A Jumping-Off Point for New Authors

Yesterday I was at the Sci-Feb convention, promoting Armada Wars (and you can read about that experience here). Towards the end of the day I was approached by a creative writing student who asked what I could tell her about getting into writing as a self-publisher.

What followed was possibly not the most coherent and logically structured info-dump, but I like to think there were some helpful nuggets in there. If you're in the position of wanting the same information, then here is the clear and comprehensive version.

Five Killer Tips Every Kindle Author Should Be Using

Please note: there is now an updated and superior version of this article over on my new author website, The Outdoors Author. 

It's been a while since I posted here, what with all the many developments in the Armadaverse lately. By way of apology, this post is for my author colleagues — primarily those who publish through KDP and perhaps Createspace.

In this post we will look at five strategies every Kindle author should be using to maximise return on investment, increase market penetration for their series, provide best value to fans, cooperate with other authors, and make the most of their sales data.

Why am I giving away such useful information? Pretty simple really: as I have said before, I don't consider other indie authors to be 'the competition'. You are colleagues.

Use SumoMe to Drive Sales from your Book Site

It's every author's nightmare.

Your new site is looking awesome. You are about to hit "go" on some well-tuned Facebook advertising, and you hope this will give sales a bump, since most of your books' rankings have started to drop off on Amazon.

The advert goes live. Impressions start coming in, and soon you are racking up the conversions. Yes, people are going to your site through the ad! Money well spent.

But then the book sales don't really move. At all. They stay stubbornly on trend, and that trend is "meh".

What to do?

Well, as luck would have it, this exact scenario happened to me shortly after I created the shiny new ArmadaWars.com web site. Because I don't believe in holding back strategies that would help other authors (you're my colleagues, not my competition!) I'm going to share my solution with you now.

Use Scrivener's Keywords to Manage Your Series

I'm having a little break from writing The Ravening Deep, so I thought I'd share a technique I'm using now that I have moved my entire Armada Wars operation from Open Office to that unbelievably good writer's app: Scrivener.

In this article, we'll start with the premise that you are writing (or starting) a series of novels set in the same universe. Here not only will you discover how to manage the books from your series in a single project file, but you'll also learn how to make the most of the keywords feature in Scrivener by setting up keywords in a structured fashion.

Wollen Sie diesen Artikel auf Deutsch lesen wollen? Gehe hier hin.

Don't forget that this blog is now for behind-the-scenes reporting on the Armada Wars universe, and RCV's posts on writing and for writers. All of the current news and events going on in the Armadaverse can now be found on the all new web site at www.ArmadaWars.com!

Episodic Characters — Character School Part 3

In the previous two articles from this series, we looked at general tips for believable character interactions, and the basic fundamentals of creating solid main characters.

Both of those articles give a number of useful starting points for the kind of things that need to be taken into consideration when we are trying to craft characters the reader will enjoy and respond to.

But what should we do if we want to develop a character across several books? How can we juggle the opposing goals of creating a reader-character relationship, and not giving away too much too early?

I might just be able to help with that.

It's Not Just Robots! Why We Need Science Fiction

There seems to be a prevalent belief that if it contains robots, spaceships, or aliens, then it's science fiction, and that is all science fiction really is.

The truth is that science fiction need not have any of those things in it, and just because a book, film, or television show contains them it doesn't necessarily mean it's best placed in the science fiction genre.

Star Wars is possibly the best known and most divisive example of that; it's mostly fantasy, but with many science fiction elements which — funnily enough — all fall squarely into the robots, spaceships, and aliens category. The story itself combines two fantasy tropes: "The Hero's Journey" and "The War Between Good and Evil". Everything else is window dressing, and the actual story would probably suffer no ill effects if it were set in Middle Earth instead of a galaxy far, far away.

So how do we tell if something is science fiction, and what use is it anyway?

Crafting Main Characters — Character School Part 2

In the first entry in this series we looked at some general aspects of believable characters, but only in the sense of realistic interactive behaviour.

In this article, we will get down to the important business of how exactly we can create main characters who are credible, memorable, and likeable (or not!)

The main characters of any piece are not just important to the story; they are the story. If they don't work as characters, then no matter how well-written and intriguing your work is, it will not engage the reader. Knowing your main characters inside-out early in your process will not only pay dividends later on, it will actually help you to shape your plot.

This is the most important piece of advice a new writer can receive, yet it's easily overlooked: the main characters — if they are well-conceived, rounded personalities — will actively sculpt the plot for you.

Characters are People too — Character School Part 1

As I described in an earlier article, I started writing creatively when I was quite young then had a relatively long break. In order to create the Armada Wars universe I had to dust off my writer's brain and up my game to a whole new level. One of the ways I achieved this was to tackle the problem of characters; chiefly to stop being so lazy when designing them.

I have always been aware of the advice which circulates endlessly on crafting characters, but until recently did not apply it. The difference it has made is indescribably powerful. If I had to explain to other up-and-coming writers how it makes a difference, and why they should take notice, I would have to put it like this:

If your characters are not believable and interesting, your fiction will not be believable or interesting either.

Since I started I have made it known that I am perfectly willing to discuss my process and the lessons I have learned with anyone who wants to know. This article then is the first in a short series intended for newer writers, or those who are struggling to grow their creative muscles.

You Really Matter! Why your views should be in REviews

This article was — I have to admit — prompted by a couple of reviews on one of my own books, my début novel Steal from the Devil. While I will refer to SFTD as an example to illustrate some of my points, what I'm going to talk about here applies to all books, whether they be fiction or non-fiction, traditionally published or self-published, paper or eBook, as well as other products.

The basic foundation of this article is this: any given reader is not just a lone "end customer". They are part of a community of readers, and also part of the ongoing life-cycle of books.

I'm going to talk about the problems with reviews, the value of good and bad reviews to writers, their value to readers, and what each group will find useful. So if that is the sort of thing that will interest you, read on!

Updated: "Steal from the Devil" Second Edition

While writing List of the Dead, I learned a few things about writing fiction which were all news to me. They are little twiddly bits which don't typically get taught at school, and which are generally only of interest to editors. But every one of them is something which works to improve the structure and flow of text. Some are typographic (like proper use of the em-dash), some are to do with breaking and closing dialogue, and so on.

So I have gone back over Steal from the Devil with a fine-toothed comb, and applied what I have learned. The difference — I think — is subtle but effective.

While I was at it, I also weeded out some split infinitives. I say 'some'... turns out that when I looked for them specifically, there were a lot. A few sentences and bits of dialogue have been restructured for clarity.

Plot is not affected, and perhaps the only really significant change is in the first chapter. Because a minority of readers found it 'choppy' and 'disjointed' (real words from real reviews), I have de-chopped and re-jointed it. The Hammer's emergence from the wormhole now runs straight into the passage which introduces Captain Aker Santani, and the passage in which we see Caden's dream now runs directly into him waking up and contacting Rendir Throam.

All in all, I think it's a much better read. Had I not rushed so much to get it out last December it is probably the text I would have ended up with.

The paperback has been updated to the second edition, and new Kindle customers will get it automatically since it's now live on the Kindle store. Existing customers on Kindle need to visit their "Manage your Content and Devices" page on Amazon to get the updated file (it's easy).

Proof that "Free eBook" Sites Lie

You may remember a previous post about scam pirate sites purporting to supply downloads of copyright eBooks, and my cynical assertion that whatever it is they allow you to download it probably isn't the file they say it is.

If you weren't convinced, try this on for size.

This link goes to one such site: http://satrymonal1993cabquai.wordpress.com/2013/12/30/list-of-the-dead-armada-wars-2-r-curtis-venture/

If that link is gone before you visit it, try the Google cache of the page as it appeared on 7th September.

Notice anything odd about that? How about it's for List of the Dead, which I haven't actually finished writing yet.

Apparently the small matter of me being nowhere near done doesn't stop the philanthropic efforts of our friendly neighbourhood pirates. Apparently, according to them, it's 529 pages long and has been reviewed by 220 people (who collectively give it almost a 90% approval rating, by the way).

I don't know what that file is they are letting people download, but I can assure you it isn't List of the Dead. No such book currently exists!

A Progressive Learning Experience

This is a blog post with two purposes, and one that I have been thinking about writing for a couple of months now. It's partly for the fans of the new universe I've apparently unleashed, to tell them what to expect next, and partly for other independent writers who are either headed towards their first release, or thinking about how to get on with their next book.

Ruling the Universe

One of the things that really annoys me about modern science fiction — and I mean on the screen, as well as in books — is the constant reliance on trite clichés. So, in developing the Armada Wars universe, I have taken the time to set down ground rules that will prevent me from falling into the same traps.

In this blog post, we'll take a look at some of the principles that help shape the worlds, situations, technology, and people in the books. Read on to discover some of the rules of the universe!