Quick note: The Third Face's website is now up with tons of information on it.
Now to the actual entry. Duth Olec is a fellow author and a close friend of mine. I was surprised earlier today when he initiated an interview with me about the publication of The Third Face, but I'm glad to share it with everyone.
Duth: How are you publishing the book? Is it the same place you got the 5 free copies?
Me: Yes. That special offer is through CreateSpace, and once I got everything ready to print those 5 copies I realized it was a good way to publish it.
Duth: And after those first five you're paying for the publishing of each one?
Me: Not exactly. The process is not your typical publishing. Basically, when a person orders the book, Createspace prints a copy for that person, and the manufacturing cost is paid for as part of the price of the book. They also get a further cut for their service, and the rest goes to me as royalties.
Duth: And would an e-book cost less due to there not really being a manufacturing cost?
Right. E-books typically cost between 99 cents and $3, whereas the paperback edition of The Third Face is set to be priced at $6.99. I haven't decided on the e-book version's price just yet.
Duth: Does this count as self-publishing?
Yes. Createspace is handling the printing, shipping, and transactions for me, but I have to do all of the actual promotion of my book myself. That's why I've been making a lot of blog posts, putting up a website and Facebook page for it, and even making a Twitter--I want people to start noticing it before it comes out.
Duth: Do you think you'll still try to get The Third Face picked up by a publishing house?
If it gets noticed and I get a really good offer from a company that can promote it effectively, then I'll gladly accept. But I don't see myself sending any more query letters any time soon.
Duth: One last question--what are your plans for this summer?
Well, I'm still looking for a job, but I hope to have done quite a bit more reading and writing by then. I'm in the middle of the Inheritance Cycle and The Hunger Games Trilogy right now, and as for the next book I write--well, I've got a half dozen here waiting to get going!
Duth: Thanks for answering a million questions.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Monday, March 19, 2012
The Road to Self-Publishing
Somewhere in the process, I made a lot more of The Third Face public than I ever have before. I asked for some basic advice on the cover, and suddenly I was getting tips on all of the colors and details used on it. Then, when I ordered a proof copy to help perfect the layout, everyone who saw it started to get excited. It seems that when you say "I'm writing a book," most people don't really care beyond the conversation. But when there's something visible about it, everyone takes notice.
That's why even though I had pretty much lost interest in The Third Face, it's becoming something much more important now. I'm spending more time focused on it, and its direct sequel, which remains unnamed for the moment, is actually beating out other novel ideas in my mind for once. This isn't just that novel that I've been working on for way too long anymore. It's a real thing, and it's finally about to take its place in the market.
The next proof should be error-free, and at that time I'll be able to approve it, thus finally releasing The Third Face to the public, both in paperback via Createspace and as a Kindle e-book. To allow sufficient time to make sure that absolutely everything is going to be exactly the way it needs to be, the official release date is going to be Thursday, April 5th. I'll update pretty often with the status of things as that date approaches, but for now, enjoy the cover:
 | ||
| Voices, twisted memories, and accusations torment Rasuke, the lone human in an alien world. He can't explain his thoughts or actions, and when the pressure becomes too much to bear he's forced to escape his village. A risen demon and a crazy old dead man hold the pieces to the explanation Rasuke seeks, but he is merely a pawn in a higher war. To find the truth, prove his worth, and survive a battle decades in the making, he must confront the very messenger of his god, and win. |
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Tuesday, February 28, 2012
New Concept: Assumptions
Authors often talk about discovering a story through writing it. These people say that while they have plans in their minds, their characters usually refuse to cooperate, and the story goes drastically off track and becomes something else entirely.
I have a feeling I've got a special case of that here. You see, this newest idea of mine comes straight from my subconscious, apparently with a fair amount of development. It came to me in a dream, complete with several characters and even a title. I don't know what the title, Assumptions, has to do with the rest of it yet, but if I start writing it, everything should become clear eventually.
The opening scene is set in some kind of college. The protagonist, Samuel, is struggling to make sense of the paperwork and find his first class, either Metalworking or Eyes and Vision (he forgot). When he tries to ask the nearest instructor for help, he finds himself waiting in a very long line that runs along a large circle of chairs, stuck behind a chubby, boastful man and a quiet young boy.
What really catches his attention is the appearance of a young woman with huge, strange eyes and sharp fangs. He's terrified by this Ziziere, but what's worse is the hissing instructor who scolds her for bothering him. This, it turns out, is the Eyes and Vision instructor, Mr. Oovalid. He demonstrates his ability to produce visions of a person's inner demons by performing on Samuel. But to his horror, he sees not just any creatures, but a massive army.
This is definitely something I want to explore. I've essentially revealed everything I know about this story, and I'm even more hooked than I would be if I'd read this as the beginning of someone else's work. If I can motivate myself to write every day, then this and Hopedead will keep me very occupied for a long time. And that's not even talking about my main series. I have my work cut out for me, and it's going to be done.
I have a feeling I've got a special case of that here. You see, this newest idea of mine comes straight from my subconscious, apparently with a fair amount of development. It came to me in a dream, complete with several characters and even a title. I don't know what the title, Assumptions, has to do with the rest of it yet, but if I start writing it, everything should become clear eventually.
The opening scene is set in some kind of college. The protagonist, Samuel, is struggling to make sense of the paperwork and find his first class, either Metalworking or Eyes and Vision (he forgot). When he tries to ask the nearest instructor for help, he finds himself waiting in a very long line that runs along a large circle of chairs, stuck behind a chubby, boastful man and a quiet young boy.
What really catches his attention is the appearance of a young woman with huge, strange eyes and sharp fangs. He's terrified by this Ziziere, but what's worse is the hissing instructor who scolds her for bothering him. This, it turns out, is the Eyes and Vision instructor, Mr. Oovalid. He demonstrates his ability to produce visions of a person's inner demons by performing on Samuel. But to his horror, he sees not just any creatures, but a massive army.
This is definitely something I want to explore. I've essentially revealed everything I know about this story, and I'm even more hooked than I would be if I'd read this as the beginning of someone else's work. If I can motivate myself to write every day, then this and Hopedead will keep me very occupied for a long time. And that's not even talking about my main series. I have my work cut out for me, and it's going to be done.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Self-Publishing?
Well, sort of. As I mentioned in a previous entry, I get 5 free paperback copies from Createspace just for having done NaNoWriMo. It took some doing, but I added just enough scenes to tie the plot together a little more and satisfy myself. Then I finally decided to get to work on the process of getting my copies printed.
It's a good thing I did. A paperback novel is very different from a Courier New manuscript, and making it look like a professional book is actually pretty difficult. It took me a day just to make the preliminary pages that come before the actual chapters. The Table of Contents was a headache of its own, and that was without the page numbers, which could only be determined after hours of formatting each and every chapter of my manuscript.
Not only that, but I have to come up with a cover. Now I've been drawing characters from this since I came up with the story early in high school, but since I haven't really taken any art classes or anything, I definitely don't trust myself to do this so easily. This is the first time I'm even going to draw more than one draft of the same drawing, and it'll probably take at least a couple of weeks just to get that part right. Then I have to scan it, add color as well as I can, and then add all the elements that make it a book cover.
Doing all of this makes me realize that what I'm doing is completely different from simply printing out the pages. I may only be making 5 copies, but all of this amounts to self-publishing. I'm learning all the elements of creating a book from scratch, and all Createspace is doing is printing copies for me. That's pretty exciting, and it's hard to believe that soon enough I'm going to be holding a professional-looking copy of my book, 100% made by me.
With lots of homework, the constant job search, and some other projects taking up my time, I can't believe that I even had a free moment to make this blog entry. Life is getting surprisingly busy.
It's a good thing I did. A paperback novel is very different from a Courier New manuscript, and making it look like a professional book is actually pretty difficult. It took me a day just to make the preliminary pages that come before the actual chapters. The Table of Contents was a headache of its own, and that was without the page numbers, which could only be determined after hours of formatting each and every chapter of my manuscript.
Not only that, but I have to come up with a cover. Now I've been drawing characters from this since I came up with the story early in high school, but since I haven't really taken any art classes or anything, I definitely don't trust myself to do this so easily. This is the first time I'm even going to draw more than one draft of the same drawing, and it'll probably take at least a couple of weeks just to get that part right. Then I have to scan it, add color as well as I can, and then add all the elements that make it a book cover.
Doing all of this makes me realize that what I'm doing is completely different from simply printing out the pages. I may only be making 5 copies, but all of this amounts to self-publishing. I'm learning all the elements of creating a book from scratch, and all Createspace is doing is printing copies for me. That's pretty exciting, and it's hard to believe that soon enough I'm going to be holding a professional-looking copy of my book, 100% made by me.
With lots of homework, the constant job search, and some other projects taking up my time, I can't believe that I even had a free moment to make this blog entry. Life is getting surprisingly busy.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
New Concept: "Hopedead"
You know, it's very frustrating to try to edit an old novel to a deadline when you have little time to work on it and your head is filled with ideas for new novels. Maybe they're worth pursuing. Maybe not. But they shouldn't be forgotten, I think. So from now on, whenever a new plot pops into my head, I will do my best to record it to this blog.
Many fantasy stories and games start out with a basic plot that's some variant of "Something evil is trying to take over the world, and there is only one hero, chosen and/or destined to stop it." A good story these days does away with this old cookie-cutter idea. Only a few take it as a base and mangle it enough to find something compelling.
The idea of saving the entire world singlehandedly and facing impossible odds, while cliché to read about, is frightening to actually consider. If it's well-known that you're the chosen one, suddenly you're famous for something you haven't done. You're seen for what people expect of you with zero room for error and no recognition for your actual accomplishments. The heroic image starts to replace your humanity while the pressure builds around you. It's enough to drive someone insane.
In fiction you almost never see a hero lose it. Even one that's perfectly capable of becoming hysterical when things go wrong in his or her quest is really only mildly unsettled by the fame. It's quickly put out of mind to deal with something else. But what happens when one hero just can't take it anymore? What happens when the quest is over before it even begins?
Hopedead is a story of survivors, in a world whose hero has been driven to suicide.
Many fantasy stories and games start out with a basic plot that's some variant of "Something evil is trying to take over the world, and there is only one hero, chosen and/or destined to stop it." A good story these days does away with this old cookie-cutter idea. Only a few take it as a base and mangle it enough to find something compelling.
The idea of saving the entire world singlehandedly and facing impossible odds, while cliché to read about, is frightening to actually consider. If it's well-known that you're the chosen one, suddenly you're famous for something you haven't done. You're seen for what people expect of you with zero room for error and no recognition for your actual accomplishments. The heroic image starts to replace your humanity while the pressure builds around you. It's enough to drive someone insane.
In fiction you almost never see a hero lose it. Even one that's perfectly capable of becoming hysterical when things go wrong in his or her quest is really only mildly unsettled by the fame. It's quickly put out of mind to deal with something else. But what happens when one hero just can't take it anymore? What happens when the quest is over before it even begins?
Hopedead is a story of survivors, in a world whose hero has been driven to suicide.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Memo: College
A year ago, I was typing furiously at a very different blog full of very silly things like the girls I was dating and whether I liked my high school teachers or my mom at the time. I also wrote several posts about how a broken fire alarm influenced my decision to hate school and want to never ever go to college.
As you can see, all of this was very irrational of me, and I am now very glad that it is separate from this writing blog, since it's much more available to the public. My only wish is that I had the willpower to delete the old one from existence. But that's entirely beside the point.
It took me a very long time to finally change my mind and try my hand at college courses. My main problem was that something wouldn't let me realize that an unreliable prospect is the last thing you want as your backup plan. This world is pretty risky as it is, and it's only because I'm very lucky that I continue to live in any amount of comfort, let alone with the little effort I've put into my life so far.
So today, when I finally went into my very first college class, it was definitely something different for me. Funnily enough, though, even though I had put off going I was still the youngest person in the room. Most had gone to college for a while before, gone off to work for a few years, and were now coming back for further education. I felt weird for reasons much different than I was expecting.
Unfortunately, I have to admit that it hasn't been terribly exciting. We were introduced to the course, and then I learned how to write a memo. Obviously this blog post isn't a memo despite the title, but there's really not much else to say about what I actually did today. This semester will consist mostly of homework, but that's alright. The deceiving but great thing about homework is that you can do it pretty much anywhere.
As you can see, all of this was very irrational of me, and I am now very glad that it is separate from this writing blog, since it's much more available to the public. My only wish is that I had the willpower to delete the old one from existence. But that's entirely beside the point.
It took me a very long time to finally change my mind and try my hand at college courses. My main problem was that something wouldn't let me realize that an unreliable prospect is the last thing you want as your backup plan. This world is pretty risky as it is, and it's only because I'm very lucky that I continue to live in any amount of comfort, let alone with the little effort I've put into my life so far.
So today, when I finally went into my very first college class, it was definitely something different for me. Funnily enough, though, even though I had put off going I was still the youngest person in the room. Most had gone to college for a while before, gone off to work for a few years, and were now coming back for further education. I felt weird for reasons much different than I was expecting.
Unfortunately, I have to admit that it hasn't been terribly exciting. We were introduced to the course, and then I learned how to write a memo. Obviously this blog post isn't a memo despite the title, but there's really not much else to say about what I actually did today. This semester will consist mostly of homework, but that's alright. The deceiving but great thing about homework is that you can do it pretty much anywhere.
Monday, January 2, 2012
New Year's Resolution
Get The Third Face revised enough so that I'm finally actually happy with it and willing to look for and send it to an agent or something. I can't just sit back and wait for my mind to come up with some sort of brilliance anymore. This is getting rather ridiculous.
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