Novellas

Two years ago, I was horrified when the first draft of my third novel sat at a mere 24,000 words. That was back when my life’s dream was to get an agent. I thought at the time that all the energy I put into a story I really had written from the heart was all for nothing unless I added a whopping 50K or 60K more words. The thing is, the skeleton of the story was good the way it was. Sure, it needed some work. With some editing, I have added more depth to the story but it still only sits at just over the 30K mark.

Some stories are just meant to be novellas. With Amazon and smaller presses, it is far easier to publish a short story. I am comfortable that this third book will never be a full length novel.

Now the question is, how marketable/desirable are novellas these days? I have been thinking about this with every edit.

I came across an article about novellas whole doing a Google search. It’s two years old now, but it is an interesting take on the step child of books. Apparently, they are no longer considered the “ugly duckling of the literary world”. Woot!

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2010/08/04/the-novella-is-making-a-comeback.html

A lot of people might enjoy a quick yet intense read. Others may feel cheated and wish there was more. Or, maybe some people that wouldn’t normally read might pick up a book if they noticed it wasn’t super thick.

I am curious to hear your opinion about novellas. Would you purchase one? Have you? Do you like reading shorter stories?

Random Acts of Kindness Blitz Tour

A smile. An encouraging word. A thoughtful gesture. Each day people interact with us, help, and make our day a bit brighter and full. This is especially true in the writing community.

Take a second to think about writers you know, like the critique partner who works with you to improve your manuscript. The writing friend who listens, supports and keeps you strong when times are tough. The author who generously offers council, advice, and inspiration when asked.

So many people take the time to make us feel special, don’t they? They comment on our blogs, re-tweet our posts, chat with us on forums, and post reviews on Amazon/Goodreads.

I want to follow the lead of other kind bloggers and participate in this blitz today.

I want to thank each and every one of you for following my blog and offering insightful and encouraging comments along the way. Your support means THE WORLD to me.

Of note, I want to mention Lauren Waters. She has been a great writing friend from basically the beginning of my blog, offering great writing advice and help with my publishing questions. Her writing success is inspiring.

To thank you all for your support, I want to do another contest.

I will be giving away a $10.00 Amazon gift card to two random commenters. The contest closes June 11, 2012.

Just answer the question: Do you enjoy reading horror/supernatural thriller novels? What is that you like/dislike about the horror genre?

xoxoxox

Beautiful Blogger Award

I have been awarded The Beautiful Blogger Award from the lovely and creative Vikki from The View Outside. Thank you very much! 

If you have not been to Vikki’s blog yet, definitely check it out. I love her passion for writing and blogging.

It’s funny, but I always feel all bashful whenever someone gives me a blogging award, but I thought it was high time to accept one and bring attention to some beautiful bloggers.

The rules are:

The Beautiful Blogger Award is for those blogs that are creative, original and add to the blogging community. You’re supposed to bestow it on seven people and here’s the “rules:” I say, no worries if you’re a rule-breaker, then just put the award on your blog.

Link to the creative, beautiful genius that bestowed it upon you. (see above) List seven random things about yourself. (see below) Send said award to seven (or how ever many you want) other creative, beautiful geniuses. (see below after the random things). Tell those lucky people that you’ve done this and give em’ the rules.

First, here are 7 random things about me:

1. I am a country girl living in the city (For now).

2. I know a lot about animals. I’ve been watching wildlife shows since I was about six.

3. I will NOT leave the house without eyeliner…

4. …But give me rubber boots and a fish net, and I will explore a pond for hours.

5. My room is painted blue.

6. I usually listen to metal and hard rock to get inspired for writing.

7. I love the rain.

Here Are My Beautiful Bloggers.

(I couldn’t keep the list to just seven.)

The beautiful Lauren Waters with an equally beautiful gift of story telling. She is the published author of Infinite Sacrifice and Infinite Devotion.

The lovely Kitty Hietala is an aspiring writer who also likes to blog about YA books.

Ermilia has a pretty, whimsical blog theme and I love her writing challenges.

Beautiful inside and out, the blogger over at Riedel Fascination loves to talk about her favourite works of fiction and she is also passionate about animal rights.

Pretty Naomi over at Writing Between the Lines is a talented photographer as well as a great blogger.

Laura Stanfill’s cheery, unique blog is always a pleasure to visit.

Robin Coyle is yet another example of beauty and brains as she helps writers with weekly writing advice.

Follow the literary journey of the gorgeous Kimberly on her blog called I Make Stuff Up.

Lovely Whitney and her dreamy blog A Serendipitous Happenstance is all about her passion for writing and good books.

Writerlicious blogger Erin blogs about her love of YA fiction and I have become addicted to her blog these days. She even posts up new literary agents!

Your Summer Writing Goals

Right now I am working on the edit of my second novel done by my (very affordable – yay!) editor. After that I am having a good writing friend do a beta read for good measure. I plan to have it published in early-mid June. The title is called Followed.

After that, it is on to editing and re-working the third novel (Currently named Ice), which I hope to have out in November since it has a wintery theme.

I am curious to know about all of your writing (or publishing) goals for the summer. Do share!

Before ending this post, I thought it would be fun to share some neat writing quotes for inspiration and smiles:

“Writing is a socially acceptable form of schitzophrenia.” – E.L. Doctorow

“I try to create sympathy for my characters, then turn the monsters loose.” – Stephen King

“A good novel tells us the truth about its hero, but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.” – G.K. Chesterton

“A writer never has a vacation. For a writer, life consists either of writing or thinking about writing.” - Eugene Ionesco

“Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you’re doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing.”  - E.L. Doctorow

Happy writing!

Character Spotlight – Baby Doll

Baby Doll

Characters fuel our stories. Some are the selfless hero types, while others can be very selfish or disagreeable, but a good story will ensure that each one is complex and real.

One character that really stands out to me is Baby Doll from the movie Sucker Punch. She absolutely inspires me. She is a self-sacrificing, caring girl with the courage of a warrior, despite her brutal past. Still, her strong will to live is overshadowed by the love that she has for her friends. Oh, and she clearly has an amazing imagination.

Baby Doll almost gives up near the end, fearing that her plan to escape their hell-hole of a living arrangement might get her friends killed. She isn’t entirely sure of herself or her plan, which most of us can relate to. But her friends, influenced by her actions, pick her up and they continue on. Until Baby Doll has to make the biggest choice of all.

Sucker Punch is full of crazy cool action scenes, but the underlying story is very dark and sad. Still, whenever I watch it, Baby Doll gives me a fresh outlook on life.

The Story Synopsis

I don’t know why I dread writing a synopsis of my books so much. It’s sort of funny, because a lot of writers I follow through blogs and on Twitter also express their distate for the dreaded “s” word. It seems to be right up there with the query letter. *Cringes*

One agent in an article read a few years back said that she finds it amazing how people that can write a 60-100K manuscript struggle so much with writing a synopsis about it. I could almost hear her laughing at us. lol.

Truth is, it is harder to sum up a whole novel into a few paragraphs than it might seem. It isn’t just compressing the key parts of the story, you also have to know which parts to include and word it in such a way that will hook a potential reader. It can be a little stressful. Of course there are far worse things in life, but the summary on the back of your book cover or on your book’s Amazon page can literally make or break sales.

What I find helps is looking at the backs of other books in a simliar genre to get a feel of what others are writing. Plus, it’s kind of an inspiration for me to also write something as catching as something in a book store. Also try to ask yourself: If I was out shopping for a book, what would make me want to buy it rather than put it back on the shelf?

It is time to write a catchy summary of my second book. Literally after this blog post, that is what I will be working on. I find that this one might be especially tricky, because I have four main characters (oops) and there is a huge plot switch in the middle where it almost switches genres (Still under the horror umbrella, but just with a different setting). A complicated story, to say the least.

Let me know if you have any helpful tips or insights regarding writing a great summary.

Updated List of Publishing Expenses (And A New Cover)

Roughly two months ago, I mentioned that I would tell of any further publishing expenses for advertising, print runs, etc. I did a post called The Cost of Self Publishing where I broke down all of my expenses which added up to $1590. Not bad, but I learned that I could have done it for a lot less than that. It was a great learning experience.

The proof of my first print book from Amazon was only $3.80.

Advertising was $25.00 via Full Moon Book Tours. Plus, you can ask book reviewers to do a review of your book on their blog for free! They do that as their hobby so most are more than happy to do it for you.

So, the overall cost to self publish was just over $1600.00. My goal for my next book is to keep it under $1,000.

If you would like to share your experiences with self publishing and how you kept costs down, that would be awesome!

Also, after some honest feedback on my book cover via the blog tour, I decided to change the print cover to something more simple (But still punchy). I kept the original design for the Ebook though, since I wasn’t ready to let it go yet.

You can check out the new design here.

Happy Wednesday!

Winner of the Amazon Gift Card!

Hello everyone! Firstly, I hope that you all had a great long weekend. Secondly, we have a winner! I randomly drew all of your names so the winner is…..

Linny!

You have won yourself a $20.00 Amazon gift card. Yay!!

Please email me at sara_flower@live.ca so that I can send you the prize through email.

A huge thank you to everyone that commented about what genre they like! I enjoyed reading all of your answers.

I will be hosting another give away in May, so stay tuned for another chance to win.

By The Sword’s Blog Tour

Today I want to announce that this the first day of By The Sword’s blog tour! Courtesy of Full Moon Bites, a great blog of all things books - and the site always hosts some great giveaways. You can view the full schedule for the tour there as well.

My first stop is at Nilsa Rodriguez’s Blog where she asked me some fun questions and I also shared a little excerpt from the novel.

Cheers and thanks for stopping by today!

WIN an Amazon Gift Card

Last week, I promised that I would do a little give away, so here it is!

To win the $20.00 Amazon gift card, all you have to do is answer the question: What is your favourite book genre and why?

The contest closes April 8, 2012.

I look forward to reading all of your answers!

Cheers & good luck.