On Writing

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    Spoilers, no more …

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    Spoiler alert: This post talks about spoilers for my Elemental Assassin books. So don’t read if you don’t want to be spoiled …

    I think I’m going to have to implement some sort of spoiler policy.

    Now that Web of Lies is out, I’ve been getting a lot of e-mails from folks who want to know what happens next — and mainly, who Gin winds up with in Venom (due out Sept. 28).

    For those of you who have read Web of Lies, you know that in addition to Detective Donovan Caine, there’s also a new love interest in town for our girl Gin — sexy businessman Owen Grayson. And given what happens at the end of Web of Lies, with Donovan basically dumping Gin and hightailing it out of Ashland, well, let’s just say that folks want to know who Gin’s going to be spending time with in the future. So far, most folks seem to be on Team Owen, although I have heard from a few Team Donovan fans.

    It’s very flattering that folks like Gin so much that they want to know what happens next — and they want to know right now. But spoilers are kind of a gray area for me. Personally, I like mild spoilers, like if someone has been cast on one of my favorite TV shows or if one of the characters might die before the season is over. I regularly troll over to Entertainment Weekly to get those kinds of spoilers.

    But I don’t like spoilers that ruin a big, big twist in a TV show or movie, like in The Sixth Sense or The Usual Suspects (which I think is a truly awesome flick). If the whole point of a movie is to surprise you, then, well, I want to be surprised.

    And I never know how much of a spoiler a reader wants. Do they want to know what happens in the next book? Do they want to know who Gin ends up with at the end of book 5? I just never know how much to tell people. Also, I don’t want someone who doesn’t want to be spoiled to come across the info online and feel like the book has been ruined for them.

    So from now on, I don’t think that I’ll be giving out any kind of spoilers at all. My lips are sealed. Although I’ll admit that the back cover copy for the books can be a bit spoilery at times. But there’s nothing that I can do about that. So for all you folks out there who like spoilers, read the back cover copy, which is posted here on the website, to get a hint about what’s coming up next for Gin. For those of you who don’t like spoilers, you may want to stay away from the description until Venom comes out … if you can. 😉

    What about you guys? Do you like spoilers or not? Share in the comments.

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    Where to find me on the web …

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    In addition to the blog here, you can find me on the web at the following social media sites:

    My personal Facebook page

    My Facebook fan page

    Goodreads

    Twitter

    Usually, I’ll post quick links and random thoughts to these sites, or direct traffic over here to the blog if I have a new post up. For Goodreads, I do short book reviews of everything that I read.

    All of this stuff is listed in the blog sidebar, but I thought it would be a good reminder to post the links again. Also, I do a free e-newletter every month with my latest news, reading recommendations, a recipe, and a contest for subscribers. To sign up, fill out the form on the sidebar on my home page.

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    Updates, updates, updates …

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    With all the guest blogs that I’ve been doing for Web of Lies, it’s been a while since I’ve done an update post on what I’m working on. Here goes:

    1. As most of you know, Venom, the third book in the Elemental Assassin series, comes out on Sept. 28. I’ve finally gotten the final cover art, which is posted here. Huzzah! The book is also available for pre-order at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

    2. What’s even better is that I now have Venom bookmarks as well. As always, these are free to readers/bookstores/libraries/etc. However, I do ask that folks send me a SASE to help me cover postage costs. If you want some bookmarks, send me an e-mail, and I’ll tell you how to get them.

    3. During the summer, I plan to write at least one free short story (maybe two) to go along with Venom, just like the free stories that I’ve done for Spider’s Bite and Web of Lies. I’m also hoping to get the website updated this summer. We’ll see how it goes.

    4. In other news, reader response to Web of Lies has been really great. I just want to say thanks to everyone who’s taken a moment to drop me an e-mail and let me know how much they enjoyed the book. Thanks, everyone!

    5. As for what I’m writing, I just turned in the final page proofs for Venom, so I have a bit of a break from the Elemental Assassin series right now. I’m using the down time to try something new — a contemporary romance. It’s set in a small Tennessee town and focuses on an event planner who’s so strapped for cash that she agrees to plan her ex-boyfriend’s engagement party to another woman — and ends up falling for the other woman’s brother along the way.

    After that, I have an idea for a romantic suspense/heist book about a woman who gets mixed up with a group of thieves. After that, I have an idea for another urban fantasy series … I think I’m going to have a busy summer, writing-wise. LOL.

    Okay, I think that’s a wrap for now. Happy reading! 😉

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    Why book pirates should walk the plank …

    10 Comments

    Something that I’ve noticed with the release of Web of Lies is this — I’m having a lot more trouble with book pirates these days.

    What’s a book pirate? Basically, it’s someone who posts a free download of a book on the internet without the permission of the author/publisher. And believe me when I tell you that there are hundreds and hundreds of these sites out there with every kind of book on them that you can imagine.

    So what’s the big deal? First and foremost, it’s illegal. Just because you have a digital copy of a book doesn’t mean that you have the right to post it online for the whole world to see. You may think that you’re doing your friends a favor by giving them something for free. You may even think that you’re doing your favorite author a favor by posting her work on a site for others to read.

    Let me tell you that you are not.

    Now, there’s a lot of debate about whether or not e-book piracy hurts an author’s sales. I don’t see how it can’t hurt sales. Why should a person buy my book in the store when they can read it online somewhere for free? Sure, maybe someone will like that first free book enough to legally purchase my next book — but I doubt it. After all, they found the first book online for free, so why not the second or the third or all of my backlist?

    I only make 64 cents per book in royalties, and let me tell you that I need every single sale that I can get, just like all the other midlist authors out there. Publishing is a tough business to be in, and every sale matters, especially these days, when the economy is so craptastic. Publishers are dropping authors right and left. I saw one site where it said that a couple of hundred people had viewed my book — more than likely, that’s a couple hundred sales that I lost.

    If you can’t afford to buy one of my books, there is a simple solution — go to your local library and request it. That’s what the libraries are there for, and your tax dollars go to support them. (And yes, I get royalties on library sales.)

    I don’t claim to know all the ins and outs regarding book piracy. But more than the fact that it’s illegal, to me, it’s as annoying as all get-out. I work hard on my books — harder than anyone who’s not a writer can possibly imagine. I think I deserved to be paid for the work that I put into my books. I think that my publisher deserves to be paid for the various formats that they package my books in. You wouldn’t go to the grocery store and expect to just walk out with a loaf of bread for free, would you? Or walk out of Target with a free DVD or CD? So why do folks think that books are somehow different?

    But perhaps the real kicker is this. I have some free Elemental Assassin short stories posted here on the website. This is something that I did for fans of the series and my other books. Not too long ago, I saw where the stories had been reposted on another site without my permission. The stories were here FOR FREE ALREADY, and someone pirated them anyway.

    Grr! That’s the kind of thing that makes me angry — Hulk angry.

    I don’t know why folks think that they can get away with this — I guess because the internet is so vast and it’s a hard crime to prosecute. Still, don’t they know that the links to the free downloads pop up in my Google Alerts? As soon as I see them, I contact my publisher and fill out a take-down form — EVERY SINGLE TIME. Yeah, I know, it basically amounts to nothing more than a slap on the wrist, but I still do it.

    So what’s the solution? I don’t know that there is one. I’m careful about who I send e-ARCs to, and if I find out that someone who got an e-ARC posted it online for free, well, they don’t get any more books from me — ever. That’s really all that I can do on my end. I think that until publishers really crack down on a consistent basis on all these sites, that people will keep on pirating books — and keep on stealing from authors.