Improvisations on Reality

I am happy to host a blogger once again! Please read on for some words from Anthony T. Caplan on balancing a writing life.

—-

The Balancing Act of the Writing Life

Anthony Caplan

One of my earliest memories is my mother calling me over to the sofa where she was reading a Time magazine. She showed me a picture of a fishing boat on the sea and explained that it belonged to a man named Ernest who fished and then wrote stories and was famous for living all over the world and writing about it. “Wouldn’t that be great?” she asked. “No.” I answered. “It would be boring being in that boat all day.”

I couldn’t see it then, but as I got older, the life of a famous writer beckoned wiih greater appeal. I started writing after dropping out of film school in the late 1980s. I was 27 years old and I figured I might not get published right away, but, as opposed to making movies, all you needed was a word processor to find your chops. Boatloads of rejections later, I’m still writing. We’re in the midst of a revolution in the world of books with the decline of mainstream publishers and the rise of e-books and the Internet revolution of self-publishing.  The opportunities to find an audience for your work as a writer are greater than ever. I might still be writing, and I might yet make some money at it, but leisure is a concept that is as foreign to me as fishing in a boat off the coast of Cuba.

The roller coaster of life only gets wilder with time. I went to my first funeral this morning for a fellow teacher, murdered in her home by her husband when she asked him for a divorce. We celebrated her life of service and self-less giving, and I felt guilty because I am not as good a teacher as she was. When you’re a writer you live a double life. Your service is your words on the page, and everything else is the nut you pay in order to feed “the compulsion to open your heart” as Edvard Munch put it. During the day I am a competent classroom manager, but nobody sees the midnight oil I burn trying to get the words down and tell a story that makes sense, not only to me, but to some mythical reader whom I don’t even know exists. Nobody can measure the amount of faith, some might call it delusion, that it takes to keep up that level of effort through the years. And it does take years to develop the craft of writing, make no mistake about that.

Nowadays, writers, both traditionally published and independent, must also master the world of publicity and promotion, because it’s one thing to write the work, it’s another thing to convince people to support you with their hard-earned cash.

Self-promotion comes easy to some, not to me. I suspect that’s one of the main reasons I’m a writer, because I am not naturally a vocal, outspoken sort of person. But I was able to overcome that natural introspection in order to become a decent teacher, so I should be able to get the hang of book marketing, right? Maybe. The ins and outs of convincing people to buy books have eluded the pros on Madison Avenue, so it’s not a given that anybody can get it right. I remember an editor at Faber and Faber in London showing me his office with piles of unsold books stacked against the wall. “That’s V.S. Naipaul over there. That’s Edna O’Brien in that corner. We can’t even sell their books. Why should we take a chance on you?” I had no answer for him. But if I’m crazy enough to write, it must mean I believe someone will like my book. The trick is finding those people. It’s an all-consuming task. It might even take a lifetime. Over the years I have learnt to balance my life with my writing. Now, in the interest of connecting with readers, I am learning to balance my writing life and my Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads and blogging habits. Someone mentioned Pinterest. I haven’t gone on there, but I’m thinking I should. In the meantime I better check the rice hasn’t burnt.

Anthony Caplan is a writer, teacher and homesteader in northern New England. He is the author of Birdman and French Pond Road, road novels tracing the life of Billy Kagan, and the forthcoming Latitudes – A Story of Coming Home,  published June 30, 2012 by Hope Mountain Press.

http://thenewremembrance.blogspot.com

http://anthonycaplanwrites.com

http://twitter.com/anthonycaplan1

Or, better put, more on the “real book” illusion.

You may have noticed that a lot of self-pub authors are not releasing print versions of their books anymore, but instead are going right to the e-book process. As a result, they are apt to hear, “But it’s not a real book!” for various reasons. I’ve addressed the genre-based prejudice of the “real book” here. But now let’s talk presentation medium.

In 1440 or thereabout, Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press. Prior to this, books have been handwritten, hand-copied, and the more effort put into a copy, the more it cost. As such, they became signifiers of wealth for the longest time, until the printing press enabled mass production of print material, making books more easily accessible. The Industrial Revolution took over and made print reading material available widely.

Until the e-reader was invented, people just could not conceive of a book being presented any other way but printed.

That was in 2007.

Think about that: the e-reader has been around for only five years, and it already changed the way books are presented, and 562 years of precedent is shaken up. Just like that. With a page-sized electronic device.

However, think about this. That’s the e-reader. Not necessarily the e-book. The Internet has, inadvertently, made us all online readers since e-mail became the norm. E-reading is the same thing as what you’re doing now, except it’s on a handheld device.

Think about it. You’re reading this blog right now. I have enough entries in here to publish it as a book in and of itself. If you’ve stayed with it for some years, you’ve effectively read a book online already. If you’ve read a draft of a story online – congratulations, you read an e-book. Just not on an e-reader, but an e-book nonetheless.

No matter how solid a printed book feels – and I will be the last to deny a printed book’s effect; I have paperback versions of every book I’ve published so far – it doesn’t take a print version to call a story real. A story is real by the simple virtue of being written, as I’ve explained in the linked post above. Someone had spent weeks, months, or years of effort into making this story happen. It is completed and released. That alone, in and of itself, makes a story real. What we’re discussing here is a presentation medium, and having the presentation medium be electronic does not – contrary to whoever tells you otherwise - does not take away from the story being real.

That said, let’s discuss the print book as a medium. Apart from the solid feeling of having it in your hands, the “new book smell” – yes, it’s a beautiful flavor…come on, you know it! – it’s also not as likely to sell for an independent. Personal experience: I moved more Kindle copies per month, invariably, than my CreateSpace prints. When I run a promo on any of my books, the other books sell right alongside the free one. For a self-pub who’s new on the scene, this would mean that e-books are a more viable way to market and make revenue. And, considering that uploading is usually at no cost, it’s a guaranteed profit. To release a print book, you may pay for a proof (or not, since CreateSpace introduced an excellent digital proofing option). You would have to wait for the proof to land, read it, send it to the editor again, make the corrections, lather, rinse, repeat until it’s perfect – a standard that is extremely subjective – and then release it. And then there are the shipping costs in sending out review copies. And then the rigmarole of getting a bookstore to carry them.

But the print book has also been around for 562 years. The e-reader and the idea of having a library on a portable device is still about five years old. You know how they say that old habits die hard. The e-book and e-reader are still new, and they’re a splash in a very established and very stalwart market. We’ve seen the decisions that B&N and the Big Six had made in the wake of the growth of self-pub. Things are not going to change swiftly, but they are changing, whether the people like it or not.

Again, let’s not discount the main crux of it all: the story itself. You’re getting a book, whether or not it’s in printed form or in a file on a reader. It is real, any way you cut it. Any distinction of “more real” or “less real” based on presentation medium, genre, author’s background, publisher or lack thereof, exists only in the head of the person making the statement.

There was also an address of quality control in self-publication, with the assertion that self-pub books are poorly edited, poorly formatted, etc. I won’t deny that such books exist. However, they exist across the board. Major publishers sometimes do not format their e-books well, and proof to the fact are my copies of Philippa Gregory novels and Gone with the Wind. Great stories to read, but the formatting on the e-version, honestly, sucks. I own Philippa Gregory paperbacks. Why is there nothing wrong with the layout, but the e-version lacks paragraph breaks in several locations and is more expensive than the printed version? Let’s get real: if we’re going to do quality formatting, then let’s do quality formatting across. the. board. Don’t tar self-published books with a brush unless you are willing to put all books under scrutiny.

Self-publishers sometimes do work alone. Thusly, the editing quality may lack until they gather enough to hire a professional editor. I will be the first one to admit that someone’s first book will not be edited anywhere near as well as the subsequent books (um, guilty, and not ashamed to admit it). Understandable conditions, right? Right.

Let’s be real, people. Writing, editing, formatting, printing, publishing – being an author is a human endeavor. Human errors will happen. We are becoming a reading culture because, with our digital immersion, we’re reading a lot more (screens, but still: reading words is reading words). Human errors will happen. If that is a deal-breaker for you, that is fine, but you may want to step back and evaluate what’s more important to you in picking up a new book. Some of my favorite books (self and trad alike) are not perfect, but the story is so good that I couldn’t care less about the editing/formatting job. Conversely, some books I had were edited and formatted to perfection, but I just couldn’t finish them worth a damn. While I will never deny that editing and formatting are crucial, none of us are so perfect ourselves to have imperfection be a deal-breaker.

The bottom line is this: a book is a book. How you prefer to read it is entirely up to you, but there is no contest with which one is more “real”. They both are. Whether you like it printed or downloaded, you’re still reading a book. That is what should be the first thing to note in the e-book versus hard-copy debate.

K.G., who has both paperbacks and a Kindle.

http://www.amazon.com/author/katherinegilraine

Over the weekend, the proof files got approved and I bumped up the release date a little.

In other words, please welcome my baby: the wrap-up of the first arc, and the fourth book in The Index Series: Revival.

Press Release

Hard Copy

Kindle

I released four books since 2009. And now that I’m back to the usual daily grind of promo, day job, studying, photo-retouching, and all those other things I do, I’m starting to slowly realize that I released four books, and I’m somewhere between surprised and having a conniption about what I’m going to do next.

This series, this story of non-human people in outer space dealing with very human problems on their scale and in their lives, has been something that I wanted to write since I was a kid. The fact that the story is written and published is more than a little surreal. In fact, I feel like I should pinch myself, just to make sure that it’s happening. Even though the hard copies of the books are all within my line of sight, it’s still difficult to believe that yes, I’ve actually stopped just dreaming and started doing all of this.

But there we go, and here we are. So now what do I do?

Well, first things first…PARTY! It’s the first complete arc. Instead of one volume, I have four to offer, and two more waiting in the wings to get released. This has been a labor of love, and a whole mess of work for more than just myself. My editor, Gayle F. Moffet, has labored over every installment since the second, and I have half a mind of having her overhaul the first, if only to have it up to par. This series, right now, is as much hers as it is my own, because if not for her eyes and red-pen feature on Acrobat, I shudder to think of what would’ve happened to my books otherwise.

And second things second, I have to think of the next arc. It will be three books; I have to start on rewriting the fifth one sooner rather than later (because holy plot holes, batman), and of course…artwork!

And speaking of the artwork…

You may have noticed that Jenna Bacci was billed as the original artist for the cover of Revival. That did not turn out to be the case, and instead, the back cover of Revival features the artwork of Tiffany Chaney, from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. This is due to circumstances beyond my control; Jenna is getting ready for college, and working on all of that has been her priority. I’m cheering her on, whichever school she will attend. Tiffany Chaney has been hired to work on the character art for The Index Series, and she will work on the second arc as well. The front covers of Lineage and Revival have both been created by Marion Meadows (yes, the same Marion Meadows who’s on stage with the sax), and hopefully, he will stay aboard as the cover artist for the upcoming arc.

There’s a lot more research to be done for the second arc as well. I will not give away what I’ll be researching just yet, but let’s just say that if you think that this is the last you’ve seen of Morrhia, you’re wrong. And if you’re gleefully thinking that she’ll be back…well, I can’t really tell you what she’s up to, can I? :)

The most important retrospect, though, is how self-publishing has grown since 2009, when I released my first book. Think about it: 2009 wasn’t that long ago, only three years. And if only a year earlier I would’ve said that I’d be going self-pub, I would’ve heard, “That’s great if you want to have your books gathering dust in your closet.” Heck, I actually heard that from a published author as I was tossing the option around. But if I were to be a first-time self-pub right now, the amount of information about self-publishing is astounding. When the Kindle got cheap, it’s like someone poured Miracle-Gro on self-publishing, and suddenly, its view has shifted into a very viable, very lucrative, and very freeing way to get your stuff into print.

It’s been a hectic, madcap, exciting, and completely exhilarating three years in the publishing world, and know what I say? Full. Speed. Ahead.

K.G.

My third book has its turn at being a Kindle freebie!

Grab it – today only!

K.G.

Okay, guys – apart from today being tax deadline (finally!!! Effective tomorrow I have a life again!!!), today is also a free promo day for my first book!

Yep, FREE. Got a Kindle? Or got a Kindle reader app for your computer (free)?  Then you can buy my first book 100% FREE.

http://amzn.to/HNYVjw

This is how it’ll work. I am making my books free for every week.

The next free promo day will be, very likely, on my birthday, when I release Book 4.

Happy freebie day!

K.G.

EDIT: Not practical to have three freebie promos in one week. Next one will be on the 25th.

The Big Six publisher companies have declined to renew a contract with Amazon.

Which can also mean that all the trad-pub books available for Kindle can get de-listed.

Seriously? Oh, traditional publishers, what the fuck are you doing.

Very similar to Barnes and Noble deciding to point a 12-gauge at its business-model foot and pull the trigger, the Big Six are doing the same. For the last damn time, people: you cannot hold onto an outdated way of doing business. The key benefit from having Amazon listing your product is exposure. You gain it. Amazon is a great marketplace, and what it claims for a distributor’s percentage is basically couch change to them. The publisher gains something major: revenue. If more people are keen on buying the same book online, then there’s a source of revenue that counterbalances the decline of brick-and-mortar bookstores.

I know that Amazon is starting to look like the Big Business Trust from the 1900s. Well, here’s a question: where’s the competition? Borders and the Kobo market folded, and B&N seems to be clinging to the idea that e-material just ain’t as popular as print books, even though sales of the Nook e-reader are just as popular as the Kindle. The publishing world is having a very hard time accepting that the business model of book publication is changing rapidly.

As a result, bad business decisions are being made across the board on the side of those who are used to the old model; that is to say publishers and bookstores.

Look, I have no love for the Big Six. Their treatment of authors can stand to do better. They shamelessly appropriate the author’s rights to their work under such draconian terms that it is next to impossible for the author to wrestle out their rights from under the Big Six thumb if they want to take the story to another market. And for the trad pub authors who end up going self, they find that there is a lot more flexibility with the sort of stories that they can get published, because the publisher just doesn’t want to take a risk with a book that doesn’t fit the mold. As a result, many books that would otherwise be a smashing success with the trad-pub marketing engine never see outside the slush pile.

However, distributing within the e-medium and with Amazon is possibly the smartest thing that they could have done. It opened them up right to the new and rapidly growing e-book market.

But the fact is, e-books are immensely beneficial for the author, whether self-pubbed or trad-pubbed. It’s quick exposure, easy revenue, and much easier to market. The more mediums, the better. Why, why in the blue everloving fire of Hades’s head, would anyone knowingly limit a distribution medium? Unless there is a massive no-no in the works – which this article is suggesting is the terms of the contract – then I see no reason to limit the author’s distribution. That’s just bad service to the author, whom the publisher is supposed to, you know, take care of.

This is the thing, though. Amazon had been offering this contract to the Big Six for quite a while now, I think ever since the first Kindle had come out. They jumped on board. Did they realize that the authors now see better options for distributing their e-work than to go through the trad-pub medium and see only 15% royalty for e-sales? I understand 15% for print sales in trad pub, but e-sales…come on. So what’s changed? Why are the Big Six digging their heels on something that will easily benefit them more in the long run?

The other side of that same coin is if Amazon’s terms really are that draconian, then I want to see where. Are they taking a larger than previous cut for their distrib? That could be solved by cutting the publisher’s own overhead costs on e-editions, which will 1. keep the author royalty the same and 2. not hamper distribution, so that 3. the publisher can recoup losses in volume of sales. Amazon needs things to distribute, if its main purpose is to be a distribution engine. They benefit from the arrangement too, and again – I want to see their terms.

I am well aware that the publishing world is in disarray right now, but we can all agree on one thing: cutting out e-books and wider distribution options is not a good idea. So can someone explain to me exactly what benefit the Big Six have from doing what amounts to exactly that?

I also want to know what the trad-pub authors, who are losing out on revenue, thinking about this.

K.G.

…you forget everything else.

Now, you may have had your own experience with it, or you may have had friends who talk about it. But one way or the next, sometimes you get caught up in the phenomenon of being excited about your work, so excited that you forget everything else. Sleep included.

Like right now. You can say I am very much In The Zone.

I got out of work at almost 9pm, pulling through a grueling day; tax season is in very full swing at the moment and it’s taking the wind out of me. But through lunch, and as soon as I got out of work, I had beelined right to Revival, because the part that I have been steadily plugging away at and had lost sleep over is easily the most exciting part of the book. I can’t tell you which one, because it would spoil a good lot. But let me just put it this way: if only there would be a director brave enough to take it to the silver screen. I cannot believe that I wrote this. And I’m saying that in a good way.

I cannot even begin to tell you just how much sleep I had lost so far. The other night, I had been so caught up that I had edited straight into 2am, and I still don’t know just how I was so perky and alert at work. Last night, I went to bed kind of early, but today I was wrecked. My sleep patterns are dead in the water.

But all I can think of is that scene, that book, that story.

Releasing a book is always exciting. Even if it isn’t your first, there’s still that little thrill of satisfaction that says, I wrote this. I did this. But when you’re wrapping up an arc in a series, this excitement takes a whole different connotation. Excited doesn’t come close to covering just how I feel about releasing the 4th book in The Index. It’s just…overwhelming. I’m wrapping up all the open points in Book 1 that had left readers confused. I am touching back on parts of Book 2 that people thought were slowing down, and putting that volume into an entirely new light of relevance. And what Book 3 had started to expose, Book 4 takes and blows into the open. And it is exciting. It’s also feeling as though you have created an entirely new something. This drives it home for me: I wrote a series, and I’m about to wrap up a portion of it.

It’s something that I have wanted to do since I was a kid, and this is the most excited I’ve been since the first proof had arrived onto my desk in 2009. I still remember that proof, and had kept it: 600+ pages of something that desperately needed a layout change, a red pen taken to it, but it was my book, and the sense of accomplishment knew no comparison. It’s kind of similar with this book, but the accomplishment is on a grander scale. Instead of just one book, I have four. Instead of the start to a series, I have a complete arc, a package of books.

Someone asked me if I plan on being the next JK Rowling. The answer is no, for the simple reason that there’s only one JK Rowling. But I plan on continuing my series, and continuing it well into the next decade or two. Even if it doesn’t do as well as I would like it to do, I would love for it to achieve a level of success similar to Rowling, but above all, I want to keep writing it.

It’s moments like these, when I’m at home, after a grueling day of work, and happy as a clam only because I have my book in front of me, and editing it is no longer a chore but instead one of the best delights of my day, I cannot even tell you how glad I am that I had never listened to anyone who had ever told me not to bother writing.

Moments like these remind me that I was born to write.

And release is soon…in two months!

In the meanwhile, show some love – grab a copy on Amazon! Kindle or paperback. Book 1 is free if you’re a Prime member.

K.G.

It’s an inevitable part of being an author: people will ask you to review their work. I volunteer for it, and sometimes am solicited to do so. You might be too.

And this can’t go without saying: not everything you read will necessarily be good. If you’re an author, I can also tell you that not everyone will like what you have written. But you knew all of that.

There is a certain protocol that I follow for giving reviews, which is pretty dependent on whether or not the book is good.

If the book is good: I not only put up the review on Amazon, but sometimes on my own blog, and nearly always on Goodreads. I love, love, love Goodreads; it’s an excellent reading and reviewing community, and the book discussions get quite interesting. A good review on Goodreads is – at least to me – worth a lot more than a good review elsewhere, and it is also much more personal. A self-published author is, very likely, a Goodreads author, and so are many trad-pubs as well, so you can be sure that the reviews go appreciated.

If the book is not good: I finish reading it, ask myself why I didn’t like it, and then give my opinion to the author privately. When I do so, I make sure to outline concise reasons for why I did not like the book. If the plot is poorly paced, I say so. If facts don’t pass muster – which I do check – I point it out. I rarely put up a bad review on Amazon, because of how it affects the book rank, but I will put one up on Goodreads. If it’s bad enough that I don’t finish it, I simply put it away, delete it out of my Kindle, and let the author know I couldn’t finish.

My tests for a good book are simple:

1. Is the plot believable, written concisely, and paced well?

2. Are the characters believable, and can I relate to their thoughts, even if they’re nothing like me?

3. Is the writing good, thorough, and grammatically correct?

That is all. But once in a while, I still have to give a bad review or two. It happens, because let’s face it: while there are a lot of good books out there, there’s also a lot of not-so-good books out there. While some people fervently want to and believe they can write, they had not been taught to, or the story that they want to tell is just not thought through, or planned properly. Other people just plain lack the talent to write.

One thing to note, though: I don’t make it personal, nor do I take it personally.If I have to point things out to an author whose book didn’t strike me as good, I do it with as much understanding for their style and structure as I can. And since I read quite a good bit, I can wrap my mind around a lot. If I thoroughly dislike a book, I just do not finish it. It’s rare that this happens, but in those cases, I generally don’t bother with leaving any sort of feedback unless asked.

Now, I have three books out. So far, I did get a lot of good feedback on all three, and my first being the first, and definitely not being the best of them (yes, I admit it freely), gets the most feedback. So far, I got a couple of negative reviews, mostly in private, and I will now bring you a little lesson:

How to Write a Good Bad Review.

Ignore the oxymoron in the middle. :) Just work with me here for a second.

Suppose you read a book. Suppose it didn’t resonate with you for whatever reason. You feel that you have to leave some feedback. What do you do?

1. State your reasons clearly, eloquently, and neutrally. If you did not like the pacing of the story, didn’t like the characters, thought it is entirely too much like something else by another author, say it as clearly as you can. “The pacing was not good”, “I couldn’t relate to the characters” – whatever the reasons are, state them as clearly as you know how.Whatever you do, do not say, “I don’t like it, it needs work” and don’t say why. It will do you no favors, and makes your review look petulant. The whole “it’s stupid because I say so” doesn’t work past a certain age.

2. Do not insult. I cannot say this enough. Do not insult the author. They had poured their time, blood, sweat, tears, and effort into making this book work. Be respectful of that. If you can’t do it, don’t review. Period.

3. Before you click “post”, put yourself into the author’s shoes. Not due to the whole “how would they feel?” bit, but because the author is the person who knows the story best. Before you click “post” on your review, ask yourself if you, even though you did not like it, understand what the author had set up to do in this book. Do you get the story? Yes? Are you sure you got it? Not sure. If you’re not sure, hold that negative review, and don’t toss the book. Some time later, when you’re bored and you can’t find anything to read, you may well look at this book in a different light.

4. The plot stays the way it is, and the reviews won’t change that. Believe you me, if there is more than one negative review, the author knows the issues of the book already, but the plot is the one part of the book that is effectively a sacred cow: no matter how bad the conventions, how flat the characters and the writing, the plot stays. You can say, “I like and this is why”, or conversely “I don’t like it and this is why”, but you cannot tell the author what to do to make the story better – the “better” in here is subjective. The author has a plan for the story, and has followed it in order to execute it. You are not the author. Your review does not, under any circumstances, obligate the author to change an already published work. If the work is unpublished, however, and the author is asking you specifically to review the book and point out what to change in the overall plot, then that is another ball game.

Remember this: your review is your review. It is your opinion. It is not fact. It will be interpreted as the reflection of what one person feels, and no more and no less.

–

Going back to Book 1 of my series for a second, I mentioned that it is not my best. Yes, it has issues. It’s flawed, far from perfect, and I had actually briefly pulled it off the market to revise the grammar and conventions. But under no circumstances did I change the plot. Nonetheless, I have received more than one negative review, and some were great bad reviews, but others made me laugh and shake my head.

One of the best bad reviews I got is that my plot was good, but the entire thing seemed so choppy that it made the book hard to follow. In part, this was intentional; I was setting up the seeds to wrap up in later books (which actually also made writing the follow-up sequels that much easier). In another part, it was also a flaw; would someone actually be curious enough to look at the other books? That was the dilemma. In the conventions edit, I did look through it, keeping my follow-ups in mind, but decided to leave most of the book as it was. Moreover, the plot was already cemented by the other books, so that changing the first book was no longer an option.

In the laugh-and-shake-head department, someone had read Book 1 and then, in an attempt to “constructively criticize” (a choice of words that I honestly detest, because if it’s constructive, it’s hardly a criticism), has emailed me to with a whole bunch of questions about Book 1 that were rife with assumptions that did not at all apply. Those assumptions, mind, could’ve been easily dispelled if the person had actually read the book and tried to follow the characters’ line of thinking or maybe, you know, just for a giggle, read Book 2, which answered a lot of the assumptions about the personalities. As a final note of that correspondence, I got a suggestion to rewrite the book, which had elicited a raised eyebrow and a, “how about no?” This person was firmly aware that I have written a series, and had not even thought to maybe, just maybe, skim through the free sampler. Moreover, let’s be logical: there is no force in the world that would make any author pull a published work from the market that has been there for the past three years for a revision just because one person couldn’t be bothered to do a little more thinking and a little less assuming.

Another great negative review I got was that the writing was exquisite, but the plot is so confusing that it’s going to take some serious work to get through the series. Yes, I am aware, but you know what – it’s something I encountered while writing the books as well. And one of the reviewers who had identified my book as “very much a first book” had continued to ask me for spoilers (which aren’t given).

You might ask yourself, why am I even talking about my bad reviews? For one, because I can – hey, that’s the best reason there is. For two, because if a book gets consistently great reviews, it makes some people ask the question, “What will I dislike about the book?” and this in turns starts them out looking for flaws, which is never a good way to read a book. And for three, in the self-publishing world, reading and reviewing self-pub books goes hand in hand. I’m not afraid to admit that my work isn’t perfect, because it is the truth. Moreover, every author knows that there’s Room For Improvement. Let them actually see how the work affects someone, not hear what that person feels that they have to fix.

One thing above all: good or bad, if you’re reading a book, you’re in the perfect climate right now to make sure that your voice is heard. Amazon and Goodreads have excellent platforms for feedback, and since most authors have gone online, it is a great way to let them know your thoughts – whatever they may be.

K.G.

There was a discussion on the NaNoWriMo boards about whether or not editors put “their stamp” on your work.

In thinking about it, if an editor is, in fact, doing that, then you need a new editor.

I’ve had an editor for a while. Her name is Gayle, and she’s awesome. Why is she awesome? Because while she is ripping my work to shreds, she keeps in mind the key fact that it is my story, written in my style. Oh, don’t get me wrong: Gayle will do everything that requires doing to the story. She will ask, “Is this what you wanted to achieve, because it sounds like something else.” She will order me to rephrase something. She will have me add a little something to the dialogue.

But at no point does she reshape the course of the story, or alter my writing style.

I will admit, I have an odd style of writing. If I’m writing a paragraph of any sort, I want it to have a lot of info, and I have gotten really good lately at keeping it concise. I tend to get verbose otherwise, and as a consequence, I am prone to run-ons. It’s something that the constant and patient nudging of my editor had cured me of, and as a result, I became a stronger writer.

But, all aside, let me list a couple of things.

1. You should have an editor. Even if you think your work is brilliant, even if you think that it can get published right away, before you take it to a publisher, take it to an editor. There is no work out there that should go on the market without going through at least one edit, and one of those edits needs to be done by someone other than yourself. Your work may be brilliant, but there’s no question: another set of eyes is necessary to ensure that your plot doesn’t have more holes than Swiss cheese, and that your commas and apostrophes are where they ought to be.

I cannot even tell you; if I had a dollar for every person who confused “lose” (verb) and “loose” (adjective), or for people who mistake “its” (possessive pronoun) and “it’s” (contraction of “it is”), or anyone who confuses “their” (possessive pronoun), “they’re” (contraction of “they are”), and “there” (pronoun/noun/adverb), then I wouldn’t have to work. Yes, there are differences. No, these words are not interchangeable. And yes, even on the Internet, it’s important to watch your grammar.

For everyone who thinks that they won’t be judged by bad grammar, you cannot possibly be more mistaken, and if you think that slips of grammar on the Internet are no big deal, you’re delusional. You’re judged by your grammar everywhere: job applications, professional correspondence, etc. Your employers do a Facebook check too, and believe you me, they get a far different impression from misspellings and horrible punctuation online than your own. And if you’re a writer, then it’s twice as important to make sure that yours is polished up. This is why you hire an editor: to make sure that the things that you may think to be minor are actually correct.

2. Your editor should help you refine your story, not make it their own. My editor is a writer in her own right. Her style, though, is vastly different from mine. She may not be into the sort of books that I like. However, she does nothing whatsoever that would steer the direction of the story into her style and vein of writing. She makes sure that, no matter what changes take place, the story retains my style and, most importantly, my plot.

It doesn’t matter if you’re trad-pub or self-pub, but if you had a Bad Editor story, you may be likely to hear that the editor had asked the writer to re-do the story so that the plot runs in an entirely different direction than what you have intended. NO. This is the point where that writer should, in all seriousness, go to the editor’s boss and say, “I need a new editor, post-haste.”  Your story needs to remain yours. It may see a scene insertion, a scene deletion, discussion of a different scene altogether, but at the end of it, it should remain as your own piece of work. You may also see a bunch of different dialogue, but again – none of this should change the plot in a way where your story is no longer yours.

3. Your editor should be willing to flex. Again, Gayle is awesome in that regard. She and I had locked horns on multiple issues in Books 2 and 3, and if I were to come across a portion of it that she wants me to change and I do not, we discuss it. She’s open to the fact that in some instances (explanatory/expository paragraph vs. dialogue) I will leave it as-is, but she may feel that the dialogue is better.

There is no “correct” way to write a book, but there are many ways to express the same point. A good editor should be able to recognize those bits and pieces in your style, and if he/she may feel that something needs to change, but you do not, then it is okay to actually walk through the changes and discuss whether or not to make the changes.

4. Your editor knows who wrote the book. Not to be all “I’m the writer, hear me roar”, but in truth, no matter what changes your editor makes, your editor has to know that you, as the writer and owner of the story (debatable under trad-pub) have the final word. This is especially true if you own the rights to your work, and especially true if you’re self-pub. Your editor may have revisions, you may make the changes, but at the end, the control is your own. Unless you’re in a situation with a trad-pub that designates someone else as Copyright Owner, you call the shots on your work, and a good editor knows and acknowledges that.

Remember this: you may have learned several things in your creative writing class, or learned creative writing on your own, or it’s always been in you. But an editor is trained to spot certain things that you, the writer, may have missed. Technical writing is very, very different from creative writing, and tech writing trains a person to look at writing in general very differently from someone who had graduated with a creative writing degree.

It goes without saying: if you’re a writer, get an editor. Even before you finish your first draft, make sure you have an editor lined up. Even if you think you may not need an editor, you need an editor. And you also need time to ensure you have a good one.

K.G.

Before I begin: I cannot wait until the election is over. The news in politics are starting to give me a headache. (I know, starting? gah)

All political brouhaha aside, I have to sound off about Barnes and Noble.

What are they doing?

No, really. Far be it from me to speak ill of one of my distributors, but right now I’m wondering if B&N wants to go bankrupt.

First things first, they had stopped carrying Amazon-imprinted books in their brick-and-mortar stores (google it, please, on account that my link to this seems to be in the ether) and I’m written a post on the subject of that already. But now, I found out that they’re cutting the amount of money that affiliates get with e-book sales.

B&N, seriously, are you trying to go out of business?

This is the thing. As I’ve stated previously, eliminating Amazon-imprint books from the brick-and-mortar stores, B&N is sending a message to self-pubs with hard copies that they’re not going to be welcome. The Nook has an excellent number of affiliated e-stores, and this is a nice little message that discourages affiliates from listing Nook versions of their material. The affiliates make their money by taking a percentage of the sale due to their role in supplying the material and driving traffic to the storefront. So if there’s less of a cut to affiliates, there’s less of an incentive for an affiliate to drive traffic, and consequently, less of an incentive for the affiliates to host or link to e-material for Nook.

Now, affiliate cut is something that is worked into the trad-pub contract before the book goes to print. PubIt contracts would have a clause. Amazon has the same clause exactly, because it thrives on affiliates.

But to reduce the cut, and therefore reduce the incentive to host Nook content, is the exactly wrong thing for B&N to do.

Look, no one wants a monopoly, and Amazon is quickly leading the way in the e-book market. B&N is dragging its heels, clearly, and has made more than one bad decision in a row. So far, they’ve shown their back to indies by nixing Amazon-imprint hard copies (CreateSpace is a very popular print-on-demand press, and it’s an Amazon-owned company), and now they’re shooting their digital platform in the foot. The Nook is pretty damn popular, just as popular as Kindle, and if material becomes less available, then what do you have? Reduced exposure. As a result of which, the author loses out, whether indie or trad pub. Because seriously, if a publisher sees that there’s less money to be made in a market, would they go into that market? HELL NO.

B&N, you did something very, very stupid. Considering that the e-book sales are on the rise – although 85% of the book market is still dominated by print – the last thing you want to do is limit those sales.

As I said before, Amazon had done nothing but embrace indie authors and e-books with open arms, and it paid off but good. E-books alone have paid off for Amazon to last them for a damn long time, and they have already established themselves in the marketplace as a storefront and a distribution engine. B&N, which also has a long-established reputation in the book world, should know better than to alienate its affiliates, who happen to be its customers as well. What’s the best way to lose business? Piss off the customers. And B&N is doing exactly that.

And, in light of this, and after a chat with my editor, I have removed Book 1 from Nook and Smashwords for the next 90 days, and have enrolled it in KDP Select. For 90 days, I will get to see how it does in the KDP Select world, and if it works out, then the other books will follow suit. I feel a lot more secure in doing this now, after B&N had been pulling this crap, because I know for a given that Amazon will continue rolling out innovations for e-publishing for a long time to come. Amazon is the dominant market, and will remain that way. I go where the best opportunities are.

Book 1 sold here: http://amzn.to/yBvVgl

K.G.