News and Notices from the Writing Trenches #112…
Item. New plug-in. Amazon has just announced the “Kindle Instant Preview Widget.” It’s a plug-in to your website to allow visitors to view your writing samples (book excerpts, short stories, and so forth). If you’re an author with a website, you might like it, but I don’t see much use for it. First, I publish free short stories and book excerpts on my blog, and the “peek inside” on each Amazon book page allows readers to peruse my writing. I’d rather send readers there with links to the Amazon book page because they can buy the book if they like what they see—I don’t and won’t sell books from my website. Second, I pretty much stick to the WordPress plug-ins (contact page and social media icons) and have resisted even adding a Goodreads icon, all to avoid clutter. Third, my website designers, Monkey C Media, use a lot of HTML stuff—I pay them for updates already from my royalties, so adding this widget would just increase that expense item. That’s my take. You might see it differently. If you try it and like it, send me an email about your experience. You might change my mind!
Item. Interesting phenomenon. The WD (Writer’s Digest) police finally caught me. I let my subscription lapse, so they cancelled all their email newsletters too. Fine. That rag is mostly a mouthpiece for traditional publishing anyway, and the newsletters were generally zero useful content or links to the WD website. The magazine offers some advice about writing, but the content is all too often dedicated to finding a publisher or an agent—useless blather to me, but maybe useful for writers interested in being traditionally published. They also promote their contests, money-making machines that prey on naïve writers—do the math. They don’t do this out of the goodness of their hearts, you know. (Of course, just about any contest, paid or free, is a waste of your time.)
Item. New feature. Asimov stopped writing fiction for a while to write popular science. Although some of my blog posts could already be classified as popular science, I decided to formalize a bit with a series titled “Sciences and Mathematicians.” It starts next week. Don’t worry. I’ll still write fiction. In spite of my R&D background, writing’s always been my first love.
Item. Continuing feature. Are you following my lessons on fiction writing? This short course (lesson #2 appeared Wednesday) distills my ideas. Readers, learn what one author thinks about writing fiction. Writers, see if you agree—whether you do or don’t, send me an email with your comments, if you’re so inclined. Or, comment right here after any lesson. I’m interested in your opinions.
Item. Old but new book. After reading some of the other books in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series” (they’re all independent stories, by the way), have you wanted to read #1, The Midas Bomb, and balked at the Infinity edition’s price? I’m not accusing you—I would have balked too! Now you can read the completely rewritten and reedited second edition for $2.99 in ebook format. It’s also available in paper at Create Space for $9.99.
Item. New books. An indie writer often has to make the choice of spending money on PR and marketing of existing books or preparing the next book. I prefer the latter. Look for the sci-fi saga Rogue Planet this spring and Gaia and the Goliaths, #7 in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series,” this fall.
Item. Getting acquainted. I provide free stories on my blog so you can get to know my writing, but I don’t give away free books. My ebooks already are good entertainment at a reasonable price, so you have no right to complain. I need some royalties in order to prepare the next book, pay for the upkeep of this website, and do some PR and marketing with what’s left over (I always run in the red, by the way). Besides, my ebooks at $2.99 or $3.99 are much better for you than any McDonald’s meal. Use any excerpts provide in this blog’s archives or the “peek inside” feature on each Amazon book page if you just want to dip your toes in my literary waters before buying.
Item. Only want free? OK, you can read one of my books for free. I’ll send you a freebie (Amazon’s Whispernet is the most convenient for me) in return for an honest review. Query me via my contact page.
In libris libertas….
