Fuck Cancer!

Anything else I'd planned to say today seems meaningless in the wake of SFF author Jay Lake's announcement on Wednesday that his cancer had returned--with a vengence. He's looking at his fourth round of surgery and third round of chemo for three tumors that appeared roughly six months after his last round of chemo ended. The odds are definitely not in Jay's favor.

I don't know Jay personally. We've passed a couple of e-mails in a fan-writer way, but DH and I have followed his journey online for nearly four years now because, well, it hits close to home.

DH is approaching the eighteenth anniversary of his diagnosis of colon cancer, the same thing Jay is fighting. In both cases, they fell far under the age profile for colon cancer, men way too young to be dealing with this type of shit.

When DH came into the kitchen Wednesday morning, I could tell by his face he'd already seen Jay's blog. He sat down across the table from me, and I said, "We're both having a bad case of survivor's guilt, aren't we?"

Surprise appeared on DH. "I know I am, but why are you?"

"Because I don't know what I would have done if I'd lost you. But I didn't. And Jay's family is pissed and scared and feeling helpless right now at the possibility they're going to lose him. And the whole thing isn't fucking fair."

You see, doctors caught Jay's cancer when it was still at Stage 1 through the typical symptom presentation of rectal bleeding. DH's first symptom was diarrhea that he and I both chalked up to having too much fun at a bar with a friend the night before. Two days later, after emergency exploratory surgery, the doctors found a six-inch Stage 3 tumor that had already started to spread.

Statiscally speaking, Jay's stituation was much better than DH's. But that's not how life works sometimes. Life isn't fair and it makes no sense. And I'm angry and crying as I type this.

As Jay said, if you feel the need to pray or cuss or or buy his books (I highly recommend Green) or donate to the American Cancer Society (wonderful people who helped DH and I when we needed it), do so.

But make sure you give your loved ones hugs and tell them what they mean to you.

When A Writer Gets His Audience Totally Wrong

Before I go further, let me say I admire the work of David Farland, aka Dave Wolverton. I have several of his books on my bookshelf or on my Kindle. He was Stephenie Meyer's writing instructor long before she launched Twilight. And because David's an excellent teacher, I subscribe to his Daily Kick in the Pants newsletter.

The subject of last Thursday's newsletter was Audience Analysis. Dave has a lot of experience with Hollywood as well as New York, so I was really excited to see what bits of wisdom he had.

I was with him until he said, "A woman at forty is nearing menopause, and the male at fifty is reaching a hormonal crisis of his own. They lose interest in sex."

O-o-k-a-a-y...

On one hand, I'm glad women weren't the only ones slammed in that statement. It's a switch from the usual snide crap spewed at any of us ladies over thirty.

On the other hand, I laughed my ass off. You see, everyone I personally know who writes erotica is over forty. Their significant others are the happy recipients of the moods and emotions aroused while these folks are writing.

I really don't think David meant to be insulting, but if I were a troll, I'd send him scathing e-mails and burn/delete his books. Since he also says that only children under eleven are interested in fantasy and that's the genre he writes, then he's obviously never grown up.

But that would be a totally rude thing to say, wouldn't it?

Classifying the parameters of your audience too narrowly does a disservice to you the writer, your current readers and your potential readers. I may not have been in the entertainment business as long as David, but I know enough not to insult an entire segment of my potential audience.

Monday Movie Mania

I FINALLY got the chance to see The Dark Knight Rises in the theater yesterday. Loved it! Loved it! Loved it!

***SPOILERS***

Loves!!

Anne Hathaway was absolutely purrfect (sorry, couldn't resist) as Selina Kyle. No smarmy heart-tugging backstory to show why she became "evil." Just a pragmatic woman trying to survive. As for the folks who wanted a big fight seen between her and Bane? Get real! Selina wouldn't be stupid enough to get into hand-to-hand with someone stronger with better skills than her. She would shoot his ass. (Honestly, the folks that want the fight scene just wanted an excuse for Batman to save her, instead of the other way around.)

I'm not sure what other people bitched about when it came to Tom Hardy's voice through the mask, but I understood Bane just fine. And Tom brought Bane back to his comic book roots when he was a worthy physical and intellectual foe for Batman.

I can't say enough about Joseph Gordon Levitt's portrayal of Detective Blake, so I'm not even going to try. (Seriously, he had the best male performance in the movie!)

And Nolan FINALLY brought in Talia! I was beginning to worry. A little bit. C'mon, how can you start the movie series with Ra's al Ghul and NOT bring in his daughter? A perfect coda to the trilogy.

Also, I'm a huge Steelers's fan so Hines Ward's cameo sent a chill through me. Dammit, Hines, we're going to miss you this season. Funny, how Gotham's football team colors are black and gold. *snicker* (Yes, I know where the stadium scene was set. Where else are you going to get rabid football fans?)

Gripes. (C'mon, you knew I'd have a couple. Okay more than a couple.)

Alfred abandoning Bruce. Um, no. Mr. Pennyworth is, and always has been, loyal to a fault. And he wouldn't stand by and do nothing with Bruce missing and Bane torturing the city for five months. Sorry, no, had a real hard time suspending disbelief on that one. And if you want to talk about not understanding someone's speech--here's where the real problem lay.

Jim Gordon ordering every single police officer into the Gotham sewers. *facedesk* Again, Gordon's a lot of things, but being this incredibly stupid is not one of them. Gary Oldman's always been one to fight for his characters, and I can't believe he didn't say SOMEthing to writer/director Christopher Nolan before or during shooting of the film.

Speaking of the police trapped in the sewers, who the HELL was in charge of continuity? When men are trapped with only food and water being delivered, what happens to their face? Don't they grow hair? As in, beards? Actually all the police, including the female officers, pouring out of sewer once they were freed, looked a little too clean.

The ending. Another reviewer said the ending was what the series deserved, but not what the audience deserved (and if I remember who said that, I'll link to it). The reviewer was right, but for the wrong reasons.  Personally, I thought Christopher Nolan was too heavy-handed, but then I totally got Paul Verhoeven's subtlety in Basic Instinct, and most other folks I talked to--didn't.

I hate the fact that American audiences need to be spoon-fed. It annoys me, and it says a lot about our collective intelligence. So, in a way, I understand why Nolan did what he did. It doesn't mean I liked it.

If it'd been me editing the film, I would have ended with Robin in the Batcave and Alfred at the cafe in France, smiling. But that's me.

Finally, I wish I could say something deep and meaningful about what happened in Aurora, CO. I can't. As the lights came up and the rest of the viewers shuffled out, I realized I sat in a theater very similar to the one in Aurora. Stadium seating. One main exit other than the emergency one by the screen. A family paused near the main exit, watching the credits. If they had guns, there was no fucking way I could make it to the emergency exit.

I'll never know the terror those people in Colorado felt, the horror as their loved ones dead in senseless violence, the utter despair in the realization you can't escape. I can't know without experiencing it, and there's a selfish, little part of me that hopes I never do.

Song I Listen To A Lot Lately

If you're proud to be an indie (and haven't acted like a dick this month), Raise Your Glass!

The Day I Became Ashamed To Be An Indie Author

My regular readers know I'm very much pro-indie. But what my enthusiasm boils down to is I'm pro-story-teller. pro-reader and pro-business.

For the most part, the indie writer community is an intelligent, innovative group looking to get quality books to the public. But by selling books to the public, they need to understand not just craft, but every other angle of business from marketing to contract and copyright law.

Education is paramount in any endeavour, but this country's population seems to be going downhill rapidly in the willingness to read the fine print of the contracts they sign, much less try to understand what a copyright is and is not.

Many retail site such as Amazon allow e-books to be lent. Specifically, Amazon's Terms and Conditions says:

5.2.2 Kindle Book Lending Program. The Kindle Book Lending program enables customers who purchase a Digital Book to lend it subject to limitations we establish from time to time. All Digital Books made available through the Program are automatically included in the Kindle Book Lending program. However, for Digital Books that are in the 35% Royalty Option (as described in the Pricing Page), you may choose to opt out of the Kindle Book Lending program. This will disable lending of the Digital Book by customers who purchase it after you have opted it out, but this will not affect the right of customers who purchased it when lending was enabled to continue to lend it. You may not choose to opt out a Digital Book if it is included in the lending program of another sales or distribution channel. If we become aware that a Digital Book you have opted out is included in the lending program of another sales or distribution channel, we may enable it for lending. Digital Books that are in the 70% Royalty Option (as described in the Pricing Page) cannot be opted out of the lending feature.

Right now, Amazon allows lending ONLY ONCE for each title bought. The lendee has access to the title for  fourteen days. For those fourteen days, the original buyer does not have access to the book. And, yes, Kindle Select books are included in these terms. (Lending is kind of the point behind Kindle Select, now isn't it?)

A disabled U.S. veteran named Dale Porter created a website called LendInk. LendInk was a book version of eHarmony. It matched folks who had an e-book that was still lendable with someone who wanted to read it.

Apparently, some writers got it in their head that LendInk was doing something illegal, unethical, immoral...fill in the blank. A Twitter mob (or twitmob as the online magazine TechDirt called it) claimed LendInk was a pirate site based on a rumor without any INVESTIGATION WHATSOEVER. These people sent multiple complaints to Amazon and DMCA takedown notices to LendInk's host. Now, some people are sending THREATS to both Dale and his family as well as folks at the hosting company.

Indie author April Hamilton has a pretty intelligent takedown of the wrongness of the situation. And now, April is getting harassed by these same people who didn't bother to read the Terms and Conditions. She has had to turn off comments on her blog.

Did the twitmob truly succeed? No. Even if Dale calls it quits forever, other sites, like Good E-Reader are stepping into the void. Hell, I'm impressed Michael Kozlowski and others still stand up for us indies after the utter bullshit that happened with LendInk.

What it comes down to is ignorance on the part of the writers who bullied Dale and his ISP into shutting down the site. A site that was legal when I checked it out a few months ago. A site that gave GREAT exposure to all of us authors.

I've been proud to be an indie writer.

Until today.

Lone Star Conference

If you want a small, intimate, reasonably-priced writer's conference where you learn tons and have a great time, here's the official plug:

The 2012 Lone Star Writer's Conference

Presenter: Best-Selling Author JAMES SCOTT BELL
Topic: Plot And Structure

Attending Editors:
Chris Keeslar, Boroughs Publishing Group
Liz Pelletier, Entangled Publishing
Deborah Gilbert, Soul Mate Publishing

Attending Agents:
Elaine Spencer, The Knight Agency

Location: Houston Marriott North at Greenspoint
Date & Time: October 13, 2011; 9 am to 5 pm (registration and breakfast 8:30 - 9:00 a.m.)
Cost: $130.00 (includes lunch and coffee breaks)

James Scott Bell presents…
PLOT & STRUCTURE: In this day-long workshop, you'll learn techniques and exercises for crafting a plot that grips readers from start to finish, including:
• Dazzling dialogue
• Plotting for perfect structure, every time
• "Jump off the page" characters
• Power revision for next-level novels
• Stronger scenes for stronger manuscripts

Register Today!
** 2012_Registration Form_Lone Star **
Online payment through PayPal is available!

Accommodations:
Houston Marriott North
255 N Sam Houston Pkwy East • Houston, Texas 77060 USA
* $79.00 – For Room Reservation Click Here *

Here's the unofficial plug:

Smaller conferences allow you to have more one-on-one time with industry professionals. One of the biggest pluses of the Lone Star Conference in Ruth Kenjura's post-conference wine and chocolate party. Ruth's hotel room becomes a no-pitch zone where guest speakers and attendees can talk industry (and sometimes a little gossip flows) in a comfortable, no-pressure environment.

It's not unusual for folks to join NWHRWA after experiencing the Lone Star. So if you will be in the Houston area in October (or plan to be), please come!

How Familiarity Can Breed Recognition

We humans are creatures of habit. We eat at restaurants that are familiar to us. We go to entertainment facilities we are most aware of. We associate with people we know.

Seriously, when was the last time you walked up to a total stranger and said, "Hey, let's hang out!"

Let's face it--we don't. Our first interactions with someone new are hesitant. Guarded. It's only after a period of sharing 'safe' data, i.e. general things like weather, recent sporting events, community news, do we make a decision to stretch into more personal information and start building a relationship with that person.

What does this have to do with book marketing?

Well, there's a large number of marketing research reports, some commissioned by Fortune 500 companies, that claim social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter do not provide any measurable return in the form of customers. I've seen a great many writers cling to these reports and claim that social networking is a total waste of time.

Now, these writers are correct if all you're doing is shouting, "Buy my book!" This is where the familiarity comes into the contempt equation. These writers have forgotten the basic rules of human interaction--general to specific.

What social networking and other forms of communication can do is provide the writer with name recognition. This is why those same Fortune 500 companies that say social networking sites have no measurable correlation to sales still have their own Facebook and Twitter accounts. The more you repeat something, the more likely it is to stick in a person's head.

I believe it was the Wharton School of Business that said a person needs to see/hear a message seven times before it registers in a human brain. This is why any publicity is considered good publicity. You the Writer want your name to stick in someone's brain.

A couple of friends hit the NYT Bestsellers List in the last month, which is why the topic came up for me lately. I was on the phone with one of them, discussing the rash of interview requests she'd received. She questioned whether it was worth her time doing the interviews rather than working on her next book.

Please remember, this was not her ego talking. Her health is a precarious balancing act. Does she use her precious minutes on the computer writing or dealing with reporters?

I told her to select a few and do the interview. When she asked why, I said, "Name recognition." A few articles about her will sink her name into folks who haven't read her before.

As a writer's name is repeated, whteher through social interactions or new reports, she becomes "familiar" to the public. Folks are more likely to try her product (i.e. her book) because of that familiarity. Trust in a certain level of quality engenders the likelihood of repeated buying.

I look at it this way--if this method has worked for McDonald's for the last fifty years, why can't it work for us writers?

Songs I Listen To A Lot Lately

Thought all those rejections from New York would kill me? I'm Stronger than that. And now, I have the last laugh.

What Makes an Indie Book Take Off?

I've been getting that question from other writers a LOT lately. I've found my best answer is to turn the question around.

What make a traditionally published book take off?

No one knows. It's been the age-old question since the first caveman painted on the walls. How do I get people to look at my work when they're starving and freezing and sabertooth tigers want to eat them?

The folks in New York don't know. Every single book coming from the major houses would be best sellers if they knew.

The indie folks can tell you what worked for them. But the gimmicks that they used two years ago don't affect the buying public like they used to.

And frankly, anyone who tells you they know for sure how to make your book a best seller is probably lying. Especially if they want you to pay them $499.99 before they will tell you.

The reading entertainment field has truly become level.

What can I tell you?

Write the type of books you would want to buy and read. Write a lot of them. Put them up for sale. Write some more. Don't nag people about buying your books. Make an announcement that the new book is available and start writing the next one. Say 'thank you' to the readers who give you compliments. Ignore the trolls. Write some more.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

Get the picture?

What I can tell you is that your first book out of the gate will most likely NOT be a major seller. If it is, more power to you and tell me where to send the bottle of champagne.

For the rest of us, we need to keep working. It wasn't until I uploaded the tenth story that I saw an income jump--from the double digits per month to triple digits. Shortly after the thirteenth book, income jumped from the low triple digits to the low four digits.

I can't tell you when this could happen for you. It may be the first book. It may be the fiftieth. I don't know. You don't know. The executive in his Manhattan office doesn't know. Joe Konrath doesn't know. The guy panhandling on the street corner doesn't know.

If you love telling stories, you will keep at it. If you don't, you will find another hobby to occupy your time.

Sometimes it pays to put yourself in the mindset of Dorie from Finding Nemo: "Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming..."

Sales, Wordcounts and the NYT Bestseller List

July was a wild, effing ride!

The not-so-great news first? I was shooting for 50K words on Blood Sacrifice. I made it to 24,608. So what was the problem?

There were several, my own headspace being the biggest. I didn't realize how much writing this blog relaxes me before I start on the day's fiction writing. So, I'm definitely going back to my MWFSa schedule.

Also, I usually have my research done and ready long before I start writing. This time I kept coming up with questions I hadn't thought to ask my Peruvian expert until I hit the necessary point in the story.

Then there's the issue of Blood Sacrifice being the first novel I've written since I finished the first draft of Zombie Wedding in February of 2010. Oh, I've written in the last two and a half years, but it's been eight novellas and short stories or novel rewrites. I need to get back in the long form groove, which I finally managed during the last full week of the July.

All-in-all, July was a major learning experience for me as a professional writer. Therefore, I don't regret my problems as long as I don't repeat the mistakes that caused them.

The EXCELLENT news is that I SOLD 587 books. And no, that number does NOT include the four hundred-plus copies of Zombie Confidential I gave away (still waiting on final numbers from the Smashwords distribution retailers).

The BEST news was not mine, but my friend's. Erotic romance author Lyla Sinclair is the person who nudged and prodded and shoved me to try indie publishing nearly two years ago. We don't always see eye-to-eye on a lot of things, but I know she has my best interests at heart.

Well, last week, Lyla hit #26 on the NYT Ebook Bestsellers' List with her latest Training Tessa. Today, she's at #17. I'm SO excited for her. This is a woman who works damn hard at her craft and still has time for noobs like me. If you love fun, flirty erotica, check out Lyla's website! And, Lyla, if you're reading this, I'm so damn happy for you!