My new book cover is here for “The Solitary Apocalypse,” as you may be aware. It’s not exactly a secret at this point. I’m really happy with what I ended up with. Since I just got the proof copy of the print version, I wanted to dive into it a bit and look at why I made the decisions with it that I did. [Read more…] about Anatomy of a Book Cover
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What happens when someone steals your book title?
When I was getting ready to publish my first novel, “Killing the Immortals,” last year, I did a good deal of research on the title to make sure there was nothing similar in the marketplace that it would be confused with. I was excited about the title, and wanted to have something unique. Fortunately, there was nothing like it out there, so I plowed forward with it last July.
Suddenly, though, I noticed last week that a Bosnian author self-published a book on June 30 with the title “Killing the Immortal.” So, basically the same title as mine. I don’t publish a book for 37 years, put out my first one, and then somebody essentially rips off my unique title within a year. It was a little bit frustrating. [Read more…] about What happens when someone steals your book title?
Does the book’s title really matter?
I had this discussion on Facebook recently, as I consulted with various people on what the title of my upcoming novel should be. On my first book, once “Killing the Immortals” came to me, it was one of those proverbial light bulbs popping up above my head. Maybe literally. I can’t say for sure. But it was fairly bright in the room at the time, so perhaps.
Anyway, I knew right away that was the title. It was striking, a little mysterious, and had a seemingly contradictory nature that I liked. I love forcing readers to ask themselves a question they can only answer by reading whatever it is I wrote. “How can you kill immortals?” Know how you’re gonna find out? Buy my book and read the thing, damn it. [Read more…] about Does the book’s title really matter?
Three mistakes I made with my first book
While my next novel faces my editor’s red pen, I’ve been thinking about how to make this next book release better than my first one. Not that it was a disaster or anything, but I figure I should always try to improve. When you’re a self-published author, it’s all on you. So if you don’t find ways to improve, nobody’s gonna do it for you, and there’s plenty of competition ready to lap you if you’re moving slow.
So, I was looking back at what I did for that first book release, and I picked out three mistakes I want to make sure I don’t replicate. And, hey, if you’re an author, maybe you can learn from my stupid mistakes so that you don’t make the same ones. Because I’m a helper. [Read more…] about Three mistakes I made with my first book
What does an editor do?
Been a busy month or so. Spent two weeks wandering around Europe, and worked through the beta-reader edits on my next novel. Just sent it off to my professional editor yesterday, and that means we may see a final product around the beginning of August. You guys may get your hands on this book yet.
Just as I did shove my book out of its protective little nest, I ran across this terrific breakdown of how to pick an editor from the endlessly helpful Shayla from Curiouser Editing. It really goes into detail on what an author needs to be thinking about as he makes the fateful decision on who will be his manuscript’s bridge from being a crappy rough draft no one should have to read to being a publishable book that people might actually pay money for. [Read more…] about What does an editor do?
Do You Have Enough Story for a Novel?
One of the questions I’ve been pondering as I’ve worked on my next short story/novella/whatever it turns out to be is, well, what it’s going to turn out to be. Is there actually enough story here for it to unexpectedly sneak its way to novel status, or will it just settle in as a longer short story? [Read more…] about Do You Have Enough Story for a Novel?