Are we all taking in each other's laundry?

I'm a newbie epublished author, but I'm starting to wonder how many actual readers there are out there for ebooks... Well, I know there are SOME. But so many people are involved in "the industry" as reviewers and promo loop list owners and publicists and writers and editors and publishers, that you start to wonder if maybe we're all buying each other's books in a sort of closed circle.

The ambitious authors are all making lists of twenty promo loops and twenty-five review sites and posting excerpts and promo blurbs everywhere. In the flood of promotion that everybody tells you that you have to do -- despite the fact that it seems to do very little real good, probably because we're all advertising to each other -- that there seems to be very little REAL word-of-mouth.

How many new erotic romance ebooks ARE there coming out every month? (We won't even talk about anything else because nothing else seems to sell.) Even the hardcore reading addicts can't keep up with it. And where are you going to get the real scoop on something that's good? When the average rating is 4.5 stars, how can the reviews help?

At least the higher bar for publishing in New York means that some of the sorting has been done for you. After getting burned on the quality of the stories a number of times, you become more hesitant to put your money down. When I first started reading ebooks one of the attractions was that there were different kinds of stories, a greater variety of sub-genres and settings. Then NY picked up lots of the paranormal stuff, and started up a bunch of erotic romance lines, and now ... Well, let's just say that there's not nearly as much of a difference as there was just two short years ago.

So if it comes to a choice of paying $5.99 for an ebook with a 40% chance that I'll quit after two chapters because apparently the author's "voice" consists of awkward sentences and sub-standard verb tenses and plot holes you could drive a truck through--or $7.99 for a 90% chance of finishing the book... I tend to play the odds.

Everything may change if somebody comes out with a GOOD handheld ebook reader, with type that aging eyes can read. Meanwhile, I'm not sure if the epublishing industry is maturing or stagnating or settling down to be a niche purveyor of sexy stories for women.

Grumpily,
Sara
(supplier of sexy stories for women)

Linnea Sinclair's "Games of Command"

February 27, 2007!!! Put the date in your calendar. Linnea Sinclair's "Games of Command" will be out that day, and you want to grab it as soon as possible. You really do, take my word for it.

Linnea's three books that have published by Bantam are all great:
"Finders Keepers"
"Gabriel's Ghost"
"Accidental Goddess"

I luuuuuuve all of her books, and can hardly wait to read "Games of Command", which takes parts of a previously e-published novel "Command Performance" and finishes off the story...

Happy reading,
Sara

The New Year and diets...

I wonder what percentage of the population goes on a diet as a New Year's resolution? If I had to guess, I'd go for something like 40%. Weight Watchers always gets a big surge in memberships in the first weeks of a new year, and it's a program that does work for many people. Unfortunately it hasn't been working for me lately. This time I'm using a Palm program "Diet and Exercise Assistant". I actually got this program several years ago and occasionally would fire it up, but I never stuck with for long. I just got the new version (7.0) and it comes with a couple of very handy new features--the ability to make a separate list of "Favorites" foods, and the ability to create a "Recipe" from a list of foods. It should make the logging MUCH faster.

I'll take any tools and technology that will make the whole process easier...

Sara

Kim Harrison's "For a Few Demons More"

I got an unexpected present yesterday when a package that had been sent to me as an RWA Chapter President showed up -- an ARC of Kim Harrison's "For a Few Demons More". Of course I started to read it immediately, and didn't stop until 2 am. Not good for my writing schedule today, but otherwise great fun.

I'm quite a fan of the Hollows series, and this one didn't disappoint at all. She effortlessly held my attention with non-stop action and relationship developments. Trent's character took another twist. Rachel and Ivy tested more boundaries. And, true to the title, there were definitely a "few demons more". We saw Al, Newt, and a new demon, Midias, complicating Rachel's life to the max. There was some loss in the final chapters of the book, but it was handled well. After all, if everything's completely safe, you would lose that edge, wouldn't you?

So I give this book a strong recommendation.

I'm also a fan of the fantasies of Dawn Cook, and quite enjoyed "The Decoy Princess" and "Princess at Sea", also recommended--though they are NOT urban/dark/whatever fantasy.

It's New Year's eve. Time to get my writing pages in so I can relax and enjoy the end of 2006, a momentous year for me. It's so much easier to fasten on the negative, and I always feel like I should have done more, better. But this has been a good year in many ways. I finished my first work of fiction, contracted it, saw it published, and got my first royalty check. Not bad for one year (I keep telling myself :-) )

Sara

The Cat had a stroke...

Our cat has a name--Misty--but somehow we always end up calling her "The Cat". Last week one night she squawked and fell over. After that she could hardly walk. She'd take a few steps and tip over, sometimes sideways, sometimes backward.

We took her to the Veterinary Hospital (we're lucky enough to have a world-famous veterinary school in our small city) and they told us that she definitely had something wrong with her brain, but they couldn't be sure without further testing. I'm afraid that I drew the line at paying for an MRI. If she did indeed have a stroke, knowing that for sure would make no difference to treatment. So we took her home with steroids and antibiotics, not at all sure whether she would live.

About twenty-four hours after the stroke I became concerned because she hadn't had anything to eat, and wouldn't eat from a spoon. But after leaving a plate of chopped up pork roast near her, she did eat. Now, almost a week later, she's walking around and is clearly going to make it. She's slow and awkward, and doesn't have total control over her body, but she's getting to the litter box and the food bowl, and has even gone back to her insanely picky eating style, sticking up her nose at various food offerings for inscrutable and random reasons.

The vet told us that if she didn't get better, call them to discuss "quality of life issues". A curious sort of euphemism for euthanasia... But it does make you think about what it is that makes life worth living. Even though she's no longer in danger of dying, she basically moves from one soft, warm spot to another, with the occasional trip to eat or eliminate. Is this enough "quality of life"? Would it be different if she were human?

What will life be like for me, when I get toward the end?

Sara

Writing and the Internet

The internet is having a strange effect on the writing life. My first novel was just e-published and instead of frantically finishing the next one, I find myself frantically trying to get a website up. People who buy lots of e-published novels just assume that authors have a website. I know that if I'm thinking of buying a story, I'll often go and google the author, and surf on over to her website to see what kind of things she writes. It's a way of figuring out if this particular story is a good purchase for me.

So instead of writing, writers are out there promoting and networking and blogging and building websites. Very strange. I've even heard that agents and editors will check out an authors website.

So now writers have even more roles to fill...

Well, I've put in my time on my website today. Sigh. Time to go do some paying work.

Sara

Nancy Kress: "Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint"

This is a good, solid book on writing. I have a pile of them in my room. Some of them I almost never pick up, some of them I come back to again and again. I haven't read every word in this one, but so far my favorite parts are brief sections in the beginning in the end. The section "Writing and the Multiple Personality" talks about how a writer has to be three people at once: the character, a writer, and a reader. This idea really hit a chord with me. It matches well with my experience of writing, and isn't something that I've seen discussed a lot.

I also really enjoyed the last chapter, in which she adds the idea of a fourth role: editor. And addresses how to actually like the writing process. She mentions warmup activities, regular writing, finding the right time, and then adds: "The most important thing, however, is your attitude toward your characters. Writing is far more likely to be enjoyable if you are so interested in them that they take on lives of their own. Entering fully into their stories, rather than staying preoccupied with yourself ("How am I doing? Is this any good? Where can I market it?") makes the entire writing process feel lighter, more interesting, and more rewarding."

I loved that. Create character that you are interested in and like, and then writing is like spending time with friends...

Sara