March 24, 2015 · 9:38 am

Layout Design for eBooks vs. Print

I finished the layout process for the print draft of my book Undead Rising (woo hoo!) and then….had to work on the digital draft. I intend to release a print and digital version simultaneously, but because of the nature of my book–where the page really matters–I couldn’t just use the KDP automated tool to prepare the document. (Related: Did you know that after you upload your print book to CreateSpace, it offers to do the KDP for you automatically? Boy I wish someone had mentioned that beforehand!)
If I were printing a traditional book (rather than the kind where you turn pages to find the next bit based on your choices), the differences between print and digital may not have been as pronounced, but there are still things to think about:
  • Font: You may want to choose a different font for your digital composition. While they’re getting better and better, not all fonts are available for digital. You also want to pick something that is easy on the eyes, because digital readers can provide more eye strain (look for something with serifs, like Times New Roman–compared to the straight-edged Arial). Similarly, you may have to abandon the fancy typefaces you used in print, to make sure readers can actually read your font in digital form. (Sad, I know. Maybe one day!)
  • Page Numbers: You don’t need them for a digital book! Particularly because ereaders come with the ability to resize typeface for the reader, setting a hard page number on every page will just mess up the formatting. Take ’em off!
  • Table of Contents: Now that you don’t have reliable page numbers to tell a reader where to go, you need to swap out your ToC of page numbers to one that links directly to the start of that chapter. You can do this with Microsoft Word’s Bookmark feature, which will let readers “jump” directly to that page. It’s pretty neat.
    This is particularly important for books like mine. I don’t need or want a Table of Contents (that would kinda ruin the point!), but I do need to have lots (and lots and lots!) of working links between sections. To move to the next section, readers will just click a hyperlink–just like on a website. (The future is now!)
  • Front matter: This is a bit subjective, but you may want to reorganize your book’s front matter; the dedication, copyright page, prologue, etc. I moved some of those pages to the back of the book, because on an ereader I have very few pages to get the reader into the story, so I want to make the most use of those pages. I also doubled-up content on the copyright page, adding a “Survival Tip” exclusively for Kindle readers, to help explain the best way to read my book on that device. It’s a whole new world of book design, so it’s ok to rearrange things if you want! (You DO still need to keep the title page and the copyright page toward the front, however. But it doesn’t have to match the print 1:1.)
  • Images: If you have images in your book, you’re going to want to take extra care with them to make sure they are properly embedded in the document and don’t end up “floating” in the wrong puddle of text!
  • Reach Out: Particularly with an ebook (but also in print) you should provide the satisfied reader at the end of your book with a link or means to contact you to read more of your work! If you already have other books out, here’s your chance to drop in a referral link so they can click over and instantly read more of your stuff!
How do you find digital book layout to be different from your print version? Did you change anything?

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March 19, 2015 · 9:39 am

Publishing Nightmares: When the ‘What Ifs’ Come To Get You

I couldn’t sleep last night. It was my book, Undead Rising: Decide Your Destiny. Out of nowhere, I was just struck with this sickening realization that my book is, at its core, stupid. I mean, I knew that, all along: it’s supposed to be stupid-fun to imagine you’re being chased by zombies in New York; it’s supposed to be stupid-fun that you’re choosing what will happen next in the story, because that’s a rarity and a hefty dose of nostalgia. It’s stupid because no one really expects to have to put their zombie plan into place. In fact, I wrote it, at least in part, because it was a stupid idea that made me laugh and I had a great time doing it.

But last night, for whatever reason, I was swallowed by a tidal wave of shame. And because it was late and I was tired and fears were coming out of the depths of my brain, it ballooned. OMG, I thought. I can’t publish that. It’s not serious literature. Everyone will know me as ‘that author who writes really stupid books. I’m doomed.

I’m blessed in that I have a very forgiving husband. Because he moaned in his sleep, so I decided he was awake, so I woke him up. I told him I was going to publish a stupid book and no one would ever take me seriously ever again.

He told me it would be fine and to go back to sleep already.

This isn’t the first time he has had to talk me down from some big scary publishing fear that came out of nowhere. I keep finding more, actually. There’s a lot to be intimidated and afraid of.

I wish I could tell you that my fears were stupid by the time I woke up, but I can’t. My book is still kinda stupid. Fun, absolutely. But it will never be studied in high school English classes (and we can all be thankful for that). It’s not “serious.” But it wasn’t meant to be. There are lots of “not-serious” authors out there who nonetheless had a huge impact on readers (for example, the recently deceased Terry Pratchett. May his books be read forever.).

So it may not be bad to be a “not serious” author.

It probably won’t be the last time self-publishing wakes me up with a nightmare. What are your self-publishing fears? Why are they unfounded?

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March 17, 2015 · 9:35 am

Editing Quick Hit: Inner Monologues

Oh shit! he thought. I have no idea how a monologue should be written! What will I do?

Ah, rest easy, writer’s inner muse. I’m here to help.

Insight into a character’s mind is one of the gifts of fiction. In real life, even when someone tells us what they are thinking, they aren’t often telling us what they are really thinking. But in fiction, we can climb right into someone’s head and learn from their very thoughts. It’s pretty powerful stuff.

But how do you convey that something is an inner monologue?

First, make sure you’re in the right kind of story. Sorry, nonfiction, you’re right out: even if we have someone’s journal, we don’t know exactly what they’re thinking (don’t worry, historical fiction; you can stay). Also excluded are stories written in “third person limited”–ie., are told by an outside narrator who doesn’t have access to the thoughts and motivations of the characters. (IMPORTANT: If you switch between characters’ perspectives, do so only at a clear break, such as a chapter, so that the reader can keep up. Don’t “head hop.” If you’re in third person limited, you’re limited!)

But say you’re in first person, or third person omniscient, and someone is thinking something. How do you write it?

  • Where is she going with this, he wondered?
  • “Where is she going with this?” he wondered.
  • Where is she going with this? he wondered.

Which of the above is clearest for the reader? The last one: the change of the font gives the reader a hint, from the beginning, that something is different about this sentence. They’ll know to read it in a different “sound” than other dialogue.

On a similar note, why does the placement of that question mark matter so much? Read it aloud. English sucks for questions, because we don’t alert readers that it is, in fact, a question until the very end of the sentence. When we ask a question, we raise the tone of our voices toward the end of the sentence (when we’ve figured out it’s a question after all!). If you move that question mark to after the “he wondered,” that lift will come on “wondered” rather than on “this?” where it belongs.

Now, if there is some reason you can’t use italics in your book (I pity you greatly), it is ok to write thoughts without italics–I think it’s just the most efficient method. If you leave off the italics, try to clue the reader in some other way. For example, don’t make it dialogue:

  • He wondered where she could possibly be going with this blog post.

Or keep it as dialogue but warn the reader up front:

  • He wondered: Where is she going with this blog post? Will it ever end?

Don’t ever use quotation marks! Those are reserved for–duh!–quotations, said aloud.

Your job as the writer is to make your story as clear for the reader as possible: after all, if they’re busy trying to figure out how to say the sentence you just wrote, they’re not getting immersed in your great story.

 

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March 12, 2015 · 9:12 am

Review: Caliban’s War

Caliban's War (Expanse, #2)Caliban’s War by James S.A. Corey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Vomit zombies, a missing child, a possibly sentient planet, a foul-mouthed grandmother politician, dirty-dealing intra-galaxy feuds, a kickass Polynesian warrior, a noble rogue spaceship captain, a brilliant scientist on the edge of despair—this book has everything you could want and more. It’s an engrossing space epic that lives up to the expectations of the first book and leads you desperate for the next one.
If you’re a fan of modern sci-fi shows like Firefly or Battlestar Galactica, and yearn for the depth offered by Asimov or the wicked-cool ideas about how real people would operate in space like in Ender’s Game, this is a book–a series!–you’ll need to pick up.

Following the first (also excellent) book Leviathan’s Wake, Caliban’s War opens with the personal drama of a kidnapped girl and the reappearance of a monster that can survive in the void of space and quickly spirals out to encompass a battle that stretches from Jupiter to Mars.

Our honorable but now-hardened Captain Holden stumbles into the kidnapping and can’t help himself from vowing to find her. Her father, Prax, a biologist from the solar system’s breadbasket planet on Ganymede, guides the crew of the Rocinante as they hurtle from planet to planet to unravel the mystery: who would kidnap a sick little girl…and many other children? And who unleashed the protomolecule monster that attacked hard-line Martian Marine Bobbie and her entire crew?

It turns out the bad apples from the previous book aren’t quite gone, but this time it’s beyond what Holden’s blurt-to-the-system go-to strategy can handle. Luckily he is saved by the fantastically written Avarasala, a shrewd and calculating–but ultimately good-hearted–politician from Earth (I sure wouldn’t want to get on her bad side!).

There are so many great, well-rounded characters in this book that it’s hard to make space for all of them in this review: just trust me. And still I get the thrill of adventure with the incredible, believable, descriptions of humans trying to accommodate life outside of Earth. Everything from the effects of different gravities on human development to what kind of plants would be most beneficial to grow on a space station, to the cultural issues that may stem from human colonies on vastly different planets–it’s a pleasure.

The only thing I can think to ding in this book is that it’s set in the far-ish future and yet frequently references 20th-century American cultural touchpoints (will Alien really still be relevant when we’re actually living in orbit around Jupiter?) but that’s done for the reader’s benefit, not for the realism. And it’s a heckuva lot of fun, I can’t deny.

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March 10, 2015 · 9:02 am

Editing Tip: Keep the Mystery Alive

This is titled as an editing tip, but it may be more of a writing tip. However, it doesn’t really matter whether you handle this at the beginning of your writing process or during an editing phase: it is essential that you keep some things from the reader.

“What?” you’re screaming right now. “But I’m supposed to show, not tell!”

Yeah, you are. But don’t show the reader everything. They don’t really want to know everything. Mystery is one of the reasons people read stories; trying to figure out the plot of the puzzle.

I’ve seen this from many beginning authors. They get so excited about the story, the world, they’ve built in their imaginations, they just share all of it. Because it’s just SO awesome, right?

But what ends up happening is the plot gets weighed down by unnecessary, irrelevant details, the reader gets bored, and the story overall doesn’t feel very good.

Take Harry Potter, for example, all the books. JK Rowling is known for having developed a deep complexity to her world, with pages and pages and pages of notes and plans for each character. But the first book does not, say, cover every year of Harry’s life from birth until he gets picked up at Hogwarts. Nor, when he arrives, does she take the time for a luxurious tour of the castle: all we the reader get is a bit about the exterior, the Great Hall with the floating candles, some moving staircases, and a rough sketch of the tower for the Gryffindors.

Basically, she only introduces the rooms that Harry directly interacts with–and then only includes the relevant ones (no bathroom breaks in Hogwarts). And yet Hogwarts is a lush and beautiful scene that doesn’t feel at all shortchanged by these exclusions.

So, why should you leave things out of your story?

  • To get to the good stuff. Unless you’re writing an architecture book, your readers probably don’t care about all those luscious details you’ve got planned out. They want to know what’s going to happen next, not the color of the chandeliers!
  • To avoid an info-dump. It’s much more exciting to figure out the shape of a story little by little than to suddenly be told everything. If I wanted to know everything in one go, I’d read the Cliff’s Notes.
  • To protect you when/if you change your mind. Oh, you want the windows to be curved? Sorry buddy, you wrote that they were rectangular four books ago. If your book becomes popular (as you hope it will!), you’ll have everyone poring over every detail, trying to make them fit together. Just ask GRR Martin how that goes.
  • To leave room for more stories. This is actually the BEST reason: if you leave folks wanting more, you’ll have the opportunity to write (and sell) more. But that can’t happen if you spill everything in the first go! Keep some details under your hat, and you’ll continue to find more to develop.

It’s a tricky balance for sure: how do you balance juicy descriptions with holding a bit back? I can’t tell you the how or the what, unfortunately–just the why. But trust me: when you figure it out, your book will be the better for it.

Have you read anything that just over-described and gave too much away? What did it tell you about good writing?

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March 5, 2015 · 9:05 am

All Laid Out: You May Need a Designer for Your Book

I’ve just spent an hour adding dropcaps to my book—I may be a little crazy.

Let me explain.

A goodly time ago, I decreed that I was giving up on the agent game and was going to self-publish. (Yep, I wrote that in September.) My first goal was just wildly unrealistic, and then I got paralyzed by life circumstances, fear, and options.

Nevertheless, I got back on track.

Step one was research where, exactly, to self-publish. From what I’ve read, it seems like a multi-pronged approach is the best tactic. Because I’m familiar with the system, I decided to start with Amazon’s CreateSpace, from whence it’s a natural transition to KDP for the epub, and then on to other epublishers (more research needs to be done).

Because my book uses the choose-your-own-adventure model, I felt it was good to have a print copy and a hyperlinked digital version, to catch the types of readers who prefer to flip through pages versus the newer ones who are brave enough to try the same thing on a digital device–no page flip required. But that format also means a lot of work.

I drafted a battleplan:

  • format for print
  • format for online
  • create cover
  • buy ISBN(s)
  • upload to CreateSpace
  • upload to KDP/ebook pub
  • update website
  • buy new business cards

You’ll notice that this battleplan is not ALL the steps to self-publishing, but it IS a lot more steps than I originally thought it would be.

But that first bullet there is why I ended up making dropcaps for an hour. It’s also why I’d encourage other people who are looking to self-publish to go hire a layout designer. Yes, it’s money, but it’s also hard, particularly if you’re not entirely sure what you’re doing.

Luckily, I do have some experience in that direction, but it was still both overwhelming and ridiculously tedious. Some things you have to consider:

  • What typeface will you use? What message does it send the reader?
  • What size will your typeface be? Can readers in your target age group actually read that size print?
    • Is it legible?
  • Where on the page will you start your chapter?
  • What are your margins?
  • Where will you put your page numbers? What will they look like?
  • Do you need dropcaps?
    • Do you know what a dropcap is?
  • How will you manage your widows and orphans?
  • Will you put a blank page between chapters?
  • Are there any weird formatting things you’re going to have to deal with?
  • If you find a small typo while working on one version of your book, how will you ensure that error is fixed everywhere it appears?
    • Suggestion: Keep a master file and make ALL changes there. Then use the master file to create the second and third and fourth, etc., versions. (I had a client who didn’t do this, and it was terrible.)

If you know all that kind of thing and don’t mind, then you may be perfectly fine DIY-ing it. CreateSpace offered a template to help match the book size you select, which was awesome. But if that list up there sounds overwhelming, or if you’d rather not waste a whole day doing that kind of thing, do yourself a big favor and pay an expert.

I particularly like the freelance author site Writer.ly.  (Note: I also sell my editing services there. Look me up sometime!)

Did you hire someone to design the layout of your book? Why or why not?

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March 3, 2015 · 9:33 am

Enter to Win a Pitch Critique

I just got an email about this–the NaNoWriMo Pitchapalooza. It’s a quick contest (partially luck) to get your book pitch reviewed by “The Book Doctors,” to have it improved online as an example of what makes a good pitch, and then to possibly get a personal introduction to an editor in the genre of your book. Past winners are now published, which is incredible!

It’s almost over, so enter soon! Just check it out here.

I’ve not used them personally, but they have really informative emails and seem to have a great track record. And really, why not enter? You could win!

 

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February 26, 2015 · 9:24 am

The Dating Game: Greek Gods Edition

This is the kind of silliness that happens when you’re obsessed with Greek mythology and bad puns. If the Greek pantheon were on a kitchy dating show, how would they be advertised?

Zeus: They say lightning never strikes twice…

Hades: His love will burn you up with desire.

Poseidon: Still waters run deep. His love is a tempest!

Hera: She’s the original MILF!

Hephaestus: He’s made to love you.

Artemis: She loves the hunt and the thrill of the chase.

Apollo: He’ll light up your life.

Aries: Love is a battlefield.

Athena: You’ll choose her… if you’re wise.

Demeter: The grass can’t get any greener (time to roll in the hay?)

Hermes: The fastest thing in the universe…is his love!

Gaia: She’ll mean the world to you!

Hercules: He’s been through 12 labors, but a woman ain’t one!

Aphrodite: Love like the original.

Mnemosyne: Better than you’ll ever remember!

Atlas: He’ll move heaven and earth for you!

 

And some bonus villains:

Cyclops: He only has eye for you!

Minotaur: You bring out the beast in him!

Centaur: Desire makes him a stallion in bed!

Hydra: When he’s thwarted, his love for you will return twofold!

Medusa: The snakes aren’t venomous, but she sure is!

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February 24, 2015 · 9:16 am

Kill Your Thought Verbs, With Chuck Palahnuik

I’ve just discovered this “how to be a better writer” essay from Chuck Palahnuik: Nuts and Bolts, “Thought” Verbs. It’s a good essay: go read it.

He says, as a writing exercise, that you ought to go out and immediately throttle all our “thought” verbs: Thinks, Knows, Understands, Realizes, Believes, Wants, Remembers, Imagines, Desires…etc etc.

He says you should replace these “telling” verbs with “showing” explanations.

Instead of characters knowing anything, you must now present the details that allow the reader to know them.  Instead of a character wanting something, you must now describe the thing so that the reader wants it.

That is definitely a way to add some detail to your book, right?

Further, he says to not let your character be alone.

One of the most-common mistakes that beginning writers make is leaving their characters alone.  Writing, you may be alone.  Reading, your audience may be alone.  But your character should spend very, very little time alone.  Because a solitary character starts thinking or worrying or wondering.

Wilson, the ball from True enough. There’s not always much action that comes directly from “aloneness.” We don’t have many stories of just one person in the wilderness, and if they are, you’ve gotta get them a “Wilson” to talk to.

That’s mostly for the author’s benefit: we need someone to bounce all our character’s thoughts off of.

I recently edited a really fun YA witch novel-in-progress, and that was one of the things I told the author: “OMG, your character is always sleeping! Get her out of the house and doing something! Sitting in her room pouting, while very “teenagery,” is not action!”

So while I think there’s a lot to like in this essay, and it’s certainly a useful tool and good advice, I also want to point out that it’s not the end-all-be-all. If all authors everywhere followed this advice completely, a) books would get a lot wordier, b) we’d have a lot more authors who sound like Chuck Palahnuik, with his trademark rambling craziness, and c) we’d miss out on those stories where someone is alone: like the original “Castaway,” “Robinson Crusoe” –one of my favorites. Or when someone just feels really alone, like “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” or “Catcher in the Rye.”

So don’t go around striking out all your “thought” verbs: they are useful, too. In moderation. A skillful author will be able to use them well, even if it is more than Mr. Palahnuik would like.

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February 19, 2015 · 9:36 am

The Right to Be Forgotten: Vanishing Online

Earlier this week I wrote about the problems of writing samples vanishing from the internet as sites are taken down. Today I wanted to think about the reverse: things staying “stuck” online, even when they’re out of date, wrong, or no longer a good representation of who you are.

This video sums it up really well:

What happens when you want something to go away, off the internet?

I still feel badly for early-00s object-of-mockery “Star Wars kid,” who filmed himself imagining he was a Jedi (because who doesn’t?!) and whose friends took the video and put it online without his permission, catapulting him to unwanted fame and relentless mockery. While most of the world was laughing at his antics, that was one of the first really incredible cases of cyberbullying. But there was no recourse, no way to pull the plug.

I mean, at least Rebecca Black only had herself (and her parents) to blame for that atrocity of the song. And she’s laughing all the way to the bank… she could have pulled the video early on if she’d wanted to. But she got fame, like she wanted (kinda).

There’s a special subset of women who are also up against the “permanence” of the Internet: they’ve had their faces and/or bodies stolen, via images pulled off their computers or manipulated, in what is now known as “revenge porn.” (In some particularly sickening cases, these women are intentionally harassed: links sent to family, friends, and their places of work. Their home addresses advertised online, accompanied by threats.) Though the FBI has started to make moves against the perpetrators, there’s still limited recourse, and existing laws don’t fully protect the individuals in question. It’s an uphill battle.

But what about totally legal things? Did you know that if you have a mugshot taken, it may be taken and put online–even if you aren’t ever charged with a crime? The mugshots are public record, so it’s technically entirely legal for this to happen. The unscrupulous photo-advertisers then ask for money to have the images taken down.

I think it’s really important that we think about our “digital footprints,” both how to preserve the parts we want (such as writing samples) and how to erase the parts that may not deserve to be shared into infinity. We don’t have a solution yet, but I hope we do, someday.

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