Category Archives: Publishing Stuff

Blog, League of Reluctant Adults, Publishing Stuff, writing

Release Day Shenanigans!

HOUNDED is now available! I'm a real author! Squee!

Well, I’ve only waited twenty years for this day. What shall I do first?

Coffee! Ahhhh.

Right. Next, how about a handy-dandy list of all the places I’ll be on the Internet(s)?

1. John Scalzi’s Whatever blog, where I’ll be featured on The Big Idea sometime today.
2. Many o’ my friends in The League of Reluctant Adults graciously let me guest blog in their spaces about various doodads, and the next six are they: first, I’m at  The Biting Edge talkin’ about the query letter that got me my spiffy agent. That’s the blog of Mario Acevedo and Jeanne Stein, both of whom write excellent vampire series.
3. Over at the blog of urban fantasy author J.F. Lewis, I share my looong path to publication to give toiling writers hope. If a day like this can happen for me, it can happen for you.
4. Some time ago, author Kelly Meding challenged me to insert something into a book of mine and I manfully made it happen. I return the challenge on her blog and she has NO HOPE of meeting it. Mwah-ha-ha-haaa!
5. I discuss my back-to-back-to-back release schedule at Stacia Kane’s blog because she went through a very similar schedule last year with her Downside Ghosts series.
6. I want to start a flagon revolution. Jaye Wells, author of the Sabina Kane novels, shares this passion, so I’m talking about it over at her blog.
7. Because I’m a nerd, I’ve been working on a card game based on the events of my books. It’s the kind of thing that makes nerds happy. I spill the beans and give a sneak peek at the game over at the website of Dr. Nicole Peeler. She’s also doing a giveaway for me, so check that out!
8. I think I’m supposed to be on the blog of The Guide to Literary Agents today. If not, oh well, it’s a cool blog anyway!
9. I have an interview up today at the spiffy book blog called The Qwillery. There’s a giveaway going on there too! I think. I’m having trouble keeping track of this stuff.
10. My run at Babel Clash continues with Chris Wooding. Have you seen this yet? We started on April 26.

In all likelihood I’ll be elsewhere as well. I think I’m supposed to have something on the RTBookReview blog, but, um…not sure. Some reviews might pop up too, and I’ll do a roundup of those in a couple o’ days. Aside from the web, I’ll be tweeting more than usual today. Part of what I’ll be tweeting is my manic drive around the valley going into bookstores and signing whatever they have in stock.

Something else I will most likely tweet is a 140-character SQUEE! HOUNDED is finally published! To my editors, Tricia and Mike, I give you an uncomfortably long virtual hug! Thank you so much for your expertise and your enthusiasm for the Iron Druid! And to my agent, Magic E, you are the disco to my fries.

To the book bloggers and reviewers who have been so kind to me with your reviews n’ interviews—Jessica, Kristin, Mihir, David, Gail, Sally, Kat, Joanne, and more—can I just say how grateful I am that you take the time to promote genre fiction? I didn’t realize how many bloggers were out there or how awesome they were until I kind of got into this gig. I hope I get to meet you someday. Literate people rock.

For the celebratory dinner, I’m headin’ to Rúla Búla, the best darn Irish pub an Irish lad could wish for, either real or fictional. I go there in real life, and Atticus goes there in fiction—often. You should too, if you can! Cheers, my dears; my flagon runneth over. I hope you enjoy the adventures of Atticus n’ Oberon. :)

Blog, Publishing Stuff

The Bonus Content

I generally look upon the traditional vs. self-published ebook debate as I would upon a pit of esurient alligators: once you get in the middle of it, you’re gonna get your ass chewed. I’ve been carefully avoiding the topic as a result, since I’m rather attached to my ass and would like to keep it a while longer.

Still, I thought I’d point out something that folks might start to see more of from the Big Six: bonus content. The Big Six aren’t going to be lowering their prices down to ninety-nine cents anytime soon. They might occasionally run limited-time specials on certain titles (like Orbit is doing right now with Nicole Peeler’s debut, Tempest Rising, sellin’ it for only $2.99), but they can’t afford to lowball everything and still pay the editors and spiffy cover artists and the utilities and such. So how do they compete? By giving ebook buyers a little extra bang for their buck. Del Rey is doing it with the ebook edition of Hounded, bundling two bonus short stories along with the novel for the same price.

One of those stories, “Clan Rathskeller,” is already up on my Goodies page for free. It’s gonna stay free for EVAR. The version being packaged with Hounded is only slightly tweaked in terms of some phrasing, because writers just can’t leave stuff alone until an editor says “ENOUGH!” but if you read the free version you’re not going to miss anything in terms of content. The other story, “Kaibab Unbound,” is a really neat little yarn that delves more deeply into Atticus’s relationship with elementals and his official duties as a Druid. Plus, there are naked witches! (Or, if you prefer, nekkid witches.) It takes place two weeks before the events of Hounded, so you get to see what Atticus’s life is like before his world goes kablooey.

I have no idea if the bonus content is going to make a difference in my sales or not. But I imagine that providing extra value in the ebook format is one strategy (among others) that traditional publishers will employ to compete against people offering their books for less than a buck. I doubt anyone knows yet whether it will be an effective strategy; all I’m saying here is you can expect to see more of this until publishers figure out if it does work. If it doesn’t, then bonus content will be rare; if it does, it’ll become de rigueur.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the appeal of bonus content—would it make you more likely to buy an ebook, or would it make no difference?

Publishing Stuff

Stuff They Never Told Me About Publishing #5

This continues a series I’ve been writing for authors who are breaking into the biz or will be doing so soon. If you missed any of the previous posts, you can search my blog (in the sidebar to the right) for Stuff They Never Told Me About Publishing and you should generate the whole list. OK, onward!

It wasn’t until after Hounded was accepted, about three months after the deal, that it occurred to me that someday, somebody was going to review my book. A fleeting smile crossed my face and then I thought of it no more, because I had two more books to write.

After I wrote Hexed and Hammered and settled in for the long wait before publication, I got around to thinking about it again. “Somebody’s going to review my book! Hee! What a trip!” But I had no idea who, how those sorts of things got done, etc. So here’s what I have learned up to this point—I’m sure I’ll be learning plenty more in the next couple of months, but this is a good place to start:

First, the publisher will print a buttload of ARC’s or ARE’s. They will then give ’em away in various places, and this is where your marketing budget goes instead of into things like signing tours. You get much more mileage out of giving away a few free copies in advance of your release than you do from sitting down in a bookstore where no one’s heard of you. They give them away on Goodreads, Facebook, Library Thing, and Amazon’s Vine program, then they also send them out to a SUPA SEKRIT list of reviewers, and often provide some copies to bloggers who’d like to run a giveaway on their blog. They also take boxes full o’ your books and give ’em away at conventions. RIGHT NOW, they’re giving away a couple hundred copies of Hounded at C2E2 in Chicago. They’ll doubtless be giving some away at San Diego Comic Con too (because I’ll be there, and I’ll sign ’em if you’re going!) and maybe another convention or three. All of these giveaways will translate into online reviews. Hardly anyone gets printed reviews anymore…but apparently, those few printed reviews carry a lot of weight!

I have one (1) printed review so far. It’s a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly, and it’s only a paragraph long. I’ve read some long, thoughtful, and extremely kind reviews online—the Vine folks on Amazon have been very nice—but lovely as they were, they didn’t cause my editor and agent to email me with congratulations. The starred review from Publisher’s Weekly did.

It kind of rocked my world a bit. Why was this anonymously written paragraph such a big deal? I found out the very next day. I got an email from a producer in Hollywood, inquiring about whether the film rights were still available. (Why, yes, they are!) Said producer hadn’t read the book, mind you; he/she had only read that wee paragraph in Publisher’s Weekly. Now THAT got my attention. Publisher’s Weekly isn’t read much by the general populace, but it’s read religiously by people in the industry, and a good review there can generate some buzz. (I wish there was a better term than that. How did we ever start equating humans talking about entertainment with the flapping of insect wings?)

So I am very grateful for that starred review, and not only because being contacted by a producer is insanely fun. It’s the review that gets used on Amazon (and Barnes & Noble too). If you get a meh review from Publisher’s Weekly, it’s still going up on those sites and will stay there FOR EVAR; PW is thus the alpha dog of reviewers, because its review is printed first and will stick with you wherever you go.

But I’d also like to stress that I really appreciate those thoughtful reviews that customers (and serious bloggers) write—especially in these early days. I finished Hounded in June of ’09. Aside from maybe (?) six people including my editors, no one has given me any feedback on it until now, so it’s fun for me to see what sorts of things people are enjoying in the books. They tend to be amused by things that I never expected, like my dedication and parts of the pronunciation guide. Some of them focus on the action and the pace of the plot, others are swooning a bit over Atticus, still others are entertained by Oberon’s antics. That’s the miracle of writing: once it’s out there, readers get to have their own experience, and each one is as unique as every reader.

A couple of bloggers are currently running giveaways for Hounded in conjunction with a guest blog I wrote (and there will be more of those coming in the future), so I’d like to point you to them so you can enjoy. On Tynga’s site I wrote a St. Patrick’s Day blog about the Druids and how very, very little we know about them, and I talk about alpha readers on Suzanne McLeod’s blog, where she’s giving away Jim Butcher’s new one as well as Hounded.

Cheers, and many happy reviews!

Publishing Stuff, writing

To Thine Own Brand Be True

Dr. Nicole Peeler (also known as Nicole Peeler) asked me to whip up a blog post for her students about my experiences with author branding since I’m a newb to publishing, so OF COURSE I said yes. The fact that she threatened to shiv me in my sleep if I refused had no bearing on my decision to do it RIGHT AWAY; I want to make it clear that I’m doing this because I genuinely want to help aspiring authors. In fact, I have a wee series going called “Stuff They Never Told Me About Publishing,” and in the first post I talked a little bit about the author platform thing. Curiously, I now feel the need to expand upon that at length…

The truth is I don’t know what the hell I’m doing and I am deeply jealous that you get to take a class with Dr. Peeler. (She will give me chocolate for that later.) I’ve been told I need an author platform, and I’ve been reliably informed that I need an author brand, but neither of those terms has been defined for me and in my befuddled mind they’re sort of interchangeable. I seriously need to take Dr. Peeler’s class. So here’s what I was told to do by Del Rey: “Blog and tweet.” Okay, sure. What about? “Just be yourself. Look at what other authors do. Take advantage of social media.” And that was the sum of my instruction (or at least it’s all I can remember now—this conversation took place in October of ’09). I thought said instruction was a bit dangerous and bordering on irresponsible, because if I knew anything about how to be social I wouldn’t be a nerd. Still, I gave it my best shot, because if you get an opportunity to be published by the people in very tall New York buildings you don’t do things half-assed. So I started a blog, got myself a Twitter account, joined Goodreads, and created a Facebook author page. Then I sat down with a piece of paper and one of those really nice gel pens and tried to figure out what it meant to be myself. Those two minutes were the most introspective moments of my life. Here is what I discovered:
1. I like beer.
2. I am socially awkward.
3. If you don’t believe number 2, I’m 40 years old and I still collect comic books.
4. I like to make art and design jokes—usually absurd visual ones.
5. Once in a while I can’t stop myself from geeking out or being silly.

It’s not a very impressive list, is it? “Bugger me,” I thought, “if that’s all I’ve got, I’m bloody doomed.” But I didn’t have any choice. I had to go forward. So out of that list emerged some of my regular features. My “Still Life” series was inspired by all of those, and then I decided I’d kinda document what happened to me along the way and share my experiences with other aspiring writers (I won’t technically be published until April 19, so yeah, I still count myself as aspiring, and it’s taken me twenty years of trying to get on the shelves—I’m by no means an overnight success and I EMPATHIZE with the struggle to learn the craft).

I’ve been blogging and tweeting now for about a year and a half, not really sure if I’m doing it right, and then last month, BLAM, my editor surprised me by writing a really complimentary post about my social media efforts on Suvudu. I was flabbergasted. Like, WHOA. Did I go and build myself an author platform or brand or whatever? And did I do it using these things called channels? I guess I did. I don’t feel like I have a legion of followers or anything, but maybe they’ll start to show up and say howdy once the books come out. Here’s the funny thing: my most popular post by FAR is this one I did in the wee hours of the morning when I couldn’t sleep; I was only half-conscious and loopy as hell. I get hits on that post all the time, though, and it’s nothing but pure silliness.

I confess that I made another list back in October ’09 when I sat down with that paper and extremely nice gel pen, but I never wrote it down, because that list was about things I would never write down. What you won’t see on my blog or my other channels (Look! I’m using the correct terminology now!) are comments about political or religious issues. You will have to decide for yourself what’s right for you and your brand—I’m certainly not an authority on what you should or shouldn’t do—but I will share my reasoning behind that decision.
1. I’m a public school teacher, so in many ways the decision makes itself. As an employee of the state, I’m not supposed to talk about such things. Make a First Amendment argument if you wish, but in practice, public school teachers don’t get to say what they want.
2. Apart from number 1, as writer of fiction—specifically urban fantasy—I’m supposed to be providing people with an escape from whatever’s stressing them out. My observations of human behavior indicate that many people get stressed out when confronted with ideas that don’t match their own. So why would I risk stressing them out (or pissing them off) when I’m supposed to be entertaining them?
3. These days, it seems like you’ll offend half the country no matter what you say. I’m sure some readers will like you MORE if they know your views agree with theirs, but some readers WON’T BUY YOUR BOOK if they know your views contradict theirs. In terms of raw practicality, the readers who like you more are not going to shower you with the remainder of their disposable income, but the readers who actively decide not to buy your book based on a comment you made are depressing your bank account. If I am ever going to earn the money I need to pay tuition for Dr. Peeler’s class, I can’t afford to offend people by spouting off on this issue or that.

So what can you take away from this? Well, um, you’re kinda on your own in terms of marketing yourself. Did you SEE all that stuff my publicist is doing to create my author platform/brand thingie on multiple channel doodads? Nope, you didn’t, because it ISN’T THERE. My publicist sends out review copies to people who request them and he was nice enough to arrange my launch party for me. He might be doing other things on my behalf—I’m still over a month away from publication, so maybe he’s planning a party around the base of a volcano that erupts champagne—but if so he hasn’t told me yet. I’m extremely grateful for everything the publisher does for me—good reviews are invaluable, and the fact that they let me post on Suvudu is HUGE!—but the simple truth you need to know right now is that no one will ever build your platform or your brand except you.

If you need to know other simple truths later, feel free to contact me. No, wait, that’s not worded strongly enough. The fact is, friends, I desperately want you to ask me questions, because if you don’t then Dr. Peeler will confiscate my spleen. Email me at kevin@kevinhearne.com or simply comment below. I hope (for my sake as well as yours) that this was somewhat helpful; I wish you all the best and look forward to picking up your book in the store someday.

Publishing Stuff

Stuff They Never Told Me About Publishing #4

This is continuing a series of posts I’ve been writing for newbie authors in hopes that my experiences leading up to my debut might help some other writers who are just now dipping their toesies into publishing’s choppy waters.  Shawntelle Madison, I’m looking at you—here’s a heads up!

Start your list of guest blog ideas now. Someday, you will need it.

I’m about two months out from Hounded hittin’ the shelves, and publicity is starting to ramp up for my release. I’m not sure yet if this is a gentle slope or a steep incline since I have no basis for comparison, but in the past couple of weeks I’ve said “HECK YES!” to three guest blog requests and five interview requests. (And keep in mind that I have no idea how they found me. It’s a mystery; they’re simply contacting me and I’m extremely happy about it.) I’m sure that this is nothing compared to the kind of interest established authors get prior to their releases, but for me it’s eight more requests than I’ve ever had in my life. Already I can tell I’m going to like doing the interviews a bit more, and here’s why: I ain’t comfy with a guest blog. I didn’t realize that until I sat down tonight to try to write them, and maybe it’s just me and Dr. Nicole Peeler (she admitted to me that she doesn’t dig ’em either), but my completely undocumented, unsupported opinion is that it’s a common malaise among authors.

Here’s my attempt to be introspective about it: I’m comfy here. This is mah space, mah house, and when I go to somebody else’s place as a guest, I wonder (metaphorically speaking) if my fly is open or if there’s a stain on my shirt. Here I can write whatever I want (DANGLING BADGER BALLS! <–See?), but when I’m on someone else’s site I almost feel like I’m supposed to write an essay in MLA format and provide a Works Cited page. And there’s also this weird subtext, where I know I’m trying to pimp myself and the readers know I’m trying to pimp myself, but we’re all pretending that I’m just writing some interesting goodies on a stranger’s blog because I’m cool like that. Except I’m not cool or an expert or anything; I’m making this up as I go. And topics! Gah! I have a hard enough time coming up with topics for my own blog, much less fresh material for someone else. And you have to come up with something fresh, see, because all these guest blogs will start popping up around the same time, and if people discover you’re recycling stuff they’re going to feel you cheated somehow. Add to that the stress of not really knowing the audience you’re addressing—who are those people in Canada?—and it’s enough to give me a case of the shivering fantods. (Did you know that today is Gratuitous Mark Twain Allusion Day?)

Interviews, on the other hand, are a blast. I’m at ease because the blogger is asking me stuff they think their followers would like to know. It’s more like a conversation than an essay, and I don’t get the feeling I’m supposed to be the expert, nor do I feel like a salesman.

But I completely understand why bloggers would prefer a guest post. It’s hard to come up with entertaining material, period. And thinking up interview questions that haven’t been asked a gazillion times before? That’s hard too. I empathize, sympathize, and Simonize. Blogging well is much harder than it looks.

Not sure how many more requests I’m going to get (it’s a mystery), but I’ll do my best to accommodate everyone who manages to hear about me. You only debut once, right? And it’s all fun & adventurey—even the fact that I don’t know what I’m going to write about next is an adventure. :) When all of these guest posts and interviews finally show up out there, I’ll let you know.

Before I go, here’s a next-to-last call for pre-orders on Hounded: I’ll send you a signed, personalized bookplate if you send me an email with your address by February 15 saying you pre-ordered somewhere. This is good for overseas folks, too! Here’s a page with a handy list of retailers to order from.

Also before I go, The League of Reluctant Adults has finally gotten its poo together. (Heh! I say that like I’ve been with them for ages, but it’s only been a few months, and I’m still their only unpublished member.) What that means is that EVERY HONKIN’ DAY you’ll get something saucy served up by one of the Reluctant Adults. We’re on a schedule and everything. I’ll be posting on the 7th of every month, and like dogs, every Reluctant Adult will have his/her day. So if you haven’t bookmarked the site yet (or read anything by those authors), I gently suggest you should. :) Be warned: We are cheeky bitches.

Lastly, I’m officially predicting that the next big thing in fantasy is going to be CARNIEPUNK. But no pressure, Hillary Jacques. :) Peace unto you all~

Publishing Stuff

To Pre- or Not To Pre-Order

Yesterday I DISCOVERED SEKRIT PUBLISHING STUFF, which is generally what happens when people explain things to me. They have to do that a lot because I’m still such a newb at the publishing biz. I was going to make this a “Stuff They Never Told Me About Publishing” post, except that in this case the publishers actually told me something on a red phone in the white room with black curtains: Pre-orders are kind of a big deal.So big, in fact, that they lead one to fundamental questions in the Bardic vein—behold:

To pre- or not to pre-order, I question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the store to purchase
A mass market paperback, or to click mice
And wait for the mailman to deliver
A fine urban fantasy: to click, to wait
Three months: and by a wait to say we will
Molest the postman, and snatch the paperback
From out his huge sack? ‘Tis a pillaging
Devoutly to be wished. To wait, to read—
To read, perchance to snack; Aye, there’s the chips.
But in that precious book, what name is there,
What author hath scrawled his name if it
Be not Kevin’s? There’s the catch to
Waiting to purchase it in the store.
For who would bear the sneers and japes of teens,
The retailer’s sale, the cheesy rewards card,
The pangs of traffic jams, the checkout line,
The insolence of book snobs, and the chance
That they might not even have it in stock,
When he might get a balls-rad bookplate
For pre-ordering?*

Yes, that’s how big a deal pre-ordering is. It makes you write in blank verse…badly. And the Supa Sekrit I learned is that a large number of pre-orders does all sorts of sparkly things for an author and helps ensure the success of a book. I’m still a bit unsure on the mechanics of why this is so, but here’s what my non-business brain has been able to absorb: A book with big pre-order numbers indicates to dudes who buy stuff for bookstores that a certain title has “buzz” or “cachet” or “more legs than a bucket o’ chicken.” They all want a slice o’ the financial pie that leggy title represents, so they will order more copies of that title than a book without any legs. More copies of a book on the shelves means that Random Literate People are more likely to spot it as they browse, and if they spot it, they’re one hundred percent more likely to buy it than if they never see it because there’s only one lonely copy there cloaked in shadow near the floor. Makes sense, kind of.

The problems this system represents for a debut author are manifold. First, I have to pimp myself shamelessly, but I’m only capable of doing it shamefully, so that’s a huge therapy bill right there. Second, people who like to browse bookstores and get a little high on all the ink and glue are not going to want to pre-order. (And who can blame them?) Third, it’s tough to convince people who aren’t familiar with my work to commit to buying a copy.

Nevertheless, I’m going to click that mouse, sniff that glue, and pay that therapy bill. Are you ready? Here’s my shameful self-pimpage: If you pre-order HOUNDED by February 15 and let me know about it, I’ll send you a HOUNDED bookplate that’s not only signed but personalized as you wish. No proof needed—I’ll take your golden word. But what I will need is an email sent to kevin@kevinhearne.com that says you pre-ordered, your snail mail address, and what you’d like me to write on your bookplate(s). <—Whoa. Did you catch that optional plural? Yes, it’s true! Pre-order more books as gifts (because what says “I love you!” better than a book about an ancient Druid living in Arizona?), and I’ll send you a signed, personalized bookplate for every one! Plus I will drink a beer, which I would have done anyway, but this time I’ll do it in your honor. Here’s what the bookplates look like—sticky on one side and not on the other:

They will fit on the inside front cover, title page, wherever, and you’ll get them before the book arrives at your house! So, to sum up: Pre-order HOUNDED wherever you like before February 15 and then send me an email with your address and what you’d like me to write on your bookplate(s). I will personalize ’em for you, send ’em before the book gets there in April, and drink a beer in thy sainted name. Thank you, sincerely.

*May the literary gods have mercy on my soul for doing this to Shakespeare: Amen.

Publishing Stuff, writing

Contest-o-Rama

Art thou an aspiring writer? Then my first advice to you is not to use the “art thou” sentence construction. My second piece of advice is to enter the Suvudu Writing Contest, because it’s honestly the only kind o’ writing contest worth entering. The downside is that it’s only open to US writers, but it’s entirely made of win otherwise. The grand prize gets a professional edit from Betsy Mitchell, editor in chief of Del Rey, with the distinct possibility that they might make an offer for it. Since Del Rey/Spectra doesn’t usually accept unagented submissions, this is your one, fleeting chance to catch their eye with an unsolicited submission! And even if they don’t offer for your book, an edit from Betsy will help you whip your submission into the kind of shape publishers will offer on. You have until March 18 to enter, so start polishing that manuscript you have in your drawer!

Next up: I’d really like you to win a free copy of my debut, and my spiffy marketing dude, Joe, has set up a contest on Goodreads to give away 25 copies in February! Thing about that is, you have to be a member of Goodreads to win. He’s also going to give away copies on Facebook through the Del Rey Spectra page—but of course you need a Facebook account for that. I’ve decided to run a contest here so you can get yourself eligible for those contests there. I’m giving away an ARC of Cherie Priest’s Bloodshot and Jon Courtenay Grimwood’s The Fallen Blade. These are both slightly used—I’ve read ’em, loved ’em,  and I think you will too. So we have two separate prizes here.

You get entered once for “Liking” me on Facebook (there’s a convenient place to do so on my home page). You get entered again for either friending me on Goodreads or becoming a fan on Goodreads. Once you’ve done either or both, please comment below and let me know what you did so that I don’t count random “likes” as contest entries. And yeah, if you’ve already “liked” me before this, that will count, just let me know! Open to US only, sorry, and this will run through Sunday.

Two other announcements that have nothing to do with contests:

1.) The Iron Druid Chronicles will be published in the Czech Republic! Very grateful and excited, since part of book three is set there!

2.) I’m going to be at the San Diego Comic Con in July! Nerds of the world, unite! I’ll be doing a signing there at some point, and we’ll see what else comes up. Obviously I’ll have more details closer to the date, but all three books will be out then, so if you are down that way and you wind up liking Atticus, I’d love to see you there! I’m going to see about arranging something at a bookstore offsite too, so that you don’t have to attend the convention to see me. If I’m SOOPER DOOPER lucky, I’ll be able to arrange a joint signing with another author and we can power the store with nothing but the reflected glow of our combined celebrity! ;) <—Irony.

Best o’ luck! Bloodshot is really good, by the way…5 stars from me on Goodreads! :)

Publishing Stuff

Fly, little book, be free of karmic debt!

Last week I learned that an unscrupulous sort was selling an Advanced Reader Edition of my debut, HOUNDED, on eBay—and furthermore, I suspected that this particular copy was not actually read or enjoyed by anyone. For this, I wept. Holding firmly to the belief that all books should be loved (but especially my books, ahem!), I actually bought the book from said unscrupulous person—it’s on its way to me now—solely so I could give it away to someone who’d like to read it. Might that someone be you?

Leave a comment below about whatever you’d like (peanut butter! hummingbirds! steampunk couture!) and you’re entered to win it. By entering, I hope you sincerely wish to read it and won’t sell it again online! I will sign the book thusly:

Yea, though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of eBay, I will fear no bookshelf. I was personally rescued from a book pirate by my author, and now I am given unto you, __(your name here)__, to enjoy in advance of millions of people (mwah-ha-ha-ha!), to build a shrine around, bequeath unto your heirs, and so on! Put on some jammies and read me, damn it!

Or I’ll sign it however you’d like. I’m just being silly. :) Seriously, though, it will do my heart good to know that the book is free of its mercenary past and in the hands of someone who likes stories. If you’d like to read this SUPER! SPECIAL! SLIGHTLY ABUSED BUT STILL SIGNED! Advance Edition, say howdy to me in the comments by the end o’ Saturday, January 15. I’ll put the names in the good ol’ randomizer Sunday morning-ish, and announce the winner sometime that day.

The winners o’ my previous contest are Qwill for Zero History and Sarah M for Who Fears Death. Congratulations to you both! Send me an email (kevin@kevinhearne.com) with your address and I’ll pop ’em in the snail mail. Thanks also to everyone who entered that contest—hope you’ll enter this one too!

Whoa…news flash! While I was writing this, My Magic Agent™ sent me an email! I’ve just accepted an offer from Turkey for the series! How cool is that! Thank you, Turkey!

In other news, my miniature painting hobby has veered from dwarfs to these giant things that are advertised as satyrs but are really bipedal goats with three-fingered hands. I’m just about finished with one, and he’s going to be guarding a FLAGON of beer on my next Still Life blog. That is, if I can find a flagon. Flagons aren’t as ubiquitous as they used to be, but I really need a flagon now to feel a distant kinship with Conan the Barbarian. And I completely, utterly blame author Jaye Wells for creating that need. Demand a flagon at your local glassware outlet today! If enough of us demand it, someone will supply it. :)

Publishing Stuff

A Couple o’ Milestones

Titling this post makes me absurdly glad we don’t use the metric system; nobody would want to hear about kilometerstones.

Milestone one: I finished my edits to the typeset pages of HAMMERED, which are also called first pass edits or galleys. That itself is a milestone, because it means I’ve completely finished my first three books. But it gets cooler: in this third book o’ mine, there is a map! I drew it all by myself. This is a big deal for me because I purrrrrrr over hand-drawn maps. When I’m thinking about buying a fantasy book, I actually consider the map first and decide if it’s a world I’d like to get to know. If it looks cool, then I’ll read the first page and see if it grabs me. Having a map printed has me geeking out even more than usual.

Milestone two: This is sort of a dubious one, but apparently it’s something all authors endure these days. Some giant douche is selling an ARE of Hounded on eBay. Already. Another author told me, “Come for the anger, stay for the futility” in fighting the sale of advance copies. That made me laugh; I can certainly see how the situation could raise one’s blood pressure. After all, advance copies have a big sticker on ’em that says they’re NOT FOR SALE. And this seller (or someone he knows) is a reviewer who typically gets plenty of advance copies, because he’s selling a lot of other early editions, too—he even brags that he’s been selling books since 2000. He (or his source) must actually write reviews at some point or he wouldn’t keep getting books. But damn, I don’t think he even read mine! His description of my book is completely inaccurate. If the seller is the reviewer (which I doubt) he’s going to write a terrible review—and the fact that he’d rather make a cheap buck off a year of my work than read it really chaps my hide. He’s not just a thief; he’s an illiterate thief.

BONUS! Milestone three: I think it’s time to have a contest thingie, in order to promote literacy and good karma and so on. Every action (such as a skeezy person from Jersey selling my work without compensating me) must have an equal and opposite reaction (giving away books I’ve paid for and thus the author’s been paid for). I’m going to give away a couple o’ books from my personal library that I think someone else might enjoy also. It’s gotta be U.S. only, sorry. The first is WHO FEARS DEATH by Nnedi Okorafor:The second book I’m givin’ away is ZERO HISTORY by the inimitable William Gibson:Both of these are hardcovers.To win one (I’ll have two winners!), all you gotta do is comment. You can say, “Yay for maps!” or “Boo to evil book pirates!” or even “Suck it, metric system!” Or whatever you’d like, honestly. I’d just like to see comments. :) Contest runs till Tuesday, and I’ll announce winners Wednesday; winner chosen randomly, o’ course.

Peace and carrots and literacy…

Publishing Stuff

Stuff They Never Told Me About Publishing #3

This series chronicles all the stuff I’m finding out about the publishing business in the months leading up to my debut.* If you missed the first couple installments, #1 is here and #2 is here. Shall we on?

I don’t know how to make a book trailer.

And from what I can tell, few people do. The existence of book trailers escaped my notice until I saw other writers here and there talking about them on their blogs. There are a lot of bad trailers out there. There are also some pretty good ones—the high-budget stuff from this list of Moby Awards is fairly entertaining. But even those great trailers didn’t make me want to go out and buy any of the books. Exploding zombie brains, for example, look great on film (bring on the popcorn!), but that doesn’t mean the words on the page are going to be great. They might be, of course—I’m just saying that films and books are completely different mediums, and anyone who’s ever read a book and then been disappointed with the movie version knows all about the difficulty of translating the printed word to the screen. (Look at the difficulty of bringing The Great Gatsby to life. How can you ever take the deliciousness of Fitzgerald’s prose and do it justice as a dramatic production? It hasn’t been done right yet.) The screen version often falls short or misrepresents the book entirely—and honestly, I think that’s a danger of doing a trailer. I imagine a mediocre or poorly done trailer can actually depress sales, rather than encourage them. The trouble, of course, is that there is no way to measure the effect book trailers have on sales. If a marketing genius can provide proof that $2K invested in a trailer will lead to an extra $3K in royalties (or whatever), then I’m sure I’ll line up to make one myself. In the meantime, it’s tough to justify shelling out major bucks and time on an enterprise of dubious worth.

Well, I take that back. I think Harry Connolly is making one for the right reason: He thinks it will be cool, and since he’s got some people working for him who know what they’re doing, I’m willing to bet he’s right. Since I already know Harry’s writing is awesome, I don’t need to watch the trailer to be convinced to buy his book, but I’m going to watch it when it’s ready anyway. The world can always stand to get a little cooler.

Comparison is a stepping stone to dribbling, babbling, madness.

No one ever told me that I’d be neurotically compelled to compare my word counts to other authors. (I don’t think there’s a pill for it yet, but I have no doubt it’s in development and side effects include self-flagellation, runny nose, and glossolalia.) Before I got my deal, I didn’t give a damn if I wrote three words a day or three thousand. Now I feel unworthy if I don’t write a couple thousand a day to keep up with the fast kids, and since I don’t make it most days, there’s a certain amount of wailing and gnashing of teeth going on. I’m fully conscious that it’s silly of me; if I average just 500 words a day, that’s two novels per year. I can do that without burning out, and I am doing it, and it’s fine. But still. I wasn’t expecting this sketchy little gremlin to land on my shoulder and whisper that I don’t have an awesome author beard like that one guy, or that I should have finished my epic already, etc. I’m aware that these are nice worries to have in comparison to worrying that I’ll never be published; I’m just warning everyone that getting published will not cure you of  your neuroses. You will always worry about something, so gird your mental loins.

Mental loins? Clearly I need to stop writing now. I promise the next installment will be loin-free.

*Since the calendar flipped, now I get to say I have three books coming out this year!