Tag: yabooks

SALE!!! Oh, and why your book club doesn’t only have to read “serious” books…

So my first HUGE bit of news is that Borrowed Magic (digital only) is on sale for a very limited time.  It’s marked down from $3.99 to…wait for it…$0.99!!!  That’s 75% off!

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I’ve been waiting to put it on sale in conjunction with getting some book ad sites to feature it.  These are sites that showcase free and very low priced books.  In fact, I believe every book featured on the sites has to be marked at least 50% off.  The largest of these book ad sites is called Book Bub.  It has over 3 million subscribers and can get a book a ton of publicity.  It’s also really hard to get accepted.  I applied, knowing I’d probably get denied, and I did.  🙂  Seriously, you need like 100 reviews to get accepted and I’m at 33.  However, there are smaller sites (more like 100,00 subscribers), and I got accepted to two for the coming week.  One is Booksends.com and the other is Readcheaply.com.  Other authors have had good results with them, so we’ll see.

Obviously, I don’t do this to make a bunch of money.  At $0.99, I can assure you, it’s only pennies per book.  It’s more about getting ranked higher on Amazon and other sites so the book gets more visibility.  I’d appreciate any help by sharing with your friends, on social media, or however else works for you.

Along those lines, if you are a member of a book club, and have considered reading Borrowed Magic, now would be a great time to have everyone get it!

Book clubs often choose self help, non fiction, or literary books.  Serious books.  But let me tell you why that doesn’t have to be the case — and why for people like me, who read for fun or to escape for a while, it would make me much more likely to come.  Good fiction, whether literary or commercial, should have some things in common.  One of those is the growth of the main character.  In that growth, there are going to be things to discuss seriously.  Things like failure, trust, love, friendship, and even abuse.  We like to read books because on some level, we relate to the characters in them.  Not because we live in the same world or have the same problems, but because there’s something that is universal to humanity.

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So next time you’re looking at a book for book club, consider some commercial books.

The fork in the road… (part 6 on writing and publishing)

Maybe you got your dream agent and everything is great and you’re willing to wait 1 1/2 – 2 years to see your book on shelves (really, that’s how long it takes with a traditional publisher!).  You also realize that authors, on average, earn less than $10k a year!  (Yes, that’s right.  For the majority of authors, it will never be a full time job.  Remember the the next time you borrow a book instead of buying it and supporting the author.  🙂 )  Everything is going just how you planned.

Or maybe it’s not.

Maybe you didn’t get that dream agent, and you are disheartened and feeling you can’t write, your story must be terrible, and you’ll never be published.

Then you take a deep breath and decide what to do from there.  Your choice may be to write another manuscript and try the agent process again.  This was my choice after each of my first two books weren’t picked up by an agent.  However, after my third book wasn’t accepted — and this despite beta readers who loved it — I seriously considered publishing myself.

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So…Independent Publishing.  Self Publishing.  Whatever you wan to call it.  It’s definitely an option now a days for authors who are confident in their manuscript but for whom the traditional route doesn’t seem to be working.  Even traditional authors have taken the indie publishing route at times because they get a higher percentage of each sale.  If they already have a huge audience, they can often earn more money in the long run.

For those of us who don’t have an established name, indie publishing is a little overwhelming.   You have to get a cover designed.  You have to get your manuscript edited to perfection (whether you hire someone or not).  You have to learn (or hire out) digital formatting for each site you want to publish on.  You have to learn the ins and outs of each of the different sites.  If you want a hard copy also, then your cover has to be the right formatting and you have to deal with yet another site to upload to.  AND you have to do your own marketing.

That last one is, perhaps, the most daunting of all.  No publisher to back you.  No publisher’s catalog to be featured in.  No publisher to buy you premium space in the bookstore (yes, those displays at the front and books featured on the ends of the aisle are all paid for).  This idea of marketing is also where the “free” in self publishing kind of flies out the window.  Sure, it’s free to upload to all the sites, but the rest isn’t free.  You should ALWAYS (unless you’re a designer) pay for a cover design by someone who knows covers.  And you have to spend a certain amount of money on marketing.  You know all those blog tours you see on blogs all over the internet?  Many times, the author has paid for those.  Not paid each blogger, but paid someone to organize it all and make it easier for you.  Authors will also pay for review tours, cover reveals, etc.

And then, after all that work, over 50% of self publishers earn less than $500.  $500!!!!  Yes, you hear about the exceptions where someone has sold millions of copies, but it is RARE.  Many self publishers struggle with getting people to discover and then buy their book.  Even if they can do that, you need reviews to assure new readers that your book is worth reading.  And do you know how hard it is to get reviews?!?  It’s kind of like pulling teeth.

With indie publishers, I kind of get the misunderstanding.  With the success of books like Twilight or Harry Potter, and the sales numbers and book deals amounts floating around out there, everyone thinks they are going to publish a book “for free” online and then earn millions.  Because of that, there are a lot of terrible self published books out there.  There are also incredible self published books out there where the authors took everything seriously.  They read in the genre they write.  They got beta readers.  They rewrote and rewrote and rewrote until it was perfect.  They might have even gone to writers’ conferences and taken classes.

So when you’re looking at indie publishers, look at reviews, read a sample, find the good ones and support those authors.  They have put hours and hours of work into what you will, hopefully, enjoy.  And then BUY their book.  Indie authors rarely price anything digital over $5.99, and most are $3.99 or less.  That’s like two gallons of milk!  Considering most earn less than $500 a year, the hourly rate would be very, very low (I don’t have the actual hours because I’ve lost count, but my book has 85k words, and I’ve spent at least 85 hours.  That many hours divided by $500 just as an example is a mere $5.88 an hour.  And that’s a conservative estimate on hours).

All that being said, indie authors would rather have you borrow their book than not read it at all.  After all, you might tell someone else about it and they WILL buy it.  Whatever you choose, support indie authors, tell people about the books of theirs you like, tweet about them, share them, post reviews on Goodreads and Amazon.  Do anything to help them spread the word and maybe, just possibly, they’ll be one of the successes of indie publishing and get out of the $500 a year majority.

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Beta feedback isn’t about you. It’s about your book. -Amanda Shofner (part 4 in my series on writing and publishing)

Beta readers.  They’re an absolute MUST if you want to end up with a good manuscript.  I think this is one of the main things that separates the “I wrote a book and I put it on Amazon” people versus those who really put work and sweat into their book.  However, beta reader feedback can, at times, be a bit harsh.  But if you have a good beta reader, they’ll tell you everything they love about the book along with everything that isn’t working.

My experience with beta readers has been amazing.  That doesn’t mean I agree with everything they say.  Books are one of the most subjective things out there.  90% of people will love one and the other 10% just won’t.  It’s not their thing.  No book will appeal to all people.  With that in mind, take beta readers comments with a grain of salt.  And don’t take anything personally.  Your writing is your writing.  You are you!

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Here’s the process I go through.  First, I send my finished manuscript out to 4-5 beta readers.  I read all their comments as they send them back.  I cry over a few.  I cringe over others.  I rejoice over the praise.  But I wait to do anything about them until I’ve let them sit in my mind for a few days.  Usually, I realize they were right about some things, and I find way to fix them.  Other things, I’m not so sure about and I wait more.  One thing I do know for sure is that if multiple beta readers bring up the same thing, I need to fix it.  If only one beta reader points something out, maybe that’s worth fixing too, but maybe it’s just that person’s opinion.  Those kinds of comments need to be really thought out with my vision of my own manuscript.  I’ve had one beta reader point something out that gave me a kind of “aha” moment and the manuscript was so much better.  I’ve had those same kinds of comments I never changed at all.

The key to all of this is to get beta readers.  Don’t be the person who thinks their manuscript is perfect just the way they wrote it because it isn’t.  I promise.  You need outside perspective.  You need people who will be honest about the good and the bad.  A beta reader is no help at all if they don’t find anything worth changing!

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Perhaps the hardest part in all of this is where to find beta readers you trust.  While your mom might be a good person to run your book by, she might not be the most objective.  Still, give it to her anyway because it will make you feel good!  🙂  I’ve found my beta readers mostly through forums that I’ve joined and gotten to know people on.  The Absolute Write forums were my very first (“share your work” and “old people writing for teens”), and my best beta readers are still people I met there.  The people on these forums are other writers.  They know the basics and can point out the flaws.  They are also usually huge readers, which is a big benefit.

And one last piece of advice, get beta readers who read in your genre and at least one who doesn’t.  If you can convince someone who doesn’t normally read in your genre to like your book AND those who do read in your genre to like it, then you really have something!

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You can make anything by writing -C.S. Lewis (part 2 of my series on writing and publishing)

So you have an idea, now what?  Well, you have two options: create an outline and plot out your book OR sit down and start writing and see where it takes you (we call this being a “pantser”).  Personally, I like to outline.  I think it creates fewer problems.  For example, you start a story and don’t know exactly where you’re going so you write one thing early in the book and then something that contradicts that later.  Then you have to go back and reconcile them so the book fits together as a whole.  I know a lot of successful people are pantsers.  I just prefer to have an outline.

Now, when I say outline, I don’t necessarily mean a document that contains roman numeral headings and subheadings, etc.  I don’t do a formal outline.  It’s more that I know where my story is going.  I know what the key, pivotal scenes are going to be.  And I always know how it will end.  I also realize that in all of that, things will still change.  I will get ideas as I go that change the details of how I get to the end.  As I get to know my characters, they will make decisions that weren’t in my general outline view of the book.  The outline just gives me a sense of direction and I feel it helps me to write a faster draft.

Yes, a draft.  It’s not a finished product.  It’s not even necessarily very polished.  It’s exactly what it says it is:  a draft.  I don’t worry too much about beautiful writing.  I don’t pay tons of attention to great dialogue tags.  I’m getting the story onto paper (or into a document on my computer…).  That doesn’t mean I’m totally sloppy.  I try to write a solid draft, but still, there will be so much to change.  For example, I think I have 11 drafts of Borrowed Magic on my computer.  And those are 11 drafts with significant changes!

It sounds easy, right?  A rough, messy draft shouldn’t be all that hard!  Wrong!  It might be the hardest draft for some writers (although I LOVE plotting, so I really like writing the initial draft) because you have to actually sit down and do it.  You can’t mean to do it.  You can’t say you’ll work on it tomorrow.  You have to have the discipline to actually get it done.  One thing I hear from a lot of my writer friends is that they have tons of unfinished manuscripts.  They either lost interest or didn’t know where it was going (another reason I outline…).  My biggest advice:  just write and write everyday.  If you get stuck on a particular scene, skip it and come back later.  You just have to get that first draft onto paper.

And then comes the even harder part — revising.  More on that in my next post!

Book Recommendation: The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

I had seen Cinder on people’s Goodreads shelves and had heard a little bit about it, but every time I read the summary/blurb, I kind of felt meh about the whole thing.  Then I had a friend whose opinion I trust say how much she loved it and I thought I’d give it a try.  What could it hurt?

NOTHING!!!  It turned out to be amazing.  I loved the story of Cinder and Kai.  And Wolf and Scarlet.  And Cress.  And Winter.  And basically everyone.

Here’s the Amazon summary for Cinder:

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

So here’s a basic rundown:  Cinder follows the basic storyline of Cinderella with a lot of literary license taken.  Scarlet continues the story of Cinder but introduces Scarlet.  Her story is based on Little Red Riding Hood.  Then comes Cress, who plays the part of Rapunzel.  And finally Winter, the story of Snow White.  All these characters are interwoven throughout the stories, so although Cinder’s main introduction is in Cinder, her character is important all the way through to the end.

In between Cress and Winter, Meyer wrote Fairest, which is the story of the evil queen, Levana.  It gives a lot of good background information and maybe a bit of a redemptive aspect to the character.

Within the past week, Meyer released an additional book in the collection, Stars Above, which is a collection of short stories about some of the characters.

I truly did enjoy this series and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys fantasy and fairy tales.  It was very clean and would even be appropriate for younger audiences.  The love stories are great and believable and the characters are complicated and yet sympathetic.

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Borrowed Magic Giveaway!

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So, Siege has been out fora week now, and I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who helped make it a success. It’s still in the top 20 on two of Amazon’s free lists and in the top 100 on three others!  If you still haven’t downloaded it, click on the “Where to Buy” tab at the top of the page and it will link you to all the places it’s available.  And it’s FREE (except for Amazon international, which still hasn’t price matched it yet.  But it’s only $.99 or the international equivalent)! And remember Borrowed Magic comes out a week from today!!!!

Also, I wanted to announced two things.

First, as soon as Siege gets 20 honest (yes, be honest) reviews on Amazon, I’ll post the entire first chapter of Borrowed Magic on my website (right now it’s just the first 3 pages). Because I know you all want to see Philip! (If you cross post the review on Goodreads, then I will love you!)

Second, I’m doing a Goodreads giveaway of 3 paperback copies of Borrowed Magic! It’s open for entries until January 31, 2016. Here’s a link to my website where the Goodreads widget right at the top of the page will take you right where you need to go to enter: http://www.sharilamertbooks.com.

Thanks again!!!