Fantasy Gives me Heroes

I'm a little behind in the A-Z. I've decided not to feel guilty about that considering my last post on Exhaustion, but I am now in catchup mode so I'm going to kill three birds with one stone.

Fantasy Gives me Heroes

I am a big fantasy nut. I grew up with my older brother's cast-offs of Narnia, The Hobbit and The Northern Lights. It's always been one of my staples, what I go back to when I'm feeling the desire to get well and truly lost in a world. I love the made up creatures, worlds and magic. And I love the heroes and heroines that every fantasy story has.

I'm half-way through Green Rider by Kristen Britain at the moment, and I love Karigan; she's what a heroine should be. Strong but willing to ask for help, and not blindly walking into dangerous situations that could have been avoided with a bit more forethought.

Froi, of Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta, will do whatever needs to be done, is fiercely loyal but also fiercely intelligent. Even if he doesn't think so himself. His life didn't have heroic beginnings but kindness from others, and the loyalty those deeds generated in him, raised him above his past. He is an excellent, if unlikely, hero.

Valek, from the Poison Study series by Maria V. Snyder is not the main hero in the story but he plays his part well. Not controlling, he never tries to steal the show from Yelena, but he's there when he needs there. And he's just kind of ... awesome.

Do you have a favourite hero or heroine? Here's a some inspiration from a hero story that breaks all the rules.

Asking Amazon to listen

Hi everyone, today I'm going to post something from my friend Sarah Billington, who can say this much better than myself:

As you know, independent authors put a lot of time and energy into our writing and we are so thankful for the opportunity Amazon provides for us to earn a living doing what we love. Except a lot of that living is stripped from us through bank charges for processing international cheques.

I was excited to receive my first two cheques recently, smallfry compared to some authors, one was for $17, the other for $56. Except my bank charges $25 to bank a single cheque.

For my $17 cheque, I will be paying THEM to bank it for me. If I choose not to cash in my royalties on that $17 cheque, it makes it nothing but a pretty piece of paper. A piece of paper that represents about 51 readers.

Of my $73 in royalties, $50 would go toward bank fees, leaving me with $23US (not that I can actually deposit the $17 cheque at all). BEFORE currency conversion to Australian dollars.

I am just one example. Other banks charge $40 to process international cheques. I have heard of another author whose country of residence will not process US cheques so they have to GO TO ANOTHER COUNTRY to deposit royalties.

Smashwords pays authors via PayPal so it can't be too hard for Amazon to do so, or update Amazon Payments so that international users can be paid that way as well.

It would also save Amazon money on international postage of cheques. Win-win, right?
I know and believe that Amazon cares about its authors and this step would help us all across the globe.

If you are interested in Sarah's message and would like to support the cause, please visit her petition here. And feel free to spread the word!


What are your thoughts in this? Do you think Amazon can be convinced to change? Do you think it's necessary? Are you a self-published author having a similar problem?

The e-book pricing conundrum. How much are they worth?

One of the biggest debates happening in the book world these days is: how much is an e-book worth? And what is that worth based on? How do we balance the reader’s loss in utility from not being able to touch or see or smell their book (all important if you’re a book lover) against authors’ income and publishers’ revenues? People still need to make money. If they’re not making money they’re not going to keep making books.

I come at this issue from two different perspectives: the reader, and the writer who also works in publishing. So far, I’m finding it very hard to merge these two perspectives. (Dual personalities of a writer’s brain come forth.)

The reader:

When you buy a traditionally published e-book you’re often paying close to the same price as you would for the p-book version. As a reader of both e- and p-books, I have an issue with this. I prefer p-books. I like to feel them. The smell of them. To look at them on my bookshelf even after I’ve finished reading them. If I have a choice, and the price is similar, I’m going for the p-book every time.

E-books, for me, are about convenience and cost saving. Add in the fact that, according to publishing consultant David Amerland, when you spend money on an e-book you’re not actually purchasing the book, only access to the book, why should I spend the same amount as I would to purchase, and own, a p-book?

The writer and publishing industry employee:

A lot of readers think the way I do about the costs of e-books. What they don’t realise is that, for a traditional publisher, there is very little difference between the cost of creating an e-book or p-book. Sure, e-books don’t have printing costs, but they do still have editing, design, marketing, author fees and a whole host of other costs associated with them. You might be surprised to know that the printing cost associated with a single book is usually only around a couple of dollars.

So the question is: how do the big publishers compete when consumers aren’t willing to pay what the publisher needs to survive? Throw in the likes of Amazon, who willingly forces the price point of e-books down so they can sell more Kindles and put competitors out of business (predatory pricing), and you’ve got the publishers in a sticky situation.

The only people meeting the market’s price expectations are self-publishers, who are able to sell their books at very low prices because they have almost no overheads. The market is happy (yay)! The publishers are not. Although whether the market is truly happy could be questionable. There are a lot of self-pubd works out there that wouldn’t know a second draft if it bit them in the bum, but that’s a post for another day.

Here’s a quote from author Stuart Neville that I think sums up the writers' perspective:

"I'm amazed that people are that cheap. Do they think a year of my life is worth less than $9.99? Do they really believe that 10 to 12 hours of entertainment isn't worth the equivalent cost of two or three coffees, or less than two beers?"

What are your thoughts on the e-book pricing conundrum? Do you have no problem paying close to the same price for an e-book as you would for a p-book, despite the perceived loss of worth? Or will you only buy self-pubd e-books and continue to buy p-books from the traditional publishers? I’m interested to hear where everyone else stands on this issue!

Is it easier to see the bad than the good?

I mentioned in my previous post that I've just started an internship (yes, on top of doing my full-time job - I'm a little bit coocoo). I only started on Tuesday, so I can't tell you precisely what this internship involves, but I can tell you I'm doing it extramurally and so far I've been given two manuscripts from the slush pile to read and assess. I've just finished one and started the other, and already I'm learning something from this task.

Why is it so much easier to discuss the bad than it is to discuss the good?

The first manuscript was brilliant. Really, it was. I'm in awe of the writer's abilities and think she truly deserves to be published. But I was reading the MS with my editorial hat on because I knew I needed to be more critical than your average reader, and I definitely found things that could be improved upon. Which is fine. What I find interesting is that, even though I thought the book was great, I found it much harder to discuss the good points than the bad.

I'm not sure if this is just me, or if our brains automatically pay more attention to things we don't think are working, because we want to figure out how to fix them. When things work than perhaps we spend a lot less time analysing them, all we need to know is that it works, right? Do you do this too?

Maybe we (or I, if I am alone in this) should be spending just as much time figuring out what a writer has done right, and how, as we do analysing what has gone wrong. Surely it's just as important to understand what is good, what to aim for, as it is to understand what doesn't work and what to avoid.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you focus on the bad when reading with an editorial eye, or are you able to assess the good just as readily as you assess the parts that need fixing?

Best Books of 2011

Have you voted in the 2011 Goodreads Choice Awards yet? If not, head on over and check it out. It's your chance to have a say in what you think was the best book of the year.

2011 Goodreads Choice Awards: Favorite Book of 2011 Vote now for your favorite books!

Recent Reads of Awesome

During the most recent semester of uni, while working full-time, I had almost no time for reading. Reading for pleasure that is. I did a lot of reading lecture notes, text books and assignments. Since the holidays started I've been like an addict let loose. I can't get enough! And let me tell you - it's heaven.

So, let me tell you a little about my most recent faves.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

This book is ... wow. Just WOW. I loved it. Couldn't put it down. Loved the characters, loved the world, loved the plot, LOVED IT.

Laini's character development is amazing, and Karou, the MC, was brilliant. Not once did I get pissed at her for being stupid, or so independent that she refused to ask for help when she clearly should have, or so love struck that she kept going for the wrong guy, or so daft that she missed all the clues, or so weak that she had to be saved all the time. All frequent pet peeves of mine when reading YA MCs. What she is though is smart, intelligent, strong (mentally and physically) and self-sufficient. She's not perfect by any means, but who is? I for one, am a fan. Could you tell?


Froi of the Exiles by Melina Marchetta

Another radtastic book. Melina is better known for her contemporary YA books such as Looking for Alibrandi, but recently she ventured into fantasy with the Chronicles of Lumatere. Froi of the Exiles is the second book in the series, the first being Finnikin of the Rock.

Finnikin of the Rock is a standalone story (and is also very good), and Froi of the Exiles starts off three years later. Melina is a freakishly talented writer (you just need to read her bio listing all the awards she's won to see that) and this book is no exception. I love the different perspectives (we don't lose Finnikin completely) but the majority of the book is told from Froi's perspective. And ... Froi is awesome.

The only bad thing I have to say about this book is that there is no resolution, it literally finishes in the middle of the story. I know I've ranted before about books that end mid story, but this book is so good that I won't be holding a grudge. I'll be getting my pre-order in a few months before the next book is released.


Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

This is Stephanie's second book. Many of you would have read her first, Anna and the French Kiss (which was great). Lola and the Boy Next Door is very similar in the types of issues the MC faces, and just the general feel of the story. Girl has boyfriend, girl meets other hot boy who is awesome, girl has boyfriend issues, you get the idea. Anna even has a role in the book!

Anywho, despite the similarities, I still loved this one. It was a quick read and I had that happy squidgy feeling you get inside when you've just read a too cute love story.


I could go on ... and on and ooon and oooon about the books I've been reading and what I love and what I can't stand, but I'll spare you. I don't want to taint the awesome above with anything less.

So please, share, what freakin amazing books have you read lately? Anything to recommend? Have you read any of these? Agree with me? Disagree? Can't wait to hear. :)

Hello, my name's Sari and I've been a Tweeter for ten months...

...with no sign of giving it up any time soon.

And anyway, why would I want to? Since I've been on Twitter, I have:

• made new writing friends
• found new agents, publishers, editors and authors to stalk (not creepy, I promise)
• gotten new traffic to the blog
• been directed to a number of amazing and helpful articles on writing that I never would have found by myself
• been able to chat in live time with real agents, and get their advice
• participated in Tweet chats on the craft of writing (my favourite is #YAlitchat)
• been directed to jobs and internships to apply for.

Before I signed up for Twitter I thought it was just another way for 14-year-old girls to write in 140 characters or less what they had for lunch that day, and to stalk Justin Bieber. When I signed up, I was sceptical at best about what I would get out of Twitter. But I thought I may as well check out what all the fuss was about. As you can see, I'm glad I did.

 

I thought I'd share some of the things I've learned about using Twitter from the perspective of an aspiring writer building her platform. A guide from a non-expert, you might call it.

 

~ If you haven't signed up yet, go do it! You're missing out on a world of new contacts, information and advice. Make sure your Twitter account isn't private. The whole idea of Twitter is connecting with people, and putting up this major roadblock won't help.

~ Once you're the owner of a shiny new account, before you do anything else, write your bio and upload a picture. (If you have a Twitter account already and haven't done this step, I recommend doing this now).

If I get an email saying I have a new Twitter follower, and that person has no bio and no picture, usually I just delete without following them back. Why? Because they haven't made the effort, so why should I? There are gazillions of worthy people to follow on Twitter, so make it easy for people to want to follow you. Here are some tips from social media expert Marian Schembari on writing your Twitter bio.

~ Sign up for TweetDeck or similar program. Trust me, if you use the Twitter website for tweeting, you'll never discover how awesome Twitter can be.

~ Before you start following people, send a few tweets. Post a link to a helpful blog post you've found. Search the #amwriting or #writing hashtags and send some encouragement to someone who's hit a writing milestone. Say something about your own writing for the day. Why do you do this before following people? The second thing I do after checking the bio to decide if I will follow someone is to check their Tweetstreem. If there's nothing there it's hard to tell if this is the sort of person I want to follow or not.
 
~ Follow! Search Twitter for writers, agents, publishers and whoever else you want to follow. Visit your favourite blogs and see if there is a link to the blogger's Twitter page. Check out the 'following' lists of the people you follow and follow some of the same people. Don't go overboard to start off with. You don't want a 'following' to 'follower' ratio of 1000 to 10.

~ Learn about hashtags and how to use them. Here's a list of hashtags for writers.

~ Participate in Twitter chats for writers. You learn heaps and meet heaps of cool people.

~ Keep your tweets balanced. Talk to people, post interesting articles, post links to your own blog posts, post updates in general. Try not to focus on any one of these.

The last thing I look at when deciding if I will follow is what a person is tweeting about. If their feed is full of self-promotion and links to their own blog, I don't follow. If their feed is full of updates to the world, but no actual interaction with other people, I don't follow. If their feed is full of links and RTs (retweets of other's posts), I don't follow.

This might sound a bit strict, but again there are so many people to choose from in Twitterland, and I'm there to meet and interact with people, not to be tweeted at or bombarded with links. It's like writing a good character: the reader needs to connect with you before they care what you have to say.

~ Have fun!

Also, here's a post from Marian Schembari on why you might be struggling to get followers, this Twitter Guide for Writers by @inkyelbows is a great resource, and Kristen Lamb has a regular Twitter Tuesday post with lots of good info.

Have you signed up for Twitter? What's the best thing that's happened to you since you started using it? Are you just starting? Is there anything you find confusing?

Series and the 'no cliffhangers' rule

As a writer, with the hope to one day be published, I've been trying to learn about as many of the rules of the trade as possible. One such rule was really grinding my gears: if you're writing a series, make sure each book can stand-alone - no cliffhanger endings!

My 'newby writer' brain did not like this rule. But it's a whole story told in two books! I thought, How can the first book stand-alone? And cliffhangers are exciting! They make people want to know what happens next, right? RIGHT?

Well, yes. Here I switch into my 'long-time reader' brain. I do love a good cliffhanger. It's usually the reason I end up reading till three in the morning, because when I get to the end of a chapter I can't stop. I have to keep going.

Note I said chapter. Last night, at one in the morning, I finally managed to reconcile my reader and writer brains on this particular rule. How? I finished reading the fourth book of the Mortal Instruments series, City of Fallen Angels, by Cassandra Clare. It ended like this:



Is that guy really naked and hanging from a cliff with not even a rope? I think he might be...

Maybe my reaction was supposed to be: Wow, what a cool CLIFFHANGER ending, now I will wait patiently until the next book is released in... May 2012!

But I did not do that. Instead I went: Aaaargh! I am so frustrated right now. I do NOT want to be left hanging for over a year to find out what happens. And now I'm ANGRY.

I did try to do this quietly though, because it was 1am and Ollie doesn't understand the need to read until the early hours of the morning, and would have also been angry if I'd woken him with a book tantrum.

So, the effect on my reader brain? Not so good. Will I buy the next book in the series? I don't know, if I'm honest. When May 2012 comes around, if I even remember reading the series, I'll be a bit worried that I'm going to be left with another cliffhanger ending which won't be resolved until September 2013 with book six.

I know that this is an unavoidable issue of traditional publishing that plagues series, and authors have no control over pub dates, but they do have control over the endings in their books, and not agitating their readers.

Oh! I get it now! says my writer brain.

I do wonder though, will self-pubbing change this? Would I be more forgiving if I only had to wait a few months until the next installment? Probably.

What do you think? Am I being too harsh? Do cliffhanger endings make you mad, and potentially harm an author's readership? Or are you willing to wait for the next book?

A very unscientific look at first pages - part two

On Friday, I did a post about first pages. If you missed it, you can check it out here. I got to have fun with making graphs and pretending I was a real statistician and just generally procrastinating to my heart's content. The conclusion I came to?

A successful first page needs Intrigue, Setting & Character to fully hook the reader (me in this case) and give them the Desire to Read On. If you only have space for one, better make it Intrigue.

Some of you may have noticed there were a few outliers in the graphs of last weeks post, so today I'm going to have a look at the first pages I studied and see what caused those.

Before I go on, I'd just like to reiterate that the ratings I gave these pages in no way reflects the quality of the book. I haven't read all these books, but even some of the ones I have read (and enjoyed) got mediocre scores for their first page. Just goes to show that the first page isn't the only way to hook the reader or I wouldn't have read them!

Let's start with Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick. It had a prologue so I did both the first page of the prologue and the first chapter and I gave both a 2/5. Both very clearly stated the setting as a heading before the rest of the text.
   First sentence (prologue):

Chauncy was with a farmer's daughter on the grassy banks of the Loire River when the storm rolled in, and having let his gelding wander in the meadow, was left to his own two feet to carry him back to the chateau.

The first sentence of the prologue is quite long (42 words) and has more details about the setting, including the weather and repeating details from the heading. The length of the sentence slows the pace down from the word go. There is no urgency or questions raised in the first page, unless you can count the details of a storm as setting an ominous tone, but it didn't really work for me.

   First sentence (Chapter 1):

I walked into biology and my jaw fell open.

In chapter one the first sentence is quite short. It shows setting, and to a certain extent, intrigue. I didn't count the intrigue in my analysis though because I felt like the rest of the page didn't live up to that intrigue. The 'jaw fell open' was due to Ken & Barbie stuck to the board at the front of the class with a note saying 'welcome to human reproduction (sex)'. While this is cute, it didn't make me need to read on to have a biology lesson. There was also some characterisation in the first page, which I again didn't count, because it was for the MCs best friend, not the MC herself.

Overall, neither page grabbed me, hence the score of 2/5. The first page of Chapter one was cute, but all it showed was a 'teenager' (no other details of the MC given on the first page) who is in high school and has a quirky biology teacher and a friend who doesn't like biology. Great. I don't care. At least not on the first page. Give me a reason to keep reading first, then give me the cute details.


Now let's look at Timeless by Alexandra Monir. This page had all three: Intrigue, Setting & Character. But it only got 3/5. Either this is a matter of taste (quite likely) or some ways of including all the elements don't work as well as others.
   First sentence:

Michele stood alone in the center of a hall of mirrors.

Straight away we have setting, character and intrigue. Why is she standing in a hall of mirrors? The first thing, I think, that lets down the intrigue is the fact that the whole first page is in italics. The first question I ask (instead of 'why is she standing in a hall of mirrors') is 'Is she dreaming?' Probably not the best question you want your reader to be asking when you're setting up intrigue, because it means all the cool things you're writing about aren't real.

The first page goes on to show even more character and intrigue. Michele's physical appearance is described in detail, including what she's wearing, in the context that while the reflections look like her, they don't move when she moves. They also have a key hanging around her neck which Michele doesn't have around her own neck.

The next paragraph is devoted to describing the key, with details like 'The key looked weathered and somehow wise, as though it weren't inanimate, but a living being with over a centuries worth of stories to share'. I'm a sucker for fantastical elements, but I have to question how she gets that much info from seeing an image of the key in her reflection.

The page has some great elements for creating intrigue (the hall of mirrors, the reflections that aren't actually reflections, the strange key) but I think it's let down by a number of factors. If it is a dream then the cool elements don't matter anymore, anyone can have a dream about strange things. Also, the page is split into two paragraphs, the first mostly entails description about what the MC looks like, the second describes the key. There's a lot of description here, and that doesn't help with pace. And lastly, the details about the key didn't quite get me to suspend disbelief, which is important if you're writing anything fantastical.


Now let's look at the three that got 5/5, to see what was done right. Unearthly, by Cynthia Hand, is the only one that got 5/5 that didn't have all three.
   First sentence:

The first time, November 6 to be exact, I wake up at two a.m. with a tingling in my head like tiny fireflies dancing behind my eyes.

Straight away - Intrigue. Why does she have tingling in her head? What does she mean by the first time? What is happening? Already I'm hooked and want to read on.

The first page goes on to describe the MC smelling smoke but finding nothing burning in her house. Then she goes to the kitchen for water because she can't sleep and the page ends with this:

... with no other warning, I'm in the middle of the burning forest. It's not like a dream. It's like I'm physically there. I don't stay long, maybe all of thirty seconds, and then I'm back in the kitchen...

Of course I'm going to turn the page to read the end of that sentence! And keep reading. I want to know what's going on. The intrigue was strong enough on this page to make up for the fact that it didn't have all three elements.

I didn't count this page as having character because, even though it's told in first person, I still don't know anything about her (I only know it's a her because I did read on and because of the cover).


Next, The False Princess by Eilis O'Neil.
   First sentence:

The day they came to tell me, I was in one of the gardens with Kiernan, trying to decipher a three-hundred-year-old map of the palace grounds.

Intrigue and setting straight away. Came to tell her what? Who are they? Why are they trying to decipher a 300 year old map? The setting alone is a bit intriguing. A story set in a palace? Cool.

In the rest of the page we learn the MC, Nalia, is a princess (character), and she and Kiernan are searching for a secret door in a wall in the gardens. This page has given me enough, and more, to make me keep reading. Not only do I want to know who 'they' are, and what they're going to tell Nalia, but I want to know about this secret door (which is revealed in the last sentence of the page).


Last one, Eon by Alison Goodman.
   First sentence:

I let the tips of both of my swords dig into the sandy arena floor.

We've got setting and we've got intrigue. The intrigue is a little subtler here, but I still want to know why she's fighting with swords.

Next we learn that she's in pain and she's training with her swordmaster (who despises her). Why is she in pain? Then we lean it's 'the bleeding pain': she's a 'she'. This is followed by the swordmaster calling her a boy. Whaa? Why is she posing as a boy? Lastly, we learn that she's considered the 'school cripple'.

Ok, I want to read more. Now. Luckily for me I have this book on my current TBR pile ; ).


So, have I bored you all to tears? Is there anything you disagree with me on? Agree? Are there any other titles you'd like me to give my reasoning on? What books have you read with first pages that forced you to keep reading?

Review: Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood

Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood by Eileen Cook
288 Pages (Paperback)
Rating: 4/5

What it's about:

Popularity is the best revenge.

In the final weeks of eighth grade, Lauren Wood made a choice. She betrayed her best friend, Helen, in a manner so publicly humiliating that Helen had to move to a new town just to save face. Ditching Helen was worth it, though, because Lauren started high school as one of the It Girls--and now, at the start of her senior year, she's the cheerleading captain, the quarterback's girlfriend, and the undisputed queen bee. Lauren has everything she's ever wanted, and she has forgotten all about her ex-best friend.

But Helen could never forget Lauren. After three years of obsessing, she's moving back to her old town. She has a new name and a new look, but she hasn't dropped her old grudges. She has a detailed plan to bring down her former BFF by taking away everything that's ever been important to Lauren—starting with her boyfriend.

Watch out, Lauren Wood. Things are about to get bitchy.
 
What I thought:
 
Confession: I wouldn't have picked this book up if I hadn't seen it recommended on The Gatekeepers blog. I normally read fantasy but I'm trying to expand my horizons.
 
To the review: I loved it. Helen is a funny, intelligent, well developed character with the slight flaw of being bent on revenge. Of course as a reader I was at first rooting for her to carry out said revenge. And she does, in creative and dastardly ways.
 
Along the way Helen makes a new nerdy friend (Brenda) and meets a guy (Christopher), both of whom begin to put a spanner in the works of her revenge plans. I love both of these secondary characters, both well developed with there own little quirks and offering a sort of 'good concsience' to Helen's all encompassing obsession. Helen's grandmother is also fabulous. I'd love to have a grandmother like her.
 
I found Lauren Wood, ex-best friend, to be somewhat cliche but still a girl I loved to hate. It was easy for me to see why Helen would want to take her down. What I couldn't understand was why they were ever best friends in the first place. I was kind of expecting Lauren to be a little less two dimensional, to get some kind of inkling as to why she was best friends with Helen before the betrayal. With the exception of a flashback where Lauren did do something very sweet for Helen, there was nothing else of the sort.
 
One other small nitpicky thing I didn't understand was why Helen had such a good insight into high school popularity. She had never been one of the popular kids, and had been somewhat of a loner in her three years away. I understand that she is quite perceptive but not sure that that would extend to the point of knowing the exact steps to take to be in the 'it crowd'.
 
Inevitably Helen begins to question whether revenge is really worth it and has to make a few hard decisions. While it was easy to see what was coming, the ending wasn't cliche or cheesy and I felt it wrapped things up nicely.
 
Overall I thought Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood was a fun, entertaining read and would definitely recommend checking it out. Also, wouldn't that book just look pretty in your bookshelf?
 
Have you read the book? Love it? Hate it? Want to read it? What else have you been reading lately?

Book. Cover. Don't Judge.

Actually.. Do. Do judge.

Do you ever hear someone say "Never judge a book by its cover" accompanied by a bit of a finger wag and stern eyebrow raising, and then feel a squirm of guilt when you think that you do get swayed by the pretty, shiny covers on all the books in your bookshelf? Well I'm here to say Stop Feeling The Guilt.

This is the 21st century. Thousands of books (despite the doom and gloom) are published every year. Publishing companies spend $$$ on getting just the right cover. Why? Because it makes a difference. In a world where we are spoilt for choice, we're going to use every bit of information we can get to make a decision on what to read. Including the pretty shiny embossed covers.

And lets face it, for those of us who still buy the physical book rather than the ebook, part of the joy is being able to add it to your bookshelf when you've finished and still be able to admire it.

Don't get me wrong, covers aren't the only factor in my decision making process, but a book with an uninteresting cover is unlikely to get a second glance when I'm browsing at the bookstore.

Here's a few books I've bought lately with covers I love:

 

Getting Revenge on Lauren Wood
by Eileen Cook

  

Hex Hall
by Rachel Hawkins

  

Eon
by Alison Goodman

 



Do you judge books by their cover? Have you ever bought a book based solely on its cover? What's your favourite cover of all time?

Spontaneity is the spice of life.. and why I might not be posting next week

Nothing like some spontaneous
dancing in the street

I love spontaneity. Don't you? When you can suddenly go, "I really feel like doing this super awesome thing, and you know what? I'm going to do this really awesome thing!" And then you feel all happy with yourself (or maybe somewhat embarrased if you're that guy <=) and the world is a little bit better.

I think I've been pretty spontaneous lately. Like when I admitted I hated my Evil Day Job (EDJ), decided I wanted a complete change in career, quit the EDJ, moved countries and enrolled in a post-grad publishing and editing course all in the space of a few (maybe four?) months. Sometimes spontaneity can be on a large scale. Sometimes you need to be spontaneous to effect some positive change in your life.

My latest spontaneous act was to buy flights to Perth last week. When do I leave? Tomorrow. I'm off to see my mum and brother, and half my family. Very excited!

So please excuse a blogging lull for the next week. I will have minimal access to the interwebs, but will post if I can. I'm particularly looking forward to putting up a review of Beth Revis' Across the Universe which arrived in the post today, and I'm planning on reading it on the plane tomorrow.

So tell me, what spontaneous thing have you done lately? How did it make your life better?

And..

If you haven't done anything spontaneous lately, I challenge you to give it a go this week! Even if it's something small. Maybe you could try your hand at spontaneous street dancing?

My favourite things I learnt last week from the writing bloggerverse... aka weekly mashup

I have a list saved to My Favourites in my browser called the Daily Clicks. As the name suggests, every day I go through the daily clicks and see what's new. Most people would use a feed reader to do this, but I prefer to actually go to the blog or web page and see all the pretty shiny things that the creator has put there.

So I thought I'd do a post on my favourite things learnt this week in my exploration of the writing webs.


1.  Janet Reid and Writer Beware both posted on the dangers of competition clauses, and one competition in particular. Long story short, if you are considering entering any sort of writing comp, read the fine print in full. And if you see anything like this:

By submitting an entry, all entrants grant Sponsor the absolute and unconditional right and authority to copy, edit, publish, promote, broadcast, or otherwise use, in whole or in part, their entries, in perpetuity, in any manner without further permission, notice or compensation.

Run. Run away fast and far. And don't part with your hard earned dollars to enter a competition that basically means you've granted the competition holder the right to use your work in any way without notifying or compensating you. Not. Good.


2.   Shallee McArthur came up with the idea to do a What's Your Writing Process Blogfest. In her words:

...blog about ANY part of your writing process-- how you create characters, how you plot your novel, how you organize your rewrites, your whole writing process from start to finish, anything.

The blogfest is scheduled for Tuesday the 18th, which for me is now, but for most of the participants is tomorrow, so I thought I'd compromise by posting tonight.

So what are you waiting for? Go sign up. Share your process so we can learn from you.

Aplogies to the guys,
couldn't help myself.



3.   The discovery of Kristen Lamb's blog. She's a writer and social media guru, and blogs about both. I only came across her blog a couple of days ago (via Twitter) and I've already discovered so much good information. My favourite so far is how to take on the Procrastination Pixie. Excellent advice. I've been practicing using the word 'No' every time my mouse wanders toward the facebook/twitter/gratuitous pictures of Ben Barnes button when writing, and so far with good results.

If you're a blogger she also has this awesome series of posts on getting started and staying in the game. More great advice and worth checking out. And yes I'm trying to take that advice. I will blog more regularly. Promise.


4.   Ok, this one's on a more serious note. I've been meaning to blog about this all week, so now's as good a time as any. Author Saundra Mitchell tackles the topic of illegal ebook downloads in her post '"Free" Books Aren't Free'. A quick quote:

I’ve told you before that I made a $15,000 advance on SHADOWED SUMMER. In two years, I’ve managed to earn back $12,000 of that.

It’s going out of print in hardcover because demand for it has dwindled to 10 or so copies a month. This means I will never get a royalty check for this book. By all appearances, nobody wants it anymore.

But those appearances are deceiving. According to one download site’s stats, people are downloading SHADOWED SUMMER at a rate of 800 copies a week. When the book first came out, it topped out at 3000+ downloads a week.

If even HALF of those people who downloaded my book that week had bought it, I would have hit the New York Times Bestseller list.

If the 800+ downloads a week of my book were only HALF converted into sales, I would earn out in one more month. But I’m never going to earn out.

I would recommend reading the whole thing. It really.. sucks (for want of a better word) reading stuff like this. I know no one reading this post would download an ebook, because we're all writers, but we can all help to educate. There are plenty of people out there who don't realise the damage they're doing by downloading an ebook, and they could be our friends or family. So let them know. I'm sure they'll be want to spend a few dollars on books in future.


5.   Not really blogging, but favourite Twitter hashtags this week: #YALitChat, #AskAgent and #AmWriting. Great places for advice, encouragement, and finding like-minded people. Twitter is an invaluable resource for writers, so if you're not there, go to it.


And that's that. My list of favourite (and not so favourite in some cases) things learned and heard this week.

What have you learnt this week? What gems have made a difference to your writing day? Or just your day in general?

Bookmark This: Queries

If you're a writer, still in the 'aspiring' category, then bookmark this post by author JM Tohline about the biggest mistakes a writer can make in a query letter.

JM emailed 100 agents asking one question: What is the single biggest mistake writers make when querying you?


He has responses from over 50 of them, and he's compiled them into this very helpful post. Definitely worth saving the link for later use. I know I'll be needing it one day.