Showing posts with label Technical Difficulties. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Technical Difficulties. Show all posts

Writing: Is Your Novel a Grapple?


Now, I suppose for most of you, in order to answer the question you’ll need to know what a Grapple is. I, myself, was just introduced to this fruit not long ago, and it made me think of my novel.

A Grapple looks like an apple, it smells like an apple and yet, it TASTES like a GRAPE! I know, genius!

But, it can also be compared to novels. Now, bear with me for a moment while I try to explain.

Recently, I’ve been getting feedback on my novel. It’s the best feeling in the world-- to know people are reading it, and not people you personally know. Feedback, reviews and discussions are paramount. But, what if someone picks up your novel, they look at the cover, they read the blurb and then, after having closed your book, realize it’s nothing like they had envisioned.

It happens all the time. Publishers make covers that will catch the attention of the reader. Sometimes based on cover alone, you have no idea what the book is about, that’s where the blurb comes in. Blurbs are designed to further grab the attention of the reader, they are supposed to hook, entice and ultimately give the reader just enough to show them that they NEED to read the book.

These are gimmicks. I know, that’s not a nice word, but that’s what they are. The cover and blurb are only a small snippet about what the novel is actually about. The best 250 words that sum up the entire novel but only giving you the basis. The cover is an attractive picture that may or may not have anything to do with the novel.

And, when this is the case, the novel blurb and cover suggest one thing, and yet your book is that, but also something different, you have a Grapple on your hands.

A Stiff Kiss is a Grapple. The cover and blurb are very much pointing you in the direction of a dark, perhaps even, action filled Paranormal Romance. Remember, each person will form their own opinions based on these two items. They will expect what catches them the most but that doesn’t mean that’s the only thing the novel is centered around.

My novel, ultimately, is a love story, even more so than the cover and blurb let’s on. There are also other plot messages that are twined into the story; forgiveness and understanding, are just two. When it comes to writing novels, several things come in to play, many plot points, characters, settings and so forth.

Having a Grapple is just simply someone thought since it looked like and apple, smelled like an apple, that must mean, without a doubt, it should taste like an apple.

There is nothing wrong with that, it doesn’t mean you’ve done anything wrong. What it means is, or rather further proves, that reading is subjective. I’m sure you’ve been told this over and over, but, it’s true. And, I don’t think I really understood it until I started reading reviews for A Stiff Kiss. Every person seemed to pin point different things about the book that made them either love it, or not. Or showed that based on the cover and blurb they expected one thing but got another. Some people will love that, they will take the twist your novel has and roll with it, some won’t. You really can’t please everyone. There either is not enough romance, or too much. Maybe there should be more action, adrenaline pumping scenes, when there isn’t.

But, because reading is subjective, remember writing is, too. Don’t try to conform and write what you think people will expect. Write what you love, whether it’s a Grapple, an Apple, or a Pear. Just be true to yourself as an Author and you can’t go wrong.

 

 

 

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It's a Good Thing: 8tracks




Okay, so I’ve fallen in love with 8tracks, and I don’t mean those big honkin’ plastic things that in a way resemble something similar to a cassette tape (and if you don’t know what an 8track is, or a cassette then lord help you lol)

But seriously... Mr. Olive got me onto this.

So first, let me give you some background. I own exactly zero CD’s. I don’t own any cassettes, but I do own a record player and a plethora of records. I have an iPhone that no joke has 87 songs on it. It has had 87 songs on it since pretty much the day I got it, three years ago.

I like music. I do. But I don’t have the patience for CD’s or buying songs from iTunes or other such places. Occasionally Mr. Olive will hook me up with some songs but not often enough.

I listen to the same loop of 87 songs when I’m writing. I can sing along to every one of those songs, and the only joy I get is when the shuffle feature puts them in a different order.

Some of you are laughing, I’m sure, but this has all been the truth. So, you can imagine that my mind was literally blown when I learned about 8tracks.

It’s simple. It’s free.

People compile playlists of their favourite music. They could be 8 tracks long or 42 or 100, it doesn’t matter. All you have to do is sign up, search what’s hot, or narrow it down using your own criteria, like sad songs, or summer lovin’ or top 40 hip-hop and BAM!

You have an infinite number of songs at your disposal.

Of course there’s a catch, which will annoy some, but not others. If you pick a playlist that has 40 songs, and you come across a song you don’t like, you can skip it. But SKIP wise. You can only skip TWO songs an hour.

The point of this is A. Because of the license agreement 8tracks has, and B. It will widen your horizons. If you come across a song you’ve never heard of, listen to it. Don’t skip it. You’d be surprised at how many new songs, artists, and genre’s you will find that you LOVE.

I’m also lovin’ 8tracks because people have done some of the hard work for me. When I write, I listen to songs that fit the mood or tone I’m trying to achieve in a particular scene. With 8tracks I can search that mood and listen to a playlist of songs that will make you cry. How about a playlist with nothing but break up songs on it? Or why not a playlist with nothing but songs about death, or birthdays or weddings. 8tracks has a playlist for EVERYTHING.

If you find a playlist you adore, don’t forget to “like” it, that way it will always be at your fingertips, saved in your library. You can also share playlists with your friends or create your own.

For Authors, I think using the create playlist is another great feature. Many of you already have soundtracks for your novels. Why not get them out to one more social media site. Create an 8tracks playlist for your novel and send it out into the world.

Of course, there is one downside, and since I’m still a new 8track user, I’m not sure how much of a problem this is. Since you’re on the web, and 8tracks is basically streaming to your device like an internet radio you will be using data if you’re not connected to Wi-Fi.

8tracks is available on your PC, your phone, your iPad... Pretty much anywhere you could need it! You will have a constant flow of music where ever you go, so trust me when I say, 8tracks is a good thing!

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Technology: The Kindlegraph


Technology is amazing.

For some the allure of buying paperback copies is not just to have on the shelf collecting dust, it may be because there is a signature in the book.

Signatures not only add a touch of personality to any book, it is also a symbol. Some are lucky enough to personally know authors, have met with them a book signings, or have paid a little extra just to have a book with someone John Hancock in it.

This is part of a growing debate, paper Vs e-book. A paper copy you can hold in your hands, take with you to an event in hopes of getting it signed, but what if you could get your e-book signed too?

For some, that changes everything.

You’ve spent money on a book, you’ve interacted with the author on Twitter, or Facebook and now with modern technology those who opt for the e-book version can have the same glory as flashing around a signed paper back.

Enter Kindlegraph, one of many new sites that allows an Author to add in a personal note and signature for their valued customers. It’s as simple as tracking down the book and requesting an autograph...

One downside I can see? For Kindlegraph it’s that you’re actual e-copy won’t be signed. What you get is a separate .pdf version of the cover with the Authors note, and signature. But who cares? The joy is still there, you still got a personal note and signature from your favourite author. You can keep it in a separate folder and “collect” your Kindlegraphs.

Another downside? So far Kindlegraph is only connected to Amazon. They are not a part of Amazon itself but their system only works for Kindle available books and users. In order to get your Kindlegraph you need to have a kindle and a kindle e-mail address.

The last downside? How do you know the signature you get is authentic? The problem, you don’t. If you’re not handy with your mouse, or finger, you can choose a ready-made font to send out, which means the signature isn’t real. Also, when adding A Stiff Kiss to the list, all I had to do was have the AISN number and bam, I was claimed the Author of A Stiff Kiss by Avery Olive. I am the Author, but what if someone adds the book, dolls out signatures and isn’t the author? I see no way that Kindlegraph is making sure that doesn’t happen, short of doing regular checks on your books, if you haven’t added them yourself, or don’t want to, just to make sure someone else isn’t claiming to be the Author. I know it seems silly, but I’m sure it will happen.

But Kindlegraph still makes it easy, but you can also take what you’ve learned and use it to your advantage. If you know someone who isn’t a Kindle user, but still wants your signature for their collection, you can do it the slightly more time consuming way.

Simply write out your note, add your signature onto a blank piece of paper and scan it. Most scanners these days convert your file into a .pdf and voila! You have a personal .pdf file of your signature that you can send to your reader. As far as I know, most every e-reader these days accepts .pdf files. So you are in luck, if you need to send it to a non Kindle user.

Also, though Kindlegraph is nearly instant, I don’t know about you, but I’m not handy with a mouse. In order to use your signature you either have to draw it out, with your mouse (or finger if you are a tablet user) or choose one of their readymade cursive fonts.  I tried writing my signature out a million times and was never fully happy with it, no matter what, it has a real “electronic” feel to it. At least if you write out the note yourself and scan it, it will be without a doubt your Hancock you are sending out into the world, and not just some computer generated font.

This will still prompt some further research on my part, since I love Kindle, I love all my readers more, and will be finding a way to allow readers who don’t have a Kindle to still get the same attention and just as instantly as Kindlegraph makes it.

I think this is a fun way to gain signatures, adding them to a collection and making the e-book personal, but just remember, the signature you get, might not be real, it might just be a fancy cursive font, either way, a personal note is still an awesome thing to receive.

This is also shows you how cool technology really is, and how far we’ve come since the introduction of the e-book.

If you have Kindle, and want my Kindlegraph, just go here and request it. I asure you, my Hancock is one hundred percent authentic. I fiddled around trying to come up with a nearly perfect version!


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Rescue Your Goodreads Book?!

Save Your Goodreads Book!

So, there has been a bit of a buzz lately over on Goodreads, and a few other writing forums the last few weeks. Finally today, I dug in through the masses of posts and words and figured out what all the fuss is about.
And by fuss, I mean a potential for your Goodreads book to be removed, if it’s not rescued L
As told to many Goodread Authors, and posted on their site, Goodreads is going to be making a bit of a change.

“At Goodreads, we make it a priority to use book information from the most reliable and open data sources, because it helps us build the best experience for our members. To that end, we're making a major change.

On January 30, Goodreads will no longer display book information that comes from Amazon.
This includes data such as titles, author names, page counts, and publication dates. For the vast majority of book editions, we have imported this data from other sources. Those few remaining editions for which we haven't found an alternative source of information will be removed from Goodreads.” – Sourced from Goodreads and Absolute Write.

So, what does this mean? And how will it affect Authors?
What this means is, instead of gathering information from Amazon—and other sites—for your books “information” page, they are going to be leaving Amazon out of the mix and strictly gathering from other sites.
Now, for most of you this isn’t a problem, your books may be available everywhere, but for the Author who at present only has books listed on Amazon, or have self-published and have your books on only Amazon, you will have to manually add your book, or manually update your information.
It’s not that big of a deal. You can easily become a Goodreads Author, and upload your books to Goodreads, you’ll just have to fill in the blanks, instead of Goodreads tracking down your novel and adding it themselves.

What you need to do, is save your book. Go onto Goodreads, make sure it’s there and make sure you’ve updated all the information. If you plan on in the future only publishing through Amazon, or its affiliates, you may from now on (if you didn’t already before) have to add your own books.
For many keeping up with Goodreads isn’t important, and you may think it’s don’t a big deal that Goodreads, for whatever reason, as decided to leave Amazon out of the information gathering but don’t forget other’s use the site, other’s love the site and use it when thinking about making their next purchase.  So, this is a good way to get yourself out there, a good way to network, so you use it. J


Now, I also owe everyone a winner! The person that has won a signed copy of Angela Carlings, Unbreakable Love is....

JeffO!

Congrats on the book, and may thanks for stopping by and showing some love!

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On Writing: A taste of the Editing Process

Working through edits and comments... This can be the most daunting of tasks, whether the edits come from your beta or critique partner or your editor, they need to be taken down and eradicated fixed.
I’ve shared my work with beta’s and critique partners in the past, I’ve learned all about “Track Changes” and “Comment Bubbles” but nothing quite get’s you ready for a manuscript fresh from your editor.
Recently, I got a manuscript back from my editor. It had 432 comment bubbles and over 1400 additions and deletions in it. To say it was marked up in red is an understatement, it looked like it had been swallowed whole and what resulted was something that mildly resembled my manuscript. My jaw hit the floor, tears stung my eyes, and I think I even started to hyperventilate. Even though I knew that seeing my novel in print form was what I always wanted, I suddenly was having second thoughts. Serious second thoughts. I worried that I might have made a huge mistake, that my editor and my publisher had made a huge mistake and that I was having a terrible dream because I couldn’t even begin to fathom how to wade through all the comments and fix the problems pointed out.
I scoffed at myself for ever thinking my manuscript was polished. But don’t get me wrong, it was polished, to the best of my abilities, with the help of beta’s and critique partners. So after taking a step back, deep breathes and calming music (and one frantic phone call to Mr. Olive where I had him reassure me that I wasn’t a hack and that I really could write, and work through edits) I dove in.
Having gone through—what I know call as mild—edits before I knew where to start, and the friendly e-mail from my editor confirmed my initial thoughts. Start from the beginning, read all the comments—all 432 of them—and let what they say stew for a day or two. This is how I always start, whether it was the measly 100 comments (or less) I’ve gotten from others, or the tidal wave of hundreds from my editor. Read through them, let them sit and then figure out where to begin.
In my experience, and because I like to take the slightly easier path, I always work through the comments and changes that I have no problems with. The easy ones. The simple ones like, “add in a line here about emotions, or “trim this line down because it’s too wordy.”
I make notes, skip over the tough one or the ones that I’m not sure quite how to work into the manuscript, and focus on one simple task. I take frequent breaks, when my mind begins to grow fuzzy, my vision starts to go cross-eyed, or when that overwhelming feeling tugs at my stomach I save the file, and take a step back.
When I’ve worked through the easy ones, I focus on the harder ones, the “this scene isn’t working, cut and add in a new one...” or something to that effect.
But you’ll always come to a few suggested revisions that just don’t sit well in your stomach. You read the comment over and over, note the suggested change that’s been inserted to give you an idea how it should look, but still, it’s just not working for you. You might feel like it takes away from your characters voice, the one you’ve spent months and months honing, it might change the dynamic of your characters current situation, whatever the case, this is when you need to speak up.
When I read over the comments first off, I had a few concerns I caught right away and I did the only thing you can do in this situation. Talk to your editor or go with your gut, if you’re working just with beta’s and critique partners. I promptly made a list of my concerns, and wrote out reasons for my concerns. This is important, just as your editor does for you, you need to give reasons why something isn’t working. When I felt confident with my drafted letter I took a deep breath and sent it out.
When people take the time to read your work, edit it and give their opinions, they (should) have your best interests in mind, but remember they don’t know you, or your novel like you do. So chances are, when you talk it through, you’ll reach a common ground as I did with my editor about a few things that worried me.
With those out of the way, I kept on sifting through the comments, making changes and finally after two weeks I was done. But not entirely.
Sure I’d worked through the manuscript, did everything I was supposed to, but in no way am I ready to send it off. I let the manuscript sit for another day or two and focused on something else entirely before going back in.
Now, what you need to do is read through the entire manuscript, start to finish and make sure you didn’t miss anything. With that many comments, a manuscript now marked in red (and blue because of track changes) you are bound to miss something.
This is what I’m doing now, making sure I’m not missing anything, making sure I’ve done the best of my ability, and that I’m happy with the way things turned out.
They say that writing a novel is the easy part, I agree, it’s the editing and revising that really sets people apart. If you can’t focus on making your novel better, accepting criticism and the help of others, your novel will never shine (at least that my opinion)
So, remember comments and changes aren’t there to hurt your feelings or make you think you are a crappy writer, they are there to prove to you that someone else is willing to take the time to help you, and wants you to succeed just as much as you do, they want to make your novel better!
It took me a day or two to figure that out, at first I thought my editor was nuts, but now that I’ve worked through the manuscript, accepted her help I can really see how much my writing skills have already improved. This is something that is priceless, every novel I write in the future will be that much better because I’ve learned so much.
Take it slow, take a breath and work your way through! Happy Editing!

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Can’t Comment on a Blog?

Today’s blog post has been inspired by my own fit of rage due to not being able to comment on blogs. Since I’m still new at the whole Blogging thing, learning the ropes is taking a lot out of my patience. Finally when I thought I had learned enough to get me on my way I came face to face with a wall—a huge one.
I’ve been spending a great deal of time searching for blogs, following blogs and of course trying to network. And one of the best ways to get your name out there into the world that is cyberland, is to comment. Comment, comment and comment.
Most people love to open up their e-mail and find out someone has left a comment on their blog, it shows them, that yes people are reading what you’ve set out to write and post. However, I’ve learned commenting isn’t just as easy as clicking on the little comment button, writing in your snappy and fun reply and pressing enter. No, because that would mean life is simple. And it hardly ever is.
So, I have a Google Account, I spent a great deal of time setting this up, linking the e-mail address to all my networking sites only to find out, Google is silly! When I go to comment, it redirects me to the Google sign in, where, of course, I sign in. Then I get redirected again, where you ask? BACK TO THE GOOGLE SIGN IN PAGE! It’s a vicious circle of entering my e-mail and password, and then doing it again, and again until the battle of wits is lost and I get angry, image myself throwing my computer across the room, and my comment, my well thought out words never get posted.
But alas, there is an answer, a simple one. Just to start you off, sign in using your name and URL. It’s a solution but doesn’t quite fix the problem. It’s better than being ANONYMOUS, this at least allows your name to show up, and links your name with your blog or webpage or whatever URL you’ve linked yourself to. That way people can still click your name and get to the place you want them to go, in my case—My blog.
So, still not sold on this approach? I didn’t think so. So your next bet? Switch the way your comment page shows up on your blog and ask your fellow friends to do so too. I went into SETTINGS in my blog DASHBOARD, went to comments and made it so that my comment section pops up into its own window. And BAM just like that, Google has stopped jerking me around and I can post using my account. My little picture shows up, my name, information, blog and e-mail. Ah HA!
I’m hoping that enough people complain, that this problem get’s solved but for now, these are the two best solutions I’ve come up with J
Happy Blogging and Commenting!
Also, check back later, coming next week, My first Author Interview over at Becky Wallace’s blog, What’s Your Thought’s On That.  

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