Career Crossroads

Instead of working on Emerald City Iron like I was supposed to, I've spent the last month soul-searching. That's a rose-colored way to say "being existentially depressed wondering about the purpose of life and being totally unable to get any work done." I'm sure either sounds glamorous, but I assure you, it's pretty much not. Though now that I'm putting it this way, and looking back, it does seem a bit more dramatic and interesting than it really was. But maybe that's how lived stories are. They aren't really all that fun until you reach the end and know that everything is going to work out. 

For now anyway.

I suppose I imagined I'd coming out the other side all psyched up to finally finish Emerald City Iron a couple of months late. Instead, I've learned that perhaps I will never finish ECI.

TL;DR: I'm taking an extended hiatus from writing novels so I can focus on nonfiction books, short fiction, and nonfiction blog posts.

I'm going to steer my ship away from writing novels for awhile. And in writer-time, awhile means years. 

Instead, I'd like to write another nonfiction book, more nonfiction blog posts (particularly about autism and social justice), and continue to write and publish short stories.

There are lots of pros and cons to this choice. The most painful part has to do with all the novels I had planned. And worse, those poor novels I've already written that are impatiently waiting for edits. And worse, worse, worse, the five or six people who have let me know very plainly that they are sick and tired of waiting for the sequel to Emerald City Dreamer, and if I don't finish it, they're threatening to never read it. Which is fine, because I won't let them. Bwaha. Or something. At any rate, it ensaddens me to let down my loyal readers.

It's also sad that I've got these great moments in ECI and Emerald City Hunter that no one will get to see. (A cow-car chase... How fun is THAT??) This is a major drawback to the decision, but also one of the drawbacks to novelling overall – incredibly delayed gratification – that I'll get to more in a bit. 

Those are the cons. The pros far outweigh them. (Protip: That's how you know it's a good decision.)

I firstly must acknowledge my limitations and work with them, not against them. One of my greatest limitations is extremely high inefficiency when switching tasks. Like, oh, say switching from writing and promoting a 150,000 word nonfiction book about the phycology of Mormonism to editing a 70,000 word novel about trauma recovery and hunting fairies. When it comes to autism and switching gears, that's a the steampunk of all gearshifts. 

In other words, it takes way too much time and angst for me to jump between topics and skillsets like that. Especially on big projects grappling with big topics. It also duplicates my work when it comes to promotion and making contacts in each field. Selling urban fantasy is exactly the same as selling recovery books to ex-religionists... Only I have to do it twice in two different communities with twice the number of emails, tweets, blog posts, and potential travel.

If I didn't have the brain I have, I might be able to navigate that level of executive function. But then I also wouldn't be able to write the things I write. Even Supernerd has her crypto-night. (Inability to resist awkward puns is yet another weakness of mine.)

So it comes down to deciding what is most important. What do I want most to accomplish?

I have lots and lots of things to say. Overall, that's my greatest goal. How can I say them, and how can I say them to the greatest number of interested people?

The answer seems to be nonfiction and short fiction.

The novels market is way too flooded to get noticed. And while I can write a novel draft very quickly (two-time NaNoWriMo champion), and I can edit prose very quickly, editing a complex novel-length narrative seems to take ages. It's the bits of plot and character development and nuance that has to remain just right over 60,000-130,000 words that fouls me up. I can do it; it just takes too long.

Meanwhile, I have all these fiction ideas that want to be released into the wild. I have worlds to build (That's my favorite part.) I have characters and settings and fun to create. And I want to do it over and over again. I can do all that much more quickly through short fiction. The dozen short stories I've published, or come close to publishing, in the last five years have given me a much greater sense of satisfaction than the three novel drafts that no one has read because it takes so damn long to get them out the door. And then once I do, still no one reads them, because there are 3.3 million novels on Amazon.

If I could be more prolific, my novels would rise to the top. But it takes lots of novels. And as I've pointed out, I'm Slowly Slowpants McWriter. I know I can write a good novel, but it takes more than that to be successful as a novelist.. And I don't have what it takes. At least not right now, not at this place in my life.

I'm not going to turn my back on all fiction. I've laid the groundwork to gain fans and friends in the SFF world. I love the SFF community. I'm not going to turn my back on it.

That's what short fiction is for. Most writers have day jobs and write short stories in their spare time. That's more or less what I'm planning to do. I will continue to pursue publication in pro-rate markets. And without the novels to make me constantly feel like I'm working on the wrong thing, I'm hoping to be able to relax and have more fun with it.

For the majority of my time, for the de facto "day job," I'd like to write couple of nonfiction books. I'm pretty excited about the idea of "thought liberating clichès." What is the opposite of mind control? How can people, with intention, open their minds? What does a firm yet flexible foundation look like? It will be based on the cognitive structures I created for myself after leaving Mormonism, so it's the logical follow up to Recovering Agency, but it would appeal to a larger audience: ex-religionists in recovery, freethinkers and atheists, and anyone brought up in this society where people are usually "trained" and not "educated."

If you don't understand the difference between education and training, just put the word "sex" in front of each and see if that helps.
— Eλf Sternberg (@elfsternberg) February 5, 2015

Then, in all the spare time that I'm sure I will have, I plan to continue writing blog posts on topics I'm interested in. Here on lunalindsey.com I will continue to blog about autism and all the random things. And I can submit more guest posts about religion and culture on atheism and freethinker blogs, as well as at RecoveringAgency.com.

So far, nonfiction has been more rewarding than the novel. More people tend to read my nonfiction. I receive regular compliments for Recovering Agency and for my blog posts. Not just "great prose!" kind of compliments either. It's feedback like, "You managed to put words to what I was thinking!" and "You improved my life."

Basically, my nonfiction is helping people. I'm changing hearts and minds, I'm giving people new ways to look at the world. And I'm persuasive.

It's very fulfilling.

I'm still slow at writing and editing longer nonfiction. Recovering Agency took 15 months from start to finish. But in many ways it's easier. Everyday I know what I'm supposed to work on. Nonfiction outlines are straightforward. I'm never in doubt about whether this or that change will ruin any plots or be a trope or be cheesy. I don't have to remember all the actions of a whole cast of characters to know whether a scene change will destroy continuity. It's all laid out for me: this chapter is about shame. What do I know about shame? Just answer that question along with references to the research. Done. Next chapter.

Then there's the money. Recovering Agency isn't doing well enough to pay my bills. But it's doing quite well. It's doing well enough that I've made a business account from which I can now pay my work-related expenses, including travel. It's doing well enough that with a couple more like that, I could be financially independent. I am currently being supported by my wonderful life partners, but I don't want to be a burden forever. They still seem happy to pay my way in the world, but there's an emotional cost, for me, to be in this position.

I've also considered speaking. Again, if I'm focused on novels, there are gear-shifting issues.

Last year, I submitted a couple of papers to conventions and didn't get accepted. But this year, I'd like to spend more effort trying to speak at places like Sunstone Symposium and the Exmormon Conference. If I'm writing a book about the cognitive structures of free thought, I'll be much more capable of hopping to writing a proposal for a liberal Mormon academic conference. That task is almost unfathomable if I'm working on a novel about fairies in Seattle.

Moreover, it's difficult to justify all the time and effort speaking to exmormons when I'm supposed to be trying to be a novelist. But if I'm a nonfiction writer? The efforts all go hand in hand towards related goals.

Efficient.

But of course I still love to do sci-fi cons. I'd never give that up. But that's way more easy to justify. I already go to cons for fun. Now I'm just doing it as a panelist. Even more fun! Sure, I won't have any novels to sell, but who cares? I've still got short story readers to reach. Novels would be nice, but not required.

Lastly, I'm playing to the strengths of my brain. Anyone who knows me personally (or even who follows me on Twitter) knows that once I get started on a topic I'm interested in, I can't shut up. Some writers have word count goals. I don't bother with them, because I know nearly every day I can't help but write 500 or 1,000 words. It's just that.. sometimes those 1,000 words are in an email or on Facebook or in a journal entry.

This will allow me to ask myself, as I'm typing that 800 word Facebook reply on some topic I'm passionate about – I can pause and ask, "Wouldn't this be better on the blog?" In the past the answer was always, "Yes, but I'm not supposed to be blogging right now. I'm supposed to be working on the novel." I'm hoping in the future, the answer will be, "Yes. I will finish writing this comment and then spend another two hours turning this nice draft into a real piece with a beginning and end so I can stick it on my blog or submit it as a guest article someplace." If my focus is nonfiction, then it's all in a good day's work.

Overall, nonfiction books is where it's at. A career pivot. Not terrible major in most ways, but pretty huge in a couple of ways. If you're one of the three people excited to read Emerald City Iron, I am deeply, deeply ensaddened.

Input? Thoughts? Please leave them in the comments below!

2013 Accomplishments - 2014 Goals

What a year. In reviewing my goals from last year, looks like I got way off track, but I'm very pleased with what I accomplished.

This year, I:

• Was a panelist at Radcon.
• Went to Rainforest Writer's Retreat and met lots of amazing people.
• Sold a story to a pro-paying market, Crossed Genres. It will also come out in a print anthology this year.
• Gave one reading (at Radcon).
• Released Emerald City Dreamer in print.
• I got diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. And started becoming an expert on autism.
• And now for something completely different, I wrote a 150,000 word nonfiction book, Releasing Agency: Lifting the Veil of Mormon Mind Control. 

One reason I didn't accomplish all of my 2013 goals is because of that little sidetrack. It's a book I had thought about writing based on my mind control website in 2005, forgotten about, and then on a whim decided to crank it out "real quick". The effort took 7 months (with distractions in between). It is currently out to alpha readers.

Emerald City Iron made it through the writer's group, and is ready for the next round of edits, when I can get to it.

I have a bunch of stories to submit, and one in particular is totally publishable. It's been rejected twice, both with a personal note from the editor, so I know it will sell. I just have to get it, and the others, out there. I set the bar pretty high for myself. I currently only submit stories to pro-paying markets until those venues are exhausted, and then I might send it to semi-pro markets. My time and splines are fairly limited, so I'd rather spend time aiming at high targets, being a perfectionist, and working on totally unplanned projects. ;)

So my goals for this year:

• Publish Recovering Agency in print and ebook.
• Market Recovering Agency, including launching a new website and giving interviews.
• Be a panelist at Radcon again.
• Be invited as a visiting pro at another con for 2015. Norwescon would be nice.
• Speak at Defcon.
• Speak elsewhere, either a seminar, or Exmormon Foundation, or some convention related to cults or religion, on the topic of mind control.
• Write a whole bunch of blog posts on autism and mind control.
• Release Emerald City Iron.
• Complete a major step in a novel: Either write the first draft of the next Dreams by Streetlight book or the second draft of The Sun Never Rises.
• Sell two stories to pro-paying markets. I'd really love to sell to an anthology.

If that seems like alot, it's because it is. So we'll see. :) There's a significant chance I will be caught up in marketing Recovering Agency for many months. It's already generated plenty of interest. I need to be okay with dropping many of the above goals in trade for promoting a book that could really help people. And maybe pay some bills in the process.

So here's to 2014. May it be a very good year for all of us.

Hacker Tools to Combat eBook Pirates

Much is discussed about ebook piracy, particularly in the debate about whether it is good or bad for authors and publishers. There's Chuck Wendig, Neil Gaiman, Seth Godin, my friend Michael Montoure, and others, have all weighed in with controversial opinions.

Yet a practical question remains unanswered, and it's one I took for granted because of my technical background. When it came up at the Stop Thief! Radcon panel, I realized it needs answering, in detail, in a blog post.

The question has two parts: How do you know your work is being pirated and what do you do about it?

This assumes that you have decided you do not want your work pirated. I tend to agree more with the Godins and Gaimans of the world. Piracy is exposure, and exposure is good. Most unauthorized downloads are not lost sales anyway.

But some pirate sites charge money and directly profit from your work. No matter where I stand in this debate on any given day, direct profit on the sales of my book by someone not legally authorized really raises my ire.

And during the panel, Peter Jones, who has a legal background, raised a thought-provoking point. If you do not make some effort to defend your copyright, it becomes more difficult to defend in court against piracy for profit or plagiarism. Specifically noting next to the pirate file that the author has specifically granted distribution permissions to a particular site may help cover your ass. You still need to find and communicate to the pirates to accomplish this.

So I place upon my head the Admiral Hat of Irate Pirate Hate, and will teach you sailors how to man the canons and batten the hatches.

Crow's Nest

First you need to know if someone is pirating your work. You won't be able to find everyone, since some try to hide themselves. But like anyone on the internet, the goal is to be seen, and those will show up in the search engines. If someone else can find your book for free, so can you.

So first thing is to set up a couple of Google Alerts. You should do this anyway for marketing and promotion, so you can understand who's reviewing and buzzing about your book. Google Alerts will email you anytime a new webpage contains the search criteria. Set up alerts for your author name and each title of the books you wish to protect.

If you're concerned about plagiarism, you can alert on the titles of your stories and for specific blocks of text from your story of novel. This will find anyone who has lifted your text whole cloth and is claiming it as their own.

I won't repeat the instructions on how to set up alerts, because they've already been written. You can also do manual searches if you fear Google Alerts is being lazy and not catching anything. I don't think this really happens, but I've learned a healthy mistrust of machines in general.

Thar She Blows!

Google Alerts has done its job. You wake up Monday morning and a shocking email announces your book title has been spied on a site called "UberWarezx.ru". They are not a Smashwords affiliate, and are charging $5.99 for your book. Or their customers pay a monthly fee to use their site. Or the book costs points, and the points cost money. You're hopping mad!

Now that you've spotted your pirate, what should you do?

Protect Yourself from the Clap

First, make sure your anti-virus software is up to date before you click on any of these links or visit any pirate sites. They're not always the cleanest sites. Prepare yourself to kill your browser should anything funny start to happen, like popups, downloads, new tabs, fake alerts that you've just caught a virus, etc. If anything suspicious happens, kill your browser immediately and don't go back. Then start a virus scan. And cross your fingers and pray to the gods.

Fire at the Hull

You should realize how these guys probably work. Don't imagine some gal scanning a physical copy of your book to the internet. Nor should you imagine she's heard of you and hand-picks your book for theft. 

More likely, she has written a script that scours Smashwords or Amazon looking for new titles. The script buys a copy of your book, along with all the other books, and stores them on her hard drive. The pirate has another script that places the files on the website or forum. She have the script wait until you've offered your book for free via a KDP Select promotion.

Next, realize that there are often several sites involved in the storage and linking of your ebook. UberWarzx.ru does not store the file; the website only links to it. Thousands of pirated books (and movies and songs) take up a lot more space and bandwidth than your typical web host is willing to support. 

For this purpose, there are storage companies in the business of storing large files on the internet. They are neutral entities. They don't care what the files are. They only care about how much space they take and how often they're downloaded. So they charge money either to the host of the file or to the person downloading, or both. Usually a downloader can download for free, but must wait 10 seconds or watch an ad or some other annoying trick to get mass-downloaders to pay.

Note that these storage sites actually have lots of legitimate reasons for existing, so do not get angry at them. They can actually be your friends. A great real-world example of this type of site is Megaupload, which was shut down last year by the DOJ because it was a popular distribution point for pirates. Unfortunately  it was also very popular for people storing their own legally-appropriate personal files, and those people lost important, irreplaceable, legitimate files. Imagine if you're a Dropbox user, and the government takes down your files without notice, and won't give them back.

Here's why the storage site is your friend: They don't want to be in the piracy business. They want to be neutral like Switzerland. They want to wash their hands of the mess of knowing what's in all the bits and bytes they store. They are merely the pipes and the reservoir, unconcerned about the type of fluid flowing in and out. At least until you tell them it's your water. Now they know, and chances are they want to stay above the law.

The linking site is your real enemy. The problem is that most linking sites aren't touchable. They're the honey badgers of the internet. They don't give a shit. And neither do their internet providers or their governments. In this example, UberWarezx.ru is located in Russia. (Indicated by the .ru top-level domain(TLD)). Good luck getting a Russian site to take down your work, or getting the Russian police to do anything for you. They will laugh at your letter of legalese.

So the goal is to find the providers in this chain who care. The file storage site may care. So you'll need to do a little digging to find out who that is.

Ready? Click the link to "buy" your book. Or just hover over it and you can see the link in your browser's status bar on the bottom. In this example, you notice it links to another site: BigByteBin.com. A US file storage company. Now you have your leverage. If you can get BigByteBin.com to take your file down, UberWarezx.ru will link to nothing. They can host a fake link to your book all they want.

So go to BigByteBin's main website and investigate. Some have special DMCA forms or an abuse complaint process. At the least, there should be general contact info. BigByteBin probably wants to avoid lawsuits and the Department of Justice, so their Terms of Service (TOS) should have strong language against piracy. Simply follow BigByteBin's procedures for filing a complaint. And that's usually the end of it.

Fire at the Sails

When I had piracy problems, I was lucky enough that the above process actually worked. I complained to two entities. The other was the website host, which is the internet provider that keeps the website (UberWarzx.ru) on a server. 

In my case, even though the domain was located in a country that didn't care about international intellectual property (IP) law, one of the sites associated with the pirate was hosted in a country that did. So I also contacted that host. Between the two, the content got removed.

Here are the technical details of finding a pirate site's web host and their domain provider. All you need is for one of their service providers to care about enforcing their TOS.

First, try to gather as much information about the site as you can, just by poking around the site itself. Go to the "About" page, the "Contact Us" page, and read the fine print at the bottom. Notice where the links point -- do any take you to another domain? Maybe a related domain or company is in the US or Canada or the UK or other major country that cares about IP law. If the domain is a .com, .net, .org, or other generic TLD, these are usually registered in the US and you can contact their domain registrar. They may be in violation of the registrar's TOS.

First, visit whois.net. Enter the domain name. It will tell you who the domain registrar is. You can then visit the registrar site and poke around until you find out how to lodge a complaint. 

Another pro-tip: Most legitimate service providers will accept email at abuse@theirdomain.com. So if you discover the domain is hosted at GoDaddy, you can try sending an email to abuse@godaddy.com. 

Next, lets try to contact their hosting provider. That's who runs the server that hosts the website, and again, if it's in the US (or other country that cares), you're in luck. Here are the technical details:

1. Ping the server. If you use Windows Vista or 7, click the "Start/Windows" button, and in the "Search Programs" field, type "cmd" and hit enter.
2. A black window will appear with a prompt. Type "ping <domain name>". Most likely, it will dump out "Reply from:" and a number. That number is called an IP address (no relation to IP law), and looks something like 123.45.167.1. (If this step returns an error, you can use DNS Stuff. Just enter the domain name under "Whois Lookup".)
3. That IP address is one of the servers owned by the hosting provider. Now you can find the host using the tools at ARIN.net. At the top of that page is "Search Whois". Paste or type the IP address in there. It will return information about the hosting provider.
4. In that information, there is often a point of contact for "abuse". You may have to click a link or two to find it. If there's not a specific abuse email address, there will be some other email address. Send your complaint to that address, and CC: abuse@domain.com, where domain is the same as the other email address you're sending to.

Scurvy Forums (or putting the "rum" back into forum)

Sometimes a link to your pirated book file will appear on forums. Forums tend to be more US-based and a little more "above board". These are not people trying to profit from your book. They are communities of readers who often understand, on some level, that pirating is wrong. They have reasons. Often, their readers live in countries where Amazon won't sell, or they use devices incompatible with the Kindle format, or they paid $20 for a physical copy and want ebooks as well, or are extremely poor, or they have a grudge against the publishing industry, or they are "collectors" who just like amassing thousands of files they will never actually read and wouldn't have purchased anyway. They often respect authors, and sincerely do not wish to deprive the author of gain.

Usually these forums have a legitimate path for copyright complaints. Just follow their instructions and they will gladly remove your book. Or you can post a reply in the forum itself, under the link to your book, stating your wishes. Maybe you want to leave the link up but want to declare yourself the rightful owner of copyright, directing people to your website or to a donation page. Maybe you want to request reviews in exchange for the book. As long as you're polite, the members of these forums seem to return the favor. At least in my limited experience.

BitTorrent

Nothing can help you combat content on BitTorrent. The whole point is to distribute files in ways that no one can ever stop. And since BitTorrent searches don't appear in Google, you have to specifically go looking. I have not yet found my book being torrented. I'm simply not popular enough. If you end up on Pirate Bay, take home the consolation prize: your writing is wanted. 

Be careful of using Torrent search pages like The Pirate Bay. Notice I'm not linking directly to them. That's because their advertisers often slip malware into the ads and you could quickly end up with a virus. This is not mere paranoia -- I speak from experience. Oddly, the torrent files themselves tend to be malware-free. Anyway, sometimes pirates get what they pay for.

Messages in Bottles

I talk alot about sending messages to providers and posting on forums. The content of your message is as important as anything else I've said. 

Always be professional and gracious. If you want people to respect you as a professional, then act like one. You represent your brand and must protect your reputation, even while battling pirates. Relax, calm down, don't take piracy personally, and if you do, keep your feelings out of the discussion. I've seen authors on forums acting like twits. They forget that pirates are potential customers. And guess what? Those words will show up in search engines just like everything else you say online.

Whether you're posting on a pirate forum or contacting a hosting provider, everything is business. Be firm but not angry. This is not the place for political rants about piracy or the publishing business. Go straight to the point. State the facts, state what you want, and leave it at that.

And try to include as many facts as you have, including all this data you've so painstakingly researched: All the domains, IP Addresses, links to the page that includes your pirated work, etc.

I am not a lawyer, so if you feel you need legal advice about the words you use, please contact a real lawyer. My background is working in Information Technology where various kinds of internet abuse would come to my attention and require reporting. I'm just transferring that format into my new career, and there may be legal points I'm not aware of.

That said, here are some non-lawyer-approved writing samples.

To a domain registrar, hosting, storage, or other provider:

It has come to my attention that your customer, hosted at MadPropsBookPiracy.com, is hosting a copy of my copyrighted book, "Emerald City Dreamer", without my permission. This may be in violation of your Terms of Service, and may also be violating the DMCA and US copyright law. Please investigate this matter. At a minimum, I would like my copyrighted content removed. I have included the links to the offending pages, the offending files, and the customer information as it is stated on WHOIS. Thank you for your time.

If emailing the site owner or posting to the forum, I might give it a more personal spin but keep it professional. What you say depends greatly on whether you want the content removed, or if you want it left up but with some consideration and legal caveats.

My copyrighted book, "Emerald City Dreamer" appears on your site for free download. I worked very hard to write this novel. As I wish to be compensated for my hard work, I would greatly appreciate it if you remove the link and direct your site visitors to purchase my book on Amazon. I do not wish to take legal action, but will pursue it if needed.

Or:

This is a link to my book, "Emerald City Dreamer", which I worked very hard to write. Normally, I would ask you to remove this book, as I hold the copyright. However, I understand some people, for various reasons, are unable to purchase the Kindle version, and I would like to allow this site to keep the file up for now. If you download Emerald City Dreamer, please consider leaving me an honest review on Amazon or on your blog, and tell your friends about me. If you enjoy the read, you may also donate on my page at www.lunalindsey.com.

Donation Booty

People will always find ways to read your book without paying. If they're not pirating it, they're reading it on loan from friends or the library. Or they're buying books used, like I've done most of my life. While used bookstores have seen a lot of money from me, sadly my favorite authors never see royalties from it.

As the internet changes how we distribute and compensate for content, donations become a viable channel for giving money to your content providers. Consider including a donation button on your blog for anyone who feels like giving you money. You can ask those who pirate your book, or like your blog, or who borrowed or bought your book used, to send you a dollar or two, no questions asked.

Headed to Harbor

No matter where you stand on piracy, landlubber, you should now be better equipped. So splice the mainbrace and fair winds to ye!

2012 Accomplishments - 2013 Goals

It's time to sit back and look at my writerly accomplishments from 2012. I set no written goals in 2012; nevertheless I broke new ground in my career. Some were planned while most others were complete surprises.

• Released Emerald City Dreamer on kindle.
• My first paid story was published at Journal of Unlikely Entomology: Let the Bugs Work Themselves Out
• I wrote several blog posts that continue to be popular, including Defcon 20: Coming of Age and Gender Politics on Game Night.
• I performed three public readings, one at Wayward Coffeehouse with Michael Montoure (to a packed audience), one at Defcon, and one at a Redmond Roaring Writers event.
• I recorded a reading of Right After Feeding Time.
• I sold a story (Beyond Earth's Summer Soul) and an essay to Penumbra for their Rising Talent section (published in 2013).
• Wrote and mostly finished first-round edits to Emerald City Iron.
• Did major edits to Emerald City Hunter (before shelving it for later)
• Wrote and submitted a handful of short stories, including Where the Eye Lacks Message for the Defcon short story contest.

It's good to put it down in one place - at the time it didn't seem like I was accomplishing this much.

My goals for 2013:

• Release Emerald City Iron on kindle.
• Release Emerald City Dreamer in print.
• Complete the first draft of the next Dreams by Streetlight novel.
• Begin a completely new project - A novel or novella set in a new world - probably my kombucha-inspired story I've been dying to get to.
• Sell two more short stories.
• Stretch goal, to publish a short story in a pro-paying market.
• Perform 3-5 readings.
• Be a panelist at a con.

Notice there aren't any marketing and sales goals - I take those as "givens" as part of releasing a new novel. I'd rather focus on producing than be distracted by written marketing goals.

If 2013 is anything like last year, I fully expect more surprises. 

The Next Big Thing

Andrew Williams graciously invited me to be next in the Next Big Thing blog hop. He got it from Eric J. Guignard, who got it from Erik T. Johnson, who caught it from John F.D. Taff, who doesn't really remember where he got it from.

If all infections diseases were so fun and productive to spread, we'd have no need for modern medicine. I guess that's why they think of memes as a life form. The symptom of this disease is that I will be posting the answers to ten questions about my current work in progress. As a reader, you have no need to fear -- I will not be spreading this infection to you. If you never engage in the unsafe act of writing fiction, you are inoculated.

My writer friends, on the other hand, are completely exposed, and I have infected tagged four of them who will be acting out their symptoms next week on December 19th.

Hey, at least it's not a pyramid scheme...

...or IS it?

Now for the questions...

What is the working title of your next book?

Emerald City Iron. The theme grew nicely out of the working title, so it is now firmly the title.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

This novel is a sequel to my last novel, Emerald City Dreamer. I wanted a simple monster-hunting plot to parallel Sandy's inner growth, and so used the most horrifying monster I'd ever encountered in all of my fairy lore research - the Nuckelavee. Because I never can be too mean to Sandy.

What genre does your book fall under?

Urban Fantasy.

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Scarlett Johansson would make a pretty decent Sandy, as long as she's wearing reading glasses.

Only with auburn hair.

Phaesyle should be played by Elle Fanning.

Woops, did I accidentally trick you with enigmatic phrasing again?
I'm such a faerie!

Kirsten Dunst has the perfect face to play Gretel - round and youthful, almost childlike.

Only with round glasses and an accent.

Jamie Hyneman of Mythbusters might make a good Hollis, if he had long white hair and shaved everything below his nose instead. Philip Seymour Hoffman has the right versatility and subtly as an actor, but not quite the right face.

Hollis is likely to glare, like this. Also he is just as likely to make something nerdy and cool...

...but this guy can actually act.

Emily Haines, lead singer in Metric, would make a perfect Jina. I wouldn't want anyone else to play this part.

Everybody just want to fall in love.
Everybody just wanna play the lead.

Jett would be a difficult role to fill, given her other-worldliness. Aside from having elfin features, she is half-Japanese, half-Irish. Matsushima Nanako or Yuko Takeuchi might come close.

She's a thousand years old..

...but you'd never know it. Maybe it's Maybelline.*
(*Actually, it's glamour created by feasting on the will of dreamers.)

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

While hunting down a dangerous faerie sea monster, Sandy Windham gets help from a therapist and discovers why her inner demons won't stay dead.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I will self-publish Emerald City Iron to retain creative control of the series.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

This is a very short novel. My target was novella and it went long. I took my time, editing old scenes as I continued to write new ones. I began plotting and outlining in mid-September, and I finished the final scene in mid-November. So about two months. Now I'm doing final cleanup, which is going really quickly.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

To be honest, I don't read enough Urban Fantasy to make a comparison. I do try to be unique, crafting deeply psychological UF, and so far, I haven't run across anyone else doing that. If you have, please let me know in the comments and I'll check it out.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Folklore. And I drew very strongly from my own experiences with hunting faeries personal growth and trauma recovery. Metaphorically, Sandy's struggles in Emerald City Iron mirror my own during the past year. I learned as much from her as she learned from me.

What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?

Seattle. Faeries. Danger. New characters. Thematic metaphors. Harpoon cannons. Squirt guns. Beach battles. Surprises. Tir Nan Og. Angry elves. Abandoned buildings. Drinking. Hallucinations. Cellar Demons. Bodies. Mutilated cattle. Explosions. Boats. Seagull poop. Trespassing.

Tag, You're It

The following four authors are totally cool, and they're all working on the Next Big Thing. Be sure to visit they're blogs on December 19th to catch a glimpse of their projects.

John Nakamura Remy
Andrew Rosenberg
Elf Sternberg
Jennifer Brozek

Guest Post at JoUE

I've written a guest post over at the Journal of Unlikely Entomology, wherein I discuss the making of the story, Let the Bugs Work Themselves Out.

It begins...

When I wrote Let the Bugs Work Themselves Out, I was delirious with fever, caused by what doctors want me to believe was a common flu, but what I am convinced was a medical conspiracy to test a new strain of Black-Death-Hell-Anthrax-Ebola-Pox. It was more than a fever. My perception twisted into weird little skews and everything felt grotesque and creepy. You know that feeling you had while watching Eraserhead? That was an actual symptom of this "flu".

I knew it wasn't wise to work on my novel in this state. Instead...

Continue...

Shelving Emerald City Hunter, Starting Novellas

Indie writing is a great experiment. The old formulas are being remixed in new electronic test tubes. The new media and models of distribution via ebook are changing reader habits, which are changing the industry.

As a new writer, I have taken lots of risks. My horror novella, Make Willing the Prey became the prequel to my urban fantasy novel, Emerald City Dreamer. This is the sort of shenanigan that is simply not done in the publishing world, and there are good reasons for that. I was aware of the risks when I made that choice. Hey, I've got a long life. Might as well waste it in style.

According to tradition, the next step is to write a trilogy or series matching the pace and format of Emerald City Dreamer. And that was my plan, the plan I've spent the last few months (okay, year) following. I have a draft of Dreams by Streetlight Book 2, Emerald City Hunter, and have invested many, many hours in editing it.

Plans change.

Emerald City Hunter, as written, takes place eighteen months after Emerald City Dreamer. A lot has happened in that time, and the characters begin ECH after huge changes. Changes I haven't written about. Changes I gloss over and sum up. As with ECD, it follows four point-of-view characters with a complex interweaving plots.

Frankly, it tries to do too much.

Too many stories in my Dreams by Streetlight world demand to be told, and sometimes I try to tell them all in a single project. Emerald City Hunter can't tell all of them.

This is a difficult decision, because it is a huge risk. Writing and publishing is a slow occupation, and I will not see the results of my decisions for years to come. Yet here it is: I will pause Emerald City Hunter. Instead, I will write a few novellas that take place during that eighteen month gap. They will be single-POV with simple plots told across 10-15 scenes.

There will probably be three novellas.

The first will be an adventure plot, featuring Sandy, doing what she does best: Fighting the fae. She will have a single antagonist, and will work closely with her friends and allies to that end. She will also begin her healing process. My working title is, Emerald City Iron.

Jett may need a novella all to herself, since she has grand designs that need to be begun properly. And the third will be another monster hunting story, either from Jina or Sandy's POV.

Novellas are an order of magnitude simpler, which I hope will speed up the release cycle, and let me do tiny projects (like short stories) in between. It also gives me space to really focus on the characters that you've come to love, rather than speeding past them like I tend to do in the fast-paced novels. I can cover a few of the background story elements I tried to cram into Emerald City Hunter, to make room for everything else.

Most importantly, I think this may bring back some of the "fun" to my writing process. Sandy needs a couple of monster-hunting romps, don't you think?

New Cover for Make Willing the Prey

Make Willing the Prey had an old cover, and while it was good enough, I wanted something updated and in-line with my Dreams by Streetlight series.  In other words, it needed to match Emerald City Dreamer.  But since this is a prequel, and a bit more scary than Urban Fantasy is supposed to be, I also wanted it to say, "Horror".  Hopefully I've pulled that off here.

I used stock photos that I paid a few bucks for over at pixmac.com.  I used the Gimp for the background art, and Inkscape for the layout.  Inkscape worked out much better in almost every way than my last tool, Scribus. Overall, the project took around six hours, and an extremely low level of skill.

I will be uploading it tonight, so the book should be refreshed tomorrow.

Here is the old cover, since I can't throw anything away:

Emerald City Dreamer Launched!

Today am pleased to announce the release of my first full-length novel, Emerald City Dreamer, on Amazon Kindle.  I am twice as pleased that the timing, by chance, brought it up right after midnight on St. Patrick's Day.  I love synchronicities, and the past 24 hours has shown me several.  Every new epoch of my life is peppered with synchronicistic events, and the fact that St. Patrick's Day is America's celebration of the Emerald Isle is a nice twist. While my novel contains no leprechauns, there are korrigans, lutins, and one Irish-Japanese elf.

Emerald City Dreamer will show you the world of the fae from the perspective of both faerie hunters and faeries alike, revealing the conflict between iron vs. rain, science vs. art, facts vs. imagination, and the potential of dreams vs. unforgiving facts of cold-hard reality.

The main character, Jina, is a rock star, who exudes dream-energy, or toradh, that the faeries crave.  Little do they know she is also hell-bent on destroying them.

Emerald City Dreamer is Book One in a series, Dreams by Streetlight.  My novella, Make Willing the Prey, is a prequel, Book Zero, which covers Sandy and Jina's traumatic backstory.  It doesn't really matter which order you read them in, although the writing in ECD is better.  I wrote ECD intending it to be read first, so if you're not sure, start there.

(Note, Make Willing the Prey leans a little closer to the horror genre than urban fantasy -- i.e. it is scary.)

Emerald City Dreamer is available on KDP Select aka Amazon Lending Library, which means if you have Amazon Prime, you can read it for free.  I also have tentative plans for a print version in the near-future.  Also, if you're new to the ebook "thing", you can download Kindle software to just about any device - including smart phones and PCs.  My favorite Kindle platform is my Android phone.

It was over a year and a half when I first began my notes and outline on this project.  What a long journey.  This week I've worked every waking moment to get it out on time.  Last night I shed tears of joy and sat stunned in disbelief as I finally clicked the "Done" button on Kindle Desktop Publishing.

For all the people who helped and supported me, I wrote a long list of acknowledgements in the back pages of the novel.  I'd like to again thank my family, the Cloud City Wordslingers, my beta readers, and of course my readers.  No gratitude is ever enough, although I guess there's such a thing as "annoyingly too much".  :)

What will I do to celebrate this accomplishment?  I will force myself to stop working, just for today, and take a much-needed sanity break.  I plan to play RoboTek HD on my newly inherited iPad (I told you there were synchronicities) for the rest of the day.

Please enjoy reading my book.  If you like it, please tell your friends.  And feel free to review me on Amazon, Good Reads, your blog, and anywhere else.

Final Cover... (or IS it?)

This is what I went with.  I had a number of people offer feedback, and my friend Michael Montoure even did his own fantastic design, which I borrowed some ideas from.  I took all of your advice, except one good suggestion from two people, relating to the title, which would have been too time-consuming to implement with the tools I used.

Everything is uploaded to Amazon and pending publication.  Look forward to an announcement tomorrow.  It's a perfect synchronicity -- tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day, and my book is about faeries!  How's that for lucky charms?

Cover Draft - Judge This Cover

Here it is, at long last:

This is a low-res JPEG draft of my cover with layout.  I am not an expert at design, although I know a couple of the basics.  Please let me know what you think, and if there's something I could do better, please let me know!

This was designed with the Amazon site in mind.  I made sure the title and my name are both readable at super-tiny thumbnail sizes.  I also wanted it to look good at Amazon's medium thumbnail size, and work as a trade-paper cover in a large size.  (It may need slight tweaks for the trade paper version.  My focus was on the initial ebook release.)

Please leave feedback in the comments.  Thanks!

Emerald City Dreamer Cover Art

One of the best parts about going indie is having full control over the cover art.  My artist is Ana Cruz, (DeviantArt profile) and I was able to explain to her my vision, and work with her until the cover art for Emerald City Dreamer was perfect.  She was a joy to work with.  I am very proud of the final product:

I will be doing design myself, which includes cropping and adding the title.

Some people may wonder how this process works.  I will tell you.

I went to DeviantArt.com and searched on "fairy", not only to find an artist, but to get an idea of what kind of cover I wanted.  I had recently browsed the sci-fi/fantasy section at the bookstore to see what current trends were, so I didn't end up with something out of date.

By browsing here, I decided I wanted a photo manipulation style, and then I let my visualization processes stew for a while until I imagined my character in the pose I wanted, with props and background.  I made a terrible sketch in pencil just so I could remember the details, bookmarked the artists and images I liked, and waited a few months.  (I was still running the manuscript past my fellow Wordslingers, and publication was still far off.)

When I returned to the process, I ruled out the artists I had bookmarked for various reasons, so I had to start over again -- this time I searched for "photo manipulation".  I chose three artists based on these criteria:  1) I liked their art, 2) they seemed professional -- i.e. they presented their gallery in a professional manner, they listed the fact that they took commissions, they had their own website, and they had a portfolio of previously commissioned work.

Here are some examples of what I looked for.  Notice the sidebars are well laid out, contain links to offsite profiles including a professional website, and they state she offers artistic services.  Deviant Art hobbyists often do amazing work, but will not list their credentials or mention commissions.  They may or may not be able to do a great cover for you, and who knows if they can act professionally.

I contacted these artists with a professional, serious email, stating my intentions and asking for details such as timeline and price.  I settled on one artist, but her workload was full, so I started the process again, contacting three more artists, at which point I found Ana.

What impressed me most about Ana was her professional attitude in her email replies.  She stated that she always produces a "sketch" or outline of the art before spending too many hours on it, so that if there were foundational corrections, it saves time and money.  That showed me that she'd given this lots of thought.  If you are commissioning cover art, I would strongly recommend you request this of the artist.  Given that this is a digital image, my "sketch" was full color and consisted of the basic model standing in front of the basic background.  Details such as her hair, props, touch-ups, color-finishing, etc. had not yet been done.  The feedback I gave at this level greatly improved the direction of the image, so I was able to get exactly what I had envisioned.

As an indie writer, my toolbox needs to include the ability to describe an image to an artist in sufficient detail to get what I want.  I'd had some practice on a tattoo I got just a few months before starting this, and I quickly learned not to be fuzzy on any detail.  It forced me to really dive in and not gloss over anything I thought might be important.  Ana was a perfect fit, because she was able to listen.  She got it all, including the facial expression I wanted -- which I thought would be impossible to achieve.

The next time I do this, I will plan ahead a lot further.  It's difficult when you're in the middle of the second draft of a novel to think about the cover art, and to commit to getting started on that piece, especially when you're full of uncertainties and self-doubt.  But the process did take three or four months.  Fortunately, I was far enough behind on the revisions, line edits, and everything else, that it didn't matter.  Of course in the future, now that I've gone through the full process, I should be able to better plan the timing of everything.

They say you should also begin marketing efforts long before release date, and I don't even have a release date.  I've been reluctant to commit to anything until certain things are done -- and it feels weird to market without a cover.  For my second novel, I will be better prepared on all levels.  This novel has very much been a learning process.

The Role of Agents in the Post-Publishing World

This subject has come up a couple of times this week in various blogs.  Scott Nicholson calls agents Unnecessary Evils in Self-Publishing Agents: Unnecessary Evils, and Debbi Mack says she can do everything any e-stributor might do in The 15 Percent Solution.

In some ways, I agree with both.  Services provided by traditional agents are now something of a rip-off, especially if you're a well-rounded person with an eye for design and the ability to make contacts and do business.  Agents have an upper-hand, and this gives the profession a reputation of haughtiness.  They're not any kind of solution because they're part of the problem that we're fleeing, right?  So who needs 'em?

But I do see a role for something.  Let's face it -- not all writers are comfortable with certain aspects of the business-side of writing.  Moreover, even those of us who are comfortable with it, may eventually find some of those detailed tasks distracting... in other words, it may end up being more profitable to shell out 15% so we can focus on doing what we do better -- writing.

We may not call them agents -- though I think there's nothing wrong with using this term.  (As Debbi points out, an agent is “one who is authorized to act for or in place of another; a representative.”)  In this sense, agent is the perfect word.  He may not be trying to sell your book to an editor any longer, and instead may himself be editing your book, hiring a proof-reader, lining up a cover artist, and writing marketing blurbs for Amazon and Smashwords, but these are still representational activities.  To help eliminate confusion, let's call this new breed "indie agents".

Whatever it's called, there is a niche -- something writers will be willing to pay for, and people willing to do the work -- so it will be filled by someone. 

As a self-publishing indie author, I've made a list of activities I might personally find valuable enough to pay 10-20% of my earnings for.  This list is not all-inclusive.  There are many activities I haven't thought of, that other authors need help with, and those would be added to such a list of services.

• Career guidance - Keep a general eye on the markets and offer advice on things like trends in genres, which books to push and which to let go for a while, movements in pricing, trends in marketing, etc.
• Help with marketing, or at least marketing advice - For example, she could submit things to review blogs, or even just tell me which review blogs are worth the time. An agent may even have connections that could accelerate marketing efforts or lend me credibility.
• Editing and proofing. That's right. I've read that many agents are doing editing now instead of editors anyway. If they don't do it themselves, they could farm it out.
• Lining up cover artists, designers, formatters, copywriters for the blurbs, etc.  Negotiating the contracts.
• Handling the business and legal side. Someone to fill the role of "Talk to my agent".  Looking over any miscellaneous contracts to make sure they're legit.
• Eventually some of us indies are going to reach the level of Neil Gaiman, and have speaking engagements all over the world. You're going to need an agent for that. Likewise for film deals, etc.
• Support - Some agents fill the role of emotional support and encouragement. Given the drastic ups and downs of this job, this is helpful for some of us. Where are you going to find an on-demand therapist or life coach (besides in a spouse)? But some agents fill this role for authors.

In a way, you're getting two services for cheaper than the price of one: Editor and Agent.  Instead of costing you 80%+15%, it costs you 30% (Amazon's cut)+15%+misc direct fees for outside services.  Let's do a little thought experiment with some rough math, and see where it leads.

It's common knowledge that the more novels you have available, the more you sell.  (That's the topic of another blog post.)  If you spend all your time marketing your one book, and never write books two, three, and four, you're not spending your time efficiently.  The same would go for the other distracting activities I've listed above.

Let's say I currently have three books for sale on Amazon for $2.99 each.  I sell 100 copies a month, and spend 40% of my time on the "business" side: marketing, studying the markets, lining up services, formatting my own work, and so on.  Let's say I also spend more time editing my own work than I should, when after a while I just can't see past my own mistakes.  And I have a bad eye for art, so I pick a poor cover designer, and can't explain to them what I want.  I'm making about $200/month, and am making slow progress on my next novel.

Now let's say I get an indie agent and agree to pay 15% for them to do the distracting things.  For now, I pay them $30/month, but the more money I make the higher that number will go.  But that's a good thing, right?  Because if the indie agent is helping me make more, then it's a fair deal, right?

Now I still have to spend some time doing the business side.  I need to approve cover art, integrate the suggested edits and proofs, make decisions about any movie deals (ha!), and so on.  But now I have an adviser, who is keeping up on the industry, who is doing the most boring aspects, and giving good advice about what I should do.  Now I only spend 10% of my hours on the tedium, and have twelve extra hours per week to write.  Not only that, but the quality of that time is improved -- I don't know about you, but for me, the little distractions get my mind off my story and depleate my energy beyond just the house consumed.

That means my next novel comes out sooner.  Not only that, but my agent, who can focus on this kind of thing, is doing a great job writing blurbs, which is helping my existing three novels to sell faster.  And she got me a couple of interviews on blogs, and a few extra reviews, and now momentum is starting to pick up.  Not only that, but she knows a really great editor who fits my style of writing, who has suggested lots of great changes on my new novel, which makes me a better writer.

Now it's a year later, novel four is released, and I'm selling 500 copies a month.  That's $1000 -- $800 more than I made before.  The agent gets $150, but so what?  Even then, it's $650 more than I made, plus I'm that much father ahead for when book five comes out.

I'm not completely sure I'd make this wager.  But it is compelling.  And I happen to have a good eye for art and can make business deals when I need to.  I know how to do the marketing, and know where to look for trends in the industry, etc.  I can do it, I just don't want to.

But I do know for sure there are a lot of great writers who want nothing to do with the business side.  Ever.  They're not good at it, and they never will be.  They couldn't tell a good cover from a stain on the floor, and can't read the first line of a Terms of Service contract without bursting into tears. 

For that reason alone, I am confident that this role is going to exist, and plenty of writers will be willing to pay for it.

Going Indie

It's 1994.  I've finally gotten over my prudish attitude towards music, and I start listening to pop.  Move to 1996. I'm a little late to the party, but my ears can now tolerate rock.  And I'm falling in love with alternative.  The top 40 charts, ironically, are being taken over by indie music, or at least music that has been made to sound as indie as possible.  1997, MTV plays a video by Reel Big Fish called "Sell Out" that openly mocks the music industry, which can no longer survive without giving at least a slight nod to the cultural ideas of the counter-culture that hates it so much.

Then the MP3 revolution hit.  Big business responded with lawsuits.  Finally, when that strategy failed, they decided to actually sell digital music, and they are now making more money that ever before -- not via CD sales, which have dropped to almost nothing, but through digital music.

Indie music has never been healthier.  Artists now have power to negotiate better contracts because bands have alternatives to "selling out".  Music is less expensive to record, distribute, and market.  A really good artist with a firm niche can rise to the top without the help of a record executive.

Flash forward a little more, and watch the same process happen, but in reverse, to the publishing industry.  For a number of reasons, piracy is not as big of an issue when it comes to books.  For one thing, the industry offered legitimate ebook formats early on.  In fact they essentially drove the demand by being the first to invent them in the first place.  Kindle is no Napster; it was designed by big business for the specific purpose of selling books legitimately to as many people as possible.

Ebooks began as the legitimate child of the publishing industry, and with this legitimacy, ebooks are rapidly gaining market share over paper books.

Let me introduce the bastard stepchild of self-publishing.  Once, this form of publishing was known disparagingly as "Vanity Press".  Now it is finally getting adopted and gaining a legitimacy of its own.

One problem with self-publishing in the past is that it was very expensive.  An author had to front the project with a few thousand dollars for a print run of 500-1000 books.  That is no longer a problem.

The next problem was slush.  Vanity press books had a reputation of being crap.  They were for authors who had been rightfully rejected for publication because they were bad and the author was desparate and vain enough to front the money to publish them unedited.  Sure, plenty of good books were rejected, too, but self-published crap tarnished the reputation of the whole lot.  So typically they sat in cardboard boxes molding in the garage.

Publishers still provide a valued service, though some would argue they do so poorly.  A publisher says, "Hey! Ignore the slush pile.  This is the book worth reading."  Technology will hopefully solve this problem as well.  Collaborative filtering (aka customer ratings and reviews), blogs, and review sites help the cream rise to the top.

Over time I suspect we will be seeing additional mechanisms to improve indie quality.  Based on a recent survey I received, Amazon is looking into providing more author services, including low-cost proofing and editing.

A lot of us don't trust publisher opinion anyway.  Because these days, books are rejected on all kinds of grounds -- maybe the writing sucks, but more likely, business is poor for the publisher.  Or they're not taking on any new authors.  Or the genre is wrong.  Or the book is too extreme, or doesn't quite fit any genres.  I've heard so many stories of rejection letters that stated, "I liked the book, but... you're not already famous".  I also recently heard a story about an African-American author whose characters were white, but upon discovering her skin color, the publisher categorized her book under AA Fiction, where it didn't get as much visibility.

On the other side of this coin, I've read traditionally published and edited books (some of them bestsellers) that are poorly written, poorly plotted, poorly proofread, or all of the above.  Some of these have inspired me to keep writing -- if he or she can be published, then so can I!

I'm hoping I'm right, that we will see a rise of excellent, well-written, and extremely popular indie books -- that being indie itself will be a selling point to drive business, just the way it has been in the music and movie industries.

This post is part of a blog carnival. To find the other posts in this carnival, go here.