I just discovered a new website called Literate Machine . They have downloadable eBooks, Comics, Art, and more. It is a fresh new community for the distribution of electronic media. Members can upload there files and provide them free or for a fee to download. The cut the site takes for storage and processing is minimal - way below what other sites charge. Where other sites offer you 15% to 25% of sales, Literate Machine only takes 20% currently: you get the rest.
They also have no problem with you offering free stuff. Some sites have a minimum that can be charged, so they get their money. LM lets you upload whatever you want for free, they only get a cut of what you sell. That is great if you just want to offer a preview or a teaser, or just want to give your fans some free stuff.
I currently have a free preview of ArchAngelxx listed there. I plan to rewrite AA in a more suitable version for print publication. It was originally written for the Internet. I have a free preview on LM with an offer of a full version free to anyone who wants to review and comment on the manuscript. Sort of a beta test ;
If you want to take part, go check it out.
max
- maxwell cynn
- I'm a novelist, freelance writer, amateur coder, webmaster, and Indie publisher who writes deliciously romantic speculative fiction and book reviews from a wide range of genres.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Review: Host by Stephenie Meyer
I just finished reading Host by Stephenie Meyer. It adds a whole new dimension to the author of the Twilight Saga. There are elements of sci-fi, suspense, mystery, romance... Mrs. Meyer shows in Host that she is a master of any genre. The writing was excellent and the author's amazing gift with dialog continues to impress.
In Host we are confronted with an apocalyptic vision of Earth overrun, not by evil alien destroyers, but kind and gentle creatures who turn our planet into a utopia. The down side? They take over our bodies to do it. The Souls, as they refer to themselves, live in peace and perfect harmony. The only problem still on Earth – sickness, disease, crime have all been eradicated – is the minority of the population who refuse to be integrated.
The rebel humans live a hard existence. If they are caught by the Seekers they are captured and implanted with a Soul. But some minds are strong enough to resist control by the implanted soul. That is where the story begins, a wandering soul implanted in a captured rebel. The resulting battle between the human psyche and the ancient implanted soul is some of the best writing I have had the pleasure to read.
Mrs. Meyer delves deep into the human condition showing a breadth of insight in the working of the human mind and emotions that is astounding. The characters come alive on the page and pull at the heart strings of the reader. There seem to be no 'good guys' and 'bad guys' only complex and often touching interaction between alien Souls and their Hosts.
I will not give away the plot, or the ending, it is something that simply must be experienced. Personally I expected a different ending, and perhaps would have preferred for it to end differently, but the author made her choices and the ending was strong and well thought out. The end was a good completion of the story, while leaving the faint possibility of a sequel. I hope the author seizes that faint possibility, I would love to read more about these characters and this world.
In Host we are confronted with an apocalyptic vision of Earth overrun, not by evil alien destroyers, but kind and gentle creatures who turn our planet into a utopia. The down side? They take over our bodies to do it. The Souls, as they refer to themselves, live in peace and perfect harmony. The only problem still on Earth – sickness, disease, crime have all been eradicated – is the minority of the population who refuse to be integrated.
The rebel humans live a hard existence. If they are caught by the Seekers they are captured and implanted with a Soul. But some minds are strong enough to resist control by the implanted soul. That is where the story begins, a wandering soul implanted in a captured rebel. The resulting battle between the human psyche and the ancient implanted soul is some of the best writing I have had the pleasure to read.
Mrs. Meyer delves deep into the human condition showing a breadth of insight in the working of the human mind and emotions that is astounding. The characters come alive on the page and pull at the heart strings of the reader. There seem to be no 'good guys' and 'bad guys' only complex and often touching interaction between alien Souls and their Hosts.
I will not give away the plot, or the ending, it is something that simply must be experienced. Personally I expected a different ending, and perhaps would have preferred for it to end differently, but the author made her choices and the ending was strong and well thought out. The end was a good completion of the story, while leaving the faint possibility of a sequel. I hope the author seizes that faint possibility, I would love to read more about these characters and this world.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Query Letters
I continue to refine and improve my query letter for Ezekiel Strong : Haunted. I have been spending a lot of time on AgentQueryConnect. It is a community of of writers, publishers, and editors. I have been getting critiques on my manuscript and my query package before renewing my search for an agent. The folks there are great. Not only have I gotten excellent advice, i have been able to help others as well and get to preview some manuscripts that may be the best sellers in years to come. I started the Romance Writers group there, so drop in and say hello.
max
max
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Get new eyes, lots of them
After you have perfected your manuscript, and it is as perfectly wonderful as you can make it, it is time for some new eyes. Yours are probably a bit blood shot by now. You have read your manuscript a hundred times. It gets to the point where you are really not reading it anymore, you have it memorized.
Our brains are very conservative. We can not possibly process the enormous amount of data our world presents to us every second of the day. Our brains only process what is necessary. When you walk into a familiar room your brain doesn't process all of the data available – it has done so before. Your brain looks for differences, changes from the last time you were there. That is why, searching for your keys, you can look right at something and never see it. Someone else looks and laughs. “If it had been a snake it would have bit you.”
Your manuscript is like that familiar room. You wrote it, you edited it, your brain knows it. Your eyes can see “he” and your brain can process “she”. It knows the story, knows that you meant to type she, and corrects. So consciously you miss the typo. Every time you pass over the printed mistake reinforces the mental correction. You never see it.
In “How to Get a Literary Agent”, author Michael Larsen gives three tips for proof reading your manuscript. His first suggestion, “Try proofreading your manuscript backwards so you will proof the manuscript, not read it.” That forces your brain to process each word. That will catch a lot of common mistakes, but you still may miss the “he” mentioned above because you are not processing the context of the word's placement. There is only so much a writer can do alone.
There is also more to polishing your manuscript than fixing typos and misspellings. The is also consistency, clarity, and a host of other things to check. As the writer you know the plot, the characters, the whole manuscript better than anyone: better than what is actually written. What may seem obviously apparent to you may be mysterious to the reader. You know unstated background and motives, plot twists and details, that may need to be written out for the reader.
It is time to let the baby leave the nest. Someone else needs to read and critique your masterpiece. A fresh pair of eyes. Print it up and give it to friends and family. Be ready for good and bad reviews and be ready to make revisions. Then expand your circle to people you don't know. Find a crit group, have those you gave the manuscript to pass it on to someone else.
When I first started I thought what I wrote needed to be locked away until it was sent to a publisher. I thought once it was out in the public it was used, done, unpublishable. In reality the opposite is true. Agents, editors, and publishers want to know what others think about your work. They know you love it and assume your friends and family will say they love it too. They know you need some unbiased, honest criticism: theirs shouldn't be the first you get.
Ebooks are exploding on the Internet. Anyone who can manage some basic HTML can publish one. After you have gone through all of your available reader/critics you can upload you manuscript to the net and see how it does. You can give it away free or even sell it, that is up to you. You can even put an email link at the end and ask readers to provide feedback.
I was worried that publishing an eBook might hurt your chances with traditional publishers so I asked Michael Larsen, a top Literary Agent and best selling author, “Is a manuscript salable after it has been published as an eBook?” and “Would a successful eBook make a manuscript more or less desirable to publishers.”
His response, “Yes, if you sell enough copies of your ebook, at a good velocity, then yes, publishers will come after you and propose publication. This is a great way to test market your book and your idea.”
Mr. Larsen is the co-founder of Larsen/Pomada Literary Agency, a very prestigious agency located in San Francisco, California. He is also the author of How to Get a Literary Agent, co-founder of the San Francisco Writers Conference, and a member of the Association of Author's Representatives.
One concern when test marketing your manuscript through ePublishing is your Intellectual Property Rights. Be very careful that you retain all rights to your work. You can't sell what you don't own. I use Mobipocket Books. Their agreement is a straightforward, non-exclusive right to sell the files you publish. They don't tie up your rights so you are free to publish your work elsewhere, sell to a publisher, or even publish with other online vendors.
There are “ePublishers” who will prep and publish your manuscript as an eBook for you, but they are expensive or tie up your rights while offering small royalties. If you want to test market your manuscript as an eBook it is best to do it yourself. It is easy to be your own publisher online.
In the past, many authors have paid to have a limited run of books printed to help test market their work. Today, with a little Internet savvy, you can test market your manuscript and maybe even make a little money along the way, while you wait on your best seller to be published.
*written as the inaugural post for The-Underground-Press Blog
Our brains are very conservative. We can not possibly process the enormous amount of data our world presents to us every second of the day. Our brains only process what is necessary. When you walk into a familiar room your brain doesn't process all of the data available – it has done so before. Your brain looks for differences, changes from the last time you were there. That is why, searching for your keys, you can look right at something and never see it. Someone else looks and laughs. “If it had been a snake it would have bit you.”
Your manuscript is like that familiar room. You wrote it, you edited it, your brain knows it. Your eyes can see “he” and your brain can process “she”. It knows the story, knows that you meant to type she, and corrects. So consciously you miss the typo. Every time you pass over the printed mistake reinforces the mental correction. You never see it.
In “How to Get a Literary Agent”, author Michael Larsen gives three tips for proof reading your manuscript. His first suggestion, “Try proofreading your manuscript backwards so you will proof the manuscript, not read it.” That forces your brain to process each word. That will catch a lot of common mistakes, but you still may miss the “he” mentioned above because you are not processing the context of the word's placement. There is only so much a writer can do alone.
There is also more to polishing your manuscript than fixing typos and misspellings. The is also consistency, clarity, and a host of other things to check. As the writer you know the plot, the characters, the whole manuscript better than anyone: better than what is actually written. What may seem obviously apparent to you may be mysterious to the reader. You know unstated background and motives, plot twists and details, that may need to be written out for the reader.
It is time to let the baby leave the nest. Someone else needs to read and critique your masterpiece. A fresh pair of eyes. Print it up and give it to friends and family. Be ready for good and bad reviews and be ready to make revisions. Then expand your circle to people you don't know. Find a crit group, have those you gave the manuscript to pass it on to someone else.
When I first started I thought what I wrote needed to be locked away until it was sent to a publisher. I thought once it was out in the public it was used, done, unpublishable. In reality the opposite is true. Agents, editors, and publishers want to know what others think about your work. They know you love it and assume your friends and family will say they love it too. They know you need some unbiased, honest criticism: theirs shouldn't be the first you get.
Ebooks are exploding on the Internet. Anyone who can manage some basic HTML can publish one. After you have gone through all of your available reader/critics you can upload you manuscript to the net and see how it does. You can give it away free or even sell it, that is up to you. You can even put an email link at the end and ask readers to provide feedback.
I was worried that publishing an eBook might hurt your chances with traditional publishers so I asked Michael Larsen, a top Literary Agent and best selling author, “Is a manuscript salable after it has been published as an eBook?” and “Would a successful eBook make a manuscript more or less desirable to publishers.”
His response, “Yes, if you sell enough copies of your ebook, at a good velocity, then yes, publishers will come after you and propose publication. This is a great way to test market your book and your idea.”
Mr. Larsen is the co-founder of Larsen/Pomada Literary Agency, a very prestigious agency located in San Francisco, California. He is also the author of How to Get a Literary Agent, co-founder of the San Francisco Writers Conference, and a member of the Association of Author's Representatives.
One concern when test marketing your manuscript through ePublishing is your Intellectual Property Rights. Be very careful that you retain all rights to your work. You can't sell what you don't own. I use Mobipocket Books. Their agreement is a straightforward, non-exclusive right to sell the files you publish. They don't tie up your rights so you are free to publish your work elsewhere, sell to a publisher, or even publish with other online vendors.
There are “ePublishers” who will prep and publish your manuscript as an eBook for you, but they are expensive or tie up your rights while offering small royalties. If you want to test market your manuscript as an eBook it is best to do it yourself. It is easy to be your own publisher online.
In the past, many authors have paid to have a limited run of books printed to help test market their work. Today, with a little Internet savvy, you can test market your manuscript and maybe even make a little money along the way, while you wait on your best seller to be published.
*written as the inaugural post for The-Underground-Press Blog
Friday, August 1, 2008
Edit, Edit, Edit
The most tedious task, and the most important, is editing your manuscript. This is even more so for the self publishing author. Authors can be lazy. You finish writing a 75,ooo word ms and you think you are done. You have written, rewritten, and revised for months. The ms is ready to go to the publisher. You get an agent, they read your ms and the first thing they do is suggest edits and revisions. Then it goes to the publisher who requests more edits and revisions. So much for being finished.
The self publishing author doesn't have those extra edits. They publish when they feel the ms is ready, but those extra edits are important. What's an author/publisher to do? Find more eyes. When you think it is ready, start letting others read it and offer input. Print it up and pass it around to friends, join a local writers guild and get in a crit group, find a crit group online. The more eyes, the more crit, the better your ms will be.
I'm a member of an online community of writers. We crit each others work and offer support and advice to each other. You will be amazed at how many typos a group of people can find after you think you have found them all. It is just like putting new software through a beta test. Fresh eyes see things you miss. If those eyes are not crit buddies they will be readers who bought your book or reviewers. You don't want a review that says your book is full of typos.
When you self publish, either POD or as an eBook, all the editing is on you. There are professional editors available, and that is a good option, but you can also take advantage of your fellow writers input. The more people who proof read your ms before it goes out to the mass audience the better it will be. Just remember, it is your ms. Not every suggestion is a good suggestion.
Everyone who reads your novel will get something different from it. Everyone has their own unique tastes and preferences. You might get a suggestion from one reader and a completely opposite suggestion from another. That is when you have to make the call, and stay true to your vision. If you keep getting the same suggestion from multiple readers, maybe you need to rethink your opinion.
Writing is an art, not a science. In the end you are producing a work of art that is uniquely yours. Sometimes it takes obstinacy to stay true to your muse, sometimes it takes humble acceptance of criticism. You want your ms to be the best it can possibly be and that takes diligent editing. As a self publishing author you are the final word and final editor. Don't be afraid to ask for help.
max
The self publishing author doesn't have those extra edits. They publish when they feel the ms is ready, but those extra edits are important. What's an author/publisher to do? Find more eyes. When you think it is ready, start letting others read it and offer input. Print it up and pass it around to friends, join a local writers guild and get in a crit group, find a crit group online. The more eyes, the more crit, the better your ms will be.
I'm a member of an online community of writers. We crit each others work and offer support and advice to each other. You will be amazed at how many typos a group of people can find after you think you have found them all. It is just like putting new software through a beta test. Fresh eyes see things you miss. If those eyes are not crit buddies they will be readers who bought your book or reviewers. You don't want a review that says your book is full of typos.
When you self publish, either POD or as an eBook, all the editing is on you. There are professional editors available, and that is a good option, but you can also take advantage of your fellow writers input. The more people who proof read your ms before it goes out to the mass audience the better it will be. Just remember, it is your ms. Not every suggestion is a good suggestion.
Everyone who reads your novel will get something different from it. Everyone has their own unique tastes and preferences. You might get a suggestion from one reader and a completely opposite suggestion from another. That is when you have to make the call, and stay true to your vision. If you keep getting the same suggestion from multiple readers, maybe you need to rethink your opinion.
Writing is an art, not a science. In the end you are producing a work of art that is uniquely yours. Sometimes it takes obstinacy to stay true to your muse, sometimes it takes humble acceptance of criticism. You want your ms to be the best it can possibly be and that takes diligent editing. As a self publishing author you are the final word and final editor. Don't be afraid to ask for help.
max
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