Thursday Technicalities – Publishing Preparation

Introduction to Publishing

Switching gears, we’re going to talk about publishing. Today, we’ll go over the things you need to take care of in order to get your book and its launch prepared for your publication date. There’s a lot to consider and a lot to do, so getting started roughly six months in advance is generally a good idea, especially if you don’t have a lot of extra time to work on things. Let’s dive in.

Publishing Checklist

Item #1: Editing, Formatting, and Proofreading

So, you have your book written, but now what? Before you can publish it, assuming you want it to have its best chance at getting into the hands of your intended audience and doing well, you need to have it edited professionally.

Yes, professionally. Sure, you can self-edit, but here’s the thing. You’re not going to as good a job as someone else (assuming that person knows what they’re doing or is at the same level as you are). Why? Because while you can (and should) take the time to edit your own work, you will always have a certain level of blindness on your own work. As an editor myself, I can attest to this. Editing other people’s work not only takes less time but also goes better. I catch more because, even if I’m enjoying the story, I see all the problems too. The characters aren’t my characters, and the story isn’t my story. So I’m able to keep perspective. We’ll talk more about what you should expect to pay an editor and why you should be willing to pay those rates.

Second, in conjunction with professional editing, you want to either do the formatting yourself or pay someone to do it. If you’re not design oriented, you’ll want to hire someone to do it for the paperback at the very least. Ebook is stricter on what it does and doesn’t allow due to what the ereaders and their programs are able to read. I have an entire post dedicated to ebook formatting if you’re interested in doing it yourself. You can read it here.

Finally, do a last proofread, even if you had a professional editor go over it. This will help you ensure you caught as much as possible. If there were typos, spelling errors, or grammar mistakes, then this would be the time to catch them.

Checklist Item #2: Book Cover

Really, you can have this done whenever, but do know that in order to have the paperback cover copy done, you need to know your page count using the proper page size (based on the trim size you chose through your publishing platform). Hire a designer that has examples of work in your genre. Just because a designer can do a cover doesn’t mean you’ll get an eye-catching one. If they don’t do covers in your genre, then hiring them may not be the best option.

To have one made, make sure that you’ve done a few things.

First and foremost to know with this part of publishing. You need to make sure you have or make sure your designer uses images you have the license for. So no Unsplash, Pixabay, Pexels, or any other free and “creative commons zero” license sites. Yes, they’re free. But you’re highly likely to end up infringing on copyright because these sites do not vet their artists well.

People can post anything and claim it as theirs. There have been issues on these sites with stolen artwork. If the individual doesn’t own it, they don’t have a license. Ergo, neither do you. Even if they have a license, they can’t confer that on you if they’re not the original owner. The same thing goes for fonts, though those ones can be trickier because free for commercial use might not mean free for ebook and print covers (dumb, I know, but it is how it is).

If you insist on using sites that offer free fonts, images, and so on, then mitigate some of your risk by getting in touch with the artist and asking them to confirm ownership (on the image sites) and the rights you have to use it. That way, at least, you can say you did do your due diligence. With fonts, get in touch with the font creator and ask them what you’re allowed to use it for. Tell them what you want to use it for and ask if the license covers it. If not, sometimes they’re willing to negotiate a price for a license if you ask nicely.

Point is, never ever assume that sites with no fees and free images are actually okay to use. If you don’t want any risks, Envato Elements is a good option. It’s a year’s subscription for around 160-200 USD, and you can download as many images, fonts, and other things on their site as you need to. The only thing is, you need to license each download to a specific project, and you can’t keep any unused (or used) images after the subscription expires. Read the instructions for licensing the images carefully though. They’ve got some rules you need to follow to make sure they’re properly licensed for your use.

Checklist Item #3: ARC Team

Next up, you want to gather your ARC (Advanced Review Copy) team. These people, ideally, should be ones who are interested in your genre and have some or all of the characteristics of your ideal reader. When asking for ARC readers, you should make sure you provide the blurb of the book, links for them to go look at the book (if it’s available), and any information on who the intended audience is and what they can expect. Then ask those interested to get in touch if they’ve got questions or want to participate.

Be clear on when the review is due. Give readers enough time to go through the book (I’d give about a month if possible), but tell them the review needs to be in by the deadline agreed on. You can’t force them to review, but if you agree on a date that will work for each individual, you’ll get the reviews by that time most of the time. Even if not, you know when you should be following up with them if you need to. Sometimes this will be necessary. People forget or get behind, and they fail to communicate. So it’s best if you both agree on when you should follow up if there’s no review.

Checklist Item #4: Marketing

This one is one of the trickier parts of publishing, and I could discuss a lot of different options. But I’ll go over some marketing strategies and techniques in more detail in later posts. For now, you should know that you should be utilizing the various outlets available to you.

Social media and Pinterest are free exposure and should be used. It’s not an instant thing though. You need to be active on your social media and Pinterest accounts long before pushing your work . If you aren’t, you won’t have the connections you need with readers and other writers to really make marketing work.

When it comes to publishing, your connections with other writers and reviewers is key. Those you connect with are valuable resources at launch point. It’s a long road to launch, and it would be sad if the book failed from lacking exposure. Your connections give you people to go to when you need people to review the book, share it, and help you out with blog tours should you choose to do that.

Another area of marketing for your upcoming publication is to share it with your newsletter subscribers and on your own blog. Again, however, this only works well if you have an established readership on your blog and with your newsletter.

It does no good if it goes out to people who only subscribed for free stuff and then ditch as soon as you try to “sell” them anything. No matter how nicely you put it, if you’re trying to get them to consider buying something, they’re going to jump ship. However, if your readership is interested in your work, free or otherwise, then you’ll find more success here.

Checklist Item #5: Publishing

Finally, we’re to publishing. If you’re using Amazon, know that you will need to change your browse categories after it’s live (pre-order or actually live) on the site. The options in Amazon’s KDP setup for ebooks and paperbacks represent only 25% of the available categories. However, they’re the most competitive categories available. You’ll need to do research to figure out what categories are less competitive that your book can fit into.

To illustrate how important this is, your categories will make the difference between needing to sell thousands of copies a day to reach bestseller status and needing to sell somewhere between 30 and 40 a day to reach that. For doing this research, I recommend using Publisher Rocket’s free tool for calculating how many copies a day you need to make it into #1 Bestseller category as well as the article they have on changing categories.

Once you’ve gotten your browse categories fixed, it’s time to let people know that your book is available for sale and that your ARC readers can provide reviews any time they’re ready (as long as it’s before the agreed upon deadlines).

Make sure people know not to buy the book until you’ve gotten those categories updated. Any sales you make before go to the generic categories you chose and don’t help your rankings at all. So, make sure you let people know to wait on buying or reviewing until you have those updated if you want the reviews and sales to count.

Conclusion

That’s it for this post! I know it’s been quite long, but I hope it’s been useful. Feel free to ask questions if you have them. I’ll go more detail on some of these topics in the upcoming weeks. Thanks for reading!

Work-In-Progress #42

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This week’s Work-In-Progress is from a short story that I’ve been working on here and there between working on my novella When All Else Fails for the Open Novella Contest. It’s from Enlil’s Royal, a short story that will be going into a collection I’m planning to release next year.

~~~

ENLIL ROSE INTO the sky, the sparks dancing around him and the winds picking up. He opened his mouth in a soundless scream of triumph, spread his arms and unleashed the storm inside. They thought they could beat him down? They thought that because he was of a lower class than they were that they could treat him like scum? Well, they’d learn. Because this so-called slave was their downfall, the perfect storm to bring reform. The princess was his, and they had denied him to her simply because he didn’t look like the one they thought she was pledged to.

Lightning arced out of his fingertips, and the thunderheads blew from his mouth as he howled his victory. Below, houses went up in flames, and torrents of rain washed away whatever the flames didn’t touch. Then the rain put out the flames in the other areas too, and everything was enveloped in a maelstrom of wind, rain, and lightning with the thunder booming over it to provide the final beat on the drum that announced that death had come.

He stretched his arms out further, tipped his head back and laughed into the sky. This was power. This was freedom. They would learn, and they would suffer just as everyone they had touched with their corruption had. Just as he had. This storm, he himself, were only the beginning. The beginning of devastation.

Only his betrothed would escape. But if she scorned him? His fingers twitched, shooting off more sparks and another bolt of lightning. If she scorned him, he would make her suffer more than all of her subjects. She had no right to refuse destiny, no right to look down on him because fate hadn’t chosen a more worthy object for her affection. So, if she thought him unworthy, he would show her how wrong she was. The vessel that housed him might be a slave, but he was no slave. He was far more ancient and powerful than any of them. He was storm. He was thunder. And he was destruction incarnate. He would have his way.

They would hear him thunder, and they would regret awakening his wrath. The gate to the castle grated upward, and Enlil paused in meting out his anger on the village. He squinted at the rising grate and watched a tiny figure exit. He waited, trying to make out who the figure was. In the gloom of the storm, he could only see that it was a girl with a slender build and a sword strapped to her waist. She made her way straight for him, so he crossed his arms and waited for her to reach him. Was it Ashurina, the girl he’d started this over?

She drew closer, and he waited with bated breath. Finally, she stood before him, and the painful wait was over. It was the girl he’d been dreaming of and waiting for. She was here, all grown up and ready for him. Only, she wasn’t ready because her family hadn’t prepared her and had then refused him his due. They knew who she was, but still they denied him to her. Rage boiled in his veins, and lightning sparked at the tips of his fingers. He’d blow them to pieces. That would teach the people around here not to go back on their word to their gods. He’d tested them, and they’d failed. He’d given them a chance, and they hadn’t taken it.

“Princess.” He smiled at her.

She shivered, but her grip remained firm on her sword, and she didn’t give any other visible sign of distress. “Who are you?”

“Enlil. The destroyer.”

She bit her lip and tightened her grip on her sword. “Why are you here?”

“To repay them for the vow they broke.”

She shook her head. “You can’t destroy them.”

He took a step closer and grabbed her wrist. “I can do whatever I please, particularly with you, Princess.”

Another tiny shake of her head. “You can’t.”

He ground his teeth and narrowed his eyes at her, wondering if she’d really just said he couldn’t. “I’m capable enough, I assure you.”

A shudder traversed through her body, and she looked near tears. Yet, somehow, he didn’t want to relent. He wanted to punish her. They had denied him what was his. Someone had to pay. Killing them would be one way to exact the price, but would it send the message he wanted? He released Ashurina and crossed his arms with a frown. Maybe not. Perhaps it would be better if he made sure her parents knew she was suffering for their crimes. Perhaps he would only kill the king and leave the queen to bear the guilt of what she and her husband had done to their daughter. Their only baby girl. He grinned and took another step forward so that his chest almost brushed Ashurina’s. Making her pay sounded good. He’d make her see reality, and he would crush her in retribution.

She was his, and her presence here sealed the deal. He wouldn’t leave without her. She was his Chosen, and she would remain by his side, lending him the strength only a Chosen could give, until she passed from this realm to the afterlife. A strange sense of exhilaration sang inside, the prospect of shaping her into the perfect instrument for his revenge and the perfect vessel for his use driving the sensation to a peak. Yes, undoubtedly, she was his, and there would be no escape for her.

~~~

That’s it for this week’s work-in-progress Wednesday. What are you guys up to this week? Working on anything new for your own work-in-progress or reading anything interesting? Feel free to share!

A Special Book Feature: Faith in Abertillery

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Hey, guys! I’ve got something different for you today as part of the final day of the blog tour. Please don’t shoot me for changing up the routine! Just kidding. I know you guys won’t.

All joking aside, I know I normally only review fantasy, but this is an exception for the blog tour! It’s not fantasy. Instead, Faith of Abertillery is a historical romance set during the Welsh Revival. Good stuff, in my opinion. Can’t get much better than clean historical romance with a Christian emphasis, at least for me.

When TN Traynor and I were talking about what we could do for the last day of the blog tour where I’d be on her blog, she suggested we could do book highlights. That’s something you usually don’t see in blog tours, but hey, it’s different and different can be a good thing. She mentioned that the book was shorter, which was perfect since both of us were on tight schedules to finish reading the new book before today.

I knew the book wasn’t what I usually review on here before I told her what I could do in terms of posting the spotlight, but because I’d already read Idi & The Oracle’s Quest by her, I had high hopes that this new story would be equally good in terms of characterization and storyline. I certainly wasn’t disappointed, and hopefully some of you won’t be disappointed that I’m posting something that’s not fantasy. 😉

I can honestly say that between this book and Idi & the Oracle’s Quest, I much preferred this one. Usually, I like fantasy and romance about the same but favor fantasy romance more over regular romances. But in this case, I found that the author much improved her writing and her style from the first book she released (Idi & the Oracle’s Quest) to Faith in Abertillery.

Boy, am I ever glad I agreed to read this for the highlight! I loved the book. The only two things that kept it from earning five stars from me were the use of present tense throughout the whole book and the translations of every Welsh word used inline. The first is just personal preference. The second kind of pulled me out of the book to interpret and read the interpretations of the Welsh. Some of them might have needed a glossary, but others could have done without any entries or explanations because context made them clear. So I didn’t like that so much, but the book was on the whole quite enjoyable to read! If you like historical Christian romance, you should definitely give the book a whirl. I very much doubt you’ll regret it! I certainly didn’t. You can find more information here, and I put the blurb below.

You can find TN Traynor online here.

Blurb:

With ‘An Officer & A Gentleman’ feel, and a Christmas Day ending, this is a perfect festive season, feel-good book. She’s given up on love. He’s marrying for money. But God has other plans…

South Wales, 1905. Faith only believes in the certainty of pain and suffering. Born with a club foot and harboring a dark secret, the barmaid can’t escape her sinful past. But after the country’s religious revival puts her out of a job, hope sparks when a handsome aristocrat gallantly offers her a second chance.

Lord Geoffrey Driscoll fears his estate will run out of money before he can find a suitable bride. However, the devout nobleman can’t keep his mind off the stunning redhead despite her lowly status. As the attraction between them grows, Lord Driscoll is torn between his need for a wife of means and his heart.

As Faith falls for Lord Driscoll’s kindness, she wishes that she could erase the sinful past that stands in the way of their union…

Can the troubled couple trust in God to light the way to true love?

Faith in Abertillery is a touching Christian historical romance. If you like stories of forgiveness, rich backdrops, and charming chemistry, then you’ll adore Tracy Traynor’s moving tale.

Buy Faith in Abertillery to watch young love follow a higher power today!

Flash Fiction Fridays: Weaponized Rain

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My sister gave me this idea for a flash fiction piece while we were sitting in the coffee shop last week. She told me to write a piece about a character who finds out a terrorist group figured out how to weaponize rain. So, here we go!

~~~

Raya stared at the screen and the data flashing across it. She closed the report and ran it again. How? How had the ITO managed this? Weaponizing rain itself, or, actually, anything in a specified zone? She hit the print button and rushed to snatch it off the printer.

She barged into her boss’s office, ignoring how rude it was. She’d apologize later, and he’d want to know this now. Besides, he’d cut her some slack given how polite she usually was. He paused in mid-sentence on the phone and raise a brow.

“Sorry, sir. But you have to see this.”

He nodded and sighed. “Sorry, Pat. I’ll have to call you back. If I don’t get back to you about it by end of the business day, shoot me an email. I’ll respond when I get home. Yes. Exactly. Thank you. Bye.” He set the phone aside and pursed his lips. “Raya…”

“It’s important! I promise.” She hurried over and set the reports down on his desk. “You know how you set me on monitoring ITO?”

He began rifling through the papers with a frown. “Yeah?”

“Well, they made their move, and it’s worse than we thought. The intel indicates they found a way to remove air resistance from specific areas with some sort of machine. They’re going to weaponize rain according to the files we stole and decrypted.”

“Let’s pretend I don’t have a Ph.D in physics and I hired you to break things down for the non-scientifically minded individuals like me.” He smiled. “Explain to me how someone weaponizes rain.”

“If you remove air resistance, sir, then rain will just keep gaining speed as it falls through the atmosphere. When it hits, it’s going to have an insane amount of velocity on it. The speed at which that water droplet hits will make it like a bullet in whatever it hits, but there won’t be any trace of the weapon once it hits.”

His mouth opened and closed as he searched for a response.

“So, sir, I think this justifies barging in?”

He swallowed and nodded. “I… It more than justifies it. I’ll get the higher ups on the phone. You can just go back to monitoring and keeping an eye on things for now. I’ll have someone go get you if I need you.”

She nodded and turned to leave.

“Thank you, Raya. You may have saved us all by finding this now.”

“I doubt that. We don’t have much time. I’ll be at my desk if you need anything.” She hurried out the door, her heart thumping wildly. They had to stop this. If they didn’t, the results would be disastrous. Life and death were the currency they were now paying down in any bet they made in the attempt to stop this weapon. She just prayed it wouldn’t backfire on them.

Thursday Technicalities – Weaving WorldBuilding Into the Story – Final Thoughts

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In the end, no post or set of posts can possibly cover every detail of world-building and weaving it into your story. Your story will have some elements and not others, and your style will utilize some techniques but not others. This means that, if you really want to grow in this area, you’re going to have to read. Read authors who do this work really well. Find out which authors in your area of speculative fiction (or any fiction) are the best at bringing their world to life, then read those authors. Pay attention to how they do it. Mark up your copy of the book (yeah, I know… Write on a book? Are you insane? Maybe, but taking notes in pencil or underlining the sentences that really bring out some aspect of writing you’re trying to learn will help you recognize what works and what doesn’t. If you can’t bring yourself to write on a book, which I rarely can, then jot notes in a notebook and make sure to keep them labeled.). Whatever you do, don’t spend thousands of dollars on courses on how to do it. You don’t need to! You’ll learn best by example and by seeing it done.

To that end, who do I recommend for this endeavor? First, I do recommend reading through Holly Lisle’s ebook course on world-building. It’s the only course I’m going to recommend, but I highly recommend this just because she’ll teach you so much. You’ll go through tons of exercises, and it’s a great way to learn how to do the world-building quickly while also weaving it into your work. Besides Lisle’s course, I recommend reading Tolkien, Brandon Sanderson, Orson Scott Card, Cinda Williams Chima, Ursula K Le Guin, and Terry Brooks. These authors in varying ways and to differing degrees are phenomenal world builders. Tolkien, Sanderson, and Brooks are my top three authors for this area in fantasy. I’ve learned most from Sanderson’s work, but I learned my share of things from Tolkien and Brooks too. I really can’t recommend these guys highly enough.

All of them know how to bring their worlds to life using many or all of the techniques I’ve mentioned plus some. You’re going to learn what really good world-building within a story looks like if you take the time to really dig into and pull apart these authors’ works. Most of them have paperbacks available for a lot of their books in addition to ebooks, so this is a much more affordable way to learn than taking who knows how many courses. Plus, if you’re like me, you have a tendency to start a course and then forget you were doing it in the busyness of life. Sure, you plan to go back to it, but you somehow never do, and so that’s money somewhat wasted. A book though? I might be slow in reading it, but I usually finish the books I start. It’s not too common that I don’t. So I’ll learn more in a less expensive way if I just try to learn from what great authors did well.

New Ebook on Writing – Input from You All

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Hey, everyone! As I mentioned before, I’m putting together an ebook about the craft of writing. I’ve placed the table of contents (currently) below so you can see the topics I’ll be covering. I’ve already gotten one suggestion from an author on something they thought would be useful, and I’d love to have more! I might end up having to split the book up and do a second volume if I get too many new topics, but that’s not a bad problem to have. So, please give your input. What would you find useful for you as a writer that isn’t on here?

What I put above is what I’ve got right now in the order I’m discussing it. Feel free to email ideas or just comment on this post with them!

Work-In-Progress Wednesdays #41

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This selection comes from When All Else Fails, once again, since it’s all I’m really working on right now besides some short fiction pieces that I’m not really focusing on too heavily at the moment. So, without further ado, this week’s WIP selection!

~~~

VIV HURRIED ALONG the street to her house. If only she could’ve stayed to listen to Seb and Mr. H. But the two had been talking about Seb’s questions and God for at least two hours, and she’d needed to get home before they noticed she was missing. She really needed to move out. At twenty-two, it was more than time, and unlike the previous year, she wasn’t close to her family. She loved them, of course, but they didn’t understand her anymore, and she was forbidden to talk about anything that questioned the Supremacy.

She eased the door open with a heavy sigh. Yes, it was time to move on before she landed herself in any more trouble or made relations any more strained than they already were. She slipped inside and shut the door.

“Vivian.” Dane’s voice startled her. “Where are you coming from so early?”

Why was he up this early? She froze, her hand on the door knob still. “I went for a walk. I’m usually back before anyone wakes up. What are you doing up?” She turned to face him with a tight smile.

“You don’t take walks on Saturdays because you sleep in. The door’s system logs also don’t show any regular trips on Saturdays.” His jaw clenched. “But you know what they do show?”

He’d totally ignored her question. Clearly she couldn’t have a variation in her routine, but the same standard didn’t apply to him. She swallowed hard and shrugged. Why? Why was he snooping? He’d always been overprotective and a little too concerned with her for her comfort, but this? Had Mom and Dad put him up to it?

“You go out during quiet hours on Sunday mornings. Everyone, even law enforcement, spends those hours doing what good citizens do. Two hours of reading the Codex. Everyone but you, anyway. You get back just in time to avoid being caught.” Dane narrowed his eyes. “Whatever you’re up to stops now, Vivian. Before it’s too late.”

He knew, and he was furious. He never called her by her full name unless she’d really messed up. And as for his anger? That was written all over his face. He knew more than just that she wasn’t behaving like a good citizen. How though? Well, it didn’t matter. That he knew was all that did. Now she had to find a way out of this without lying to his face. “For real, Dane?” She rolled her eyes, but her heart thumped wildly against her breast. Dear God, please, let him drop it. “What do you think I am? Some sort of spy? I’m not up to anything.”

“Don’t dig the hole deeper. Don’t make me do something with what I know,” he murmured softly.

She shivered at the menacing tone and shoved her hands into her pockets. “You mean what you think you know.” Had he noticed her trembling? “I haven’t done anything.”

Dane chuckled and shook his head. “You’re not a good liar, and you’re not fooling me. Come. You should see something.”

She stared at him. “Since when did you decide I was a liar?”

And since when did her little brother act like this? He’d always been a little cool toward Seb, and she could see him doing this sort of thing with her best friend, but that was different. Dane didn’t like Seb because… She frowned. Because why? She’d always assumed it was because Dane didn’t like hearing things that contradicted the Supremacy. But with everything that had happened the last few days, could she really believe that? What if there was more to it?

He crossed his arms. “According to sub-section fifty-five of the Codex, humanity is selfish and acts in its own best interests, which is why we have the Codex and the Supremacy to keep us in line so we do not succumb to the evil inherent in us all. We have no basis for truth unless it suits us.” He stopped quoting the Codex with a frown. “You’ve proven that really well lately too.” He inclined his head toward his bedroom down the hall. “Now, are you going to come with me or do I need to make you?”

Maybe if she played the older sister card? “You want me to tell Mom and Dad you need to see a shrink, Dane? You’re acting crazier than normal, and if you don’t stop it, I’ll–“

“You won’t say anything. Mom and Dad are out of the house because they know I needed to talk to you about things. They’re not going to be here, so just quit acting like a five year old threatening to tattle. Acting like you’re not a mature adult isn’t going to get you out of anything.”

Her stomach roiled. So much for that ploy. Well, she hadn’t really expected it to work. Dane knew better. He knew her too well, and he always had. “Okay, fine… I’m not going to say anything to them. You already knew I wouldn’t though or you wouldn’t have been so rude at the door earlier.”

“Mom and Dad won’t shelter you from everything. Keep that in mind before you tick me off.”

She blinked. What? He acted like their parents would side with him over her. In what universe had that ever happened? She was their heir, and as such, they gave her more responsibility and trusted her way more than they did her irresponsible younger brother. “Hold on. Shelter me? Mom and Dad do not shelter me.”

Dane turned his back on her and headed for his room.

“Dane, wait! Explain.”

He didn’t answer her, and he didn’t turn to look at her, so she followed, her heart in her throat. Somehow, the sense of dread just grew with each step toward the bedroom until her heart was in her throat and her stomach had dropped to her toes. What could he possibly mean? Had he found her notes? Bile surged in her throat. She’d hidden them. No one should be able to find them.

They reached his room, and he held the door open for her. She shuffled over the threshold. The door clicked shut, and she stared at the bed where all her notes and files lay in neat piles. No. No, he couldn’t have these! How? She tensed and had to keep herself from turning to run. If she did that, Dane would stop her anyway.

His hands came to rest on her upper arms, holding her in place. As if she could’ve moved to start. She was frozen in indecision now, no longer fully functioning. “Now, Vivian,” he murmured gently against her temple. “I’m a lot of things, but stupid isn’t one of them. Maybe quit pretending you’re the stupid one, and we can talk this out as equals?”

She swallowed back tears. “I…” She couldn’t even get the words out past the lump in her throat. “I don’t know…”

“Shh… Shh…” His grip tightened on her arms. “Think very, very carefully before you lie to me, little girl. One slip that you’re one of the Diexebels, and poof. You end up in some freak accident or you vanish with a note that you couldn’t handle the pressure anymore. We wouldn’t want that, would we?”

Her parents would never, ever allow that. He had to be kidding. Her baby brother wouldn’t dare rat on her, would he? Was he really that brainwashed? Could she still deny this? No, probably not. “Come on, Dane. You wouldn’t really give me up to the Supremacy’s lackeys, would you? You’ve always said you value family more than anything.”

Dane spun her to face him and forced her to back up until her calves hit the bed. Then he pushed her down to sit between the stacks of papers with a tight smile. “I do, but that situation doesn’t apply here.”

~~~

Well, that’s it from me this week! What do you guys think? And what are all of you up to lately? If you want to, feel free to share in the comments below. I love hearing what everyone’s been working on or reading lately.

Saturday Setups: Habitats

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Introduction

Today, we’re going to focus on habitats. If you’re creating your own creatures, you need to take habitats into consideration. What an animal or creature is equipped with will vary depending on what they need to survive. A desert animal is going to have very different features than a jungle animal, for instance. This stuff should be pretty obvious, but we’ll go over some general stuff to think about. The specifics are too varied to cover here, but once you know what kind of habitat your animal is going to live in, you can tweak your design or build it with that in mind and do the necessary research.

Considerations

Let’s chat about what you need to consider about your creature and the habitat.

To start off, the most important thing about your creature is what it eats and how it gets to its water source. If the animal lives in the desert, it doesn’t have many options for these two things most of the time, so you’ll have to plan accordingly. But if it lives in the middle of the woods, this might be considerably easier to manage.

Second, how big is your animal? The bigger they are, the more food they’re probably going to need. Muscles need fuel, and that fuel comes from food. The more muscles you have, therefore, the more you’ll need to consume. A mouse doesn’t eat the same amount as a black bear before hibernation, for example.

Next, what kinds of resources are available to your creature and what sort of creature do you have? Rodents, for example, such as mice or gerbils need things to gnaw on because their teeth never stop growing. As a result, they need an environment that provides hard foods or things to chew on. A dog, on the other hand, doesn’t have that problem. They, instead, have the issue of needing plenty of meat to sustain them, so they need an environment that has plenty of prey to catch. The kinds of resources available in your environment might limit what kind of animal you have or, as is often the case with Earth’s incredible creatures, your animals may need to have special features that allow them to live in their environment.

Finally, the other thing I think is really important to consider is whether or not your creatures share their habitat and territory with humans or humanoid beings. If they do, you’ll have to take their interactions into consideration. Do the humans or their equivalent get along well with these creatures? Or are they constantly at odds? Have the humans destroyed these animals’ habitats or have they managed to coexist without doing that?

Conclusion

I’ve only covered some of the considerations, but the ones I covered are the ones I’ve found to be the most important for thinking through your creatures. At the least, it will give you a solid launching point for your own creations.

A New Ebook

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I’m working on a new ebook for you guys that takes all of the topics I’ve discussed on Thursday Technicalities so far and places them into a streamlined, step-by-step ebook that covers the major topics every fiction writer should understand. Once I’ve got it ready, it’ll go up for sale on the store here. I’ll also be working on getting a print version online with Amazon so that you can order print copies if you prefer them.

However, here’s what I want to know. What is an ebook with all the content I usually discuss worth to you? I’m considering including templates for some of the things I walk you guys through, as well. Would those be helpful to you? What kind of content would you like to see added to expand on topics I’ve already talked about here? The point of the ebook isn’t just to generate sales, though, of course, let’s be real… This is a business I’m trying to grow. Of course I want sales. But the reason I do this isn’t mainly because I want the money. I do it because I love it and I love helping you guys learn from all of the things I’ve spent several hundred dollars on learning in the course of my writing career. Some of it you get for free just because I share about it on the blog. Some of it will be in this ebook or in the course content I’m working on developing.

So my question to those of you who are writers is this. What would it be worth to you to go through an ebook/paperback that would cover all of the main topics you need to not only become a better writer but to also make sure you’ve covered all your bases and are doing the things that will make you successful? What do you need to do better as a writer that I can discuss in order to make this book as useful as possible?

Thursday Technicalities: Interacting with Your Beta-Reader

February 26, 2020February 26, 2020 Ariel Paiement

Introduction

This week, we’re still talking about beta-readers and critique partners, but we’re going to take a look at the writer’s side of the partnership. We’ve already discussed how to find these valuable partners, why we need them, and what traits to look for. But how can we make the partnership one that’s rewarding and enjoyable for them too?

Defensiveness is a No

The first way to interact with a mindset for success is to do so without defensiveness. So often, I’ve worked with people who get defensive about my critiques or my commentary, and I can tell you that nothing ruins a beta-reading experience faster than an upset or disgruntled author.

Many times, you can get people to beta-read for free, so don’t make their lives a nightmare because you can’t take criticism. This goes back to one reason why beta-readers are a good thing. They can help you grow a thicker skin in the area of criticism toward your work. But that only works if you don’t chase them off by being nasty about what they said in the first place.

Always be polite. If you have to, bite your tongue when you feel the urge to argue! If you don’t think the change they suggested or the comment they made is valid after you’ve calmed down and thought about it, that’s fine.

Beta-readers know you won’t take every suggestion they make. But they do anticipate that you’ll be respectful of their suggestions and opinions by at least considering it before you let them know that you think it’s best to leave it as is.

Ask Questions

While defensiveness is going to cripple you in the area of beta-readers, asking questions won’t. If you don’t understand why the beta-reader said what they did or suggested you change something, ask. Believe me, we’re not going to get upset by a legitimate question. Sometimes, we might not know the exact answer and will have to think about it, but we’re not upset when you want us to give you clarification.

Just remember to be respectful. Don’t use questions as a way to disguise argumentative or defensive behavior. It is obvious, and it is really obnoxious. Just don’t do it.

Show Appreciation

Particularly if you aren’t paying the beta-reader, appreciation gives them a very warm feeling. Nothing is much worse than being asked to beta-read, giving your feedback, and then getting nothing more than a brief, cold thank you.

Take the time to let your beta-reader know that whether you take every suggestion or not you really do appreciate the time they put in. If it’s possible, maybe even surprise them with a copy of the book (if they liked it) or some other small gift as a way of telling them they’re valued and their time reading meant a lot to you.

It isn’t a requirement, but it is a really nice thing to do, and they’re more likely to want to work with you again in the future if you show this kind of kindness. It’s definitely unexpected too since most beta-readers doing so for free weren’t anticipating anything in return.

Conclusion

The biggest thing you should take away from this is the need to be polite and kind. Your beta-reader is a person too, and they should be treated with respect, especially since they’re giving up valuable time to help you.

Respect them and their opinion when they give it, even if you end up discarding the opinion or suggestion at the end of the day. A good beta-reader wouldn’t give it if they didn’t really feel the change would be a good one. By acknowledging that and giving their ideas full consideration, you’re going to be well on your way to making the experience much better for both of you!