#292: ISBNs, ASINs, and all that.  Amazon doesn’t make it a habit of listing ISBNs for ebooks.  In fact, they so dominate the market that many authors are foregoing ISBNs.  As far as I know, all my ebooks also have ISBNs, thanks to my wonderful formatter Donna Carrick (a great mystery writer in her own right—see The First Excellence).  I encourage all indie writers to get an ISBN for their ebook.  These are important for many reasons, but one big one: good stats on book sales provide useful info for marketing your present books and maybe for writing the next one.

In my last “News and Notices…,” I talked about the dearth of good stats.  While ISBNs aren’t a sufficient condition for good stats, they (or something like them) are a necessary one.  Imagine the FAA trying to keep track of airplanes in the sky without identifying tail numbers.  ISBNs are the universal identifying numbers of books.  We need some number recognized world-wide that identifies a book before we can make any sense out of sales figures.  (Of course, we also need the Big Five to release their sales figures too, but they’ve been reluctant to do that.  Surprise, surprise!  But that’s another gripe.)

#293: Book Series.  One question I often hear (or read) is when readers ask writers: did you start out to write the series “Bla-bla-bla” with that very first book in the series?  It’s a great question.  I suppose a writer could do that.  If you’re a writer and make the decision to do so, you should read “The Stuff Series Are Made Of” by Karen S. Wiesner in the WD (Writer’s Digest) September 2013 issue (what?  September already?  Christmas in August?).  Ms. Wiesner has 101 books, so it’s worth perusing what she has to write about the subject.

I don’t start out with a series in mind, but I do have (so far) just one fictional future universe where my stories take place.  The Midas Bomb is the earliest on this fictional timeline.  It takes place in 2014 (yeah, I know, I’m in trouble—that’s right around the corner, so the book will soon be alternate history?).  Series happen, though, and I have three: “The Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series” (Angels Need Not Apply and Teeter-Totter between Lust and Murder are recent additions to The Midas Bomb); “The Clones and Mutants Series” (Full Medical and Evil Agenda will soon be followed by No Amber Waves of Grain); and “The Chaos Chronicles Series,” my Foundation-like trilogy comprised of Survivors of the Chaos, Sing a Samba Galactica, and Come Dance a Cumbia…with Stars in Your Hand!

My advice to writers: Not starting out to write a series and also not knowing where it will end is one way to keep your writing fresh and make your books stand-alones.  I like a reader to be able to pick up any of my books and read it.  Hopefully, he or she will like it and look for other books by me, whether they’re in the same series or not.  It’s hard to do that if you set out to write a series.  A writer who does so runs the danger of turning his or her books into soap opera episodes.  Just sayin’….

#294: Anthologies.  Otherwise known as short story collections, these traditionally have served as an introduction to an author’s work.  There are basically two kinds—a collection of stories all by the same author, or by different authors.  While the introductory aspect can be a practical result, I’ve always treated short stories as just another form of writing, together with novels, novellas, reviews, blog posts, and so forth, so they share common elements with these other forms.  Of course, they also present their own unique challenges.  I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader to create his own list of the challenges.

My only anthology, Pop Two Antacids and Have Some Java, is a collection of stories about cases handled by either Detective Castiblanco or Detective Chen or both (see the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series” above).  Some of these are actually referred to in the novels (not much—the novels are essentially stand-alones).  (Serenity Carson just gave this anthology a five-star review on Amazon.  If you want an introduction to my writing or to my detectives, buy a copy.)

I am working on another anthology, though, this one a collection of speculative fiction short stories.  I don’t like the term speculative fiction (isn’t all fiction speculative?) and don’t consider it a genre.  It’s just too general and includes paranormal, fantasy, horror, and sci-fi.  If you like these subgenres, you will find something that appeals to you in this new collection—maybe many things.  It will be called Paso Dobles in a Quantum Stringscape, in keeping with the dance-themed titles of my “Chaos Chronicles Series.”  I’m looking for a fall release.

#295: Book clubs.  I have to confess that I don’t completely understand the social dynamics of reading the same book together with relatives and/or friends.  I consider reading a quiet, introverted, and personal activity and value my personal freedom to choose the books I want to read, even if I’m reviewing them.  Nevertheless, I recognize that for some people a book club meeting once a month to discuss a book is a chance for some face-to-face time accompanied by drinks and snacks, an intimate social experience, not to mention the positive pressure of becoming a regular reader.  Books are chosen by consensus (simple majority or 2/3 majority?).  Because these groups are generally small, it’s almost a personal choice.  And you are, generally, reading off on your own until the next meeting.

Readers, however you do your reading, I applaud it!  I read during any spare time I have—but not when I’m writing, of course (I’m often thinking then of how readers will react).  Reading is the most intellectual activity we can do as human beings.  Consequently, I applaud book clubs.  I would like to make some suggestions for anyone who participates in a book club and proposes books for the club to read: please read one of my ebooks!  In particular, let me suggest The Golden Years of Virginia Morgan and Teeter-Totter between Lust and Murder, two of my books that are new for 2013.  Both feature smart women as protagonists.  The first features Ashley Scott, fifty-year-old DHS agent who is trying to find that special someone to spend her golden years with.  The second features Dao-Ming Chen, a seasoned NYPD homicide detective who is trying to clear herself of murder charges.  Both are filled with intrigue and suspense.

Check these ebooks and others out by going to the ebook’s page on Amazon and “peeking inside.”  If you think you want to propose one of these ebooks to your book club, drop me an email via my contact page and I will send you a free copy—supplies are limited though, so first come, first serve.

#296: Reviews.  In the last few weeks, I’ve run promos on Teeter-Totter between Lust and Murder, Angels Need Not Apply, and The Golden Years of Virginia Morgan.  If you downloaded one of these freebies from Amazon, I thank you.  You helped yourself out by obtaining some great summer reading at a bargain price (the first and third books are new for 2013, so they’re now back to their original price of $4.99).  Please return the favor.  Read your new book.  If you like it, write a short review—something more than an atta-boy that tells other readers why you liked the book.  Other readers will appreciate that.  I will too, because it tells the guys at Amazon that people like my books.

#297: Readings, signings, interviews, etc.  During the last two weeks, I’ve featured interviews of two interesting women authors, E. F. Watkins and A. J. Colucci.  I hope you enjoyed reading their candid answers about their writing life.  I want to thank them again for participating.  As an avid reader myself, I like to hear how authors approach their work as much as anyone does.

This is a good segue into Elizabeth Sims’ WD article (again, the September issue), “Going Public: How to Ace Readings, Signings, Interviews, & More.”  Elizabeth is now a contributing editor to WD.  She provides her usual sound advice, this time about how writers—even introverted, Jameson imbibing ones like me—can have a good time face-to-face, or webpage to webpage, with their readers.

#298: One in a Million?  While Elizabeth’s advice has been consistently sound in WD, the article “One in a Million” by Kip Langello didn’t resonate with me.  He claims you, the author, should create an imaginary reader (not the same as you, the author) and write your novel for that person.  The argument is sound, I suppose, if there are enough real readers that are like that virtual reader.  I get that for some authors this is a way to focus on obtaining a marketable product.  He states, “…my experience has been that very few people can truly view themselves objectively as a target reader.”  How he jumps logically from there to the necessity of creating that virtual reader is a bit mystifying, but maybe he’s right.

If so, I’m doing it all wrong.  But my experience has been that there are many people like me that enjoy a good sci-fi story or rip-roaring thriller, or a combination (what I write mostly).  I write to entertain that whole class of people.  I have a long list of what-ifs that I have accrued in my long years working at difficult day jobs, snatching moments to jot ideas down that have become so useful now that I’m a full-time writer.  My new novel, No Amber Waves of Grain, which is almost to the editing stage, is one of these ubiquitous what-ifs, generated when I long ago read Christopher’s No Blade of Grass.  I jotted down the question: What if the story before the protagonist’s road trip is the more interesting one?  I’m guessing many people will be interested in the answer to this question—I don’t need to create an imaginary reader!

#299.  Writing at a pulp fiction pace?  I’ve commented elsewhere in this blog that some of the most prolific writers started out in pulp fiction.  There’s Dickens, who created commotions everywhere when his readers wondered about the fate of Little Nell, for example.  Edgar Rice Burroughs, heavily plagiarized in the Star Wars movies and another pulp fiction writer not considered so literary, made money writing pulp fiction.  Elizabeth Sims, in her WD article “Write at a Pulp Fiction Pace,” points out that Erle Stanley Gardner of Perry Mason fame, wrote 150 novels.  Karen Wiesner, mentioned above, might be considered another example.

Elizabeth this time is treading over a minefield, though.  While writing that next book should be every writer’s goal (I’ve said it myself in this blog), simply because one-book wonders don’t seem to cut it anymore, in today’s DIY environment of indie writing and publishing, that single-minded goal can have many negative consequences.  Hastening to write the next book can lead to taking shortcuts with the present one.  Indie authors must always strive to release the best possible product for the simple reason that this is a necessary condition to rise above the average sea level in order to create a large wave, or even a tsunami (there are no sufficient conditions, unfortunately—that success is very much like winning the lottery).  To shortcut the process of making your book all that in can be can lead to poor editing, unprofessional covers, lack of social networking with your fans, etc.  Most of these reflect badly on all indie authors.

So, yes, Elizabeth’s advice is still good, but don’t forget that quality is your most important product.  Readers are not entertained by inferior books—they’ll start them maybe, curse you if they paid good money for them, but probably go on to another writer’s book.  There are many good reasons to have a large opus of well written books available—one is to get you past a real clunker that no one likes.  But ask yourself, what happens if Mr. Langello’s imaginary reader (see above) picks up a clunker and it’s written by you?  Writers should try to avoid that.

Of course, that doesn’t mean you should keep revising and revising.  Think of your book as a water color or oil painting.  The more you redo things, the muddier it gets, until you just have blah.  The same thing happens to books.  In particular, if you just can’t be satisfied with an MS, put it aside and start writing that next book—you can always go back to it.  (If you recall the interview with E. F. Watkins two weeks ago, that’s exactly what she did.)

#300: WD online?  From the above, you have seen that September’s issue of WD (Writer’s Digest) is unusually good.  In general, they’re making an effort to morph themselves, becoming a true writers’ magazine with good, general articles on the writing business instead of just being a mouthpiece for traditional publishing.  This segues into the following question: why don’t they join the 21^st century and come out with a true digital edition?

WD editors will say that they have a digital edition.  What they have is an expensive newsletter version in PDF format.  PDF is something that sometimes works on an ereader, but it usually doesn’t.  As a reviewer, I’ve had authors send me PDF files.  Sometimes I can mess with the settings on my Kindle to make a PDF readable (portrait to landscape, change of fonts, scaling), but usually not.  I usually end up buying the author’s ebook (if I offer to review it, I usually want to read it anyway—but, after I start, I might not want to finish).

What WD needs is to have their magazine in ebook formats.  If they’re too cheap to provide all of them, they could just put it into .mobi format—Amazon provides a software version of their ereaders that can work on most computers and other devices.  I’m tired of ripping out the few interesting articles and filing them away just because they’re only one step beyond writing on cave walls.

As usual, I’m interested in hearing what other readers and writers think about this.

In libris libertas….

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This entry was posted on Friday, July 12th, 2013 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.