KABLOOM

So, I blasted through the end of Cheat today. I am a writing machine. It occurs to me that since November, I've put in over 80k in words. With a schedule of 1 of the IH novellas a month, that means 20k more words every month... at least...

Well, build a backlist and they will come.

I'll be editing today and tomorrow, and (aside from the very end, which I just finished) my beta readers have had good feedback about the story. I've heard it's easy to read and the dialogue is natural. So, I think those are both important (especially the first) for YA. I think the second will be super important for my adult readers.

I told my fiance today, that every time I finish a work, I want to take one day where he and I just watch a movie or do whatever and hang out. I spend a lot of time writing, and I know he misses me when I'm lost in my own little worlds ;) With Cheat finished, I'll have some breathing room. I haven't scheduled Liar to debut until April. I plan on spending two weeks writing, same as Cheat, with a week for editing/whatever. That will leave me two weeks before it's due, so I can start #3 and get more ahead... or just laze ;P

I think novella-length YA is a good fit for me. At $.99 I don't think people can complain (about length). The story is still exciting, and interesting. (I think, which is saying something, considering how I rage against my own work.) Plus, if I stay on schedule, people will have something to look forward to each month, and come back for more! I think building regularity in a series is important. They don't have to wait too long for the next installment, and it's not going to break the bank when it does come around.

Considering I plan on making it a long series (perhaps what I become known for?) building a rabid fan base is essential...

Just remember, if I -do- end up big, you guys were here first, while I took my beginning steps. YOU commented on the first covers and got the first sneak peeks. My 10 followers... in a fun (and totally appropriate) echo of Mr. Nicholas...

I APPRECIATE YOU.

Compulsive Drag

Anyone who reads this knows by now - my book is due for release this week. In fact, I took a 9-day unpaid vacation to make it happen.

I just finished editing Chapter 30. Here's my lame but sincere statement: Editing takes a long time. I really thought I'd buzz through and be done, but attempting to put forth the best product I can - it takes time. I may have to bump back my release to FRIDAY :( Lost a lot of time today (don't regret it!) on Valentine's shenanigans. It's the way of things. I do feel like maybe I have a fear of releasing it, which is part of the reason I'm so far behind (hence today's title: Compulsive Drag!)

On a more personal note: Valentine's Day!

I'm impressed with my partner as we both bought each other very thoughtful gifts. We also went out for dinner and a movie (No Strings Attached, chick flick wheeee!) The movie was alright. My biggest complaint is that they have a lot of completely unnecessary rude (mostly sexual) statements. I felt it detracted from the story, some of the dialogue was just rough and jarring. At the very beginning of the movie, a young Adam is crying and as the last line in the scene says something obscene to the young Emma that felt out of place. I know it turns out to be the connection with the next scene but... maybe I'm getting old :P

The weather was also cooperative enough today that I took Ajax for a walk. I'd love to take him on daily walks if the snow would stop piling up to my bum in the STREET (Okay, maybe closer to ankle, but that's far less dramatic). We don't even have sidewalks around here, nor do the plows grace us with their presence (which is ridiculous, really, seeing as how we are IN the city on the property line between two cities, yay suburban sprawl!).

My stitches itched like crazy today and I'm just trying to keep my fingernails outta there. They come out on the 16th, so at least there's that :)

My cat is about 14~15 years old. Sadly, I think he's on his way out. I'm just trying to keep an eye on him and keep him comfortable. I've had him since I was a freshman in high school, so we go way back!

I've been pulling out some of my old music and loading it up while I write, to keep the constantly mobile part of my brain active while I write. If you like many of the following bands, we may be able to take a road trip together!:

American Head Charge
Jack's Mannequin
Snow Patrol
Godhead
Cold
Panic! at the Disco
Buckcherry
Crossbreed
Il Nino
Lollipop Lust Kill
Stereomud
Sum 41
Orgy

Anyone? Anyone? Buehler?

Fun Statistics (For Funsies!)

I'm doing my rewrites, whee! I finished through Chapter 20. My goal is to finish 8 today, and I've done 4 so far. No work tomorrow, logically I could do 4 more before bed ;)

I began to wonder, what percentage of things am I really changing? Here's a short list of statistics for you (based on the first 20 chapters)!

Intro paragraph for chapter completely rewritten: (9/20) 45%

First or second (or both) paragraph for chapter completely rewritten: (13/20) 65%

Last paragraph of chapter completely rewritten: (4/20) 20%

Number of pages NOT containing at least one rewritten paragraph: (14/69) 20.3%

From this I can confirm some nuances of my writing style
- I start chapters with an idea, but don't pay so much attention to HOW I start it, just so I can get writing.
- I generally (more than 50%) go back and edit the intro to flow more smoothly.
- I know where I am going - so I need little edits at the end of chapters.
- I am critical on my writing and am willing to scratch and start over (at least small pieces).

Other fun facts (as I learned from the internet):
- Human thighbones are stronger than concrete!
- Ketchup was sold in the 1930s as medicine.
- Most lipstick contains fish scales! (Really, internet?!?)
- A toothpick is the object most often choked on by Americans.
- 20 million kids are eaten by bats EVERY SECOND! (This last one is a potentially offensive web comic. You have been warned!)

Nine Days on the Horizon

I'm off work tomorrow (whee!) then back on Friday (sigh)... but Saturday starts my self-inflicted vacation! I mean that in that - I will not be paid for my nine days away from work. I don't get vacation days. I deliver pizza, what do you expect! We don't earn vacation days.

Regardless, next week I am releasing "Shackled". I want it to be perfect as it heads out the door (my computer) to its first day in the big, bright world (the InTeRtRoN). If I have to spend every waking moment from Saturday to next, next Sunday editing - so be it.

My goal is to release it around Tuesday or Wednesday, so I have a few days to stalk my Amazon numbers and get a feel for the system. It's one thing to look at another's reports... then to look at your own, very real, numbers. I have this gnawing feeling in my belly that I won't sell one (not a one!) and that I will never receive a ranking, thus spiraling cartoon-like into a vortex of dimension-shifting despair.

Not being a cartoon, I see this as a problem.

However, I think, if nothing else, my good friend Aaron (E-publisher's Manifesto) will buy one, for posterity ;) So, no despair-vortex for me! I will at least be ranked somewhere in the 6 millions.

I was reading, today, about the Amazon ranking system. It's super hush-hush, no one knowing the exact algorithm, but mind(s) have long pondered over it! When I realized (for the first time!) that there were over 6 million titles available, I began to wonder - what makes me think I can get into the top 10,000? 1,000? 100? The best-seller's list?!?

Phew, take a deep breath.

I have to check off the things that all the "experts" (as much as any of us can be, on the situation) are saying to do.

Step 1: Amazing Cover
- I hired a professional, Jeroen ten Berge, who produced a very attractive, eye-catching cover. It seems to be going over very well, and I like what he's done with my name. I think for the non-impulse buyer, the image will stick and my name will linger, perhaps even in long-term memory!

Step 2: Persuasive Product Description
- I thought about a good description and put it out there for others to judge. I've gotten feedback and tweaked it to a state of nigh-deitistic proportion! (Or at least made it semi-intriguing). It tells what the story is about, without giving too much away, but leaves the reader wanting to know why.

Speaking of which:
One man, labeled monster, imprisoned for 200 years.

His brother - the only remaining jailer. Refusing to protect his family's shame any longer, he seeks the balm of a confession from his deathbed.

A foster son, witness to an impossible testimony of deceit, jealousy and murder. He must bear the ill tides of the past to correct the future.

Three men, bound by blood, love and iron.

Shackled.

Step 3: Good Book
- My beta readers had very good things to say. They gave me some good, constructive criticisms and in the process of the rewrites I received comments such as, "The rewrites make it really smooth!" and "The characters are really speaking in their own voices." I also feel more confident in the finishing (not quite finished) product.

Step 4: Marketing
- I am pretty solitary by nature. I think about a lot of things and when I have a thread of something winding through my brain, I don't like to be disturbed until I'm finished. My mom jokingly calls me a touch-me-not, because I'm not big on hugs etc. The e-world, for me, is just another place with a whole bunch of people, most of whom probably have opinions I don't care about. That said - I've met some really decent people whom I am sure enrich my life. I had a team from my alma mater, but they pulled their project at the last second, for reasons I am still unsure about. I've wandered about a little on the blogosphere (another word I hate) and tried to make some connections. I am honestly banking on Steps 1~3 considerably more :P I very seriously considered sending out a billion ARCs, but I really like things to grow organically - even if it means only 1-2 sales a year, to grow from.

Step 5: Pricing Below the Impulse Buy
- I am flat out breaking J. A. Konrath's rule, here, and pricing my book at $3.99 to start. If I fall flat on my big beak, then that is a lesson learned, for me. However, I think the ebook world could embrace that price point, provided my product meets a certain standard. A lot of people have screeched at my seemingly deaf ears, but I just don't want to price as low as $2.99. Not yet. It wasn't too long ago that the mass majority of us were clawing for the chance to have our paperbacks in a store for @$10. $4 doesn't seem so bad TO ME! If I have a good, interesting book, I think people will drop $4 for that entertainment. In my area, it costs upwards of $30 for a couple to go to a movie (no snacks included!). That is an entertainment that lasts for about two hours. It depends on how fast you read, but I think my story will take longer than two hours to read... and can be enjoyed over, and over again. I'm going to stick with it, even if only for a little while.

There is a lot that goes into being a successful indie and I can only hope my distaste for pimping myself out all over the world wide web doesn't destroy my chances.

I think, in general, I have a lot going for me and a good attitude. I want to keep writing and trying to improve my craft. I want to be popular, sure, but I think it would mean more to me if I could do it on my terms - not to say I can't change my terms, or stretch to meet some other set of arbitrary terms, but I'd like to try my way first.

If all else fails, I'm sure there will always be pizza that needs delivered. Well, until 2012, anyway.

Gozer (The Gozerian)

I told my fiance today that if I ever get another cat (If my 13-year old cat ever dissolves into an angry cloud of swirling, bitter, dust) that I want to name it Gozer (The Gozerian).



Go get her, Ray!

I think this scene brings up a good point for indie authors (see how I worked that in, there?)

I mean, there is a Gatekeeper and a Keymaster (There is no Dana, there is only Zuul!). Obviously, the publishers would be the Gatekeeper (though for digital books I would say that is changing to Amazon and a lagging B&N), but who would be the Keymaster? I'd be inclined to say the readers, as they are the end users of the product - but the more I think about it, the more I think it might be the authors themselves...

Think about it. If an author picks a lame cover, a boring title and puts out a product riddled with errors, people just won't want that product. You can give away crap (sometimes) but people want a good product and they want it affordable. Too inexpensive... and they worry about the quality. Too expensive... and they bypass it via the "this does not meet my impulse buy threshold requirements". In this blooming digital era, the Indie Authors really hold all the Keys they need to be successful.

Does your cover suck? Change it. Title not catchy? Tweak it. Priced too high? Lower it. Priced too low? Raise it. Manuscript errors? Correct it. Story shoddy? Remove it.

All of these changes can be enacted within 24 hours... some within only a few minutes! That seems like a pretty heavy keyring to me. Putting out a product that we can't be proud of - that is every author's personal Gozer (the Gozerian). WE can choose the form of the Destructor!... and it doesn't even have to be a giant marshmallow man (coughMichelinmancough). It just has to be laziness or incompetence. Both of these can be overcome by acting, learning, or hiring someone to do it for you!

My cousin recently sent me her manuscript and BEGGED me to read it. Great! She's interesting, fun to talk to, so I agreed. I received a copy that another (possibly more than one person) had already interjected about a million comments into via the Word comment tool. After 20 seconds I had a headache and couldn't read it. I have to request a "clean" copy.

Ask yourself: Is my manuscript clean? Does it read well? Did somebod(ies) check my grammar/punctuation? Is my voice unique and representative of me?

Kindles aren't that expensive anymore (especially compared to when I bought mine) *coughearlyadoptercough* I would ABSOLUTELY RECOMMEND (Pay attention now, I just used caps for TWO WORDS in a row!) buying one and testing your file out on it before you release it.

I was having crazy and infuriating spacing errors with my document when I first started. Random paragraphs would be completely tabbed-indented in a big square with no idea where they start or end. There were ridiculous spaces between certain words, etc. I poked about the interwebs for about half an hour (acted, learned) and now my document looks quite clean and understandable. I even learned how to make a linked ToC (that even connects to the ToC function on the Kindle).

My mother-in-law-to-be got a Nook Color for Christmas. Before I release my book to PubIt, do you know where I'll be? (Hint: At her house checking my file!)

So Indie Authors: Master your Keys and Go Get Her, Ray!

And remember: If anyone asks you if you're a god... you say YES!

Shorty Before Bed

I would like to take a moment out of my day to point over to my sidebar there and ask you to notice #3, 5, 7 and 9 of My Pledge.

There is no new content today, as I spent my allotment of "writing time" poring over the suggestions of my editors-in-writing.

This is a very, very, very mission critical thing for any writer to do.  If you do not have at least 3 people read over your manuscript then read very carefully.

FIND THREE PEOPLE TO READ OVER YOUR MANUSCRIPT.

Someone in that group is bound to catch at least one detail you missed.  If they do, it's one less screw-up the world knows you made.

Here's to making a story all it's meant to be.  Cheers, editors!