Writing with a mission.

Category: indie authors

New short story from C.L. Wells – Domestic Bliss

Sariah Delphi is excited to be bringing home the latest domestic humanoid robot for a test run. A robot that she helped develop, it is the most advanced of its kind. She should be blissfully happy, but her ex-boyfriend-turned-stalker, Jerry, is putting a damper on her mood. As Sariah puts her new domestic robot through its paces, Jerry becomes increasingly bold in his attempts to get Sariah to take him back. But as things get heated between Jerry and Sariah, Sariah’s new robot turns out to be a surprising ally in helping to keep Jerry in line.

Offering a futuristic and intriguing look at domestic violence, I hope you will enjoy this suspense-filled story with an entertaining twist.  Download it for FREE here.

The Testament Stone – just published!

I’m excited to announce that I just published a new paranormal mystery entitled The Testament Stone: A Megyn Keith Paranormal Mystery!

When her best friend is murdered by a deranged killer, Megyn Keith unexpectedly inherits an ancient pendant with strange powers.  She is led on a journey of discovery as the powers of the pendant begin to manifest and reveal clues about who the murderer is and why they committed the crime.  As Megyn gets closer and closer to the truth, she unknowingly becomes the killer’s next target.  Out of her element and running out of time, she must discover who the real killer is and avenge her best friend’s death before she becomes the next victim.

This first book in the Megyn Keith Paranormal Mystery series is fast-paced, filled with memorable characters, and contains plenty of plot twists to keep you guessing until the very end.

You can pick up a copy HERE. Enjoy!

 

The Book Cover Argument

It’s been a while since my last post, so I thought I would post a quick update regarding my own writing before I get into the main topic.  I’m currently busy writing a new paranormal murder-mystery entitled The Testament Stone, which should be ready to publish in about a month.  If you want to be notified when it comes out and get one of my books for free, simply sign up on my reader’s list here.  On the marketing front, I’ve recently joined Nick Stephenson’s dream team network, where authors can network with each other and run joint promotions.  I believe it is currently open exclusively to members of the first 10,000 readers program (another great Nick Stephenson program), which you can find out more about here if you are so inclined.

Now, on to the book cover argument!

One of the often overlooked arguments in favor of publishing your own work instead of going with a traditional publisher concerns book cover art.  In a traditional publishing arrangement, the standard contract stipulates that the publisher, NOT the author, has final control over what the cover looks like.  It would be a mistake to believe that the publisher’s main goal in selecting a cover for your work is to create a cover that best represents the spirit and content of your work, be it a novel, novella, or picture book.  I think it is safe to say that, in most cases, the goal of the publisher in selecting a cover for any book they publish, is to MAXIMIZE SALES.

Now, as a writer, you may be thinking – GREAT!  I want to maximize sales too, let them have at it!  But what happens when the cover design they select is something you consider to be a mis-representation of your work, or worse, a total betrayal of the spirit of your work?  I came across an example of this recently in an article published in Poets & Writers magazine by author Steve Almond.  In the article, he cites an experience he had recently concerning how his publisher handled his cover ideas for his recent book Against Football: One Fan’s Reluctant Manifesto (Melville House, 2014).  Steven had campaigned for a violent and combative image, but his publisher disagreed:

“My logic was that a dangerous book should have a dangerous cover.

The publisher disagreed. He expressed concerns that a violent image would turn off female readers and might prevent the book from being stocked in larger venues, such as Costco. A draft of the proposed cover he sent along some weeks later consisted of the title atop a stock photo of a shiny red football helmet sitting upside down.

In the end, our views of how the cover should function were entirely incompatible. Even worse, the process of trying to negotiate these differences eroded all sense of good faith.”

For good or bad, the first thing most people notice about your book is your cover.  Many people (including myself) often make a visceral decision over whether to investigate a book’s content further because of how they perceive and judge the cover art.   Whether you write fiction or non-fiction, your work is a work of art – that’s certainly how I see my own work.  The cover is also a work of art.  I personally want 100% creative control over the cover art of my books, and as an indie publisher of my own work, I do.

I’d love to hear what you think about this topic in the comment section below.

Grammarly – a great editing tool

I have been busy since my last post. I have released two new books, attended YALLfest in Charleston, SC, survived a cold I caught from my seven-year-old which caused me to miss my own book release party, and survived the birthday party for said seven-year-old (who is now 8!).

Like most people with a blog, I sometimes struggle with what to post. I need to post something in order to keep and grow readership (or so everyone tells me). However, I have so much else going on in my life; I don’t often think about what my next blog post should be about. In lieu of just putting something out here to fill up space, I have decided to give a plug to a writing tool that I have begun to use recently called Grammarly.

My wife first put me on to this handy little tool when she purchased it for use in editing papers for college. One version of it can be used online for free, and the premium paid version can be downloaded and installed as a plugin for MS Word and Outlook email (and possibly other apps – check the website for a complete list). I have begun using it to correct grammar mistakes in my manuscripts, and I have to say I am impressed. It catches far more than the MS Word grammar and spell-checker does, and it gives contextual notes for every suggested correction if desired.

Not 100% of the suggestions the program makes are worth taking, but the vast majority of them are, and it has helped improve my writing. I’m sure my editor will be thankful I have begun using this little jewel when I send her my next manuscript. The program also checks for plagiarism in an extensive online database (I haven’t seen this part in action, though). This tool saved me from three comma placement errors in this post alone. At $139 a year for the paid version, it is a bit pricey, but if you are a full-time student or seeking to be a professional writer, it is definitely a tool you may wish to consider. You can always use the free version if the price isn’t right for you.

Free-eBooks.net – a good place to post your permafree book.

Many indie authors know that having a permanently free book (a.k.a permafree) available for readers to download is a great tool to use when building your mailing list and garnering new readers for your books – especially if it is the first in a book series.  But for many new authors, the problem is knowing how to go about making people aware of the fact that your free book is available at all.  No matter how good your work is, if people don’t know about it, they won’t read it.

Alas, I am a relatively new author, having just released my second fiction book – The Tucson Prophecy.  This book is now permafree and is the prequel novella to my full-length paranormal thriller novel The Seer (The Seer is now available for pre-order through a variety of retailers and being released for sale on November 11, 2016).  When I released my book, I had ZERO people on my mailing list, and a pitifully small following on my Amazon author page, Goodreads author page, and blog (read less than about fifteen followers all-told).  So my big challenge was (and is) HOW do I make people aware of my permafree book so they will give me a chance as an author and possibly buy my book The Seer when it comes out.

Enter Free-eBooks.net.  Now, as a matter of full disclosure, I have already listed The Tucson Prophecy for free on a number of retailers, even getting up as high as #13 in the top 100 free books on Amazon.com for my category (yeah!).  I have also reached out on social media and even handed out fliers to people on the street advertising The Tucson Prophecy.  All this activity had netted me a total of  eight sign-ups on my email list as of yesterday.  In keeping with the great indie tradition of never resting on my laurels, I next set my sites on putting my book on the free ebook list sites.  Through my research, Free-eBooks.net came up and I decided to give it a go.

I uploaded my permafree ebook 23 hours ago, and already I have 4 downloads from Free_eBooks.net and someone else just signed up on my email list.  Not bad, in my opinion.  Now, I have no way of knowing if the recent email list sign-up was from my listing at Free-eBooks.net, but it encouraged me to keep plugging away at making more and more people aware of my free book via the free ebook list sites.  So here’s to all of you indies out there.  Keep writing great books, and give Free-eBooks.net a try!

Happy writing,

C.L. Wells

Interview with author Andrew Linke

Staff of Moses by Andrew Linke

Staff of Moses by Andrew Linke

Author:  Andrew Linke

Genres: pulp adventure and science fiction

Andrew has played at writing stories and comics since childhood.  He started writing seriously in 2011. Since then he has published several novels, including a number in the Oliver Lucas series, available on Amazon.com and other retailers.  Andrew currently works as a middle-school English teacher in Virginia.  The following is an interview I had recently with him:

Q:  Can you tell my readers about what genre you write in and why you chose it?

A:  I primarily write pulp adventure and science fiction.  I chose pulp adventure because I love films like Indiana Jones and books like Neuromancer: Gritty adventures with heroes who are not great role models, but always end up doing the right thing.

Q:  Can you tell us the title of your most recently published work, and a bit about the storyline?

A:  Over the summer I finished two books: Words of Power is the fifth novel in the Oliver Lucas adventure series. Directly following the events in the previous novel, Words of Power follows Oliver as he tries to finally assemble the mystical machine which he has been seeking for over ten years. Wrapping up plot threads from the previous four novels, it is not the end of the Oliver Lucas series, but a close to the first “season” of the series before I launch the next season of Oliver Lucas books in a year or two.

Q:  Are you working on any new project at the moment, and if so, can you tell us about it?

A:  I’ve always got several projects running at once. With Words of Power and Dyson’s Angel wrapping up I’m currently focusing on a couple of short story projects while I finish my outline for a crime novel called A Cold Day to Drown.   A Cold Day to Drown will be set in an east coast city about 50-100 years in the future. The main character, Talbot Liu, is a private detective who turned to working the underground after repeated anxiety attacks disqualified him for work as a Field Agent with the federal government. The genre will be something between cyberpunk, a genre which is difficult to write now that many of its core features have either been surpassed or proven impractical by modern technology, so you might call A Cold Day to Drown a post-cyberpunk crime thriller.

Q:  How long, on average, does it take you to write a book?

A:  I write about two to four pages a day in the evening and on weekends, between working on lesson plans and grading papers for my full time job as a teacher. At that pace, I finish the first draft of a novel in about six months, then take another three to six months to revise it. Overall, I tend to write about one and a half books a year, plus a few short stories and role playing game supplements.

Q:  What are some goals you would like to accomplish as a writer in the next five years?

A:  My biggest goal in the next few years is to make enough money from my writing to join the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America. I’m close… but not quite there. I’ve also started submitting my science fiction novels to publishing houses and, while it would be nice to make a living as an independent writer, I would be thrilled to have my novels picked up under a traditional publishing contract.


If you would like to connect with Andrew and/or learn more about his writing, check out these social media and contact links:

Website: www.andrewlinke.com

Facebook: facebook.com/booksbylinke

Twitter: @darkillumine

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Andrew-Linke/e/B009YN1WGA

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/andrewlinke

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6454208.Andrew_Linke

email address/contact form link: readers@andrewlinke.com

Interview with author Sarah Biglow

I recently interviewed author Sarah Biglow, author of the Geeks and Things Cozy Mysteries series.  Sarah is a licensed attorney who spends her days combating employment discrimination as an Investigator with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.  She is a self-professed TV junkie and when she isn’t working or writing, she helps run a TV recap blog along with her best friend. Sarah currently enjoys an array of TV shows including Once Upon a Time, Blindspot, Chicago Fire, Chicago Med, Chicago PD, Grimm, The Flash and Arrow.

I wrote a book review on the first book in her Geeks and Things Cozy Mysteries series, Pains and Penalties, which is accessible here.  You can pick up this novella (currently for free) on Amazon.

Now, without further delay, here is the interview:

Q: Sarah, can you tell us a bit about the Cozy Mystery genre and why you chose this genre to write in?

A: Well, I actually write in several genres (mostly urban fantasy for adults and young adults) but cozy mysteries are generally characterized by the small town setting and the amateur detective lead character. Most of the time they are female and they work alongside the police (although not in any official capacity) in solving the case. They aren’t usually very detail heavy on the crimes themselves and they are pretty light in tone. I decided to try my hand at them because I knew they were a genre that was getting a lot of attention and was pretty popular so it had a pretty big base of readers to dip into. They were pretty easy to write as I had the basic plots laid out and after the first story, I made each case have a personal link to my heroine.

Q: Can you tell us the title of your most recently published work, and a bit about the storyline?

A: The last thing I published was novella #5 in my cozy series, Saints and Sinners. Not to give too much away, but it is Kalina and Chris’s last case as they prepare to welcome their first child. Secrets from the town’s past come to light as they unravel the latest mystery.

Q: Are you working on any new project at the moment, and if so, can you tell us about it?

A: I am currently preparing to put my debut young adult novel, Muse Song, through the Kindle Scout program (readers can nominate books they are interested in reading and if the book is chosen, it will be published by Amazon’s imprint). I am also working on revising the first book in an adult urban fantasy series. It has been a challenge as I am basically rewriting the entire novel. I also have a young adult supernatural trilogy I am writing as well.

Q: What do you find most fulfilling about being a writer?

A: I love being able to tell all the stories in my head and share them with people. I’m pretty sure I’d go crazy if I didn’t get the ideas out of my head! (And as you can see from my previous answers, I have a lot going on in my head at any given time).

Q: What are some goals you would like to accomplish as a writer in the next five years?

A: I would really like to get to a place where I have 1-2 new releases a year and that I can earn enough from my writing to pay my student loans each month (I know it doesn’t sound overly glamorous but it’s the truth). I’ve got a day job that absolutely love so there is no way I’d be leaving that, but if I can put some books out there that people find interesting, that would make me very happy.

If you would like to know more about Sarah’s work, here is a link to her website, along with other social media particulars:

Website: www.sarah-biglow.com

Twitter: @SBiglowWrites

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Sarah-Biglow/e/B00J3YZN7O/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/sarah_biglow

Email address/contact form link: sarah.authornewsletter@gmail.com

Pains and Penalties – a book review

A fun read for mystery fans. If you like Agatha Christie, you’ll like Sarah Biglow. I’m a fan already. This book is a quick read at only 77 pages, and its a good thing too, because I couldn’t put it down once the action started rolling. The small-town setting gives this murder-mystery a rural edge, and the city dweller-come-home heroine of the story is a cracker-jack sleuth in addition to being a local business owner. The way the mystery is pieced together is totally believable, and the twist at the end of this whodunit will leave you wanting to read the next book in the series (I’ve already sent off for the prequel!).

I’m a big fan of Agatha Christie, but am surprised to say I have never heard of the Cozy Mystery genre before. Pains and Penalties is an excellent addition to this mystery genre.

The Tucson Prophecy – Chapter 1 sample

Here is a sample of my newest book, The Tucson Prophecy, to be released this October.  Enjoy!

Chapter One

Tuesday, September 3, 2002

 

“Mr. O’Conner, it’s good to meet you,” the doctor said, extending his hand.

Jimmy shook his hand without saying anything, but that didn’t seem to matter much, as the doctor didn’t skip a beat.

“Your sister has told me so much about you,” the doctor continued.

Jimmy wasn’t one for small talk, and he didn’t much care for hospitals.  In fact, the only person in the whole world who could get him to set foot in one voluntarily was lying in a hospital bed in the next room.

“How bad is it, doc?”

“Straight to the point, I see.  O.k.  Well, Mr. O’Conner, your sister is in the advanced stages of heart failure.  As you probably already know, she had a VAD – a ventricular assist device, put in last year.  However, the disease has progressed since that time, and…”

“Just the bottom line, doc, please.”  Jimmy hated long explanations.

The doctor smiled mechanically before continuing.

“Of course.  I’m afraid that, unless we are able to find a heart donor, she has between two to four months left to live.”

Jimmy nodded his head up and down.

“And where could we find one of these donors?”

“Well, there is an organization called the Organ Procurement and Transplant Network, which maintains a list of all patients in need of an organ transplant.  When a new organ becomes available, they match things like blood type, tissue type, size of the organ, and a number of other things in order to find a suitable donor.  Your sister has been on the donor candidate list for over a year.  If a heart becomes available, she will be one of the top candidates.  Unfortunately, there is no certainty that a heart will become available in time, or that she will be the candidate selected to receive the heart.”

Jimmy nodded his head up and down.

“You already discussed all of this with my sister, correct?”

“Yes, yes, of course.  At this point it is simply a waiting game, Mr. O’Conner.  We’ll keep her as comfortable as we can, and have her ready if a heart should become available.  We’ll be sending her home in a few days, since there’s nothing more we can do for her here at this time.”

“Thanks for the update, doc.”

 

 

Jimmy knocked on the door to his sister’s room and cracked it open a bit.

“O.k. if I come in?”

“Jimmy.  Come on in,” came a weak reply from his sister.

He went in the room and looked at his sister, who was smiling ear to ear at the sight of him.  He felt his heart sink when he saw how pale she was, but he didn’t allow himself to show any emotion other than a slight smile.

“Do you like the flowers I sent you?” he said, as he motioned to the bouquet sitting on the window sill.

“Yes.  You know lilies are my favorite.  Thank you, Jimmy.”

“Nothin’ but the best for you, Sis.”

He stared at her for a moment before continuing.  As far as he was concerned, Sarah was his only family.  She was his half-sister.  They shared the same mother, and she had passed away five years ago, God rest her soul.  Sarah’s father had died two years after that.  As for Jimmy’s father – if the bum was still alive, he didn’t care to know about it.  No, Sarah was it, and he would do anything in the world for her – anything.

“Did the doctor talk to you, Jimmy?”

“Yeah, he did.”

“It doesn’t look too good for me, Jimmy.”

“Yeah… I know.”

“I want to be buried beside mama, in Chicago.”

Jimmy felt a catch in his throat, but he stopped it before a sound escaped his lips and pushed the thought out of his head.

“If it comes to that, I’ll make sure it happens.  You can count on it.”

“Thanks, Jimmy.  I know I can always count on you.  Come here.”

He walked over to her bedside and she picked up one of his hands and held it in hers.  She looked up at Jimmy before continuing.

“I want you to promise me one more thing, Jimmy.”

“Sure thing, Sis, you name it.”

“I want you to get out of Chicago and start a new life… away from the business.”

Sarah never did like to say the word ‘mob’.  Whenever she mentioned it, she always used the word ‘business’.  Jimmy always knew she didn’t approve, but she never said so to his face, never talked down about what he did for a living.  The closest she ever came to it was saying, “Jimmy, you’re better than that.  I know you.  You’re a good person inside.”  He’d thought long and hard about it, too – about starting over.  He’d saved up some money, but it wasn’t quite enough to get out.  The Chicago Mob didn’t exactly approve of people getting out of the business.  It would require a new face, a new identity, a new job, and not just for him – for both of them.  Because if he left, they would come to her to get him back, and then whack them both.

Truth be told, he was tired of the life.  He wasn’t a young man any more, and being an enforcer with the mob required a certain physicality that was better suited to a younger man.  Still, at fifty years old, he was in good shape.  He ate good, exercised regularly, and combined with his impressive natural size and physique, he was able to keep up and do what was required.  But how long could he keep it up?  Another ten years?  Maybe, if he didn’t get injured or killed because he was losing his touch or getting too slow to react in a fight.  He’d been waiting for the right time, and for Jimmy, with everything that was going on with his sister, now was the right time.

“O.k.”

“You mean that, Jimmy?  You’re not just sayin’ that because I’m dyin’?”

“Yeah, I mean it, Sis.  I’ll get out, like you want.”

“Is it something you want for you, Jimmy?”

He paused a moment before responding.

“I’ve been thinkin’ about it, and yeah, I think I want it for me, too.  It’s no life to grow old in, not doin’ what I do.  Besides, I got a lot to make up for so I can see you in heaven.”

Sarah smiled, and Jimmy smiled back at her.

“Thank you, Jimmy.  Thank you.”

By the look on her face, it seemed like a great weight had lifted off of her shoulders.  She seemed to be at peace.  It made Jimmy feel good.

 

 

He left the hospital and drove across the street to a strip-mall where there was a Chinese restaurant called, The Little Dragon.  He settled down into one of the booths and ordered a General Tso combo with egg-drop soup.  He thought about the conversation he had just had with his sister, mulling over the details of what he would need to do to get out of the life while he waited for his meal to arrive.  When it finally came, he wasn’t very hungry.

He ate about half of the meal before giving up and signaling the waiter for the check.  While the waiter was gone getting his change, he opened the fortune cookie and popped it into his mouth, and then he read the fortune.  Suddenly, he stopped chewing.  Staring up at him from the small piece of paper he had just extracted from the cookie were the words of the fortune:

 

Save the girl, and your sister will live.

 

Copyright 20016 – C.L. Wells – all rights reserved.

Should authors say ‘NO’ to Amazon’s KDP Select Program? (part 1)

I’m an indie author.  I published my first book last year on Amazon’s KDP Select program.  For those of you who don’t already know what KDP Select is, it is a program whereby you, as the author, agree to make your ebook available exclusively through Amazon for at least 90 days.  In return, you get the following:

  • Preferential promotion through Amazon’s KDP Select promotional advertisement program.
  • Detailed sales and readership statistic reporting not available to titles that are not in the KDP Select program.
  • Ability to run promotional pricing, including free giveaways, which are not available to non-KDP Select titles.
  • Promotion to Kindle Unlimited users as part of their ‘free’ reading program, thus exposing you to a sizable group of readers who may not otherwise see your book through the other advertisement methods.

Sounds good, right?  Amazon is the largest online book retailer, and they are agreeing to give you preferential marketing status so that your book is advertised to a much wider audience than it otherwise would be.  What’s not to like?  Well, actually, there’s a lot not to like.

Mark Coker, creator of the ebook distribution site Smashwords.com, gave an interview as part of the Indie Fringe 2016 conference on the top trends of the publishing industry.  It is a great interview that I highly recommend.  You can watch it here.  In that interview, he discusses KDP Select.  He had many good points to make, but I want to drill down on just two of them in this post.

  1. The KDP Select program effectively buries all independently published books that are NOT in KDP select in an advertising black-hole.
  2. The KDP Select program is training one of the largest indie reader groups in the world to expect to read books for free, thus undermining sales of indie author titles and ultimately de-valuing indie author ebook titles en masse.

The combination of these two effects is having a negative effect on the indie ebook market.  In order to get premium access to Amazon’s customer base for a new ebook, authors are being asked to give their books away for practically free to a large segment of would-be book buyers (Kindle Unlimited users).  You will get some limited financial reimbursement for this from Amazon, but only for pages actually read, and at a much lower reimbursement than what the book’s selling price actually is.  To add insult to injury, Amazon actually won’t agree to the reimbursement rate until AFTER the sales month ends.  You are effectively surrendering your right to sell your ebook at the selling price you want to this large group of ebook customers.  These readers, whether they like the book or not, will certainly not then BUY the book that they have just read for free.  So, if you sign up for KDP Select, you are effectively discounting your book to the point that you will likely not make much money on this large group of users.

Now, let’s say you take your book OUT of the KDP Select program after the first three months.  Your $3.99 ebook is now positioned to make money hand over fist, right?  Wrong.  Now, all those Kindle Unlimited users, who have likely already read your book for free, don’t want to pay to read it.  Additionally, all the other books still in the KDP Select program are showing up in searches ahead of your book.  Thirdly, your book is no longer new, further negatively impacting your search result standing in the coveted ‘new books’ searches.  Your options?  Lower your price even more in order to compete against a game stacked against you, or re-up for KDP Select.

Ask yourself, all things being equal, why would anyone want to buy your ebook for $3.99 on a market flooded with thousands of new ebooks a week when they could either a) read a similar book for free as a member of the Kindle Unlimited program, or b) find dozens of other books on the same topic listed before they even see your book, that they could buy for the same price?  The answer?  They probably won’t buy your book unless you are an author known to them or your genre is so small or niche that you happen to be on the first few pages of their search results.

The net result is that if you DO sign up for KDP select, you are 1) automatically lowering your per unit sale profit by a huge margin, thus undercutting your overall profitability, and 2) contributing to a system which is rigged by Amazon to ultimately force all indie authors to lower their per-unit prices in order to compete.  In a game rigged like this, where even a book priced at $0.99 is too pricey, nobody wins.

Is there an upside to all of this?  Yes, there is, and that will be the subject of my next post. 😉

 

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