Tag Archives: ebooks

The Portal is now available from Amazon!

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It’s time to enter The Portal.

9781614174639

Okay, that’s a bit hokey, but seriously, the Kindle version of The Portal is now available. It’ll be up on Barnes & Noble, iBooks, and other fine sites soon. Those of you who have dipped into the novel on this blog can now have your very own electronic copy for the astonishingly low price of $4.99.  (All right, that price isn’t so astonishingly low, but it’s what my publisher decided the thing was worth.)

Customer reviews are critical to the success of an ebook.  If you can find it in your heart to write a good review of The Portal at Amazon, that would be very helpful.  You don’t have to purchase the book from Amazon, but reviews from verified purchasers count for more.

My publisher and I couldn’t quite agree on sales copy for The Portal.  Here is my summary:

In the woods behind his house Larry Barnes makes a spectacular discovery—an invisible portal to a parallel universe, where Burger King has turned into Burger Queen, cell phones are huge, and his home town doesn’t look anything like the place where he lives.  When he returns from this world, he makes the mistake of telling his best friend, Kevin Albright, who convinces him to try entering the portal one more time.  What could go wrong?

But this time Larry and Kevin find themselves in a very different world. From the moment they step out of the portal they are caught up in a war that pits the United States of New England against New Portugal and Canada.  They need to make their way in a world that is utterly alien, without computers or automobiles or telephones.  A world in which no one has heard of America, or Mozart, or bacteria.  Larry and Kevin face hunger, disease, battle—and, most of all, loneliness.  But they also find friendship and family, joy and love.  Can they survive the war—and help New England win it?  Can they make their way back to the portal and return home?  And what will they leave behind if they do make it back?

Exciting and deeply moving, The Portal is a science-fiction adventure you won’t soon forget.

An alternative cover

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My publisher changed its mind about “Alternate History“.  The primary reason: Amazon uses “Alternative History” as its category for ebooks and “Alternate History” for books. So here is today’s cover:

9781614174639

 

My friend Kathy (who can’t possibly be old enough to be the parent of a tween) complains that using the word “History” on the cover will turn off kids the age of her son.  This is interesting.  Publishers feel the need to categorize novels, because readers tend to stick to their favorite genres, and it’s much harder to market a novel if it can’t be fit neatly into a genre.  (My first agent gave up on me when I sent him Marlborough Street and he had no idea how to pitch it to publishers.  My current publisher decided it was a “psychic thriller,” which I guess is a thing.)

Kathy also queries why the novel isn’t marketed directly to tweens — don’t they have their own category?  Yes, they do.  But I’m pretty sure adults will enjoy The Portal, and if you market a novel specifically to young adults, you’re not going to get any adults reading it (unless you’re J.K. Rowling).  So, I dunno.  I’d much rather write the stuff than figure out how to market it.

Writing e-book sales copy — sheesh, it’s harder than you think

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I have to trust that my e-book publisher knows more about the business than I do.  They certainly seem to.  They have convinced me to change my title from Portal to The Portal because one-word titles aren’t selling well nowadays, unless you’re James Patterson or Clive Cussler.  OK, fine — they can have the “the.”

Now they have sent me these instructions for the sales copy that will appear online..

Maximum overall word count: 200 words. (this includes sales blurb only)

Ideal length: 150 words

Why the length limits? Readers/people are basically lazy.  Amazon allows for approx 120 words before the reader has to click “read more”.  The incentivizing plot twist (or a strong suggestion of the twist) must appear in the first 120 words.

First Paragraph length max: 250 characters including spaces.  More than that and the number of lines exceeds three on most standard monitors.  More than three lines and the reader tends to “click away” unless the title is highly anticipated.

Apps present a new wrinkle.  200 characters including spaces to incentivize the reader to “click” read more.  Because readers are basically lazy, the buy-now case is best made in the first 200 characters (including spaces).

Copy Structure: Every word in the copy must either introduce the protagonist/antagonist, present the internal or external conflict, or contribute to a  relevant and non-clichéd sub-genre plot twist that sets the book apart. (but not too far apart.  Readers also tend to read in a rut).

OK, then.  The text I came up with here doesn’t fit the guidelines, so there is work to be done.  The limitation on total character count (including spaces) is an interesting modern development.  I’ve just started using Word 2013, and it took a bit of fumbling around before I figured out how to get it to show me the character count.  Sure enough, it will display the number of characters, and the number of characters including spaces, with a single mouse click.  Good job, Microsoft!

 

Did I really read that book?

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A while back I read The Good Soldier.  As I did, I kept having the feeling that I had read it already.  But this was never more than an occasional niggling at the back of my mind — a scene, a character would seem vaguely familiar, but then for long stretches the feeling would disappear.

Maybe I did read The Good Soldier, and its memory simply disintegrated in my brain over the years.  I didn’t like it this time around, and it’s unlikely to have made much of an impression on me in high school or college, when I was vacuuming up novels daily.  But it’s also possible that I didn’t in fact read it — that the scenes and characters just reminded me of something else, also now lost.  Beats me.  Memory, modern science tells us, is fragile and unreliable.  We don’t know what we think we know.  (This recent Radiolab podcast tells the story of a woman who confidently identifies the man who had brutally raped her, only to find out years later that she had been mistaken.)

All of this is by way of an introduction to the following lovely review of The Distance Beacons from a very perceptive reader named D. Jensen:

What I can’t believe is that no one else has reviewed this book. Perhaps it is because this is the second (and hopefully not the last) that Bowker has offered us.
It has been a long, long time since I read this book, but I do remember it as a better than “a good ‘un”.

Walter Sands, the only P.I. in a post-apocalyptic (no longer United) States is asked to search for a rebel organization that is threatening to assassinate the President when she comes to Boston to campaign in favor of the New England states to rejoin the union.
Along with his friends and roommates, Walter uncovers much more than he or his employer expect.

Another great read from Bowker. I think that I like it that he never really describes the nuclear war that created this future mish-mash country. It was what it was and now the survivors are just trying to rebuild their lives and perhaps a country that may or may not resemble the earlier version. There is no sweeping view of this time; there is just the observations of the people “on the ground” so to speak. Bowker knows how to keep the characters relevant and relate-able and how to build the tension in the story to keep the reader turning pages–or flipping screens.

Worth the time where so many are not.

It’s all so very true!  Except for the part where he (she?) says “It’s been a long, long time since I read this book.”  As I may have mentioned here, The Distance Beacons was written a while ago (with a different title), but it ended up in a carton in my basement after Bantam declined to print a sequel to Dover Beach.  No more than half a dozen people read it back then, and it’s only the e-book revolution that has allowed it to see the light of day now.  D. Jensen is having a Good Soldier moment.

Unless, you know, my memory is playing tricks on me.

Who needs an editor?

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Jeff Carver has a post on the Hugh Howey article I recommended.  He says:

It’s pretty interesting, although I don’t necessarily agree with everything he says. (For one thing, he doesn’t mention the role that traditional publishers play in helping writers, especially new writers, improve their craft and produce better books. Some say that that role is diminishing these days, but I think it really depends on the publisher and the editor.)

This got me to thinking about just how much help my various editors have been to me.  The answer is: not much. Probably the best known of my editors was Judy-Lynn Del Rey, who bought my first novel for the Del Rey imprint of Ballantine Books.  She did two things, as I recall:

  • She made me change the book’s name to Forbidden Sanctuary, claiming this was a more commercial title than the one I had come up with.  Can’t say if she was right or wrong about that.
  • She pointed out that “He shone the light” should be “He shined the light.”  That’s a fair cop.

And that’s it.  Well, she also ordered a cover that was ludicrously unrelated to the actual events of the book.

My other editors were similar.  They made various small suggestions, some of which were good, some of which weren’t so good (in my opinion).  None of them helped me improve my craft, or made any of my novels substantially better.  They didn’t have the time or the interest.  Or, possibly, the talent.

This is not to say that a good editor can’t help a writer.  I just don’t think the odds are good you’re going to find such an editor in mainstream publishing.  If your book isn’t deemed publishable as it stands, it isn’t going to be published.

What most writers do need is copy-editing.  But, as Howey points out, you can hire a copy editor, just as you can hire an artist to create your cover.  There are lots of people out there who know the difference between shone and shined, even if you don’t.  And they don’t charge very much for their expertise.  When you’re self-publishing, you’re the boss.  That can be a bit scary, but it’s also liberating.

A great article about self-publishing ebooks

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Hadn’t heard about Hugh Howey until last week, when Jeff Carver mentioned his success as a self-publisher of speculative fiction.  Now he’s written this piece for Salon, which encapsulates a lot of what I think about self-publishing in the ebook world.

With self-publishing, you learn your craft while producing material. You win over your fans directly. You own all of your rights, and your works stay fresh and available for your lifetime (and beyond). Nothing goes out of print. I think this advantage is difficult to fully appreciate. My bestselling work was my eighth or ninth title. As soon as it took off, the rest of my material took off with it. To the reader, it was all brand-new. To those being born today who will become avid readers 15 years from now, those works will still be brand-new. My entire oeuvre will always be in print and always earning me something. Nothing is pulled and returned from the digital bookshelf.

For me, one of the main motivations for entering the ebook world was getting my previously published novels, long out of print, back out onto the market. But even if you haven’t been in print before, self-publishing ebooks really does seem to be the way to go.  You may not be successful, but most print authors aren’t successful — I can’t say that I have been particularly successful.  At least the books are out there, available to anyone and everyone.  And you have a chance of finding an audience, the way Hugh Howey did.  And even if you don’t become rich, you’re likely to get more feedback from your readers than most print authors ever get.  Here’s a sample of reader reviews of my books in the past few weeks:

On Summit (four stars)

The beginning is a bit confusing but it becomes clear as you go along. I enjoyed this piece of fiction. Valentina and Daniel made very good heroes.

On Dover Beach (five stars):

One of the best scifi books I’ve read in a long time. . . . you’re right there, experiencing everything along with the characters and can’t wait to see what happens next… more please!!

On Senator (five stars):

Kept you guessing til end, lots of twist and turns. Better yet was the way he writes about politics in Washington, where lies are told til they believe they are the truth.

Praise like that is better than money.  And I like money!

Amazon buys Goodreads — should I care?

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I have never paid much attention to Goodreads, but it seems like a fine idea for a web site — a place where readers can go to rate books, swap recommendations, discover what their friends are reading, and so on.  So now Amazon has scooped it up, and the Authors Guild isn’t happy. Here‘s Scott Turow, the Guild president:

“Amazon’s acquisition of Goodreads is a textbook example of how modern Internet monopolies can be built,” said Scott Turow, Authors Guild president. “The key is to eliminate or absorb competitors before they pose a serious threat. With its 16 million subscribers, Goodreads could easily have become a competing on-line bookseller, or played a role in directing buyers to a site other than Amazon. Instead, Amazon has scuttled that potential and also squelched what was fast becoming the go-to venue for on-line reviews, attracting far more attention than Amazon for those seeking independent assessment and discussion of books. As those in advertising have long known, the key to driving sales is controlling information.

This seems pretty odd.  In what sense did Amazon scuttle the potential for Goodreads to become an online vendor?  This was Goodreads’ decision, not Amazon’s.  If that wasn’t the direction they wanted to take their business, well, frankly I think they’re pretty smart.

Should we be worried that Amazon will “squelch” Goodreads’ reviews and online community? That would be insane — that’s what Amazon is buying. The more people who go there and talk about books, the more books Amazon will sell.

What Amazon will presumably squelch are links from Goodreads to other booksellers.  Goodreads has a “Get a copy” feature that links out to different online vendors, allowing you to go directly from the Goodreads page for a book to the bookseller of your choice.  I assume this feature will go away, and you will only be directed to Amazon (as is the case with IMDb, another Amazon subsidiary).  How important is that to the Goodreads community?  I guess we’ll find out.  But if it’s really important, someone will start a new online community; it’s not like the barriers to entry are particularly high.  And it’s not like the lack of a link to Barnes & Noble, say, will make it a lot more difficult for a Goodreads user to buy a book from them instead of Amazon.  We’re talking about about a couple additional mouseclicks here.

The Authors Guild seems to have a deep fear of Amazon’s potential monopolistic power; they also came out against the Justice Department’s suit against Apple and the major book publishers for (essentially) price fixing.  The Guild was arguing that readers should pay higher prices for ebooks to guard against the potential of an Amazon ebook monopoly.  I’m not convinced Amazon is the threat the Guild thinks it is.  I have no doubt that Amazon would like to corner as much of the online bookselling market as they can; I just don’t see how they can keep other smart, nimble vendors out of that same market.

The newly re-covered Summit is free on iTunes!

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I don’t know why we keep giving stuff away, but we do.  Here you go.

Here’s that new cover everyone’s been talking about, with the Kremlin clock tower that no one recognizes:

summit

As with other free offers, the idea is to bludgeon Amazon into also making the book free by having thousands of rabid fans click on the “tell us about a lower price” link on the Summit page. Please help — it only takes a few seconds.

My wily publisher’s idea, by the way, is to tie Summit to Marlborough Street as part of a “psychic thriller” series.  Works for me if it will sell copies!

By the way, Dover Beach continues to be free on Amazon.  It’s piling up some really nice reviews, along with a couple that make me scratch my head.  One of them is probably worth a separate post.

Amazon Author Central: Tracking your ignominy in real time

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Want an easy way to feel like a failure?  Become an author and check out Amazon Author Central, which provides a wealth of statistics about how badly your books are doing.  The depressing news is updated hourly, so you can check back multiple times during the day to increase your feelings of worthlessness.  Here, for example, is a snapshot of how I stack up against other fiction writers over the past month.  The trend slopes upward a bit, but in a fairly narrow range of mediocrity.

ScreenHunter_05 Feb. 02 10.30

Amazon also offers graphs by category (I’m close to breaking into the top thousand in science fiction!) and by individual book. In the old days, authors would get their bad news via semiannual unintelligible statements from publishers.  Are we better off today?  I suppose. Theoretically, you could use all this information to plot your marketing strategies or judge their effectiveness, if you’re the sort of author who has marketing strategies.  But mostly it’s just another way of wasting your time when you should be working on your next book.  After all, that’s the one that’s going to make you famous!