Category: Artists

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Is Amazon the Author’s Friend or Foe?

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Horror fiction by Kevin Doyle involving feral children

Some of my fellow scribes badmouth Amazon using words that would make my Mylar balloons cringe. Others view Amazon, Kindle and all, as a nice way to earn greenbacks. I’ve sat on both sides of the fence, but the spokes on that fence get thorny after a while, even with my balloons supporting me. So I decided to get off my fence, especially with Kevin Doyle’s book, The Litter, coming out. NTD is offering it for preorder on Amazon and Smashwords now, and the book goes live February 13.

Up until now, the preorder option hadn’t been available for me. But when I got the chance, I jumped at the opportunity. Given the temperament of Pennsylvania winters and the weather’s effect on power lines and servers, I wanted that book uploaded ahead of time. So I got to work on Kindle first. It came time to choose a price. I was thinking $4.99, but a window popped up with Amazon’s advice on what I should charge. They pointed out that similar books sold best at $2.99, with the worst sales being $6.00 and up. So they recommended $2.99 at the 70% option.

Here’s a secret, buckaroos. If you go with Amazon’s 70% option, you have to accept the lending option. That means readers may borrow your book for two weeks. If they finish before that time is up, they can return the book without paying a dime. Ergo, fewer sales for you. If you go with 35%, you can refuse to lend, get more sales, but only realize 35% royalties. Amazon keeps the rest.

I went with my $4.99, and refused lending. Other things play into the price of choice which I don’t think Amazon considered – the size of your following, the strength of your platform, reviews, and publicity tours.

I know one author who made fair to middling sales. Hoping to get more, he dropped his price to $2.99. His sales tanked. Why? Because sometimes it sends a message that author didn’t think his work was worth much. By the same token, I can see why Amazon doesn’t recommend prices at $6.00 and up. For Stephen King and Jonathan Maberry, most people will shell out $7.00 or more for their eBooks, but it’s a big ask for them to pony up $7.00 for an unknown author.

So with Kevin’s book going live, it’s time I got off my fence. Here are several things I’ve noticed.

  • Amazon is the self-published author’s best friend. It’s easy to upload a cover and manuscript in HTML, and simple to set up a website on Author Central. A big plus!
  • Amazon discourages an author (and publisher) from charging a decent price for eBooks, and thus devalues the worth of their hard work. Not good.
  • Amazon grants incentives to people for buying books through them, thus driving business away from bookstores, and in effect putting them out of business. This is sad, because the employees have to seek work somewhere else. I hate the repercussions.
  • During the winter months, Amazon has been my ace in the hole when I can’t get supplies at my local stores. I can often find books that I can’t get at local stores, too.
  • The KDP Select program promises sales but demands that you not use any other distributors. I tried this on a book and it didn’t improve sales. I’ve heard this observation from others.
  • CreateSpace lures authors by promising more exposure on Amazon. I notice better sales I think because Amazon’s popular with readers. They do a great job on trade paperbacks; I’ve been happy with Twilight Healer and City of Brotherly Death. With NTD magazine, I got a slightly better quality of cover with Lulu. I’ve checked out Lightning Source and note a yearly charge to distribute books before I can publish and sell. So I’d give Amazon props on this one.
  • Amazon makes it difficult for the small press publisher because of what I said earlier about the 70% option versus the 35% option. Before I pay authors, I get 35% of the sale if I want to avoid lending. Grrrrrrr!
  • The Amazon reviews offer a great boon for platform building. Prospective readers will take those reviews to heart, and that’s a big plus.
  • Amazon can be controlling. You do what they say or else reviews and like buttons disappear from your site. That stinks.

So there you have it – four good points, five bad. I have found Amazon neither friend nor foe. I consider him like a business partner who might surprise me with a Mylar balloon, but will try to sell me wolf tickets. Your thoughts?

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Wintertime Blues

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Barbara's loyal balloons guide her with writing.

The balloons help energize Barbara.

Do you struggle with wintertime blues? I know I do as the days get shorter. I went to a condo homeowner’s association meeting last night and sat in a chair prepared to listen and take notes. Instead, I nodded off to sleep during a good part of the meeting. No one chatted about Mylar balloons, nor did I regale anyone with my latest balloon adventure at the Giant and Acme supermarkets. No seminars on writing techniques or opportunities to get a critique on my WIP. Instead, the conversation centered over graphs, numbers, and charts as the Board discussed the upcoming 2015 budget. Every so often, tempers exploded over some imaginary error a Board member committed. I frankly felt that the Board members deserved serious balloons!

What’s more, the meeting room was cold, enough to necessitate my sweater and winter coat. I suspect the people in charge dropped the temperatures so that the attendees would stay awake and pay attention. Their actions had the opposite effect on me. Cold drains my energy, and during winter I need an average of nine hours of sleep each night. I do my best writing and meeting attendance on my “off” days from work when I’m rested. During the winter, I’m more liable to sleep through a meeting. Come spring, I’ll have more energy for meetings and the like. My doctors mention seasonal affective disorder, but I think of it as the wintertime blues.

Last year, when I worked under a deadline during the winter, I made the writing my first priority when I get home from work, while I still had energy left. I need to start doing that again. Then after seven, I can go through my email, wrestle with my balloons, or browse the online shops. Buying a Mylar balloon should help my energy stores, too.

Do you struggle with the wintertime blues? How does it affect your writing and other activities? What helps you shore up energy during the cold winter? I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this.

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Author David Gelber’s Finding the Time

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Night Clinic was written by David GelberTwenty four hours is just not enough. It’s all I have, however. And that creates the dilemma. People get sick, stabbed, bowels burst, tumors grow and these ill or injured parties arrive at any and all hours. Just when is a body supposed to find the time to jot down a clever phrase or create a tragic romance?

When I first took a stab at writing in 2006, there just weren’t nearly as many sick people. My clinic comfortably saw about fifteen patients in an afternoon, call nights brought someone with appendicitis every third night or so, and I was usually home in time for dinner. Now it’s a very slow day when I only see fifteen clinic patients. A typical day on call for the ER call brings me three appendectomies and dinner is now at eight instead of six.

Finding time has become a real problem. My solution is to think and imagine and ponder whenever I have a few moments to stop and reflect. Ideas pop into my head and I commit them to memory until I find a moment to record these thoughts, eventually shaping them into a story. But time doesn’t stop.

“Night Clinic,” the collection of short stories which is the subject of this tour, is a direct result of this quandary about time. “ITP: Book Three,” the third installment of my futuristic science fiction trilogy languishes in my computer because of this shortage of time, its surface barely scratched. Short stories and article proliferate as the scarcity of general surgeons and the expanding number of sick and injured people reduce my writing time. Short stories are far more amenable to a busy irregular schedule than novels.

If I had my druthers, I would reverse it and spend hours every day thinking and imagining and creating, while reserving my surgical skills for those unusual cases which pique my interest. It would have been nice if the law makers of this land had legislated that people are only allowed to get sick between the hours of ten in the morning and five in the afternoon. Then again, it’s possible that buried deep in Obamacare is a rule stating just this. It’s probably on page 1872, paragraph 3. After all, no one ever has had the time or desire to read the entire Affordable Care Act.

But, for now, I search for time, ten minutes here, thirty minutes there and the result is “Night Clinic,” a brilliant and inspired collection of short stories. Visit the “Night Clinic” where you will find depressed vampires, morbidly obese superheroes, dwarves, strippers, dragons, and so much more under one roof. I am glad I found the time to write these stories. “Night Clinic” offers some of the most creative, clever and imaginative writing I’ve ever done. I am sure you will enjoy it.

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written by David GelberBLURB:

“Night Clinic” is a collection of short stories which tell the unusual events which occur at the free clinic attended by Dr. Barnes and Nurse James. Monsters, magical beasts, villains along with ordinary folks come to the clinic looking for health and hope.

“Night Clinic” is a unique melding of medicine and magic.

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David Gelber authored Night Clinic.AUTHOR Bio and Links:

David Gelber, a New York native, is the seventh of nine sons and one of three to pursue medicine. He graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1980 and went on to graduate medical school in 1984 from the University of Rochester.

He completed a residency in General Surgery at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, and Nassau County Medical Center on Long Island, NY, in 1989. Dr. Gelber now is in private practice in Houston, TX.

Gelber has been performing surgery for more than 25 years, but over the last few years he began to pursue his passion for writing, initially with his debut novel, “Future Hope”, followed by its sequel “Joshua and Aaron.”

These were followed by two books about surgery “Behind the Mask” and “Under the Drapes.” The apocalyptic “Last Light” and historical fantasy “Minotaur Revisited” round out his published works, while numerous articles have appeared on his blog “Heard in the OR.”

Now he presents “Little Bit’s Story” and his collection of magical medical short stories, “Night Clinic.”

He has been married to Laura for 28 years and has three college aged children. He and Laura share their home with five dogs and numerous birds.

Books Published:

Future Hope ITP Book One

Joshua and Aaron ITP Book Two

Minotaur Revisited

Behind the Mask: The Mystique of Surgery and the Surgeons who Perform Them

Under the Drapes: More Mystique of Surgery

Last Light (e-book only)

Blog: Heard in the OR  http://heardintheor.blogspot.com

http://www.davidgelber.com

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2747647.David_Gelber

http://www.amazon.com/Night-Clinic-David-Gelber-ebook/dp/B00O3R8760/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416357751&sr=1-1&keywords=night+clinic+david+gelber

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/night-clinic-david-gelber/1120433341?ean=9780982076392

David will be awarding a $50 Amazon/B&N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour, and a $25 Amazon/B&N GC to a randomly drawn host.

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Excerpt: “Speaking of bizarre and crazy, you are aware that the Intergalactic Convention is in town again? Star Trek, Star Wars, and every other outer space franchise all together. So I’m sure we’ll get our share of phaser burns, blaster bruises, and transporter malfunctions. Oh, and to get us off on the right foot, Derek is back with his annual ‘Trouble with Tribbles.’ I’ve left all the usual instruments in the room for you.”

“Not again,” I moaned. “You would think that after four, no five years, he would learn.”

I picked up the chart and gave it a careless glance. Before I saw the words I knew the problem. I walked into the exam room and saw Derek, a regular visitor, lying on his side on the exam table. Seated on a sterile tray were a rigid sigmoidoscope and a tenaculum.

“Derek, we’ve got to stop meeting like this,” I scolded. “And think of the poor Tribbles. They’re supposed to be comforting, I know, but you’re just supposed to hold them.”

“I do hold them, Dr. Barnes; for a little while. But, the way they coo and vibrate and shake, the possibilities are endless.”

“I hope it’s as simple as last year,” I remarked.

I put on a glove and lubed up my index finger and checked up in Derek’s rectum. Sure enough there was a furry object vibrating just inside. Past experience told me not to try to grab it with my hand; it would just slip away. I greased up the scope and passed it into his rectum. Immediately I visualized a furry yellow ball which was shaking and making low Tribble noises. I reached in with the tenaculum and grabbed the object in its mid portion like a pro and pulled scope and tenaculum out with a single, gentle pull. The Tribble, which was a toy available at the convention, popped out.

“Just one this year?” I asked, although I already knew there would be more.

“No, three,” he replied.

I repeated the routine, pulling out one purple and one red Tribble, both larger that the first and still vibrating.

“I’ll dispose of these for you, Derek. And, please, stay away from Tribbles. You know they’re nothing but trouble.”

He gave a short grunt as I walked out of the exam room.

“What’s next, Nurse?”

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Anne Michaud’s Hunter’s Trap

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Hunter's_trap-FINAL_FRONT

BLURB

Seventeen-year-old Dayton Mulligan is stuck looking after his little brother Jeremy when their father goes off on his annual hunting trip. But when Dad’s last phone call ends in a shotgun blast, it’s enough to send both boys out into a blizzard to search for him.

Caught in the killer weather, Dayton and Jeremy take refuge in an abandoned hunting cabin, which isn’t as empty as it first seems. A ghost inhabits its walls and promises to reveal the truth behind their father’s disappearance, but the brothers doubt their host’s sincerity as the spirit demonstrates its hatred for anyone who trespasses on its land.

Far from the safety of civilization, Dayton must swallow his fears, fight for himself and for his family before it’s too late and Hunter’s Trap claims them all, forever.

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Hunter'sTrapHS-anne.michaud

Author Information and Buy Links:

She who likes dark things never grew up. She never stopped listening to gothic, industrial and alternative bands like when she was fifteen. She always loved to read horror and dystopia and fantasy, where doom and gloom drip from the pages.

She who was supposed to make films, decided to write short stories, novelettes and novels instead. She, who’s had her films listed on festival programs, has been printed in a dozen anthologies and magazines since. Now, novels bearing her name are seeing the world, one title after the other.

She who likes dark things prefers night to day, rain to sun, and reading to anything else.

She blogs http://annecmichaud.com

She tweets @annecmichaud

She Facebook https://www.facebook.com/annecmichaud

Goodreads link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22674236-hunter-s-trap

Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NFH0D1G/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-5&pf_rd_r=0C3Y368HVP59BF3P59AE&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1688200422&pf_rd_i=507846

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“Shhhh…” Dayton whispered to his brother, and Jeremy hid his mouth behind his scarf, eyes so big they ate his face.

Mumblings, vestiges of a fight. Not one but two voices came from above, and neither of them their father’s. “You have responsibilities, son,” a man said. “You can’t just leave me and never come back. We are family, we share the same blood.”

“I want none of it,” the other answered, sounding younger. “I hate you, I always hated you.” Stumps and clunks came from the first floor.

A trickle of sweat made its way down Dayton’s neck. His mind was racing as to why neither of these men had answered his calls, why they’d remained hidden until now, and how long it would be before they called the forest rangers on the brothers.

“Remember where the front door is?” Dayton spoke so low, Jeremy kept his eyes on his brother’s lips. “When I say go, you run, ‘kay?” After a quick nod from Jeremy, Dayton held his breath and climbed the steps as silently as possible.

Above their heads, footsteps creaked on the floor­boards so heavily that dust fell from between the planks. Dayton’s blood froze, unsure if his body reacted to the danger of being discovered or to how he found it hard to breathe in this airless basement. The fight started again, but fainter, from the back of the cabin.

The younger man screamed, “I took care of it, it’s more than you ever did.”

The second barked, “You shot him in the back, like the coward that you are.” Distorted but discernible, each word sent electric shocks down Dayton’s back.

The first added, his voice peaking, “That’s what he deserved. Just you watch what I do to the next trespass­ers.” Dayton and Jeremy were the unwanted, the strang­ers, the people that didn’t belong there. “They can hear us,” said the last man.

A gunshot exploded so close and loud, Dayton crouched down, bringing Jeremy down with him. Dayton stayed strong against the awkward hug, feeling his broth­er’s nose and opened mouth against his thick clothes, reaching his skin and bones with the same horror. No holes broke the door, untouched as they left it minutes before.

Dayton climbed a step, then another, always making sure Jeremy stayed close behind. Grabbing his knife, Dayton shook fear out of his mind, and twisted the knob. The door whined. He stopped pushing, swallowing bile down.

“Who asked for help, Dayt?” Jeremy asked, his ques­tion a tremble. “Was it them? Do they want us to go help them?” he sounded about ready to cry, again.

“I don’t know, but let’s not find out. Can you still hear them?” Dayton searched the dark hall and the open space before him, both empty. “In the room.” He pointed with the tip of his blade toward the first door, the locked one, where the two men must have been hiding and still were. But they’d come out, Dayton had seen the floorboards move, and crack and leak dust.

But right now, he didn’t see or hear them: he felt their presence, as if they were waiting for the brothers to show themselves. As if they were facing him but he was blind; as if they were screaming at him but he was deaf. All that fresh air must have gone to his head, making him dizzy and hallucinating.

Another shot echoed and Dayton grabbed Jeremy’s hand and pulled him to the front door. “Go!” Dayton speeded to the bright light coming from the window on the door, but his brother slowed him down.

“Our stuff!” Jeremy cried out, pointing to the opened backpack by the fire.

“Shit!” Dayton raced back and bent over to grab the opened backpack, but in his haste, its contents spilled to the four corners of the room: the flashlight, the food, the extra clothes he’d made Jeremy roll tight like cigars. “Leave it,” he screamed, dropping the bag altogether when a shadow moved toward them, faster than the blink of an eye.

The knob’s cold metal chilled Dayton’s cuts as he pulled the door and faced the accumulated snow. With Jeremy right behind him, Dayton stumbled down the porch, not looking back. The cabin’s warmth left behind, the cold blizzard hit them in full force.

Dayton expected another gunshot, maybe two, this time aimed at him and Jeremy. He could almost smell the gunpowder, feel the pain in his chest as the bullet rippled through his flesh. He could almost hear the ringing of the shot. He waited for it, as he pushed deeper into the fury of snow and wind, but it never came.

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Why Has Night to Dawn Magazine Gone to the Zombies?

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Night to Dawn features an unholy blend of zombie fiction, vampire tales, and dark poetry.When I first became editor of Night to Dawn Magazine, I read each submission carefully, trying to find unique twists to the vampire monster. After all, I had the credentials; I’d just published Twilight Healer and seen many of my short vampire tales in small press magazines. But then Mike had taken me to two consecutive mummy flicks (back in the days before he’d gotten sick). Author Jonathan Maberry introduced me to zombies, and Tom Johnson had me writing SF and mystery tales for his publications. Before long, I started seeking mummies, zombies, evil aliens, and psychotic killers for my magazine. What’s more, my novels have turned toward evil aliens and zombies for monsters, and in some cases, the helium found in balloons was used for a weapon.

After reading enough tales and watching enough flicks about monsters, I realized that for me, the zombie makes the truest monster. Why? It takes me back to my childhood, when I visited a 1000-year-old woman on display in Atlantic City. The picture on the billboard displayed a model, but when I entered a room surrounded by drapes, I happened upon a skeletal woman dressed in rags, lying in an oversized bathtub. She sat up and waved to everyone. Later on, I found out that she was a well-preserved mummy, and the bathtub was actually a sarcophagus. Of course, people used mechanics and thin wires to make the body move. But at age ten, I didn’t know about such things. I only know that a dead woman was sitting in a bathtub, and I fled from the pavilion screaming.

Every author has his or her own pet monster, even if they don’t write horror. Tom Johnson specializes in pulp crime and SF, but you’ll find plenty of monsters (dinosaurs) in his Jur novels. In Michael De Stefano’s Gunslinger’s Companion, the criminals and some plantation owners behave worse than supernatural monsters. As everyone knows, humans can make the worst fiends. Stephen King finds monsters everywhere he looks—cell phones, revenants, psychotic killers, and yes, even helium balloons. Every author has their own reasons for choosing a given monster.

For me, the zombie serves as stark reminder of that mummified woman, and so naturally the zombie has shambled into Night to Dawn. My expectation is that future issues will include more zombie tales. Dead walkers terrorize people in Steel Rose and will continue to do so in its sequel. So…I’d love to hear about the monster that appears most in your fiction and why you’ve chosen this monster. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

I’m offering a signed copy of Steel Rose (first prize) and copy of Night to Dawn 26 (second prize) to a random commenter. Overseas winners will receive Starbucks gift cards and PDF copies.

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Getting through Tough Edits

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Gemini WordsmithsThe denizens of hell attack in Barbara Custer's Steel Rose. completed the developmental edit on Blood Moon Rising, the sequel for Steel Rose, and the edits needed are extensive. Many of the fixes involve point of view, repetitive words or phrases, and inconsistencies in the plot. Better that these problems are caught now when I can fix them rather than having a reviewer call them out on her blog later. Yay, Gemini Wordsmiths! All the same, it’s taken several Mylar balloon acquisitions to fortify me for the work needed.

Most of the fixes are easy, and my editors have been patient with my questions. Some things I’m finding out I can look for when revising before sending to an editor. I’ve been struggling with repetition, clichés not so much, but I have seen clichés on others’ manuscripts. Solution: Prowriting Aid. I’ve found Prowriting to be a useful tool for winnowing out clichés, redundancies, and repetitive verbs and phrases. In this way, it works as a second pair of eyes. I regret not using Prowriting for Blood Moon Rising. Live and learn.

The Prowriting Aid didn’t help with the POV problems, however. I’ve noticed POV inconsistencies on other people’s manuscripts, too, problems similar to what you see in the following paragraph.

A bouquet of six Mylar butterflies, a rainbow assortment of red, greens, blues, and purples, called to Cassandra from the display stand. The soft shushing sounds they made when she ran her fingers through them brought a smile to her face. She just had to have them. The cashier, upon hearing the balloon sounds, called out, “Can I help you?”

That last sentence is a no-no because we’re in Cassandra’s head. So how would she know what the cashier heard? A better way to word that last sentence might be: The cashier’s voice impinged on her thoughts. “Can I help you?” he asked.

I can resolve most POV issues without making major structural changes. The plot flaws require more work, the guidance of an editor, plus lots of Mylar balloons to get me through a tough chore. Many of my plot inconsistencies happened in the second half of the book. The first half got evaluated, rewritten, and evaluated again through writers’ conferences, etc. and thus saw editing done before Gemini Wordsmiths got the file. Not so for the second half. If I had my do-overs, I would have completed the first draft before attempting any revisions like the pros recommended. Instead, I wrote two chapters, edited them, moved on to the third and fourth chapters, edited again, and so forth.

I’d like to recommend a blog “10 Words to Search For,” which helped me cut the fat in my manuscripts. Juliet Madison suggested ditching words like very, just, almost, began, and start. I did a Word Search and Find, which enabled me to substitute the word with something better or ditch altogether. The plot issues are the hardest to fix, because even in a horror or SF novel, the world has to stay consistent. The characters should act consistently, too; if not, then I’d better come up with a good reason for the aberration in behavior.

So…what do you find most difficult about revising a manuscript? How do you get through the tougher edits? Do you use any shortcuts for self-editing? I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this.

I’m offering a signed copy of Steel Rose (first prize) and copy of Night to Dawn 26 (second prize) to a random commenter. Overseas winners will receive Starbucks gift cards and PDF copies.

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