So I'm back, did you all enjoy me picking on traditionally published authors? Yeah? Well now it's time that I pick on the indie crowd. Now you may think that indie authors have no problem with egos or feeling elite. You're wrong, they are just better at hiding it than most. Why? Because things said on social media, blogs, and interviews can hurt indie authors. Especially those just starting out and have a small fan base.
This last week I combed the web looking for direct quotes like I found for the last post. I haven't found any. But I know it's out there. Talk to and indie author, ask them why they chose that route or what they think of traditional. Many of the times you'll get a fairly good answer, normally about being in control of everything. But then you will get those authors with answers like these.
"Because traditional publishing is on it's way out, indie is where it's at."
"Traditional is the lazy way, they have people to do everything. Indie's do it on their own."
(If you find some direct quotes, let me know. I'd be happy to add to this post and expand.)
But my favorite is when an indie author trash talks traditional publishing because they think they are the best at everything. They think their stories are better, their editing is better, everything, even their covers.
These attitudes on either side of things is not a way to win fans, friends or networking. There are authors both traditional and indie that I will not read because of their elitist attitude. When it comes to networking it's the worse thing you can do because you make it seem like you are not approachable. Why would I network with you if I'm terrified you won't think I'm good enough?
So it's time to knock it off. Indie, traditional, hybrid, suck it up. We're authors. Get over your ego and your better than everyone attitude and write. There are misconceptions on both sides, each author has their own reason for going on the path they chose. Congratulate them, talk to them, learn something from each other.
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Friday, August 22, 2014
Review: Blood Yellow by Ashley Nemer
Synopsis: The lines are drawn, and Zayn and Nikole must face each other in a battle of forgiveness and power; each attempting to right their wrongs, each battling their own inner demons.
Haydar and Leigh prepare for war, rounding their men and setting into motion courses that cannot be undone.
The tales will fall in line as the four of them come face to face with each other, and they will watch loved ones perish.
When the dust settles and dawn breaks, who's going to be left standing and who will be missing? Will Nikole forgive Zayn for his betrayal? Will Leigh and Haydar overcome their differences? Will Adara say yes?
Blood Yellow...Because the stories only just begun....
Review: I gobbled this book up. This is the second book in the series and I just had to gobble this one
up because of how Ms. Nemer ended the first one. Let me tell you can tell that Nemer had improved her craft by this book. It's smoother and the action is better. The storyline just heats up (not in the sexual way) and she made me cry! Damn her for that! Nikole and Zayn are at each other's throats because they each blame each other for what happened in the first book. They have to over come that or risk losing the crown to Haydar.
Nemer does not skimp on the emotions in this book. Once again she is not afraid to show us the dark and bloody side of war and honestly the book is better for it. You know that there is not going to be nice tidy endings for all the characters. It's been a while since I've seen an indie author not afraid to kill. Nemer's body count does not disappoint. And the ending to this one? Yeah...I'm snatching up the other one.
About the Author:
Haydar and Leigh prepare for war, rounding their men and setting into motion courses that cannot be undone.
The tales will fall in line as the four of them come face to face with each other, and they will watch loved ones perish.
When the dust settles and dawn breaks, who's going to be left standing and who will be missing? Will Nikole forgive Zayn for his betrayal? Will Leigh and Haydar overcome their differences? Will Adara say yes?
Blood Yellow...Because the stories only just begun....
Review: I gobbled this book up. This is the second book in the series and I just had to gobble this one
Nemer does not skimp on the emotions in this book. Once again she is not afraid to show us the dark and bloody side of war and honestly the book is better for it. You know that there is not going to be nice tidy endings for all the characters. It's been a while since I've seen an indie author not afraid to kill. Nemer's body count does not disappoint. And the ending to this one? Yeah...I'm snatching up the other one.
Rating: 4.5 Stars out of 5
Heat: Medium
(mild, medium, hot, spicy, scorching)
Links: Amazon BN GoodreadsAbout the Author:
About the Author
Ashley, also known as Niki Becker, is married and lives in Houston with her husband Tony. They have two dogs, Toto and Doogie. They have been together for over 8 and a 1/2 years and he brings her more joy than she could ever imagine as a child. She loves to read and has been hooked on the romance genre ever since her lifelong best friend gave her "Ashes to Ashes' by Tami Hoag to read when they
were younger.
Ashley finds her strength through her family, especially her parents. They always support her in life;
they push her to strive for greatness. There once was a motto that Ashley heard in her youth through her Taekwondo life 'Reach for the Stars' and that is what Ashley has always done. It was through her upbringing that the values Ashley has and displays come from. With her parents always cheering her on in life she was able to grow up having faith in herself and her ability to conquer the world.
Ashley enjoys writing many different genre’s of fiction. Her areas range from science fiction/ paranormal, mystery, romance, poetry and erotica (using pen name Niki Becker.)
Links!
http://www.facebook.com/ashers83 (Add Friend)
Thursday, August 21, 2014
Review of Dragon NaturallySpeaking
As promised, although little later than planned, here is my
review of Dragon NaturallySpeaking. I will be doing this review using only
Dragon NaturallySpeaking, afterwords (afterwards) I will go in and edit it, putting corrections in red parenthesis to show where
mistakes were made, if there are mistakes, that is.
As some of you might know I injured my hand the summer which
made typing my book near impossible. I looked into Dragon NaturallySpeaking
as a way to keep writing without using my injured hand. I’ve looked into the
pros and cons, I’ve read lots of Goodreads (Dragon doesn't like the word "Goodreads" and kept changing it to "good read") posts about how only bad authors
use Dragon, and I’ve seen good reviews and that (bad) reviews. Keep in mind that I
haven’t spent a lifetime training Dragon to understand my voice and how I speak.
I did the basic tutorial at the beginning which took about 10 minutes and then I just simply started using it.
Overall I’m very pleased, using Dragon is an (isn't- you have to empahsis your words especially when using contractions) easy but it is
doable. It is very awkward to sit in a quiet room and speak to your computer. It’s not
like talking on the telephone, it’s not like talking to a friend. I’ve been
using Dragon to work on my work in progress Dusk, so far the only problem I’ve
run into is with character names. I have a character named Abby, for the
longest time Dragon insisted on naming her Happy. And as funny as it might be a
vampire named Happy has no place in my current work in product (progress- see I was talking fast there and it messed up).
You have to constantly be aware of telling Dragon to insert
punctuations, fixing something right away when you see it, or learning to use
the GOPAC (go-back- again I didn't ennunciate) commands. You can’t speak too fast, too low, or slur your words (God
forbid you might have a speech impediment that would be disastrous). To be
honest, I didn’t take much time to learn all of the punctuation commands, the
go back commands, or the hotkeys. I just wanted to dive in to my work, I just
wanted to write. Dragon lets me do that. It may not be ideal, and some days it
is surely a whopping pain in the butt, but it’s worth it given the few hundred
words I can get now when I couldn’t type more than three words per minute with my injured
hand.
I still peck away one finger at a time to use Facebook or Twitter, but for my writing I’ve been using Dragon pretty successfully. Would I
want to use this software to speak an entire book? Not right now. Maybe when I
understand the fluency of it better or when I trained it better to understand my
speech then maybe it wouldn’t be so bad and it’s not bad right now. I use it
for 20 minutes at a time here and there for getting information out of my head
and onto the page, which is exactly what I intended to use it for. Is it good
that a computer can write my words as fast as I could speak or thinks them? Yes,
that is fantastic. But I do miss typing. It’s very hard to not use my hands to
go back and fix errors, but this is one of those lessons that after repeated
use it will be easier. And I have to say straight out-of-the-box Dragon is
pretty easy to begin with.
As you can see there are errors that I will need to fix. I
will go through this review before I post it and make note of the errors, but
all in all, there are no more errors than when I type fast and am in a hurry. I
still have to edit with my typing, everybody does. So it is no more work in the
editing process then there is with regular typing. I’ve seen many people,
especially on good reads (again, Goodreads), who have blasted anyone using voice to text software
as being lazy and uneducated. There is this idea that speaking your words
rather than typing them is somehow harming the literary world. Some of the
people complaining about it have said that it is the equivalent to
self-publishing a poorly written novel (you know by now that SPE takes that claim very seriously), that somehow by speaking it instead of typing it they
have watered down and diluted the literary process. I saw one comment say that
using voice to text software would only encourage people with poor grammar to
write “crappy books that they would then self publish on Amazon and make
everyone look bad”. Now I don’t know about anybody else, but having to take the
time to remember to tell the software to use a comma or a period is not lazy
and if you have to stop mid-sentence to remind a software to use
punctuation then obviously you have some grasp on how punctuation should be used.
So if I had to give Dragon a rating, what would it be?
Usability straight out-of-the-box: A- (only because you do
need to at least do the 10 minute tutorial at the beginning)
Learning Curve: B- (the learning curve starts high with
Dragon but after a few sessions the learning gets easier, and easier.)
Would I recommend it: Yes (whether you are looking into it
because you have an injury that requires you to not use your hands or simply
want to try it and see if speaking rather than typing works out faster for you, yes either way I recommend it. I don’t see anything wrong with using whatever is available to
help you accomplish your goal)
Side note: speaking this review took me about 20 minutes. I didn’t
start with a script, I had no idea where I was going with this or what I wanted to say, so off the top
of my head and having to go back and use very few verbal commands for
correction I was able to write/speak a review totaling roughly about 950 words.
950 words isn’t too bad for 20 minutes.
Friday, August 15, 2014
Review: Blood Purple by Ashley Nemer
Blood Purple
Synopsis: In a world we think we know, live other races entirely hidden from the mortal perspective. Creatures of legend, of fable and myth, their very history and nature have allowed them to walk side by side with humans since time immemorial. They are warriors, they are hunters, and they are Algula. Vampire. And in their own midst, a battle is brewing for supremacy, for dominance, that can and will affect all around them. Old hatred never dies and vengeance is a fiery sword that cuts a bloody swath.
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Review: Okay so, it's a good thing that I was warned that this was not a romance when I picked it up. I don't know why, but every time I saw this series I thought it was PNR...boy was I wrong. Ms. Nemer is not afraid to kill people, no spoilers promise. She delivers a wonderful storyline about a civil war between the Alugla vampires. Nemer is not afraid to show the dark side of war. It is not all flowers and happy ever afters in this book. I loved Nikole off the bat, though she makes rash choices she's determine to be a strong female and not let her brother's paranoia and over protectiveness get in the way of what she wants: proving that she can fight with the soldiers. Zayn is also very rash which is why him and his sister clash heads so much, they are both stubborn but I found their personalities believable. I love the relationships that developed, but like I said, this isn't a PNR so that is not the main focus of the story.
Synopsis: In a world we think we know, live other races entirely hidden from the mortal perspective. Creatures of legend, of fable and myth, their very history and nature have allowed them to walk side by side with humans since time immemorial. They are warriors, they are hunters, and they are Algula. Vampire. And in their own midst, a battle is brewing for supremacy, for dominance, that can and will affect all around them. Old hatred never dies and vengeance is a fiery sword that cuts a bloody swath.
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Review: Okay so, it's a good thing that I was warned that this was not a romance when I picked it up. I don't know why, but every time I saw this series I thought it was PNR...boy was I wrong. Ms. Nemer is not afraid to kill people, no spoilers promise. She delivers a wonderful storyline about a civil war between the Alugla vampires. Nemer is not afraid to show the dark side of war. It is not all flowers and happy ever afters in this book. I loved Nikole off the bat, though she makes rash choices she's determine to be a strong female and not let her brother's paranoia and over protectiveness get in the way of what she wants: proving that she can fight with the soldiers. Zayn is also very rash which is why him and his sister clash heads so much, they are both stubborn but I found their personalities believable. I love the relationships that developed, but like I said, this isn't a PNR so that is not the main focus of the story.
The sex in this is decent, and I'm trying not to be bias because I've read some of Nemer's newer works and this just doesn't compare. For a first novel it was decent, the writing style is different than I normally like. If seeing different points of view in a single paragraph is not your thing than this won't be for you. It took a little getting used to, but now I expect it for the series. The ending made me go an snatch the other book right back up. I was SO mad at the author for where she ended it....but that's all I'm saying.
Star Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
Heat Rating: hot
(mild, medium, hot, spicy, scorching)
Links: Amazon BN Goodreads
About the Author
Ashley, also known as Niki Becker, is married and lives in Houston with her husband Tony. They have two dogs, Toto and Doogie. They have been together for over 8 and a 1/2 years and he brings her more joy than she could ever imagine as a child. She loves to read and has been hooked on the romance genre ever since her lifelong best friend gave her "Ashes to Ashes' by Tami Hoag to read when they
were younger.
Ashley finds her strength through her family, especially her parents. They always support her in life; they push her to strive for greatness. There once was a motto that Ashley heard in her youth through her Taekwondo life 'Reach for the Stars' and that is what Ashley has always done. It was through her upbringing that the values Ashley has and displays come from. With her parents always cheering her on in life she was able to grow up having faith in herself and her ability to conquer the world.
Ashley enjoys writing many different genre’s of fiction. Her areas range from science fiction/ paranormal, mystery, romance, poetry and erotica (using pen name Niki Becker.)
Links!
http://www.facebook.com/ashers83 (Add Friend)
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Egotism and being an Elitist Part 1.
You've all heard me preach about ego before on how it can hurt your image, but lately I've seen and trend in the author world where an author is better than another author or a group of authors. Is that vague enough for you? Yes, some authors have better writing than another author, this is clear by quality and reviews. But I'm referring to the on going battle of traditional publishing vs indie publishing. You've seen it all over the internet, but here let me pull some quotes for you so we can take a look on how the problem is not just on one side of things.
"To me, it seems disrespectful … that a 'wannabe' assumes it's all so easy s/he can put out a 'published novel' without bothering to read, study, or do the research," said Grafton. "Learning to construct a narrative and create character, learning to balance pace, description, exposition, and dialogue takes a long time. This is not a quick do-it-yourself home project. Self-publishing is a short cut and I don't believe in short cuts when it comes to the arts." -Sue Grafton (pulled from this article)
"The complete opposite is true," he said. "Self-publishing means finding your own proofreader, finding your own editor, finding your own cover designer (or designing your own), doing all your own marketing and sales work, etc. Having a publisher is lazy as all you need to do is write a half-acceptable book and allow your publisher's editor to make it sales-worthy. Self-publishers must do it all – we have no one else to pick up the slack." -Adam Croft (pulled from this article)
Now, I take issue with both of those comments. What? You expected me to come out fighting for the indie author and not disagree? Let me break down my thoughts.
Grafton has a point, anyone can publish on amazon and yes, there is a lot of crap out there. I have to disagree with her that it is a short cut. Those who are truly indie-authors (not doing this for a hobby, but to make a living or trying to make a living) so not see it as a short cut. In fact, it's not a DIY project, it's a job that takes dedication and time. Lots of time.
That being said, we have the other side of things in response to Grafton. A best selling indie author claiming that having a publisher is lazy. I disagree with him on that. It's not lazy, I'm a hybrid author (I do both indie publishing and traditional publishing) guess what, unless you're a huge name author you don't get your marketing paid for and we all know that is a ton of work. Okay, sure so you have an editor, but guess what though they tell you what should be changed and make suggestions, you still have to have a damn good book going in or you don't snag that publisher.
But Grafton isn't the only one who has problems or issues with the indie populations. Kim Harrison had this to say (in regards to price fixing, but still...)
"...force books that are created within the scope of a publishing house to adhere to the same price points as those created by independent authors who are not all paying for marketing, placement, cover artists, proofing, and the building to house these people, not just for their book, but all the books within the publishing house. Independent authors can afford to charge a lower price because they do not have these things. Indeed, they should be allowed to charge a lower price to garner the attention that they miss by not being associated with a big six publisher. But forcing those who _are_ paying for marketing, cover artists, proofing, ect, not just for their book, but others in the publishing house..." (taken from here)
I must wonder who Ms. Harrison thinks pays for all that when it comes to indie-authors. Yes, I understand that there are overheads that publishers must cover and honestly the price fight is a topic for another day. But that comment makes me wonder...do traditionally published authors really know what goes into indie publishing?
Here she is again "You can’t ask someone who has been working their entire life at crafting words into cohesive stories to be valued equal to someone who has been at it for two years. Would you work at a job for 20 years, then accept a new, forced salary commensurate with the mail room guy? No. Of course not." (taken from here)
In my free lance work I've read books that are just as good as a big press author who plan on going indie. I've ready authors who have been at it for years, are big press published and it's crap. My point is, quality is found everywhere. Not just in big publishers, not just in indies. I've been writing since high school, it's a passion, who is she to say someone who has the same passion for the craft isn't to be valued equally?
This is a challenge we face as indie authors. Elitism from traditionally published authors. This is a problem this wall needs to be broken down to where we are all just authors. Now don't die of shock, but this is also a problem on the indie side of things. I'll be covering that my next post. So stay tuned.
"To me, it seems disrespectful … that a 'wannabe' assumes it's all so easy s/he can put out a 'published novel' without bothering to read, study, or do the research," said Grafton. "Learning to construct a narrative and create character, learning to balance pace, description, exposition, and dialogue takes a long time. This is not a quick do-it-yourself home project. Self-publishing is a short cut and I don't believe in short cuts when it comes to the arts." -Sue Grafton (pulled from this article)
"The complete opposite is true," he said. "Self-publishing means finding your own proofreader, finding your own editor, finding your own cover designer (or designing your own), doing all your own marketing and sales work, etc. Having a publisher is lazy as all you need to do is write a half-acceptable book and allow your publisher's editor to make it sales-worthy. Self-publishers must do it all – we have no one else to pick up the slack." -Adam Croft (pulled from this article)
Now, I take issue with both of those comments. What? You expected me to come out fighting for the indie author and not disagree? Let me break down my thoughts.
Grafton has a point, anyone can publish on amazon and yes, there is a lot of crap out there. I have to disagree with her that it is a short cut. Those who are truly indie-authors (not doing this for a hobby, but to make a living or trying to make a living) so not see it as a short cut. In fact, it's not a DIY project, it's a job that takes dedication and time. Lots of time.
That being said, we have the other side of things in response to Grafton. A best selling indie author claiming that having a publisher is lazy. I disagree with him on that. It's not lazy, I'm a hybrid author (I do both indie publishing and traditional publishing) guess what, unless you're a huge name author you don't get your marketing paid for and we all know that is a ton of work. Okay, sure so you have an editor, but guess what though they tell you what should be changed and make suggestions, you still have to have a damn good book going in or you don't snag that publisher.
But Grafton isn't the only one who has problems or issues with the indie populations. Kim Harrison had this to say (in regards to price fixing, but still...)
"...force books that are created within the scope of a publishing house to adhere to the same price points as those created by independent authors who are not all paying for marketing, placement, cover artists, proofing, and the building to house these people, not just for their book, but all the books within the publishing house. Independent authors can afford to charge a lower price because they do not have these things. Indeed, they should be allowed to charge a lower price to garner the attention that they miss by not being associated with a big six publisher. But forcing those who _are_ paying for marketing, cover artists, proofing, ect, not just for their book, but others in the publishing house..." (taken from here)
I must wonder who Ms. Harrison thinks pays for all that when it comes to indie-authors. Yes, I understand that there are overheads that publishers must cover and honestly the price fight is a topic for another day. But that comment makes me wonder...do traditionally published authors really know what goes into indie publishing?
Here she is again "You can’t ask someone who has been working their entire life at crafting words into cohesive stories to be valued equal to someone who has been at it for two years. Would you work at a job for 20 years, then accept a new, forced salary commensurate with the mail room guy? No. Of course not." (taken from here)
In my free lance work I've read books that are just as good as a big press author who plan on going indie. I've ready authors who have been at it for years, are big press published and it's crap. My point is, quality is found everywhere. Not just in big publishers, not just in indies. I've been writing since high school, it's a passion, who is she to say someone who has the same passion for the craft isn't to be valued equally?
This is a challenge we face as indie authors. Elitism from traditionally published authors. This is a problem this wall needs to be broken down to where we are all just authors. Now don't die of shock, but this is also a problem on the indie side of things. I'll be covering that my next post. So stay tuned.
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
The Free Book
This is another article written from experiences from my other personality. I won't be sharing exact numbers, but I'll be telling you about when I put book 1 up as free as a loss lead. With my particular series, I had started out with a free short story. It hit page 1 on most downloads for it's genre on Smashwords, but it didn't do a whole lot on Amazon. I was optimistic thinking that these insane amount of people who downloaded it were going to buy book 1, boy was I wrong.
I released book 1, my second novel (my first novel was a standalone) and sold very few copies in the first month. That was over a year ago now. Since then I've released two other books in the series. Sales were down and despite doing many of the things I had read in the marketing books I wasn't improving. A good friend told me to follow the loss lead idea. Put the first book free. I was reluctant. Why should I do that? I shouldn't have to discount my work for people to pick it up. So I waited. When I was getting ready to release the third book, she gave me that final push.
"Get to it."
What did I have to lose? It wasn't selling anyways, it's not like I'd be missing out on money. So I took a deep breath and changed it, soon it became permifree on Amazon and BOOM it made it to the top 20 for free in several categories. I was floored. So that meant all those people would by my second and third book right?
Well, not right off the bat, but let me tell you something. It was worth putting that for free. My numbers doubled the first month and just kept climbing from there. From looking at my royalty statements, I can tell the month that I put the book for free, because my numbers jump. So yes. I think it's worth putting the first book for free. Some people are saying that it's loosing it's effect, but I really think that it's just as effective. Suck it up buttercup, if that first book isn't selling well, what do you have to lose.
Am I going to do this for my other series under that name, I sure am!
I released book 1, my second novel (my first novel was a standalone) and sold very few copies in the first month. That was over a year ago now. Since then I've released two other books in the series. Sales were down and despite doing many of the things I had read in the marketing books I wasn't improving. A good friend told me to follow the loss lead idea. Put the first book free. I was reluctant. Why should I do that? I shouldn't have to discount my work for people to pick it up. So I waited. When I was getting ready to release the third book, she gave me that final push.
"Get to it."
What did I have to lose? It wasn't selling anyways, it's not like I'd be missing out on money. So I took a deep breath and changed it, soon it became permifree on Amazon and BOOM it made it to the top 20 for free in several categories. I was floored. So that meant all those people would by my second and third book right?
Well, not right off the bat, but let me tell you something. It was worth putting that for free. My numbers doubled the first month and just kept climbing from there. From looking at my royalty statements, I can tell the month that I put the book for free, because my numbers jump. So yes. I think it's worth putting the first book for free. Some people are saying that it's loosing it's effect, but I really think that it's just as effective. Suck it up buttercup, if that first book isn't selling well, what do you have to lose.
Am I going to do this for my other series under that name, I sure am!
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