The Future of Vanity and Mainstream Publications.

I read a blog recently about self publishing that drove me a little nuts. There was an argument about whether or not calling yourself "independently published", in regards to your publishing status, is an accurate description of being self-published or yet another "vanity" term for the self-published to "try to" legitimize themselves. There was even an accusation that those calling themselves "Independents" were trying to sneak out from under the stigma of the title "Self Published".

It was a good argument but a bit pointless in my opinion.
Why?

The book industry is changing dramatically. There is no arguing that. Regardless of your "side" in the Independent Publication debate, we're all playing a little guessing game as to what will be acceptable in the future. One thing I'm sure of is this debate will be taken to a different level when selling copies of your book on your blog in lieu of selling through an epublisher will be considered the new "vanity" publication.

When the ease of becoming epublished was brought up, I bristled a bit. "Epubbing isn't considered legitimate publication."

I would have agreed with that even two years ago. Because I didn't look towards the future. I love print books! I want to see my name on paper. But maybe that won't ever happen...

I would say whatever stigma once surrounding epublishing is dripping off the toe of the literary world as we come out of the delusion pool. With the introduction of Kindle and other similar readers, we're seeing a shift in acceptance.

We live in an A.D.D world now and patience is a virtue of yesterday. "I want a book and I want it now! I'm going to download it."

This mentality could also lead to self-E-published success in the future. "I'm going to read what I want, not just what is published by the big companies, but what is suggested on pages like authonomy.com and others like it because I want to decide what I like! Me! Me! Me!"

Downloading whatever we want to see or hear to our phones and ipods, watching TV and movies on Internet streams over laptops...these are the growing trends in all things medial. Ebooks are no different.

So who cares about self-published authors putting out their books in print?

The revolution from print to ereaders cometh. Pick up the debate afterwards and attack Blogging sellers. ::grins::

I've heard a lot of claims that there is no truth to how close this revolution is, but already you see B&N making some changes and epubs standing firmly through the economic BS going on these days.

Print may stand for a few more years, sure. But as I ready my epub book release with flash drives I can give out at "signings" with my work on it, I'm just hoping I can get one of my books in print before they stop making them in the future. And I do see that happening. Because in truth, my friends, I don't see my little cousins (who are glued to all things electronic) putting down their devices to pick up a book that doesn't let them receive txt messages while they read or have an interactive game included.

Just my .02 as to why it is pointless to argue the pronunciation of potato over vanity print publishing.

::Grins:: Sorry! I was all over the place with this one.

Best,
Allure

Release Day!

From The Ruins is out this afternoon! And because of that, I'm going to give out a new excerpt. (PG for once!) With a suspenseful ending that I hope will send you over to NobleRomance (dot) com with your credit card! Lol Thank you to those who choose to celebrate with me! All my best, Allure.

 

Deeper and deeper they ventured into the humid terrain and after they'd passed the sixth snake without Davit so much as glancing at it, she had enough. Weird didn't describe his mood—first at the lab and now, dragging her out here without explanation. Jerking her hand from his, she stopped dead in her tracks and prepared to give him a severe scolding.

He had gone another ten steps before he turned to face her. Jenova gasped at the intense look in his eyes. He looked wild . . . predatory. But she wouldn't be put off any longer.

"Answer me, damn you! You drag me out here again for what?! Are you looking for another snake or are you just trying to impress me by pretending to be Indiana?"

His mouth tucked in at the corners. Apparently he wasn't amused by the comparison.

"It's beautiful and I appreciate your eagerness to take me on a grand adventure, but you can't act distant and expect me to follow you like a bitch in heat." She blushed when he raised a brow and sized her up with his eyes. Okay, maybe he could. "Davit! Tell me what we're doing."

The corner of his mouth twitched—humor or annoyance she couldn't tell—and when he closed the distance between them, she felt more than frightened.

He looked deep into her eyes and grabbed her chin. He turned her head to the side and buried his nose in her neck. On a deep inhale, he moved his mouth toward her ear. "Shh."

Irritated by the delicious shiver creeping up her spine, she stepped back and shook her head. He wasn't going to seduce her this time. "No! I'm not going any farther until you tell me what is going on, Davit!"

A hard breeze whipped around them, tousling their hair. She watched his thick, wavy locks frame his handsome face, and for a moment, she floundered in lusty thoughts. She couldn't resist him. The energy between them electrified the very air they breathed.

She felt a strange sensation burgeoning deep within, a knowledge belonging to her soul from another lifetime. Before she could take a moment to analyze what she thought she knew, Davit flashed a devious smile.

"Bring her!" he snapped, and continued on his path.

Her brows furrowed. "Bring her? What the hell does that mean?"

Instinctively, she looked over her shoulder. Her mouth went dry and she stumbled backward, ready to run after Davit. Maybe she'd jump on his back and bullwhip him until he carried her to the next civilized city. Before she could snap off a switch to use as a weapon, ten small men threw weighted nets over her and dragged her to the ground.

She screamed.

The Pains of Promoting.

I've heard a lot about promoting and how many hours a day you should do it. If writing is your career, and you're not Stephanie Meyer or JK Rowling, you should be out there promoting for hours every day.

I treat writing as my career of course, even though I haven't made a dime yet. (My first book release is May 15th and hopefully I'll have a few more soon as well.)

In between play time and learning time with my daughter, I spend time checking email, reading, writing, editing, and promoting. What takes the most time?

Promoting! Hands down.

I can't keep up with it. There are blogs everywhere! Everyone has one, and everyone wants you to join and actively participate in theirs. It is survival of the fittest. I join those who ask me to but usual only visit a few a day to see what is going on. Then I check the emails only to delete nearly everything because I just don't have the TIME to read every promo or excerpt.

(This is a good time to mention catchy title lines!) I don't even open an email unless the title grabs me in some way. Out of the average 300-400 emails per day I receive from various Yahoo groups, I open about 10.

I feel like a busy agent who still has their submissions open but no real time for a new client. LOL

I know I'm missing out on some awesome books but there's nothing I can do.

We are certainly selling to ourselves though, aren't we? Authors marketing to other authors, which is awesome, but very time consuming.

I join groups only to get 10 emails from the same person who is also in all of the groups and promoting to each one simultaneously. GAhhh! That totally gums up my inbox!

Most of the time, I'm too terrified to post in any group. There are just too many groups that will ban you if you flub it. It has to say promo or excerpt and the rating. (Okay, that is easy enough.) "you can only post on this group on fridays, this group on wednesdays, and this group on thursday afternoons when it isn't raining!)

Pretty much my promo time is spent sifting through my emails to figure out if it is a specific author or pub house day or a free for all. It is quite time consuming.

Of course I can pay someone anywhere between 100.00 dollars and 700.00 dollars to do my promoting for me!! If I were making money enough to do that, I think I'd be able to do my own promoting on word of mouth alone!

If I had money to blow, sure, I'd do it. But I can't. Like JK Rowling pre-sell, I haven't a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out and I have a daughter counting on me not to spend money I don't have. lol

So it is back to doing what I've been doing. Sticking my nose in where I can get it and hoping I don't get banned from a group for messing up or yahoo swallowing my email for a few days and spitting it out on an inappropriate posting day.

People who write and have jobs and have kids...I have no idea how they do it. Playing with my daughter and writing and editing and promoting sucks up a full day for me and when I wake up, I start all over again.

Yay!

Haha.. best of luck promoting yourself. May we all find the day when promoting is easier and fun.

Allure

Long Paragraphs Are Quite A Commitment!

I've been rather boring on my blog, no new excerpts or anything interesting to say. So it seems anyway, so I'm making it my mission to blog about something other than my nearing release date at least once a week.

But what am I going to say that hasn't been said?

Frankly, I don't know. So I'm just going to pick out something that happens in my day to day struggle to be the next big author.

Today, I'm going to talk about critiquing and more specifically, a huge trend I can't stand.

I'm on Authonomy.com often. It gives me good insight into my own writing. Seeing the mistakes other people make has actually made me a better writer.

I highly recommend that site, btw.

The best thing to do is to swap reads with someone. You post your book, the whole thing or just chapters (as long as it is over 10k), and then you read other books and "shelve" the ones you like. This isn't as easy as it sounds, as reciprocation is often expected. If a reader shelves your book, they don't get on your shelf, they can get a little nasty. Likewise, if you comment on their book and don't place it on your shelf because you didn't like it, chances are they won't give your book a shot at all.

This is the rare case, luckily, or I wouldn't bother with it.

It's fun, though, to read and help others perfect their craft. But only if they listen.

I critiqued two books recently that had the same problem. Looooong paragraphs. One even had run-on sentences in their looooong paragraphs.

I was trying to explain why this was a bad thing and it wasn't penetrating. ("well I think your paragraphs are too short")

I can't speak for everyone, I made that crystal clear, but in my experience...when you tend to go on and on with description in HUGE paragraphs, you lose the readers interest...they start skimming and once that happens, they miss chunks of your book.

A long paragraph always makes me sigh. In my head I literally think about how much bullshit I could probably skip past to get to the "good stuff". It is too much of a commitment to me. A big pet peeve, but I was told I was the minority so I politely backed away with an "I'm sure you're right" response.

I'm curious if I'm alone on my little island of short paragraphs. I don't mind a long one once in a while (still talking about paragraphs here) but too many and pages and pages of them usually have me tossing the book aside and reaching for a more succinct novel. I like description, I just don't like to be visually overfed.

Some readers are devoted to the written word, reading each one in the order it was printed and analyzing every sentence.

Me? I like fun, excitement, awesome dialog, hot sex, and god-damn short paragraphs!

All my best, Lovelies!
Talk at you again soon,
Allure