for a while, but ebooks are just too damn convenient!

Family Affairs now available!  This is #6 in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series.”  A new full-length mystery novel for $2.99!  Forego that McDonald’s meal and buy hours of reading pleasure. The title indicates the main theme, although this is still a mystery/suspense/thriller novel, and a few stereotypes are turned on their heads here.  Like all books in the series, you can read it as a stand-alone.  All my ebooks need reviews; you can read any of them for free in exchange for an honest review.  For reviewers who use Net Galley, the ebook will be available there too.  (An excerpt from Family Affairs is included at the end of the ebook below, but you can use the Amazon “Peek Inside” feature too.)

Acknowledgments and thanks are due my wonderful publishing team: Donna Carrick, of Carrick Publishing, my formatter and talented author in her own right; Sara Carrick, my talented cover artist, who reads the book and always manages to come up with a great cover; my two beta-readers, Debby Kelly and Carol Shetler, who always put the icing on the cake for quality control, helping make my books an enjoyable experience for my readers; and Amanda Kerr, of BookBuzz, who handles all the PR and marketing for new releases.  These smart and talented women are also good friends.  We’re all dedicated to bring you, the reader, quality entertainment at a reasonable price.

The Collector.  #5 in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series,” this ebook was recently reviewed by J. B. Garner.  I appreciate his highly professional, complete, and interesting review (he sets the bar high for reviewers).  J. B. also interviewed me to accompany the review.  If you want to see more of my thoughts about writing and the writing business, visit his website.  And thanks, J. B.!

Here are a few tidbits from J. B.’s review: “Along with the well-baked plot, The Collector dances along at a brisk but not overwhelming pace.  Moments of action and suspense are spaced between moments of reflection and character-building, making for a smooth and creamy blend that went down easily….  The Collector is a near-perfect slice of mystery, with flavorful characters and a punchy plot!  If you want a good mystery, I wholeheartedly suggest you pick this one up, even if you haven’t read any of the other books.  Taking this as a sample of the rest of the series, I think I can safely endorse the rest of them as well.”

I should mention that J. B. is also a writer and has several books that look interesting, so check out his website (links included above) even if you aren’t interested in the review or interview.  Added note:  I didn’t know J. B. before this review/interview experience.  It’s wonderful how you meet new and interesting people in this business!

Testing the waters.  If you’re leery about trying a new writer, or you’re a fan of my sci-fi and think I can’t write mystery/suspense/thriller stories, check out the free short stories in the “Mayhem, Murder, and Music Series.”  You have several freebies to choose from, and there will be more.  (There are some other freebies in the blog category “Steve’s Shorts” too.)

Speaking of sci-fi….  More than Human: The Mensa Contagion has received some good reviews, but needs more.  Read for free in exchange for an honest review.  About a third of the action in my novel takes place on Mars.  I turn some sci-fi conventions about viruses and alien invasions on their heads in this one.

This is a good example of my sci-fi and well-timed for the solved-mystery announcement from NASA about Mars.  No, they didn’t find an android-doppelganger of Matt Damon there.  Instead, we get perchlorate brine containing water molecules.  This is big news, though, because the more hints of water on Mars, the better.

In my novel, I conjecture the existence of lava tubes containing ice crystals.  That’s a pretty safe conjecture…until Matt Damon returns with the whole scoop about Mars!  The novel also visits Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons—there’s evidence for a whole ocean there!  That’s bigger news, and Matt Damon won’t be around to hog the glory.

In elibris libertas…. 

This entry was posted on Friday, October 9th, 2015 at 4:00 am and is filed under News and Notices from the Writing Trenches. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.