On Deadline

The other lovely ladies of this blog have experienced this particular hell on numerous occasions, but as the "baby" of the group with only one book currently under my belt, this is my first time.

The deadline!

(I sort of hear scary music in my head when I read that last line.)

It's not exactly a secret that after getting tired of waiting for NY to call, I listened to my biggest cheerleaders (writing friends like the fabulously talented Gemma Halliday, Kristen Painter, Rhonda Stapleton, Gwen Hayes, and Melissa Francis) and took matters into my own hands last year and self-published my debut novel, Codename: Dancer. I've never hidden that fact.

So if I'm my own publisher, why am I tearing my hair out about a particular release date for my sophomore effort? Why don't I just suck it up and say "Gee, I've overpromised and underperformed. Mea culpa" and bump that sucker back a month or two? Any reasonable person would do that, especially when they have a newborn in the house. (Although I guess he's not really a newborn anymore at this point...going on 4 1/2 months!)

I guess all those pregnancy and new mama hormones must have messed with my system, because I'm clearly not reasonable. Or sane. Or maybe I never was.

I'd originally intended for Pointe of No Return to be a November 2011 release, just in time for Christmas. Would have been perfect, since it takes place behind the scenes of Nutcracker rehearsals. But one year ago this Sunday I got a little surprise. A wonderful one. About an hour after hitting "publish" on Codename, my husband and I found out we were expecting our second child. So between working full time as an attorney, raising a toddler, and baking the new bun, I was all tapped out. No time left for writing.

Needless to say, I missed that release date. By six months.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I have a new release date. May 14, 2012, as given to me by the awesome marketing team at Barnes & Noble. Upon Gemma's encouragement, I applied for -- and was accepted into -- the NOOKFirst program, which means that Pointe will be released exclusively for the NOOK for a period of 30 days before it's available elsewhere. They only select 4 titles per month, so I'm super excited about it.

So here I am at the tail end of my maternity leave, totally stressed out. I'm going through the book one more time before sending it to the editor. I've never written on deadline before, and frankly, I'm not sure I like it. Yeah, it got me to type THE END whereas I might have meandered and wasted even more time if I didn't have a concrete target date. But man, the stress sucks.

So besides writing a decent chunk of the new book, what else have I been doing since I gave birth? I also wrote a short story called "Barre Hopping at Midnight" which appears in the super cool FREE young adult anthology, Eternal Spring.

Yes, I said "free." It will be at all the major retailers next month, but for now you can download it from Smashwords. We hope you like it!

Did I mention it's free?

The anthology includes stories from such awesome YA authors as RITA finalist Stephanie Dray, Diana Peterfreund, Tawny Stokes, Juli Alexander, Rhonda Stapleton, and others. It's got something for everyone, with contemporary, paranormal, urban fantasy, and historical stories.

Here's the blurb:
Flowers, vacation, baseball, prom…what does spring mean to you? From unicorn hunters and teenage exorcists to Egyptian princesses and aspiring ballerinas, this collection of thirteen stories by some of the most exciting authors in Young Adult fiction explores young love and new beginnings during the most beautiful time of the year.

And here's the description of mine:
“Barre Hopping at Midnight” by Amanda Brice
How can aspiring ballerina Dani Spevak concentrate on performing at a spring arts festival when her not-quite-boyfriend is in town filming the lead in a hot new vampire movie and he was seen kissing his costar?

Yes, this short story is part of my Codename world, and fits chronologically between Books 2 and 3, although it stands alone and can be read in any order.

Oh, and it's free.

The Publishing Industry: Misguided But Not Doomed

By now most have heard about the government's civil antitrust lawsuit against Apple and five of the big six New York publishers. Basically the government is accusing these groups of price fixing ebooks. They're accusing them of this because they were in fact, price-fixing ebooks. There's really no other way to look at it which is why three of the publishing houses accused have already settled out of court (although they admit to no wrong doing...a line they undoubtedly learned from the executives of Goldman Sachs).

They were price fixing ebooks because Amazon was selling the ebooks for less than the wholesale price they were paying.

That's right, Amazon was taking a loss in order to establish market dominance and sell their Kindles. That freaked the publishing world out because they figured that Amazon might eventually be in the position to demand that publishers lower their wholesale price...although I believe the Publishers' official suitable-for-public-consumption argument is that pricing ebooks too low lowers the value of the book (guess someone should tell this to the libraries).  

The publishers' fears aren't unreasonable. Amazon is a powerhouse and they're ballsy as hell. It's not difficult to imagine them negotiating the ebook wholesale price down.  I don't think they'll do it tomorrow but it's probably on the horizon. 

And publishers are not in the mood to negotiate. As it stands now, their profits are razor thin. Yes, ebooks sales are on the rise but not enough to compensate for the 17% decrease in print book sales. Shockingly, of every 1000 books published in 2009 only 62 have sold more than 5000 copies. 

For publishers, these are scary times and if Amazon makes them cut their prices these will be terrifying times.

Unless publishers start thinking outside the box. This is not something publishers are usually very good at. They have a business model that was basically formed around the time the printing press was invented and they're sticking to it. Pricing has never been a big part of this model. Over and over again you hear decision makers in the publishing industry explain that if people want an ebook they won't care if it's priced at $9.99 or $12.99. They'll pay those extra few dollars without thinking twice about it because they REALLY want that ebook.

The publishing industry may be the last industry that thinks like this. Even Neiman Marcus has recognized the need to employ competitive pricing. Times are tough. People are budgeting, their credit cards are maxed out.  Gasbuddy.com gets over half a million hits a day from people who are looking to save, on average, a total of $0.34 at the pump. 

And $12.99 just sounds so much bigger than $9.99. Yes, if a reader really wants the newest book from his favorite author he may splurge and get the ebook for $12.99 but any thought of buying two ebooks during that same shopping spree are thrown out the window which effectively dooms new authors trying to build up a readership. 

So then the question becomes, how do you cut your prices without decimating your profits? The publishing industry has decided to follow Greece and Spain's example. Cut, cut, cut and then feign surprise when the economy continues to shrink and their citizens (read authors) start trying to immigrate to other countries (like the land of self-publshing or Amazon imprints). I've been alerted to two typos in my self-published release, Vanity, Vengeance & A Weekend In Vegas. I've been able to fix them but more importantly, when I was being published by a traditional publisher a LOT more typos got through. That's because most publishers have cut the number of copyeditors they employ to a barebones level.  The few copyeditors they have left are overwhelmed and are so pressed for time that they miss stuff. A lot of stuff. So you can't say that, at least from a typo/spelling perspective, the publishing industry is offering authors or readers a better service/product than what's being offered by self-published authors. 

But there's marketing, right? Self-published authors don't have the marketing capabilities of publishers.

That's true...but in order for marketing capabilities to be useful they have to be implemented.  In an effort to cut costs publishers have shifted the expense of marketing onto their authors, basically letting many of their top selling writers know that if they want an ad they will not only have to pay for it, they'll have to design it too...and decide where that ad should be placed because they don't want to pay a marketing person to figure any of that out. Publishers will still put their A-listers up in nice hotels while they go on smaller and smaller tours but they're not really looking into new and innovative ways to market their products. They're just hoping their authors will figure it out. Authors are trying to pick up the slack but not all of us have marketing degrees (oddly enough, I do have a marketing degree but I'm the exception, not the rule). In a time when there are fewer and fewer bookstores and newspapers are being read online (piecemeal style) brainstorming and innovation becomes important. Amazon is successful because they are ALWAYS coming up with a new angle. 

The publishing industry's only new angle has been price fixing ebooks and that's about to go up in smoke. 

Don't get me wrong, I don't think the publishing industry is doomed. I don't even think that it's going to be entirely dominated by Amazon and self-published authors. I do think that the publishing industry is going to have to rethink their business model. They might want to think about improving their own websites so they can sell to readers directly (Harlequin is the only publisher that does this effectively...and the retail outlets they sell to don't seem to mind). They may have to invest in some market research and find ways to improve their direct-target-focused marketing strategies. They may have to play with their pricing.  

But they can't engage in price fixing. If they're going to survive they're going to have to be more creative than that and they can't expect that their authors are going to come up with marketing strategies that will save the entire industry. I think they'll get that...eventually.

Kyra  Davis

The Tradition of the Easter Duck Fart...

Easter - a time where most families gather around a sugar-cured ham, and various mouthwatering foods to share some wine and discuss what the hell to do with the 8 million dyed, hard-boiled eggs. In my family, we have another tradition. The traditional Duck Farts.


What is a Duck Fart? Well, it's Bailey's, Kahlua and whiskey (because clearly, there's not enough whiskey in Bailey's) mixed in a bottle you'd put catsup or mustard in. Then, it's squirted into the straw-like ass of a plastic duck and consumed with a toast in a single shot.

I know, sounds classy, right? The whole tradition started at a bar here in our hometown. We went with Mom, Uncle Steve, Mr. Assassin, Jenny and whoever Jenny was with at the time. After downing a round, Mom and Steve left. Because you could keep the ducks after you sucked chocolate-flavored whiskey out of their ass - Jenny and I proceeded to drink enough to have one (okay, three) for everyone. In the middle of the night, more than a bit tipsy, we left the whole pile on Mom's doorstep, rang the doorbell and ran like hell.

The next weekend was Easter - and Uncle Steve made sure we all had (many, many) Duck Farts and a beloved tradition was born. We have since added Christmas to the holiday roster - but hell, we're Scots-Irish, so anytime we get together the Duck Farts seem to come out. And the rule is, you can't turn down a Duck Fart.

As the evening (and quantity of Duck Farts) progresses, I must admit that the required toasts get more interesting/garbled/obscene. The first toast is always the same, "Be careful driving because it's Easter and all the drunks are out!" This is something my mom once said to me and Mr. Assassin (who was then just Boyfriend Assassin) on Easter Sunday. I always imagined a bunch of rednecks in pickup trucks, holding their PBR cans out the window screaming, "He is RISEN! Woo HOO!"

The kids get chocolate milk in theirs - but I do wonder that sometimes Uncle Steve forgets which ones belong to the kids. But they sleep really soundly on those nights - so I never ask.

My mission is to make the Duck Fart a staple of American Easters. Now all I have to do is find out where we can buy them by the gross.

Who's with me?

The Assassin

Release Day!

Winner! Winner! Jennifer Fischetto Jennifer please email me at christie(at)christie-craig.com and give me your snail mail address to mail out the card.

CC

It’s here. Taken at Dusk, my third book in the Shadow Falls Series has hit the bookshelves and is hopefully falling into the hands of many readers. How does that make me feel?

Excuse me, I think I need to throw up.

You know I have given birth to sixteen published books. So, you would think after straining, and pushing out sixteen of those babies, it would have become sort of a “been there, done that” kind of thing. But nope. I still get a big ball of nerves in the pit of my stomach. The kind that a Tums or a Beano pill won’t cure. I’m talking about that ol’ fashioned, “Oh crap, what have I done now?” kind of feeling.

I start wondering if I shouldn’t have gone over the book one more time? I even think of better lines to replace some of those that I’d written. It’s so hard to let go sometimes.

Someone once asked me, “What’s it really like to be a writer?”

I told them it’s both terrifying and exhilarating as the same time. It’s the easiest and yet the hardest thing I’ve ever done. There’s a part of me that can’t wait for readers to delve into my story, but there’s also another part that says…"Stop, put that down right now! When they said they were publishing the book I didn’t know that meant everyone could read it.”

I also think readers sometimes have a misconception about who writers really are. And if they pick up my books and study them really closely, they might see me for who I really am instead of some really cool author. Not that I’m big in the whole pretense thing. Below are four things that people just assume about writers and my thoughts concerning how they really pertain to this writer.

• Writers can spell and are grammar gurus.

Please! First I’m dyslexic, second, English is my third language, my first is Alabamian and my second is Texan. Below are three of my most famous typos that were either posted in blogs or entered in contests.

Chase glanced down at his bloody shit. (Oops, I meant shirt! I swear he did not take a poo while hiding in the heroine’s back yard.)

Before I go pubic with this. (Wait, did I say “pubic?” I meant “public.”)

She was going to have to resort to blackmale. (You know I meant blackmail, right?)

• Writers are profound and everything we write is ingrained in symbolism and has a deep underlying theme.

I hate to disappoint you, but I make this shit up. Seriously, the kangaroo and the dragon in Taken at Dusk, do not have a deeper meaning. I was desperate, probably hyped-up on caffeine, and stayed up too late writing the night before. So I dug deep, and that’s all my brain would give me—a kangaroo and a dragon. So, I went with it.

• Writers get up every day and dress as if they were going into an office. Perfect hair, makeup and high heels.

I know this is going to surprise you, but there are days, many of them, that at five o’clock in the afternoon, I’m still in my PJs, braless, and no makeup. I mean, if my house caught fire and some super hot good looking firemen were outside, I’d probably decide to just burn up before letting them see me like this.

• Writers are strange people who live mostly inside their head. They talk to themselves, they have been known to make faces in the mirror, and sometimes they forget that their characters aren’t real people.

Okay, I’ll give you that one. It’s pretty much true. But in my defense… okay I don’t have a defense. I’m a writer.

And now I’ll leave you with the thirteen things you’ll learn from reading Taken at Dusk:

<!--[if !supportLists]-->1. <!--[endif]--> The only thing worse than trying to help a woman with amnesia remember her name and life is trying to help a dead woman with amnesia remember hers.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->2. <!--[endif]-->Be careful what you wish for—you might just get it . . . and the reality will probably not be anything like the fantasy.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->3. <!--[endif]-->The person you think is your enemy could just turn into a friend who'll do anything to save you.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->4. <!--[endif]-->The scariest thing in the world isn't ghosts or rogue vampires bent on murder—it's falling in love.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->5. <!--[endif]-->Explaining why you have a skunk curled up in your arms to your mom and your old best friend is as easy as eating a brownie while brushing your teeth.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->6. <!--[endif]-->We all make mistakes, which is why it's so important to practice forgiveness.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->7. <!--[endif]-->The only thing worse than a pissed-off shape-shifter is a pissed-off shape-shifter in love.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->8. <!--[endif]-->Sometimes the earth really does have to open up and swallow you whole before you can accept the truth that's right in front of you.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->9. <!--[endif]-->Vampires have no sense of humor . . . especially when they get turned into a kangaroo.

10. Free will gives us choices, but even making the right choices can't change destiny...and learning to accept that can be the most painful lesson of all.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->11. <!--[endif]-->People aren’t always who they say they are, even if you really want them to be.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->12. <!--[endif]-->Sometimes when you try to save someone, they end up saving you instead.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->13. <!--[endif]-->Never get between a dragon and a warlock on the war path.

So…now I’d like to hear your beliefs about writers. Tell me your perception, and I’ll tell you if it’s true or not.

I’m also giving away a $10 gift card to either B&N or Amazon, winner’s choice. So make sure you leave a comment. I’ll post the winner tomorrow morning, so you have to come back to see if you’ve won.

Oh…and one more thing. A friend of mine is trying to raise more money for the Star of Hope, a great homeless shelter, so she’s giving away .55 for every copy of her book, Onslaught, that she sells for the entire month of April. If you enjoy reading a suspense novel that features terrifying storms, kidnapped children and, of course, a bit of romance, go snag a copy of her e-book.

Available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords.

CC

What's so Funny 'bout Peace, Love, and Understanding? by Diane Kelly

I recently read Dale Carnegie’s book “How to Win Friends and Influence People.”  His best advice is that people should seek first to understand, then to be understood.  In other words, we need to empathize with those we deal with personally and professionally.  This can be difficult, and when the other person makes little attempt to understand where we are coming from it can be hurtful and frustrating.   

For a writer, the ability to empathize is critical.  Writers have to create characters that readers can empathize with, and to do so we have to put ourselves in the character’s shoes and think hard about what it would be like to be them.  How would they feel under the circumstances the story throws at them?  What thoughts would go through their minds?  How would they react to the situations and people they are dealing with?

Empathy can have a downside.  I have a hard time with books and movies in which horrifying, traumatic things happen to the characters.  Yep, I’m an emotional wimp.  I don’t like to see people suffer.  Besides, I don’t think a story has to be traumatic to be meaningful. 

Empathy can be a lot of fun, though, too.  My favorite writers create characters with whom I gladly empathize through their trials and tribulations because I know there will be a wonderful emotional payoff at the end.  I enjoy getting into the head of IRS Special Agent Tara Holloway, the star of my Death & Taxes series.  Through her, I get to be 27 again and have a kick-ass job where I carry a gun, work alongside a bad-ass bad boy, and take down crooks.  So much fun!  Tara also has an active sex life.  Hey, if you’re going to empathize with your character, you might as well treat yourself to a good time, right?  And it’s rewarding to empathize with a character whose ultimate goal is truth and justice, even if the means she uses to achieve those goals are less than exemplary.

It’s perhaps easiest to empathize with characters who are like us.  A character from TV that I empathize with is Claire from Modern Family.  She busts her butt to take care of a family that takes her for granted.  She’s treated as if she has a hair-trigger temper when, in my opinion, she’s justifiably frustrated that someone throws a monkey wrench into her carefully made plans.  I can soooo relate to that!  I also empathize with Frankie from The Middle.  She’s muddling through, doing her best but still falling short.  There are only so many hours in a day, after all!  Her house is a mess, sometimes she’s a mess, too, but in the end her children know she loves them and the important things get taken care of even if the laundry doesn’t. 

What characters from books, television, or movies do you most empathize with?  Are they like you or different?  What made you feel empathy with the character?  We’d love to hear your thoughts!  One person who posts a comment today will win a copy of either Death, Taxes, and a French Manicure or Death, Taxes, and a Skinny No-Whip Latte (winner’s choice).  The winner will be posted around 9:00 PM central time.

Rita Henuber Guest Blog

content to come

House Hunting Horrors

With taxes finally filed and paid (O.M.G. that was not fun), the man and I have been looking at our finances with the aim of buying a house in the near future.  Or, maybe I should say, the sometime future, considering the state of our finances.  Not that we're destitute - thanks to self-publishing, we're actually not in the hole this year!  Woohoo!  But the price of homes in our area is so crazy expensive that we're wondering how anyone ever affords a home.  I know that when we were searching for a rental house last year I complained about this, but when we're talking about a house to buy, it's even crazier.  No joke, there's nothing under a million dollars that even remotely would work for us.  And we're not picky!  We're happy to do some renovating ourselves.  We're gonna make the kids share bedrooms.  We're easy customers.  Just not millionaire ones.  To give you an example, here are some of the houses we've looked at lately...

This is a small (meaning no office space for us) house on a super busy street that's over 70 years old (without renovations since).  The ad says "loads of potential".  (translation:  needs serious work.)  Price: $950,000.  But it gets better...

This is a 6000 square foot plot of land.  Just land.  And if you're not a square footage savvy person (I'm so not), 6000 means that once you put a house on it, you can have a small strip of concrete patio in the back, but not enough room for a yard of any kind.  And you could probably shake hands with your neighbor from the upstairs windows.  Very small.  For just the small plot of land the price... $1.9 million.

This is a tiny, two bedroom, turn of the century house.  And I do mean tiny.  Get a load of the "master suite" bathroom. 

Fancy, no? My guy is not that tall, but even he couldn't fit without bumping a limb on something. Price: $1.5 million

Okay, so I will admit that I might be exaggerating *just* a bit when I say that there is absolutely nothing in reasonable price range for sale in our town.  We did find this one that was only $400,000.  A steal!

It's a one room "cozy shack" (the listing agent's words, not mine), about 30 miles outside of town, up a one-lane road in the mountains.  No heat, no sewer and "possible" running water.    

Yeah, I think we're gonna continue renting for quite a while. 

~Trigger Happy Halliday

P.S.  The first book in my High Heels series, SPYING IN HIGH HEELS, is now FREE at both Amazon.com and iTunes.