The Business of Writing: Reblogged from the Daily Dahlia
Posted: May 30, 2013 Filed under: On writing | Tags: writing Leave a commentThis is a great post about some of the things you need to do if you want to be an author. You should follow Dahlia’s blog if you don’t already, because her posts are insightful and packed full of juicy, useful information.
You know when all of a sudden all these things converge at once and kind of spin your world on its axis a bit with the way they all play into one another to give you some sort of epiphany? That was this past week for me. All of these things happened so close together that made me think about the business of writing. Which doesn’t mean writing as a thing that keeps you busy; it means what it means to decide you want to be a capital-A Author, a person who makes this a full-time, this-is-my-life career.
For a really long time, I didn’t. I refused to show anything I wrote to anyone. The only reason I even queried when I did, after so many years of writing, is because my husband had just started law school and we were broke and I felt like I should try something
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Inspired by Canberra
Posted: May 30, 2013 Filed under: On writing | Tags: Canberra, Thursdays Children 17 Comments
Ah, Canberra. The nation’s capital. Reviled across Australia as (allegedly) the soulless, out-of-touch political heart of the country. (For those of my readers who are overseas, it may come as a shock to learn Sydney is not in fact Australia’s capital. Sydney is to New York as Canberra is to Washington, if that helps.)
As Canberrans love to point out, though, almost all the politicians that live here for part of the year are from other parts of the country—so if they bring a deficit of soul with them, whose fault is that? We didn’t vote for them! 😉
Canberra is, in some ways, an overgrown country town. Our population is around 370,000 people—so we don’t have the heavy pollution and insane peak-hour traffic you get in bigger cities, but we still have the amenities of a big city. We’re actually Australia’s largest inland city … but all the state capitals are on the coast, so we’re only the eighth-largest overall.
The city sprawls over 812 square kilometers, but has a population density almost a fifth of Sydney’s, and just over a third of Melbourne’s. What that means is we have a lot more green spaces than either of them do: reserves running through suburbs; low mountains covered in walking trails and with lookouts perched on top; parks for the kids to play. It’s a great place to raise a family. And a great place to set a story when your supernatural population likes green spaces.
Canberra: we have lakes!
Werewolves and fairies would love it here—there are places with hardly any iron or steel, and green corridors a wolf could sneak through. Vampires would have to be careful how they hunted given the lower numbers of humans to snack on, but depending on their appetites they’d do alright too.
So far, all my books have been set in Canberra (all 2.5 of them!). I wondered at first whether setting a supernatural tale here would somehow lack credibility, and whether I should instead pick Sydney or Melbourne, even though I’m less familiar with them. But then I thought, if Sookie Stackhouse can run into vampires in a tiny town like Bon Temps, why can’t Canberra have its own supernatural stories, that element of magic?
When I see the sunlight sparkling off the surface of Lake Burley Griffin on a crisp autumn afternoon, or the glittering lights of the city from Mount Ainslie at dusk, I think that magic is already there. All I’m doing is telling people about it.
In a fit of procrastination, the other day I made a Pinterest board celebrating Canberra. Check it out, you know, if you want to.
Click here to see this week’s other Thursday’s Children blog posts.
Four reasons I chose not to self-publish
Posted: May 28, 2013 Filed under: On the Isla's Inheritance trilogy, On writing | Tags: Isla's Inheritance, self-publishing, small presses 15 CommentsA week ago I got asked the inevitable question. I imagine all debut authors get asked it these days: why not self-publish? Why subject yourself to the delays of traditional (even small press) publication? After all, my book isn’t scheduled for release for more than a year. Why wait, when I could have it out tomorrow if I wanted to, and start raking in all that cashey money?
So here are my reasons.
Please understand this is in no way meant to deride those who choose the self-publication path. If I had been as unsuccessful with the small presses as I’d been with the agents (I’m still too embarrassed to tell you guys how many rejections or ‘no response’s I got), I would have self-published Isla’s Inheritance. There are two reasons. I have faith in the story … and I wrote a sequel, which I also have faith in. No way was I going to let my first two books sit in a drawer!
But here are the reasons I didn’t decide to go directly there (do not pass Go, do not collect $200).
#1. To have someone else edit my work
I’m a professional editor. And I’ve edited the bejeezus out of Isla, in particular, because it’s my first book. I think I’m up to version eight, and that’s before Turquoise Morning Press have started on it. I’ll easily crack double digits on the number of versions before it finally hits the shelves. BUT! I’m not an editor of fiction, and I’m so close to these words right now I wouldn’t spot a hilarious typo or a misplaced modifier if it hit me in the face in a 16 point font.
I could have paid someone, or begged a colleague to do a proofread (although they aren’t editors of fiction either). By going with a small press I didn’t have to.
#2. To have someone else do all the other things you need to do yourself if you self-publish
I have a pretty awesome fake cover for my book, thanks to my friends. (Well, I think so.) But even if we assume TMP’s cover won’t be better—which it probably will be because I’m not a graphic designer—there’s still typesetting, publication, and promo work that needs doing.
I’m under no delusions. The bulk of promotion is going to be up to me, whether I’d self-published or traditionally published. Even the big publishing houses don’t do much for their authors these days. But every little bit of help helps; know what I’m saying?
I could have learned to do these things. If I’d had to, I would have. But I’d rather be writing.
#3. Amazon lives in the dark ages if you’re an international author
Amazon pays authors who use its publishing services (including its print-on-demand hard copy service) by direct deposit … unless you live in a country where they don’t have Amazon. So, for example, say I lived in Australia (oh wait, I do!) and wanted to self-publish using Amazon. They will pay me via international cheque (or ‘check’, for the Americans), in US dollars. If I’m not making much in royalties, the bank fees to convert the cheque and cash it could actually absorb the royalties! Sure, Amazon may pay royalties of up to 70% of eBook prices, but I wouldn’t see 70%.
By going with a small press, I have someone who will take the payments from Amazon (in instances where they are the vendor of my book) and turn them into something my bank won’t eat like the Cookie Monster.
My bank fees: an artist’s impression.
(Cookie Monster belongs to Sesame Street; I’m not trying to steal their copyright. Their cookies, maybe…)
#4. To pass through the gate
Agents and publishers are the traditional gatekeepers of fiction, which is a good thing and a bad thing.
A great thing about self-publishing is that there’s a way for people who’ve written something too challenging for a regular press to get their work out there. Unfortunately there is now also a way for people who are too impatient to bother even proofreading after the first draft to get their work out there too. And it’s difficult for your average shopper to be able to tell the difference (although avoiding dodgy covers and taking advantage of the “Look Inside” feature are great ways to start).
Having a press logo on your front cover or an imprint as part of your blurb tells the reader that someone other than the author has taken the time to make the book presentable. I wanted that—because readers have a lot of demands on their time and for their money, and anything I can do to help people decide they should give my work a go is a thing I personally feel is worth doing. Your mileage may vary, of course.
Anyway, those are my thoughts. I’m interested to hear what you think—have you chosen one path or the other? Why?
Book launch and giveaway for ‘Sacrifice: A Fall For Me Prequel’
Posted: May 26, 2013 Filed under: On Books | Tags: book launch, contests, self-publishing Leave a commentIt’s been just over a month since I was part of the crew that helped K. A. Last launch the gorgeous cover of her impending release. Well, guess what? Sacrifice: A Fall for Me Prequel has just hit the virtual shelves. I’ve seen an early version of it and if you read Fall For Me then you should definitely read Sacrifice. (And if you haven’t, why not??) It answers a few questions you may have, about how Grace and Seth got to be where they are. All of the feels.
Here are the deets:
Title: Sacrifice – A Fall For Me Prequel (The Tate Chronicles #0.5)
Author: K. A. Last
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Number of pages: Paperback – 114
Word Count: 23,000
Formats available: eBook (Paperback to come)
Cover Artist: KILA Designs
Purchase Link Amazon: http://amzn.to/11ipsxG
“Sacrifice” by K.A. Last
Seth’s heart is breaking. He knows his decision will hurt the one person he keeps breathing for, but he can’t take it anymore. He can’t be near Grace knowing she will always be just out of reach.
Grace is oblivious to Seth’s turmoil. She loves him unconditionally, but not in the way he wants. They both know that in Heaven physical love is forbidden, and to break the rules is to defy everything they’ve ever been taught.
When Grace and Seth are sent on a mission to save a young mother and her unborn child, Grace must face the fact that Seth won’t be returning home. She doesn’t understand Seth’s decision and hates him for it. But what neither of them realise is how big a part that single decision will play in shaping their entire future.
What would you sacrifice for the one you love?
To celebrate the release, there is a giveaway. You can enter by CLICKING HERE!
About the Author:
K. A. Last was born in Subiaco, Western Australia, and moved to Sydney with her parents and older brother when she was eight. Artistic and creative by nature, she studied Graphic Design and graduated with an Advanced Diploma. After marrying her high school sweetheart, she concentrated on her career before settling into family life. Blessed with a vivid imagination, she began writing to let off creative steam, and fell in love with it. She now resides in a peaceful leafy suburb north of Sydney with her husband, their two children, and a rabbit named Twitch. You can find her at her website, or on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads or Amazon.
Inspired by Australian Magpies
Posted: May 23, 2013 Filed under: On writing | Tags: Australia, Thursdays Children 23 Comments
Have you entered my double Amazon giveaway yet? I’m running it to celebrate my book deal and 1000 Twitter followers! The details are here. It ends in 2 days and 9 hours (give or take), so time’s running out!
This Thursday’s Children post flows on from my last one, where I talked about being inspired by the Australian bush. This one is about my favourite Aussie species: the Australian Magpie. It is unrelated to the European magpie, except in the very broad sense. Interestingly, its specific Latin name translates to “piper” or “flute-player” … which, when you hear it carol, you will totally understand.
A lot of Australians have mixed (or even outright negative) views about this particular bird, though. The reason is that, in spring, some male magpies have a rush of testosterone to the brain and will swoop to defend their mate and chicks in the nest. They are especially fond of people on bicycles, and I’ve heard stories from time to time about people being injured by overzealous magpies.
But to me, that aggression (which isn’t universal) is only for six-to-eight weeks a year. And their song makes up for it for the rest of the year. Because this bird is, in my not-so-humble opinion, Australia’s premiere songbird—despite its humble appearance.
Here’s a YouTube link. (The bird featured isn’t the local Canberra variant, which has a white band across the back of the neck but not all the way down the back. However, the song is the same.)
Click here to see this week’s other Thursday’s Children blog posts.
Imprecise use of pronouns, with Doctor Who!
Posted: May 20, 2013 Filed under: On writing | Tags: editing, pronouns, television, writing 7 CommentsHave you entered my double Amazon giveaway yet, which I’m running to celebrate my book deal and 1000 Twitter followers? The details are here.
One thing I see a lot at work is people using pronouns imprecisely. There was a great example in pop culture over the weekend with the season finale of Doctor Who, where an imprecise pronoun was actually used as a plot device. I’ll explain below what I mean, so please take this as your spoiler alert if you haven’t seen the episode yet! The spoiler material will be at the bottom of the post, beneath the delicious, delicious picture of David Tennant…
First, what is a pronoun? Here’s a dictionary definition.
Pronoun noun
1. one of the major form classes, or parts of speech, comprising words used as substitutes for nouns.
2. any such word, such as I, you, he, she, it, this, who, what, they, us, them.
Basically, it’s a word we use as a substitute for a noun (or a proper noun, like a name), to avoid repeating the noun. Here are a few examples:
Cassandra is writing a post on grammar because she (Cassandra) is a grammar geek.
Cassandra admired the Doctor Who script because it (the script) took advantage of poor grammar.
Where you need to be cautious is where the antecedent (the noun to which the pronoun is referring) is unclear. I find this happens a lot in my writing where there are two people of the same sex acting in a scene. For example:
Leander didn’t like Brad, because he was jealous.
Who is jealous? Brad or Leander? To make it clear, we need to rewrite the sentence.
Jealous, Leander didn’t like Brad.
(Better would be something like “Jealousy drove Leander’s dislike of Brad.”) In this case, the rewrite actually removed the pronoun—which is more elegant than repeating Leander’s name. That won’t always be the case.
Grammar is cool. (Image belongs to BBC; no copyright infringement intended, although perving definitely is.)
Now, what was the example from Doctor Who? It’s this quote, from a madman:
“The Doctor has a secret he will take to the grave. It is discovered.”
Most of the characters assumed (and the viewer was meant to assume) that the “it” was the secret. It’s logical assumption, because secrets are more traditionally discovered than graves. But in this case, the secret was actually secondary; it was the discovery of the grave that was significant. The Doctor and River both realised this as soon as they heard the quote, but they had the advantage of knowing what Trenzalore (the place mentioned in the context of the madman’s quote) was.
I think as writers we can take a lesson from this example. (Note that I added “example” after the pronoun “this” just then, because otherwise there are a lot of things preceding it to which it could have referred.) And the lesson is this one: avoid unclear antecedents for pronouns … unless you’re using it deliberately, as a plot device. Then go nuts.
Or, to paraphrase the English poet Robert Graves, master the rules of grammar before you attempt to bend or break them. :p
My book deal: it’s starting to feel real…
Posted: May 18, 2013 Filed under: On the Isla's Inheritance trilogy | Tags: Isla's Inheritance, small presses 2 CommentsHave you entered my double Amazon giveaway yet, which I’m running to celebrate my good news? The details are here.
It’s been a week since my contract for the release of ISLA’S INHERITANCE was signed, and it’s starting to actually sink in that next year I’ll be able to hold my book in my hands. And fondle its pages. You know, if I wanted to.
If you’re wondering what happens immediately after you sign with a small press—other than the dance of joy, which I covered previously—the answer is that you fill in some forms. There’s financial information and contact details to provide (easy enough), an author bio to write (a little harder) and a form to fill in for your cover design preferences (hard!). The last one includes a box where I need to write a blurb (OMG, even harder!).
I still haven’t finished that last one. Writing the blurb is just as hard as writing that original query letter was. How do you summarise something you’ve agonised over for years in two paragraphs?
I was also sent the Turquoise Morning Press style sheet, and I’ve converted my manuscript to their style. That wasn’t too traumatic because the style isn’t that dissimilar to what I was using, but I did discover I use an alarming! number! of exclamation points!!
And I’ve signed up to their mailing list and received a very warm welcome. It made me go all dizzy with excitement, but I’m trying to play it cool rather than overwhelming them with slobber and glee.
But I do have some exciting news for you, which is actually the point of this post. I have a rough timeframe for when ISLA’S INHERITANCE will be coming out: the northern hemisphere fall of 2014. (Or autumn, as we’d call it here. Except here, of course, it will be spring. Confused yet?)
Inspired by My Island Home
Posted: May 16, 2013 Filed under: On writing | Tags: Australia, Thursdays Children 18 Comments
Have you entered my double Amazon giveaway yet, which I’m running to celebrate my good news? The details are here.
I was pottering around the kitchen trying to think of what the single biggest thing is that inspires my writing. And then it hit me like a parrot in the crotch (which, by the way, actually happened to a guy I know; I gather it wasn’t very pleasant). My biggest source of inspiration is the Australian landscape.
So far, all of my novels are set in Australia. And that’s not just because I’m writing what I know (although it is) but because I love this place. I love the scraggly eucalypts, the ridiculous wildlife, the low mountains worn down by time. I love the fact that—because our land is so old and the landscape crinkles are so low—the sky is huge. Looking up is like watching a movie in widescreen.
I love the magpies’ song, and the sight of a flock of cockatoos wheeling in the sky, and the sere colours. I love the first spray of wattle flowers toward the end of winter, when there’s still frost on the ground overnight, because the plants are declaring that spring is coming!
I know a lot of people here hanker after the lush greenery of Europe. I’ve been to Scotland and I’m not saying it wasn’t magnificent in its own way—I’d love to visit again some day—but this place is home.
I’ve been reading John Marsden’s Tomorrow series, and his passages on the Australian bush really resonate with me. Ellie’s love for the country could be my own. Here’s one extract, to illustrate what I mean.
It takes me over and I become part of it and it becomes part of me and I’m not very important, or at least no more important than a tree or a rock or a spider abseiling down a long thread of cobweb. As I wandered around, on that hot afternoon, I didn’t notice anything too amazing or beautiful or mindbogglingly spectacular. I can’t actually say I noticed anything out of the ordinary: just the grey-green rocks and the olive-green leaves and the reddish soil with the teeming ants. The tattered ribbons of paperbark, the crackly dry cicada shell, the smooth furrow left in the dust by a passing snake. That’s all there ever is really, most of the time. No rainforest with tropical butterflies, no palm trees or Californian redwoods, no leopards or iguanas or panda bears.
Just the bush.
Click here to see this week’s other Thursday’s Children blog posts.
Giveaway to celebrate my good news
Posted: May 13, 2013 Filed under: On the Isla's Inheritance trilogy | Tags: contests, Isla's Inheritance 22 CommentsA week or so ago I passed 1000 followers on Twitter. (I know, I’m as baffled as anyone!) And to celebrate I’d promised to give away an Amazon voucher here on my blog. But by then I was in the middle of contract negotiations with Turquoise Morning Press for my new book deal for ISLA’S INHERITANCE, and I figured, why not have a double giveaway to celebrate both things at once?
I truly do feel exceptionally fortunate this past week.
So I’m giving away two Amazon gift vouchers. To enter, click HERE!
The draw ends at 12am on 26 May. You can get entries by following me on Twitter, Facebook or here at my blog, or by commenting here or tweeting about the competition. Note that last one, the tweeting, can be done every day for an extra entry.
Numfar, do the Dance of Joy!
EDIT: Thanks to everyone that entered, and congratulations to my two winners, Anabel and Lexi! 😀
How I signed with Turquoise Morning Press (aka ‘they’re pitching woo!’)
Posted: May 12, 2013 Filed under: On the Isla's Inheritance trilogy | Tags: Isla's Inheritance, small presses, Turquoise Morning Press 12 CommentsFor those of you that haven’t heard my exciting news, I’ve signed with Turquoise Morning Press for the release of my debut novel, ISLA’S INHERITANCE. To say I’m thrilled is the understatement of the century—and I say this knowing the century’s barely gotten started. ALL OF THE SQUEES WILL BE MINE!
So here’s my story.
If you’ve been reading my blog over the past month you’ll know I’d pretty much given up on an agent showering me with love and chocolate. I’d stopped sending out new queries and, as at a fortnight ago, only two agents were yet to reply to outstanding queries. One of the two had my full manuscript, so there was a shred of hope remaining, and I was holding off really hitting the small press market till I heard back from her.
Except one particular small press had a Twitter pitch party back in March. I figured what the hell and entered. They requested my first three chapters and then, a few days later, the full manuscript. And then I waited. And waited.
Waiting, gentle reader, drives me NUTTY BANANAS!
About six weeks later, I lost my nerve and sent my query out to two more small presses. One of them requested the full MS at the query stage (this was TMP), the other just the first pages. Three days after that, I heard back from the original small press. It was an offer of publication. OMGOMGOMG!
Trying to be polite, I emailed the agent with my full and asked her to get back to me within a week. (She replied saying she would.) And I emailed the two other small presses, withdrawing my book from consideration. I mean, they’d had it three days—there was no way they’d have made it off the slush pile, right?
Wrong.
I got an email from the YA editor at TMP almost immediately, asking if I’d signed anything yet. I told her I hadn’t, and that I was waiting a week. She then offered me a contract.
Image belongs to Disney’s “Chicken Little” (a highly underrated kids movie, btw)
There was squealing and jumping up and down. I couldn’t believe, after all of the “NO” I’d been getting from agents, I’d finally got not one but two lots of “YES”. AT ONCE! That’s more yes than I’d ever had! Willow describes it best.
Willow: “They’re wooing me. They’re pitching woo.”
Buffy: “The wooing stage is always fun.”
Willow: “Rejection I can handle ‘cause of the years of training, but this…”
At the end of the week I heard back from the agent, as she’d promised. She said that she liked what she’d read so far (yay!) but that she hadn’t had time to finish reading the MS, and she didn’t want me to sit around and wait for her when there was an offer on the table, so she was going to pass. I respect that.
So, trying to decide between these two small presses was one of the harder decisions I’ve ever made in my life, let me tell you. They were both offering excellent—but slightly different—contracts, and they both have great teams. It came down to weighing up the two contracts and deciding what I wanted more. I’ll try and put a blog post together later about the factors I considered, in case it will be helpful to anyone else.
In the end, I obviously chose Turquoise Morning Press. But I would have been happy with either press, and I feel very blessed that while my agent query journey was long and unfruitful, my press query journey was mercifully short, and put me out of my misery!
There are some people I need to thank, because this is after all the Oscars my blog. To my alpha reader, Peter, for all his support and for making fun of me when I freak out; to my beta readers, Mikey, Ali and Blue, for their invaluable feedback; to my Aussie Owned ladies, especially Stacey and Katie, for holding my hand this last fortnight and patting it gently so I didn’t faint; to Kim and Krystal for humouring me when I designed my fake cover; to Cass for making me think I could actually do it; to all my tweeps on Twitter and Facebook for the moral support: THANK YOU! Thank you a thousand times over! Mwah!
Cassandra Page 