Book Update

I've spent the past two days trying to improve my author presence on the internet. It's all a part of 'marketing' and 'author platform building'. Erg. Just saying those things make me sick.

As with most people, I'm terrified of putting myself out there and asking, "Hey, could you look at me, please?" People who know me know that I don't really have a problem talking about my book in real life. I've wrangled practically everyone I know into reading it. (If I haven't asked you and you're interested, just let me know!) I actually feel bad about how much I talk about it, so I've tried to cut back.

On the net, however, I don't feel comfortable seeking out readers. It's not that I have a problem talking. I doubt very many people will actually read this post, but I'm writing it anyway. I just don't know how to sell my book. I've only just figured out an acceptable jacket copy--the little blurb that usually goes on the back of the book or the inside flap. Though funnily enough I have no intention of putting it on the actual book jacket. A lack of jacket copy had made setting up professional pages for my book a little difficult, since all I was able to post was the cover and title. This problem has been fixed and information on my book can now be found in a few places:

• Under the My Fiction tap at the top of this blog
• On Goodreads.com, where I finally managed to get my Goodreads Author status working properly.
• On Inkpop.com, where I've also uploaded the first four chapters of the book for previewing/reviewing purposes. The first chapter is on Goodreads, as well, but it's so much easier to view on Inkpop. 

Tied into my presence on these sites, I've also set up an author fan page on Facebook. The little 'like' button on the right there lets you add me to your feed. I use Facebook regularly and have always posted my blog updates for my friends. I will also use my author page as a way to share information and make announcements. I know everyone is flocking to Twitter these days, but I have to admit that I don't get it. I can barely wrap my head around Tumblr (got one of those, too, but it's fairly useless). I know that makes me sound like an octogenarian, but I don't care. If I get super (or even mildly) popular and there is a request for a Twitter feed, then I guess I'll get one, but in the meantime... 

One big thing I've been avoiding on the whole book launch front is diving into the world of Kindle. I just need to get over this stigma I feel against Amazon. Their policies just irk me. They're my Wal-Mart. But this is no place for a soap box lecture. I've made my Kindle Direct Publishing account and I'll get used to using it. The next step after that would be chatting people up on Kindleboards and Nookboards. Let me tell you, I'm totally looking forward to that. Ug. 

All right, that's enough ranting for the day. I've worked myself into a bit of a depression, so I need to stop. I need to find a new book to read. Something light and happy. Any suggestions?

Breaking News!

Found on Flickr, but I'm too excited to remember where...

Happy times are here!

I've completed the biggest step toward getting my book published. That's right, I ACTUALLY FINISHED WRITING THE DAMN THING!

Now to be clear, I've finished writing it about three times now, but this is it. This is the final rough draft. Next step is red pen editing, workshopping with my Betas and possible editor-hiring. After that, it's smooth sailing with formating and actual publishing. I even also signed up for my ISBN through Createspace for the print copy today. Squee!!

After all that is marketing and hardcore platform building. *dies*



Final Stats:

Word count: 63,200
Page count: 250
Years in the making: Um, three?

The Princess Experiment

Pineapple9995 on Flickr

I probably should have posted about this earlier, but it happened during my blogging dry spell, so...yeah. Whoops. 

Let me do a little set up here. While ABSTRACT PERFECTION is the name of my blog, it is also the name of my indie publishing company (of sorts). It's basically the handle I'm going to use on all of my self-published titles, as well as any services I provide for other indie authors, such as cover design. As a kid, I always joked ABSTRACT PERFECTION would be my band name, but since I have the musical abilities of a wombat, I decided to use it for something else. 

BUY NOW for $0.99
(Kindle version coming soon)

As the first title to be put out by ABSTRACT PERFECTION, I chose a pubic domain title that I could format and release myself. Since I'd recently read a horrendous ebook of George MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin, I decided to make a pretty version of that to put up for sale. I reformatted the text (mostly replacing the single quotes with the appropriate curly ones, as well as double quotes for speech) and designed the cover myself. Neither of these processes took a small amount of time. I will be honest that the cover for this isn't quite as snazzy as I would have wanted, but the selection of stock photos was rather slim for little princesses that weren't dressed like beauty pageant contestants or Disney characters. 

I do highly recommend the book, since it's a super cute story. The whole time I read it, I kept thinking of ways to do an updated YA version, which I've placed on the back burner for now. I've technically made one sale on this book so far (since my own sale doesn't count!), but making money wasn't the point, so yay for extra money!

So, about the past few weeks...

Well, I did it. I dropped off the face of the earth, blog-wise. Please accept this cute picture of my kitty as an apology.

I would like to say I blew it off because I was super busy or creatively productive, but then that would be lying. The real truth? I was captivated by a spunky, petite, blond high school sleuth. That's right, I spent way too much time in the past few weeks rewatching my Veronica Mars DVDs. If you haven't seen this Kristin Bell-starring TV show, then I suggest you do so RIGHT NOW. Season One is a must. Season Two isn't so bad. I'm still debating whether or not to rewatch Season Three, but seeing as how I won't have cable for the next few days...

On the e-publishing front, there hasn't been much news, except for Amanda Hocking's seven figure deal with St. Martin's, but everyone else has already hacked that to death, even big time publications. All I can say is, congrats, Amanda, and I'm looking forward to displaying your first book on my shelves.

In other news, I'VE FINISHED READING A BOOK! Yay! This is big news, people. I used to read like mad up until I started writing seriously. In 2008, I read around 30 books and I felt very proud of myself. In the three years since, I've probably read less than ten total. Very shameful, I know. But reading is slow going for me, not only because I am a slow reader, but because I have two jobs that take up way too much of my time (bookselling and bookwriting). I do love both of these jobs to death, so at least there's a plus side. I know many people absolutely hate their day jobs, so I consider myself lucky in this regard.

Anyhoodles, the book I finished reading was a young readers title, A Walk in Wolf Wood by Mary Stewart. "The Mary Stewart?" a friend asked. "Sure," I said. The book is out of print in the States, so I made an effort to find a used copy with the same cover as the one I'd read fourteen years ago(!). I now see that it's still in print in the UK and I kind of wished I'd gotten one of those, but oh well...

The reason why I picked up this book was because I remembered reading it in sixth grade and just absolutely loving it. I've always considered sixth grade the year I learned to love reading. This was before high school did it's best to kill this love, so this was possible back then. We read Dear Mr. Henshaw, My Side of the Mountain and Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. The first two I loved so much, that went out and read the sequels on my own time. Sadako I also loved and I would have cried if we hadn't been reading it in class.

I'm ashamed to say that I can't quite remember my sixth grade English teacher's name, but I think it was something like Ms. Bell. Now that I think about it, her class probably helped foster my love of writing, since we had to write short stories as a project. I wrote something about the Greek goddess, Artemis, if I remember correctly. Wow. Thank you, Ms Bell. You were a super awesome teacher.

What books would you say gave birth to your love of reading? Did anyone help discover this love, just like my sixth grade English teacher did for me? Let me know!

The cost of the written word in the Digital Age



Shutterhacks at Flickr



Well, it seems everyone and their dog really did get an e-reader for Christmas this past year. Not only did computer servers start crying as people downloaded their ebooks, so did all those physical books that found themselves staying on the shelf.

Publishers Weekly reported on the sales figures released by the Association of American Publishers, which saw a whopping 115.8% increase in ebook sales in January, resulting in almost $70 million, beating out hardcover books and mass markets paperbacks. The little books that gave birth to a literary boom in the past century seem to be dying out, as publishers opt for the bigger (and more expensive) trade paperbacks, the only book category that beat ebooks dollar-wise with $83.4 million sold.

I think now is a good time to bring up the whole 'race to the bottom' mentality, as far as ebook pricing is concerned. The willingness to read books digitally is obviously there. The 115.8% increase was a reflection of the money spent on ebooks, not the actual number of units sold. I'd like to know what that number was. There probably aren't enough zeroes on the number line, especially if they factor in the free books that were downloaded.

However, considering most ebooks are $5-$10-$15 cheaper than their physical counterparts, it's no wonder that publishers will continue to cling to physical books. Even if they only sell half as many paperbacks as ebooks, if the book cost three times more, they make a greater profit.

My concern then, is that ebooks are really selling themselves short, both metaphorically and literally, especially when it comes to self-published authors. The popular opinion when it comes to paying for ebooks is that because I'm not buying a physical book when purchasing an ebook, then I shouldn't be paying as much for it. Or much for it at all, really. This ties into the whole "if it's on the internet, it's free" way of thinking (which is completely wrong, of course). This willingness to price ebooks at a dirt cheap level is sad. Are you telling me that a cup of coffee is worth more than the blood, sweat and tears some writer put into writing their masterpiece?

As a reader, I value the words more than the page when I'm reading a book (digital and physical). When I buy a book, I'm paying for the content, the story that this author has written for me to read. Not the paper, the cardboard or the glue. Sure the publisher is charging me for those things, but to me the words are totally worth it, especially when it's a really good book.

The music industry has got it right. Even after the digital demise of CDs, artists still charge their listeners at a reasonable and, more importantly, a respectable price. The average price of an album on iTunes put out by major labels and indie artists alike is $9.99. The average price of a CD in the store? Only a few dollars more. Musicians charge consumers for their content, for the effort and time they spent to make the songs that people listen to.  

Ebooks shouldn't have to whore themselves out, selling thousands of words for pennies, just because people don't want to pay as much for a book that doesn't include paper.