Battling for Your Book: George Angus on Ebooks

Amazon and Smashwords Are Battling For Your Book

Did you ever think you would see the day that publishers would be wooing authors? Heh. Neither did I, but that is exactly what is happening. This is just another sign that in some ways, there has never been a better time to be a writer of books.

E-books and E-readers have turned the publishing industry on its head. This isn't news to anyone who has been paying attention the last few years. How it's all going to shake out is anyone's guess at this point but I'd be willing to bet that the dust will not settle for years to come.

It is now easier than ever to self publish in an electronic format. I have a client who writes short stories. Every few months he sends me a manuscript with a cover image and I format the thing and publish it for him on Amazon and Smashwords. I've done this so many times that it now takes me about two hours total to publish in both places. Many, many authors are doing the same thing every day.

So, what's all this hub-bub about Amazon and Smashwords? Well it's pretty simple, really. Up until last year, an author such as myself could be all fat, dumb and happy just publishing at both Smashwords and Amazon. By publishing at Smashwords, you make your e-book available to virtually all e-book formats and e-readers. Publishing at Amazon puts tools and potential viewership in your hands that could propel your book to unimagined heights. By publishing in both arenas you have the best chance of success.

Last year, Amazon changed the game. In a big way. They introduced KDP Select and it set off a firestorm. Here is how KDP Select works:

From the original email received in December, 2011

“When you make any of your titles exclusive to the Kindle Store for at least 90 days, those with US rights will automatically be included in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library and can earn a share of a monthly fund. The monthly fund for December 2011 is $500,000 and will total at least $6 million in 2012. If you haven’t checked it out already, the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library is a collection of books that eligible US Amazon Prime members can borrow for free once a month with no due dates.”

Seems easy enough, right? And it would be if not for the very first sentence. See where it says “exclusive?”  That's the rub, friends and neighbors. That's where the heart of this war resides. In order to take advantage of KDP select, you have to unpublish at Smashwords (Or anywhere else you may have your book published.) 

As you can imagine, this was not received well by Smashwords and other e-publishing outfits and I can't say as I blame them. The fire was again recently kindled (sorry) when Amazon announced that they were adding another 1.5 million to the fund. I first got wind of this through a Smashwords posting on Facebook. A quick side note on the posting – whoever posted it for Smashwords asked authors to “way in” on the matter. After about a dozen comments were left blasting them out of the water for the major grammatical faux-paux they deleted the post and reposted in correct form. Heh-heh.

Smashwords points out that any author making their work exclusive to a single retailer is cutting their nose off to spite their face. I think the point is well taken. With that said, literally hundreds of authors have taken Amazon up on their offer.

In some ways, this battle over us authors is kind of cool, but it also makes things a bit tough. See, I love Smashwords. Been with them a long time and have extolled their virtues on my blog several times. I also love Amazon. I've reviewed dozens of books there and am in the top 5000 reviewers. I do my Christmas shopping there. And yes, I have books published there. Do I kick Smashwords to the curb and put all my eggs in the Amazon basket or do I hang tough? I honestly don't know what the right answer is.

How about you? Are you familiar with KDP Select? Have you jumped off the Amazon cliff or are you considering the jump? What are your thoughts?

 

Short bio: George lives in Palmer, Alaska with his wonderful daughter, Maddy. He loves to read and he is the owner of tumblemoose.com, a blog he's kept for over four years now. You can follow him on Twitter  @GeorgeAngus

Check out George's books on AMAZON.   

Check out George's books on SMASHWORDS.

 

  

Suggested Bras for the Sasha Jackson Mysteries Series...

This just seems to suit the old bag in "Dead Light District".

This would be perfect for Macy, the runaway teen, from "The Lies Have It".

Sasha doesn't need all these keys - she'll figure out a way to break in!

Perfect for Christine Arvisais, the icy socialite who hires Sasha in "Blood and Groom".

Sasha's BFF Jessica would love this one!  Ooooohhh, CAKE!

Mick (from "Blood and Groom") would probably buy this for Sasha.

Wouldn't surprise me if Candace (from "Dead Light District") owned this one.

Mary Carmen!  Mary Carmen!  Mary Carmen! (in Dead Light District).

This would like, totally, you know, suit Terra from "Dead Light District"

The Weatherman (from "Dead Light District") bought this for his last girlfriend.

Exotic enough to suit Lindsey/Lakshmi, Sasha's other BFF (and soon to be sister-in-law).

Gwendolyn (from "The Lies Have It") has one of these for each day of the week.

A little bit of a confidence boost for when Sasha's having a bad day.

Gotta get this one for Mimi/Minerva (from "The Lies Have It")!
What else would a sculptor by day and dominatrix by night wear?

 

The only person who could possibly wear this is Carrie Jo (from "Dead Light District").



N.B. I found the images above all over the internet.  I Googled "funny + bra" and "weird" + "bra," plus a few other keywords, and got tons of results (some of which were decidedly NOT what I was looking for!)   
I found each of the bras depicted here on multiple websites or blogs, and have no idea what the original site was (except as noted on the images themselves).

Guest Blogger: Michael J. McCann: On Character

Characters and Characterization

These days I don't often have a chance to visit Toronto, so I'm very happy to have been invited by Toronto mystery author Jill Edmonston to join her and P.I. Sasha Jackson here today to discuss the subject of characters and characterization.

Fans of Sasha Jackson know very well the importance of strong characters who carry us through a novel and, hopefully, an entire series. It could be argued that while we read a novel to find out what happens at the end, it's the central characters who keep us going: if we're not engaged by the characters, we really don't give a damn what happens to them, do we?

And if we like the characters, we'll certainly want to come back for more.

Thanks to my academic background, when I think about characterization I always begin with the distinction E.M. Forster made in Aspects of the Novel between round characters and flat characters. Round characters come off as three-dimensional: they show some complexity in personality and motivation, and they're capable of surprising us. Flat characters, on the other hand, represent a single idea or quality, often a stereotype, and could be summed up in a single sentence. While authors develop various characters for a variety of purposes, I try to inject at least a bit of roundness into all my characters, even those with minor walk-on parts, to give them a realistic look and feel.

The Donaghue and Stainer Crime Fiction Novel series, which currently includes Blood Passage, Marcie's Murder, and TheFregoli Delusion, falls into the police procedural category, which means there's an expectation of realism to one degree or another in the stories. As a result, I'd like you as the reader to feel as though you're sitting in the back seat of the unmarked Crown Vic, on a ride-along, as Karen Stainer rockets along the expressway, hashing over details of the case with Hank Donaghue, or that you're with them on a doorstep as they interview a witness. I want you to notice Karen's talent for picking up indicators that someone's not telling the truth, and Hank's empathy for confidential informants whose lives have taken a wrong turn somewhere. As you listen to them and watch them work, I'd like to think you're sizing them up just as they're sizing up potential suspects. Why is Karen always so damned angry? Why does Hank, given his background, love being a cop so much?

The question then becomes, how do I bring you closer to my characters as the novels progress?

Character development goes hand in hand with narrative technique, of course. The Donaghue and Stainer crime novels are told in third person, and my narrator has an omniscient point of view, positioned above the action, knowing everything about it and reporting to you, the reader, on a selective basis. The story always begins with Hank Donaghue, and this is a deliberate choice on my part. Think of it as imprinting, the way it works with a baby duck: Hank Donaghue is the central consciousness of the series, the "normative" character who is intended to be closer to what might be considered the norm in terms of perspective, and if he's the first character you encounter when you begin to read, you'll tend to identify with him more readily. Karen Stainer, as a "foil" character whose personality is very different from Hank's and takes a bit of work from some readers to appreciate, walks on stage soon afterward, and the chemistry between them begins.

Good technique, as well, means striking a balance between "showing" and "telling." Think about how a law enforcement officer sizes up a person of interest during an investigation. They may begin with surveillance, watching them in action, waiting for them to do something that will indicate guilt or innocence, or they may interview them directly, asking questions, moving the conversation along, listening to the answers and watching the person's behavior at the same time for tell-tale signs. In the same way, as you the reader follow Hank and Karen around, watching them in action and listening to them talk, you pick up indicators of their personality and motivations the narrator has chosen to "show" you, whether it's Hank's attention to his clothing and his meticulous note-taking, or Karen's love of firearms and her abrasive language.

 

Sometimes, though, a detective has to resort to a confidential informant or witness who can simply explain to them what the hell is going on, in short and sweet terms – perhaps a name to go along with a face or an eyewitness who saw something crucial – which becomes a key piece to the puzzle. In the same way, my narrator will occasionally "tell" you something about Hank or Karen, or another character in the story, because it's something important you need to know about the character at that point in the story, and the direct approach is best. The narrator, then, becomes your confidential informant.

Finding a balance between showing and telling, bringing characters on and off stage at the right time, limiting the number of characters to something less than a crowd so that readers will not become confused, and revealing enough of their personality and motivation that they will seem realistic and not cardboard cutouts, are all elements that make storytelling a skilled craft as well as an art form.

They're the things that bring me down to the keyboard in the morning to get right back to work, and the things that also keep me awake in the middle of the night second-guessing myself!

Michael J. McCann
http://www.mjmccann.com
http://michaeljmccannsblog.blogspot.com
Twitter @MichaelJMcCann1

Guest Blogger Regina Puckett: On Reviews

 Putting Reviews in Their Rightful Place

Whenever I type the words ‘The End’, I sit back and wait for my adoring audience to read what is destined to be the next great American novel. There’s not the least bit of doubt in my mind that the accolades will begin rolling in the moment it is read by everyone across the world.  While saying this with my tongue in cheek it certainly has a little truth hidden in there somewhere.

Doesn’t every writer love receiving those glowing five star reviews?  I know I do.  Each review that goes into detail about just how much the reader loved my story has a way of boosting my ego like nothing else can, and it lets me know that all of those hours pounding on a keyboard wasn’t wasted.  As Sally Field once said, “They love me.  They really, really love me.”  I think that’s what she said anyway.  Don’t hang me out to dry if those weren’t her exact words. You get my point. 

I say all of that to bring up the dreaded subject of those one and two star reviews.  If the five and four reviews boost our egos does that mean we have to be destroyed by each and every one that doesn’t tell us what a wonderful writer we are?  What do we do with the reviews that go into gory detail of just how much they disapprove of our writing style?

If you’re waiting for me to reveal some profound revelation on this subject, then you’re going to be sorely disappointed. The truth is I still don’t know, but I’ll tell you how I have learned to live with them over the course of my writing career. You’re wrong if you guessed that I hunt the reviewers down and secretly bury them in their backyards. It’s true I write horror stories but I swear I have never actually killed anyone.  Yet.

Over the years I have tried to read every review and try to stay objective about them.  The truth is not everyone loves me or my writing.  I know.  That fact surprises me too.  I have received some criticism lately for my sentence structure. My answer to that is to get over it.  It’s how my mind works.  Not everyone’s mind sorts out words or thoughts in the same way. If you don’t like my sentence structure in one story or book you’re not going to like it in the next one either.  I can’t change how my mind works, but I can try to read each and every story to make certain everyone is able to understand the story I’m trying to tell.  I hope I never let anyone down in that regard.

I promise to always read each review with an open mind.  It may take me a few hours of ranting and raving before I’m finally able to step away from the hurt to dive back in to see what the reader is trying to tell me I did wrong from their point of view.  Did I hurry the ending?  If I did then that is something I should be aware of and try to not do in the future.  It’s easy to get excited by how good I think the story is going and forget that not everyone sees it as clearly as I do.

I won’t bore you with each and every criticism but I’ll tell you the bottom line of how I see good and bad reviews.  The good ones let me know I did something right and the bad ones let me know I still have things I need to work on as a writer.  I’m a work in progress.  I hope I never stop growing and I look forward to hearing from everyone even if you don’t love my writing.  Tell me and I’ll try to fix it.  There are some things you may hate about my stories that I love about them, so don’t hate me if I decide not to take your advice. None of us see the world in the exact same way. Wouldn’t it be a boring place if we did?

Go ahead and tell me what you think about my stories and books.  I promise to take everyone’s thoughts into account.  If I can fix what I’m doing wrong I will.  If you love my stories, I’m so happy I was able to share that part of myself with you.  If you hate them, I promise to listen to what it is you hate about them.  I’m a work in progress.  I promise to always do my best as a storyteller.

My latest release is Sleeping through the Beauty.  It is my spin on the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty.

It can found at:

Amazon (US) http://ow.ly/fLV8O

Amazon (UK) http://ow.ly/fLVox

A family obligation forces Phillip into accepting a late Christmas Eve invitation, but what he doesn't realize is that on this night, his life is going to change forever. A beautiful comatose woman will teach him the true meaning of life and the importance of not sleeping through the beauty of it all. While he waits for his sleeping beauty to awake from her coma, he has to face the fact that, if she does awaken, even though he has had time to fall in love with her, he will be a complete stranger to her.

Check out Regina's website HERE.  

Follow Regina on Twitter  @ReginaPucket

 

Ohhhh, Toronto...

This one goes out to fellow Torontonians!  

In my latest novel, called  THE LIES HAVE IT (published Nov. 2011), P.I. Sasha Jackson is investigating a murder set against the backdrop of a Toronto Mayoral election. Remember, it's a novel... it's fiction!!!!!  But if you know the city at all, and follow local news, you'll have no trouble identifying the inspirations for some of the characters.

Page 116:

I’m neutral on, or in agreement with, most of Rocco’s political platforms, with the exception of his idea of building a tunnel to downtown, which was exponentially stupid. But I have to say, his Tony Soprano styled ad campaign is a bit creepy, and more than a little ill-advised. His Godfather ads seemed to offend many Italians and to alienate other voters, pretty much guaranteeing that Rocco should just fuhgeddaboudit and drop out of the race.


Page 118:

I got off at Lawrence station, and walked two blocks to the residence of Robin Stanhope. This mostly white and affluent part of the city had fewer election signs on the lawns than in Lisa’s ’hood. Of those who used their front yards to expose their political leanings, very few were in favour of the Italian Stallion. The signs around here seemed evenly split between Cooperman, the political gadfly whose only consistency was his tendency to flip-flop – depending on which direction the wind was blowing – and Shane’s fave, Nealson, the guy whose run for City Hall seemed preordained, if not quite a slam dunk. Fortunately, there were almost no signs for the three-hundred-pound, donut-snarfing, sub-literate, right-wing troglodyte – the only candidate whose victory would make me want to self-immolate in front of a library.


Pages 177-178:

The tables in Pastiche had been rearranged for tonight’s political photo-op and cash grab. We were seated in groups of eight. Lindsey and I were knocking elbows with three campaign volunteers, plus one of Nealson’s paid sycophants and the toady’s wife. The only empty seat at our table was the one that was meant for Dad. I kind of wished that I’d come up with a migraine excuse before him. The evening promised to be long and painful, and I’d likely have a real migraine by the end of it.

The dinner conversation thus far felt like something between a live-action infomercial or the beatification ceremony for Tim Nealson. He actually seemed like an okay guy, and was rather handsome. Nealson had a firm jaw, sandy-brown hair with a slight wave to it, and was average height and build. It wasn’t so much his looks one noticed, as the way in which he carried himself. He came across as confident and open, and his smile seemed genuine. His campaign slogan should have been He Even Looks Like A Mayor. At least the folks at central casting would think so. Nealson had come around to all the tables and thanked people for their support. We had just finished our appetizers, and had four more courses and probably as many mind-numbing speeches to get through. Unfortunately, I was still stone cold sober.

“If it were anybody but Shane, and if it weren’t for my current case, there’s no way in hell I’d stick around. This is so not my cup of tea.”

“Would you rather be letting some leather-clad stud whip you?”

“Touché.”

“How does your current case connect with this event anyway?” Lindsey asked discreetly.

“If I told you, I’d have to kill you.”

“Whatever. At least you’re dressed the part of the femme fatale. You look fantastic.”

I’d been hurried getting ready. My hair was loose and tousled. It was too damp outside to even try styling it. I was in a plain violet sleeveless dress. It was simple, but fit me perfectly, and looked great with the amethyst pendant and matching earrings I was wearing. I wished Derek could have seen me. On most of our dates, other than the first one, we’d done something casual, so he hasn’t yet really seen me all gussied up. Of course, I think he’s perfectly happy to see me naked, which is how our dates usually end up.

Lindsey looked pretty hot herself. She has sunset skin and long, black hair, which were both set off nicely by the harvest yellow D&G suit she was wearing.

“I wish Derek were here. Mind you, if he had come, I wouldn’t be wearing panties.”




Check it out on AMAZON.