Blog

Extreme makeover

Posted: 29th July 2010 by Kerry in Blog

The site got a bit of a facelift last night. There was a lot of tinkering to remove things I didn’t want, add things I did want, relocate things to where I think they should go, and fix things that didn’t transfer well from the previous layout.

(Someday when I’m feeling insanely ambitious, I’ll move the sidebar to the right. Oh, how I hate left sidebars. *glare*)

Some things I haven’t yet had occasion to look at may still be a little wonky. If you discover a problem while wandering around, feel free to slap me with a comment or email to get my attention, and I’ll pull on my coding gloves and break the whole site fix it posthaste.

You’ve conspired to make a liar of me!

Posted: 24th July 2010 by Kerry in Blog

Judging by the number of times I’m asked about it, not everyone shares my animosity toward newsletters.

Because I’m all for giving people the option to get what they ask for, I’ve set up a mailing list and stuck the signup box in the sidebar.

I signed myself up and tested everything.

  • It makes really, really sure you know you’re signing up for something (first gets your name and email address, then there’s a CAPTCHA, then you click a link in the confirmation email, and then you get a “successfully signed up” email), but as tedious as that is, it protects you from being enrolled in something you don’t want, so it’s a good sort of tedium.
  • Because I don’t plan on using it a lot, I’m using a free service, which means the newsletter will have a couple of ads stuck in it (they were pretty mild in the test email I sent myself—a text link under the header and a text box at the very bottom of the email, and neither for super XXXtreme porn), but if I use it more frequently or get more subscribers than I anticipate, I’ll upgrade to reduce the annoyance factor.
  • There’s an unsubscribe link in the newsletter, which again makes really, really sure you know what you’re doing with another “click this link to confirm” email. (I’d prefer one-click opt out, but that’s part of the paid package, and it’s not worth upgrading for the convenience of people who are ditching me, you know? :P )

I really don’t envision using it for anything other than “hey, I have a new book available” notices, which obviously will be a rarity around here, but it’s there if you want it.

Winner of the $30 B&N Giftcard

Posted: 19th July 2010 by Kerry in Blog

Random.org barfed out comment #2, who is:

 Image by Cool Text: Logo and Button GeneratorCreate Your Own

Confirmation email sent. If there’s no response within 5 days, an alternate winner will be selected.

ETA: The prize has been claimed and delivered. Thanks to everyone who entered, and especial thanks to everyone who’s contributed to me having a reason to do these giveaways.

Now, I’m going to unplug from the internet for a few days, unclench my teeth, take care of my backlog of freelance stuff, and attack BTBM.

:stabbity: <–what I do to manuscripts that backsass me

There are a lot more than two, actually, but I—surprise!—misplaced the list I had going. These are the two I remembered best.

1. Writers agonize too much over whether they should devote the first page of a story to setting the stage or jump straight into the action. That’s an issue of pace and depends mostly on the writer’s style and the demands of the story. What readers want on a first page is character. It’s loving or hating or curiosity about a character that makes readers turn the page to find out what happens next. Whether that character is navel-gazing or in the midst of stabbing somebody at the time of introduction, he or she bears the burden of being interesting and original enough to make the reader keep reading.

2. Write what you want to write, the way you want to write it. “Your” readers want your voice, your imagination, your passion for what you write, not something watered down and filtered through the neverending supply of people eager to suggest ways you can “improve” until you lose your voice, your imagination, your passion for what you write, and all the readers who liked you because of those things. Every writer should always strive to improve, but all change is not improvement. It can be a process of evolution as a writer (gradual, emphasizing strengths, minimizing weaknesses), or it can be an extreme makeover (trying to mimic the blockbuster author of the moment, jumping on every trend). The choice of path here isn’t dissimilar from how one chooses a circle of friends: Do you stand by the people who already like what you do, or do you blow them off to chase the approval of people who think you suck? Me, I’ve always been a people-who-think-I-suck-can-go-screw-themselves kind of gal with a tendency to focus on sustaining the goodwill of friendlier folks.

Why take writing lessons from readers?

(Rant about authors hanging on every word of other authors, agents, and editors and going about their business as if readers don’t matter or don’t exist redacted because, seriously, I could write a book on the subject if I had the time and the inclination to devote it to something that elevates my blood pressure until my ears pop. But in essence, there are ulterior motives behind much of the “writing advice” dispensed by many “other publishing people,” so it has to be taken with enough grains of salt to induce toxic natremia.)

Readers, on the other hand, just want good stuff to read, which intersects nicely with a writer’s goal to write stuff that is good to read.

Yeah, there’s sorting to be done in the vast inventory of reader sentiment. Not all of it is universally applicable. If I see “I’d like more historical fiction set in Colonial India…” on a reader forum, I don’t have to continue reading because that is not and never will be my area, but that’s a discussion a writer of historical fiction with an interest in Colonial India should be following because that’s her audience, her customers, her end-users, gathered together in one convenient location, discussing candidly what they want in the sort of product she’d like to sell to them. That’s a goldmine of market research.

It is not “letting readers dictate the sacred creative process” (although why it’s fine for crit partners, agents, editors, and random people on Twitter or blogs or boards who may or may not have ever written anything in their lives to leave fingerprints all over the precious creation but horrifying to think of readers doing the same is *rant rant stabbity rant*). It’s finding out, straight from the customer’s mouth, which of their needs are not being met. If a writer can find ways to meet those needs within the context of the story she wants to write, she will join the small supply for which there is a great demand. That is how good writing becomes good business.

So readers, please keep discussing the books that kept you riveted and those you’d like that aren’t being written (and doing it out in the open rather than retreating to a members-only area to avoid obnoxious authors whose only interest is bombarding you with buy-my-book spam). Some people do listen, and your voice does make a difference.

And writers… seek readers out for reasons other than self-promotion. They’re smart. They love books. They can give you a lot of insight if you just pay attention.

No-Strings-Attached $30 B&N Giftcard Giveaway

Posted: 10th July 2010 by Kerry in Blog

I have no idea how many copies of Beyond the Darkening I’ve sold through Barnes & Noble, but it was enough to get it to a sales rank of 167 today. (This is, by the way, a “Ha, look! My chicken nugget is shaped like Elvis!” thing rather than a “Neener neener, I’m so special” thing.) To commemorate this additional momentous occasion, I’m giving away a $30 giftcard from Barnes & Noble.

Same rules as last time:

How to enter: Leave ONE comment on this post—a word, a paragraph, a smiley, doesn’t matter. USE A VALID EMAIL ADDRESS in the email field. (Cross my heart, I am not mining them to spam you later. I’m not adding you to a newsletter mailing list. I’m not selling email addresses to spammy marketing sleazebags. It’s not visible to anybody viewing the comments. I just need to be able to contact the winner.)

How to get disqualified: When I say ONE comment, I mean ONE comment. IP addresses are logged and will be compared. If yours shows up more than once in the comments on this post, all of your entries will be discarded.

How to win: At the end of the contest period, I will use random.org to select the winning comment. I will announce the winner on this here blog and send a confirmation email to the winner using the email address provided. (I’m not sending $30 to a dud email address, hence the checking.) If that email address bounces or the winner does not respond within 5 days to confirm that it is a valid email address, I will use the same method to select an alternate winner.

Contest period: Entries will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. EST on July 18, 2010.

The prize: A $30 giftcard from Barnes & Noble, sent via email, redeemable in stores or online. If you can’t shop at Barnes & Noble, it’s not going to be of much use to youHere’s the official terms, limitations, and restrictions page. But if you can’t use it and for some reason want to win a really expensive but useless email, who am I to judge?

May the most fortuitously placed, randomly selected commenter win.