Friday's Round Up - January 11, 2013

Seven Publishing Trends that Will Define 2013 (via Dear Author)
New Year's Confession: Literary Fiction Scares Me — This is an interesting take on genre fiction vs. literary fiction and one man's experience working with both.

Is your New Year's resolution to write more or write consistently?  The Positivity Blog has some tips on how to make that resolution stick.

Galley Cat talks about How to Apply for a National Endowment for the Arts Grant

Indie Reader has a post on how to decide whether to read a self-published book that contains many great tips to consider when you think you are ready to publish.

Indie Book Review – Steel City: Part One by William Carlson II

The world as we know it is gone. After the devastating, airborne TD1 virus wiped out most of the population in 2013, the ones that survived now live in a post-war world of fear and chaos. The City of Pittsburgh perseveres with its own military for protection and a medical team searching for a cure. One night a group of refugees appear seeking medical attention for a sick child. The medical unit checks the drifters for TD1 and other contagions, while the child’s father tells them about the world outside the walls of Pittsburgh. He warns them of a sociopath currently eradicating religious sects in Ohio. The madman, Roland Damien, will probably come for Pittsburgh next. He has a vendetta against the Steel City and Lincoln Adams who has sworn to protect it.

William J. Carlson II makes his debut with Steel City: Part One. A quick read, Steel City begins as a straightforward post-apocalyptic novel: no zombies, no meteor, just a killer cold. The book is one long bated breath: anxious and intense moments give way to teaser action scenes. Snippets of imagery and details help to liven up the dialogue. While many of the characters seem underdeveloped in this first installment of a series, Sarge, Adams’ commanding officer, does not disappoint. He brings a patented, hardass military demeanor and memorable axioms to the story. Readers only get a peek of villain Damien in this book, but he is efficiently drawn as a believably heartless war machine.

The ebook format was a challenge to read, with paragraphs seemingly indented by E.E. Cummings. The book could also be improved with a small amount of technical editing to correct tense changes, and extra and missing words.

Despite some technical shortcomings, this is a post-apocalyptic story that deserves a read. It has its ups and downs; and though it leaves readers with numerous questions, it also promises to deliver in the forthcoming books of this planned trilogy.

This book is available on Amazon. Steel City: Part Two is scheduled for release in March 2013. 

-Kristen

Know Your Readers

In this day of customized-everything, everyone expects to be able to get their coffee, their pens and notebooks, and everything else just to their liking. To make this happen, they seek out the places that cater to their preferences. 

The reader experience is no different. Readers go to a certain shelf in the bookstore or a certain blog to read reviews of the kind of books that they prefer. They hop on Goodreads to check out one of the site’s many Top Ten genre lists or over to Amazon’s unlimited number of suggestions.   

It is more important than ever to know who your readers are. As the writer, you know your book better than anybody else. Think about who you envision reading your book. Now think about what else that reader would have on his shelf or stocked in their ereader. What genre is it? Horror? Romance? Self-help?

Now dig deeper and really think about what sub-category your book would fall under. So it’s horror – are there ghosts? Zombies? Crazy people? Now think about the reader some more – How old are they? Young adults? Teens? Your average 30-something workaholic? 

By narrowing your book’s genre and envisioning your reader, you give yourself a starting point and focus in your promotion efforts. Now go connect with them.

Indie Book Review - Hush Money (Talent Chronicles #1) by Susan Bischoff

 Set in an almost dystopic America where those born with Talents (ie: super powers) are taken away to camps where unspeakable things happen to them. Joss is a teenaged girl with a tragic past who wants nothing more than to fade in the background. The less she's noticed the safer she and her family are. Enter Marco, a two-bit thug extorting Kat, Joss's new friend and fellow Talent. Can Kat, Joss, and Joss's crush Dylan stop Marco or is Joss's biggest fear about to become a reality?

Hush Money, the first in The Talent Chronicles, reads like a superhero origins story without the spandex suits. The plot may seem familiar, but the strength of the story is in the characters. Joss is a truly conflicted heroine, taught to never get involved or risk exposure to herself and her family watching her struggle to choose between her family and standing up for her friend is what kept me hooked throughout the book. She doesn't always make the choices I want her to, but every choice feels authentic and the character growth evolves naturally throughout the book. Marco, Joss's rival and a truly disturbing villain, was the other standout character. It's not his anger or ability to do violence that makes him so chilling. It's his cleverness. Marco is not your typical dumb bully. He's cunning, narcissistic and as amoral as they come. What makes him even more chilling is when he's juxtaposed with his best friend Dylan's memories of him as a younger, kinder version of himself.

My only real issue with Hush Money comes from the world building. The details given to the reader about this world of super powers is sparse at best and what we are told, that the government takes away Talents and all Talents are afraid of them, seems inconsistent. I'm still not sure if the fear that permeates Joss's life is a symptom of her family's paranoia, the town's refusal to talk about Talents and their fates, or a national aura of fear and suspicion. More details and a more consistent tone would have made the world cohesive and much more realistic.

n the end, this book was a quick tense read with a couple amazing characters and I can't wait to read Out Past Curfew, the second in the Talent Chronicles.  Hush Money is available on Amazon and B&N. 

The Importance of Goodreads

Goodreads is a social site connecting over 13million book lovers. Create a free account to have access to millions of book reviews, suggestions tailored to your preferences, and access to hundreds of lists organized by subject, genre, or just somebody’s favorite books.  You can keep a running tab of books you have read, want to read, and are currently reading and also join a book discussion group that fits your reading preferences.  Also, keep an eye out for giveaways, polls, and contests.

As an author, this is great place to make connections with your target audience.  It’s very important to keep in mind that as a social site specifically designed for book lovers, people come to Goodreads to find books to add to the To Be Read list and also to make reading suggestions—not to be spammed by authors who, justified or not, are just trying to share their great book. The strategy here is to connect to other readers through posting reviews of books you have read, joining a group, and commenting on other readers’ reviews and book lists. There are so many ways to connect!

In addition to connecting to readers through these various measures, you should create an Author Page where you can list your own book(s) and also where to purchase or download them. Every time your earn another connection, that reader will more than likely view your profile and read about your book. By making sure to have a wonderfully written summary that highlights why your book is a great book, that connection will be likely to add your book to their To Be Read list or – even better – purchase your book to read.  Listing your book on your Author Page has the added benefit of keeping track of who is reviewing your book and what they have to say.

Check out our page on Goodreads!

Friday's Round Up - December 28, 2012

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and are having fun getting ready for the new year!

Forbes on ebook price wars. (via Stephen's Lighthouse)

Nine tips for finishing that novel (via Cynthia Leitich Smith)

How to keep writing if your schedule changes.

Litreactor has a series: Adventures in Self-Publishing

An interesting list of new small internet publications.  I can definitely see these becoming more popular.  (via not martha)

Have a Happy New Year, everyone!

Indie Book Review - Dalek I Loved You by Nick Griffiths

From the title, most would assume that the entire book is about Daleks and Doctor Who. Instead, Griffiths has composed a series of vignettes about how Doctor Who has influenced his life in so many ways. It is an amusing memoir and a tribute to the sci-fi show Doctor Who. The stories are woven in and out of chronological order giving the reader a broad insight to how exactly Doctor Who shaped the author and led to him seeing the TARDIS and meeting David Tennant. However, the quickly changing settings sometimes made it difficult for me to maintain interest for longer periods and the book felt a little disjointed at times.

As someone who admittedly has not seen much of the original Doctor Who, I really enjoyed the synopses of the episodes and detailed descriptions of leading characters. Names will be familiar to those who have only seen the new rendition of Doctor Who. The stories are often hilarious and mostly interesting regardless of how much knowledge you may have about Doctor Who.

Largely due to its vignette style, this book is best to be read in small doses. Catch a story while riding the bus to work or waiting in line at the post-office this holiday season.  Anyone with a basic familiarity of Doctor Who will enjoy Dalek I Loved You. You can find this ebook on Amazon.

-Patti