Publishing posts
Apocalypse Blog now available at Amazon
After some shenanigans over the weekend, the Apocalypse Blog is now available through Amazon! You can get it direct to your Kindle from the US, UK and German stores.
You can find the books on my Author Page, or here are some handy links to the US store versions:
Enjoy! And don’t forget to tell all your friends about them!
Apocalypse Blog ebooks now available!
After a weekend of madly formatting, checking, proofing, and uploading, the first two ebooks of the Apocalypse Blog are now available on Smashwords! They are:
- Book 0: Before the End – free prequel!
- Book 1: End of the Old – the first of the trilogy, starting when the bomb went off. Now with new and extended content!
I had piles of fun editing through the first book of the Apocalypse Blog, and wound up extending a lot of the posts. A few gaps filled in here, some detail in there.
It feels great to finally have them up now, released into the wild! I have a little bit of work to do on the covers (they’re gorgeous, but the file size needs to be adjusted) before the books can go out to more stores, but it’s all good.
So far, the free Book 0 has had over 50 downloads. In less than 2 days! Wow. 🙂
For those of you who read this blog, you can get Book 1 for half price by entering this coupon: “ZY43T” Valid this week only!
Next job: edit up Book 2 for release!
Weekend of writing and awesomeness
It’s been a hell of a weekend, and though it’s Tuesday, it has only just finished for me. Why, you ask? Well, let me explain…
On Friday, my Creative Writing Group met. I decided to do a session on first lines, and took along a list of first lines from novels across a range of genres and periods (many thanks to my friend who helped me to compile the list). Then we discussed them blindly (that is, without knowing what book or author they were from), to see what we thought of them as first lines on their own merits alone.
It was an interesting exercise and prompted a lot of talk. Curiously enough, even though someone didn’t like the first line, they would usually read on to find out the answer to the (annoying) question that was posed. It turns out that grabbing your reader doesn’t have to mean grabbing them in a good way. Boring first lines came out the worst of all, and I think that’s a good rule of thumb: never bore your reader.
After the meeting, there was dinner and bookish chats with my writing-friends. Always good to do that!
Saturday was the day of my RedFest talk, which I have squeeped and babbled about recently. It was my first appearance at an event like that; I’ve done plenty of talks and so on for my CWG, but this was different! And, for the record, I hate public speaking. I’m getting better at it (slowly), but I still got horribly nervous.
Big thanks to my friends for supporting me at the RedFest (you know who you are): helping me set up and giving me tea and sitting through the talk to bulk out the numbers. I didn’t get many attendees (probably about ten in total), but that was fine by me. I hadn’t expected a lot of people to come to the talk; it’s a local fair, and I guessed that most of the people who were seriously interested in writing would be at the Brisbane Writer’s Festival. Why do all of these things have to coincide?
I had some good questions from the audience and managed to cover all the material I had written out for publishing online. Overall, I was happy with how it went, and learned some things to use for next time (should there be one!).
After we had escaped the clutches of the RedFest, I got all dolled up with some friends and headed out for dinner to celebrate my birthday. Had a great time: too much food, cocktails, and ice cream; and much talking and silliness.
Sunday was an early start – we had to be on a train by 8:15 – which was awesome after the night before. Luckily, I was without a hangover (I hadn’t drunk anywhere near enough for one of those, despite pouring Baileys on my ice cream). I was heading to the Brisbane Writer’s Festival, determined to get in at least some of the events before the whole thing was over.
I managed to get to three talks in total, none of which were exactly what I was expecting. They were on the digital revolution in writing, writing about taboo or ‘dangerous’ ideas, and literary vs popular fiction. I was left largely disgruntled with how the talks turned out (apart from the middle one). I plan to write up blog posts about each of them, so I won’t go into detail here – more soon!
In the middle of all of that, I snuck up to the Queensland Writer’s Centre and collared a couple of the lovely, helpful staff. Some more of our NaNoWriMo plans have been sorted out, and the QWC will be supporting us again this year. I’m currently working with them to arrange a write-out in November: writing out on a lawn by the riverside, in shade and sunshine.
I also took part in a writing race at the QWC, captained by the lovely Trent Jamieson. An hour of writing intensively, in a scarily quiet room! I went in with not a clue about what this week’s Starwalker post should be, managed to write almost 2,000 words (!!!), and won the race! Excellent.
I’m still not sure what this week’s Starwalker post will be, but I have a pile of material to massage into something coherent. Whether it will make the post easier or harder to construct has yet to be ascertained.
After such a packed weekend, I took a day’s holiday from work to recover (yesterday). A sleep in, a lazy day on the couch with games and DVDs, and nothing pressing to do was just what the CFS ordered. Then my folks took me out for beautiful slow-cooked steaks (another birthday dinner), and we stuffed ourselves with way too much food.
I’m back at work now and definitely feeling brighter for the break. It’s been crazy but so worth it! Some of the stuff that was talked about over the weekend is ticking at my brain, and once this weeks Starwalker is sorted out, I’ll be turning my attention to capturing those thoughts into posts and sticking them up here. Don’t hold your breath; it might take a while.
Thanks to everyone who made this weekend awesome. Best birthday I’ve had in a long time. Here’s to surviving another year, and to lots more to come!
Monetising: Donations
This subject has been on my list of things to sort out for a long time. Finally, I’m getting around to doing something about it.
Let me make one thing clear: I give my writing away for free happily and willingly, and always intend to do so to some extent. In truth, I am reluctant to ask for money on something I am offering for free.
However, there are people who would happily give money if the option was there. For e-book versions, for merchandise, and even just for visiting the website.
The first two of those options involve a lot of work (which is in progress!), but the latter is easy to set up. It’s also the trickiest for me to want to do. It seems cheeky to me! But I’ve come across a few discussions on this topic over the past months and it seems that I’m in the minority in that regard.
It’s not a case of asking for money; it’s giving the option to those who wish to contribute. Some readers like to be able to support the work they enjoy, and some writers like to support their fellow artists. The more I think about it, the more okay I am with that. If I had the funds, I might even do the same myself.
So this week, I bit the bullet and sorted out donations for my websites. It was actually shockingly easy! (Paypal really have made it a painless process – well done you guys!) There’s now a ‘Donate’ button in the sidebar on the Apocalypse Blog, Starwalker, and this site (look right, everyone!). Hopefully unobtrusive and inoffensive.
So, the avenue is now open. I don’t demand or expect anything, and if I’m honest, I’m still a little nervous about the whole thing (will people get annoyed and leave? will they suspect it’s the start of rabid commercialisation?). But let’s see how it goes!
My first step towards making money from the writing I do purely for the joy of it. Next: actually selling things to people! (Uh oh, I feel there’s a slippery slope coming!)
Road to e-booking
Some of you may have heard that I’ve been working on preparing the Apocalypse Blog for being made into e-books (I’ve talked about it randomly on Twitter and Facebook). This is true! And despite all the recent delays and headaches I’ve had – which I’ll probably whine about on here later – I am making progress.
The current plan is to break the AB saga (340,000+ words) into three books, each of roughly 100,000 words. This fits into three story arcs: the end of the world; the sickness and the shamblers; and trying to find a new future (at some point, they’ll get proper names, but I’m still working on that!).
There will also be a prequel ‘book’, covering the entries that were made before the bomb went off, back when Faith’s world was normal. I wrestled with the idea of splitting this off, because I like the lead-in that this ‘normal’ week gives the story. It sets up Faith’s voice and some of the plot points that come into the story much later on with Matt and Bree.
However, because I am looking at offering the e-books for sale through Smashwords (with other possible venues later), having this week-long prologue on the first AB book might be counter-productive. The previews available on Smashwords always start from the beginning of the book, so prospective readers would have to get past the first 7,000+ words before anything apocalyptic happened. It didn’t seem like a good way to hook new readers, so instead, the prologue section will be Book 0 in the saga, and Book 1 will start with the bomb exploding.
To prepare AB for e-booking, I’m editing the existing posts, mostly tightening up the language and correcting any errors the slipped through the proofing that was done before it was posted. It’s interesting to see how my writing has changed since I started writing AB!
I’m also keeping in mind some of the feedback I received in AB reviews, particularly about glossing over events, and trying to rectify that where I can (where it fits into the story and atmosphere). As a result, many posts have been expanded, and some have had whole sections added in.
Because the e-book format isn’t as limited as the online blog, some events that were split over several posts have been combined into a single, long post. Hopefully they will flow better now! Other than that, the structure of the piece hasn’t been changed.
I’ve just finished the first editing sweep through Book 0 and Book 1. Phew. Final proofing and formatting to go, and the covers to sort out, and they’ll be good to go! I’m planning to get them up on Smashwords as soon as they’re ready (hopefully within the next few weeks), and then move on to Book 2.
Overall, I’m pleased with how the books are coming out. I don’t hate the writing (despite it being two years old now), and I’m still very fond of it! I’ll be proud to get them up and available for others to read. Can’t wait. Wish me luck!
Paper vs e-books
I came across this link on Twitter today, and thought it worth nailing down. It’s an interesting summary of the paper vs e-book battle, with some curious statistics. One worth keeping in mind when you’re thinking about which way to go to publish a book.
Kylie Chan and being published
As I mentioned recently, Kylie Chan came to talk to my writing group this month. I’ve been lax in updating here when this stuff happens, but I’m trying to get better at posting this kind of thing!
First, it might be useful to have a little bit about Kylie Chan. She’s a bestselling author in the Australian fantasy market, with four books published in her Dark Heavens series so far and the fifth one out later this year. She’s published with Harper Collins’ Voyager imprint, who are dragging their feet about publishing her overseas (in the US and UK markets), but she hopes to be released in at least one of those markets by early next year.
She writes modern fantasy (or contemporary fantasy, if you prefer) based in Chinese mythology and set in Hong Kong. It’s interesting stuff – I’ll review the first book of the series if I get the chance.
The meeting was a relaxed affair – we asked her questions and she chatted to us in a very open, honest way. I love it when guests feel comfortable enough to do that, as I generally try to foster a relaxed atmosphere in the group. We wound up running way over time, partly because traffic delayed people getting there and because it was really hard to stop talking! (Eventually, we got hungry enough to break for dinner, and that was it.)
We got lots of interesting and useful information out of the talk. We talked about the different ways to approach writing – ‘planners vs pantsers’, and the middle ground. Personally, I tend towards a ‘stepping stone’ approach, but the group is made up of a variety of planners and discovery writers. Everyone has their own way! It was nice to have a writer encourage us to write however it was best for us.
Kylie also talked about what it’s like to be edited, and was very frank about her experiences with getting and being published, which is better than hedging and trying not to put people off. (To be clear: this is talking about the traditional paper publishing industry, not self- or e-publishing.)
Let’s face it: getting published is hard. And once you’ve crested that hurdle, being published is not all it’s cracked up to be (unless you’re a rare shiny thing like JK Rowling or, heaven forfend, Stephanie Meyer). Startling worldwide success aside, when someone tells you ‘don’t give up your day job’, they are not necessarily insulting your talent; they might just be aware of how hard it is for a writer to earn a living from traditional publication.
Royalties are small and are only paid after they have covered your advance. From what I understand, it’s not uncommon for a book not to earn back its advance, and royalties tend to return little to the author.
There are ways to maximise what you earn from your work. Being published in as many territories as possible is one way, though you won’t get the same percentage from foreign market sales as you do from the book’s home market (which is, I believe, the first market it is published in, not necessarily where the author is). There are other ways, but this topic is what a lot of the talk revolved around.
For an unpublished author, negotiating that first contract can be a losing battle; you don’t have any cards to play, being an unproven risk for the publisher, and you usually don’t know what pitfalls to look for. You’re asked to sign away a lot of your publishing rights. On the plus side, you’re being published and on your way to being a known, successful writer. Future contracts will be easier to negotiate.
For writers in Australia, it’s tricky because while the Australian market is good, it’s not that big, especially when compared to countries like the UK and US. If your Australian publisher has the international rights to your book and chooses not to publish you overseas, then you can’t take advantage of those markets. That’s a lot of revenue to miss out on.
So what can we do about this? The most direct way is to go through an American or UK agent/publisher (there is no reason why you can’t do this) and be published in one of those countries first. It’s quite common for authors to do this, particularly genre or niche writers – I know a British horror writer who got published in the US, because it was so difficult to get horror published in the UK.
Another hurdle for Aussie writers selling overseas is writing about Aussie things. Kylie’s series involves an Australian main character, which is seen as a barrier to publishing in other markets (particularly the US). On the plus side, her books are set in Hong Kong and you don’t have to be Australian to read them (the Australian flavour to the book is subtle and unobtrusive, in my opinion), so hopefully this won’t be a big problem for her. I just hope the publishers agree and take the chance to find out!
Kylie also recommended a couple of books that helped her to prepare her books for publication. They were:
- Self Editing for Fiction Writers – Browne & King
- The First Five Pages – Noah Lukeman
I think I’ve babbled on enough. That doesn’t cover everything we talked about, but no-one wants a blow-by-blow. Right?
Hope you all find it helpful. I know I did!