All right, everyone, the time has come for me to disappear for a couple weeks. It happens every year, so don’t worry, I’ll be back with lots of new content, including more posts on editing, writing, publishing, art, and the martial arts. I even have a few (hopefully awesome) surprises in store, provided I can make them work. But in the meantime, I want to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season. Your continued support of all my efforts is greatly appreciated. 🙂
To prove it, I’m giving away what is arguably one of my more ambitious prizes — a self-publisher’s dream package. It was announced a few weeks ago, but you still have time to enter. And because I’m never one to make people hunt for information, here’s the rundown one more time:
One lucky person will win the following . . .
A comprehensive, top-to-bottom, full manuscript edit (including structural & line edits)
A polished, publish-ready eBook cover design (provided by the talented Ashley Ruggirello of Cardboard Monet)
Assistance creating the all-important book blurb
A final proofread of the type-set, ready-for-print galley (typesetting/formatting itself is not included though)
Doesn’t that sound amazing? Here’s what you have to do to win:
Round One: Currently Happening
Starting right now, you can enter to win via the Rafflecopter form. Simply fill out the various possibilities, and your name will be added to the hat. Enter as many times as you’d like until the form closes at midnight on January 2nd, 2015. On January 3rd, I will select 100 names at random via Rafflecopter’s handy little service. Those lucky people will move on to round two. (And yes, they will be announced on the blog, so you’ll all know who to congratulate.)
Round Two: Starts Jan. 3rd, 2015
This is where the competition gets a little fierce. The 100 winners will be required to submit a query, along with the first 5 pages of their manuscript, via email. (Specific instructions will be sent to the winners on the appropriate date.) I will review them all, and much like an acquisitions editor, I will select the final winner based both on potential and the quality of your pitch. I’ll be looking for the person I think will gain the most value from our help, so your manuscript definitely doesn’t have to be perfect yet, but it does need to be complete. Also, I will consider novellas, but not short stories.
My final decision will be made by January 30th, 2015, and the lucky winner will be announced. So sharpen those pitches, people. Make it so I absolutely have to pick you.
It’s no secret that Christmas is my favorite holiday, and those that have hung around here for awhile know that I tend to celebrate it by doing a giveaway every year. This year’s no exception, though I am starting it earlier than normal due to the fact it’s my birthday today, and I’m feeling especially generous. 😉
What do I have hidden up my sleeve this time? Something I think many of you will be super excited for. See, I’ve teamed up with the design genius behind the REUTS Publications book covers to bring you a self-published author’s dream — a full-fledged, FREE prize that will take your manuscript from draft to publication-ready. Yep, Cardboard Monet’s Ashley Ruggirello and I have combined our freelance prowess to offer one lucky person the following:
A comprehensive, top-to-bottom, full manuscript edit (including structural & line edits)
A polished, publish-ready eBook cover design
Assistance creating the all-important book blurb
A final proofread of the type-set, ready-for-print galley (typesetting/formatting itself is not included though)
It might not be all-inclusive, as you will still need to find a formatter and to create your own marketing materials, but I think you’ll agree that’s a pretty significant monetary value being offered up for free. Every author knows that the two most expensive aspects of self-publishing are the editing and the cover design, so why not take advantage of this rare chance to gain both in one fell swoop?
I’ve got your attention now, yes? 😉
Here’s what you have to do:
Round One:
Starting right now, you can enter to win via the Rafflecopter form. Simply fill out the various possibilities, and your name will be added to the hat. Enter as many times as you’d like until the form closes at midnight on January 2nd, 2015. On January 3rd, I will select 100 names at random via Rafflecopter’s handy little service. Those lucky people will move on to round two. (And yes, they will be announced on the blog, so you’ll all know who to congratulate.)
Round Two:
This is where the competition gets a little fierce. The 100 winners will be required to submit a query, along with the first 5 pages of their manuscript, via email. (Specific instructions will be sent to the winners on the appropriate date.) I will review them all, and much like an acquisitions editor, I will select the final winner based both on potential and the quality of your pitch. I’ll be looking for the person I think will gain the most value from our help, so your manuscript definitely doesn’t have to be perfect yet, but it does need to be complete. Also, I will consider novellas, but not short stories.
My final decision will be made by January 30th, 2015, and the lucky winner will be announced. So sharpen those pitches, people. Make it so I absolutely have to pick you.
As you read this, I may or may not be slightly hungover from too many shots of Fireball whiskey, striving valiantly to survive a business trip to Vegas (yes, Vegas, baby, and no, it’s not at all as fun as it sounds) for the Day Job of Doom. (Fun fact, though, one of the products we sell at the Day Job of Doom, and the lovely sponsor of said business trip to Vegas, is responsible for the water fountain show at the Bellagio hotel. You’re welcome, World.) But, since I have never missed posting something for your entertainment, I managed to find a few moments to schedule this post.
Today’s offering is an excerpt from a newly released title by Curiosity Quills press. But before we get into that, here’s the scoop on the book itself:
Sixteen-year old Toby was trained by a family of hunters to kill shape-shifters—but he has a unique weapon in his arsenal. With a touch of his hand, Toby can lift the magical protection shape-shifters use to disguise themselves as human. It’s an unusual skill for a hunter, and he prefers to kill monsters the old-fashioned way: with a blade.Because of his special skill, Toby suspects he may be a monster himself. His suspicions deepen when William, a jackal-headed shape-shifter, saves him from an ambush where Toby’s the only survivor. And Toby doubts William helped him for purely altruistic reasons. With his list of allies running thin, Toby must reconcile his hatred of shifters and the damning truth that one saved his life. It’ll take both of them to track down the monster who ordered the ambush.
And Toby needs his unlikely alley because he has a vicious enemy—the infamous Circe, who has a vendetta to settle against the hunters. Toby has to unravel the mystery of his dual nature. And he has to do it on the run—before Circe finds him and twists him to her own ends.
Sounds cool, doesn’t it? I found the blend of mythology and fantasy to be fascinating. But anyway, on to the excerpt!
One of the shifters growls and sprints across the carpet. It pounds down on me like a speeding train. I pivot, duck, and thrust upwards with my hunting knife. I connect with flesh, slitting the stomach when it leaps over me. The canine shifter staggers into a mattress column, howling with rage, splitting my ear drums. Deafened, I can’t hear the other one attack. It flashes by, maybe some type of feline, pinning me underneath it. My mother screams. Claws dig into my chest, but I thrust upwards and kick it off like I’m launching from the gymnastics vault. My vision bursts into a thousand colors. I punch my knife hand into the feline, and the blade glints in the flashlight beam after each strike. The animal wheezes, and in its death spasms, falls down on top of me. I gasp under its weight, avoiding the last snaps of its jaw before it goes limp, but my eyes are still popping. The flashlight rolls, spinning the world in dollar store yellow lighting. I fumble for my Bowie knife, numb hand grasping chunks of cheap carpet. There’s a scuffle, and in the beam of light, on the other side of a stack of off-white mattresses, my mum is crouched. She only has her butterfly knife left, and she’s swinging it at the giant wolf approaching her. Its eyes glow like a hell hound’s. She backs up, and through neon color pops, I watch the wolf jump at her. She thrusts the knife into its throat. Its breath gurgles as it dies, but I can’t see either my mother or the wolf over the mattresses now. The scent of blood floods the air like after a shark attack. It can’t be my mum’s―there’s too much of it. My heart is still beating, and it’s driving the bile up my throat. I’m rocking on one of those cheap county fair rides. The world tilts up and down, whirling me until the little cart breaks and goes flying through the cotton candy stands and into the parking lot. A hand grasps the flashlight, pulling it off the floor, and turning the world dark. Footsteps crunch over the carpet. The soles are heavy, not practiced and light, so it’s not a hunter. I’m hearing through a tunnel now, so maybe I don’t know. The world is all neon lights and animal stench. Someone speaks, and I think it’s a man, but I can’t understand him. The voice is stretched like it’s in slow motion. The footsteps come near me. A man leans down, and I look up into the face of a jackal.
When I lurch awake like a car with no brakes skidding on ice, I see a monster’s face―the jackal. It slips away, turning into the face of all the monsters I’ve hunted. But that’s a hallucination, and I slip back into nothingness. He’s carrying me―it feels like floating. The rain pours over him while he changes back to a man, but it smells like alcohol and the bitter sting of antiseptic.
And lastly, a bit about the author herself:
H.D. Lynn is like Harry Potter in one way: she’s currently renting an apartment with a bedroom under her building’s stairs. Other than this, she explores fantasy worlds through storytelling like anyone else. She loves books with a mix of humor, adventure, and horror, and especially enjoys the urban fantasy genre. GOD’S PLAY is her first published novel.
When not writing, she enjoys hiking, climbing, and running. She’s a voracious reader, and has found listening to audiobooks while backpacking to be a perfect mix of two of her favorite things. She currently lives in Connecticut, but finds herself on the road often.
The following is a guest post (and part of the blog tour for her self-published novella that I’ll introduce at the end) by my good friend and fellow editor, Cait Spivey. It’s excellent information, as usual, but stay tuned after the post for some special announcements and cool reveals regarding Cait’s non-editorial efforts. I don’t want to take up too much space, so without any more preamble, here’s Cait!
Serial to Series, and Self-Pubbing by Accident
by Cait Spivey
I always considered myself a traditional publishing kind of girl. I figured I’d be happy to do a little marketing, get myself out there to events, and schmooze, but would prefer to have the support of a press to help me along. Self-publishing was fine and dandy, but not my speed.
Fast-forward a year or so into my publishing journey. I’d been querying a high fantasy to agents – -angling for that New York deal — with good interest but no contracts, and working on some other side writing projects. A sci-fi inspired by the “what if the Doctor were female?” question. And a little story about a girl being stalked by spiders.
I liked this little story. I liked the main character, Erin, whose voice came to me so easily. I’d originally planned it to be a full-length novel, but as I wrote, it became clear that this wasn’t a novel. It was the groundwork for something much larger.
So I finished it at almost 17,000 words, and wondered what the hell to do with it: too short to query, too long to be a short story. I thought about cutting it down and sending it to literary magazines, but there was no way to cut 10k words without completely changing the story. I thought about expanding it, but the ending was utterly fixed to me, and while I could have come up with more to pad the rest, it would have become out of proportion to the climax.
One of the presses for which I edit, Curiosity Quills, offers a few serials through their website, as does Kisa, my gracious host for today, and a number of other writerly friends I’d made. So I got the idea: why not put my spider story on my own blog? Otherwise, it was just going to sit rotting on my hard-drive.
I mocked up a little cover featuring a beautiful spider photographed by my friend Jo (http://thebrokenshelf.com/), scheduled all nine posts, and off we went. As the end of the run drew near, I thought it might be nice to have the whole thing available for download, as like a pdf or something. So this past March, I formatted I See the Web, made myself a less spider-rific cover that better represented the story, and uploaded it to Smashwords for free download when the serial run was over.
Then I realized: I’d self-published it.
And I’d done so with barely a scrap of marketing or other pre-launch build-up. Still, the book was downloaded pretty steadily, so after about a month of having the book up for free, I published it to Amazon through KDP and changed the price to $0.99.
I turned away from I See the Web and focused on other projects for a little while, but my little novella was still out there, still trucking along. As those other projects got more serious and as I made definitive decisions about my goals for the future, I decided it was time to come back and give Erin her due. If I wanted the book to do well, and if I wanted to bring attention to the sequel I was writing, I needed to give a proper marketing effort.
The result is this blog tour and cover reveal.
To say it’s been a learning experience would be an understatement, and if I can impart any advice, it would be this: have a plan ahead of time. While my experience with I See the Web has pretty much worked out, the past few months would no doubt have gone a lot better sales-wise if I’d thought ahead, made deliberate choices, and set specific goals.
Another important piece of advice: don’t treat any of your work as a throw-away. The reason I didn’t do much planning with I See the Web is because I thought it was going to be just a one-off, something unconnected to the rest of what I wanted to accomplish. Totally untrue! Not only is it my first published work, a place nothing else can ever supplant, it’s also become the anchor for a far-reaching series of loosely connected books, novellas, and short stories within The Web’s universe. While reading I See the Web won’t be necessary for any of those other stories, it will add to those reading experiences.
There are plenty of publishing paths available to authors these days and, for the most part, one is not better than any other. It may take some time to decide which one is right for you and your project, and that’s okay. But you can’t let publishing sneak up on you.
Pretty sound advice, no? I think a lot of us (myself included) could benefit from her lessons. I know I have a tendency to forget about certain projects, deeming them less worthy than others of time in the limelight and/or love. But she’s right; they’re all part of my writing career and deserve the respect of my attention.
But I promised goodies and reveals, and since I don’t have any for my own work that you don’t already know about, I’m happy to introduce you to Cait’s. First, here’s the information and buy links for I See the Web:
Seventeen-year-old Erin has a lot to look forward to, even if it suddenly seems like everywhere she turns there’s a spider staring at her. She’s finally out to her friends and family, surprising exactly no one. When Dawn, the love of her tender teenage dreams, corners her in the library, a whole new world opens up to Erin. From here on out, it’s all make-out sessions with her beautiful girlfriend in rooms stacked high with books.
Until the spiders start whispering.
Turns out the spiders aren’t just stalking her for kicks. They need her to be their voice, their vessel, whatever that means. But their timing is crap, because there’s no way Erin is giving up her human life just when things are starting to get amazing. Too bad the spiders just won’t quit. Like it or not, Erin will have to choose, and it won’t be nearly as easy as she thinks.
And now, I’m thrilled to help reveal the cover for I See the Web‘s highly anticipated sequeal, A Single Thread:
It’s been two weeks since Morgan Fletcher’s little sister, Erin, disappeared before his eyes in a flurry of spidersilk and blood. Probability says she’s dead; but when Erin comes to him in a dream, Morgan’s eyes are opened to a level of reality where probability doesn’t mean jack. His sister sees the web of time, and she’s got news for him: trouble is coming.
A cryptic riddle and flashing images of the future are all Morgan has to go on in order to save a mystery boy from a gruesome death. That’s if he even believes what’s happened to Erin. Is her spider-whisperer persona for real, or has his grief at losing her caused him to totally crack?
With a life at stake, Morgan isn’t taking any chances. Madness or no madness, he has to solve Erin’s riddle before it’s too late.
Releasing October 31st, 2014
And, because that’s not enough to convince you that Cait’s awesome and you should totally go support her, here’s a ridiculously amazing book trailer for A Single Thread:
Today, I released the first chapter of Unmoving into the truly unmonitored (otherwise known as free) pool of internet fiction. The dedicated among you will remember me talking about doing this very thing over a year ago. And while I did launch half of my master plan (the VIP Subscription option), I never did take the plunge into widespread distribution. That’s right, I chickened out. Because putting your work out into the ether, for free, is scary.
But today, I changed that. Unmoving is now available for your perusal on StarterSerials.com and will be joining the ranks of Wattpad and Figment soon. In honor of finally taking that leap, I thought it would be fitting to pull this particular article out of the archives, dust it off, and send it back into the world to help any of you wrestling with this very decision.
But before I let you go, I’d also like to announce a slight change in the posting schedule here on Nightwolf’s Corner. Due to the unexpected popularity of my book review option and the almost split personality my blog’s starting to take on, I’m adding a new addition to the roster: Book Review Wednesday. Yep, I’m splitting the book reviews off and giving them their own dedicated space, which leaves Friday’s post free and clear to resume the articles I’m sure some of you are missing — the snarky, informative ones about all things publishing, writing, martial arts, or whatever. Book Review Wednesday won’t happen every week, but the regular Friday posts will. I simply don’t read fast enough to post reviews on a weekly basis, but I think we can all safely assume I’ll be able to maintain the content you’ve come to expect every Friday.
And speaking of, let’s get back to the original point of this post . . .
The Pros & Cons of Posting Work Online
by Kisa Whipkey
(Originally Posted on 3/8/13)
It’s been 6 months since I posted about my bold marketing plan involving Wattpad & Authonomy. (Yikes! Where did the time go? Feels like I blinked and it was already March!) Those of you who follow me regularly will have noticed the distinct lack of announcements pertaining to said marketing plan. Why? Because I’m afraid. Afraid of making the wrong move; afraid of ruining my chances at becoming a successful author; afraid of facing down the ultimate demon of failure. I’ve second-guessed myself into a frozen stupor instead of trusting my instincts and jumping in head-first.
This isn’t the first time I’ve shot myself in the foot, letting fear keep me from pursuing my dreams. But it will hopefully be the last. In an effort to convince myself that the naysayer in my brain needs to be duct-taped to a chair in the corner and silenced, I spent the past week revisiting the reasons I created my crazy marketing scheme in the first place. And since my OCD side loves to make lists whenever I find myself spinning in circles like a confused dog, here are my top 3 pros and cons for posting work online.
PROS:
The internet is full of horror stories about how posting online can backfire like a pipe bomb, obliterating your chances at a successful writing career. And for someone like me, with a crippling fear of failure shackled to my every move, it can be incredibly hard to see past these anecdotes. But the truth of the matter is that posting your work online can also be the best move an indie author ever makes. In fact, there are even a few hope-inspiring articles popping up about the success you can find this way, such as this one by Lindsay Buroker on the merits of Wattpad. So before we wander down the more easily traveled road of negativity, let’s explore some of the good things about posting online.
Exposure:
The most obvious perk is the unlimited access to potential readers. The hardest job for any author is getting their book in front of people; something that’s becoming increasingly more difficult as the market gets flooded. So why wouldn’t you want to exploit every possible avenue of exposure? Manuscript Display Sites like Wattpad, Authonomy & Figment open windows into audiences you may not have found otherwise. Similar to the library, you offer your work for free (in serialized form) and gain instant access to thousands of readers. Some of whom are bound to become fans. Right?
Feedback:
The second big reason writers post their work online is for the feedback. Since you don’t need a completed manuscript to start generating interest, you can use the internet as a giant pool of beta readers. The critiques obviously range in value, but the chance to gauge reader response while your work’s still in process is pretty awesome. The trick is not to let the feedback you receive compromise your work. You can’t please everyone, after all.
Motivation:
Personally, I work best under a deadline. But it has to be imposed by someone else. I’m notoriously good at breaking deadlines I’ve set for myself, brushing them aside with flimsy excuses and promises to get them done later, because there are no repercussions. Aside from being a slacker and not getting my work done, that is. But as soon as you post something online, you answer to someone else. I don’t know about you, but the thought of disappointing my fans (all four of them) is a better source of motivation than caffeine. And Lord knows I could use some help in the motivational department these days.
CONS:
The world of online literature isn’t all rainbows and butterflies though. There are just as many reasons not to post your work as there are reasons to do it. In fact, I daresay there are more reasons why you shouldn’t. Here’s just a few of the major points:
Loss of First Publication Rights:
The biggest deterrent to posting online is the fact that you basically throw away your First Publication Rights. This doesn’t matter much to authors planning on self-publishing, but it’s death to any project trying to go the traditional route. Unfortunately, publishing online does count as being previously published. Which means that once you’ve posted online, you’ve basically committed to being an indie author. If you think your work has even a shred of marketability via traditional means, you’d be best to avoid this route like the plague.
Giving Work Away for Free:
It goes against most writer’s instincts to take a project they’ve invested in for so long and just give it away. It feels like you’re devaluing your time, declaring that your work isn’t good enough to deserve compensation. But is that really true?
In a market that sees thousands of books published every day, (with a majority of those being questionable in quality), it can be nearly impossible to get readers to take a chance on someone new. In this economy, consumers are appropriately stingy with their money, trusting in names and products they’ve been previously exposed to. By giving your work away for free, you offer them a chance to try something new without financial risk. If they like your work, you’re then on the list of trusted names and will likely see sales on your subsequent titles. But that still means sacrificing one of your projects to something intangible that may not ever turn into monetary reward. Like all gambles, it’s hard to tell if it’s worth it.
Plagiarism:
Any time you publish something online, it’s immediately exposed to the possibility of theft. That’s just the nature of the art world. Yes, there is recourse for artists/authors that have been wronged, falling victim to the pirates of plagiarism, but it doesn’t lessen the blow. Which is why you’ll see this fear thrown around in nearly every literary forum. The thing is, the likelihood of plagiarism is a lot slimmer than people think. Yes, it happens, and yes, it sucks. But the majority of people aren’t interested in stealing from you.
If you’re a creative person, then chances are good this isn’t your only project. And as much as it would suck to lose it to plagiarism, it really wouldn’t be the end of the world, would it? You could always go on to write more; create another masterpiece. The thief doesn’t have that luxury. So even though this is a definite negative to posting online, it’s also an inevitable risk that every writer will have to take if they want to become an author. Your book can’t become a bestseller if it never leaves your desk drawer.
As you can see, there are some pretty strong arguments on both sides. And, as with everything in publishing, there doesn’t seem to be a clear-cut answer, no matter how much we might wish it to be black and white. The best I can tell is that you should assess each of these points on a project by project basis. In my particular circumstance, with this particular title, posting online makes sense. I was never intending to pursue traditional publishing with this series, so why not start gaining some momentum now by getting my name out there? I’m definitely still scared of taking the leap, but no one ever found success by playing it safe.
What do you think? Do the pros outweigh the cons? How many of you have posted your work online and to what result? I’d love to hear your experiences. 🙂
H.D. Lynn is like Harry Potter in one way: she’s currently renting an 
Nightwolf A.D.E. 