Tag Archives: self publishing

Polarizing Perspectives

Let me preface the following post with this: I will never criticize someone for not liking my book. People who have read it are entitled to any opinion they please. It’s totally okay if someone wants to tell me they didn’t like it. Of course, it’s also okay if someone wants to tell me they did like it. But anyway…

I don’t get many reviews for my novel, but this week I just so happened to receive two, and I couldn’t help but be amused at how perfectly they complimented each other. The first reviewer said they disliked the beginning of the book, but enjoyed the ending more. The second review liked the beginning, but disliked the ending.

It helped to remind me that everyone has different opinions, tastes, likes and dislikes. You will never please everyone, and if you try to you will end up pleasing no one.

I think it is important for writers to keep this in mind. A writer is going to face a lot of rejection and criticism throughout their career. You just have to keep it in perspective.

 

 

Harper Voyager and the Popped Publishing Cherry

Harper Voyager, the sci fi/fantasy imprint of Harper Collins, is opening it’s doors to unsolicited submissions for a limited time during October. It seems to be a growing trend for major publishers to do this sort of thing, usually for digital only releases (as is the case here).

I’ve noticed that these cheeky little submission windows all tend to give similar guidelines, and one thing that they all seem to specify is that they don’t care if you’ve previously self-published the book.

This flies in the face of a lot of stuff you read on the Internet about the preciousness of preserving your novel’s first rights.  People think that the moment you publish something in any form, no one else will ever want to touch it. I’ve even seen someone admonish people for posting their writing on blogs, telling them that doing so will render the work worthless to potential publishers.

Maybe things used to be stricter, but times are changing. There are so many avenues now for writers to share their work that it would be unrealistic to expect everyone to just keep their written princess  locked in a tower until Major Publisher Prince comes riding in to take them away. At the end of the day, all they  really care about is not having to buy the rights off a third party. If a self-published author still holds all the rights, it shouldn’t really matter what they have done with the work in the past.

Slut shaming is wrong, even for books.

if you would like to submit to Harper Voyager, go here. You have until 14 October 2012. Good Luck!

Last Chance For A Free Book!

FREE STUFF YAY!

HTDC will be free on Amazon for the next three days (8-10 August). This is the last time it will be available for free, as I’m about to opt out of Amazon’s KDP select program. If you haven’t got your copy yet, this is your last chance to get it for free.

Get it now from Amazon

Get it now from Amazon UK

The Key To Bassisha

In How To Disappear Completely, Lycia receives a key which opens a trapdoor into a bizarre world. Later in the novel, she strings the key onto a chain and wears it around her neck.

I wanted to make a necklace just like hers. So I trawled through Etsy and Ebay searching for key charms that most resembled what I had imagined in my story. Sounds simple enough, but let me tell you there are a LOT of key charms in the world.

Eventually, I found what I was looking for. The key is gold in the novel, but I personally prefer silver, so…

 

 

It’s only a little key (hard to take a photo of me wearing it without it turning into a gratuitous boob shot) which is good if you, like me, have a tendency to injure your chin on necklaces when sneezing (my antler necklace is the worst).

What do you think? The charms are available in other colours too, so I could possibly make more if anyone was interested in a little bit of HTDC merch.

Self-Publishing Is Like Crack

I told myself that I would take a break from writing once How To Disappear Completely was out. I have studies I need to finish, wardrobes full of crap in need of cleaning, video games in need of playing, birds in need of cuddling.

But the thing about self publishing is that it’s dangerously easy. If I wanted to, I could save this blog post as a mobi file, upload it to Amazon, set the price at $9.99 and you could download it to your kindle in 24 hours. I wouldn’t do that, of course, because that would be stupid, but the fact remains that I could.

So I’m thinking of doing a short story collection. I have a few lying around. They only need a bit of polish. And the collection would either be very very cheap, or entirely free!

The stories I’m thinking of including so far are as follows:

  • A pair of strangers arrange to meet to commit suicide together, so that they won’t be alone at the very end.
  • A champion swimmer is drafted to the Vietnam War, where his swimming skills are used to retrieve scattered body parts from the sea.
  • A young man rejects society and confines himself permanently to his bedroom. His parents hire a mysterious girl to try and coax him out.
  • And some sort of short story connected to HTDC, perhaps a little Dottie adventure.

What do you think?

A Review

Author Jeff Clough has written a great review of HTDC over on his blog.

“Howells dives into Greenwood on page one and leaves the reader feeling as off-balance as the main character, a delicious device if the author can pull it off and Howells uses it well. It’s a novel that’s equal parts action and mystery, which keeps the story moving even as it explores human nature and the nature of reality itself. And as the violence escalates to horrific levels, we’re made to experience all the dread and terror that birthed the town of Greenwood in the first place.”

Go read the rest of it!

 

Sweet Success

It’s now been a full week since I published my novel. Sales are trickling in at a slow and steady pace, and people continue to be extremely supportive, presumably because they haven’t reached the really fucked up parts in the book so they aren’t scared of me yet.

I had a little book launch party with family and friends, which was kind of a weird experience for me because I haven’t had a party since the days of pass the parcel and musical chairs. I really enjoyed it though, especially this spectacular cake!

That’s my book cover rendered in chocolate! Completely edible, completely delicious.

I hope the coming weeks continue to be successful for my little book. There is still a lot of work to be done in terms of promotion,  but for now I’m content to take a well-earned break from words. I’ll worry about becoming a best-seller later.

After the sugar high has passed…

The First Week, So Far

 

It’s only been a few days since I uploaded my novel to Amazon (you can buy it HERE) but already I’m very happy with how it’s going.

I thought it would be scary, putting my little heart and soul out there for anyone to download, but I actually feel incredibly at ease. It’s only in hindsight that I see how miserable the editing process had made me. Now that the book is out there, I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. The misery was worth it though; I’m confident I have put out my best possible product.

Everyone has been very supportive.  Friends have been ferociously reblogging,  retweeting and facebooking. Entire workplaces have been inundated with emails. I’m pretty sure half the Queensland Government has been notified through their various departments now. Thanks everyone!

I’m going to focus on getting reviews for now. But I only want REAL reviews. I’ve been hearing some awful accounts of indie authors creating multiple fake accounts in order to give themselves a heap of five star reviews. I’ve also seen authors vilify reviewers who have given them a negative review. I don’t want to take part in any of this bullshit. You are allowed to dislike my book. You can even hate it if that’s how you truly feel. I’m prepared to take the good with the bad and I’m not going to embarrass myself by getting in a huff about it.

It’s going to be a long and rather slow road, and I won’t be quitting my day job any time soon. But I knew it would be like this. I’ve never really expected to be a best seller. What I would like, though, is a little bit of cult status. I would love this book to really mean something to people, even if it’s not many people. I want people to connect with it, to see themselves in it, and take comfort in the knowledge that they are not alone.

And then I want them to cosplay as my characters at conventions and write dirty fan fiction!