Back On The Writing Horse

Posted by george on January 3, 2012
Posted in: Writing. Tagged: , . 14 comments

It’s kind of funny how sometimes the Universe conspires to push you in a direction that you’ve been wanting to go but didn’t know how to do it. In 2011, this didn’t happen. Within 48 hours of 2012 coming along, it did.

The latter half of 2011 found me becoming less and less inspired to add anything to the blog here. Oh, I’d get enthused now and then and I’d think the dam had finally burst but then things would soon fizzle. I was working a full time non-writing gig that was paying me well and while I enjoyed being able to have a little fun, in the back of my head was a nagging question: “What about your writing?” And the answer was always, “Yeah, I’d love to get back into the writing groove, but I’m working a job that pays the bills.” And that’s how things went.

I sit here this morning unemployed. Semi my choice. Sometimes, money is not worth the heartache and stress. I should be scared but I’m not. Surprisingly calm and optimistic, actually. I got up this morning, made coffee, got dressed, wrote out my to do list and am looking forward to tackling the day.

What all of this means for the readership at Tumblemoose is a much more steady stream of posts about writing, reading, publishing and other topics of interest to writers. If you have stuck with me this long, thank you and your loyalty is appreciated. If you happen to be new here, then welcome, and I hope you feel it is worth your while to stick around.

After The Lovin’: Revising Your NaNoWriMo Novel

Posted by george on December 12, 2011
Posted in: Writing. Tagged: , . 2 comments

Image from Bubblecow

I was contacted by Brittany last week about writing a guest post on this topic. I said, “Sure, send me something.” I was a tad hesitant because a lot of what I get for guest posts is unusable. On Friday when I got Brittany’s article I opened the doc and was very happy to see this great article. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Revising Your NaNoWriMo Novel

In an interview with NPR, Chris Baty, the founder of National Novel Writing Month (more commonly known as NaNoWriMo) stated that he believed that everyone had a novel in them. Well, now that you’ve gotten that novel out, what do you want to do with it? Although the mad rush of cranking out your manuscript is over, there’s still plenty of work to be done to make it into a publishable piece.

Start by putting the manuscript aside. This may seem counter intuitive, but it is a good approach whether you are a student working to gain experience through master’s and PhD programs or an advanced novelist. The theory behind this method is that after all of the work that you have put in, your feelings about that text are going to be running hot. Thus its a good idea to use December, January and possibly even February to give your mind a break from the protect and work on something else. You can think about your novel or let other people read it, but otherwise leave it alone.

After allowing the manuscript to cool down a bit, sit down and read it as if you were reading it for the first time. Try not to anticipate what you know is coming and be in the moment. This gives you an idea of what you are working with as a whole, and how the work stands as it is. Next, make a list of obvious fixes that the novel requires. For example, one important thing to remember is that most commercial novels are between 90,000 and 100,000 words long. That means that you may have to double the word count on your NaNoWriMo novel. Similarly, think about things that you have left out, or things that you need to explain more thoroughly. This is where handing the manuscript to others is a good idea, as another pair of eyes can often spot gaps and plot holes that you may have missed.

When editing your piece, it is a good idea to print your manuscript out and go over it with a red pin. By having a tangible copy of the manuscript in your hand, you will be freed to make specific notes. Alternately, if you prefer to work on the computer, use the comment tool to leave yourself notes in the text itself. Making these notes requires you to go through your manuscript again, and while it is tedious, it is an extremely important part of this process.

The next step is to start your rewrites. While some people prefer to work through their manuscripts from beginning to end, other people prefer to to skip through and work on the piece as they feel like it. While both approaches are certainly valid, it is important to ensure that you do not skip or forget anything.

As you rewrite, it is crucial your are patient with yourself and your work. Keep in mind that NaNoWriMo is dedicated to getting words on the page, and that those words will need considerable refinement before the piece can be considered finished. Take it slow if necessary, and remember that even if you only edit 500 words in one day that you might edit 2,000 the next.

It is also important to show other people your work during this process. Whether you join writing group that meets regularly or sign up for a writers’ group online, you need to get outside input on your work. You never know when something is too obscure for someone else, and the more people who review your work, the more understandable it will be to a wider audience.

Finally, rewriting and fixing a first draft is not easy, and you may get bogged down in the details. The important thing to remember is that revising any novel is an endurance trial. Make time to revise every day. Even if you do only a small amount of work, it does add up. Also, don’t rush yourself. Novels can take a while before they are ready to be submitted, so don’t forget or give up on your ultimate goal.

NaNoWriMo has given you a great way to get words on the page, but now you need jump back into the piece and revise. This will allow you to polish your work so it can shine. While revising may be time consuming and not always easy, it offers you a chance to review your work and to bring the novel closer to your true vision.

Bio: Brittany Lyons aspires to be a psychology professor, but decided to take some time off from grad school to help people learn to navigate the academic lifestyle. She currently lives in Spokane, Washington, where she spends her time reading science fiction and walking her dog.

Enroll Your Kindle Book With KDP Select

Posted by george on December 8, 2011
Posted in: Other Stuff, Writing. Tagged: , , . 10 comments

I received this email from Amazon’s Kindle  Direct Publishing today. If you have a book published for Kindle, this is exciting news.

Here is the body of the email:

Hello from KDP!

We’re excited to introduce KDP Select – a new option dedicated to KDP authors and publishers worldwide, featuring a fund of $500,000 in December 2011 and at least $6 million in total for 2012! KDP Select gives you a new way to earn royalties, reach a broader audience, and use a new set of promotional tools.

Here’s how KDP Select works:

When you make any of your titles exclusive to the Kindle Store for at least 90 days, those with US rights will automatically be included in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library and can earn a share of a monthly fund. The monthly fund for December 2011 is $500,000 and will total at least $6 million in 2012. If you haven’t checked it out already, the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library is a collection of books that eligible US Amazon Prime members can borrow for free once a month with no due dates.

You’ll also now have access to a new set of promotional tools, starting with the option to promote your KDP Select-enrolled titles for FREE for up to 5 days every 90 days.

How your share of the monthly fund is calculated:

Your share of the monthly fund is based on your enrolled titles’ share of the total number of borrows across all participating KDP titles in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. For example, if total borrows of all participating KDP titles are 100,000 in December and your book was borrowed 1,500 times, you will earn $7,500 in additional royalties from KDP Select in December. Enrolled titles will remain available for sale to any customer in the Kindle Store and you will continue to earn your regular royalties on those sales.

What this means to you:

KDP Select gives you access to a whole new source of royalties and readers- you not only benefit from a new way of making money, but you also get the chance to reach even more readers by getting your book in front of a growing number of US Amazon Prime customers: readers and future fans of your books that you may have not had a chance to reach before! Additionally, the ability to offer your book for free will help expand your worldwide reader base.

How to enroll:

KDP Select is available for titles participating in both the 70% and 35% royalty options. You can immediately start by enrolling a single title, your whole catalog, or anything in between.

If you’re interested in enrolling a title that’s already uploaded, simply click “Enroll” next to the book in your Bookshelf. To enroll multiple titles that are already uploaded, select the boxes next to any number of titles, then click “Actions” and choose “Enroll these books in KDP Select.” The titles you choose will be enrolled immediately.

If you’re interested in enrolling a new title, simply check the “Enroll this book in KDP Select” box while submitting details about your book and proceed to publish the book as you normally would. For new titles, enrollment takes effect once the book is available for sale on our website.

To learn more about KDP Select, visit: http://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/KDPSelect

To learn more about the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library, visit:

http://www.amazon.com/kindleownerslendinglibrary

Very cool news. It is super easy to do – took me all of 30 seconds and now my Kindle book is made available to an even larger audience!

The Kindle Fire Review – This Ain’t Your Granddaddy’s Kindle

Posted by george on November 19, 2011
Posted in: Other Stuff. Tagged: , . 9 comments

I’ve owned a Kindle for a couple of years now. I love it. I have since it first arrived and though I love my paper books and my full bookcase, most of my book reading has been on the Kindle over the past year or so. So, when I went to Amazon a few weeks back and saw the Kindle Fire announcement, I was pretty stoked.

Now, I’m not a gotta-have-the-newest-tech kind of guy. Didn’t get an iPhone until last year. (and you’ll only get it from me when you pry it from my cold, dead hands) And even though I love the concept of the iPad and all things Apple, I just can’t imagine what I would use it for so I am iPadless. When I saw the Kindle Fire, I thought, “Wow. That’s cool.” But I didn’t think I’d get one. After spending some time researching the Fire and all of its features, I decided to make the leap and ordered one.

It just arrived and here are my initial thoughts:

First, it shipped and arrived from Amazon about a week before they said it would. Super Saver shipping was free and it took less than 4 days for it to arrive in my mail box – here in Alaska, no less.

I opened the box. It contained: 1 Kindle Fire device. 1 charging cord. 1 playing-card sized card with quick start instructions. Huh. Simplicity in its purest form.

I knew I had to register the thing so I anticipated a lengthy process involving passwords and possibly a call or email to tech support. Well, Amazon came through yet again (like they always seem to do for me). I hit the “on” button and it fired up, automatically downloaded the latest software and registered the Fire to my account. Bam! I didn’t have to do a danged thing. Off to a good start, me thinks.

Amazon Prime

It’s important to take a moment to talk about Amazon Prime. One of the features and a big selling point is the inclusion of a free one month Amazon Prime membership with your Kindle Fire purchase. Your free month starts automatically, as soon as you fire up your Fire for the first time. When your free month is up, the annual fee is $79 if you choose to continue.

Amazon Prime benefits include:

  • Access to over 10,000 TV shows and movies
  • Free 2 day shipping for all your Amazon purchases
  • Access to the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library

10,000 TV Shows and Movies

I have to admit that this was one of the reasons I bought the Fire. I’ve already spent a lot of time looking at what’s available. If you’re looking for first run, current movies as part of your Amazon Prime membership then you will likely be a bit disappointed. If quirky, sometimes classic, sometimes “B” movies are your thing then you are going to feel right at home. Sample titles: A Clockwork Orange, Time Bandits, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The TV shows are every bit as eclectic as well: Lost, Gilligan’s Island, 24, The Wonder Years.

Before you purchase the Fire, go to Amazon and you can look at and search for virtually all of the Amazon Prime titles.

Free 2 Day Shipping

A no brainer, really. No price minimum like there is with Super-Saver shipping.

Kindle Owner’s Lending Library

Every month, you can download and read one free Kindle book. There are lots of titles available and quite a few of them are best sellers.

Okay, on to the rest of the review.

The first real test happened within a few hours of registering. My 8 year old daughter (who was more excited than I was about getting this, I think) got home from school and immediately wanted to download a movie. I went to the video section for her and she took it from there. She started streaming “The Iron Giant” all on her own with *zero* help from me.

Here is how the videos work: Amazon Prime titles are streamed. This means you have to be connected to a wireless source. Amazon Prime titles cannot be downloaded to watch later. You have to stream them. This differs from the other movies and tv shows available for rent or purchase on Amazon in that those things that you rent or purchase can be streamed from the cloud or downloaded to the device for future viewing. Being able to download  to the device is kind of a big deal for those of us who have kind of a sucky internet provider plan that sticks it to you for usage overages. Being one of those unfortunate souls, I plan to use the “free” wireless at coffee shops and such to download any purchased movies and otherwise occasionally stream an Amazon Prime show. Along these lines (and it is not a criticism of the Fire), it would be nice to know how much data a particular movie or TV show is prior to downloading or streaming. Thus far, I can’t figure out how to figure that out.

The Reader

Truly, the thing I will use the Fire for the most is as an e-reader. I have a bunch of Kindle books already and like I said, it is how I read most of my books these days. The Kindle Fire kicks all previous versions to the curb. Big time.

When you go to the Books tab, all of your Kindle titles are there. Now, they are all in the cloud, so they are not in your device yet. If there is a title you want to read, you have to tap on the cover and it will then download to your device. Also, with the Whisper-Synch technology, the book will be synched to the last page read, even if you started the title on your earlier Kindle.

There are a lot of improvements over previous Kindle devices. The most significant improvement is the ease of use in terms of changing the font size and such. Tap the screen and the menu is right there. Change font size, typeface and the background color. You can customize your reading experience and ain’t that grand.

One of the things I’ll have to get used to is the screen. Much like an iPhone, there is a definite glare. It hasn’t affected my reading experience yet, but I need to try it under different light conditions.

In General

  • The touch screen works pretty well, but it doesn’t tend to work as smoothly as the iPhone.
  • I would like to see a scroll bar. There isn’t one and I’m used to having it.
  • Even when you put the Fire in “sleep” mode, it appears the battery drains and I haven’t figured out if it still stays connected to the wireless in sleep mode.
  • You can load videos, music and pictures from your PC to the Fire using a micro-USB cable.
  • I love how you can watch or read things in wide screen just by turning the Fire sideways.
  • I haven’t had the Fire long enough to know about battery life yet. I’ll probably end up posting another review after I’ve had it a month or so. This also goes for the web function. I’ll play with it and let you know.

Finally

I’m pretty happy with the Kindle Fire so far. For 200 bucks I think it’s a good deal. Also, my sense is that I will sign up for the Amazon Prime once my free trial is done.

If you have been on the fence about getting the Kindle Fire, I hope this helps.

Please feel free to leave specific questions in the comment section


A Social Media Success Story

Posted by george on November 16, 2011
Posted in: Fiction, Writing. Tagged: , . 7 comments

I’ve been a Twitter user for going on three years now. I think I’ve seen some benefit from the contacts I’ve made and the articles of mine that have been re-tweeted. I like Twitter and I’m there most days, re-tweeting things and interacting on a number of levels. Over the weekend I had a bit of a success story and I thought I’d share that with you folks.

In my Twitter stream, I noticed one of the folks I follow was quoting lines from one of my favorite movies. I had seen this person previously, I think but I hadn’t really interacted with them too much, if at all. Well, I started tweeting some quotes from the same movie and we had a good time of it. Later, He sent a tweet that went something like, “Buy my novel and I might be able to buy a taco for dinner.” Oh, that’s right, he’s an author. So I went to the link in the tweet and I saw his novel on Amazon – A Kindle version no less. It was just under three bucks and I was looking for a read so I downloaded “Near Death” by Richard C. Hale. I started reading and I was pleased to discover that it was a great book. I loved every moment of it, finished it over the weekend and wrote a review on Amazon. I let Richard know, and he was kind enough to download my “Short Book of Short Shorts.” but that’s not the success story.

The real success story is that a social media site worked exactly as it should. Someone in my network posted something that caught my eye and got me looking a little closer at their postings. A link was included in the posting, I clicked and I bought. He ends up with a book sale and a loyal fan. I end up making a great connection and having a great book reading experience. Win-win.

I bring this up to remind us writers to not give up and for the love of Pete, learn how to handle social media appropriately. I see writers all the time on Twitter that never re-tweet anyone’s stuff, they never acknowledge any re-tweeting of their stuff and they never engage. Their posts are always the same. Look at my book, look at my book. Sorry, not inclined to buy. Show me you’re human first.