On Writing

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    10 things …

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    The folks over at All About Romance did a cool post about 10 Things I’d Like to Tell Publishers. I agree with a lot of their comments, especially the one about the cheesy romance book titles. (Seriously, I think someone has a lot of fun coming up with some of those groaners).

    Inspired by them, I thought that I’d do a post about 10 Things I’d Like to Tell Readers. Here goes:

    1. I have very little input/control when it comes to the cover art for my books. If you think the covers suck, there’s nothing I can do about it. (And yes, I know the covers for the mass market versions of the Bigtime books suck — they suck out loud, especially the one for Karma Girl. Believe me, I know and have spent many hours bemoaning that fact.)

    2. I do not know everything there is to know about publishing. I cannot find a cover artist for your book, or a copy editor, or tell you why no one wants to publish the annotated history of your belly lint. Well, I could on that last one, but you probably wouldn’t like what I had to say about it. I get a lot of questions about publishing and writing, and I’m happy to help when and as I can — but I can’t get your book published for you. Only you can do that. And yes, it is much harder than it looks.

    3. Fake even a little bit of interest in my work, and I will sign books until my fingers bleed and smile for photos until my face hurts for you. Buy one of my books, and I will shower you with all the bookmarks and goodies that I have on hand. Tell me that you read and enjoyed one of my books, and I will wish you joy and happiness for all of your days. 😉

    4. I look at reviews for my books. Good ones make me happy, bad ones make me sad. Reviews where folks call my books the worst things ever written after reading all of two pages of said books and never finishing them bring out my inner Hulk, who can only be controlled by eating massive amounts of strawberry cheesecake ice cream. Or to sum up, authors have feelings too, folks.

    5. Getting asked where the bathroom is while I’m doing a book signing is depressing. Pop! Did you hear that? That was the sound of you just deflating my ego. Now, I want to crawl under the table and whimper while I eat a candy bar — or three.

    6. I don’t care what format you buy my book in. Paper copy, e-copy, heck, I don’t even care if you get a copy from the used bookstore. All I ask is that if you like the book, you tell your friends about it — and maybe take a minute or two to send me an e-mail about it (see 10). If you don’t like my book, that’s okay too — just be polite about it. Different strokes for different folks, and all that.

    7. I’m a reader too, and I’m just as happy to talk about other authors’ books as I am about my own. I can prattle on and on and on about my favorite authors and books all day long. Seriously, I can make your ears bleed, folks. My significant other knows better than to get me started waxing poetic about my favorite books. Everyone else, you have been warned. 😉

    8. Yeah, I know that my books are not perfect. There are typos and continuity errors and sometimes I repeat phrases in books. But you know what? It’s hard coming up with 100,000 words that create a coherent story, and it’s even harder to ensure that every single one of those words is perfect. Manuscripts go through a lot of editors as they are turned into books, and we all do our very best to catch all the mistakes. But we’re human, and some errors are going to creep in. It’s not because I don’t work hard on my books — that’s just life.

    9. My inner fangirl squees with delight every time I see my book on the shelf at the bookstore. That weird woman you see taking photos in at Walmart? That’s me, ogling my book on the shelf for about the hundredth time.

    10. A positive e-mail from a reader telling me that she liked my books really does make my day (see 6). Knowing that people enjoy my books makes all the hard work and long hours in front of my computer worthwhile.

    So there you have it. Some of my (hopefully amusing) thoughts that I’d like to share with readers. What about you guys? What are some of the things you’d like to tell authors or publishers? Share in the comments. And keep it polite, please.

  • Half a million and counting …

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    I’m working on Elemental Assassin 5 right now, and I realized something kind of cool about it the other day.

    When I get done with this book, I will have written more than 500,000 words about Gin Blanco. Yep, that’s right — half a million words about one character. That’s a whole lot of words, not to mention all the typing! 😉

    Of course, I’d love to write more books about Gin beyond these five, but that’s going to be up to the sales gods and readers. Still, I think half a million words is a pretty cool accomplishment. I’m totally patting myself on the back right now — and keeping my fingers crossed that the words and Gin’s stories will keep on coming!

  • Jealousy …

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    So I thought I would talk a little bit about some of the emotions that authors go through (as the mood and time strikes me here on the blog). After all, we write about our characters’ emotions in our books, surely we have some of our own to talk about, right?

    The emotion of the day? Jealousy.

    Yep, I’ll admit it — I get jealous of other authors from time to time. I think any author who says that she never gets jealous is probably lying. Nobody is that nice all the time. Or maybe I’m just that cynical. 😉 

    So what I’m a jealous of? Lots of things. I wonder why this author got more promotion than I did. Or why so-and-so hit the best-seller list when my books are just as good as hers. Why everyone on the Internet seems to love someone’s new book and not mine. Why I never feel like one of the in-crowd or cool kids whenever I go to conferences. Sometimes, when a book I read truly blows me away, I’m jealous that it’s a story that I didn’t write. Why didn’t I have that brilliant idea instead of her?

    I imagine these are the same things that lots of other authors are jealous of too. In case you haven’t noticed by now, us writers are a pretty neurotic bunch.

    But I think it’s what you do with your jealousy that’s important. Me? I try to channel it into something positive. I try to work harder and smarter, do more promotion, and, of course, continuously work to improve my own writing so that maybe I’ll be the one making the best-seller list and getting rave reviews the next time around.

    I’ll admit that I’m not always successful. Wheezley, my significant other, has listened to me gripe and grumble about these sorts of things many times. He usually just rolls his eyes and distracts me with some chocolate. Sadly, it usually works.

    But at least I’m trying to slay the green-eyed monster. In the end, I think that’s what matters most. Well, that and the chocolate. 😉

    What about you guys? Does jealousy ever rear its ugly head with you? How do you deal with it? Share in the comments.

  • To work or not to work …

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    Besides how much money I make on my books, the other most common question most folks ask me is this: Are you going to quit your day job?

    The answer? Maybe someday.

    Don’t get me wrong. I would love, love, love to quit my day job and write full time. In fact, my writing is getting to the point now where it’s a full-time job in and of itself just writing and keeping up with everything else — the blog, Facebook, guest blogs, advertising, promotions … I’m always busy doing something, and there just never seems to be enough time to get everything done. (Seriously, I’d love to just take a week off and do nothing but eat, read, and sleep).

    So what’s stopping me from quitting my day job? Well, the biggie is insurance. I work full-time, which means my company provides me with insurance. I don’t know how much I would have to pay if I was self-insured, but it’s probably a lot more than comes out of my paycheck every week right now.

    Which leads me to the second thing stopping me from quitting my day job — a steady paycheck. It’s very, very nice to be able to count on the paycheck from my day job every two weeks. With my books, I’m lucky if I get a check three or four times a year. Sure, the checks are a little bigger than what I get at work, but it would make me real nervous if my books were my only source of income — especially since publishers are notoriously slow about sending out payments in the first place. And there’s always the risk that I won’t be able to sell more books — which would mean no more checks at all. It’s a scary thought.

    And third, well, there’s me. I think I would go a little stir-crazy if I didn’t have something to get me out of the house on a regular basis. There’s only so much time you can spend with your characters before you go a little nuts. 😉

    Of course, the real irony in all this is that I work at a newspaper — an industry that is dying a slow, painful death. If my newspaper is still around in five years (or at least still publishing in the same kind of format), I’ll be very surprised. Who knows? Depending on what happens at work, I may be trying to make it as a full-time author sooner than I think. Gulp!

    But for right now, the book stuff is my own little side business. I’m not getting rich at it, but I love doing it — and that’s the most important thing.