E-Publishing. E-Books and thoughts.

When I think of E-publishing my novel I literally just want to scream. For some reason it seems worse off to me than not publishing at all. Maybe its because I think that no body will really get to read it or maybe its because it can't ever be a paperback again. My poor book. In some ways E-publishing is freedom for many writers. Some novels have such specific genres that writers know they won't be fit for the market. E-publishing is much easier than vanity. Its faster and you have better chances in finding a fit pressm but is it nearly as satisfactory? I don't know to be honest...Some authors I know decided to just go the E route because of fear of rejections and some because they realized their book wasn't fit for publishing. What about you? What is your take on E-Publishing? Would you consider to Epublish your book or would you rather get published by a small press?

Personally I favor reading real books over E-books. I don't have a kindle so E-books I can only read over the monitor and the brightness just sort of distracts me from the story. I like the feel of real pages, covers and even the scent of holding an actual book in my hands. And hey, maybe one day it will be my book I will be holding. So pick one..E-book or hard cover? Which would you rather read?

**Interview with the author of the Mobius Striptease**

Woopie! Another interview! I love hearing other's success stories and today we have Carolyn Haley on the blog who decided to publish her book as an E-book. Also my next topic on this blog.
Firstly can you tell us a little bit about your novel?

The Mobius Striptease is a cross-genre story centering on psychic power. It weaves science fiction and romantic suspense around a metaphysical mystery involving star-crossed lovers, whose relationships cause an outbreak of supernatural forces that will unbalance the world if unchecked.

The heroine, who finds herself the centerpiece of the affair, is skeptical about paranormal phenomena. So first she must overcome her disbelief, then figure out how to harness extrasensory powers and restore cosmic balance before the situation explodes. Although the forces manifest through people, creating a good-versus-evil drama, the underlying story is about positive and negative energies and their long-term, rippling effects.
What is your writing background up until now?
I’ve been writing since I could hold a pen. In early life, I wrote diaries and journals and did a lot of art. These morphed into novella-length teenage fantasies. I was on course for a career in illustration and graphic novels, but the combination of college, working lousy office jobs, and shared living arrangements took away the time, privacy, and will needed to sustain my art. So I channeled my energies into writing, aided by the arrival of computers. Since that turning, I’ve become a professional writer and editor -- and hope to stay on that path.
What inspired your idea for your current novel?
Two unanswerable questions bothered me: Do supernatural phenomena truly exist? and, What would I do if something supernatural actually happened to me?
Do you have any specific daily writing routines you stick to?
No routines, because I work as a freelancer, so every day is different. But I do write daily, mainly correspondence and mini-essays via forums and e-mail. Every second or third week, I compose an entry for my blog. All my commercial writing is driven by client schedules, and all personal projects are worked on when opportunity allows.
However, plots and concepts are always evolving in my head, and I consider that writing. I try to do creative work in the mornings when fresh, or the evenings when too tired to analyze. Regardless of timing, I first do a bad rough draft, then step away for a while, then return as often as necessary to revise and polish.
Why did you choose the E-book route rather than traditional publishing?
I took a hard took at reality and concluded that my novel doesn’t meet today’s publishing criteria. If you self-publish or vanity-publish, you can put out anything; but if you wish to be published by a commercial entity, then your book must have the potential to earn money. In general this means either something with mass appeal (ideally, a blockbuster) or genre appeal, so that an established audience will snap it up, talk about it, then stand in line for the next one.
The Mobius Striptease, as a hybrid, appeals to a small number of readers across several genres, so it can’t be vertically marketed. It’s also too esoteric to be a best-seller. I don’t have enough stories in me to pump out fast enough to build a genre audience. My choice, then, was to consign the book to the dustbin or find another means of reaching an eclectic audience.
My ego couldn’t accept vanity-publishing, and my pocketbook couldn’t handle self-publishing. That left e-publishing -- which, by the time I faced facts, was building up steam and opening new doors.
I had to be careful, though, because e-publishing is still so young that it lacks many of the quality controls that define traditional publishing. As yet, no brand-name, big-respect e-leader has emerged. Contracts, unusually unagented, are full of pitfalls. So I spent hours on the Internet, learning the players and the rules.
I compiled a list of e-publishers, then cross-referenced it to “writer beware” websites and any reviews or interviews I could find. That produced a (very) short list of candidates, at the top of which was Club Lighthouse Publishing in Toronto. This company publishes all the genres my book covers; lists its titles through major e-book outlets; offers a competitive royalty rate; and takes electronic rights only, for a limited number of years, leaving me free to pursue a print option. I also liked the editor's art portfolio, which offered the prospect of a good cover.All that homework paid off. Club Lighthouse accepted my manuscript and released it in December 2009 -- with a nice, zorchy cover!
How different do you think is the process in getting an E-book published vs. a hard back novel?The process is the same: study the market, compose a good query package, and keep submitting until somebody accepts. The difference lies in how easily the process goes, and how long it might take.
E-publishing has fewer gatekeepers, sometimes lower standards, and quicker response time. You can usually submit directly to the publisher, and often send the whole book on first contact. This combination is rare with print publishers, for which you usually need an agent. The query/response cycle can take weeks, months, even years and often requires installment submissions of query, synopsis, sample chapters, partial manuscript, full manuscript, in varying combinations.
The publishing industry is understaffed yet overwhelmed with submissions; meanwhile, the print marketplace is tightening. So the chances of publishing a first novel in hardback are akin to winning the lottery, unless you’ve got one of those blockbusters or genre-fitters mentioned above.
For your non fiction novel how many rejections did it take for you to finally land that agent?
Neither of my books required an agent, so I don’t have one. My attempts to land an agent for the novel, prior to switching to e-publishing, accrued dozens of rejections over 20-plus years.
Would you have any advice for aspiring writers?
It’s a two-sided equation. Nothing can happen without a finished manuscript, so you must (1) park butt in chair and write; and (2) understand your publishing options and their requirements. This is also twofold: You can (a) decide where you have the best chance of success, and write the sort of book that will take you there; or (b) write your book from the heart, then do the legwork needed to find its proper home. In either case, the name of the game is CRAFT. Learn to write well and appropriately for your market.
Would you have done anything differently?
Oh, yes! I wrote my novel backwards, glomming together a bunch of ideas then figuring out how to construct a story. Honing it to commercial standards took decades! Part of that came from not studying craft and market early. I learned everything the hard way and wasted a lot of time. Happily, I now have a better idea how to go about things, so the next book should come together a lot more quickly and easily.

Thanks so much Carolyn for doing this interview and I can't wait to get my hands on your novel! Though I personally have not had any experience with reading e-books...
For now, interested readers can learn about The Mobius Striptease through her page at Author’s Den or you can go ahead and read an additional story excerpt is available through the publisher’s website.

Don't we all LOVE updates?

Happy wednesday awesome people a.k.a writers! If you are wondering why that picture my answer is because i liked it. Apart from that here are some updates about what's happening with me, my blogs and the agents that rejected me. Firstly I want to say that I had another blog for a while. It's called Fantastic Fiction. I posted one post on it and then bam, I forgot about it. So now that CipherQueen reminded me I had that blog by telling me I won a makeover contest I decided to make use of it. Fantastic Fiction from now on will serve as a blog specifically for my personal stats, rejection posts and query critiques. Yes, I am going to offer to put up other's queries for ctitique, because I know the more opinions the more chance you have. So if you follow this blog follow fantasticfiction.

Secondly I just finished my second novel. Yay! It's a Paranormal Romance and yes it is YA. Actually its called the Drifter and its about Pip who is a drifter and has a special very cool supernatural ability. So what's going on with you guys?  

My first rejection... :(

I just got my first rejection 30 minutes after I sent off my query. It was a form rejection. Blah! No dear author even and no name or personalization. Rejections are tough but for some reason this just made me laugh. Yes, I can be random like that. For one I sent out 5 query letters and got 1 rejection. I guess there is something wrong with my query if I don't get a partial request after 10 rejections or no replies right? But I didn't send out 10 query letters yet. I guess I am planning to. The only thing I want to know is if I will need to bo going back to the drawing board with my query...I hope not lol. Truthfully though I am not sad or unhappy or even mad because this is just the beginning of my query journey. So how did your first rejection feel?

What keeps you writing?

From the first day you start writing you being for yourself. Clearly for the love of well...writing. But as you read all these blogs and as you discover how to get your novel published that’s what your goal is. The simple joy of writing is well...gone. Admit it.




You still enjoy to write and it is still your passion but would you write that novel if you knew it would never be published? If only a few family and friends praised it and then you were forced to stash it in the drawer? As I think more and more of this, most of us do write to be published.



Most of us want to be those 1 in a million people that become famous with writing, even if we know its practically impossible. But when critiques come in and say that there is no chance how do you take it? If you really love writing you won't give up. Instead you will keep going and improving, using those critiques to improve but if you are writing to be published you might as well trash your novel now.



What about you? What keeps you writing when you are feeling rejected by agents?

The 10 Sins of Query Writing

As many, I have been working on my query letter for my YA Fantasy novel and I must admit that I am quite happy with it. I have tweaks and little changes that I need to make but it is almost there. From my old query which I was actually brave enough to send to 13 agents I love my new one. Since I was foolish with my first novel I rewrote it and it turned out completely different so thankfully I get to require those agents with my new query since the last time I queried was last summer. Anyways back to the topic of queries. They practically decide the faith of your manuscript, yes, and the one you have been slaving over for months or even years for some. So why send off a query that isn't as great as the manuscript only to come back to rejections?

When I was reading the 'Guide to Query letters' I discovered quite a bit of useful information. Now, there is nothing you won't find on the internet but it is all sort of condensed into one book so you don't have to search different sources. So here are the 10 Sins of Query writing...

1. Addressing the wrong agent. (You may think this is so hard to do but when you are sending off a lot of queries, you are tired, it's nearly 12 and you happen to mess up.)

2. Soliciting a manuscript idea that has been done to death or one that has already been covered. (Dear Agent, my novel is about a young wizard named Garry Blotter. Apparently this happens. Beats me how though, particularly with best sellers.)

3. Ignoring submission guidelines.

4. Spelling or Grammatical Errors.

5. Talking about how your friends and your mom loved your novel to death and told you that it is going to be a best seller.

6. Discussing money, contracts, TV and movie deals.

7. Threatening to take your book elsewhere.

8. Not enough info about your book.

9. The manuscript is incomplete but I though you would want to see...no.

10. My novel is better in quality than Lord of the Rings combined with Shakespeare. (That was random because that would be a very weird combination)

So there you go...The 10 Sins of Querying. If you have committed any of them or have more to add, comment! If not comment anyways!

@#$#@ in novels

We all swear at times right? But let's admit it. Most of us here don't cuss every other word otherwise I would be swearing now right? So how do we all take in swearing in novels? Would you like it if your kids, siblings (in my case) that are younger read books with tons of swearing in it? My personal opinion is that swearing is absolutely fine. Like I said we all swear at times. Whether some of us swear at each other and others simply swear when something goes wrong. I think that if it is used swearing sparingly and at the right times it sort of just blends in with the scene. But if a character or characters swear completely for no reason it sort of slows the story down. At least for me. But swearing is completely a different case in fantasy novels. Particularly if you are writing an older made up world. For me personally I haven't yet used swearing other than damn and bastard. But to me those aren't really swearwords. What is your opinion on swearing and how often do you tend to use it or see it in your novels?

Coming up with a great name for your main character

Second post for today but I have skipped quite a bit so I thought I could make it up now. Naming a character is important. Not so important that you would get rejected for having a weird name but very important. Sometimes though you have to push away the weirdness factor because you love your characters name and it isn't weird to you at all. So particularly in fantasy many names tend to be weird but then you get used to them. Especially names that I can read through but then when I say them they are tongue twisters. So what is your characters name, why did you pick it and how stuck are you to it?