Tag Archives: publishing

School, Writing

Still Alive!

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This entry is part [part not set] of 73 in the series The Writing Life Blog

Wow, four months went by just like that. I’ll admit I hit a serious period of burnout thanks to last semester. Taking three creative writing workshops at the same time was not the best idea. Still, it frees me up for much easier semesters now, and next fall so it was worth it.

A whole lot has happened since then for me personally, but very little has been done writing-wise. Avatars & Identity still needs to be published, and I almost have everything I need for that. My original goal was to have all formats out and available at about the same time, but that is turning out to be fairly unrealistic. Each platform requires different formatting, which includes the cover. Right now I have two of three done. I could go ahead and push it out the door, but that means the audio book version won’t be ready for some time. Probably best not to wait any longer though. I think I’ll make submitting everything for publishing my goal this weekend. On top of homework of course.

As for this semester, I’m taking my senior creative writing thesis class (undergraduate level). This is the senior project or capstone basically, and as creative writing majors we get to pick what we want to do for this project. Naturally, I picked writing the third and final installment to Stephen’s trilogy, Revelation. I know I’ve been putting off doing this pretty heavily for some time. Part of that was not know where to start exactly. Another was just being tired of dealing with the same characters for yet another novel. A third, and something I hadn’t realized right away, was that I have a pretty good idea of what some of the major events are going to be, and they’re going to be hard to write. As tired as I may be of some of these people, it will still be hard to say goodbye. The good news is I’m already on Chapter 4, and I’ve just finished my second full week of classes. The goal is to hit about 1k words a day, which gives me more than enough time to finish the book before the semester is over. My professor for my senior project class has never received a finished, published novel before. So that’s the goal. I may not be able to get the full print version here in time, but I can definitely have a pre-pub copy ready to turn in.

Now if I just knew where this next chapter was going…

Publishing, Writing

Kindle Scout: Three Days Left

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This entry is part [part not set] of 5 in the series Live Writing

There are just three days left for my Kindle Scout campaign for my novel Avatars & Identity. As of midnight this morning my campaign page has a total of 105 hits over 28 days. That’s a little less than four hits per day. While I have no idea how good or bad that is since Amazon doesn’t reveal anything about their selection criteria, my gut instinct tells me this isn’t good enough by far. I find this to be pretty disappointing, but also not the end of the world. The book is ready to publish so even if Amazon doesn’t pick it up, I’m prepared to put it up on all of the usual self-publishing sites. There’s still the small hope that I’ll get picked up regardless, but I’m definitely preparing for the opposite. Hopefully I’ll know by Friday/Saturday, though the decision may not happen until Monday.

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My Kindle Scout Campaign is Live!

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This entry is part [part not set] of 73 in the series The Writing Life Blog

I was super excited to get the email telling me that I’d been accepted and that my campaign would go live today. So now I have 30 days to get as many nominations as possible. They don’t reveal the number of nominations unfortunately so I won’t have any idea of just how many are coming in on a daily basis. No idea what their threshold is for acceptance. Basically the most any author can do it submit the best, finished book they can. Avatars & Identity was the first book I managed to find a copy editor for so I can at least be confident that it’s my best work so far. Getting published by Amazon would be a big step forward, of course. Having someone actively pushing your book can only help with getting the word out.

The whole system is pretty cool. Anyone with an Amazon account can nominate up to three books a month. I’ll probably spend some time in the next couple of weeks checking out other books up for nomination. I’ve got two free slots to fill after all! For anyone interested, this is the link to my campaign:

https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/2IWW36YM9USU5

Here’s hoping I make the final cut!

Writing, Business & Moore, Publishing, School

Frantic

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This entry is part [part not set] of 73 in the series The Writing Life Blog

I’m really hoping the frantic pace I’ve had to maintain this past week and weekend won’t be the one needed to get through this semester. It was my first full week of classes. Today is Sunday, and I’m exhausted. I had a paper due today, I’ve got another due (much longer) Tuesday, with two more due soon after. I suppose the hardest part for me is keeping track of each little task required for each class and making sure I get them done on time.

I managed today’s deadline for the paper (an obituary for my non-fiction class), but it really was a struggle. I think it was mostly because the obit wasn’t about someone I knew personally. That made research and fact-checking more time consuming than actually writing the damn thing. Thankfully the next assignment is based on personal experience.

The bit that’s due Tuesday is for my fiction workshop and is a short story based on a dream I had last Thursday. The dream was so vivid and provided such a strong basis for a story that I went to school early to start working on it. By the end of the day I had ten pages done. Clearly fiction is my strong suit.

In other news, formatting and all of the necessary bits for Avatars & Identity was finally done this evening. Which means I was able to submit it all to the Kindle Scout program. According to their info, I’ll hear back from them in a day or two if it gets accepted. Then it’s a month and a half wait to find out if enough readers like it for them to take it on and publish it. Of course I’m hoping to get published as having Amazon push my book for me is a very appealing thought. More importantly though I think it will go a long way toward establishing my presence as an author. That’s the idea anyway. Time will tell.

Business & Moore, Publishing, School, Writing, Method

First Impressions

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Now that I’m in my third week of classes (but only my first full week thanks to our ridiculous starting schedule) and I’ve had at least one session with every class I have mostly put my fears to rest. I like all of my classes, though some more than others. Unexpectedly, I am seriously enjoying my ENG242 English Literature class. It’s one of two required for all English majors and covers English Literature from the late 18th century onward. We’ll be reading “Pride and Prejudice,” “Wuthering Heights,” and other classics. So far though we’ve only gone through selections from Kant’s Analytic of the Beautiful and Schiller’s Letters on the Aesthetical Education of Man. I’ve been far more interested in this very thick and heavy reading than anything from my previous literature class. My least favorite class so far is my creative non-fiction workshop. Mostly because I’ve always been a fiction writer, and reader, at heart. I’ll read most any story if it’s done well but somehow fiction has always resonated more with me. Still, it’s very early days.

What I didn’t underestimate, and fully expected, was the workload accompanying taking four English classes: one literature and three workshops. I’m already a very busy bee doing classwork. Pile on top the copy edited version of Avatars & Identity that I still need to finish plus the audio book version of Transformation that I need to get through ASAP and I’m swamped. I really wish both of my book items would have been ready for me before school started but thems the breaks, as they say. For now I’m up to date with homework and slowly chipping away at the rest.

Crowdfunding, Gaming, Writing, Imagination, Live Writing

The Semester’s End & Things to Come

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This entry is part [part not set] of 73 in the series The Writing Life Blog

So yesterday I had my last final. I’m really glad it’s done but I’d also like to kick the person who decided to hold finals and graduation on the same day. Seriously stupid. Why not have graduation on Saturday instead? Makes way more sense. Whatever, it’s done and I’m pretty sure I did well on both of the finals I had to take. My hand is still mad at me though. Nothing like having to hand-write a five page essay in under an hour. Fun times. Now though it’s time to move on to super fun things!

Starting Monday, barring any life events, I will be starting my new Fuzzy Adventures series. All of the gear I needed to make it happen came in on Thursday. Took me a good day or so to get everything set up as well. Still have to do a few things on the software end but that shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Tested out the video capture card by hooking up my trusty old PS2 and booting up the first game I’m going to use for my Adventures series: Castlevania – Symphony of the Night. I wasn’t sure I was going to start with that one but the Kickstarter for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night decided me. For those who haven’t heard it is a gothic-themed side scrolling action adventure RPG made by the same guy who co-directed Symphony of the Night (SOTN). In his opening video he says that he’s wanted to do another game like SOTN for a long time but the AAA publishers say there’s no demand for such a game. Considering the campaign is already at $2.1 million with 27 days left to go I’d say the AAA have their heads up their asses. That’s not news though. Personally I’m really glad crowdfunding has allowed game developers to give AAA pubs the finger and do what they and the gamers want: make awesome games without publisher oversight and interference. Just look at what happened to Maxis and Simcity. EA took a beloved franchise and forced Maxis to limit and monetize the game to the point that it was a huge failure. Then EA blames Maxis and closes them down. Fuckers. But I digress.

I’m excited that I’ll be using my Twitch channel quite a bit more. I still plan on doing Live Writing sessions since I have plenty of writing to get done this summer. Each Fuzzy Adventure will entail quite a bit of writing per episode. I haven’t decided how long each finished video will be since I don’t know how long it will take me to do the writing for every 15 minutes of game play. I suspect that will vary greatly from game to game. SOTN isn’t exactly plot or dialogue heavy so I’ll be making a lot of stuff up to tell an interesting story. If and when I get to games like Final Fantasy 6 or Crono Trigger though I’m sure the writing portions will be much, much longer with less deviation from the game plot & dialogue. Either way I’m super excited to get going on this!

Publishing, School, Writing, Exams, Inspiration, Method

A Quick Update

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This entry is part [part not set] of 73 in the series The Writing Life Blog

It is now the last week of classes at UW Madison so things are hectic indeed. Next week come the finals. My Create Writing class doesn’t have a formal final thankfully so once I turn my portfolio in on Friday I’m done with the graded work. Not done with the class though as we are putting together some of the stuff we worked on over the semester to publish as a free ebook. I offered this as an opportunity to the class and everyone was all for it. I’m interested to see how it turns out.

In other news the UW Creative Writing Award ceremony is this Thursday and since I submitted a couple of things to two different contests I will be attending. They don’t tell the winners ahead of time so you have to show up to find out. A rather devious way of making sure plenty of people attend, not just the winners. No idea what my chances are but I’m not holding out much hope. I am a very new writer after all.

I also received my very first rejection notice from the folks over at Flash Fiction. Woot! I was pretty happy to see that and I plan to keep every rejection I get as a souvenir of the work I’ve done. This may seem a bit strange but I think of it as proof that I’m really giving this writing thing my all. I hope to have many, many more rejections by the end of summer. And a few acceptances as well of course. Without classes to worry about I have some big plans. Which I need to sit down and write out. After finals.

Publishing, School, Writing, Inspiration, Career, General, Life

On Editing and Finishing My Third Novel

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This entry is part [part not set] of 73 in the series The Writing Life Blog

I finished my third novel, Avatars & Identity, on Tuesday! Which was good since I’m now out of town and not really in a position to spend much time writing. It’s exciting to know that I’m still pushing on with the whole writing as a career thing even if I’m not writing as quickly as I’d like to. Part of that is just how much time school takes up. As a transfer student approved at the last minute I signed up for classes less than a week before my first day. That meant my schedule has been less than ideal. Fall semester should be much more accommodating though so that’s a plus. I’ll be doing so much writing, and much of it should be publishable. Also a plus. Yet with my third novel done and it being clear that this isn’t a passing fancy it’s time to seriously look for a professional editor. Dun dun DUUUUUUUUN.

Up to this point I’ve just been using feedback from friends and family. They’ve got a good amount of mistakes but there are plenty left in. I was okay with that when I was just starting out but now I really want to put my best foot forward whenever I publish something. Thus a professional editor is necessary. Thankfully my sister pointed out we have one among our friends so I’m in the process of getting that worked out. I know it’s going to cost a good chunk of my meager income but I think having well-edited novels is worth it.

Insomnia, Publishing, School, Writing, Live Writing, Method

Midterm Madness (or Damn You Daylight Saving Time!!!)

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This entry is part [part not set] of 73 in the series The Writing Life Blog

This is a big week in school for me with two midterms, both in literature, on the same day. Coming on the end of an exhausting weekend has made this a tough Monday. Thanks to Daylight Savings my roommate’s bus to the airport came an hour early. Despite the fact that Daylight Saving didn’t officially start until 2AM on Sunday. No notice on their website of any kind that they decided to use midnight as the change over point. Thus did a frantic drive ensue where we powered down to O’Hare and back in the wee, and not so wee, hours of the morning on Sunday. To this I can say that naps do not adequately replace a full-night’s sleep and so today has been a very tired one.

On the writing front I’ll be submitting a few of my select pieces, poetry and fiction, to a couple of undergraduate contests. I’m pretty nervous about this and I have no idea what my chances are, but I’m going to go for it. The prizes are very small so it would definitely be more about the recognition and getting my work out there than anything else. It would also be nice to know that people like what I do. The hard part now is sitting down and deciding which items to submit. How do you know what your best work is?

As far as the whole audio book process goes, I’ve selected the reader/producer I want to work with but I am still waiting for ACX to finalize my account info. Until that happens I’m not allowed to make offers on their site. I know I submitted my books, and account info, late Wednesday night so effectively they’ve had 2.5 work days to get my stuff done. It still feels like it’s taking forever. I’m super eager to get this audio book show on the road already.

 

BTW, why for the love of my holey socks do we still observe Daylight Saving Time?! Enough is enough I say!

 

If you like these and other posts, feel free to check out my other work:

My Fiction on Tumblr: http://fuzzynerdcorner.tumblr.com/

My Fiction on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fuzzynerd?ty=a (Some activity requires Patron Status.)

My Live Writing, Editing, and other videos: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFZHBRlGb3-RFEr2BXQPi-Q

If you’d like to help a budding author you can also support me on Patreon:

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Publishing, Writing, Method

The Audio Book Process

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This entry is part [part not set] of 73 in the series The Writing Life Blog

Last night I posted both of my published books, Induction and Transformation, on ACX (Audiobook Creation Exchange) to get the ball rolling for an audio book format. Late last night in fact. It was suggested by the forms I filled out that I include marketing information as well as info about the books. In the end I just included a brief summary of where the books are available for sale. I’m such a new writer, and not J.K. Rowling, that there’s little point in trying to brag about sales, followers, or popularity. Apparently that was good enough because there are already auditions for both books. This is a very promising start to a process that is completely new to me. Here’s hoping things continue going this smoothly.

The breakdown of the process is this (just for ACX of course):

  • Decide to put a book/story/etc up to be produced in audio format
  • Fill out the title info including info about the work, reader voice preferences, etc
  • Decide on royalty format
  • Submit the info and open your work to auditions
  • Review auditions
  • Accept preferred audition.
  • Producer will create a 15 minute initial sample of your work
  • Approve or Disapprove the sample (Disapproval requires submitting change requests)
  • Producer finishes audio version of your work by agreed upon date
  • Final approval of work (with any necessary changes)
  • Audio version goes on sale (with ACX it sells on Audible, iTunes, and Amazon)

 

It’s a pretty straightforward process, and unlike most software licenses I sat down and ready every bit of fine print before agreeing to the terms. My favorite parts of the terms were that the Author or owner of rights to the work retain those rights and that the standard contract term is just 7 years. Both of those are very important to me after reading about all of the horror stories of authors who signed away their rights to traditional publishing companies for life. All in all I am incredibly excited to be doing this and exploring yet another avenue for getting my work out into the world. It just goes to show that with these new tools and sites anyone can make their dream of publishing come true.

 

If you like these and other posts, feel free to check out my other work:

Fiction on Tumblr: http://fuzzynerdcorner.tumblr.com/

Fiction on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fuzzynerd?ty=a (Some activity requires Patron Status.)

Live Writing, Editing, and other videos: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFZHBRlGb3-RFEr2BXQPi-Q

If you’d like to help a budding author you can also support me on Patreon:

kaGh5_patreon_name_and_message