Please Do Historical Fiction Readers a BIG Favor

Please contact Amazon and ask that they put in subcategories under Historical Fiction. At the moment, Historical Fiction is a huge dumping ground where everything from prehistory to Regency romances and WWII adventures can be found. This means that readers have trouble finding what they want to read.

It is no secret that Historical Fiction readers can be incredibly picky. I plead guilty here. I don't read Tudor fiction. I don't read Historical Romance. I DO read medieval fiction, but mainly medieval war fiction. Well, they're not going to break it down that close, but how about they give us a STARTING point instead of dumping everything together. 

There are Amazon subcategories in categories that are no larger than Historical Fiction. Fantasy has them. Science Fiction has them. Historical Fiction needs them.

Amazon doesn't make it obvious how to give this kind of feedback. I admit that. But it's not hard once you know how.

Just go here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=gw_m_b_he?ie=UTF8&nodeId=508510&tag=viglink126429-20

Click on the "Contact Us" button on the right and log into your Amazon account. You are then sent to a page with a variety of choices. The first question Amazon ask is "What can we help you with?" You click the "Something Else" button on the right. 

The second question is "Tell us more about your issue". You get a drop-down menu and choose, "More non-order questions"on that. Then you get another drop-down menu where you can choose: "Give Amazon Feedback" and "Opportunities for improvement". 

Then you FINALLY get the chance to type in something like: The Historical Fiction category needs subcategories. It is too hard now to find the kind I like to read. Barnes & Noble has subcategories. Why not Amazon?

I wish they made it a little more straightforward but it's only a couple of choices and when I did this, Amazon did respond. I think the problem is that we've been far to quiet on this issue. Amazon just added a lot of subcategories in Fantasy and Science Fiction. I believe they will in Historical Fiction as well IF readers tell them they want this.

Yes, it will also help me as an author since it will make my novels easier to find. But as a reader, I am tired of Amazon making novels harder to find than they need to be! 

Thanks!

Amazon Giveaway -- $50 Gift Card and Historical Novels!

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The Department of Justice, Publishing and Amazon Eating the World

The results of the ongoing DoJ suit against major publishers and Apple is going to filter through the publishing industry and affect us all, whether readers or authors.

A brief recap for those who haven't followed the case: The Department of Justice has accused 5 of the Big 6 Publishers, Hachette SA, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster, along with Apple of colluding to fix eBook prices. The collusion appears to have been fairly open. The publishers and at times Apple executives even met to discuss the price fixing in fancy New York restaurants. The collusion went right up to the top and appears to have started at the suggestion of Steve Jobs. Amazon was reducing eBook prices and Apple wanted to see eBook prices kept high (the opposite of their position on music). 

Mind you, I think in a back hand way we indies  benefited by publisher prices being artificially kept high by making our lower priced novels attractive to buyers in comparison, but I also believe it was bad for the industry as a whole.

Here is a Time article as background: DOJ Sues Apple Publishers for Price Fixing
 
The price fixing keeps the market share of ebooks from growing at the rate it would normally, so in the end we all end up hurt, including those of us who end up paying more than we should for eBooks as well as those of us who sell them and want to see the market expand.
 
Simon & Schuster, Hachette and HarperCollins have settled with the DoJ and agreed to penalties which include government oversight and restrictions on agreements that would allow them to benefit from past misbehavior. Not long ago the DOJ asked for industry comments regarding its proposed settlement with those companies.

Needless to say, the companies which had benefited from the collusion such as Apple, B&N and the Authors Guild, led by Scott Turow, whose members are all signed with big publishers responded saying in effect that since they benefited from the price fixing it should be allowed. However, the position of most indie authors was the very opposite.

It was the intent of organizations such as Authors Guild that support for the DOJ position would be overwhelmed by their attempt at a coordinated letter-writing campaign. This attempt failed.

Authors such as Joe Konrath, Laura Resnick and David Gaughran (whose letter was signed by 184 additional indie authors) wrote letters favoring the settlement. Special thanks go to author David Gaughran who helped so much to ensure that the voices of independent authors were heard.
 

Today the DoJ published its lengthy filing regarding the public comments: Response of Plaintiff United States to Public Comments on the Proposed Final Judgment

Much of that is worth reading but at 70 pages it's not easy going. I felt the most salient part was this:

"protecting profits attributable to collusion is squarely at odds with a fundamental purpose of the antitrust laws: the promotion of competition. And, many of the so-called“ procompetitive benefits” that these commenters believe will be lost if the decree is entered are illusory or cannot be attributed to the collusion.While the Tunney Act directs the court to consider the impact of the settlement on third parties, these third parties are limited to those “alleging specific injury from the violations set forth in the complaint.” 

In this case, the third parties that the Court is directed to consider under the Tunney Act are the consumers of e-books, not the brick-and-mortar booksellers, which admit that they benefited from the conspiracy. The booksellers’ objection is not that they were harmed as a result of the violation, but that the proposed Final Judgment ends the collusively-attained equilibrium that provided them with an anticompetitive windfall."

(Pages 18 and 19 of Response of Plaintiff United States to Public Comments)

For me, the comment by author Laura Resnick quoted in the DOJ Response expressed it very well: “breaking the law is not a reasonable reaction to being faced with aggressive business competition.”

The DOJ response has provoked much foaming at the mouth (especially at Publishers Weekly and commenters there) from traditional publishers and those with related interests who continue who insist that if there isn't price fixing that Amazon will eat the world. Or at least the eBook reading portion of it.

Zon Destroyer of Worlds and its evil sidekick Kindle
© Dalya Moon

There is an internet meme that Amazon is mysteriously a "monopoly" although it fits none of the requirements for being a monopoly such as complete control of a product source. Amazon does not control the supply of eBooks and has no way of doing so.  And even if it were a monopoly (which it isn't), that wouldn't make price fixing on the part of Apple and the publishers involved legal. It would only mean that there should possibly be separate action against Amazon. 

In fact, however, the DOJ dismissed the monopoly charge with the comment: “No objector to the proposed Final Judgment has supplied evidence that, in the dynamic and evolving e-book industry, Amazon threatens to drive out competition and obtain the monopoly pricing power which is the ultimate concern of predatory pricing law.”

I have absolutely no doubt that we are very near the end of the eBook price-fixing scheme as we have seen it for the past several years. This means we are near the end of unconscionably high prices for eBooks from major publishers. While this may increase the downward price pressure on my own novels, I am convinced that in the end it will increase the eBook market, possibly very rapidly, and thus benefit all authors.

Most importantly, it will make eBooks more accessible and more affordable for readers. 

 

Interview with Epic Fantasy author Sean Van Damme

When did you start writing? What did you first write?

I started writing from a very young age, but knew that was what I wanted to do in 7^thgrade when I started working on a grand Sci-fi novel.  That was what I wrote for a long time before I moved to scripts and fantasy and such. Looking back now at those hundreds of pages of loose leaf paper the pure joy and “I’m not paying attention in class” still brings a smile to my face. 

Tell us about the fantasy world(s) you make up. What are they like?

The world that I created for The Long Night, is a fractured land of city-states and small independent townships. The people are far to fractured and petty to ever fall under a single king, and the warfare among the cities is so common that the world is to weak for a single group to come out on top.  When I was outlining the book the story was going to be a Mod for Dragon Age: Origins, so the world fit into a feel that would have worked right with the engine, and was also colored by my having just finished reading A Song of Ice and Fire, I came late to that game what can I say.

As a world builder I wanted to avoid some of the tropes that I saw to often like powerful kings, mage and thief guilds etc running the show. I also only put in a second race aside from Humans and those were Dwarfs. I decided to do something different with them as well turning them into refugees whose city had fallen into a massive underground air pocket.

The only thing that in any way unites the whole world is religion an the worship of their lord of light Hyack, whose followers have built a very strong institution and army that gallivanting around crusading, as they see heretics everywhere, if they had power armor they would be Warhammer 40K marines.

How do you work out a magic system for your world? Do you prefer a lot of magic? Light magic? And why?

I went with a middle ground for magic, it wasn’t something that hid in legend, and wasn’t so omi-present that people had lost any awe for it. As such I also didn’t want my caster to be to over powered so I put down limits to how it worked. I gave it an almost scientific explanation; the mages can see down to the components of our world and manipulate them, such as causing water molecules to slow down forming ice, or pushing the air into a pocket crushing a goblin’s head. At the same time this puts a strain on the caster meaning that most mages can only cast a few spells before they start to get light headed.

Being that it was scientific magic is something that can sort of be learned, a mildly powerful mage with much practice and reading can become more powerful, whereas most people who are born so strong that they can move walls as children tend to go insane, do to parts of their brain pushing out other parts, and are put down by the magic establishment because they are to dangerous.

What is the hardest thing about making up a fantasy world? Why?

Trying to not make it cookie cutter, but at the same time not making changes and decisions just to be different. Everything had to make sense, and had to support the story. I didn’t want to get bogged down creating thousands of years of history only to use a fraction of it on the page. I outlined a lot of history but only developed what I needed, and even then about half of that didn’t make it to the page.  After I finished when I was outlining the prequel trilogy (which has been pushed back in my ever expanding queue) I went into more depth about the world history and subcultures etc.

Tell us about your most recent main character. Would we want to share a meal with them? Why?

Well if we stick to fantasy my most resent main is Alen Tar, he would be pleasant enough to share a meal with as long as you didn’t bring up the past, he has a sore spot for his past failings and can never let those go. Otherwise he would be polite if a little cold.

What about the villain of your most recent novel. How did you make them up? Would we be scared to meet them in a dark alley?

In The Long Night the villain is far more the darkness and their own demons and pasts, and less the Prophet of darkness or Val’Mal both of which are more generic evil then I would have liked but such is life. 

What is your next project?

Right now I am banging out a few thrillers that were in my head keeping me from writing other things, then I am going to go and knock out that Sci-Fi story that I started in 7^thgrade.  Fantasy was something I fell into quite by accident and really surprisingly enjoyed writing.  I have some ideas for more books in my world, but they haven’t completely crystallized yet so I am letting them ferment in my brain before I tackle them full on.

The Long Night is available for Kindle and Nook for only $2.99.

A Review: The Hadrian Enigma, a Forbidden History by George Gardiner

In many ways, Hadrian Enigma is simply a historical “murder mystery” seen through the eyes of a most unusual PI, the historian Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus. This novel, by the way, is rather a lengthy tome.

In 130 AD, while accompanying the Emperor Hadrian on a tour up the Nile, the beautiful youth Antinous plunges into the Nile and drowns. Hadrian, near maddened with grief, declares Antinous a god. However, Suetonius just happens to be along on this imperial tour. Already the author of juicy books on contemporary Roman life, he is perfectly placed to investigate this mysterious death, so Emperor Hadrian commands him to investigate and find the murderer within 48 hours or suffer the consequences.

In the imperial compound on the Nile, Suetonius searches for clues. Here, semi-isolated, the bubbling cauldron of the Roman court has been transplanted to a fabulous tent city. Yet, the mystery of Egypt is an ever present backdrop to this baffling death.

Perhaps the murderer is one of the other ephebes with whom Antinous shared quarters. They have reason enough for jealousy of the emperor's beloved eromenos. But there are plenty of other possible suspects and witnesses in the royal court: the Empress Sabina, Hadrian's flamboyant heir-apparent Lucius, and a whole coterie of scheming courtiers, not to mention the creepy Egyptian high priest.

Why was Antinous clad in heavy ceremonial parade armor and weapons when he died? How did he come by a slit on his left wrist and strange marks on his throat? And how can Suetonius unravel all this when the Emperor refuses to let Suetonius even touch the body to examine it?

The characterization is vivid and the historicity meticulous in this novel. I enjoyed savoring the characters and setting as Suetonius unraveled the imperial goings on. Some might find themselves impatient with the sprinkling of Greek and Latin throughout the novel. I thought it added to the impact and feeling of being there, but I suspect not everyone would enjoy the necessity to look some of it up. There were also moments when the author slipped into modern jargon which was jarring.

All in all, it was an enjoyable read, but not necessarily a light or fast one in spite of being rather a page turner. The ending, which I won't go into, is satisfying and well worth the journey.

Definitely a four-star read. I recommend it to any historical fiction fan, especially any fan of the redoubtable Mary Renault. You will find The Hadrian Enigma on Amazon at $9.99 for Kindle.

My Amazon Hates Me Giveaway

To be honest, I doubt that it's anything personal. I doubt that Amazon has ever even noticed me, but, frankly, that's no comfort.

To make a long story long, a week ago I uploaded my novel, Freedom's Sword, to KDP to be published for Kindle on Amazon. For of you who don't know, that's how an indie author such as myself gets our novels published on Amazon for the Kindle. It's usually a pretty simple process once you have a novel written, polished and edited, have a cover for it, have it formatted in HTML. Well, maybe not so simple to do, but uploading is normally the easy part. You hit "I own Worldwide Rights" and set a price. Forty-eight hours or so later you have a novel for sale on all of the Amazon sites worldwide. Most of the time...

But when things go wrong, it's not pretty.

I now have a novel for sale in the UK. I have a novel for sale in Canada. Try to buy in in the US? You are told it is nor available here. A week and a number of emails to Amazon Customer Service later, it's still not fixed. They will. One of these days. Probably later this week. Maybe.

So in the meantime it's for sale for the regular price of $2.99 on Smashwords. Well, I decided that I should have an "Amazon Hates Me" Giveaway. I mean I've done all this promotion and now I feel helpless and, frankly, put-upon. So this will make me feel better.

Please go to Freedom's Sword and use Coupon # JN34T. It's good for One Week!

And please enjoy. That is what would make me really feel better!

Reviews--why they are important

Someone asked why in a comment to a previous post. This is such a vital discussion rather than respond to the comment, I wanted to make it an entire post.

There are different types of reviews, of course. There are professional ones in PW and Library Journal. There are (mostly amateur) reviews on blogs. There are Amazon, B&N and Smashwords reviews, theoretically done by regular readers. There is some overlap of course.

I'm going to ignore the first. They're simply out of our control. But the second two, especially for indie published authors and their readers are vitally important.

Now I am going to speak as a reader. Keep in mind that most authors start out as and to a large extent remain exactly that. I'm a reader. Every year there is more content out there for me to choose. Now the second GRR Martin's Dances with Dragons is out I'll pick it up. The same with Elizabeth Moon's new novel. I won't bother with reviews.

But that is two novels. I usually read between 50 and 100 novels a year. How am I going to decide on what to read? Family recommendations? Sometimes, but my family doesn't necessarily like the same genres I do.

So instead I'll go to blog sites like indiereader.com or DailyCheapReads.com and read the reviews. They will probably point me toward a few novels I'm interested in. But once I'm on Amazon, you can bet I will take a look not only at the five-star reviews. I will also read a few of the one and two-star reviews. I'll read the blurb. Then I'll pick out some of those novels to read.

So the reviews are essential to my decision of what to read out of the many thousands of novels which are published every year. I depend on other people sharing their experience with me.

As a writer, well... you simply reverse the thinking, I suppose. I want readers who like the sorts of thing I write to find their way to my stories and enjoy them. How will they do that with all the "noise" in publishing? By other people saying, "Hey, I enjoyed this." Or if you didn't enjoy it, tell people why. What you hated actually might be something they're looking for or else you'll save them a bad experience.

But on either side, many of us depend on readers to take the time and extra effort to share their reaction to novels. I admit it's a lot to ask, but the reviews don't have to be elaborate. Just a simple statement of what you liked or didn't. I liked the characters. The plot was too slow. *ahem* Vampires shouldn't sparkle! If you make a mistake or two in the grammar, don't worry about it. Authors are supposed to be the experts on that, not readers. Perfect grammar is nice but not a requirement.

So I strongly encourage people to take a few minutes after they read a novel they purchased on Amazon or B&N to post a review. Help us all out!

Self-Publishing in the New World

As a lot of people have pointed out, in the last two years an entire new world has evolved in publishing: Self-publishing authors on Kindle and Nook. So I'm going to take that as a given for the moment. I'm not going to discuss whether it's good or bad. What I do want to do is take a couple of steps back from where I am now and discuss the process that my co-author, C. R. Daems, and I went through to get Wings of Evil ready and on sale.

So what do I think you need to do to have a chance to be successful publishing your own novel? What did we do to try to reach that goal?

The first thing, and I hope this is a given, is pay a lot of attention to advice from people like Joe Konrath, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, and Dean Wesley Smith. Joe and Kris particularly led the way in this revolution. They have great advice on their blogs. They are in my blog roll to the right side of my blog. I should also give a special word of thanks to Victorine Lieske who has been more than generous with her advice.

But once you've done your research, what then. You have that novel in hand. The first thing to do, (do I need to tell you this?) is edit that sucker until it shines and get some beta readers to give you feedback on it. Pay attention to the feedback. This is no time to be defensive. No, you don't have to take all the advice, but even the advice you don't totally agree with may have kernels of wisdom.

Then you need a good cover and blurb. The problem for writers is that these are really separate skill sets. Few of us have graphics skills and writing blurbs is very different than writing novels. For this, I went to a support system. I'm an active member of both Critique Circle and the Kindleboards. And let me tell you, people there have opinions and they will tell you those opinions. Everyone hated my first try (well, not mine in the case of the cover--I do NOT do graphics) at a cover and blurb. But I learned why. I was told what to look for in a cover. I tweaked. I reposted. I got more feedback.

Did I ever get something that everyone loved? No. But I got something that a lot of people did like or love. I decided that was as good as it was likely to get, so I went with it. One advantage of self-publishing is that after a while if I get negative feedback from readers or if I don't get sales, I can change them.

I would strongly advise something like this for anyone who is going to put their novel up for sale. Don't depend solely on your own opinion, just as you don't with your novel. You need other people's eyes and opinions, or most of us do anyway.

Then there is the whole formatting nightmare. It is IMPORTANT for your novel to be well formatted when people buy it. I didn't do my own formatting. It happens that my co-author, C. R. Daems, is a total guru about things computer. He did it. (He is a wonderful person. I don't discuss him much but I owe him more than I can begin to tell you. He is patience personified)

Then and only then after what probably took months, you can open accounts with Amazon and B&N, where they want everything short of your great-grandmother's maiden name to open an account, and upload your novel, cover and blurb. It took us from 24 to 48 hours to have them go live on Amazon and Barnes & Nobles.

Then--well, getting sales is a whole different post. Maybe a lot of them.

Cheap reads

First, let me point out for anyone who may not be aware of it, you don't have to own a Kindle to read Amazon's Kindle books. There is a Kindle for PC (and other devices) FREE here:

FREE Kindle for PC

Sure the Kindle device is great. I love it, but not everyone is ready to plunk down that much cash for an e-reader. However, there are great bargains for books on Kindle. Why pay $10 to $30 dollars for books when there are such great bargains on good books for the Kindle for under $5... some under $1? And you can download a sample for free, so you never get stuck with something bad!

Now I admit that I'm self-promoting here. I would love people to try out my Wings of Evil. But there are hundreds of other good books to try for Kindle as well, for little more than the price of a candy bar.

Take a look at this list of 99 cent books on the Excuse Me, Miss Blog. She also has a list of novels under $5. The world of books has changed with Kindle and Nook. Don't miss out on it!

Of course, I'd also love for you to read my Free short story Uncertain Harvest.

As an update to our progress with Wings of Evil, in addition to Amazon, it is now on Smashwords and is going through the process of being approved for Nook. We are about to put it into a paperback edition for sale on Amazon as well and that should happen within the next day or so. Becoming an indie author is a complex process I'd like to discuss further in future posts.