So, between smashwords and lulu, I have officially sold ten books. Am I a real author yet?
It's pretty amazing how much differently people have reacted to the news of me having an ebook compared to me holding up the printed copy. And it is exciting--there is something about the smell of the pages of a book that cannot be replaced by any ereader. But at the same time, it feels like people don't think you've published a book until you can physically hold it in front of you. It's interesting, especially since through sites like lulu you can literally publish anything and get it printed for yourself. But nothing beat seeing the pride on my mother's face when we opened my box of proofs and she could see her daughter's name on the spine of that book.
So, who has finished it? What do you think?
Friday, July 22, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
So, I got my proof copies of Corruption, and they look good! So, Corruption is now available here via lulu.
The royalties off of print compared to digital download for what the reader pays are crap, but I had a few people interested in getting print copies, so I went with it. It doesn't hurt to have it up, at least.
And now I can carry a copy around grinning like an idiot. I wonder if most writers tote their first book around in a happy daze like I want to do. If it wasn't so uncomfortable as a teddy bear, I think I would go to bed with it.
For now, though, I'll just have to show it off to everyone I can. Eventually I'll stop smiling, probably when my cheeks go on strike.
The royalties off of print compared to digital download for what the reader pays are crap, but I had a few people interested in getting print copies, so I went with it. It doesn't hurt to have it up, at least.
And now I can carry a copy around grinning like an idiot. I wonder if most writers tote their first book around in a happy daze like I want to do. If it wasn't so uncomfortable as a teddy bear, I think I would go to bed with it.
For now, though, I'll just have to show it off to everyone I can. Eventually I'll stop smiling, probably when my cheeks go on strike.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Paperback
Happy fifth day, my dear readers!
5. The hand in the cover art of Corruption is mine. I did the makeup and popped open my jug of fake blood left over from a haunted house done a few years ago. The cross I bought at my retail job, and I thought it worked rather well. The background to this blog is one of the rejected pictures taken for the cover art. I took about 50 pictures with slight variations, then cleaned it up and added the text when I finally made the decision.
I have had a few requests for Corruption in paperback, so I'm checking out Lulu.com later tonight to see about getting it available for print on demand. I'll post here when that's finalized, as well as price points.
A rather short entry today, because my roommate and I have a lot of work to catch up on. After July, I should finally have more time for writing, and maybe by the end of the year finish my massive novel in the works for publication sometime next year. Hopefully!
5. The hand in the cover art of Corruption is mine. I did the makeup and popped open my jug of fake blood left over from a haunted house done a few years ago. The cross I bought at my retail job, and I thought it worked rather well. The background to this blog is one of the rejected pictures taken for the cover art. I took about 50 pictures with slight variations, then cleaned it up and added the text when I finally made the decision.
I have had a few requests for Corruption in paperback, so I'm checking out Lulu.com later tonight to see about getting it available for print on demand. I'll post here when that's finalized, as well as price points.
A rather short entry today, because my roommate and I have a lot of work to catch up on. After July, I should finally have more time for writing, and maybe by the end of the year finish my massive novel in the works for publication sometime next year. Hopefully!
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Apologies, and Hope
First of all, I apologize for missing my promised blog post yesterday, but I was away from 3am Saturday morning until 1am Sunday morning, and my phone died. So, you get a double dose. Here are the third and fourth things you didn't know about Corruption:
3. Corruption was written while listening to mainly three songs. All of them are from the Prince of Egypt.
Deliver Us
The Plagues
Playing with the Big Boys Now
For some reason the songs just worked with the rhythm of the book, even when I was working with different characters. My ipod was probably so sick of them by the end of it. At one point I sat for about three hours in Starbucks and wrote with them on repeat. I'm hoping it did some to help a consistent mood and tempo through the book, something that I occasionally have trouble with. And, you know, they're fun.
4. Corruption started with a simple "what if?" question. What if religion was banned? November was approaching, and I knew I wanted to write something for NaNoWriMo, I just wasn't sure what. So, I made a list of what if questions, picked that one, and went from there. The prologue I had spent much of October 31st imagining in my head, so that when midnight rolled around, I sat with my group of writer friends and finished the prologue before bed. Everything else just kind of came on its own from there.
Now, onto the reason why I was gone all day. I had the good fortune of being able to visit much of my "second family." I am a third generation breeder and exhibitor of rough collies, and there was a breeder's seminar about four hours from the house that my grandfather, my mother, and I attended, along with about 100 others. Aside from having a wonderful time, I got to speak with a friend of mine who has been helping me with Corruption. She is hoping to get into the publishing field as well, though as an agent or editor. Due to life circumstances for both of us, she didn't get a chance to finish editing Corruption before I wanted it available, so whenever she finishes I'll be releasing a second edition with her edits.
More importantly though, we just had a chance to talk. She told me how far she had gotten so far, now much she liked it. How she was already talking it up to people, not out of any feelings of obligation, but because she liked it. Aside from unrealistic expectations, all authors have a primal fear that what they wrote is horrible, that as soon as it's released, it will tank. So to be validated that the writing itself is good, and the plotline is, too, is incredibly rewarding.
Even more rewarding is when she asked me about the importance of certain names and symbols to see if her guesses were right, and how elated she looked when I agreed with her. That is what I really want, is to people to read, pause, and think. I can't wait to have more discussions with my readers about these things, and each time Smashwords sends me an e-mail notifying me of a purchase, my day gets a bit better.
This is what I wanted. It's what I've wanted to do with my life since I was in middle school, even if I wasn't certain of that yet. Though I may not be able to make a living off of it, that's okay. I have the opportunity to share my art and my passion, and that is so very, very rewarding.
3. Corruption was written while listening to mainly three songs. All of them are from the Prince of Egypt.
Deliver Us
The Plagues
Playing with the Big Boys Now
For some reason the songs just worked with the rhythm of the book, even when I was working with different characters. My ipod was probably so sick of them by the end of it. At one point I sat for about three hours in Starbucks and wrote with them on repeat. I'm hoping it did some to help a consistent mood and tempo through the book, something that I occasionally have trouble with. And, you know, they're fun.
4. Corruption started with a simple "what if?" question. What if religion was banned? November was approaching, and I knew I wanted to write something for NaNoWriMo, I just wasn't sure what. So, I made a list of what if questions, picked that one, and went from there. The prologue I had spent much of October 31st imagining in my head, so that when midnight rolled around, I sat with my group of writer friends and finished the prologue before bed. Everything else just kind of came on its own from there.
Now, onto the reason why I was gone all day. I had the good fortune of being able to visit much of my "second family." I am a third generation breeder and exhibitor of rough collies, and there was a breeder's seminar about four hours from the house that my grandfather, my mother, and I attended, along with about 100 others. Aside from having a wonderful time, I got to speak with a friend of mine who has been helping me with Corruption. She is hoping to get into the publishing field as well, though as an agent or editor. Due to life circumstances for both of us, she didn't get a chance to finish editing Corruption before I wanted it available, so whenever she finishes I'll be releasing a second edition with her edits.
More importantly though, we just had a chance to talk. She told me how far she had gotten so far, now much she liked it. How she was already talking it up to people, not out of any feelings of obligation, but because she liked it. Aside from unrealistic expectations, all authors have a primal fear that what they wrote is horrible, that as soon as it's released, it will tank. So to be validated that the writing itself is good, and the plotline is, too, is incredibly rewarding.
Even more rewarding is when she asked me about the importance of certain names and symbols to see if her guesses were right, and how elated she looked when I agreed with her. That is what I really want, is to people to read, pause, and think. I can't wait to have more discussions with my readers about these things, and each time Smashwords sends me an e-mail notifying me of a purchase, my day gets a bit better.
This is what I wanted. It's what I've wanted to do with my life since I was in middle school, even if I wasn't certain of that yet. Though I may not be able to make a living off of it, that's okay. I have the opportunity to share my art and my passion, and that is so very, very rewarding.
Friday, July 15, 2011
Expectations
For starters, here's number 2 as promised:
2. Although it only took one month to write, Corruption took far longer to edit. It initially went through two rounds of editing, for continuity and errors, and then later went through a third round shortly before publishing. On top of that, my roommate became my first beta reader. Another dear friend of mine who aspires to be an editor is going through another round of edits for a second edition release.
Corruption released yesterday. Filled with panic and trepidation, I spread the word via various internet resources, and then waited on bated breath. I think all authors at heart have unrealistic expectations about their works. Even if you're not sure if your work is any good, you still somehow expect it to be a breakout success, no matter how the odds are stacked against you. You want it so badly to work out well, that you put yourself in a funk when it doesn't, or at least doesn't immediately live up to your unrealistic expectations. We all know better, but we do it anyway.
I remember answering a question once about what you would most like your book to end up. As a bestseller, as a 'classic' studied in school classrooms, or a few other options that escape my memory. I remember taking AP English courses in high school and all the books we had to read (or pretended to read). Even if the books themselves weren't very good, at least from our views, I remember loving the discussions about them. For all of my 'serious' works, I have always tried to write with depth, so that one day in the far future students could sit in a circle and discuss my book. What did this symbol mean? What was the author trying to tell us with this reference? What affected the main character's choices, and do you agree with them?
So, really, in the long run it's impossible to see if Corruption will meet that expectation. How am I supposed to know what my book will do long after I'm gone? For now, I hope that those of you that choose to read it will find it satisfying, interesting, and pass it on to a friend to check it out as well. I hope you can sit and mull it over a cup of coffee. I hope you can ask yourself: "What would I do when faced with corruption? Could this really happen? How would that kind of world really work?"
I also hope that somewhere along the line, someone will write bad fanfiction about it. I would read it, and give them feedback, no matter how atrocious. Because I could think of no better compliment than someone writing about a story they loved, even if they butcher it. If someone writes good fanfiction about Corruption, I would love it even more. But my expectations are not THAT unrealistic.
Until tomorrow, my dear readers. I leave you with this one last hope from an anxious author.
If you do not buy Corruption, if you can only afford the free preview, I understand. I've been that stringent with my finances before. But if you find it interesting, if you wish to support me, tell a friend. Share it on facebook. Tweet about it. Hell, even try out the new Google+ that some of you may be using now. Help me spread the word that it is out there for people to enjoy. And please, tell me if you enjoy it. I would love to hear from you.
2. Although it only took one month to write, Corruption took far longer to edit. It initially went through two rounds of editing, for continuity and errors, and then later went through a third round shortly before publishing. On top of that, my roommate became my first beta reader. Another dear friend of mine who aspires to be an editor is going through another round of edits for a second edition release.
Corruption released yesterday. Filled with panic and trepidation, I spread the word via various internet resources, and then waited on bated breath. I think all authors at heart have unrealistic expectations about their works. Even if you're not sure if your work is any good, you still somehow expect it to be a breakout success, no matter how the odds are stacked against you. You want it so badly to work out well, that you put yourself in a funk when it doesn't, or at least doesn't immediately live up to your unrealistic expectations. We all know better, but we do it anyway.
I remember answering a question once about what you would most like your book to end up. As a bestseller, as a 'classic' studied in school classrooms, or a few other options that escape my memory. I remember taking AP English courses in high school and all the books we had to read (or pretended to read). Even if the books themselves weren't very good, at least from our views, I remember loving the discussions about them. For all of my 'serious' works, I have always tried to write with depth, so that one day in the far future students could sit in a circle and discuss my book. What did this symbol mean? What was the author trying to tell us with this reference? What affected the main character's choices, and do you agree with them?
So, really, in the long run it's impossible to see if Corruption will meet that expectation. How am I supposed to know what my book will do long after I'm gone? For now, I hope that those of you that choose to read it will find it satisfying, interesting, and pass it on to a friend to check it out as well. I hope you can sit and mull it over a cup of coffee. I hope you can ask yourself: "What would I do when faced with corruption? Could this really happen? How would that kind of world really work?"
I also hope that somewhere along the line, someone will write bad fanfiction about it. I would read it, and give them feedback, no matter how atrocious. Because I could think of no better compliment than someone writing about a story they loved, even if they butcher it. If someone writes good fanfiction about Corruption, I would love it even more. But my expectations are not THAT unrealistic.
Until tomorrow, my dear readers. I leave you with this one last hope from an anxious author.
If you do not buy Corruption, if you can only afford the free preview, I understand. I've been that stringent with my finances before. But if you find it interesting, if you wish to support me, tell a friend. Share it on facebook. Tweet about it. Hell, even try out the new Google+ that some of you may be using now. Help me spread the word that it is out there for people to enjoy. And please, tell me if you enjoy it. I would love to hear from you.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Now Available
Corruption is now available for purchase! The first 20% of the book is free to view via smashwords, and after that it's only $4.99. Check it out here
In celebration of finally being out there to publish, today and the next four days I present to you five things you didn't know about Corruption.
1. Corruption was written entirely during the month of November, during National Novel Writing Month. To learn more about the event, you can visit the website here I have participated multiple years in NaNo, and even if the novels weren't good afterwards (they all were not), it is good practice to write daily.
In celebration of finally being out there to publish, today and the next four days I present to you five things you didn't know about Corruption.
1. Corruption was written entirely during the month of November, during National Novel Writing Month. To learn more about the event, you can visit the website here I have participated multiple years in NaNo, and even if the novels weren't good afterwards (they all were not), it is good practice to write daily.
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