Publishing

Meanwhile, in Category Worst Idea Ever

This afternoon I got the most bogglesome piece of spam I’ve ever received in my life–and the first attempt I’ve ever had flung at me to take advantage of my being an indie author.

The service pitched to me was based around the entire idea of posting your work to their cloud system, that your book would be stored as encrypted data in their proprietary system, and that readers would only be able to get at it via a web browser or via their apps. They would be able to sync content down to be read offline, and the system would be able to keep track of what chapters in the book had been read. All of which sounds like tech that’s already in play for the major ebook vendors.

But the first yellow alert went off when I saw that their first big pitch in the mail was all about putting ads in your ebook, in front of every chapter. That they could be static ads, or even videos!

And yellow alert went straight up to RED ALERT ACTION STATIONS SET CONDITION ONE THROUGHOUT THE SHIP when, upon closer inspection of their email, I saw that they were also trying to pitch the idea of how you could channel your earnings into putting ads about your book in other authors’ books on the system.

I am whomperjawed by this. Because 1) let me assure you, people, My Very First Writing Scam Email is NOT a Writing Milestone I particularly wanted to reach, and 2) the really sad thing here is that I can in fact see that there are people who might try to buy into this service. I can absolutely see the train of thought that might lead an ill-informed writer to making that decision.

But I’m here to tell you, fellow writers, if you ever get flung an email like this, run away. Because you know what I didn’t see in that email pitch? Anything about actually selling your book to readers, or what the royalties earned on those sales would be, or anything of the sort. The emphasis is all on what you would in theory make off the viewing of ads–and on encouraging you to channel earnings into buying ads in other people’s books.

And now, I think I’ll fire off some tweets at Victoria Strauss of Writer Beware and see if she knows about this. ‘Cause I mean, damn.

February 21, 2013 by
Publishing

Indie booksellers sue Amazon, publishers re: DRM

Seeing this news come across the blogs this morning: Indie Booksellers Sue Amazon, Big Six Over E-book DRM. (That’s a Publisher’s Weekly article.) Scalzi has commentary here and Cory Doctorow chimes in over here. Jane of DearAuthor.com, who is in fact a lawyer, has commentary over here.

The long and short of it so far appears to be that while there is a suit to be made against Amazon, this isn’t it. I am nonetheless following this story with interest. As a writer whose available books are all going to be specifically DRM-free (both the self-pubbed ones and the ones from Carina) for the time being, I am absolutely in favor of killing DRM with fire. And as a reader who just bought a second ereader for the express purpose of supporting her local indie bookstore, I’d absolutely like to see it be easier for indie bookstores to sell digital content.

But like some of the commenters on Scalzi’s post, I’m not entirely sure yet what this suit thinks it’s trying to accomplish–it’s unclear as to whether they’re trying to get DRM killed entirely, or whether they want in on the DRM action (I’m not seeing a link yet to the actual suit so I can’t dig into it). Doctorow and Dear Author are both pointing out that the suit’s badly presenting its understanding of the technical aspects of DRM, which is not helping. And from what I’m seeing so far, they’re right.

It’s important to note that the new partnership US indie bookstores can set up with Kobo does tie a customer into a specific ecosystem–i.e., Kobo’s. But that’s ultimately only really a problem if DRM is involved. If DRM is not a factor, and assuming that the content has in fact been cleared for worldwide sale (which IS a different question than ‘does it have DRM on it?’), then the customer can happily buy ebooks from her indie bookstore, other bookstores elsewhere in the country or even the world, Amazon, B&N, wherever the hell she wants. That’s ultimately the place where I’d like to see us get with ebooks, and it’s why I direct a LOT of my ebook purchasing power to support publishers who make a point of selling DRM-free content (assuming of course that they are books I actually want to, y’know, read).

But failing that, I can see an argument for trying to lean on Amazon to either a) back off using an exclusive DRM, or b) allowing indie bookstores access to the Kindle ecosystem.

That, however, I see happening approximately about the same time hell freezes over. So yeah, not sure really what this lawsuit thinks it’s trying to do. I’ll be over here munching popcorn and waiting to see if it figures itself out!

February 21, 2013 by
Valor of the Healer

Today’s giveaway reminder for blog & LJ & Dreamwidth folks

The first Valor of the Healer giveaway is in progress right over here! All comments received on my main blog, LJ, Dreamwidth, Twitter, Facebook, or Google+ count as getting your name in the hat if you’d like in on the random generator goodness!

Because Faanshi, Julian, and Kestar would very much like to come visit your ereader or computer! And don’t let Faanshi’s sweet exterior deceive you. Girl’s hell on wheels if you turn her loose in Halo.

Also do note that this is the first Valor giveaway. There will be more. But they’re going to start ramping up in creativity. Be prepared! 😉

February 21, 2013 by
Bone Walker

Bone Walker cover update!

Kiri just shot me a rough draft of the color version of the cover!

Moody Park is Moody

Moody Park is Moody

General notes, especially for those of you who haven’t read Faerie Blood yet:

  • Yes, Elessir is supposed to resemble Elvis. It’s part of his character. Although as he’s on record as telling Kendis, he was here first, and Elvis had the good fortune to resemble him.
  • Elessir’s ears are bigger than Kendis’, because he’s full-blooded Unseelie Sidhe, and Kendis is half-human.
  • For reasons which will become evident in Bone Walker, Elessir has a smaller magic ‘swirl’ going on on his cover than Kendis did, and he’s also specifically supposed to look lean and a bit wolfish, all of which I communicated to Kiri. I feel she’s capturing these things very well!
  • And since I also pointed Kiri at Elfquest for my inspirational source of What Elves Should Look Like, alert observers may see notes of that in both Kendis’ and Elessir’s covers.

Kiri informs me that these colors are rough background colors and will be enhanced as she starts adding in shadings and highlights. I’ve told her to favor blue and black for Elessir, especially with that guitar he’s playing. Very, VERY much looking forward to seeing the final product!

February 21, 2013 by
Valor of the Healer

The very first Valor of the Healer giveaway!

Ladies and gentlemen, mesdames et messieurs, I have as of this morning received in my very own inbox the production EPUB copy of Valor of the Healer, to go along with the shiny PDF I have also received! Y’all know what this means?

It means it’s time for me to do my very first Valor of the Healer giveaway! Let’s put the first dent in my authorized number of author copies, shall we?

The rules, such as they are:

If you want in on being considered, all you have to do is drop a comment on this post (or on the LJ or Dreamwidth mirrors, those count too). You may also tweet at me, comment at me on Facebook when this post shows up there, or likewise on Google+. All comments or tweets I receive will count as throwing your name in the hat. But I will only count you once!

These copies are digital, so your options are EPUB or PDF! But since the EPUB IS DRM-free, if you’re Calibre-enabled, you can convert it to whatever format you like.

You must get me your comment on the site of your choice by end of day THIS FRIDAY, February 22nd! And by end of day, I mean, “local to me”, so let’s call that midnight Pacific time.

No other action is required on your part–though if the random number generator is in your favor, I sure would appreciate a preliminary review! 😉

On Saturday morning, I will choose two, count ’em, two people by random number generator. Those selected should let me know what format they’d prefer, and provide me with a means to privately contact them with how to get the file. (Email address or otherwise ability to DM/PM you on a social network.)

Ready? Set? GO!

February 20, 2013 by
Bone Walker

This just in: first draft of Bone Walker is DONE!

A lot of you have now seen me post about this either to the social networks OR to Kickstarter backer notices, but for those of you who have not, I am thrilled to announce that I just finally completed the very first draft of Bone Walker, Book 2 of The Free Court of Seattle!

The book clocks in at just over 86,000 words, so it’s a leaner and meaner book than Faerie Blood–and in more ways than just word count. There’s more action here than in the previous book, and more ensemble cast action as well, as for the first time I’m introducing scenes from the points of view of other characters besides Kendis. Christopher, Jude, Jake, and especially Elessir all get camera time, along with the story’s primary antagonist.

I’ve sent the book off to editor JoSelle Vanderhooft, and have also made it available to all the Kickstarter backers who bought in for that specific book. I will also make it available to people who specifically want to beta read for me, so if you didn’t get a chance to support the Kickstarter but you’d really like to see Book 2, now’s your chance!

JoSelle’s taking three weeks to do her full edit pass, and will be doing developmental edits on it as well as lower-level copyedit changes. But I’d really love to get beta reader feedback as well, and so if you can beta in the next three weeks, you can see the first draft!

Once changes are incorporated from both JoSelle and anybody who chimes in on the beta run, I’ll be doing a second draft which will also eventually need to be beta read. So there’ll be a second opportunity as well for those who aren’t able to join this first round. All beta readers will of course get their names in the Acknowledgements, and anybody who isn’t already getting a production copy due to Kickstarter backer status will be entitled to one as well for your efforts!

So if you’d like in, go look at this post. The password is ‘bugbash’.

Let the beta reading begin!

February 18, 2013 by