The Marsburg Diary Blog Tour kicks off on Wednesday, people! DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS? IT MEANS THAT, FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER ON THIS BLOG I AM WRITING IN ALL CAPS. I suppose it's because I'm a little excitable. Or that I simply want to be obnoxious. Yeah, that's probably it.
You can buy the book for Kindle or Nook, and if enough of you become die-hard fans this baby's going to print. Yep. So talk it up, yo.
Marsburg, of course, is the presequel to Michael, which is Book II in the Airel Saga. Which makes this like Book I point V, if you catch my Latin drift there. Click the links for more delicious info.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Sunday, October 30, 2011
IBE Blog Panel Notes
- Content is king (write what you know)
- A good blog provides something to its readers
- A good blog provides content that can’t be found anywhere else
- Keyword dense, NOT keyword rich, NOT keyword ridiculous
- I do freelance Web content, so I know: there’s a right way and a wrong way.
- Ideally your keywords will also be links; i.e. if I mention Aaron Patterson in my blog post, I’ll make that text link to his blog.
- My blog posts (articles) are 500 - 1000 words and have no more than about 10 links in them. I also try to mention my brand name at least once per blog. This helps with Google rankings and SEO stuff.
- Design should be clean and conservative
- The eye naturally starts top left and then sweeps right and down. Bear this in mind when you are choosing your layout.
- Be honest
- Honesty = truth, and that’s what makes a writer’s work approachable.
- Be yourself—Some ideas? For me, this means:
- Writerly stuff
- Reviews of dictionaries
- Reviews of literary fiction and occasional classics
- Editing insights
- How to be a Good Writer series
- What not to do
- Eclectic editorials
- Heavy thinking
- Random thoughts
- Posting
- Do it on a consistent schedule
- You can spread the workload around by inviting other bloggers to guest post on your blog
- Keep those pageviews up.
- Blogger has a really nice tool to monitor this
- I use Blogger because Wordpress is not fun for me and Google products rule
- The tech trifecta: Google, Apple, Amazon
- Each one has its strengths and weaknesses
- Blogger basic features walk through
- Stats
- New post
- Adding images
- Adding links
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Calling All Bloggers!
C.P. White Media is looking for guest bloggers for November! That's right, folks, don't miss this opportunity to pump up your eBook, promote your epistle, eNosh your novel, fortify your fiction, pimp your parchment, and biggify your blog. Okay I promise I'll never do that again.
Anyway, what better time of year than NaNoWriMo to join in the craziness and promo your work?! Seriously! Jump in while there are slots left, people. Don't miss out. We're already booking, and it's going fast.
Submission guidelines are easy:
Anyway, what better time of year than NaNoWriMo to join in the craziness and promo your work?! Seriously! Jump in while there are slots left, people. Don't miss out. We're already booking, and it's going fast.
Submission guidelines are easy:
- 500-1000 words
- Topic must be writerly
- And of course, C.P. White Media, Limited Company reserves the right to reject submissions if they're not a good fit.
Now get tapping and apply by responding to this blog post or by messaging us on Twitter. Happy writing!
Monday, October 24, 2011
The Idaho Book Extravaganza and Other Stuff, Like Going Self Pub
I went to my eye doctor today. As I sat in the
office chatting with the doc, my career as a writer came up, as did the IBE
(this Friday and Saturday in Boise). I think she and her husband may attend,
which would be really cool. I love making connections like that, especially
when it means it might produce results.
And I’m not talking only about money or
sales. I’m talking about making a difference with my art. But I digress.
She was telling me how on a recent trip to Portland and the
legendary Powell’s Books, she walked the aisles taking mental notes. Her strategy
was to save money by not buying hardcopy books. She was just browsing. She eschewed
Powell’s for the purchase and bought the titles she liked later, on Amazon, for
her Kindle. I find that to be hilariously capitalistic; I’m almost giddy about
it.
Her question: “Should I feel bad about that?”
My response: “Hell no!”
She probed further, however, and a new issue came up. She
wondered if buying the Kindle version of a book hurts the author, stunting his
potential earnings somehow. I told her no, in some cases an author can make
more selling a Kindle version of his book for $2.99 than he can selling a
paperback for $14.99, depending. And it’s the truth (though this scenario is a
different story for indie bookstores, which is obvious). I told her that anyone
who’s got a backlist on Amazon is a big kid, and if they signed a horrible contract
with an awful publisher, they will have to deal with the consequences. We’re
all grownups around here. I don’t need to tell you, dear reader, that it’s far
better to pull down 70% than 15% for the same dizzying amount of time and work.
It has to do with how one goes about one’s business, really,
so pay attention. For all intents and purposes, there are really only two
groups of published authors on Amazon (or anywhere else, for that matter): those
with traditional contracts and those who are going it alone. I don’t want to
belabor the point, so I won’t. I’ll just focus on those of us with at least a
little entrepreneurial passion oozing from the creases of our fat rolls.
Basically, if you’re not signed with one of the Big Six, you’re
self-pubbed. Hate to break it to you. But it is so. What’s the difference,
really, between a guy signed with an indie house, a guy who bought a publishing
package on CreateSpace and a guy who basically did the same thing through selected
vendors as an LLC? I’ll tell you. The only difference—if there is one—is going
to be in the quality of the final product. Cover design. Editing. Formatting.
Technology levels absolutely every other part of the playing field. No, really.
Because even if you’re walking around with that gold-framed contract around
your neck that says I’m a Big Six Author and I’ve Made It, you’re still going
to be working your cheeks off the same as me, and for far less in the end.
Those of us flying solo have the double-edged advantage of
control. We call the shots. And we live with the consequences. The point of
this tirade? Simply this: that, to this day, you basically have several
variations on two options.
- Cash up front vs. Potential
- Control by committee vs. Total control
- Work for peanuts vs. Work for reward
- Being crushed by huge overhead vs. Running efficient and lean
- Me waxing eloquent some more vs. Me wrapping this up
Here’s the rub. Okay? Here it is. The dirty little secret is
that some of us are diligently about our business. Those of us who are, are
producing Big Six quality stuff even though we’re pretty much self-pubbed—if that’s
how we define entrepreneurism in the publishing industry. That’s fine with me.
I couldn’t care less about what name adorns the contract, except for mine. What
matters are what numbers are on it…or not on it. All my contracts cut out the
middleman entirely, wherever possible. It’s part of my top secret common sense
business philosophy, which is a no-brainer.
In a nutshell, it’s this: Focus most on what matters most.
How are you going about your business? Are you focused on what matters, or what
highfalutin name is on the letterhead? Tell ya what: pop on over to the IdahoBook Extravaganza this weekend at the Boise Center on the Grove and learn a
thing or two about the biz and those who are shaping it. The future doesn’t
automatically belong to the big baddie corporations (cry me a river, you Occupy
sissies), at least as long as there are some go-getters down here at ground
level with the rest of us.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Putting Yourself Out There
Unless you have tried and failed at something, you might not
get it. If you’ve never stood your ground even once and told people exactly
what you’re thinking, you probably can’t relate to what I’m about to say. If you’ve
never tried to create something truly personal, and then taken the huge risk of
allowing people to see it, read it, experience it…then you can’t know how it
feels.
I’m talking about putting yourself out there; in this case
as a writer. It might seem difficult to write a book, especially for those who
never have, and it is. But it’s even more difficult to finish it and let it go.
Out into the wild. Where people are free to love it or hate it. But I gotta
tell you: it’s worth the risk. It is totally worth the risk.
Aaron Patterson and I released Airel this past spring. It was the result of about a year’s worth
of work. Yep. That much. And as hard as the writing and editing and revising
process sometimes was, it doesn’t compare to how difficult it can be to publish
the Work—and allow people into what amounts to a very private inner sanctum:
the imagination of the author.
It’s funny, too. I thought over time as I published more
stories that it would be easier. But I still get nervous about releasing my
work, whether it’s Airel or one of my
upcoming digital short stories, Strongbox.
As I read through the comments and look at the reviews that are coming in for Airel, I’m actually stunned. It’s crazy.
And I have to take this moment to thank you, the fans, for everything: buying
my writing, leaving awesomely honest reviews on Amazon, and most importantly
lending me the support I need to continue writing. I could not do this without
my admittedly modest (so far) collection of fans, so thank you.
There’s a lot more stuff in the works, releasing later this
year or early next year. Want a little breakdown? Here’s what’s coming soon:
Digital Short Stories:
Strongbox: Thea
lives in the strongbox. Inside it is safe and warm, and the door stays shut and
locked. The Things from Outside terrify her, and she is glad for the safety and
security that the strongbox provides. But one day she dreams, and the dream is
so good that she swims down deeper into it, toward the boy in the dream. When
she is awakened suddenly, she finds the door of the strongbox open. And then
she is pushed outside. Alone. With nothing. It is dark, and there are sounds. And
something is coming for her.
Yes, Dear: A man
and woman arrive finally at the country house after journeying all day from
London. She tells him to get the kettle on and stoke the fire; it’s cold and
the snow is deep. She’s accustomed to bossing him. She’s used to his response
to everything: “Yes, Dear.” But what destiny has pent up comes swiftly, without
warning…and the works of a life produce consequence.
Novels:
K [phantasmagoria]
part one: How far is too far? If a man is pushed past breaking and all bets
are off, what are the rules then? K is a man severely damaged by life, by
circumstance, by a past he can’t remember and probably by the meds his government-mandated
psychiatrist has him on. He struggles violently, trying to make sense of his bipolar
hatred for God, for people, for all the stupid assumptions, for himself. Is he
going crazy? He sees the most horrific visions, a phantasmagoria that is slowly
wrecking him. Day and night. And it can only be explained by the idea of
precognition…until even science fails…and whatever barrier there is between
this world and the next is destroyed by the unexplainable. This is a chilling
story packed with lies. Some of them may turn out to be true, but which?
Michael: (with
Aaron Patterson) Get ready for part two of the Airel Saga. Michael tells the story of Airel’s
crush, Michael: a young man with strange connections indeed, and a lot of
questions to answer…and many more things to answer for. Coming soon from StoneHouse Ink.
Non-fiction:
American Failure: a
proper perspective: (Second Edition) Is there something we can learn from
failure? I make the case for failure as a beginning rather than an end in this
mildly autobiographical moral treatise. Filled with personal stories and my own
unique perspectives, plus a running Andy Rooney-esque commentary on various
bits of American culture, it’s a unique look at an essential part of life, and
a nation struggling to find its identity and a way forward. Coming in 2012.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Fortitude and Principle
Times are tough out there, kiddos. And that means it’s tough
all over, even at home. Especially at home sometimes, I’d argue, because the
people we live with from day to day, who know us best, don’t allow us to blow
smoke. The public persona might be, say, pleasantly quirky and against the
grain. But at home it’s a genuine cheese grater, and when said personality is
on the rack being stretched, things can get ugly. But enough about me. Francis
Bacon said it best: “Domestic considerations commonly overthrow public ones.”
In other words, people all over America are digging in at
home, looking for purchase on the slippery mud of the national economy,
spinning their wheels in just about any direction—and that means the roughness
outside sometimes slips into the family. I can feel it. Can’t you? This vague
simmering malcontent? It’s everywhere. God knows what it’s doing to families
all across the nation as we struggle for less and less while working harder and
harder. The pent-up silent majority, those of us with reverence for traditional
American values and rational thought, who value the individual, the hero, private
property and liberty, are doing all we can to keep our heads down and stay in
the harness and work our tails off trying to provide for our families. We do
whatever it takes, and lately it’s taking a whole lot more.
I know from personal experience how painful it is. I know
what it’s like to labor, to contend for something, to work all day, all week,
all month, and for less—in the end—than all that work is worth. As the saying
goes, “why is there so much month left at the end of the money?” Exactly. I
know what it’s like to feel that most of what I do is all for naught. Like my
work is missing something really really important; an indispensible part of
itself: reward. I know what it’s like to throw up my hands at the end of the
week and ask myself why I even try. I can define for you, in colorful terms,
the meaning of futility.
Much like David, however, who wrote the most beautiful
Psalms, there is reason to continue fighting. There is a “why.” There is
meaning in the struggle. There are intangibles so important, so universally true
that they are more real than the tangible. Principle, for one. My grandfather
knew what this was. It’s the reason why a man stays married to his woman for
sixty years plus. It’s why he goes to work and works hard, even when all of it
is Hoovered from his hand by the bill collectors and tax collectors before he
has a chance to get it home. It’s the reason why he wakes up in the morning and
finds a way to make himself useful—employed—even when he’s unemployed. It’s
stick-to-itiveness. It’s comportment, bearing, integrity; the kind of
determination that would wither men of lesser stock in the same situation.
Moving forward on principle is continuing on the right
course when no reward is within sight. It’s faith, in other words. It’s something
in which we, in the midst of our affliction as a nation, are currently being
tested. Mene, mene, tekel, upharsin: to number, to number, to weigh, to divide.
I pray to God that the handwriting now appearing on the wall before us is not
in fact a prophecy; that we are being weighed—but that, please, dear God, we will not
be found wanting.
For the We in “We
the People” to be more than the sum of our parts, the I, the individuals all across the land must make individual
decisions to stand and continue to labor, and hard. We the People cannot be We
the People without I the Hero: the man with an idea who does whatever it takes
to see it succeed, the woman with a passion who works through whatever
obstacles she encounters in order to see it through. The heroes are out there,
walking amongst us. We are the stalwart dreamers who actively create betterment
from the raw ore of the world over which God has given us dominion. Keep on in
your labors, Hero Dreamer, Hero Thinker, Hero of Deeds. You, the Individual, are
what gives worth and provides meaning. Think not of reward, and don’t esteem it.
Trust in your faith that what you do now does indeed matter, and greatly. It is
in the midst of blackest dark of night that the light shines brightest, and it becomes
completely clear that the darkness has not overcome it. And, I add, it never shall.
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