Tag Archives: publishing

Big changes ahead

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As I’ve indicated a couple of times this year, I’ve been in a crazy place when it comes to work and life. The good news is, a few key projects that have been consuming so many of those projects have finally begun to wrap up.

What does this mean? It means that after a year of not publishing any fiction, I will be in a position to begin putting my time and effort into this again to a much greater degree. I still intend to work on other projects, but my C. K. Martin fiction is some of my favourite. I love to spend the hours creating these women and their lives, so the prospect of being able to indulge myself is really very exciting.

It has been a year since my last book, which in independent author terms is sometimes seen as the equivalent of being dead. My current goal is to get back to the publishing rate of three books per year, which I was on course to do until the last twelve months hit. I spent a significant amount of time over the past weekend working out how I get to schedule my time in a way that works for me and helps me to achieve a higher quality output. September to December will be the real test of this. If it doesn’t work, then I may have to go back, tweak the approach and continue to push forwards.

Dirty Little War

The most exciting thing now is the thought of finally being able to share characters and stories with you that have been more neglected over this past year than I would like. So there are exciting times ahead. Next week, I’ll be publishing my first lesbian romantic standalone novel and I’m a mixed bag of nervous and excited about the response. Regardless, I’ll be opening a bottle of wine when it appears on the kindle store, as a way of marking a new chapter in my life if nothing else.

Quiet does not equal ‘not busy’

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Yes, things have once again been quiet on the social media front. To my horror, I didn’t do a single blogpost in July. But quiet certainly doesn’t mean that things have been slow and relaxed around here. Exactly the opposite in fact.

There has been a lot of travel for the non-fiction projects in my life (these, whilst being considerably less enjoyable, do pay the majority of the bills), which means less time for fun things like blogposts and twitter. Isn’t this often the way? Sometimes I think there are a lot of people telling everyone about their life, rather than being in it and being present. However, social time has been something of a luxury, in real life and virtual.

Plus, it’s always harder to work in the summer when it is delightfully warm. Every task then feels like suffering when you cans see the sun outside and the beach is calling. I’m just being honest here.

However, projects have indeed been progressing nicely in the spaces between. I am happy to be writing the fourth book in The Lazarus Hunter series, which is great fun. I love my little foray into the world of urban fantasy and my favourite vampires. I’m also waist deep in the final edits for my new romance novel, which has slipped slightly off track but is still on its way out into the world during the next four weeks. Pesky days, only having twenty-four hours in them.

I hope everyone else is having as productive a time as me! Either way, enjoy the weekend. Friday night and the wine bottle is OPEN.

Life Happens

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There has been a dearth of updates recently because, well, life happens.

I know life happens all the time and is generally a poor excuse for not doing any kind of updates or letting things slide. But I’ve had some big life happens moments, so I’m going to allow myself to use it as an excuse.

The biggest one of these is that I got engaged and set a date for the wedding that is significantly less than a year away. Trust me, that has led to lots of celebrations, alongside a healthy dose of mind-numbing fear (always good). It’s also led to a lot of reassessment of what matters, what doesn’t and what really needs to get done today.

I had already made a rough plan of my writing goals and deadlines for 2016. This little piece of good news has caused me to radically rethink that. I know that if I stuck to my original plans, nothing would be achieved to its best potential, and the night before my wedding I didn’t want to get stuck doing last minute edits or cover art reviews. It also means I have to put traditional publishing above indie, which is a bit of a shame. I’m determined to still publish the follow up to Blood Inheritance in 2016 though, as the bulk of the work has already been done.

So, be kind to yourself. Life is about many things and achievement is only one of them. Sometimes there are (good) bumps in the road and they’re just as important as meeting any deadlines.

Learning to juggle

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I’m not talking literal juggling, obviously. My hand / eye coordination isn’t good enough for that any more. Fun fact: I actually used to juggle for stress relief at university. I was way ahead of all the personal development gurus on that one.balls

So, there are a couple of exciting things going on at the moment and like many things in life, it is the ones you are not expecting that have the biggest impact. It’s like when you’ve learned to juggle three balls and then someone throws in a fourth just before you feel fully comfortable with what you’re doing. You either have to up your game really quickly or you end up dropping them all.

Writing is like that most of the time for me. I have multiple projects going on in multiple fields. Jumping from one to the other is a brain challenge, as well as being physically exhausting. I know I’m lucky – I’m still in the fledgling stages where I can still make mistakes because I refuse to give up the financial security of a full time paid position. But that does mean when I did some basic calculations earlier in the week, when you include all the time spent on writing (both actual creative stuff and then all the less exciting stuff that goes with it) I average a 70 hour week.

I’m nothing special. It’s not even something just authors go through – all entrepreneurs do at some stage, no matter how much the follow your dream message gets glamorised. Learning to juggle your life is one skill you need to master along the way.

As a result, my planned time for structural edits of the next book following Blood Inheritance have had to go on the back burner. Luckily for me, I’d built in some extra fallback time, so it doesn’t impact yet on my planned 2016 release schedule. Luckily, of all the indie publishing hats I wear, project management comes to me the easiest. After the actual damn writing, of course, but the more you want to write, the less writing you actually do. Oh universe, you’re so funny like that, aren’t you?

 

A break is as good as a rest!

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As I begin to wrap up my vacation time, I’ll be sad to leave the holiday feeling behind. Yet I know that it has been as essential as it has been fun.

My notebook has new ideas in it, as well as some amendments to existing projects. Sometimes, physical distance can allow you to see things with new eyes. For example, the Lazarus Hunter series has been fairly well plotted to the end for quite some time now. The first three books are completed and book four is down on the list as one of my next writing projects (I’d love to do it sooner, but I have other commitments which are stopping me). Yet a missing piece of conflict that I needed has been elusive up until now.

With nothing to think about, this piece finally snuck up on me and smacked me between the eyes.

So I will be returning from my break with a renewed sense of enthusiasm. I love writing, but my life is like balancing three full time jobs sometimes. My creativity can stutter if I don’t take a break every now and again. When I do, it is worth every penny, both in literal money and also time.

I’ve not got any C K Martin books planned for the release for the rest of this year. I’ve not tracked the sales of A Taste To Die For while I’ve been on vacation, because I’ve not wanted the time to be about number watching, no matter how addictive it can be.

So I can go into the last third of the year feeling more relaxed about what I still need to do. I know one thing that people have wanted in the Teddie McKay books is a little bit more lovin’ for Teddie. As neither books in the series are romances, it didn’t feel right at any point to put a good sex scene in, not without it feeling entirely gratuitous. So I’m playing around with an idea for a short story to let the woman get a bit of action. It would need to be fun for everyone (including me) to make it work.

So, despite saying there’d be no more publications this year, part of me is already thinking never say never…

 

Travel: Why it is essential to a writer

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So, with the release of A Taste To Die For complete, I have indulged myself with a little bit of a vacation. In return for the months of hard work on this (and numerous other projects), I am giving myself sand, sun, sea and wine. Maybe even a cocktail or two.

Santorini

Not only because I quite like the idea of a treat and a reward, but also because I believe that travel is essential to every writer.

It doesn’t have to be exotic, or extravagant like this. It just needs to be somewhere new. This goes for if you are an aspiring author, a traditionally published author or an indie author. New places are vital for creativity.

It’s just the same as books. You would never read the same five books over and over again in isolation and expect to grow. Overseas travel is great for seeing the world with new eyes. There are different cultures, languages, customs and, of course, food, which can all be incorporated into your writing in some way.

Yet it’s also possible to achieve the same result without going too far from home. Unless you live in the middle of nowhere, there is every chance that a local town or city is within a couple of hours drive away. I’ve come to look for the unfamiliar in things; each town will have something about it that makes it unique. Travel is essential to finding that little gem and unlocking the creativity.

On top of that, it is the perfect opportunity for me to lavish some time on my significantly better half, who has heard nothing but book release talk for the past year. Of course, I’ll still have a notebook to hand, ready to capture any interesting nugget that comes into view from the other side of the cocktail umbrella….

Kindle Promo: Blood Inheritance

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Just a reminder folks that we’re moving into the last chance to grab Blood Inheritance while it is on promo.

For those of you who haven’t yet seen anything about this novel, it is the first in my supernatural urban fantasy series focusing on Elizabeth, the daughter of an authority of vampires and Monica, the unwilling head of a vampire family. The two women, who should by all accounts be sworn enemies, discover that actually they can trust each other more than some of the people who should be on their side.

Of course, there are fights, blood and sex, because you would expect nothing more from an urban fantasy novel. However, I’ve tried to stay away from implausible high heels and tight leather fighting outfits. I wanted likeable, relatable female protagonists, who don’t go to pieces over their love lives or lack thereof. Mostly, I wanted a book where women don’t automatically have to be bitches/unsupportive/crazy/fighting over the same man/woman etc etc just because there are two of them. Enough with that already.

The second book in the series is currently in the editing phase and is planned for publication in early 2016. The series is already going to be a long one and in terms of many of the plot points, we’re in for a slow burn. There is an undeniable chemistry between our two lead ladies, but where this will go and when remains to be seen (I know, of course, but you don’t get to). Even though I am currently heavily into the release of the second Teddie McKay book, life at author HQ is never just about a single project. I love these ladies and it is always fun writing about them.

So go grab it from Amazon while it’s on offer and let me know what you think. Amazon seems to have a tendency to lose customer ratings if it thinks you know me, so feel free to wear a fake moustache, look anonymous and leave a 5* review…

 

Do the KDP structure changes make Amazon the enemy?

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I have seen much outrage (and confusion) since Amazon announced it was to make changes to the payment structure for books. In case you haven’t heard about it, the Publishers Weekly article goes into detail about it here.

A lot of the criticism seems to come from an initial bout of ‘you’ll only get paid if someone finishes the book’. In fact the statement is as follows:

Under this new model, the amount an author earns will be determined by their share of total pages read rather than their share of total qualified borrows.

At the moment, this also only applies to books that are in the kdp select programme, which pays out a percentage based on those borrows as part of Kindle Unlimited or the Kindle Owners Lending Library. I’m processing how I feel about this, but two obvious things spring to mind.

Firstly, this is potentially the tip of the iceberg that becomes the standard model for all books, irrespective of whether they were purchased outright rather than borrowed. While I know most people who aren’t in the game will assume that this kind of change will only have any real impact on self-published authors, I know there are a lot of books out there that have hit the best seller charts and yet nobody ever actually gets round to finishing or reading.

Secondly, how much data is Amazon actually collecting on people? Number of page reads and the amount of time spent on each one in order for it to actually qualify as being ‘read’ seems like getting down to a level of granularity that is quite off-putting. No lingering or re-reading that favourite sex scene over and over. Big brother is watching you (and now really knows what you like).

As with all change, there are pros and cons. I can see the value of someone who has produced a good, 200 page book being paid more than someone who has churned out a 20 page quickie. However, that does set a dangerous assumption that quality is the same as length, which we all know isn’t true. Get your mind out of the gutter, I’m still talking about books here.

The reality is that Amazon can do largely what it wants, as it is by far the largest retailer of ebooks. Nothing else really comes close. However, that is reliant on people using the kindle as the ereader of choice, and on authors being willing to upload their words. Being the market dominator can change quickly when your customers decide to take a look at those alternatives after all.

Just ask Blackberry.

Finishing – It’s Always The Hard Part

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This is no ‘how to’ post. You won’t find any handy tips and tricks here. This is just me talking about how finishing is always the most important part of a novel, and that probably makes it the hardest.

As with writing, the same applies with life. The best things are the hardest won. The sense of satisfaction is the most rewarding. Yadda eider eider. Right now, the words ‘The End’ seem to be a moving target. Moving, apparently, further and further into the distance.

Writing is my hobby, my passion, my love. It is also my business. Therefore, it has schedules and deadlines and project plans, just like everything else. True, it may be rooted in creativity and dreams, but as anyone will tell you, it’s hard work that gets you over the line. There is no fantasy lottery win that will free me up to write in that luxury beach villa. Or the cabin on the lake. Insert your location of choice here, alongside whatever your dreams and goals are.

So, logic tells me it will be worth it. However, the child in me wants to stamp my feet and demand to know why my characters are refusing to play ball and be written according to the ideas I had originally. I knew what I needed to write to create the follow up to The Crochet Killer. While I know the new direction will all work out better in the end, it doesn’t stop things from being as frustrating as hell now!

So, when you’re reading this, I sincerely hope you’re having better luck than I am on finishing your dream project! If not, then we can carry on battling through it together!

Blood Inheritance

And if you want to read something I did manage to complete, then Blood Inheritance has been released on Amazon. Go grab yourself a copy and make me feel like this is all worthwhile!*

 

 

 

*shameless plug and plea. A writer’s first draft despair knows no bounds.

Writing and motivation: keeping the momentum going

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I find the long weekend has been perfect for a little bit of extra introspection time.

I’ve spent the past few months building up to publishing Blood Inheritance, with the crazy planning and scheduling that goes with such a big endeavour. I say that because we should not belittle our achievements. I am terrible at taking time out to celebrate when I hit my goals. I’ve been talking about getting this book out there for the best part of two years, so I’m allowed to high five myself for being brave and letting one of my babies fly the nest.

The downside in achieving something that has taken up so much of your time and attention for months is that after the excitement fades, then there is a moment when you realise the enormity of the void it has left behind. Instead of breathing a sigh of relief that you have now got so many hours of your life back each week, you sense the loss. There is only one thing to do.

You have to keep going.

There will always be another book brewing on the horizon. There will always be an idea to be captured and the seed of the idea planted so it can grow. Writing tasks will never disappear completely, but neither will the joy of those first moments of creation. So when the sigh of relief wears off and I begin to think about that sudden free time, it’s always good to know that I have several projects I can dip into.

It is good to take a break. It is good to allow yourself to recharge. It is not good to allow that to turn into sloppiness and complacency. So how do you avoid it? It’s quite simple really.

fieldnotes1. Keep a notebook. Capture your ideas somewhere safe so you don’t have to keep them in your head. Then they’ll always be there waiting for you when you need them.

2. Plan your next project before you finish your current one. In those quiet times, those moments when you find yourself twiddling your thumbs, think about what you want your next project to be and outline what next actions you’ll be taking on it. That removes the panic of having to come up with something spur of the moment.

3. Be realistic with your scheduling. Each project will be different, but each one will also take a lot of hard work. Be kind to yourself and allow yourself adequate time when planning your project. Don’t be too generous though. You want to have enough tension there to motivate you to do something, rather than having the psychological freedom to continually defer it until next week. Be sensible, but also give yourself a deadline. Even self-imposed ones carry a punch when you keep a reminder of them where you can see them.

So that’s what I’ll be doing. The first draft of the next Teddie McKay novel is nearly complete and I’m going to be working through that for the next few months. My goal is to publish it in September, so that is the deadline keeping me on track. Whilst Blood Inheritance may be published, everyone knows that is not the point at which marketing and reader engagement stops. Of course, I’ve already got the next book I’m editing decided and set up to make it easy to start.

So the void of time was relatively short; I’m back to writing again.