Well, writers do. If you regularly read e-books, consider reviewing them online at places like Amazon.com and Goodreads.
You see, independently published writers don't have access to national venues - and seldom to local ones - that feature book reviews. Word of mouth, or word of computer, is vital to them.
I'm not saying you have to love every book you review. Far from it. Be honest. But consider taking five minutes to write a brief "Loved it/Liked it/Tolerated it/Hated it" kind of notice.
Nothing elaborate is necessary; the goal is to let readers know what you found good, indifferent, or bad without giving away major plot points (spoilers) or missing the point of the book entirely.
What? Do such things happen?
Certainly. If Oedipus the King was a novel, you'd probably find someone who on Amazon.com had written, "The big surprize at the end of this book is that the murdrer is really oedpipus him self." (If you think I'm exaggerating the subliterate quality, go read a few reviews there). Don't give away the ending, please!
Or you might find a review of, say, Lady Chatterley's Lover that misses the point: "Some interesting observations on gardening and game-keeping in England are lost when the author wanders off into a love story."
You can do better than either of those. I encourage you to do it. Other readers will appreciate it, you'll have a sense of accomplishment, and writers will be pleased that someone is reading and reacting to their work.
Friday, March 29, 2013
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Got You Covered
If you're interested in e-publishing, you'll come up against the problem of providing a cover for your book. You don't actually have to - Amazon and other publishers usually provide a generic cover.
But they're so . . . generic. So what do you do?
If you have skill and a program like Photoshop, you've got a beginning. You do have to tread carefully, though. You can't just pick up a photo from the net and slap that on as a book cover. That's copyright infringement, and you could wind up having to pay a big fine.
So you need either photos you already own (because you took them yourself or the person who did has given you permission) or photos you buy. This can get pricey, but there are a host of online suppliers of royalty-free photos: one-time payment, and you're good to go.
How much to spend? Balance the cost against the likely income to get an answer for that. Remember, most first novels sell 200 copies or fewer.
Hmm...How about an art piece instead?
Again, if you can draw or paint it yourself and make it look good, go for it. If you have an artist friend who will give you a sketch for use, hey, if it looks good, use it. If you want to pay someone...well, that's up to you again.
Use your art program (Photoshop or the like) to create a cover that has balance and punch. don't just stick the photo there, but find a composition that's striking.
Place your title and your by-line on the cover in LARGE, easily-readable type in a color that stands out. Remember, your browsing reader is probably first going to see the cover as a thumbnail, a 1.25x2 inch image (ore thereabout). It's important to give the potential customer a readable title, even that small.
Try to be sure that your cover is appropriate to the content. In the Jim Dallas series, I don't go for portrait covers, but for atmospheric ones that show or suggest some element of story, but there are all types of art and approaches. You can go abstract, postmodern, funky, impressionist, classic...your call again.
But remember, despite what everyone says, most people do judge a book by its cover, at least on first impression. Make a good first impression, and you're more likely to make a sale.
But they're so . . . generic. So what do you do?
If you have skill and a program like Photoshop, you've got a beginning. You do have to tread carefully, though. You can't just pick up a photo from the net and slap that on as a book cover. That's copyright infringement, and you could wind up having to pay a big fine.
So you need either photos you already own (because you took them yourself or the person who did has given you permission) or photos you buy. This can get pricey, but there are a host of online suppliers of royalty-free photos: one-time payment, and you're good to go.
How much to spend? Balance the cost against the likely income to get an answer for that. Remember, most first novels sell 200 copies or fewer.
Hmm...How about an art piece instead?
Again, if you can draw or paint it yourself and make it look good, go for it. If you have an artist friend who will give you a sketch for use, hey, if it looks good, use it. If you want to pay someone...well, that's up to you again.
Use your art program (Photoshop or the like) to create a cover that has balance and punch. don't just stick the photo there, but find a composition that's striking.
Place your title and your by-line on the cover in LARGE, easily-readable type in a color that stands out. Remember, your browsing reader is probably first going to see the cover as a thumbnail, a 1.25x2 inch image (ore thereabout). It's important to give the potential customer a readable title, even that small.
Try to be sure that your cover is appropriate to the content. In the Jim Dallas series, I don't go for portrait covers, but for atmospheric ones that show or suggest some element of story, but there are all types of art and approaches. You can go abstract, postmodern, funky, impressionist, classic...your call again.
But remember, despite what everyone says, most people do judge a book by its cover, at least on first impression. Make a good first impression, and you're more likely to make a sale.
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Momentum
Always finish what your start.
My old pappy told me that a long time ago. It's important in pretty nearly everything, but really important in writing. Take the blog - I got lazy, sloughed off, and look at how long it's been.
Much better to try to say a little something on a regular schedule, maybe not every day, but once a week or so. I'll try to remember that.
When you're working on a book, it's equally important. For me the critical moment comes about forty to fifty percent of the way through a manuscript. If I keep things moving up to that point, no matter how difficult it is, then momentum becomes my friend and helps me the rest of the way through.
I'm working on the fourth Jim Dallas/Sam Lyons book now. Took a brief vacation this past week. Carried the laptop along and even on vacation wrote my minimum of a thousand words a day on the book.
Angling for that momentum, you see. Some of my friends made fun of me for not taking full advantage of the vacation, but so what? I came back with about five thousand words more than I would have had otherwise, and I feel just as rested.
Once I wrote an entire novelette, fifty thousand words, in seven days. I was on vacation, you see, on one of Florida's premiere beaches on St. George Island. We did all the vacation stuff we wanted and still had hours left over. So I lugged the laptop up onto the second-floor veranda of the beach house, propped my heels up on the rail, and worked away, three hours or so a day, sometimes longer.
I get up early, so when I was awake before the rest of the bunch I did the same thing. Day after day. By the end of the vacation, I had a complete draft.
Didn't feel like work. Mark Twain said, "Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do."
To me those fifty thousand words were play.
My old pappy told me that a long time ago. It's important in pretty nearly everything, but really important in writing. Take the blog - I got lazy, sloughed off, and look at how long it's been.
Much better to try to say a little something on a regular schedule, maybe not every day, but once a week or so. I'll try to remember that.
When you're working on a book, it's equally important. For me the critical moment comes about forty to fifty percent of the way through a manuscript. If I keep things moving up to that point, no matter how difficult it is, then momentum becomes my friend and helps me the rest of the way through.
I'm working on the fourth Jim Dallas/Sam Lyons book now. Took a brief vacation this past week. Carried the laptop along and even on vacation wrote my minimum of a thousand words a day on the book.
Angling for that momentum, you see. Some of my friends made fun of me for not taking full advantage of the vacation, but so what? I came back with about five thousand words more than I would have had otherwise, and I feel just as rested.
Once I wrote an entire novelette, fifty thousand words, in seven days. I was on vacation, you see, on one of Florida's premiere beaches on St. George Island. We did all the vacation stuff we wanted and still had hours left over. So I lugged the laptop up onto the second-floor veranda of the beach house, propped my heels up on the rail, and worked away, three hours or so a day, sometimes longer.
I get up early, so when I was awake before the rest of the bunch I did the same thing. Day after day. By the end of the vacation, I had a complete draft.
Didn't feel like work. Mark Twain said, "Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do."
To me those fifty thousand words were play.
Monday, February 4, 2013
Helping Hands
E-publishing has a learning curve, but fortunately there are a lot of sources out there that can help you learn relatively quickly. This will concentrate largely on Kindle, because that's where I publish. Maybe later I'll post a few about other platforms as well.
Oh - and all of these are free.
Oh - and all of these are free.
If you don’t have a Kindle, aren’t sure you want to buy one,
but would like to try the experience of reading e-books—and if you have a PC
computer—you can download and install a free application from Amazon.com,
Kindle for PC, that will allow you to read Kindle files on your computer. It’s
free, and you can find it at http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000426311
If you want to publish your book at Amazon.com in e-book
form for Kindle readers, the actual publication process is free (though you may
invest in things like purchasing a professionally-made cover, registering your
copyright, or buying an ISBN—but these steps are optional, not required). The program is Kindle Direct Publishing, and
you can sign up for it here: https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/signin
Amazon has free guides to publishing for Kindle. You’ll need
a Kindle or Kindle for PC to read them, unless you download a .pdf file
instead. Here are a few of them:
Building Your Book for
Kindle
Publish on Amazon
Kindle with Kindle Direct Publishing:
Kindle Publishing
Unleashed
Calibre (pronounced like the caliber of a bullet) is a free
program that you must download and install. It has its own e-book reader, and
best of all, it can format your manuscripts as e-books for Amazon Kindle,
Barnes & Noble Nook, IPad, and others.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
What if...?
I don't know if other genre writers play the game, but science-fiction writers sure do: What if...and then?
Theodore Sturgeon said that the key to being a good writer was to ask the question "What if?" And the key to being a great writer was to ask the next question.
In science fiction, it works like this: Gun control is a hot issue right now. So let's ask some questions about gun control. What if...everyone was required to pack a weapon from the age of ten upward?
You could get a story out of that. But then ask the next question, which could go in infinite directions: What if mass murder became the norm and no one even noticed it? What if one kid absolutely refused to go armed? What if someone created a device that rendered all explosives inert, including those in cartridges?
You get more stories that way. Keep asking them and answering them in your head until you hit one that gives you an "ah-hah!" moment. There's your story: something no one else (to your knowledge, anyway) has considered in fiction.
It can work in all other forms of fiction as well. What if orphaned Oliver Twist breaks free of the workhouse and falls in with thieves? And what if, unknown to him, he is heir to a fortune?
What if a woman asks a detective to help her out of a jam on the very day after the detective's partner has been killed? And what if every word that comes out of the woman's mouth is a lie? And what if she is seeking a solid-gold statuette of a falcon....?
Sturgeon was right. You can get a whole lot of food for thought and a whole lot of mileage out of simply asking the next question.
Theodore Sturgeon said that the key to being a good writer was to ask the question "What if?" And the key to being a great writer was to ask the next question.
In science fiction, it works like this: Gun control is a hot issue right now. So let's ask some questions about gun control. What if...everyone was required to pack a weapon from the age of ten upward?
You could get a story out of that. But then ask the next question, which could go in infinite directions: What if mass murder became the norm and no one even noticed it? What if one kid absolutely refused to go armed? What if someone created a device that rendered all explosives inert, including those in cartridges?
You get more stories that way. Keep asking them and answering them in your head until you hit one that gives you an "ah-hah!" moment. There's your story: something no one else (to your knowledge, anyway) has considered in fiction.
It can work in all other forms of fiction as well. What if orphaned Oliver Twist breaks free of the workhouse and falls in with thieves? And what if, unknown to him, he is heir to a fortune?
What if a woman asks a detective to help her out of a jam on the very day after the detective's partner has been killed? And what if every word that comes out of the woman's mouth is a lie? And what if she is seeking a solid-gold statuette of a falcon....?
Sturgeon was right. You can get a whole lot of food for thought and a whole lot of mileage out of simply asking the next question.
Friday, January 18, 2013
Attention, fans of Travis McGee
At last Amazon.com is bringing out the Travis McGee novels in Kindle format, with a foreword by Lee Child. The prices vary, but if you've been wanting to collect the McGees in e-format, this is your chance. I've picked up only one so far--The Empty Copper Sea--and it looks well-formatted and well-presented. Good story, too!
And of course I am a John D. MacDonald fan, so take that for what it is worth.
And of course I am a John D. MacDonald fan, so take that for what it is worth.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Doing Your Homework
Don't want to be a writer. Instead, want to write a story (or a poem or a play....). Have a definite goal in mind instead of a vague yearning to have the glamorous lifestyle of a writer (by the way, I just hauled the garbage out to the curb).
I'm going to assume you want to write fiction. That means, in all likelihood, that you read a considerable amount of fiction. So - what do you want to write?
If you're just beginning, then write the kind of fiction you like to read. Don't steal it - don't imitate someone else's plot or use someone else's characters. Write in the same genre, though. If you like science fiction, work on a science-fiction story; if you like historical romance, work on one of those; if you like sexy vampires, take to collecting coins or driving race cars instead. We have too many of those already.
Study the best of the genre you've chosen. Re-read your favorites, but this time read critically and note how the writers hook you in, what makes their styles and characters so engaging, how they pace and plot out a story.
Once again, you are not copying substance; however, you may pick up pointers and learn to imitate an approach, an attitude, or a style. Don't worry about that at the outset, because as time goes on, you will develop your own individual style.
But do your homework. You don't want to reinvent the wheel, so study those favorite works of yours and learn from them. This time around, you're not reading for enjoyment, but for inspiration, for insight, and for enlightenment.
Then when you work on your own story, you're not starting at the bottom, but standing on the shoulders of the writers you most admire.
I'm going to assume you want to write fiction. That means, in all likelihood, that you read a considerable amount of fiction. So - what do you want to write?
If you're just beginning, then write the kind of fiction you like to read. Don't steal it - don't imitate someone else's plot or use someone else's characters. Write in the same genre, though. If you like science fiction, work on a science-fiction story; if you like historical romance, work on one of those; if you like sexy vampires, take to collecting coins or driving race cars instead. We have too many of those already.
Study the best of the genre you've chosen. Re-read your favorites, but this time read critically and note how the writers hook you in, what makes their styles and characters so engaging, how they pace and plot out a story.
Once again, you are not copying substance; however, you may pick up pointers and learn to imitate an approach, an attitude, or a style. Don't worry about that at the outset, because as time goes on, you will develop your own individual style.
But do your homework. You don't want to reinvent the wheel, so study those favorite works of yours and learn from them. This time around, you're not reading for enjoyment, but for inspiration, for insight, and for enlightenment.
Then when you work on your own story, you're not starting at the bottom, but standing on the shoulders of the writers you most admire.
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