e-publishing | Meredith Mansfield, Author

Posts Tagged ‘e-publishing’

Wyreth’s Flame

Posted in writing, tagged Alternate History, e-publishing, fantasy, Learning, marketing, short stories, writing, Young Adult on April 6, 2014| Leave a Comment »

It’s here!

Sometimes the gift of the right story to tell at the right time is a blessing. Sometimes it’s a curse. But the Norse gods don’t leave Astrid much choice, either way.
On the eve of a desperate battle, with her father lying mortally wounded, the gods give her a story about the first dragon to learn to breathe fire. As usual, the story doesn’t come with instructions. It’s up to Astrid to decide if the story is meant to calm the frightened children or encourage the dispirited men. Or if she just might be able to do both with the same story. All their lives may depend on her skill with a story.

Wyreth’s Flame is available on both Amazon and Smashwords. It’s free on Smashwords. I’ll have to wait until it gets out to Barnes and Noble before I can start the process of making it free on Amazon, too. In the meantime, it’s only $0.99.

You can add it to your to-read list on Goodreads too.

There’s a healthy extract of The Bard’s Gift (twelve chapters) included in the ebook.

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The Stone of Valhalla

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, marketing, Middle Grade, world building on April 3, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Welcome another author with a fun story involving Norse mythology. (Funny thing. The story of Fafnir makes an appearance in The Bard’s Gift, too.)

Welcome to The Stone of Valhalla Blog Tour!

A middle-grade fantasy-adventure by Mikey Brooks.

Don’t forget to check out the GIVEAWAY at the bottom this post

for a chance to WIN a $25 Amazon Gift card and other great prizes!

Fun Discoveries while Researching

A Guest Post by: Mikey Brooks

I discover fun and interesting things with each book I write. For The Stone of Valhalla I did a lot of research into old Norse mythology and legends. I wanted to base my “otherworld” off something that still had familiarity in ours. World building is really fun in the fact that you get to create everything from the ground up. You get to create their religion, their folk songs, their folklore, everything. I mostly turned to research to find names for characters and places but as I found a name, I found a story behind the name.

In The Stone of Valhalla a magical amulet is sot by many evil creatures trying to hone its power for their own purposes. It’s ruled by a harpy, then an evil wizard, then something just as terrifying. One of the masters of the amulet was a dragon. I found this really cool name Fáfnir and decided to use it for my dragon in the folklore of this “otherworld”. What I discovered was a fascinating story about a dragon named Fáfnir from old Norse legends. In the Norse legend Fáfnir was the son of the dwarf king that was transformed into a dragon because of his greed over gold and a magical ring. He was later slain by the hero in the Völsunga Saga. I took a few things from what I learned about Fáfnir and incorporated it into my book, twisting the story to fit my own. I find this to be the most thrilling part of writing. You never know what you’ll learn as you research for your book.

I am thrilled to announce the release of my newest middle-grade fantasy-adventure: The Stone of Valhalla. I hope you love this book as much as I do.

Synopsis:

Aaron was chosen to save their world, but it might come at the cost of losing his own.

Breaking into an old lady’s basement was supposed to reward 13-year-old Aaron with new friends. Instead he finds an enchanted amulet that transports him to another world—one at war with magic. Before he knows it, he is accused of witchcraft and invited to a bonfire—where he’s the main attraction. If that’s not bad enough, a goblin army shows up and toasts the town…literally. The good news: Aaron escapes being charbroiled. The bad news: the goblins are after him. They want his amulet and will stop at nothing to get it. Battling to find his way home, Aaron teams up with a not-so-magical-wizard and learns it’s his fate to destroy the amulet and save this new world. But is he willing to sacrifice his own?

Check out what these talented authors are saying about it:

“The Stone of Valhalla is one of those books that only comes along once in a great while. Brooks doesn’t just create a world, he puts you inside of it, allowing you to experience the wonder in a way that only he can. His characters are likable and fun. His twists leave you asking ‘Why?’ Treat yourself to an exciting adventure through a beautiful new land. Make new friends and be a part of the magic. This is a book that you will not be able to put down!”

—J.R. Simmons, author of Ragesong: Awakening.

“The Stone of Valhalla drew me in from the get-go. Aaron’s journey is reminiscent of Dorothy’s trek in The Wizard of Oz. Magic, sword fights, danger, and more danger, sprinkled with humor and unexpected twists. This is one of the ‘best’ fantasy adventures I’ve ever experienced!”

—BBH McChiller, author of The Monster Moon Series.

“The Stone of Valhalla is a riveting mystery revealing true friendship, loyalty and sacrifice. Brooks engages the curiosity of middle graders and older sleuths alike, until the very end. Fantastic!”

—L.R.W. Lee, author of The Andy Smithson series.

Where to Find The Stone of Valhalla:

Exclusive price for the eBook release is just $2.99! (List Price: $4.99)

And only $9.99 for the paperback! (List Price: $12.99)

On April 12^th 2014 the price will return to the List Price

Kindle | Paperback

Another special offer:

During The Stone of Valhalla Blog Tour

Mikey’s other great middle-grade eBooks will also be set to the low price of just $0.99!

The Dream Keeper:

Kindle | Nook | Kobo

The Dreamstone:

Kindle | Nook | Kobo

You’re Invited to PARTY!!

The online launch party will take place on Thursday, April 10^th at 4pm (MST). The party will run for 2 hours and you’re invited to drop by anytime. The longer you stay the more chances you have of winning prizes! We have slew of eBooks to giveaway, as well as a Stone of Valhalla necklace AND a $25 Amazon gift card! It is hosted by LovingtheBookLaunchParty on Facebook. Just follow this link to join the event: http://goo.gl/Q2Fd3r.

What’s that? Another Party!

That’s right! If you’re local to Utah you don’t want to miss this kickin’ party. We are having a launch party to celebrate the release of this awesome new book. Of course there will be plenty of giveaways there too, but what’s even better are the guest authors! Just check out these fabulous names: J. Scott Savage, Chad Morris, Lisa Mangum, Jenni James, Ali Cross, and many more. The Launch Party is: Friday, April 11^th from 6-9pm at the Viridian Center in West Jordan, Utah. Follow this link for a map: http://goo.gl/dqVc0u

About Mikey Brooks:

Mikey is a small child masquerading as an adult. On occasion you’ll catch him dancing the funky chicken, singing like a banshee, and pretending to have never grown up. He is the author/illustrator of several books including the best-selling ABC Adventures: Magical Creatures and Bean’s Dragons as well as the middle-grade fantasy-adventure series The Dream Keeper Chronicles. His art can be seen in many forms from picture books to full room murals. He loves to daydream with his three daughters and explore the worlds that only the imagination of children can create. Mikey has a BS degree in English from Utah State University and works fulltime as a freelance illustrator, cover designer, and author. As a member of the Emblazoners, he is one of many authors devoted to ‘writing stories on the hearts of children’. He is also one of the hosts of the Authors’ Think Tank Podcast. You can find more about him and his books at: http://www.insidemikeysworld.com/.

The Giveaways!

Enter the giveaway here to be entered to win one of the following prizes:

$25 Amazon Gift Card

The Stone of Valhalla Necklace

Autographed Paperback of The Stone of Valhalla

Autographed 11×17 Poster

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The Importance of Metadata

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, Learning, marketing on April 2, 2014| Leave a Comment »

In today’s publishing metadata is very important. It controls where a book appears and whether it comes up as a suggestion for a customer who may be viewing a similar book and where a book appears in search results. For some niche markets, it controls whether the book even gets on the right list.

Unfortunately, meta data can sometimes seem like a black art–mysterious and incomprehensible. Thanks to Facebook (you really do never know where you’re going to find something useful), I’ve found at least one resource to help out a little.

Amazon does provide a list of keywords necessary to get into some of those subcategories on their system. Yay for that.

I’m trying to learn a lot more about metadata right now. I’ll be revisiting all of my published books and tweaking their keywords and descriptions. (Yes, keywords should be in the descriptions, too.)

Fortunate this is a marathon, not a sprint. That’s an encouraging thought.

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Building Up Steam

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, marketing, Multiple Projects, revisions, rewrites, sequels, short stories, writing, Young Adult on March 30, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Well, the computer problems I had earlier sort of took the wind out of my sails for a while, but I’m starting to build up steam again.

I’ve gotten through a slow patch in THE IGNORED PROPHECY (sequel to THE SHAMAN’S CURSE) and into a section where more is happening. Things are moving faster now, both in the story and in my rewrite of the story. That slow patch is a section I’m going to have to revisit in the next patch, of course. I’ll need to either punch it up or delete a fair bit, probably some of each. But rewrites, like revisions, are an iterative process. The key is not to try to fix everything all at once, but concentrate on a certain aspect in each pass. This pass is more about technique (and a little bit about adding emotion as I improve things like dialog mechanics and internal dialog).

Meanwhile, I’m about ready to start on the final edits and formatting of “Wyreth’s Flame” for publication next month. I’ve pretty much got the cover:

The plan is for “Wyreth’s Flame” to be free everywhere (which will probably take some work to bring about on Amazon). This short story was the germ that eventually grew into THE BARD’S GIFT.

The ebook for “Wyreth’s Flame” will include a bonus section with a substantial portion of THE BARD’S GIFT.

Oh, the first five chapters of TBG are available free on wattpad, if you want to take a look. I’m putting out a chapter a week, which means it’ll take 33 more weeks for the whole story to be available there (around the middle of November).

So, things are moving well again. Just in time for me to start work at a new job (part time) tomorrow. I’ll be a crossing guard. Wish me luck.

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Cover Reveal

Posted in writing, tagged covers, e-publishing, fantasy, Learning, marketing, short stories, writing, Young Adult on March 26, 2014| 2 Comments »

I’ve never really done a proper cover reveal. Not the kind of cover reveal that’s meant to start raising awareness and interest for the forthcoming story.

Partly, that’s because the cover has often been one of the last things I did in preparation for epublishing. That’s something I’ll have to change. Probably for my next book (THE SHAMAN’S CURSE).

I’m not going to do that kind of big cover reveal with all the associated fanfare today, either, for a couple of reasons. Mainly, this cover is for a short story, “Wyreth’s Flame”, which is intended to be free. (We’ll see how easy or hard Amazon makes that when I get there.)

The point of publishing this short story (which was where the inspiration for THE BARD’S GIFT came from) is to provide a free entry point. The ebook will contain the story and a fair-sized excerpt from TBG and hopefully be a cost-free, resistance-free way to get readers interested in the bigger story.

So, without further ado, here’s the cover as of now. There’ll likely be a few tweaks before I’m done, but it should look pretty much like this:

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Rewrites: The Easy and the Hard

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, Learning, Multiple Projects, Point of View, rewrites, sequels, writing on March 23, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Lately, I’ve been working mostly on rewriting THE IGNORED PROPHECY, which is the sequel to THE SHAMAN’S CURSE. Now, TIP is the second book I wrote (third, if you count that thing back in college, but let’s not talk about that one). I learned more from writing TIP than I ever did from the first version of TSC.

TIP is the book that made me into a modified discovery writer, because I managed to write the whole first version, over 100,000 words, without actually telling a story. I knew it wasn’t a story as I finished the last chapter of the first draft, but I didn’t know why. It took quite a few false starts and incorrect diagnoses before I figured it out. It was missing a central conflict–the thing that tells you that the story starts here (when the problem is first made clear) and ends there (when the conflict is resolved). The central conflict is the river current that pulls a story forward. Without it, you have characters doing things, other things happening to characters, but you don’t have a story.

Now, I will say that I’ve seen that particular problem in plenty of traditionally published sequels, even some popular ones. I call those bridge stories. The point of the middle book of a trilogy sometimes appears to be only to get the characters from the end of book one to the start of book two. And there are always those stories (think LORD OF THE RINGS) where no individual book is really meant to be a story. They have to be taken as a whole.

Still, I want the book of my series to be able to stand alone. And the first version of TIP didn’t. I believe I fixed that problem years ago. (In this case, it’s a mystery. Just why is my main character’s magic behaving so strangely?) Still, it won’t hurt to heighten that central problem as I go through the rewrite.

There are clearly a lot of things I hadn’t learned, yet, though. Quite apart from it being a sequel (which I’ve posted about before), there are many facets of this rewrite that are possibly harder than writing a first draft from scratch. And, of course, some things that are easier.

The easy, first. The characters and the plot are already set. While I will certainly add some scenes as I go, and I may delete others, the plot itself is already there.

The hard part. Well, there’s a lot to clean up. I clearly didn’t have a great understanding of dialog mechanics. I didn’t begin to know how to show emotions. And don’t get me started on the number of point-of-view violations I’m finding. In fact, point of view is going to be an issue I’ll need to tackle in a later draft. I’ll need to decide whether to give certain pov characters their own chapters, or just use scene breaks.

The hard truth is that even though I’m working through a completed draft, it’s going to take several passes to bring this manuscript up to my current standard. Well, that’s just another way to learn–and drive the lessons home for my future stories. And I will make TIP into the story it’s capable of being–eventually.

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Not All Rewrites Are Equal

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, fantasy, first drafts, Learning, Multiple Projects, revisions, rewrites, sequels, writing, Young Adult on March 9, 2014| 2 Comments »

I’m currently involved in two different rewrites. Very different–and not just because of the stories.

DUAL MAGICS:

The two different kinds of magic–one acquired by initiation and one inherited in the blood–have always been completely separate. Until now.

Not quite epic fantasy. I’d call them sword and sorcery, but there aren’t any swords, really. Spear and sorcery?

In these, I’ve gone back to one of my very first stories. It’s actually a four-book series. I’d written the first two before getting stuck on the third. I’m a much better writer now. Part of what these stories need is craft-related. Some of it is streamlining the story, which is still basically the same. I’ve already done the rewrite on THE SHAMAN’S CURSE and I have it out to some beta readers. I’m on Chapter 5 of THE IGNORED PROPHECY, which is where I’m running into the interesting issues of starting a sequel I wrote about in my last post.

In both of these, the story has remained almost exactly the same, although in the rewrite I’ve chosen to expand some things and reduce or delete others. It’s almost more like a really deep, extensive revision than a rewrite, although scenes do have to be rewritten to fix the craft deficiencies in the original. That’s why I can work on this at the same time I’m working on my other project.

DREAMER’S ROSE:

I don’t have a good log line for this one, yet. It’s changed so significantly. Part of it explores aspects of the Hercules legend that fascinate me. (I mean, this guy never succeeded in anything in his life except killing monsters. And then he became a god. How did that work out?) Except I’ve turned the whole legend on its head.

But now that’s only the beginning of the story. The first part will stay basically the same. Again, it needs a rewrite/revision to bring it up to the current level of my writing craft. But after that, everything will be new. Completely re-imagined. Two thirds of this will truly be a first draft–and I’m almost to that part. Looking forward to it.

This one is going to provide some interesting challenges in structure. It has three main characters, but one character’s story starts several years before the other two characters are born. Right now, I’m just writing chronologically. I’ll think about whether I need to rearrange things after I’ve got the story down.

Two very different kinds of rewrites.

In other news, I’ve decided to put THE BARD’S GIFT up on wattpad, one chapter a week, so you can start reading it for free. (Hint: You’ll get the story much faster if you just buy it. It’s only $2.99 on Amazon)

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The Trouble with Sequels

Posted in writing, tagged characters, e-publishing, fantasy, Middle Grade, rewrites, sequels, writing, Young Adult on March 5, 2014| Leave a Comment »

I’ve written about this before, but it’s what’s at the top of my mind again today.

As a reader, I love a good series. I already know I enjoy the author’s work, the setting, the characters. As a writer, it’s something I really want to do. So far, I’ve only got one (very short) series: BLOOD WILL TELL and its sequel BLOOD IS THICKER.

Eventually, there’ll be a third volume in this series, but I’m not ready to write it just yet.

I actually have three other stories that should be series.

MAGIC AND POWER will probably end up being the series title and there’ll be at least one more book following GREEN MAGIC (which is the current title for what used to be MAGIC AND POWER). That one will explore the same world through a different set of characters.

I have ideas for at least three more stories following MAGE STORM (or STORM OF MAGIC). Middle grade is a particular problem, though, that could be the subject of another post.

DUAL MAGICS starts with THE SHAMAN’S CURSE (TSC) and should be four books when complete. (Look for TSC later this year.) I’m currently working, part of my time, on the rewrite of the second book, THE IGNORED PROPHECY (TIP).

And that’s where the trouble with sequels comes in. It’s hard to start a sequel. You, as the author, already know these characters, the world you’ve created for them, the magic system. But, here’s the deal: you can’t assume your readers do.

When a book is launched out into the world, the author loses a measure of control. One of the things you can’t control is whether a reader starts where you want them to. TSC is the beginning. But somebody just might ignore that and pick up TIP for whatever reason. Maybe they just like the cover better. Maybe Amazon suggests that one. Whatever. You can do everything in your power to encourage the reader to start at the beginning and it still might not work.

Or, you know, some time might elapse between reading the first and second volumes in a series and readers may have forgotten a lot about the characters and the world.

So, you have to do the very best you can to make each book as easy to start as possible. Ease readers into this world and the characters. And there’s the problem. I ended TSC with the main characters in a part of the world that probably needs the most description. It’s not even remotely a typical medieval fantasy setting. As I start TIP, I need to find a way to introduce that without boring readers who already know all of this because they just read TSC.

And then there are the characters. There are about a dozen important named characters present at the point where TSC ends. I don’t want to dump all of them into the first couple of chapters. That just becomes confusing, especially since some of them have complicated family relationships to each other. Ideally, I’d like to introduce them a few at a time.

I’ve chosen to start with the two main characters taking some private time when a situation develops. That’s fine. I was able to refer to a couple of other characters and bring two more in to help deal with the situation. Good so far.

Now, I’m confronted with the need to break off and go to another setting and another group of characters for a chapter. I know how they relate to the first group. It’s not going to be so easy to figure out how to make that clear to the reader.

This is just one of the things that makes sequels so hard to get right.

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Things I Learned at IndieReCon

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, events, fantasy, Learning, marketing, Multiple Projects, rewrites, writing, Young Adult on March 2, 2014| Leave a Comment »

It’s going to take a long time to really process–not to say try out–the things I learned at IndieReCon. (BTW, almost all of the content (minus a few twitter chats and one facebook chat) is still available on their website.

I’ll focus on a couple of things I’m putting into action now.

Amazon Book Description:

This is the description that appears second on your book page, below the cover and price. It’s your chance to tell readers what the book is about, similar to a query letter in some ways. In fact, back-cover blurbs are very often what’s seen here. But you can do more than that.

What I didn’t know is that you can use some HTML tags in the description. I don’t know what all of the allowed tags are, but I know a few of them:

<H2> </H2>This is a heading tag. On Amazon, it will make the text inside the tags appear larger, bold, and orange.
<B></B> Bold

These are the only tags I’ve tried so far. I used them on the description for THE CHIMERIA OMNIBUS.

Take a look. Kind of snazzy.

Free Books:

This one’s kind of interesting. I’ve heard before that free books, particularly making the first book in a series free, can enhance sales. I kind of worked around this with BLOOD IS THICKER by making THE CHIMERIA OMNIBUS (containing both BLOOD WILL TELL and BLOOD IS THICKER) temporarily the same price as either book alone.

That turns out to have been me, well, not quite getting the point. Not the first time. It was the Write, Publish, Repeat podcast that made it clear to me. It’s not just giving the reader a bargain. It’s giving them a friction-free way to try before they buy. Something they don’t even have to think about, or not much. “Friction-free” as they described it.

It’s not the same as a free sample. Free samples, by their definition, end somewhere in the first fifth of the book. They aren’t complete. Now, if you have a series of three or more books (which I don’t yet), it can make very good sense to make the first book free. If people like it, they’ll likely buy the rest of the series. But that’s not the only way this can work.

What I’m working on now is polishing up the short story that was the genesis of THE BARD’S GIFT. The plan is to publish this for free, probably with a sample of the first couple of chapters of TBG at the back. It’ll take some time. I’ve sent the story out for some more critiques. I’ll need to find a new title for it. (“The Bard’s Gift” would likely be confusing.) Then there’s making a cover and formatting. Plus the time it will take to ask Amazon to make it permafree. Look for this some time in April.

When I get around to THE SHAMAN’S CURSE, “Becoming Lioness” will only need a brush-up to fulfill the same role. It’s already in the same world and involves some of the same characters as TSC.

More to come.

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IndieReCon

Posted in writing, tagged e-publishing, events, Real Life, research, revisions, writing on February 26, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Well, I’ve got this computer mostly up and functional, if not quite as updated as I’d like yet. That’s a relief.

And I finally made good on that commitment to finish the revisions to MAGIC AND POWER (now likely to be retitled GREEN MAGIC, because M & P is going to be the title of the series.) I’ve even got the revisions out to a couple of readers.

This week, I’m spending a good deal of my time over at IndieReCon. It’s a free, online conference about writing and indie publishing. I’ve already picked up a couple of ideas I’ll be trying out in the future and I hope to garner some more by the end of the conference. Hopefully, I’ll learn how to do a better job of my next launch than I did with THE BARD’S GIFT.

In between events over there, I’m playing around a bit with the rewrite of THE IGNORED PROPHECY (sequel to THE SHAMAN’S CURSE). I’ll start in on DREAMER’S ROSE after the conference is over, when I can devote more concentrated attention to it.

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