How to Create, Publish, and Market an Anthology (and why you’d want to) with J.M. Ney-Grimm

Posted on July 1, 2014 by Lindsay

Hi, I’m J.M. Ney-Grimm. I write fantasy with a Norse twist. I love writing novellas, but I also produce short stories and novels. This year I edited – and contributed a story to – the indie anthology Quantum Zoo.

I want to thank Lindsay for hosting me on her blog. I’m a big fan of her Emperor’s Edge series. No, I’ll go farther than that. I’m a big fan of Lindsay’s writing. All of it! Whenever she releases a new book, I buy it and read it. That simple!

So, why am I here on Lindsay’s blog? To share exactly how two indie writers collaborated with ten other indie writers to create an indie anthology, along with what we learned from the whole process.

My co-conspirator in the anthology project was D.J. Gelner. He’s a gifted writer who enjoys splashing into just about every genre known. Okay, I exaggerate! But thus far he’s written science-fiction, mythological fantasy, non-fiction, time travel, and a sports tale. All of these stories have two things in common: powerful drama and “gotcha” kickers at the end. It’s been great fun to tackle Quantum Zoo with him.

When I consulted with Lindsay on the scope of my post, she encouraged me to dig into the nitty gritty specifics. To present all the how-to’s (and how-not-to’s) that would make my account really useful to other writers, whether they intended to create their own anthology or not. So that’s exactly what I’ve done.

First off…

Why Create an Indie Anthology?

Building Quantum Zoo has been a lot of fun, but it’s also been a lot of work. Why did we do it? What did we hope to achieve?

D.J. and I had three goals from the very start.

Cross-pollinate reading audiences

We figured that some of my readers would become his readers. Some his readers would become my readers. Some of our readers would go on to read the works of the other writers contributing stories to the anthology. And vice versa. All of us would increase the size of our audience.

Experiment with new marketing techniques

I’ve been following the more conservative approach recommended for writers with patience and a desire to be frugal with time and energy: write the next book! I write, release, announce, and repeat. Yet I’ve harbored a secret yen to try some bolder and more direct promotional techniques. This would be my chance to approach vast numbers of blogging reviewers and hold a Facebook launch party. 😉 D.J. has always been quite open about his desire to experiment with different marketing projects.

Learn from the project and report back to the indie community

We hoped to learn more about what kind of promotion was effective and what wasn’t. Naturally we’d use that knowledge to better guide our own publishing careers, but we’d also share what we’d learned with other writers. We envisioned our anthology project as benefitting many, not just ourselves.

Before You Start, Take One: Choose Your Partner Wisely

I wouldn’t have wanted to tackle a project like this alone. But pick your teammate carefully! D.J. and I were members of a small and active online writing group for more than a year before we hatched the idea for Quantum Zoo. We admired one another’s skills. We knew that each of us would contribute a high-quality story to the project. We had complimentary strengths.

I have two things for you to consider in this first “before you start” phase:

Compare your skill sets

D.J. calls me a “front woman with the smarts, tact, and grace necessary to communicate with all sorts of folks online” and “a crackerjack cover designer.” (Blushing a little as I copy & paste that.)

D.J. has experience in law, business, and entrepreneurship, plus a real gift for seeing the big picture and identifying exactly what needs to be done now to make everything fall into place.

I created Quantum Zoo‘s cover, a website for the book, a Quantum Zoo Pinterest board, and a flyer for contributing authors to distribute at conventions. D.J. wrote the contracts and selected the accountant who will handle the money earned by the book. Between us, we could do everything.

Assess your working styles and personalities

The only ego D.J. and I permitted ourselves was a dedication to putting out the very best possible finished product. We didn’t indulge in turf battles or power struggles, and didn’t take anything personally. Any of that could derail a cooperative project like this. We worked as members of the same team with our eyes firmly on our goal.

TIP: Chose someone you know well to be your partner.

Before You Start, Take Two: Genre & Theme

Decide the genre and theme for your anthology

How easily you manage this will tell you something about your partnership right off the bat!

Readers generally don’t want a random assortment of stories in an anthology. Would-be anthology builders must decide what the unifying principles for their collection will be.

Genre was easy for us. We both enjoy speculative fiction, reading it and writing it. Quantum Zoo would be science fiction and fantasy.

Selecting a theme was a little more challenging. D.J. and I held several brainstorming sessions. We wanted a prompt that would be fun to write about, had a broad range of applications, and would work equally well for both sci-fi and fantasy authors.

TIP: Be flexible and don’t lock in on a theme right away. Play with ideas for a while.

I’ll confess that I had a story I was longing to write that stemmed from the concept of living exhibitions. But D.J. agreed that “zoo” was an excellent prompt when I suggested it. I’ve never asked him when the inspiration for his “Echoes of Earth” arrived. Now I’m curious. Was it when we were brainstorming? I’d love to know!

Before You Start, Take Three: Contracts, Expectations, and Other Messy Business

First of all, have a contract! Without some kind of baseline agreement between yourself and the authors in the collection, no one will know where they stand, and things can get messy quickly. At the bare minimum, you should have an independent contractor agreement with each of your authors; it simplifies taxes and any legal problems should they arise. (D.J. can dig more deeply into this in the comments if anyone has questions about the specifics.)

At the same time, it was important to us that the contracts for Quantum Zoo be very author-friendly. There are too many horror stories these days about authors who sign unfairly one-sided contracts just to be “accepted” by a publication.

By contrast, we wanted Quantum Zoo to be a collaborative effort that authors could join without feeling “railroaded” by the goal of the process. To foster that collaborative atmosphere, having fair, author-friendly contract terms was absolutely necessary.

Be sure the terms of your contract protect the rights of the contributing authors

Our authors retained their rights. They can submit their stories to magazines that accept already-published material. Their stories can be included in other anthologies, such as Year’s Best SF. Each author may also indie publish his or her story.

TIP: Make sure to have signed independent contractor agreements with all of your writers with terms that are fair to the writers!

Anthologies have a strong history in traditional publishing. The usual framework is that a publishing house or a magazine decides to publish an anthology of stories, often reprints, sometimes new titles. The publisher puts out a call for submissions, selects the stories, issues contracts, pays the authors, and puts out the book.

We would be following a similar path, with one important difference: this would be a collaborative effort similar to the book bundles that some indies are now creating and selling.

Be very clear about the nature of your project

It was important that we communicate accurately what we had in mind. That it was a collaborative project. That our focus was audience expansion and marketing experimentation. That this was not a traditional anthology primarily consumed with making money. Although we do hope to make money, the proceeds from sales will initially be plowed back into marketing the book until we reach a relatively high threshold, at which time we’ll all split the loot, one-twelfth each. 🙂

We wanted to be sure that the indies who chose to submit knew what we intended and what to expect. We included all this information in the detailed guidelines we sent to interested writers who emailed us. Which leads me to my next topic.

How Do You Find Authors?

This is the issue that stopped us for several months after we first conceived our anthology project. We couldn’t put out a call for submissions in the traditional places, because this wouldn’t be a traditional anthology. Plus we wanted indies (or hybrids), not folks traveling the legacy route exclusively.

Writers who are members of really large online writers’ groups might seek interested writers there. But neither of us were in one of these groups. How could we make this work?

Eventually we decided to go ahead by posting a call for submissions on our own blogs. D.J. gets quite respectable traffic on his, a couple hundred visitors a day. Mine is more modest, a mere twenty to thirty a day. Still, we figured those relative “trickles” of traffic just might be enough.

As it happened, we’ll never know. We caught a lucky break.

There’s a lesson there, I think. Sometimes you just have to dive in, even when you don’t have all the pieces in place.

What was our lucky break? The Passive Guy decided to run my “Calling All Indies” post on his massively popular blog: The Passive Voice.

D.J.’s words about that: “I think it’s pretty clear that Jessica’s thoughtful comments on PG’s blog, DWS’s blog, Kris’s blog, and others contributed to her standing in the community, which in turn led PG to run the post. Without that, we may have had too few submissions to bring together something as special as QZ.”

TIP: If you’ve got 90% of what you need to do figured out, consider trusting yourselves – trusting that you’ll use your smarts and savvy to figure out the other 10%.

Whatever the cause, we were definitely out of the starting blocks from that moment.

We received many, many fine stories for consideration.

How Do You Pick the Right Stories?

D.J. volunteered to read the stories first. His idea was that he could weed out the ones that weren’t right for Quantum Zoo, thus saving some of my time and attention.

As it happened, the vast majority of the stories were so good that he couldn’t definitively rule any of them out. So we both ended up reading all the submissions.

Read as a reader, not an editor

Editors read with an eye to what is wrong with the story, looking to see how to strengthen it. That’s not how readers read. Readers let the story have its way with them. If it doesn’t pull them in, doesn’t hold their interest, they stop reading.

D.J. and I read through the stories the first time as readers, merely noting which ones drew us in most strongly, held our interest without letting go, startled us or moved us or both. Those are the stories we chose.

We had to consider one other thing. Several of the stories focused on humans held captive in alien zoos. No matter how good they were, including six stories with the same premise was never going to fly. We picked two: D.J.’s own – an intense twist on an old pulp classic, and a humorous piece by S.E. Batt that goes in a completely different direction.

What about deadlines?

We had them. Both for the writers: submit by January 31, 2014. And for ourselves: decide which stories to include by early March.

TIP: Give yourselves some wiggle room with your own deadlines. Do have them. You need them to coordinate well with one another. But say “early March” rather than March 4. This is a huge project and you are fitting it in around the rest of your responsibilities.

Once the decisions were made, we sent out emails all in a batch. D.J. drafted the letters: one to inform the writer we were passing on the story; one to say that we’d like to include the story if the writer were willing to make certain, specific revisions; and one to say that the story was exactly what we were looking for. This allowed us to ensure that that the authors were “on board” with making changes to their stories before moving forward – again, we tried to be as author-friendly as possible throughout the entire process.

All of that work was before even starting the actual editing!

How Do You Edit Stories?

Once again we divided things up, but this time we did it very subjectively.

We both liked all the stories and were wholeheartedly behind each one. But certain stories really spoke to D.J., and he chose to edit those, while others really spoke to me, and I selected them for my purview. We described ourselves as being the “captain” of a story. At the start of the process, we just hoped we could guide each one safely into harbor instead of crashing the story on the rocks! Fortunately, all of the authors were very accommodating through the entire process, and I think this method worked well for everyone.

After the captain completed his or her work with the writer, the story went to the other editor for review. This kept one set of eyes fresh for finding the little things that escaped correction.

What about the stories that spoke to both of us? As it so happened, those were the ones that needed the least revision. It was feasible for both of us to review them as “captain” and then simply send a compiled list that combined our suggested revisions to the writer.

What about our own stories?

D.J.’s went to a first reader from our writing group for feedback and then came to me for editing. Mine went to one of my usual first readers and then to D.J. for editing. We didn’t give those stories a “pass” or a leg up on anything; they had to meet the same standards as the other stories that ultimately made it into the anthology. We both had revision work of our own, just like every other contributing writer.

TIP: Let the writers know that some time will pass before you get editorial feedback to everyone. There are ten (more or less) of them and only two of you. Some writers will get feedback right away. Others may wait several weeks.

The stories fell into three distinct states of readiness for publishing.

About half were in great shape. They needed no structural changes, perhaps half a dozen small changes for clarity or consistency, and a smattering of typos corrected.

The other half needed more work: an important character given more “stage time,” repetitious word use fixed, verbal tics corrected, a more emphatic final sentence devised, and so on.

One story was perfect! The author found and corrected the sole error – a noun that read better as singular rather than plural – before D.J. and I got to her. We focused on the stories that needed the most work first, to give the authors time to make the necessary changes.

In our revision requests, we were careful to emphasize to the writer that we loved the story – in all honesty, we wouldn’t have picked the story if we hadn’t! As writers ourselves, we know it’s easy to give extra weight to criticism and less credence to praise. My emails started with some of the things I loved, then listed the changes I wanted (with mention of a few specifics that I loved), and closed with more things I loved. I should ask the writers if I got the balance right! 😀

When Should You Start Marketing?

As soon as possible! In a weird way, this was the “meat” of the whole project: we wanted to try out all kinds of “off the beaten path” ideas we had, but in order to do so, we had to nail down the basics first.

The Cover

Covers are (obviously) some of the most important passive marketing you can do. They glow on the book’s web page, enticing readers to give them a second look or to click Amazon’s “Look Inside” button.

We had several options for creating our cover. D.J. is modest about his design abilities, but he’s built some eye-catching images for his own books. I think he could have tackled the cover for Quantum Zoo. One of our contributing authors is also an excellent designer. (Check out Morgan Johnson’s Skipdrive, published solo with a fabulous cover, as well as included in our anthology.)

But we wanted the contributions of all the authors (except D.J. and me) to be exactly equal: one story. Since I have more design experience than D.J., I got the job. (Gotta say it was fun to do – I enjoy playing with Photoshop!)

I finished the cover roughly a month before our release date. Cover reveals tend to generate a lot of interest among fans, so they’re a good way to start buzz. And one of the authors was headed for a convention: we wanted a flyer ready for her to distribute there. The flyer featured our cover.

The Website(s)

The instant the cover was complete, we created a website for the book.

I had been resistant to this step. My thinking: we all have blogs, so why try to drive traffic to yet one more page on the vast, indifferent web?

Then I looked into our overall web presence across all 12 of us.

Turns out I was wrong to think everyone had a blog. One new author who submitted an absolute gem of a story had no web presence at all. This would be her first story published! One author had a Facebook page, but no website. Another author was starting a new pen name, so his existing web presence would help Quantum Zoo not at all.

Our book did need a website.

It ended up having two!

I’m going to explain the pros and cons of WordPress versus Blogger, which is the only way to understand why we have two websites. Crazy, I know!

WordPress

My own author blog is on WordPress. Over the last two years, I’ve learned how to make it do what I want it to. I didn’t want to learn another system. WordPress has a free version we could use – important to keep costs down. WordPress has more design templates, giving more flexibility for the visual look of the site.

So I created a WordPress site for Quantum Zoo.

When I tried to place a newsletter sign-up form on the site, I ran into trouble:

It couldn’t be done!

You can place such a sign-up form on paid-hosted WordPress sites, but not on the free ones. Only a link to a sign-up form works on a free site. So we did that, but we weren’t terribly happy with the result.

Blogger

What about Blogger? Blogger’s free, like WordPress. But as with anything, there were definitely trade-offs. Not as many template options. No slick, off-center designs. And a different interface from WordPress.

But it will accept a MailChimp newsletter sign-up form.

That was crucial; with every extra “click” that you put readers through, it’s one more place along the chain to lose their attention and interest. We were starting to build buzz before the book ever appeared on Amazon. How would we let readers who were interested now, pre-publication, know when the book launched? We needed those email addresses so that we could keep in touch with them, and we needed signing up to be as easy as possible.

So D.J., who is familiar with Blogger, got a Blogger site up. Then I came in and started tinkering and learning and making it reflect our vision for Quantum Zoo. You can check it out here. I’m very happy with how it came out. And we did get some readers signing up. Not a lot – perhaps a dozen – but enough to help on release day.

TIP: Be sure to feature your book cover on its website and use images from the cover as elements on the website, especially the header bar and the background – Quantum Zoo‘s web presence is all the better for it. Plus, it’s just good, old-fashioned, consistent branding.

We decided to leave the WordPress site up. One more page blowing in the internet breeze and potentially attracting a reader who missed the main site couldn’t really hurt anything. Since we intended these to be static sites, with just a few updates, keeping both would not add much to our workloads.

Review Bloggers

We fell down on this one. We should have asked our authors to start rounding up bloggers who reviewed books much earlier in the process. Most bloggers have huge TBR lists and work at considerable lead time. Finding bloggers to read and review Quantum Zoo needed to happen months before release date, not mere weeks, especially given the “fluid” nature of a lot of review sites these days: the site that was thriving and vibrant only a few short months ago could have an owner who’s totally swamped with reviews, or worse, utterly burnt out now. It’s challenging to dig through all of the lists of book review sites and blogs given that they’re constantly going out of date!

The problem was that D.J. and I had so much on our plates with reading submissions, managing communication with the authors, and editing that we simply couldn’t add one more task.

By the time I tackled the rather daunting task of combing the lists to find bloggers, it was much too late.

TIP: As soon as each author turns in his or her final draft, ask him or her to start seeking book reviewers.

I checked the science fiction & fantasy list of the Book Blogger Directory with 35 entries. Eleven of them were still in business, accepting submissions, and suitable for Quantum Zoo. (A few accepted only fantasy or YA books for review, so they wouldn’t work for QZ.)

I searched “science fiction” on The Indie Review, which narrowed 352 entries down to 57. Of those, many were predictably not accepting submissions or no longer in business. I found 13 suitable for Quantum Zoo and followed their submission guidelines.

As of now, none of these bloggers have read or reviewed Quantum Zoo. However, it is likely that some of them will eventually do so. Which will (I hope) give sales a boost when it happens.

Ask Your Authors to Help

Fortunately, Quantum Zoo‘s authors are all go-getters! They were busy talking with their own connections long before I said, “It’s time to make some noise!”

Several found readers who promised to read the book and post a review soon after its release. A.C. Smyth knew a very influential Goodreads member – many readers follow his lead in order to find their next read – who has already posted a very positive review. He’s a tough reviewer and didn’t give us a free ride anywhere, including the typos that were present in the e-ARC he read, but not in the final ebook. But his conclusion was: “Quantum Zoo is a collection of good writing… While I had some quibbles with several of the stories, there weren’t any that I outright disliked – not the case with several of the pro anthologies I’ve read recently – and some of them were very good indeed.”

Morgan Johnson educated us about Fiverr and a promo package there that he’d used successfully to bump his sales. This Fiverr campaign is likely one of the main reasons that QZ continued to sell enough to remain on several genre top 100 lists almost a week after release.

John Hindmarsh was beta reader for a popular indie who was willing to mention Quantum Zoo on his newsletter, which reached hundreds of his SF fans.

One of the benefits of publishing an indie anthology is that you don’t have to shoulder the marketing alone. Use the extra reach you have by encouraging all the authors to connect with their friends and fans.

TIP: It’s smart to plan your promotions in waves rather than all at once. Steady sales on Amazon will put the Amazon algorithms to work much more effectively than one huge (but lonely) sales spike.

From 12 Stories to Completed Anthology

D.J. built the ebook in Scrivener using his own custom template, then exported a .mobi file for Amazon, an .epub file for the other e-tailer sites, a .pdf file for reviewers who require that format, and a .doc file that I will use when I create the trade paperback edition of Quantum Zoo.

D.J. exported more than ten early versions, fixing all the errors that he saw, before he passed it to me for my review. My eyes were fresh at that point – I’d been working on the cover and marketing, so I found many of the problems that were hiding from him.

My process went like this:

First, more typos jumped out at me. (Ugh!)

D.J. corrected them and sent me a new file.

Then the major formatting issues became apparent.

D.J. fixed them and sent me a new file.

Then the more subtle formatting problems became obvious.

Not only that, but there were some late nights throughout the process debating (always very civilly 🙂 ) how punctuation should be standardized, obscure (but important) rules of grammar, and even things like how to end each story. (“The End” seemed too old-fashioned – we ended up using proper asterisms, which are three asterisks in an upside-down triangle.)

The point of all of this is to say there were plenty of spots along the way where we could’ve wasted time arguing about who’s right and who’s not, but as we mentioned above, we didn’t let our egos get in the way – we always had the highest good of the project in mind.

And, as D.J. adds, “Jessica was right most of the time, anyway…” 😉

(Naturally, I solicited D.J.’s feedback on this post. His revision suggestions were excellent, as always. And he added that sentence about my rightness. LOL!)

Again, pick your editing partner wisely!

D.J. made the last corrections to the ebook file. And then we sent it to all the authors to get really fresh eyes seeking errors and issues. Good thing we did, because they found another dozen typos!

At that point, after 19 versions of that file(!), it was ready to upload.

We chose to start Quantum Zoo in Amazon’s Select program, with plans to use those promotional tools. We’ll place it in Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Apple (iBook), and Smashwords 90 days after its release.

We uploaded Quantum Zoo to Amazon. It was an exciting moment when it went live – cheering was heard in Casa Ney-Grimm!

How Do You Market an Indie Anthology?

One of our goals at the very start of this project was to experiment with different promotional techniques. I summarized many of our marketing efforts under “When Should You Start Marketing” (above), but we have plans for much more.

This is an adventure that should persist for quite some time, and one that we’re delighted to share with the rest of the indie community!

One of our authors is a frequent visitor to the Writers’ Cafe on the Kindle Boards. He started a thread there that eventually garnered more than 2000 views. Did we get any sales from it? At least one – the reader posted to tell us so. But I suspect more than one buyer saw the thread.

Several writers who showed early interest in Quantum Zoo, but don’t have a story in it, followed our progress as we went from the idea to the collecting of submissions to the release of the book. They kindly emailed us messages of congratulations. Emboldened by their warmth, I ventured to ask them if any of them would like a free e-ARC to read and review. Two of them said yes!

TIP: Consider all the people interested in your anthology as part of the community that you’ve created by building the book. Some of them will be happy to help you.

As I write this guest post, we’re planning a launch party, to be held on the Quantum Zoo website. It will take place after I finish this post, but before this post goes live.

You can be sure I’ll blog about it after we have results. Indeed, D.J. and I plan to blog about all of our marketing experiments. We want to share what we learn. His blog is At Wit’s End. Mine is JMNey-Grimm.com. Check in with either of us from time to time to see our latest reports.

How Did Launch Day Go?!

I’ve always soft-launched my own titles, so I had no idea of what to expect for Quantum Zoo‘s release day.

It started quietly, with Quantum Zoo creeping softly onto the science fiction anthologies bestseller list at #84 or something like that.

But the news just got better and better as morning turned to afternoon and then evening.

By midnight, we were at #4 on science fiction anthologies and #11 (I think) on fantasy anthologies.

The next morning, Quantum Zoo was #3 on science fiction anthologies and #1 on Hot New Releases for the genre.

Wow! I’d never dreamed we’d get to #1 in anything. It felt great!

Much as we like the fabulous launch, our focus is long term. It will take time for our readers to read all the stories in the anthology. More time for them to decide to seek out other titles written by the authors of their favorite QZ stories. More time for Quantum Zoo to reach its full audience. Yet more time for that audience to buy novels by R.S. McCoy or Bridget McKenna or Sarah Stegall or any of our other wonderful writers.

But that is what we ultimately hope for: ripples going out for many years, that eventually become great tidal waves of sales for all of us…

…or at least let us set up house somewhere near the same zip code of the indie world where Lindsay resides! 😉

What About the Book Itself?

quantum-zoo-anthology-sf-fYou’ve just read the detailed saga of how Quantum Zoo was born. I’d like to tell you a little bit about it.

From a ghost park to a time-travel penitentiary of murderers to a menagerie of Egyptian deities, Quantum Zoo presents 12 compelling stories involving 12 very different living exhibitions. Including a wonderfully atmospheric tale by Hugo- and Nebula-nominated Bridget McKenna.

Visit 12 exotic worlds on a thrilling ride through Quantum Zoo!

Amazon.com I Amazon UK I Amazon DE I Amazon ES

Lindsay, thank you so much for hosting me here!

Anyone with questions, feel free to ask them. D.J. and I will check back from time to time and do our best to answer. 😀

Posted in Guest Posts | Tagged , , , , , | 23 Comments

Book Promotion When Time Is Limited — What’s Most Worth Doing?

Posted on June 27, 2014 by Lindsay

A blog reader sent me a note asking what I would do to promote a series like my Emperor’s Edge if I was starting from scratch and had an hour a day to work on the marketing side of things.

I rambled a bit and tried to give a helpful answer, but I wasn’t sure I articulated myself well, because the truth is… enh, there’s not an easy answer or one specific thing you can do to find certain success. Oh, I know what I would do if I were starting from scratch (I recently laid out my plan for launching a pen name in a different genre and getting — I hope — reviews and sales as a new author), but what should you do if you only have a few minutes a day for book promotion?

I’ve seen different things work for different people with having a free/cheapie Book 1 in a series combined with advertising (ideally several sponsorships on high-traffic sites/mailing lists spread over a few days) being the easiest way to make #1 (below) happen. Having a mailing list and encouraging people to sign up as soon as they finish your first book (with a link in the back) is how you get to never having to start over from scratch for the next book or the next series.

But how do you sell those first books in the first place? Especially if you can’t afford advertising or you haven’t been able to get enough reviews to qualify for the most trafficked sites? Or you find, as I have, that there just aren’t that many good sites where you can advertise, and they’ve either booked up and don’t want you or you’ve already pimped your stuff there.

Basically, there are two ways to sell books:

1. Gain visibility on Amazon (and, we can always hope, the other stores) so lots and lots of people find your books while you’re sleeping, eating, and vacationing in Hawaii thanks to your book earnings. We all want this. Some people get it, usually after doing a lot of #2, and building up a mailing list/fan base that helps them launch future releases into the tops of category lists at Amazon.

2. One reader at a time.

#1 is so awesome and profitable and awesome (yeah, I said that twice) that it’s no surprise that’s what we all want. But it’s hard to make it happen when you’re just starting out. Instead you end up on social media sites and blogs and forums, spending hours a day, hoping that you’ll find readers by splattering yourself and pictures/blurbs of your books everywhere. Maybe you get some sales, but you really have no idea why or where they came from, and you’re afraid that if you stop doing all that stuff that you’re calling promotion, your sales will dwindle to nothing at all.

I actually think aiming for one reader at a time is the sanest way to go about building a fan base (you can make yourself crazy reading every success story out there and scheming up ways to gain Amazon fame) and the most sustainable, but there are ways to go about it that are smarter than others. I’m going to give a list of ideas — these are things I’ve done and that have worked, and they’re things that should continue to work no matter how competitive and crazy Amazon gets — but first let me point out one thing (for those who are underwhelmed by this one-reader-at-a-time-thing):

If you acquire one loyal reader a day, that’s 365 people at the end of the year. (We’ll assume others tried your work, but one a day liked it enough to sign up for your newsletter because he/she wants to buy what’s coming out next.)

If you send out a new-release email to 365 loyal readers who go out and buy your new book within the first couple of days, it’s enough to:

  • Sell at least 365 books in the first week! 365 x (3.99 x 0.70 royalty) = $1,019 (this may completely cover the costs of the editing and cover art for many authors, meaning everything after is profit)
  • Get into the Top 20 of a small to medium category on Amazon, at least for a couple of days (who knows — maybe you’ll have a blurb/cover that attracts new eyes and you’ll stick there for a while)
  • Get 20 reviews within the first few weeks your book is out (make sure to ask and don’t be afraid to give out some review copies to your proven readers), thus qualifying your book for a lot of advertising options.

In other words… a reader a day adds up. Before you know it, you could have the kind of following that turns you into one of those visible-at-Amazon-and-selling-books-in-your-sleep authors.

So let’s talk about efficiently finding those readers without spending hours a day on book promotion (seriously, if you’re spending hours a day, you need to apply the 80/20 rule and use some tracking links so you can figure out what’s selling books for you and what isn’t). If your books are good and you’re able to consistently spend an hour a day doing this stuff, you should see results.

4 Things You Can Do Right Now to Find Your Next Reader:

1. Have a free ebook or have a nice long free excerpt on your site — promote this.

It’s not that you can’t sell a full-priced book as a no-name author; it’s that it’s much easier to get someone to check out something for free. If they read it and like it, you get a sale anyway (either of the full-priced book or of the non-free next book in your series).

2. Write a blog post in the same engaging style that you write your fiction in (assuming you’re trying to sell fiction) on a topic that might be interesting/helpful for your potential reader — promote this.

You can start your own blog or ask to do guest posts on other people’s blogs (make sure their blogs get traffic and are places where your readers might hang out). Either way, you want to tailor your blog post so it’s useful to the target audience. You know your genre, so you know what this might look like. If you write fantasy novels with smart/geeky heroines, maybe you’ll want to write a post on the five best geeky heroines in fantasy (mention your stuff and throw in a link to your site/book at the end, but make the focus on characters lots of your readers will already be familiar with, and encourage engagement by asking them what they think).

Note: I write about self-publishing, not the best subject for attracting fantasy readers, but it works to help me sell books anyway because a) some self publishers happen to be fantasy readers and b) the content tends to get tweets and link-backs from the writing community, which ultimately means more traffic from social media and the search engines and more of those fantasy-reading authors finding my site.

3. Join one or two communities or follow blogs where your potential readers hang out and put your free excerpt link in the signature/profile/url space. Then post helpful and/or entertaining comments regularly. 

This kind of thing can be a time sink, so be careful and monitor whether you actually end up getting any traffic (clicks on your link) from those sites (if you install Google Analytics on your personal site, you can see where traffic comes from; if you use a service like bit.ly, you can make trackable links that go other places, such as your book page on Amazon; if you sign up as an Amazon affiliate, you can see which sales of your book come directly from your site/affiliate links — and make a few bucks on the side).

I’d only pick the communities where you’d enjoy spending time even if you didn’t have anything to sell. If I wrote science fiction and loved doing book reviews, I’d find the SF/F people on Goodreads. If I loved forums and wrote steampunk, I might post on a popular steampunk forum. If I enjoyed reading blogs and wrote romance, I might leave comments on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books.

You get the gist.

4. Join one or two social media sites and put the links to your profiles in the backs of your books.

When it comes to marketing, people talk about social media this and social media that and how awesome-sauce it all is. It can help, but it can be another time sink if you’re not careful. Again, I’d say pick one or two sites that suit you and that you could see yourself hanging out on whether you had a book to sell or not. My main one is Twitter. I was on Twitter before I had any books to sell. Posts have to be short, and that appeals to me. Others like Facebook. Others like Google+. Others like Pinterest.

Pick your favorites and post there regularly. What do you post? Again entertaining/interesting/useful stuff. Which might include links to your excerpt/free book and your blog posts. But which should probably include some other stuff too. Links to other people’s entertaining/interesting/useful stuff.

Any why are you here? So your existing readers can find you (that’s why you’re putting your links in the backs of your books) and so they can easily share your cool stuff (including the occasional self-promotional tidbit) with others. You’re not going to sell piles of books on Twitter, but every now and then, especially if people other than you are sharing your posts, a new reader will find you.

There you go. Four things that can all be done on an hour a day (or less). Writing a blog post is probably the only thing that could take more than an hour, but there’s no rule saying you have to compose it all in a day. With social media, I wouldn’t spend more than a few minutes a day on it. When commenting in other communities, it shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes to read and contribute something worthwhile.

With a lot of this, the secret is consistency. I’m not all that brilliant at marketing (none of this is utterly creative or going to sell me a bazillion books tomorrow), but I’m there, day in and day out, publishing new books, posting on social media, and scattering blog posts around the web. The little things add up. A reader a day.

Posted in Book Marketing, Social Media | Tagged , , , , , | 20 Comments

For New Indie Authors: What I Would Do if I Were Starting Today

Posted on June 18, 2014 by Lindsay

Sometimes when you give publishing and marketing advice on your blog, you get a little resistance from new self publishers. But you’ve been doing this for 3+ years. You have a fan base already. You have heaps of books out already, so you’re not a nobody. It’s way different for people starting now!

I’m not going to argue that it’s not different. There are more ebooks in the Kindle store than ever. The gaming-the-system tricks that might have worked in the past aren’t working now. For self published books, the blurbs, cover art, and sample chapters are, on average, more professional than they were a few years ago. It is harder to stand out.

But…

There are a heck of a lot more readers willing to try novels by independent authors these days. There’s still a stigma toward self publishing, but it’s a much smaller stigma than it used to be. More blogs are willing to accept submissions from indie authors. Oh, and there are a lot more options for advertising your ebooks. When I got started, there was Kindle Nation Daily, and that was it. And I never did manage to break even with a KND ad. Today, you have everything from Bookbub (which can move a tremendous number of books in a day, if you can get accepted) to scads of smaller reader-centered blogs and mailing lists. Not all of them are great, but lots of them can help with sales and name recognition, at least a little.

I also keep coming across success stories from people who just started. Last year, I interviewed Sue London (historical romance) and Leeland Artra (epic fantasy) who both did extremely well right out of the gate. Just a couple of weeks ago, someone on Kboards was talking about how she made $50,000 and sold 100,000 in her first four months of publishing.

So it is possible to get started today and hit it big… or just gradually build up a fan base while writing and publishing what you love (this is all I’ve ever done).

What I would do if I were starting fresh today

This is actually not academic. For a handful of reasons, I’m going to launch a series under a pen name in another month or so. (I’m about 60,000 words into the first draft of the first book now.) Thus I’ve been thinking about what I’ll do. I listen to tons of podcasts and follow other people’s success stories, so I’ve heard a lot of the what’s-working-now stories over and over, and, of course, I have my own experiences to draw upon as well.

For the genre (more of a sub-genre) I’ll be writing in, it’s definitely niche. It’s less popular than epic fantasy and much less popular than contemporary/urban fantasy. In other words, I’ll be doing this for the love it it — and because I am frustrated by the lack of what I consider quality fiction that I really enjoy reading in that sub-genre. I’ll also be doing it in between writing novels under my regular name, so I won’t be going at this as gung-ho as someone who can publish a new novel every 4 weeks might. I’m not currently planning to disclose the new pen name to my current readers, other than a handful of folks I’ve come to know via Twitter and the EE chat room, people I know happen to like reading books in this sub-genre. I may make things more public later, but there’s a part of me that wants to stay incognito with this alter ego, at least in the beginning.

So essentially… I’ll be like most starting-out writers.

Here’s the plan:

  • Write in a series — No surprise here. We’ve long talked about the power of a series to entice readers to come back for the next novel. I won’t have the same main characters in each novel (which may make things less of an auto-buy for readers), but they’ll at least be set in the same world, with former main characters popping up as side characters in other adventures.
  • Make each ebook a complete story — Serials have been very effective for authors (i.e. breaking up a larger work into six or eight episodes of 15,000-30,000 words and ending them with cliff-hangers, so readers are enticed to buy the next one), but I’m seeing a lot of reader resistance to these tactics nowadays. Even though the serial has a long history, people are seeing it as a marketing scheme now and leaving less than stellar reviews for authors who publisher shorter works with cliff-hangers. That doesn’t mean they can’t still work (the Kboards author I linked to above used a serial to get rolling), but my philosophy is to try and make people feel like they got a good deal when they bought one of my books, and telling a complete story is going to continue to be part of that strategy. (Yes, I’ve done cliff-hangers in the past, but rarely without wrapping up the main storyline for that piece and/or writing a full novel in the process.)
  • Write stories that are original but that also fit solidly into the expectations of my chosen sub-genre — This is something I’ve always struggled with as an author. Even though my novels aren’t exactly avant-garde, they never really fit into the formulas for any particular genre. My artistic side just always wants to be a little different. I plan to keep my quirks and originality in the new series (how not?), but I also, for once, want to write stories that do fit in with what else has been written in the genre.
  • Start with a 99-cent or free novella and a full-length novel ($2.99 or $3.99) — The “loss leader” novella will be designed to get people to check out the novel. Ideally, I’d start out with three full-length novels, making the first one cheap, and releasing them about 30 days apart, as that’s one of the big ways I see new authors building momentum quickly. But, I have other things I want to write at the same time, and my regular fantasy offerings are what pay the bills. This will be a side project, likely with negligible income for the first 6-12 months, and to expect otherwise would be delusional. (One of the things I think some new self-publishers struggle with is high expectations, possibly fueled by the success stories around the net.)
  • Make sure the cover is awesome and in line with other covers in the sub-genre — Because this category isn’t very big, there are few traditionally published books in it, so most of the offerings are self-published. There are some good covers, but there are a lot of hokey ones too. I hope to nail it with the cover, so it’ll draw eyes from the start. I’m probably going to hit up one of my current cover designers, but I may also try 99 Designs again (I did this for Balanced on the Blade’s Edge). Even though I had more misses than hits with the offerings there, there were a few very professional ones, and I liked being able to pick from numerous covers.
  • Give KDP Select a try for the first 90 days of new releases — I don’t think this is that important in anyone’s launch strategy, but it’s not something I’ve ever done, because the program requires exclusivity and because I already had readers at other stores when it came along. Since nobody knows about these books, nobody will be waiting for them; nobody will be disappointed when they don’t show up at Barnes & Noble and Kobo right away. I plan to try KDP Select to see if I make any money from the lending library and also to schedule countdown deals for promotions.
  • Bust my butt to get early reviews of the novella and first novel — This is one of the toughest things when you’re starting out and don’t have a fan base, so nobody’s buying the books yet. More reviews come with more sales, but getting those sales without reviews is next to impossible. When I released the first Emperor’s Edge book and Encrypted (my two early, pre-audience novels), I went to the various forums (Kboards, Nook Boards, and MobileRead) and posted the blurb and a link to the sample where it was allowed, then offered free review copies to anyone who was interested. Since I don’t want to make new forum accounts and new social media accounts for my pen name (I would if I weren’t already doing all of this for my regular name), this will be kind of tough. Gotta stay incognito, after all. My exception may be to make a Facebook fan page and spend $50 advertising on Facebook that I have some free review copies to give away. We’ll see! I will also ask for reviews in the backs of the books (I don’t always do this, but, all other things being equal, I always get more reviews on books when I do).
  • Buy advertising — Not every indie author has money to burn in the beginning, but since I’m not willing to do the social media game with the pen name, this is how I’m going to to try and build awareness of my books. (When starting a business — and this author thing really is a business these days — you generally need either time or money to make things happen early on. Some people spend a lot of time pimping their book creatively — quotations, giveaways, contests, etc., — on social media, and some people buy ads.) This is why those early reviews are super important. Not only are they social proof for potential buyers, but you often need XX number of reviews with a 4+ star average to qualify for sponsorships on the good reader blogs.
  • Approach book bloggers or sign up for a book blog tour — Even though this genre is super niche, I do know of some small book blogs that cover it. I honestly have never gotten much out of blog appearances in the past, except for links back to my site (useful for SEO and gradually getting more search engine traffic to your pages) and reviews. Reviews aren’t usually guaranteed, but they do sometimes happen if you send the blogger your book as part of your tour stop. Since reviews are, as I’ve already covered, super important, I’m planning to at least do a book tour for the first book in this series.
  • Start a mailing list — I don’t want to start a big website and a blog for this new persona — too much work for too little of a pay off (I do sell books as a result of my blogging efforts here, but I’ve generally found the WIBBOW rule to be in effect; Would I Be Better Off Writing… the next book instead of sinking time into blogging? Most likely, yes). I will, however, put up a static website (probably only a handful of pages) with information about the books and a prominently displayed newsletter sign-up form. I might offer a free short story that’s not available anywhere else as an incentive for people to sign up.

All right, those are the big plans for now. Want to hear how it all goes? Bookmark my site and come back in a couple of months. (You can come back every week, if you like, but I plan to post some updates for Project Pen Name after I have the novella and novel out.) Also, if there’s anything else you’re sure I should check into, or if you just want to share your own experience, please leave a comment.

Thanks for reading!

 

 

Posted in Book Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , | 43 Comments

Google Play — Should You Be Uploading Your Ebooks There?

Posted on June 11, 2014 by Lindsay

As a self-publisher, I’ve been a big proponent of putting my ebooks in as many of the major markets as possible. Since there are already so many places where we can’t appear (such as all those thousands of physical bookstores), I wouldn’t want to leave money on the table (or miss reaching potential new fans) by ignoring a venue that’s a) easy to get books into (i.e. by checking a “distribute” box on Smashwords) or b) capable of moving a noticeable number of books (so it’s worth the effort to upload individual titles on my own). My first book, The Emperor’s Edge, even shows up in places that aren’t technically bookstores, such as Wattpad and Scribd.

So, you wonder, am I in Google Play?

I’m not. And the reason is that, as of now, other authors are reporting that Google Play arbitrarily lowers the prices of their ebooks. Aside from that being irritating, it’ll actually get you in trouble with Amazon (if your ebook is listed for a lower price somewhere else, their bots will find out, and you’ll get an email about how it’s against their ToS for you to sell books for less somewhere else).

Here are a couple of recent reports on Google Play’s pricing issue, and other user-unfriendliness, from other authors:

Google Play: an Experiment (a write-up by fellow indie author, and my beta reader, Kendra Highley)

Why I Had to Delete My Book from Google Play Books (a Kboards forum thread with lots of commentary)

In the forum thread, one author mentioned that she had made special editions just for Google Play (i.e. two-book boxed sets) that Amazon wouldn’t price match, since those editions weren’t offered on Amazon. That’s something I’ll keep in mind for the future, but I’m not sure GP is enough of a marketplace yet (i.e. that I would sell enough books there) to be worth the effort.

For those of you who have tried it, what are your thoughts?

Update: For those who think you can just guess how much Google will discount your book, you may want to read this recent Kboards thread (GP just randomly made the author’s book free, causing her to lose $400 a day when Amazon price-matched).

 

 

Posted in Book Marketing | Tagged , , , | 29 Comments

Increasing Visibility on Amazon with the Big-Fish-Small-Pond Strategy

Posted on June 2, 2014 by Lindsay

If you’re hand-selling your books by directing people to Amazon, one at a time (or perhaps in an occasional clump through buying a sponsorship on a blog/forum/mailing list), you might feel that you’re constantly pushing a boulder up a hill, and you never seem to get to the point where your book sells itself. If you stop hustling for a day, your sales tank. On the other hand, you probably know of authors who can release a new title and have it instantly jump to the top of the sales rankings. Maybe you’re even getting Amazon emails that recommend you buy that author’s book. (The nerve, right?)

So, what’s the secret to getting to that point? To having Amazon effectively promote your book for you?

There are two main ways (with overlap between the two):

First, be super popular already, or at least have a mailing list with a few hundred true fans who will buy your new releases the first week they’re out. This means you can sell enough books right away to appear on the first page of some Top 100 categories and in the also-boughts for a lot of other books. This gives you the visibility in the store that allows new readers to find and buy your book, whether you’re out there continuing to promote or not.

If you’re at the top of a popular category, you might end up selling hundreds or even thousands of copies a day and get mentioned in Amazon’s newsletters. (I’ve never been at the top of those categories, so I couldn’t tell you for sure how magnificent that is, but it’s certainly possible to do well and receive steady sales with some visibility in less popular categories.)

If your book isn’t appearing in any of the Top 100 lists, it’s losing out majorly when it comes to visibility in the store. Oh, it might show up in a search here and there (not many people do keyword searches for fiction) or in another book’s also-boughts, but nobody browsing through “cozy mystery” category is going to find your book if it’s the 673th best seller in the genre.

Second, pursue the big-fish-small-pond strategy and find some less competitive categories that you might be able to dominate. Oh, you’ll still have to hustle to sell books initially, but you should find it easier to stick at the top of a less competitive category, and you should continue to have some visibility after that initial burst of promo activity.

I want to talk about the second strategy today, since it’s something I have recent experience with.

Finding smaller niche categories to appear in

As we’ve discussed, it’s good to appear in at least a couple of Top 100 lists. Those popular categories we mentioned are great, because a lot of people are checking them out everyday, but they’re also tough to compete in. As I write this, it takes a 1,000 sales ranking to break into the Top 20 of the epic fantasy category and a 4,600 ranking to reach the 100th spot. On the flip side, you can get into the Top 20 of a similar fantasy category, Sword & Sorcery, with a 3,000 ranking (9,300 gets you in the Top 100). Sword & Sorcery isn’t available as a selection on the KDP dashboard right now — you get into it by putting the right keyword into the keyword field. More on that here: How to Get Your Book into More Categories on Amazon with Keywords.

Getting a sub-10,000 sales ranking is still pretty challenging, especially for a debut author, but it’s a little more doable, especially if you string together some advertising opportunities (if you’ve got some solid reviews already, look into Bookbub, Pixel of Ink, and Ereader News Today) or a whole lot of hustling on the social media sites (check out my interview with Sue London for how she worked that angle to make a bestseller last year). There are categories out there that are less competitive than Sword & Sorcery too.

A couple of months ago, I released Balanced on the Blade’s Edge, a fantasy novel I wrote, edited, and published in less than a month as kind of an experiment. I didn’t have high sales expectations for it, because it was unrelated to any of my other work. Since it had a steam-age setting with a fighter pilot hero (think WWI-style planes in a fantasy setting), I put it in the relatively new steampunk category. You don’t need to use the keywords to get into it, but because it’s a sub-category of science fiction instead of fantasy, I’m guessing some fantasy publishers don’t think to look for it there. Read: it’s not that competitive, at least at the moment.

In the last couple of months, Blade’s Edge has sold better than anything else I have out now, even the more recently released Republic, which is the eighth book in my my most popular and established series. Granted, Blade’s Edge is a $2.99 ebook as opposed to a $6 one, so Republic has made me more money, but I’ve only had one other new release have the sticking power that this one has had in its opening months.

So, why the success? It got a lot of reviews early on (more on how I accomplished that in this podcast: Getting Book Reviews and Building a Relationship with Readers), but it’s also been #1, #2, #3, or #4 in the steampunk category for the last two months. For the first six weeks or so, it had a sales ranking between 1,000 and 2,000. It’s since dropped down to around 4,000, and as time passes, I’m sure it will drop more, but most of my books drop much more quickly (most have appeared in the more competitive epic fantasy category and, after the initial sales to established readers, they’ve dropped out of the charts). But even with a 4,000 ranking, as I write this Blade’s Edge is hanging out at #3 in steampunk (remember, that ranking wouldn’t even get me into the Top 100 in epic fantasy).

It’s a foregone conclusion that there are fewer readers browsing that steampunk category than there are the epic fantasy one, but there are more people searching there than I had expected. Blade’s Edge has had a nice run by being the big fish in the small pond.

So, how do you find a less competitive category for your book?

First off, check out that blog post I already mentioned if you haven’t already: How to Get Your Book into More Categories on Amazon with Keywords (it links to the KDP help page that shows you how to get into the categories not listed on the KDP dashboard).

Second, spend some time clicking on the Top 100 books in the category you usually list in. You might find that they have some unexpected second and third categories. I stumbled across the Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > Fantasy category that way a few months ago. I had no idea there was a fantasy category under Lit & Fiction, and as I write this, it happens to be easier to rank in than the epic fantasy category. There are also science fiction and fantasy subcategories under Romance. (That’s the other spot Blade’s Edge appears.)

Lastly, make sure your book is actually a good fit for the category you’re sticking it in. It won’t do you much good if the book and blurb don’t match up with reader expectations.

Update: I had to go hunting for this, and it’s a couple of months old so the sales ranking numbers will have changed a bit, but if you’re searching for less competitive categories, it’s worth a look: Top Amazon Fiction Categories to Chart in on 7 Sales a Day or Less.

Posted in Amazon Kindle Sales | Tagged , , , , , | 13 Comments

Deathmaker Now Available — Preview Chapters Here

Posted on May 24, 2014 by Lindsay

Deathmaker, the new fantasy/steampunk adventure in the Balanced on the Blade’s Edge, world is ready to go.

It’s available at Amazon | Smashwords | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iBooks

DeathMakerWeb Steampunk Fantasy AdventureWhen Lieutenant Caslin Ahn joined Wolf Squadron, she was prepared for the reality that she might one day be killed in the line of duty. She was less prepared for being shot down, assumed dead by her own people, and dragged off to the Cofah Empire as a prisoner of war. As if being thrust into a dungeon and interrogated wasn’t bad enough, the sadistic commandant decides to give her a cellmate: the notorious pirate Deathmaker. Given the crimes he’s committed against Iskandia, Cas owes it to her people to try and kill him.

Part warrior and part scientist, Tolemek “Deathmaker” Argoson has not only slain thousands with his deadly concoctions, but he has a special loathing for Iskandian pilots. It was Ahn’s commander, Colonel Zirkander, who ruined his military career, forcing him to leave his country in shame and join a pirate organization. Years later, he uses his dreadful reputation like a shield to keep people away; all he wants is to be left alone to work in his laboratory. But when fate lands him in a cell with Zirkander’s protégé, he sees a chance for revenge. Why kill the lieutenant when he can use her to get to his old nemesis?

There’s just one problem: it’s hard to plot against your enemies when you’re in prison with them. Cas and Tolemek will have to work together if they hope to escape the Cofah dungeon. In the process, they may find that neither is what the other expects, and that they have far greater problems to worry about than ensnaring each other…

Opening chapters:

Chapter 1

Cas didn’t like her new cell. After having spent two weeks jammed into a dark locker on a Cofah warship, the space so confining that she couldn’t stand up or stretch out straight, she probably should have considered this an improvement. But she wasn’t one of those irritatingly cheerful optimists. She hadn’t liked the last cell, and she didn’t like this one either. The window might let in the ocean breeze, but it was too small to climb through, not to mention barricaded with iron bars. The cries of parrots and the yowls of monkeys beyond it were a reminder that she was in a strange land, far from home, without hope of rescue.

Heavy footsteps and the jangle of weapons sounded in the hallway.

Cas bared her teeth, hoping the guards would only stroll past on their way to attend to another prisoner. It had been scarce minutes since her welcome-to-the-Dragon-Spit-prison-and-here’s-a-thorough-beating-to-make-you-feel-at-home greeting. She was still lying on the floor and recovering, so she flinched at the idea of another round with those bone cudgels. For all her vows to stay strong, she had spent most of her first beating curled in a ball on the ground, clutching her gut, and doing her best not to whimper. Whimpering wasn’t expressly forbidden in the “Survival, Evasion, and Recovery” chapter of the army field manual, but the line about the “inherent stoicism of soldiers” seemed to discourage it.

The footsteps stopped, and the door opened. Yellow lantern light spilled in from the hallway, making Cas realize that twilight had fallen outside. Not that the time of day mattered much.

A guard scurried inside carrying a stool. He set it down, the legs scraping against the hard sandstone floor, then he stood beside the door. Thanks to the shaven head, scarred face, and broad shoulders, he would have been ominous and forbidding even without the bone cudgel and short sword secured on either hip and the shotgun gripped in his hands.

Another shaven-headed man walked in, this one older and wearing a tiger fur cloak over his brown uniform. It didn’t look particularly climate-appropriate. The man wasn’t carrying any visible weapons, but Cas assumed he was in charge. If the Cofah military was anything like her own, only important people got to tinker with the dress code. For a moment, she thought of her own commander, Colonel Ridge Zirkander, and the way his non-regulation cap was always tilted at a rakish angle, but she hurried to push the image away, lest tears form in her eyes. She could be tough while they questioned her, but only as long as she didn’t let herself think of comrades—friends—back home… and whether she would ever see them again.

“Lieutenant Caslin ‘Raptor’ Ahn,” High Lord Cloak said, settling on the stool. “Wolf Squadron.”

Cas searched for something cocky to say, something to show that she wasn’t intimidated by him or this situation—Zirkander would have had a witty riposte for this statement of the obvious—but all she got out was a muffled, “Yeah?” Her lips were split and swollen from the beating. Even that single syllable hurt.

“Raptor?” Cloak made a point of eying her up and down, or rather, since she was on the floor, forward and back. Then he smirked. “Truly?”

Cas would have liked to stand up and tower threateningly over him, but she had to wear her thick-soled combat boots to brush the five-foot-two mark on a measuring wall. So far, she hadn’t managed to tower over anyone older than ten. It would have hurt too much to climb to her feet anyway.

“I didn’t give myself the nickname,” she grumbled. Not that she minded it; most of the squadron had embarrassing nicknames, especially the other young lieutenants. Pimples and Snuggles came to mind.

“Well, Raptor, our latest intelligence confirms that your people know your damaged flier sank during the skirmish in the Seven Tides Strait. They believe you’re as dead as the other pilot.”

The other pilot—Dash. Her eyes threatened to water again. She had seen the fire in Dash’s cockpit, seen him burning, his skin charred, his mouth open in a scream of pain right before his flier plunged into the ocean. There was no chance he had swum away as she had, having survived by clinging onto a piece of a wing until someone pulled her out of the water hours later. The wrong someone.

Cloak leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, his hands clasped as he regarded her. “That means nobody’s coming for you.”

A monkey howled in the distance. Cas wouldn’t have minded making a similar screech. She muttered a, “No kidding,” instead. Maybe she shouldn’t be saying anything. But if she responded to him, she might get a scrap or two of information in return. Though she wasn’t sure how she could manage it at the moment; escape had to be her priority. That was specifically mentioned in the field manual. Escaping and reporting back, that was her duty.

“That means we can keep you here as long as we need to.” Cloak smiled. Someone who found joy in his job. What a soul to be treasured.

“Oh, good,” Cas said. “I was afraid I wouldn’t get to thoroughly appreciate this hot, humid-as-spit climate before getting shipped somewhere else.”

“We’ll interrogate you, of course,” the man continued, as if she hadn’t spoken. Maybe he was used to talking to himself. “I doubt you know much. What are you, a year out of the academy?”

A year and three months, thank you, but she kept the thought to herself. No need to start giving away intel before they began the interrogation; no matter that they already seemed to know more about her than she would like.

“But you are Wolf Squadron,” Cloak went on. “If you’ve served under Zirkander for a year, my emperor will want whatever information you can supply on him.”

Cas had been beyond proud when she had been selected for Wolf Squadron straight out of the academy—she had done her best to live up to the prestigious unit’s reputation—and she would never regret that choice. But, for the first time, she realized her position might not serve her well. Everything that made her commander a lauded hero in Iskandia would make him a loathed enemy here.

“Zirkander?” she asked, licking her lips—odd how dry her mouth had suddenly grown, humid air notwithstanding. “His favorite color is green; his favorite meal is pot roast; he prefers beer to straight spirits; and, when winter comes, he’ll throw a snowball at anyone, even officers who outrank him. If that’s enough intel, you can leave my cell door open, and I’ll be happy to show myself out.”

Neither the guard nor Cloak seemed to find her sarcasm amusing. Given how much saying all that had made her mouth hurt, she shouldn’t have bothered.

Cloak pulled a dagger out of a sheath that his furry garment had hidden. Cas tried to draw back, or at least manage a sitting position, but he moved quickly for an old prison commander. The blade came up beneath her chin, the sharp point digging into tender flesh. She froze, but that didn’t keep a drop of warm blood from welling and dripping down her throat.

“I’ve sent a communication to the emperor,” Cloak said. “It’s possible he’ll simply want to hurt Zirkander by sending him your head. As a sign of his failure.”

Cas lifted her chin, part defiance, and part an attempt to put some air between her and that blade. “The colonel wasn’t even in command of the squadron at Seven Tides. He didn’t fail at anything.” Although Cas couldn’t help but feel that she had failed. Due to her inability to dissuade a Cofah diplomat from groping her, the colonel had stepped in and punched the man, a move which had resulted in disciplinary action. It was Cas’s fault the colonel hadn’t been flying with the squadron that day. The man who had taken over, Major Pennith, was a good officer, but Zirkander never would have accepted the mission, one that ultimately cost the squadron four fliers and Dash’s life. The colonel would have known the odds were too poor and would have pushed back against the general, maybe even the king, or he would have changed the situation, changed the odds somehow. As he always did. As Cas should have done in facing that diplomat. She shouldn’t have needed rescuing. Her father would have been embarrassed for her. Rightfully so.

“Yes,” Cloak purred, “we’ve heard that he hasn’t been flying of late. Care to tell me where he’s been?”

“Not that I would tell you anyway, but I have no idea. You’re right that lieutenants fresh out of the academy don’t get told much by generals and colonels.”

Zirkander had barely had time for more than a goodbye wave to all of them before disappearing to who knew where. Reassigned, he had said, his face almost ashen. Cas had never seen that expression on him before, and it had alarmed her. But he’d told them he couldn’t say more, simply giving everyone pats on the back and encouraging words before collecting his lucky charm from his flier and walking out of the hangar.

“You’re sure you’re not anyone’s bedroom confidant? You’re young and pretty enough. Under the blood.” Cloak traced her jaw with his dagger, his dark eyes growing thoughtful.

For a moment, rage replaced fear, and Cas spat at his face. It was stupid, but it felt good. She found the strength to pull away from him, too, not that she could go far. All he would have to do was get off that stool. If he couldn’t corner her on his own, the guards surely would.

Cloak snorted and wiped his face. “It’s unfortunate there are rules against jailers raping prisoners. If the Iskandians are stupid enough to put women in their military, they’re asking for it, after all. Besides, after all of our men your flier squads have brought down—killed—you deserve it.” He looked at the soldier standing next to the door.

Cas gripped the sandstone bench lining one cell wall, pushing herself into a standing position, bruises and pain notwithstanding. Rules were good, but if Cloak wanted to break them, she meant to face him on her feet.

“If you want me to shut the door and see nothing, I will, sir,” the guard said.

Loyal to his commander, was he? How sweet.

Cloak’s thoughtful expression returned to her. There was far too much consideration on his face.

Cas dug through her mind, looking for a way out of this mess. To distract them, if nothing else, and make them forget about her for the night. “Since you seem to know quite a bit about me, you might have heard of my father. He wouldn’t have been so quick to dismiss me as dead when he heard the news. He could be over here, hunting for me already.”

“Yes, I’ve heard of your father, and my research tells me that he hasn’t spoken to you in three years. I understand he didn’t approve of your decision to join the army and serve the king instead of going into the family business.”

Cas swallowed, disturbed by how much intelligence the Cofah had on specific Iskandian personnel. They couldn’t know this much about every soldier in the army, could they? Maybe the flier pilots had been singled out because they were particularly irksome.

“I doubt he’ll be looking for you,” Cloak finished. “No, you’ll stay here with us for a while. We’ll break you and get every iota we can out of you while waiting for word from the emperor.”

Break you. That did not sound promising.

More footsteps sounded in the hallway.

“Any chance that’s dinner?” Cas asked, hoping this chat was over. “They didn’t feed me regularly on that glorified tug. As you can see, I’m getting a little waifish.”

“You missed dinner. I’ll be sure to tell Captain Trivolt that you called his warship a tug though. I’m sure that will make him more hospitable to the next prisoner he captures.”

A guard jogged into the cell and whispered something into Cloak’s ear. Cas took the opportunity to move farther from him and his dagger. She put her back to the window wall, her canvas prison smock little insulation from the cool, coarse stone against her shoulder blades. Coarse or not, she liked having it behind her and putting as much distance between her and the men as she could.

“Yes, I’d heard about his capture,” Cloak said when his man straightened. “An even more intriguing prisoner. Yes, I’ll question him immediately.”

As he stood up, Cas allowed herself a hint of relief. Good, someone else for the commander to harass.

Cloak paused before walking out the door though. He looked thoughtfully back at her, his hand on the door jamb. Then he threw back his head and laughed, a deep hollow laugh that reminded her of the big bell clanging in Sky Tower back home.

“Sir?” the new guard asked. Judging by the way his mouth dropped open, his commander didn’t laugh like this often.

Oh, good, that meant he had come up with something special. Cas prayed it had nothing to do with her. Would the seven gods hear her prayers over here in enemy territory? Or did they think her dead too?

“Bring him here, Corporal,” Cloak said, his lips still stretched with mirth. Mirth Cas couldn’t help but find alarming, especially when he turned that smile toward her. “I believe we’ll save space by having our two new prisoners share a cell.”

The guard’s brow wrinkled. “But there are plenty of empty cells, sir.”

“Ah, but nobody hates Zirkander and Wolf Squadron more than the Deathmaker.”

Cas stared for a stunned moment as the words sank in. Deathmaker. Cas closed her eyes. She would have liked to scoff at the overly dramatic name—pirates couldn’t ever call themselves Thon or Jed, could they?—but she had been to Tanglewood Peninsula, seen the memorial there, the graves. Six years earlier, the entire village—every man, woman, and child—had been slain by a horrible biological agent that melted their lungs and other organs, killing them from the inside out. There was nothing about the Deathmaker that should make one scoff. The evil scientist belonged to the Roaming Curse, one of the biggest pirate outfits flying the Targenian Sea. Wolf Squadron had battled with them just that past summer, taking back a pair of dragon-flier energy sources the pirates had stolen during a raid. Zirkander hadn’t been lenient, and Cas had been along on that mission. She had helped bring down their flagship. She shouldn’t be surprised that Deathmaker had gotten away. He was one of the few pirates who had a reputation even more horrendous than that of his bloodthirsty leader, Captain Slaughter.

But what would he be doing here? Why would a nefarious pirate scientist be roaming about where he could be captured?

“But won’t he kill her, sir?” the guard asked after scratching his head a few times.

“Possibly. Though I’m hoping he’ll want to prolong her torment a bit.” Cloak turned his unfriendly smile back onto Cas. “The rules say nothing about what prisoners may and may not do to each other.” Cloak laughed again. He even wiped tears from his eyes. What a dung flinger. “If nothing else, she’ll be less lippy in the morning, I’m sure.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll get him.”

Cas stared at the floor, trying hard not to feel defeated… and failing.

Deathmaker. Fate was hating her this month. When she had gone to flight school and joined Wolf Squadron, she had known she would make enemies. Even if Iskandia merely defended its homeland and rarely looked for trouble beyond its borders, the Cofah believed her people were rebels who should be reconquered. Hundreds of years may have passed since her ancestors had killed their externally imposed rulers and cast the Cofah off their continent, but the empire had a long memory. The Cofah had never stopped wanting Iskandia, and they would always believe themselves the righteous ones. When Cas had started shooting down their dirigibles and attacking their ocean warships, it had been inevitable that she would become a target herself.

Well, she didn’t have to be an easy target.

Cloak and the new guard had gone.

Cas eyed the remaining guard. He was watching her right back, his shotgun aimed in her direction. Surprising him and escaping would be difficult, but the door was still open, and he was alone. This might be the only chance she got.

She subtly slid her hands along the wall behind her, hoping to find some crumbled piece of rock that she might hurl as a weapon. There were such chunks in the corners of the floor, but he would notice if she bent to pick one up. Oh, what she would give for the powers of the sorcerers of old, the ability to convince one of those noisy parrots out there to swoop through the window and claw this man’s eyes out. She would have to settle for a more personal attack.

She shifted her weight and found one of those rocks with her toe. She nudged it away from the wall, thinking to kick it across the room. If she could distract him for a second, maybe she could wrestle that shotgun free from him. She might not be much more than a hundred pounds, and little more than salt and vinegar in a fight, but with a projectile weapon in hand, the odds should shift in her favor.

The footsteps returned in the hall. Out of time. She cursed under her breath.

The guard glanced toward the doorway. Cas kicked the rock.

It skittered across the room, banging him in the toe. Not much of an attack, but he looked down, and she leaped across the room. Her wounds protested the sudden movement, but her nerves flooded her limbs with fire to compensate. She grabbed the barrel of the rifle, trying to yank it free before he recovered.

He snorted. His eyes met hers, and there wasn’t a glimmer of concern in them. He lunged at her, bowling her off her feet, and slammed her into the side wall so hard that it knocked her breath away. She tried to knee him, but he thrust her against the wall again, the back of her head thumping the stone this time. Blackness rimmed her vision, and dots of light floated through the air before her. She was vaguely aware of her feet dangling several inches off the ground.

“Women make pathetic soldiers,” the guard said. “That you’re here is a sign of how desperate the Iskandians are.” He rammed her against the wall again.

“That’s enough, Sergeant,” Cloak said from the hallway.

He had returned, along with more guards, a lot more guards. And another man.

Cas blinked, trying to clear her eyes. The man standing in the doorway, his hands shackled before him, appeared more warrior than scientist, with a hide vest leaving his muscular arms and part of his chest exposed. She had expected a crazy old man with spectacles or magnifying goggles and white hair sticking out in all directions. The figure in the doorway appeared to be about thirty, and his long black locks fell down his back in matted ropes. In contrast to the tangled hair, his mustache and goatee were trimmed, and his bronze Cofah skin was clean of grime, but nothing about the dark scowling eyes, the shark-tooth necklace, or the spiked leather wrist cuffs invited one to venture closer. Amazing that the guards had been able to get his shackles on over all that pointy metal.

They were watching him now, far more warily than they had watched her. No less than four pistols were aimed at the pirate.

“Deathmaker,” Cloak said, extending a hand toward Cas, who was still pinned by the guard. “Allow me to introduce your new roommate.”

The guard stepped back, letting Cas drop to the floor. She braced herself against the wall. Her heart was beating a couple thousand times a minute, and she needed the stone for support. So much for her grand escape attempt.

The pirate stared at her. Full darkness had fallen outside, and she doubted he could see much in the shadowy cell, but she didn’t see how that helped her.

Out of some sense that she shouldn’t let him know she feared him or that he had any power over her whatsoever, she said, “How come you got to keep your trendy pirate clothes, and they forced me to put on this potato sack?”

The prisoner turned his dark glower onto Cloak. If he found anything amusing about her question, it didn’t show on his face.

“Ah, are introductions in order?” Cloak grabbed a lantern from the wall and hung it from a hook in the cell—Cas eased back into the shadows near the window again. “Deathmaker, this is the Iskandian, Lieutenant Ahn. From Wolf Squadron.”

That got a reaction. The pirate’s nostrils flared, and his head jerked back toward her, his hair whipping about his face.

Cloak waved to one of the guards. He stepped forward warily and unlocked the pirate’s shackles. The metal fell away, clanging to the stone floor. The pirate lunged inside, springing toward Cas like a lion taking down its prey.

She could only take a step before her back smacked into the wall. She tried to duck and dodge away, but even in the darkness, he anticipated which way she would go and grabbed her. Much as the guard had done, he slammed her into the wall. Her already battered body betrayed her, and a gasp of pain slipped out. She wanted to fight, to spit curses if nothing else, but a calloused hand wrapped around her neck.

Cloak’s dark chuckle came from the hallway, then the door thudded shut, leaving Cas along with the pirate. The hand about her neck tightened.
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Posted in Fantasy / Science Fiction, My Ebooks | Tagged , , , | 26 Comments

Creating Engaging Characters That Turn Readers into Fans

Posted on May 23, 2014 by Lindsay

FromtheBlueMountainsinMissouaI have ideas for a number of blog posts I need to sit down and write, but I’ve been busy writing the fiction (look for the next Flash Gold novella soon and Deathmaker, a follow-up to Balanced on the Blade’s Edge even sooner). I do, however, have another walking podcast recorded, so for those who like to listen, I talked about what attracts people to a series and about developing appealing characters in this one.

I don’t usually presume to give writing tips, since there are already a lot of people out there who teach that stuff and do a better job than I could, but characters are my favorite parts of the reading (and writing) experience, so it’s hard not to want to talk about them.

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I’ve shared what I think makes a good character (and what turns me off on other characters). Do you have any pet peeves of your own? Or things that make you fall in love with a character? Let us know in the comments!

(Oh, and because someone asked for pictures of the areas where I’m walking/hiking, I’ve included a photo today.)

Update: William Stadler was nice enough to type up a transcript of the episode. So for those who don’t have time to listen, here you go!

Transcript for “Creating Engaging Characters That Turn Readers into Fans”

Hey guys. This is Lindsay Buroker again. Today I am walking and talking to you from, I think it’s like the Blue Mtn. trail system. It’s a little bit outside of Missoula. So I’m kinda’ in the middle of my road trip to Seattle for the summer where I’m gonna’ visit friends and family, and of course…always be writing and working. And the great thing is that writing from home is that you can do it anywhere, wherever your home is.

After the last episode that I posted, I had a few people ask, “You know, if I do all these things to work on establishing a fan base, will I start selling more books?” You know, maybe you can find lots of examples of people that they do have a series out, and maybe they’ve got several books out and they’re still not selling very well. Is all you have to do is to keep writing? Is that all you have to do is keep writing and publishing and you’ll naturally get to that point and you’ll make a reliable income?

Or is it that some people get lucky and some people don’t?

I would say that there’s definitely a lot of luck involved in becoming a huge best seller – kind of a break out novel. Sometimes you see that happening, and you’re not really sure why it happened. You may read the book, and you’re thinking, “It was a good book, maybe, but was it better than fifty other books in the same genre?”

I think in that situation there’s some luck – of course there’s talent and working hard. What’s that phrase: “The harder I work, the luckier I get”?

But I do think that if you’re trying to build up a fan base – trying to reach that 1,000 true fans (maybe you’ve heard of that) that it’s more a matter of figuring out what people like and keeping on doing that.

As I was saying last time, having a series can really help. But of course you have to have something about your series, something about your writing that appeals to people and makes them wanna’ come back for more. And that’s not a gimme’, you know. That’s learning the craft of storytelling and practicing getting better.

I don’t usually try to teach on the topic of how to write. Because I don’t think I’ve studied it enough. I’ve kinda’ internalized [it]. I’ve learned a lot from doing – critiquing and being critiqued. But I haven’t taken a lot of classes or read a lot of books. I don’t know, I always think it’s a little presumptuous sometimes to presume to teach other people unless they come to you, and they’re really impressed by your writing, and they wanna’ learn to do it the way you do it.

Anyway. Today I’m gonna’ try to talk about something I’ve been told I do well. And that’s creating characters that people really enjoy.

I think there’s kinda’ two ways to get people into a series. And one is if you’re this really awesome plotter, you’re really good at creating suspense – really sucking people in.

You know, I think a lot of people saw the series Lost. And I don’t know if any of you did, but I know I didn’t remember any of the characters. I just remembered that I couldn’t care less if any of them even died. But I ended up watching a lot of the episodes, because there are all these questions that you want the answers to. You’ve got all these mysterious things going on. So, that sort of thing sucks you in.

Another series that I ended up watching all four or five seasons of was the new Battlestar Galatica. I guess it’s not that new at this point. And again, with that series, it wasn’t the characters. They were fine…some of them you hated. You were supposed to hate [them]. Some of them you kinda’ liked. But there weren’t any of them where you were like, “Ahh, that’s my favorite character. I’m totally watching this series because of that character.”

It was more a matter of the plot. You know, they were on this quest. You wanna’ see what’s gonna’ happen at the end. Are they gonna’ survive?

So that is one type of series that you can do that can draw people in and keep them coming back for book after book.

You can do cliffhangers at the end, or not. Some readers hate those, but from a marketing point of view, they seem to be pretty effective for people.

Now with all that said about that kind of writing, that’s not really my strength or what I do. I mean, I do, of course, try to make my plots interesting. And I have done a few cliffhangers – mostly because that was sort of a good stopping point where. I had written 120,000 words or something, and decided to break a book in two.

But I don’t necessarily try to string people along like that. And, um, if it’s a compelling plot, great. I always hope for that, but I definitely’ve been told it’s my characters people like, and that’s why they keep reading. And that’s a perfectly legitimate way to have a good series and have a following. Of course you can do both, but I thought I would kinda’ focus on characters today – talk about some of the reasons people seem to get into characters [and] some of the reasons they might be turned off by them.

And, you know, if something helps, great. I don’t always remember to do all these things right myself. I like to think about the marketing stuff. But, I don’t usually think about it too much while I’m writing, you know. I just sorta’ write what I wanna’ write, then try to make the marketing side of things work. Every time I try to write for a specific market, it ends up turning into something else.

But today…characters.

Because what you’ll find is if you’ve got some really cool characters, you’ll have people following along, and it doesn’t even necessarily matter so much what the next book is about. People wanna’ spend time with these characters.

I remember some of the series I’ve read [that are ]not in genres I usually enjoy. (I usually read fantasy or non-fiction, sometimes historical). The reason I’ve gotten sucked into them – usually because my mom or somebody recommends them – is because of the characters.

One example actually as a kid is I read all of the Cat Who mysteries by Lillian Jackson Braun, I think it was. I know she’s passed away now, but she wrote a lot those books, and had a really successful series with the main character and his cats. And she did a good job with these characters, making these quirky, interesting characters, and there was always a mystery, so you wanted to keep reading them because you cared about the characters.

Another example is – I actually do not care about thrillers and horror at all – but…I’ve read most of the Lincoln Child books that have Agent Pendergast in them. So that’s another one my mom got me into. And he’s really quirky – he’s a badass character, of course – but he’s got all these weird quirks that kind of draw you in…you know?

And then for tv people – since I did a science fiction series – as plot example, I got really into Stargate, the first one. Stargate. What was it called? SG-1 and I’ve got, I think, eight seasons on DVD, which is unheard of for me. I hardly ever watch that much tv or buy anything.

And that was an example where a lotta’ times I didn’t care for the plots or the scopes. I think I liked the first few seasons where they were more archeology focused. I hated all the bad guys in that series. All of’em. There was like three sets of bad guys, and I couldn’t care less for any of those episodes.

But I kept watching them because of the characters. I really liked Colonel O’neal and Samantha Carter. She was a great example of a strong female character that wasn’t so badass that she was grating. At least, I felt so.

And of course there was always kind of the subtle, “Maybe these two will have a romance, but, you know, they can’t cuz’ they work together – they’re on the same team, dah, dah, dah.”

I think for female readers, especially sometimes, that’ll be something that draws us in – having a romance. With a series, it’s kinda’ cool if you can have something like that not be resolved for a long time.

I actually did that in my own Emperor’s Edge series. I wasn’t really planning, you know, “How can I make this a great series that people will get into?” But because the main character, the heroine, was kind of a good moral person, and the other protagonist, my assassin character, was a less good moral person, they weren’t, um, an obvious match from the beginning.

But by the end of the series, you know, as things went along, it only took seven books for them to develop a romance. And I know that was one thing that was really drawing people along with that series. So, something to think about there.

Let’s just talk about characters in general – some of the things that can make really good compelling characters that make people wanna’ read along. And like I was saying, “Once you get that, the plot matters less.”

Of course you still want a good plot, but a person’s not gonna’ read the blurb and think, “Uhh, is this for me? I don’t know. I’m not really interested in, uh, oh…submarines, again, really?” But they’re gonna say, “Oh, it’s another book with those characters. Of course I’m gonna’ read it. I wanna’ see what happens next with their relationship.”

It doesn’t just have to be a romantic relationship, of course. You know, if you have a group of characters, or something, even one main compelling character who’s trying to do something with his life, people get involved with these characters and want to see what happens next, and you know, follow along with them.

So what are some of the types of elements for these types of characters?

Well, first off, let me say: anything I say today, maybe it’s a rule and rules can be broken. And we can all think of examples where people have had rules with unsympathetic main characters, or something like that, and the series is still really popular. But that’s usually an exception, other than a rule. If you want people to love your characters, these are things that tend to work, [that] tend to get people to enjoy them.

First thing I would say is, of course, watch out for the Mary Sue character, which is – you’ve probably heard this before – sometimes an author’s fantasy character – all the things he/she wishes she was: so she’s beautiful, athletic, everybody loves her, she’s got the best hair. And this kind of character can grate on people’s nerves, because she has no problems. She’s too perfect. It’s hard to love. Most people aren’t like that. [If they are], they’re kind of annoying; ya’ hate’em. You might like’em, but…ya’ kinda’ hate’em. So, those kind of characters can be a turn-off for readers.

That said, I do think that most people want a character that has some degree of competency in their field or in something that’s gonna’ apply to the plot. We wanna’ walk in a person’s shoes. We want it to be appealing. Because maybe they get to say all the things we wished we always had the guts to say to our boss, or whatever.

To keep these characters from being the Mary Sue type – or, is it Marty Stu? I can’t remember what the male version is, but it goes either way there. You give them some flaws, right? Flawed characters. It makes them feel more human, more relatable, just more appealing. And because they have all these flaws, you tend not to hate them for things that they’re good at because they’ve got all these issues going on.

It’s up to you to figure out what flaws would work best for your characters. You know, a lotta’ times they say, “Oh he’s got a horrible temper, or he’s got a history with a drinking problem or a drug problem.”

Uhm, Those are fine. They’ve kinda’ been done a lot.

The one thing I would say with your flaws is be careful not to make them too despicable that people’re going to just be turned off by that. I think a lot of people can relate to the, “He had a drinking problem. But now he’s trying to move on past that.” And maybe it’s always a difficult thing for him or her to deal with.

But, you know, we like to see somebody that’s fallen really low kinda’ pull themselves out and get on with their lives. Don’t say he had a drinking problem and then never have that come up in the plot. I’m laughing because one of my characters had that. I think it came up once or twice. They were too busy killing monsters and stuff. But um, that was a minor character, so yeah…there’s my excuse.

Whatever flaws you can think of, try not to make them be flaws that are gonna’ be turn-offs, like a really abrasive personality. I think you have more leeway with what you’re gonna’ do if it’s like a minor character, or not one of your point of view characters.

I will tend to make more normalish characters for the point of view characters, because I think people can relate to them. And then kind of the more quirky or more abrasive personalities – the sarcastic ones – might be, you know, a main character in the story, but not one of the point of view characters. So it kind of matters less if the reader is really in love with them.

You never know; sometimes those people, the more curmudgeony types, can become appealing characters. It’ll surprise you. If that happens, then do the next book from his point of view, or something like that.

I think you get bonus points from the readers if the flaw is something that really makes the reader sympathetic to that character. I think one example – I’m gonna’ keep using tv, because I think you get a lot of people that have watched a lot of stuff on tv. Maybe book examples might be less well-known.

So, um, if you saw the show Monk – that was the detective with all these OCD habits that was on for several years – it was funny because he had all these quirks, right. He had to go count the sidewalk cracks and touch the poles, obsessively clean his house every day. But his wife was murdered, and he was trying very hard to become normal enough to that he could get his job back on the police force.

His quirks, his characterization, his flaws, they were funny, and yet at the same time, they were a little sad and you kinda’ felt for him. So I thought that was just a good example of a character that [was] definitely a flawed character. There were so many things that he had trouble doing because of all these OCD issues. And these flaws made him endearing so that the watcher really connected with him.

At the same time, a lot of us have some of these flaws to maybe a lesser extent, so we can really identify with something like that. Or even if we can’t, like I said, you’re sympathetic; you feel for him – the way they wrote the character.

So that’s just something to think about. Flawed characters. Not doing Mary Sues.

Okay. Next thing. And I think I saw this a lot back when I was, um, critiquing a lot of people’s work, back when I was doing the workshop thing a lot. And that is when you have a main character, or a protagonist, who doesn’t really “protag.”

They’re kinda’ being pushed around by the plot. They’re not trying to take action themselves and make things happen. And this happens a lot to people who make the plot first and then put the characters in.

People that come up with characters first and then write a plot that evolves from the characters, this is less of an issue. Both are valid ways of writing and plotting. It’s just something to be aware of if you’re more of a plot first then characters type of writer.

What ends up happening is that you’re not as engaged with these types of characters. Things are happening to them. They’re just reacting. They’re not, like, actively trying to make their lives better, or fix a problem. Um, one story I wrote where…you know, I don’t usually have this problem because…well, it happens. Whenever I come up with a plot first, that’s when it’s gonna’ happen usually.

One other story I wrote was my character was kidnapped, and for most of he book, she’s, like, stuck working for the enemy to decode these ruins. And so it’s really hard for her to take action, cuz’ she’s a prisoner for the whole thing, [because] a really capable army has her.

But you just have to look for ways for them to try to influence someone, try to be thinking about escaping, trying to take action. (I’m saying that a lot.) Don’t just let them go with the flow. It’s hard for people to be sympathetic when someone’s a prisoner, then all they do is lay there and wait, and nothing happens unless the plot says it happens.

And these characters just tend to be less interesting. They’re less likely draw us in. We’re not rooting for them as much. Even seeing someone try and fail, maybe even more so, that makes us wanna’ root for them, makes care what happens to them.

Another thing that’ll commonly maybe annoy people is when you do the telling instead of showing kinda’ thing. Of course as a writer, you’ve heard, “Show don’t tell.” And with characterization, that’s a really big place where that comes into play. Especially if you read romances, the heroine is always described as being smart. She’s like a scientist, or she’s like an attorney, or whatever. And we’re told, “She’s smart, she’s smart.” And then throughout the whole book, she does nothing smart.

And I like to make smart characters, and I like to read about smart characters. But, you know, you don’t say their smart, right? You show them solving problems and getting out of sticky situations, outthinking other characters in the book.

So just…anytime you’re gonna’ say, “Oh, he or she’s smart character,” or you know, “He’s a really great fighter; he’s a navy seal, or a uber knight in your fantasy world,” again, you know, just think of ways you can show that through their actions. If you do say it, just make sure you back it up at some point with the actions. With characters, always show, rather than telling.

And if you don’t tell, if you just let [the readers] decide whether they’re smart, [the] reader can decide whether a character is smart based on their actions in the book, you don’t set up that, “Prove it,” kinda’ mentality. It’s up for the reader to decide. Maybe the reader’s really smart himself or herself and doesn’t think your character’s all that. So, you haven’t set up any expectations that failed to be met.

I think the last thing I’ll mention here is just, um, personality. People say, or sometimes you’ll see a review, “Flat characters” or “All the characters are interchangeable. You couldn’t tell who was talking without the dialogue tags.”

Or, you know, the other…let me reverse the comment, “I could tell exactly which character was talking without the dialogue tags.” And that means that you’ve really made a really distinct personality for each one.

“Okay,” you say. “That’s sounds great, but how do I do that?” Let’s say you’re going to have five or six characters in your adventuring group, how do you make them all different from each other and distinctive?

And um, you know, sometimes [with] different types of personalities, of course, is when conflict arises, and that’s also something that makes the reading more compelling. I guess it’s something kinda’ common in fantasy – which I’ve read a lot of – where you’ve kinda’ got this adventuring party, and it’s a little weird when everyone gets along really well, and the only conflict is external conflict.

Going back to tv shows, one of the shows I liked was Firefly, even though it was only on for, whatever, eleven episodes, cuz’ you had all these characters, you know, that they kinda’ were like a family, but at the same time, you know, you had the mercenary Jane who was always trying to, like, get money and turn in Simon the doctor and his sister. So he was always scheming against them. They didn’t get along. Captain could be abrasive. You had characters with a romance interest, all this stuff going on in this crew. So you had internal conflicts that made it interesting, as well as whatever the problem of the week was that they had to solve.

So, how to make these personalities? You know, you’re probably going to find that your main character or protagonist – especially early on as a writer – that there’s a lot of you in that character. And that’s natural.

But for the other characters, think of friends you know…or people you hate. Think about what about them is different, what stands out in your mind. Well, first thing, I would say, make sure each character has their own goals, their own driving interests, motivations.

It gets a little murky when everybody has the same goal. That’s when, you know, nobody’s disagreeing; everybody’s always happy-happy when they’re working together. Usually in life, everybody’s out for themselves though, right?

So maybe we’ve got one character, you know, maybe he wants to make money. Another one, tryin’ to win a woman. Another wants to be recognized as a hero by everybody; whatever it is.

They’re all gonna’ kinda’ have different life goals, and that’s a starting point for giving them each a different personality. And beyond that, you can think if they quirks, mannerisms that maybe you can just make something up, or maybe you’ve seen with somebody else.

I think I stole one for a very minor character once from a relative that I knew that at least five times a day, or if you had dinner with her, at least five times, she’d say, “You know what your problem is.” So I used that with a character.

Um, one quirk, like I was talking about that show Monk, he had all these quirks that made him a really distinctive character, very memorable. You know, you don’t have to use OCD. There’s lots of little ways, people can have quirks.

One thing I did with the steampunk novel I released about a month ago – I talked about [it] in the first episode – you know, I had a pilot, and he’s kind of a Marty Stu.

He’s always getting in trouble, so he’s not quite perfect. But one of the things I thought would be fun, because I just seemed to remember [that] lots of pilots…um…I don’t know any pilots, I’m kidding. But lots of athletes, I guess – which I do know – are a little superstitious. So I thought, you know, this is a guy who’s risking his life every day, so maybe he’ll be a little superstitious too.

So, I gave him this lucky dragon figurine that he rubs whenever he needs some luck. And it became kinda’ fun to poke a fun at that, sort of a little slight flaw for the character. So yeah he’s a little superstitious. That became like a memorable thing for him.

And it was good for some, uh…sexual innuendo jokes, if you like sort of thing. “Rubbing Dragons.” Yeah.

So, you’d be surprised how a little quirk that you give to a character can actually become a very memorable thing for the reader and something that they enjoy about that character.

Aright, I’ve been rambling for almost twenty-five now. So, I’m gonna’ go ahead and end this. Hope you found it useful. Maybe something sparked an idea.

Like I said, I should remember to listen to these things myself, cuz’ a lot of times when I’m in writing mode, I’m…I’m not thinking about, you know, marketing or the high end – high end plans. A lot of these things you just hope come out naturally. You just try to internalize them so that you remember them.

But I hope, yeah, I hope something helps, and…have a great week. And…happy writing! Bye-bye.

Posted in Walks with Lindsay, Writing | Tagged , , , , | 10 Comments

Summer Projects and Will There Be More “Emperor’s Edge” After Republic?

Posted on May 13, 2014 by Lindsay

If you’ve been following my Emperor’s Edge series, you probably already know I published the eighth book with Amaranthe, Sicarius, and the others last month. Republic was a big story and a bit of a departure for me (six point-of-view characters and over 200,000 words), but so far the reception from long-time readers has been positive. And the question has come up…

Will there be more adventures with these characters?

Probably, maybe, I think so. How’s that for a definitive answer?

Right now, my focus is on writing the first few novels in what I never planned to be a series (I wrote Balanced on the Blade’s Edge as a stand-alone fantasy romance novel, but, thanks to your reviews and support, it’s done well at Amazon — it hung out in the #1 steampunk position for over a month, and it’s still selling nicely. In addition, I realized I wanted to explore the world more thoroughly and add some more characters to the mix) as well as writing the long-neglected sequel to Torrent. I’d like to do a series there too. Getting these series off the ground is the summer project. (I’m also doing my final edits on the fourth Flash Gold novella — that’ll be ready to go before summer.)

After that, I’ll look to the Emperor’s Edge world again. As I’ve mentioned before, I have plans for a Nuria trilogy that stars Yanko from the Swords & Salt novellas, as well as Dak, who you might know now from Republic.

As for Amaranthe, Sicarius, and the rest of the EE crew, I’m mulling over how I might do some more adventures with them that could possibly appeal to brand new readers as well as regulars. I’m not sure yet whether Am & Sic would be the focus of a new series or if they would be side characters in it with someone else taking the role of narrator and main protagonist. Some of the other characters have some more growing to do (poor Maldynado is still trying to figure out his life), whereas Am & Sic are pretty well fleshed out at this point. Nothing is set in stone yet though. If you have thoughts, I’d love to hear them.

Anyway, that’s what I’m working on this summer. The next thing out will either be Claimed (FG4) or Deathmaker (the next book in the Blade’s Edge world). Thanks for reading!

Posted in News | Tagged , , , | 28 Comments