Video

,

Mini Blog Tour Day 4

,

Today I stop by Barry Napier's blog to have a drink and discuss a few things. Barry's a talented writer and poet who was in the Hint Fiction anthology with his surreal story "Through Tiny Windows." His new e-book is a collection of horror stories called 13 Broken Nightlights.

And in case you haven't seen it yet, Stephen Colbert dropped by Jimmy Fallon's show last week to do a version of Rebecca Black's "Friday." Apparently Jimmy Fallon had told his fans that if they raised enough money for charity then Stephen Colbert would do this even though Colbert knew nothing about it previously. But the fans raised more than enough money and Colbert is such a awesome guy that he came through. And the end result is just awesome.

, ,

Tom Petty Was Right

, ,

Waiting sucks, doesn't it? And I'm not just talking about the movie, though it had its moments. I'm talking about what a writer does a lot of -- just waits. Waits to hear back from magazines, from agents, from publishers. And then, if accepted, waits for the story or novel to actually be published. And then once it's published, waits for someone to actually read your story or buy your novel and maybe email to let you know they liked it or hated it. Waiting, waiting, waiting.

The other week I had a very long conversation with Blake Crouch. We talked a lot about publishing and self-publishing and I mentioned how I was releasing The Calling soon and that I was going to wait a few months before I released my next book.

"Why?" he said.

"Because."

"Because why?"

"Well, because ... I guess I'm not sure why."

"There's no reason to wait," he said. "Waiting between release dates is old school thinking."

And of course he's right. Traditional publishing doesn't want to oversaturate the market with just one writer. They want to drag it out. Release the hardcover and wait a year for the paperback. Then release another hardcover and wait another year for the paperback. Again and again. But if you're trying to build an audience, having as many e-books available is the thing to do. And if that means you have books ready to go, it makes no sense to just sit on them for a month or two or three. After all, just imagine the potential sales you could be missing.

This isn't to say you should always rush into self-publishing your e-book, if self-publishing your e-book is what you want to do. You should always wait until it's the best it can be. But when it is, why wait? This is why over the course of the next year I hope to release at least two, if not three, more e-books. These are all books that are already written and have been collecting dust on my hard drive. I just now need to go back through them and dust them off and get them prepped.

In terms of The Calling, the "official" release date isn't until Monday, but I thought you might like to know it's now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords (a special thanks to Horace Torys for the last minute notes). It includes a sneak preview of my next novel, too. All for a special introductory price of 99 cents (that's dirt cheap, people!). Or, as always, you can pay with a tweet or Facebook post. Check her out. In the meantime, see you next week.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZX0f4CL-T8

,

Fugly Covers

,

I talked awhile back about how friends don't let friends use ugly book covers, because at least then, oftentimes, the author has some control over what the cover will look like. I even showed an example here of where I commissioned a cover which was hideous and promptly made the decision never to show anyone (which I eventually broke because I wanted to prove that I do as I say). But what about when you're just a contributor to an anthology or journal? Obviously you have no say whatsoever on what the cover will be. We get in that position, at one time or another, where we have a story accepted and we get really excited and we wait months and months for the anthology or journal to be released, and then the cover is announced and it is ... not-so-great. No, not-so-great doesn't even begin to describe what's wrong with the cover. Simply put, it's fugly (a term I haven't heard used in awhile and which I want to bring back into the mainstream). And what, then, are you the author supposed to do? Well there really isn't much you can do unless you want to piss the editor off and try to withdraw the story (and if the anthology or journal is already published, then you're SOL). This is why I think it would be great if editors posted the cover art way in advance, so writers know what they're getting into when they submit. Otherwise they go in blindly and could end up with a fugly cover (sure, sometimes the covers can be great, too). Except, you know, that will never happen. But still, wouldn't it be nice and save many of us a lot of time and effort? (Where is this post coming from? I recently saw a very fugly cover to an anthology I had actually submitted to. I was rejected, thankfully, because had I been accepted it would have pained me to announce the anthology's release here on this site. I mean, seriously, I feel like a dodged a bullet on that one, folks.)

On a completely unrelated note, anyone else think this movie is a complete rip-off of Kick Ass?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctcURFb7XE4