Putting on the Big Author Panties/My Favorite Review Thus Far

I posted this as a rant on my Facebook page, and decided to share it on my blog as well.

 

The following review came in this morning on Amazon and Goodreads and had me sweating bullets ever since I noticed that the blogger had marked Enigma Black as “currently reading” on Goodreads. Why was I so anxious? This blogger is known for her brutally honest reviews. In fact, her reviews are so honest that authors whose books she didn’t care for began seeking retribution against her on her we...bsite, giving her books (yes, she’s an author, too) negative reviews even though they’ve never read them. As an author, this behavior by fellow authors sickens me. For starters, you never, ever comment on a poor review (no matter how much it bothers you) and you most definitely never act like a middle schooler and take your frustrations out on someone purely because they were expressing their own opinion. After all, isn’t that what we indie authors are looking for, an honest, unbiased opinion of our work? It irritates me that this particular blogger has had to hide her identity from the public just so she can safely review the books that she PAID for. This just goes to show you that not everyone is ready to hear the truth. Heck, even traditionally published books receive poor reviews. Take any of the Harry Potter books, for example. Do a search on Amazon and I’ll guarantee you that you won’t find a single book in that series that doesn’t have at least one 1* review. “Well, that reviewer must be crazy,” you say. No. It’s just that the book didn’t resonate with them. And that’s completely okay. Just because someone goes against the grain and gives their honest opinion on how THEY feel about a book doesn’t give anyone the liberty to go batshit crazy on them. After all, as indies we have a hard enough time finding reviews and readers for our books. Let’s not taint that further by acting unprofessional.

And, yes, I would still have made this rant even if this blogger had hated Enigma Black.  And, no, I've never spoken to this blogger before, nor do I know who she is, but I'm going to take her up on her offer to contact her on her blog's FB page.

Here is the review from blogger evilicious whose blog is called The Good, The Bad and the Ugly:

"Obviously - given my rating - I love this book. I was torn between a 4 and a 5 star.

I am leaning toward a 5 star but there were a few issues for me that made it a 4 star. Mind you - I LOVED the story overall.

THE GOOD:

The plot was brilliant, and totally sucked me in. I love stories that are pure escapism - and this was one of those. There were plenty of twists and turns (which I love) . Some were predictable but others weren't. I was not expecting what happened in the last few chapters at all - well I kind of was - but I thought it would involve a different character.

The characters are well drawn, and relatable, the story flowed nicely and was well written. A few minor editing issues, but I have seen worse in traditionally published books.

BTW - ending was a cliff-hanger. You figure this out as you get toward the end of the book so it's not jarring, and it's not the sort of cliffhanger that annoys the crap out of you. Actually I started to worry the author was going to sell herself short (for purely selfish reasons) leading up to the climax, and that it would be a complete read.(Phew!)

THE BAD:

Overall I loved the story but it took me a bit to get into for two reasons (but then BAM! Suddenly I was zooming through the pages like nothing else). The dialogue was overly lengthy at some points and was slightly 'off' character if that makes sense, at times. I guess it was sometimes a little formal compared to the narrative. I think there should have been a little more world building to help readers suspend disbelief *SPOILER ALERT (sort of) a nationwide curfew is imposed and I kind of went 'WTF - as if! It would take a lot more than that' , so strengthening this earlier in the story would help, though as I got further into the book there was more to back this up and strengthen it END (the-sort-of-spoiler) ALERT *

There were also a couple of areas where the wording didn't work. One that comes to mind is 'few' meaning three, but the author used it to mean two. Little things like that suck me out of a story.

IN FACT - I think the author might want to do one final edit, taking some of my points into account, and those of other reviewers as I have a feeling this one will rocket up the Kindle charts as word gets out! And we all know how nasty some reviewers can be when a book suddenly gains popularity. (Note to author, feel free to contact me via my FB page if you would like more clarification - I really do think you are onto something here and you should be proud of your achievement. [...] Being an author myself (and no dear reader - I am not about to tastelessly link my books - or even my author name) I understand how easy it is for these things to slip through in the editing process.

THE UGLY:

Nothing - because despite my few issues (I like to show both sides) this is a brilliant story that sucked me in and the issues obviously weren't enough to stop me reading. In fact I couldn't read it fast enough. An absolute page turner that kept me up late into the - er - morning, and one I wouldn't be surprised to see snapped up by movie producers in the near future. First time I ever said THAT about an indie book!"

Brought to you by Evilicious Book Reviews: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Unveiling of the Cover for Enigma Black

First of all, I'd like to wish a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of my followers.  You've all aided in truly brightening a rather dismal year for me. Here's to hoping that 2012 is a million times better.

Every writer develops a vision of their work at some point in time during the writing process.  A vision of their characters (whether they're short, awkward, have freckles, or jet black hair).  A vision of the setting (in the middle of a bustling city, a blooming meadow, or lost in a galaxy far, far away.  A vision of  each scene in the novel (the looks on their character's faces during a pivotal moment, the intensity of a fight, the beauty of the summer day when the hero and the heroine share their first kiss).  When and where this vision occurs depends upon the writer and can vary, being as fickle as a Bachelor contestant. For some, this vision may change repeatedly during the writing of the first draft and again during the final editing process.  For others, it was the vision that inspired the book to begin with:  A photograph taken on a beach overlooking the aquamarine shimmer of a wave hammering the shore; watching a mother and child holding hands in a hospital bed; or the malevolence of an abandoned building rising toward a darkened sky.

In my case, Enigma Black (a science fiction/dystopian/superhero novel about a woman who transforms from victim to assassin) was born from images; a series of dark images, coupled with my admiration of the music of Evanesence and a brief detachment from reality.  Of course, just as the characters, setting, and scenes are visualized, naturally, so are the covers encasing those visions. I have to admit, when it came to the cover, I had several different visions in mind.  I'm more of an abstract person.  To me, a little can say a lot.  With that in mind, I didn't want my cover to be too busy, but more of an accurate reflection of the inner turmoil faced by each of the characters with a hint of mystery attached to it.  I also wanted the colors (red and black) depicted in a painting in one of the later chapters to be represented as they represent the good vs. evil struggle that is prevalent throughout the book and the series as a whole. 

With all of that in mind, a wonderful graphic designer came up with the amazing e-book cover shown below that I believe is the perfect culmination of all of my visions for Enigma Black:

The aforementioned designer assisting me with bringing my vision to fruition is the very talented George Arnold, graphic designer at WGA Designs (and the husband of the equally as talented author, Carolyn Arnold).  To see more of George's wonderful work, click the link to Carolyn's blog or contact him at george.arnold@rogers.com. 

Actually having a cover is motivating me to work even harder on my final edits.  As the time draws nearer to my novel's actual release, I'll post a brief synopsis and sample chapter on my blog. 

My next post will return to business as usual for my subscribers and will focus on getting through the daunting editing process.  Have a great week!

A Clear Case Of One Man's Mission To Ruin It For The Rest Of Us

If you feel compelled to praise your novel as "a special piece of work" and compose a synopsis describing it as "a man's exploration of love, self, wilderness and LSD, and time spent masquerading as a ram" (grammatical errors aside), you may want to reconsider your career choice.

Rich Shapero is a former venture capitalist with entirely too much money on his hands and a sick desire to royally piss off those talented authors who legitimately desire to buck the endangered gatekeepers in order to traverse the route of self-publishing (whether through e-books or in general).  Not finding many takers for his book Wild Animus--a story about his life--Shapero has taken matters into his own hands and pocketbook.  Singlehandedly, he's launched his own publishing company, appropriately dubbed Too Far, where he's printed off several thousand books for distribution.  Now, if Mr. Shapero were to have stopped there then, despite Wild Animus' piss-poor reviews, he may have been able to garner the support of those authors who don't believe agents are necessary.  But no, oh no, he didn't stop there.  The books are printed, so what else does he need?  Why a way to get the word out about it, of course.  And what's the best way to get the word out?  Why to hire actors to dress up as rams and parade around like a bunch of idiots to market your efforts, of course.  Now why didn't the classical authors of yesteryear think of that? I mean, just think of how much more successful Jack London's The Call of the Wild would have been if he'd hired a gang of Saint Bernards to maul the heck out of unsuspecting readers.

For many people, Shapero's antics are amusing, perhaps somewhat comical.  In fact, there will be people who purchase his book based solely upon its negative press and the desire to take part in a literary trainwreck.  For us more serious authors, however, people like Mr. Shapero are the bane of our existence. They are the reason why this industry is a closed one; why agents and publishers are afraid to take a chance on new, unpublished authors.  This is also exactly why new authors who choose to publish their works on e-readers may not find the success they crave. Mr. Shapero has opened up a Pandora's Box of stupidity which will inevitably call others like him to action invariably creating a domino effect that will only serve to topple new authors in the views of society.

It would be a completely different scenario if Mr Shapero had the talent to go along with his wallet, but, if the reviews have any grain of truth to them, that's not the case either (although one person's crap may be another person's Twilight).  Indeed, Mr. Shapero has gone too far.

One highlight in the article--blink and you'll miss it-- is the following excerpt:
"Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Jeffrey Marx's book was turned down by a half-dozen publishers. He self-published the work, called "Season of Life," about a former professional football player turned minister. After he sold 14,000 copies out of his car and home, the book was picked up by Simon & Schuster. It was No. 10 on last week's New York Times nonfiction best-seller list."

This is a classic example of why e-publishing is currently such a huge success. A Pulitzer Prize winning reporter can't get published conventionally yet Snookie from The Jersey Shore had no problems landing a book deal.  What the F***.

Venture capitalist rewrites the starving-author story

Julian Guthrie, Chronicle Staff Writer

With deep pockets and an even deeper belief in his inner Hemingway, first-time novelist Rich Shapero is taking vanity publishing to a new level.


The Silicon Valley venture capitalist wrote his novel, founded a company to publish it and then launched one of the biggest and most colorful individual book giveaways ever.


Shapero, 56, is spending nearly a half-million dollars to promote "Wild Animus," due in stores in early October. And he has a 13-city book tour planned.


Thousands of advance copies have been handed out at music festivals, food fairs and art exhibits. Actors dressed as rams -- a key character in Shapero's book -- have stampeded book industry events. Shapero paid for the creation of a directory of book clubs nationwide, and then offered books for free.
He also sent copies to interested members of Bookcrossing.com, the online community of 250,000 bibliophiles. Members have posted reviews ranging from "Weird and different," to "One of the worst books I ever read."


Shapero is part of a self-publishing explosion that has enabled wannabe writers to print books on demand.
As fiction editor Jay Schaefer says, innovations in technology have "turned publishing into an open mike."
"Anyone can get up and do the equivalent of perform their book," said Schaefer of Chronicle Books in San Francisco, which is not affiliated with The Chronicle newspaper. "So there are a lot of books out there that to some degree would not have been published before."


Online publishing companies such as Xlibris and iUniverse offer aspiring authors services from copyediting to publishing and marketing. Bookstores are experimenting with kiosks that allow authors to print books while they wait.


The venerable Kirkus Reviews announced last week that it will begin reviewing self-published books -- for a $350 fee. The announcement marks the first time in the company's 71-year history that individuals can pay to have a book reviewed.


"There are more people who want to be authors than readers," said Michael Cader, a book packager who writes the newsletter PublishersLunch, which has a daily circulation of 28,000.


He referred to a recent survey by the National Endowment for the Arts, which found that the percentage of Americans who read books has steadily declined over the last two decades, while over the same period, the number of people taking creative writing courses increased by 30 percent.


Cader said that an estimated 175,000 books were published in the United States last year. That doesn't include the tens of thousands of self-published books. While the vast majority of self-published books never make it past the author's coffee table, some manage to attract the attention of mainstream publishers.

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Jeffrey Marx's book was turned down by a half-dozen publishers. He self-published the work, called "Season of Life," about a former professional football player turned minister. After he sold 14,000 copies out of his car and home, the book was picked up by Simon & Schuster. It was No. 10 on last week's New York Times nonfiction best-seller list.


"There are a number of successful books that began life as self-published books," Cader said. "But, attention doesn't equal sales."


Cader said he hadn't heard of Shapero's book. But when told of some of the author's publicity efforts, he remembered a "Wild Animus" encounter.


"I was at the Book Expo America in Chicago and heard of these people dressed as sheep or something who jumped in a fountain, I think," Cader said. "I was aware of it and tried to stay as far away as possible."

Steve Zeitchik, news editor at Publishers Weekly, said, "You've always had vanity publishing, but what's happened over the last few years is that it's now very easy with these new technologies to print books even one at a time. What makes a difference in (Shapero's) case is there is a lot of money involved."

Shapero, a managing partner at Crosspoint Venture Partners, a leading venture capital firm, has applied a Silicon Valley recipe to publishing: He gathered a group of imaginative, think-outside-the-box types, convinced them of his mission and launched a crusade. He describes himself as "pathologically independent."

Sitting at a conference table in the office of his new publishing house in Woodside, Shapero called his novel "a special piece of work," and said there's "a lot going on in publishing that needs to change."


He made oblique reference to the days when Walt Whitman could walk around and hand out books and said his quest is to deliver "great truths which are hidden." Hemingway accomplished this with "The Old Man and the Sea," he noted.


"I am doing this because I feel it is important to me and might be important to others," said Shapero, who is wide-eyed and boyish-looking. He said his days as a venture capitalist -- he was called a "Guru of Growth" by BusinessWeek -- are numbered. Writing is his future.


His special piece of work, as he calls "Wild Animus," has a first printing of 50,000 copies. A typical first printing for a first-time author is between 5,000 and 10,000 copies. Marketing budgets covered by traditional publishing houses hover at around $1 per copy, one-tenth of what Shapero is spending.
Shapero says that his gratification will come from readers who connect with the book. He said he worked on the story in three different periods in his life. He opted not to go through an agent or to a publisher because he wanted the work to be entirely his own.


"I wanted to preserve complete artistic control," he said.


The book is about a man's exploration of love, self, wilderness and LSD, and time spent masquerading as a ram. It begins at UC Berkeley in 1969 and heads north to Alaska.


Shapero graduated from UC Berkeley in 1970 with a degree in English literature and in more recent years took off on a 400-mile solo hike in the Alaskan wilderness. He describes his Alaskan explorations as meditations in transcendence and "a test of human endurance and the human spirit."


"It's about love and the quest for love," Shapero said of his book.


The spacious offices of his publishing house, called Too Far, were empty save for two employees. Shapero said he plans to publish books by other writers, but couldn't give specifics.


"I want to be a source of content for things that explore life's mysteries," he said. "That could be about the source of love and surrender and what surrender means. These are things that are critically important to me, much more than world affairs or the state of my bank account."


He plans to devote the next two months to promoting "Wild Animus." He promises the street theater and publicity gimmicks will continue: "We still have a few tricks up our sleeves."


His enthusiasm is untempered by some early reviews. One newspaper review stated, "After the first hundred pages, the reader will figure out that the essential elements that comprise a novel are missing."


"My objective isn't to change the world," Shapero said. "I can't reinvent our culture. But with Too Far, my objective is to publish what I find important."




Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/09/26/SHAPERO.TMP&ao=2#ixzz1JSQCxtBB

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/09/26/SHAPERO.TMP#ixzz1JSPQx9Eo

Some Lighthearted and Positive News Stories for a Change

Because the news is full of crap that I just don't care to read about (especially with a husband in the military), it's good to see Yahoo posting some cute and inspirational stories for a change.

Denver the Guilty Dog

My dog pretty much does the same thing except she trades the whole teeth thing with hightailing it under the kitchen table as she knows I'm not going to follow her down there to admonish her.

http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625/in-the-doghouse-guilty-dog-on-gma-24642455

Another Amanda Hocking Ebook Triumph

Although I'm not thrilled that Amanda Hocking decided to sign with a publishing company for a two million dollar deal after she became a self-made millionaire with her ebooks ALL ON HER OWN, I still have to give her big props.  It's just irritating that agents and publishing companies are so stuck on the bottom line that it takes success that they didn't create in order for them to stand up and take notice of a new, talented author. 

Good job Amanda, you deserve all the success:

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/self-publisher-signs-four-book-deal-with-macmillan/

My impressions thus far in my journey toward publication

And this is why publishing companies and agents are still important...

When I first started writing the Enigma Black trilogy, I thought the whole writing part in and of itself would be the hard part.

That was the first thing I got wrong.

After receiving my fill of rejections from agents (I may still attempt to query a publishing company or two), I decided that it may be more lucrative and, well, easier to go the route of self-publishing.

That was the second thing I got wrong.

In the age of self-published millionaires such as Amanda Hocking, it has become increasingly clearer that publishing companies and, especially, agents are beginning to become relics of the past (a fact of which mainly only those associated with these industries disagree).  Therefore, I've decided to publish the first book in my trilogy as an ebook as, at this moment, I really have nothing to lose.  After all, isn't publishing an ebook pretty much a no-brainer?

That was the third, and hopefully final, thing I got wrong.

Sure, if you don't care about the formatting of your novel, its presentation, or the overall impression it makes on your target audience, that last statement may hold a nugget of truth to you.  But, if you're like me and you find that you do in fact believe those catagories are just as important as great writing, then you're in for the realization that writing the book is only just the beginning. 

If you plan on traveling down the ebook path, I highly recommend finding a copyeditor/proofreader to go over your piece with a fine tooth comb as no matter how many times you read your own work, you're bound to become blind to its mistakes.  What does proofreading/copyediting run?  Well, so far I've found services anywhere from 1/4 to a 1/5 cent per word (which, at the high end is still over $500 for a 110,000 word manuscript). 

Secondly, there's packaging.  You know the whole expression "you can't judge a book by it's cover"?  That may sound all nice and sugary like candy-coated unicorn farts, but in the highly competitive reality we live in people can and DO judge books by their covers.  Therefore, designing or hiring someone to design your book cover now becomes crucial.  Of course, if you decide to hire someone to design your cover, you're in for an even higher overhead cost to a project that may or may not recuperate those costs. 

After your work is polished and your cover art is as eyecatching as it needs to be then there's a little thing called formatting to contend with.  And, yes, there's a service for that as well. ;)

So lets see, if you hire ALL of the above out, you're looking at a total of (conservatively) around $1000. With the vast majority of ebooks by new authors priced anywhere from $.99 to $2.99, that equals approximately a buttload of books you'll have to sell before you'll start to see any profit from your work.  Granted, you don't have to do any of those services I mentioned, but many people do and many see the results they do because of them.

If there's one thing I haven't been wrong about so far, it's the fact that, in order to be a writer, you honestly must LOVE writing.  As I've previously posted, books are not lottery tickets. 

Enigma Black--Launching to an Ebook outlet near you soon...

After thoughtful consideration, research, and reading blogs from other authors such as the following repost from Joe Konrath, I have decided to complete revisions to the Enigma Black trilogy, bypass the gatekeeper completely and go straight to the horse's mouth (figuratively speaking, of course). Yes, I've decided to go the route of the e-book (Kindle, Nook etc).   As such, this would mean that the launch of a (hopefully) new career could be just a couple short weeks away.  Obviously, I'm not going to quit my day job as I don't anticipate it being lucrative, but to realize a dream is still exciting in and of itself.  When Enigma Black publishes, I will keep you all posted!


Joe Konrath's Blog reposted with link:


Ebooks Ain't A Bubble

 

 

Elsewhere on the internets, I've heard the current ebook boom being described as a bubble. One that will eventually burst.

That's incorrect.

A bubble is when people invest more money in something than it is actually worth. Real estate, technology, dot com companies, housing, the stock market, etc. all are investments that might not pay off, and have been called bubbles.

Ebooks aren't an investment. We're not dumping money into them, hoping we can sell them at a profit later on.

Rather, ebooks are more like a commodity. But not quite, because they don't conform to the rules of supply and demand, as there is an endless supply. But I believe there is also an endless demand. I come to this conclusion by looking at other digital media, and seeing the never-ending, constantly regenerating market.

An ebook is forever. Forever is a long time to find readers. I'm selling over 1000 ebooks a day, but it would take me forty-one years to completely saturate the current Kindle-owner market (assuming there are currently 15 million Kindle owners.)

However, people read ebooks on more than just their Kindles. There are Kindle apps, Nooks, Kobos, smart phones, computers, tablets, and so on. I could sell 10,000 ebooks a day, and it would still take the rest of my life to saturate the current market.

But the market won't stay current. Ebooks will become the dominant format for reading fiction. They'll proliferate the US and Canada, the UK and Australia, and eventually the world.

There's no ebook bubble. There is only unlimited potential sales. I referred to it in an earlier post as a Gold Rush. But, unlike a Gold Rush, where there is limited gold available, I don't see this gold vein ever running out. The gold is readers, and there are billions of them. It doesn't matter how many miners are trying to get rich. There is enough for everybody, assuming writers work hard and stick with it until they get lucky.

Now, while I consider the ebook forecast for the next few years to be bright, with a high chance of riches for me (I'm currently earning $1300 a day), there is a tech precedent that might show otherwise.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_video_game_crash_of_1983

That article is worth reading, because it shows what could happen in the ebook world once there are no longer any gatekeepers. If the market gets flooded with crap, consumers could stop buying ebooks and instead do something else with their time and money, just as they did with videogames.

But there are some key differences.

First, there is now unlimited retail space, and consumers and etailers have made it easy to find the worthy books.

Second, while there are competing ereading devices, authors can make their work easily available on all of them without an extra time or money investment.

Third, there is no boom/bust bubble, because we don't have to dump money into development, advertising, or speculative stock trading. We don't have to spend money to make money.

Also, even though the 1983 video game crash ruined many companies and temporarily soured the public on videogames, by 1985 videogames were back, and they've been growing ever since. Videogames now make more money than Hollywood.

I've also seen some authors who are doing both self-publishing and legacy publishing, calling it diversification.

That isn't diversification. It's buying a ticket on the Titanic.

I could make a logical, persuasive case for chain bookstores disappearing (as chain record stores and video stores have), and then draw the obvious conclusion that ebooks will replace print as the dominant format, but I've done that often enough to bother repeating it all here. Go back to April 2009 and read my blog from then until now if you want a blow-by-blow report of how the publishing industry is collapsing and ebooks are taking over.

Instead, I want all authors reading this to ask themselves two questions.

1. Will ebooks eventually outsell print books? (hint: they already are in many cases)

2. Do you want to give up 70% royalties and instead accept 14.9% royalties by signing with a legacy publisher? (assume you'll be locked into the contract forever, because you will)

How you answer those questions is how you should approach the next legacy publishing deal you're offered.

For years, I've talked about the importance of luck. You can't succeed without it.

But writers need to fight Stockholm Syndrome and escape the siren song of legacy publishing. For decades they were the only game in town, and trying to get accepted by the gatekeepers has become imprinted on our brains. Getting lucky meant finding a publisher.

These days, signing with a publisher, who will give you an advance in return for the majority of all your royalties, forever, isn't lucky at all. It's like signing a balloon loan, where the payments get bigger every year. Or a life insurance policy, where you keep paying more annually for fewer benefits.

A much better route to take is self-pubbing. At least there, if you get lucky, you get to keep most of your money.

 

Source:   http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2011/03/ebooks-aint-bubble.html