16 October, 2012
Not dead
Not dead - not yet. Sometimes life interferes. (Sometimes, it's just pandas.) I'll be back posting regularly soon.
11 September, 2012
Stop Writing That Epic!
I had an article up this past weekend at Mythic Scribes. Go read it! I'll wait here.
27 August, 2012
A new Nook
So The Queen of Mages is now available for the Nook, too. For you anti-Amazon folks out there. ;)
Becoming a Professional
When it comes to a mass audience, a large part of success is perception. If a potential reader perceives that your work is Professional Quality™, they're more likely to buy it.
How do you get them to think it's professional, when all the merchandise you've got is a product page on Amazon? It's a long, slow, pulling-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps process. I went into this expecting zero success, so I find myself inordinately pleased every time I sell a single copy of THE QUEEN OF MAGES. I have no marketing budget and am slowly working my way into communities where I can suggest that, hey, maybe you'll like my book!
If you can get a few good reviews, and get some buzz going, it can have a multiplier effect. Suddenly more people are exposed to your work, and they see other people recommending it—they start to think, hey, maybe it's worth something. It raises its value in their eyes.
Something else is to have a larger body of work. If someone puts out a novel and that's all they've got, readers instinctively assume they're not worth much. All you've got is the one novel? But this guy over here, he's got five novels and a dozen short stories for sale! Clearly he's more professional.
I'm on the wrong end of that so far: one novel, two short stories. But I'm working on it. My goal is to have a wide gamut of material available, so that there's something to pull in a variety of readers.
There'll be a new free short story available here soon, which I hope everyone will enjoy; and, Godzilla willing, maybe it'll convince someone that my writing is enjoyable enough to spend a few bucks on something more substantial.
How do you get them to think it's professional, when all the merchandise you've got is a product page on Amazon? It's a long, slow, pulling-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps process. I went into this expecting zero success, so I find myself inordinately pleased every time I sell a single copy of THE QUEEN OF MAGES. I have no marketing budget and am slowly working my way into communities where I can suggest that, hey, maybe you'll like my book!
If you can get a few good reviews, and get some buzz going, it can have a multiplier effect. Suddenly more people are exposed to your work, and they see other people recommending it—they start to think, hey, maybe it's worth something. It raises its value in their eyes.
Something else is to have a larger body of work. If someone puts out a novel and that's all they've got, readers instinctively assume they're not worth much. All you've got is the one novel? But this guy over here, he's got five novels and a dozen short stories for sale! Clearly he's more professional.
I'm on the wrong end of that so far: one novel, two short stories. But I'm working on it. My goal is to have a wide gamut of material available, so that there's something to pull in a variety of readers.
There'll be a new free short story available here soon, which I hope everyone will enjoy; and, Godzilla willing, maybe it'll convince someone that my writing is enjoyable enough to spend a few bucks on something more substantial.
22 August, 2012
The Hollow
There's a certain feeling I get in the pit of my stomach occasionally. It took me years to identify it: anxiety. I thought I was someone who didn't ever get stressed or anxious. It's still pretty rare, but that doesn't make it any easier to deal with. In fact, it makes it worse, because I have so little practice dealing with it.
I'm not normally very vulnerable to negative criticism; not that I don't deserve any, but rather that I just don't feel hurt by it... usually. Today someone said something to me that (quite by accident) nailed a particular chunk of self-doubt I've been harboring. I wouldn't be much of a writer if I never had any self-doubt, but because of what was said to me, I've spent the whole day trying to ignore that hollow feeling in my gut. Maybe she's right. Maybe I'm no good.
Am I a good writer? Only time will tell, and even then only if I persist long enough to get some feedback. Maybe a good night's sleep will make the feeling go away—it's worked before—but I'm always going to know that the self-doubt is lurking there. Maybe some day I'll be able to face it.
I'm not normally very vulnerable to negative criticism; not that I don't deserve any, but rather that I just don't feel hurt by it... usually. Today someone said something to me that (quite by accident) nailed a particular chunk of self-doubt I've been harboring. I wouldn't be much of a writer if I never had any self-doubt, but because of what was said to me, I've spent the whole day trying to ignore that hollow feeling in my gut. Maybe she's right. Maybe I'm no good.
Am I a good writer? Only time will tell, and even then only if I persist long enough to get some feedback. Maybe a good night's sleep will make the feeling go away—it's worked before—but I'm always going to know that the self-doubt is lurking there. Maybe some day I'll be able to face it.
19 August, 2012
The Post-Publication Dilemma
Consider the dilemma of the just-published author. Let's call him, oh, to pick a name at random, BEN.
Ben has just self-published a book on Amazon (*cough*). He thinks it's pretty good, but that hardly matters: Ben has no advertising budget, no promotional machine supporting him, no name recognition (except for a few friends on a hypothetical fantasy writing discussion forum he frequents, or would frequent, if it were real, which it's not, because Ben is fictional).
From Ben's POV, it's easy: the book is good and everyone should want to read it. But from Randy Reader's POV, it's just one book among thousands of others. What's there to recommend it? Why would he even spend one second looking at it, when there's so many other ways for him to spend his time?
Okay, so you may have seen through my clever ruse and figured out that I'm talking about myself. I'm torn between spending time crawling the Internet, looking for places to promote my book; and spending time writing the next one. On the one hand, the more work I can get out there, the more likely it is that I'll cross that mental threshold into being a "real" author in the eyes of readers; on the other hand, if I can get attention for this book, maybe that will start me off with a bang sooner.
I'm better at writing than marketing (...or so I've led myself to believe), so I'm going to concentrate on the writing aspect, with just a little bit of persistent marketing. It's going to be a long slog to success no matter what, and it's impossible to tell in advance what path to take; so I may as well take one that sounds sane.
I'm better at writing than marketing (...or so I've led myself to believe), so I'm going to concentrate on the writing aspect, with just a little bit of persistent marketing. It's going to be a long slog to success no matter what, and it's impossible to tell in advance what path to take; so I may as well take one that sounds sane.
17 August, 2012
Several Horrifying Things I Learned While Writing a Novel
Never try to guess how much longer it will take you to finish. You will be wrong.
You will become brutally aware of the phrases you overuse. Do yourself a favor and don't count them, because the number will horrify you.
Deleting a chapter and starting over is a lot less painful than you think it will be.
Don't edit when you're sleepy. You'll just make it worse.
Don't make characters too nice. As much as we all wish we could stay in control, characters who sometimes lose it and say reckless things are a lot more fun to read.
Don't give your first novel a downer ending, because you'll just end up having to completely rewrite it.
It's fun leaving in subtleties and allusions, but people who aren't you tend to miss them. So be sure you put in enough that readers catch some.
Novels are not movies. Don't write dialogue the way movie characters talk.
The awesome battle music from the Lord of the Rings soundtrack you were listening to when you wrote your battle scene will probably not be playing for the reader when they're reading it.
You will become brutally aware of the phrases you overuse. Do yourself a favor and don't count them, because the number will horrify you.
Deleting a chapter and starting over is a lot less painful than you think it will be.
Don't edit when you're sleepy. You'll just make it worse.
Don't make characters too nice. As much as we all wish we could stay in control, characters who sometimes lose it and say reckless things are a lot more fun to read.
Don't give your first novel a downer ending, because you'll just end up having to completely rewrite it.
It's fun leaving in subtleties and allusions, but people who aren't you tend to miss them. So be sure you put in enough that readers catch some.
Novels are not movies. Don't write dialogue the way movie characters talk.
The awesome battle music from the Lord of the Rings soundtrack you were listening to when you wrote your battle scene will probably not be playing for the reader when they're reading it.
Writing is hard, and there's nothing you can do about it
Writing well is hard because it's hard to get good feedback. Woodworking, filing paperwork, playing poker; these are all things that have relatively simple ways to quantify success. The chair doesn't collapse; last year's tax files are easy to find; you win more money than you lose.
Writing has a trap that other skills don't, which is that you can write for ten years and not get any better. If you're not getting good feedback about what readers think about your writing, you're going to be limited by your own ability to criticize your work; and by all accounts, humans are not good at analyzing their own writing. We always have blind spots, especially about things we created. Your tenth novel might be just as clichéd and boring and poorly-copy-edited as your first one.
If you can get 100 people to read your novel, and they're all strangers, and are all willing to give you good, solid feedback—congratulations, because you're a wizard or something. Most authors can only get a few people to give feedback, and usually those people are friends and family, because those are the only people who are willing to read a novel by an unpublished author. And their feedback is going to be biased, because they don't want to hurt your feelings if they think it's bad.
Writing has a trap that other skills don't, which is that you can write for ten years and not get any better. If you're not getting good feedback about what readers think about your writing, you're going to be limited by your own ability to criticize your work; and by all accounts, humans are not good at analyzing their own writing. We always have blind spots, especially about things we created. Your tenth novel might be just as clichéd and boring and poorly-copy-edited as your first one.
If you can get 100 people to read your novel, and they're all strangers, and are all willing to give you good, solid feedback—congratulations, because you're a wizard or something. Most authors can only get a few people to give feedback, and usually those people are friends and family, because those are the only people who are willing to read a novel by an unpublished author. And their feedback is going to be biased, because they don't want to hurt your feelings if they think it's bad.
14 August, 2012
Now what?
So THE QUEEN OF MAGES is now out there in the cold, unfeeling world, bobbing around the Amazon charts. What's next? Is my mission complete? Was my only goal to publish a novel?
Hell no! For one thing, there's going to be two more books in this series. Amira's story is not yet fully told. I've already got copious notes for book 2 and it should be underway soon.
But for another, I made myself a promise when I started this mad quest: I'd give it ten years, and if I didn't find some reasonable measure of success by then, well... then I'd just keep trying.
Because I love writing. I always have; I believe I always will. I haven't got the marketing muscle to get my work widely seen, so I'm going to have to rely on 1) writing well and 2) chipping away at the public consciousness. And I haven't got the free time to spend assiduously building my brand in addition to the hours spent writing.
What's the worst-case scenario? That I spend decades doing this and never have much to show for it. And even if that happens (think positive thoughts, folks!), I at least had the pleasure of creating something—hopefully many somethings—that might have brought entertainment and delight to at least a handful of people.
Our time is limited; I already waited ten years longer than I should have to begin my life's work. I refuse to find myself on my deathbed, wishing I'd had the courage to take my life in the direction I always knew I wanted it to go.
So hold on to your hats, folks. Sooner or later, THE SILVER WAR is coming.
Hell no! For one thing, there's going to be two more books in this series. Amira's story is not yet fully told. I've already got copious notes for book 2 and it should be underway soon.
But for another, I made myself a promise when I started this mad quest: I'd give it ten years, and if I didn't find some reasonable measure of success by then, well... then I'd just keep trying.
Because I love writing. I always have; I believe I always will. I haven't got the marketing muscle to get my work widely seen, so I'm going to have to rely on 1) writing well and 2) chipping away at the public consciousness. And I haven't got the free time to spend assiduously building my brand in addition to the hours spent writing.
What's the worst-case scenario? That I spend decades doing this and never have much to show for it. And even if that happens (think positive thoughts, folks!), I at least had the pleasure of creating something—hopefully many somethings—that might have brought entertainment and delight to at least a handful of people.
Our time is limited; I already waited ten years longer than I should have to begin my life's work. I refuse to find myself on my deathbed, wishing I'd had the courage to take my life in the direction I always knew I wanted it to go.
So hold on to your hats, folks. Sooner or later, THE SILVER WAR is coming.
THE QUEEN OF MAGES now available!
After more than a year of blood, sweat, and tears (admittedly, not much blood), THE QUEEN OF MAGES is now available for purchase on Amazon for only $3.99! I guarantee that that's the best deal you'll find all day. (Guarantee not guaranteed.)
Certainly I'm biased, but I think this is my best writing yet: 190,494 words of what I hope readers will find an exciting, entertaining, moving adventure.
I'll write more later today, but for now, go buy it!
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