I sat at the computer Monday, quite ill, and quite ill mannered thinking I should write a blog! A blog where I talk about how I took last week off as it was the end of school and things were insane-er than normal in the Kulig house. But I hated the world and told my self, "Self, you can wait until Tuesday." Tuesday turned into Friday. Trust me, no one is happier about that than I am. Even if I haven't been blogging.
Finally, I feel normal and not like a used up bit of towel frayed in all my edges halfway through the day. So now the updates. POMI is really for real being formatted next week. It has been so hard to let go of. My last two books were released between perfectly normal heartbeats; but this book has been giving me anxiety attacks. POMI is getting really special formatting, so it might take a bit longer than normal...........I think Larry Kollar will do it as he goes about the last editing pass though and he has gotten fast. Then a few short weeks after that, DUST OF THE DEAD SEA.
I am sitting here laughing while
writing this post, but I know I shouldn't be. What can I say? I am
that crazy chick who laughs at inappropriate times. Like right
now--when all of you are destroying publishing.
That's right, every single one of you
are ruining it... right now. You should be ashamed of yourself! Of
course, I'm guilty too, but I don't have any shame, that's why I'm an
author.
And if you're an author, you might have
heard of a place known as The Kindle Boards. If you aren't an author,
and don't know what I am talking about I can't tell you...I can't
even be sure of its exact use. It seems to be a place where people
who have published on Amazon come together and complain about things.
At least, that's all I ever see them do there. I admit to mostly
lurking, on account of the one time I decided to say something and
this woman--who is totes a crazy cat lady in my head--HAD to tell me
how wrong I was. That is right I totally magicked myself onto the
best sellers list by not selling any books. That's what she claimed
anyway. {Insert wild head-bob here.}
But I digress, I wanted to share with
you a reoccurring theme there, and that is, as I have stated before,
that you are all destroying publishing. You might not not even know
it yet, but I am hear to tell you it's true!
Recent method of total destruction:
FREE E-BOOKS!
This is my preferred method of roughing
up publishing. The thought is, why will people buy the cow if you are
giving away the milk for free? It's almost perfect! Any saying that
applies to loose women can in turn be applied to loose writers. AM I
RIGHT?
WRONG! These people seem to think that
there are enough e-books out there for free that no one
is going to
want to pay for a book ever. I guess if you are totally forgettable
that might be a problem. If you are writing clone thriller and
romance books and never have any type of original thought--this might
get you down. But I don't want to be forgettable. I don't want to be
mediocre. I plan on making myself irreplaceable--and part of doing
that involves building a loyal following. It's no secret I want you
guys to buy my books--but I don't want it to be a one sided
relationship.
Every time someone says, "Free
e-books have ruined it for the rest of us!" I think they have no
idea what they are doing. I used to be a marketing manager--did you?
The Old Favorite Flavor of Destruction:
.99 E-BOOKS ARE DESTROYING PUBLISHING
I saw an article recently that focused
on the new found malaise of the .99 e-book price tag. My first
thought was, I didn't know that was mandatory. Because damn if I am
not doing it wrong. Technically, I do have two .99 e-books; but they
are both novellas. I like .99 for a novel promotion. BUT IT DOESN'T
MATTER! If someone wants something bad enough they will buy it--that
is why the legacy publishers can charge their prices and not be
socially executed. (Also, they have to pay a lot of people) The .99
is to allow people to find you, as an author. Don't hate.
Again, this goes back to whether or not
you have a following, and if you have people beating down your doors
asking for your next book. People whine about how this doesn't make
for a liveable wage--but I've got bad news, if no one cares about
you, pricing your book inline with traditional publishers isn't going
to save you. The difference in $3.99 and .99 is not going to save
you. The only life preserver an author can hope for is going to be
tossed out to them by fans. Everything else just makes you a few
extra bucks.
And more bad news. If you land an agent
who gets you an awesome contract with Random House and they list your
e-book for $9.99 you are still only going to get around a buck fifty
per e-book. (In this calculation Amazon gives them 70% of list price,
they give you 25%, and you give your agent 15%)
Writing isn't really a get rich quick
scheme. If you are very, very lucky--and smart, you might pull it off
slowly and painfully. That's my plan. Plus remembering to smile when
someone calls me an over night success ;) Yes, I just put an emoticon
in my blog. It's my blog, I can do what I want.
This Last Reason Gives Me Deja Vu, How
About You?: .99 E-BOOKS ARE DESTROYING PUBLISHING (Still)
Before Indie Authors themselves were
all bent out of shape over that whole .99 thing, there was another
group sounding the alarm. That would be the traditional
publishers—and their clients, “How can we complete?” they
whined.
Remember where I talked about how fans
where your only savior as a writer? That applies to you to genius. I
won't pretend for five seconds that me or anyone I know (and I know
some SUPAH-STARS) selling .99 e-books so much as gave Cassandra Clare
a freaking paper cut. Because most of her fangirls are fangirls for
life. She writes it, and they are lining up to buy it before they
know even what it's called or what it will be covered in.
You just think about that. Because it's your fault.
Some of the best advice I ever got on
writing came from a very good friend and enemy; she told me the
secret was simply to outlast everyone else. I believe that is a huge
part of it, I also believe that the next step is making sure no one
else but you will do.
As promised, Pages of Pigments VI! Don't forget to enter the giveaway at the bottom of this post AND if you are writing this weekend go here and sign up for #MWWM Lots of you have told me you are in on Twitter, but not all of you have made it official.
It
was the swan from the painting. But it was someplace different. She
couldn't make out what it had been painted on. A rough paper or a
think crude canvas—she couldn't be sure. It's wooden frame was
splintered, and pulling apart in all the joints. It was so dark that
it was almost black. Lucia touched it with slow and careful
fingertips, wondering if it had always been that shade or if it had
aged with time.
The
swan that sat in the middle of the painting lay almost still. Gliding
so slow, you could almost believe it was an ordinary motionless
painting if not for the little waves that floated away from its
opalescent white feathers. The swan seemed content to sit there—if
not a little sad.
Only
in the corner of the painting where the frame was the most damaged,
it appeared that a large bit of surface of the lake had been
completely torn away. The tare was all jagged edges and paper teeth.
“That's
a shame,” William said, eyes taking in the same damage as Lucia.
It
was a shame, but Ripley didn't say anything at all. He just stood
stiff, staring at the painting until finally he mumbled something
Lucia didn't catch the first time.
Sorry this is a bit late. I had some disasters with JukePop, but I am happy to report they have fab customer service and took care of it like that; I just had to wait 24 hours after the solution to post a new chapter (and then I was actually asleep for once)
Don't forget, you can vote for every chapter; and you can tweet directly from there to tell your friends.
Comments here, there, and everywhere are LOVE <3
Also, it's not too late to sign up for #MWWM (Memorial Weekend Word Marathon) DO IT! You can find the info here.
It's a loooonnnnggggg weekend, and you know what that means; I'm going to be writing a book! How is that different than any other time? Because I plan on finishing the book over said weekend, and you can too! If you have been stalking me on Twitter--and I mean, who ISN'T these days? *wink wink* you might have seen me chatting about organizing a little something something to help motivate others. It has arrived! I feel like this is a bit late notice.
You might know this about me, but sometimes I like to procrastinate.
No, really.
Anyway, there are no official rules. There are no requirements. There aren't any prizes--except for bragging rights and a lot of smugness. You just have you to do your absolute best and tell everyone else about it. If you can't motivate yourself, motivate someone else. It's as easy as that, and these optional steps below:
Tell us your coming in the comments. Leave info on how to track to you down on the internets. Blog? Twitter handle?
I'll go first, this is my blog and you can find me on Twitter at @angelakulig
Snag the awesome badge below, then put it all over the internets! Facebook... webpages... etc.
I'd love to write 65,000 but that is a big goal, even for me. (I write all my first drafts by hand)
We're starting at 12:00 AM your time on Saturday 5.25. I for one, will be napping after dinner Friday night, just to ready myself--you don't have to. You can start whenever you want.
We're wrapping up this bad boy 11:59 Monday, but you can stop whenever your eyeballs start to bleed--unless you are into that (I am).
Don't forget to use the hash tag #MWWM if you are interested in running any sprinting sessions or other motivation whatevers LMK in the comments. Don't think you can't come if you can't stay the whole weekend--everyone can drop by whenever.
HA! I scheduled this post when I did the last one. I am ON TIME! Watch the damn thing not post when it should. Standard warnings--this is not the official edited version, it belongs to me, just because it's on the internet doesn't mean you can claim you wrote it.
The
water was rough. The tide seemed to be coming in faster than Leo
could get away from it. Like an angry blood hound nipping at his
heels, bits of wet drool landing all around.
When
Leo's soggy, sock covered foot his the first stair the water roared
in behind him. He scaled three, then four large steps before turning
and looking back. It wasn't that Leo often found himself here this
time of night, but he was almost positive there was supposed to be a
beach beneath him. There was none. The dark water churned briefly
before slamming into the unwavering seawall and rushing back out.
It
was too deep to see the shore as another wave came in.
No, Leo thought, not normal.
Not unless there was a storm he couldn't see or hear yet. Leo ran the
rest of the way up the stairs before the sea could again claim him.
I hit 6,666 Followers on Twitter this weekend, and for only moments my Twitter account was really, really evil. As promised, Skeleton Lake is now free on Amazon and I want to make it a really big thang. THUS the awesome giveaway. Spread the word, help me move it up the charts.
First things first, click the cover to get your copy.
Now deets on the giveaway. This is a really cool one, but be forwarned--I am having the stuff sent to me and then I will send it to you; I know my giveaways are normally *instant* prizes or 2 day Amazon shipping prizes so I didn't want any surprises.
I sat at the computer Monday, quite ill, and quite ill mannered thinking I should write a blog! A blog where I talk about how I took last week off as it was the end of school and things were insane-er than normal in the Kulig house. But I hated the world and told my self, "Self, you can wait until Tuesday." Tuesday turned into Friday. Trust me, no one is happier about that than I am. Even if I haven't been blogging.
