Since going from being a wanna-be writer to a publishing author, one of the dilemmas I face is what do I write next? Because now I’m not just thinking about pleasing myself, but I’m aware of my growing fanbase as well. That being said, as much as I want to, I can’t write for other people. I have to write what lights a spark of excitment in me. And not for any lofty reasons, either. The fact is, if I try to write something that doesn’t inspire me, my mind wanders, the days drag, and to make it all worse, it isn’t very bloody good.

My writing is evolving. What I planned to do a year ago doesn’t fit with the reality of where this journey is taking me.

I started my publishing career with a paranormal romance novel, ORDINARY ANGELS. I’m still very proud of that book. It’s funny, has a quirky heroine, has peril and murder and steamy sex… but is it the book I’d write today? I’m not sure.

Even HAYWIRE WITCH, a book I started and enjoyed immensely at the time didn’t go anywhere. It sits on my hard drive, one third finished and recently untouched. Why?

I find myself moving away from paranormal romance and deeper into the epic fantasy world I first created with BLOOD FAERIE, then followed up with AZURI FAE. The final book in that trilogy, ENEMY OF THE FAE, comes out next month. When I created BLOOD FAERIE, I knew I was deviating from the style of ORDINARY ANGELS, but I thought it would be fun to dip my toe into something different. I had no idea that dip would plunge me deeper into something that not only I, but readers too, would enjoy immensely.

I get mail sometimes, asking when I’m going to write the promised sequel for ORDINARY ANGELS, and I always feel bad, as though I’ve let down fans of my first published novel. I have so far just replied saying that I’m focusing on my current release. But now it’s time to face the music. The true answer is: for now, I’m just not feeling it. I loved that book when I wrote it, and still do, but I’m not feeling inspired to write follow-ups to that world. I’m not saying never, but I have to admit that until I fall in love with it again, I couldn’t do a follow-up justice, and that feels wrong. I’m sorry if I’ve disappointed anyone, but I can’t let myself put out a book I don’t think is as good as readers deserve. If I tried to write something I didn’t want to write, it couldn’t live up to those starndards.

As to my next project, yes, I have a new trilogy planned. I’m very excited about it, and I think it’s something fans of the Caledonia Fae series will very much enjoy. However, tease that I am, I’ve decided to hold off making an announcement…. Oh hell, I can’t do that! How mean would I be not to tell you what’s coming next!

My next works will be a new trilogy in the same world as the first three Caledonia Fae books. In fact, I will probably number them as Caledonia Fae #4, #5, #6, so readers aren’t confused about where they fit into the world. Where the first trilogy focused mainly on Eilidh and Munro as point-of-view characters, in the next trilogy, the focus will shift a little bit. Have no fear, however. Both characters will still be very much a part of the world, but the plan now is for other characters to emerge at its heart.

I do have titles, concepts, and even some preliminary cover art, but that’s all I want to say for now. ENEMY OF THE FAE is getting a final dusting from my new editor even as I type this, and that’s where my attenion will be firmly placed until its release. After that, expect announcements, cover art reveals, and lots of squeeing about new plans.

I do hope readers will understand my choices and follow along with me as my writing evolves, even if that means leaving early ideas behind (at least for now). I don’t always know where inspiration is going to lead, but the journey has been full of wonderful surprises. I hope you all feel the same way.

Recently my beloved editor L.J. Sellers told me she could no longer take in freelance work. As her own novels have exploded in popularity, it has grown more and more difficult (and less profitable) for her to take time out of her schedule to edit for someone else. I completely understand. I too don’t take on editing anymore, except for existing clients.

I lucked out when I found L.J. She’s a real pro and I chose her based on reputation and her professionalism, but without doing any vetting. She’s an amazing editor and I was so lucky to have found her.

But the truth of the matter is, anyone can call themselves an editor. Sadly, many who do aren’t qualified. Now that I’ve been in and around publishing a little longer, I’ve started hearing horror stories of people shelling out hundreds of dollars to an “editor,” only to find the person acted as little more than a paid beta-reader.

Because I didn’t want to regret my decision, I made a plan.

Step 1. Made a list of every editor I could find.

I have a lot of people in my various networks, including some bestselling indie authors. I wrote to them and asked if they had an editor they could recommend. I also went to online groups and searched for authors who have raved about their editors. And then I went through my own friends list on Facebook, looking at anyone who listed freelance editor on their profile as their “workplace.”

I did NOT place an open call saying, “Hey, I need an editor. Who wants a few hundred bucks to go over my manuscript?” I wanted a list of professionals, not people who were doing it on a lark or who thought “hey, I can do that” on the spur of the moment because they saw my post, or writers who weren’t qualified, but needed the cash.

So over the next week as authors started writing back to me with their recommendations and I kept at my search, I realised I had quite a long list. This drove home to me that folks who say, “but I don’t know any editors,” as an excuse not to hire one aren’t really trying.

Step 2: Narrowed this down to twelve impressive professionals

I narrowed this list down to twelve, based on recommendations and their online presence. If their “professional” website looked like it harkened back to 1995, I crossed them off the list. Why? Surely editors aren’t expected to be web designers too! Well, again it comes down to professionalism.

So then I wrote twelve letters. They went something like this, but each one was different, based on how I’d found them:

We’re friends on Facebook (in case you don’t recognise my name.) I’m a self-publishing fantasy author. Sadly, I’ve just found out my editor is no longer taking in freelance work, so I’m in the position of forging a new relationship with an editor. (I wanted to point out the importance of the relationship. This isn’t a one-night stand for me. I want someone I can work with for years to come.)

I know you do some freelance editing, so I’m wondering if you:

1. Have experience with fantasy / spec fiction? (As much as I loved L.J., fantasy wasn’t really her thing, so this time I wanted someone who felt comfortable with the conventions of fantasy writing.)

2. Are available some time in May for a freelance job? I have a finished draft and will be working on it with betas over the next month or so. (No point in finding someone only to discover they aren’t available!)

3. Have references from editing clients I could contact? (I’ll get to this in more detail below.)

It would be a bonus if you are comfortable with British English. It’s not mandatory that you have perfect “Queen’s English” skills, because most of my beta readers are British and my last editor was an American, and that worked out fine. That being said, my books are written with British spellings/expressions. (Be sure to point out any special requirements like this or concerns you have. You don’t want to go through all this only to find out the editor isn’t comfortable with some tangential element of your project.)

And also what are your rates for copyediting? What I need is someone to help me achieve the final polish before self-publishing, to hunt out typos and errors, of course, but also let me know if I’ve done things like repeated words or if a passage is clunky or confusing. (I included this because different editors use different terminology. What one calls copyediting, another may call proofreading. What one calls line-editing may be another editor’s copyediting. I’d recommend being clear what level you’re looking for to help combat miscommunication.)

If you don’t think you are the right person for my work for whatever reason, can you recommend anyone you think will be a good fit? (Always a bonus to ask… many editors know other editors and if the rest of your list falls apart, this could be a good way to find additional candidates.)

Step 3: Based on the replies, I narrowed it down to three top candidates.

Actually, this isn’t as difficult as you might think. A couple of people wrote back saying they weren’t taking on any new clients. Some wrote back with astronomical quotes. (I was prepared to stretch my budget for someone whose skills blew me away, but some of the quotes were just way beyond what I felt comfortable with.)

Here are some of the reasons an editor might have gotten crossed off the list at this stage:

1. Charging more than I felt I could afford.
2. Not feeling comfortable with the fantasy genre.
3. Snarky comments about, well, anything. This isn’t the stage in a relationship for sarcasm.
4. Replies with obvious grammatical errors.
5. Refusing to engage in conversation, instead referring me to a website for answers
6. Refusing to provide references
7. Not wanting to deal with someone outside the US.
8. Not accepting paypal.

In many ways, I was surprised how quickly the editors crossed themselves off the list.

But, I narrowed it down to three qualified, professional editors and was ready to procede.

Step 4: I checked references

Now, the next two steps were simultaneous. Each of the top three candidates provided references and offered a sample edit. While I was preparing my first chapter for them to take a crack at, I checked their references.

But, I didn’t just write to the people they provided. I googled the editors names along with the phrase “editor” and “my editor” and “freelance editor” and “indie editor”. I tried all kinds of additional phrases like “unprofessional” or other complaints I thought an author might make about an editor. I found names of people who had used them. Because honestly, they’re mostly going to give me names of people who have great things to say about them. Right?

Well, you’d be surprised.

Here’s the letter I sent to the references (phrased differently according to how I’d found them, of course):

X gave me your name as someone I could contact as a reference about her editing services.

I have a few questions, if you don’t mind.

• What did you like most and least about working with her? (Gives them an opening to give something other than glowing praise)
• Does she communicate clearly about issues in your manuscript? (Very important!)
• How does she handle follow-up questions?
• Do you generally use all her recommendations, or do you take some and leave some?
• Would you say her main strength is flow, structure, pacing, grammar/technical, spotting errors…or something else? (This allowed me to find out if the type of editing I needed was the same type this person had received.)
• Is it easy to book a project with her, or do you find you’re having to be squeezed in around a busy schedule?
• What do you receive on a full-length manuscript? A report? A document with tracked changes, etc? If a report, how long/detailed is it?
• Do you recommend her and plan to use her again?

Thanks very much for your time.

I have to confess, the replies surprised me. Even the people whose names had been given to me by each editor didn’t contain 100% glowing praise. Although I didn’t cross anyone off the list based solely on these replies, they did rearrange the top candidate’s standing in my mind. If someone were to go to the trouble to tell me in a letter of recommendation that their editor was incredibly qualified (and otherwise wonderful) but could be difficult to deal with, I would listen, believe you me.

Step 5: I asked them for a sample edit.

While I was waiting for replies to letters of recommendation, I polished up my first chapter and sent it to each of the editors for sample work.

Honestly, I expected them all to come back with virtually the same results. After all, a mistake is a mistake, isn’t it?

Well, no, it isn’t. Editing is incredibly subjective.

I was truly surprised at the difference in the marked-up manuscripts I got back, but so glad I went to the trouble of doing this. As I said, all of the editors were qualified, but comparing these was very useful in making my final decision.

In the end, I not only chose a new editor (I’ll give you her name as soon as we hammer out our agreement–gotta make sure the feeling is mutual first!), (See the end of the post!) but I also have some fall-back editors, people I would feel confident writing to again if I’m ever in this position again.

Along the way, I was 100% clear with all my candidates where I was in the vetting process even up until the stage where I was getting samples, because I wanted people to know that I had other candidates. This was NOT to engender competition, but because I wanted to be up front about it. If someone didn’t want to be considered in a situation like this, I don’t mind. But you know what, NONE Of them minded when I let them know I was getting samples from others. In fact, most seemed to appreciate that I wanted to make sure I had a good fit.

So, if you’re in the position of hiring an editor, take your time. Be thorough. Listen to your gut. The best part of it is that I never felt like I was picking someone out of desperation. I felt like I had a lot of qualified candidates and could choose one out of a truly great field.

EDITED TO ADD:

I spoke to my new editor, and I feel 100% confident that we’re on the right path. So I can blissfully announce that Susan Helene Gottfried will be working on Enemy of the Fae, and I hope she will continue with me for many many more books to come. Her rates are incredibly reasonable, her sample edit was amazing (I’ve already incorporated 97% of what she suggested into Chapter 1), and I’ve found her professional on every level–and yet friendly and easy-going at the same time. If you’re looking for an editor, check out her page and read this list to see if she works in your genre.

As much as I’ve already come to respect and appreciate Susan, I’d still recommend you contact several editors and get sample edits. Susan is a perfect fit for my work, but you need to find the right editor for you. But yes, absolutely, drop her a line and discuss your current projects. I’m certainly glad I did!

For the past two weeks I’ve worked on smoothing out the language in Enemy of the Fae. This is the easiest (for me) but most time consuming part of the process. I’ve rewritten probably two-thirds of the sentences in the book and deleted about 2,000 words…one at a time. I actually like the polishing phase, but the process is so detail-oriented my brain often drifts. So writing up a quick blog post offers a welcome distraction!

Although I’ve posted something similar before, this little gem from Microsoft Word’s grammar checker offers another nail in its coffin, illustrating perfectly why authors should never count on it for stylistic advice–as I said in my post about choosing an editing software package.

I not be done with editing Enemy of the Fae yet, so I are going back to work now!

I cringe when I hear that some independent authors don’t use editors. Cost is the number one excuse, but I’d counter this argument by saying I never would’ve found the success I have if I neglected that part of the process. (That success is what enables me to make enough money to cover editing costs.)

Anytime I’m tempted to think I don’t need help, I look back at the last report from my editor.

In fact, I’ve decided to beef up my process by adding editing software to my current routine, which goes something like: compose, self-edit, beta readers, self-edit, copyeditor, self-edit, proofreader, read aloud. (I use Kindle’s text-to-speech feature to read the book aloud to me. It catches a lot of errors that evade a visual inspection.)

In an effort to be professional in my selection of a software package (I say “selection”, but avoiding them altogether was an option if none panned out the way I’d hoped.) I chose what appeared to be (from my research) the most popular editing products out there. (Forget using MS Word for all but the most elementary mistakes. It doesn’t know anything and will often add more mistakes than it finds.)

I chose to look at White Smoke, Style Writer, Serenity Software, and Autocrit.

#1 Style Writer

I eliminated this option right away. It isn’t compatible with Windows 7. I find that remarkable, considering how long Win 7 has been out, but oh well. I included it in the list because some of you might find it useful if you’re still on Win XP. Otherwise, no dice.

Cost: $160.

Rating: No clue.

#2 White Smoke:

They offer a three day trial, so I downloaded and installed it. Oddly, it could only handle 10,000 characters at a time, but I didn’t know if this was with or without spaces, and how the fuck am I supposed to know how many characters are in something anyway? So it couldn’t handle a whole chapter at a time, turns out, but I put in one scene and that was okay.

It gave me a few really weird results:

Only the azuri had magic that could directly affect the mind…
It wanted to change it to: Only the azurin had been magic that could directly affect the mind…

I wrote: Deep in the woods, far to the north of the holding house, where not so much as a fire beetle twitched in the grass…
It wanted to change the ‘where’ to ‘were’.

It didn’t like me using ‘type’ and ‘typical’ in the same sentence, saying they had the same root, so that tells me it does look for some repeated words, but after using other software packages, I could see it didn’t indicate things chapter-wide, only words used in close proximity.

Another bit of oddness: the first time I tried to use it, it said it couldn’t check the document because it couldn’t connect to the internet.

I found this program frustrating. Far too many of the “errors” it found left me scratching my head and saying, “WTF?”

And truthfully, the sheer volume of things like popup ads on the site made it feel like a high-pressure sell, and that put me off from the start. I could have gotten past that if the software had been extraordinarily good, but it just wasn’t.

Then to add insult to injury, when I tried to uninstall the program, my entire system crashed.

Cost: $100 / year subscription OR $140 one-time payment

Rating: 1 star. I was so annoyed after my system crashed that when I got a popup asking me why I’d uninstalled it (stalkers), I demanded they remove my email address from their database.

#3 Serenity Software:

I had high hopes because I found it due to a personal recommendation from a successful indie author. She uses it instead of a copyeditor and just hires a proofreader. After my experience with it, I wouldn’t recommend this route (and won’t be trying that myself), but it gave me some interesting results.

The trial version is good for 11 days and it allowed me to test out my entire first chapter.

It gave me the following (mostly) good suggestions for changes:

• I used “integrate into” and it let me know the proper term is “integrate with”. Didn’t know that. Fixed it.
• I wrote: she knew who to blame. Serenity informed me the proper way to say this would be: she knew whom to blame. Because I felt the original felt more natural, I didn’t change it, but I’m glad it told me. This way I could at least make an informed decision.
• Serenity informed me I had “it was” at the start of two sentences and suggested I changed them. Upon reflection, I agree. They were weak.
• I wrote: Eilidh glanced at the guards which had taken … and Serenity reported I should either have a comma or which be changed to that. Interestingly, they were both right and wrong. I did need a change, but it actually should be ‘who’, not which OR that.

On the other hand, these suggestions boggled me:

• Wanted me to rename a city, Canton Dreich, because of some antiquated Chinese city name. It would not allow me to ‘ignore this error’, so I was informed every time the city name came up. That annoyed after a while.
• Didn’t recognise Word’s ellipses and gave me errors on every single instance. Again, I didn’t have the option of ignoring the error. On the upside, it made me wonder if I overuse elipses.
• Didn’t like “humans” and said many people prefer “human beings” REALLY??? Get your weird, politically correct bullshit out of my novel, thank you very much. Considering the amount of talk about human beings in my novel, this ‘error’ report also got annoying.
• I wrote: She’d quietly suggested he at least try some fae apparel… and Serenity wanted he changed to him or a comma inserted. No clue on what it was thinking there and it didn’t explain.
• I wrote: If only she had a choice. Problem? Sentence fragment. I use fragments frequently, particularly in thoughts and dialogue, so I didn’t find this helpful and didn’t like the constant popups.

Like White Smoke, it didn’t give me any info on cliches, redundancies, word repetition. The errors above were the ONLY ones reported.

One feature it had that no others did is that it integrated into Word, which is great. I tried the version without the integration and honestly it was pretty terrible to use and very confusing. It took me a bit to get started because it wasn’t obvious at first how to use it. So, I wouldn’t recommend this software to anyone who doesn’t use Word. The downside of the Word integration though is that you scroll through errors with a ‘next’ button and you have to deal with things in the order it suggests. I found that clunky and counter to the way I like to work.

Still, I should note that those four (mostly) good suggestions were helpful and no other package pointed out those areas.

Cost: $55.00 regular version, $75.00 Word integrated version

Rating: 2 stars regular version, 3.5 stars Word version

#4 Autocrit.com

For me, this was the big winner and as I said above, I subscribed immediately after trying it. It’s an online system so you paste your words into a web form (security questions addressed in their FAQ) and it spits out a report. As a guest, you can try 500 words at a time and access three reports. The three include: Overused Words (the most useful), Sentence Variation (lets you see how many words your sentences have in them) and Cliches/Redundancies. I’ve gone through four chapters of my book, and these three are the reports I used most often, but I also like the “Repeated Words and Phrases” report and “Initial Pronouns” view.

Before buying, I did 1500 words in three segments, and that was enough to see that it would give me something I needed. An example of the Overused Words report (on one of my unedited chapters) looks like this:

As you can see, I got the package (Professional) that allowed me to add my own words to the report. I find this particularly useful because not all of the words I tend to abuse were on the default list. Interestingly, “Initial Conjunction” includes words I don’t normally think of as a conjunction, like: If, Although, Besides, As, When, and Unless. I don’t really mind the initial conjunctions, as long as there aren’t too many with the same word too close together. I do find if I delete the “But” from the beginning of all the sentences where it’s used, I get below the threshhold. Which brings me to another point that I like. It doesn’t say “never use -ly adverbs.” But rather encourages you to not overuse them. Right after this report, you get a copy of your text with all the ticked issues in red, so you can easily see them and decide which need to go.

The next report is moderately useful:

It’s meant to make sure you vary your sentence length. Apparently, it’s boring to readers if they’re all the same length. But I use it for two things: one to highlight sentences greater than 30 words. Those tend to be the most clunky to read, so it makes them easy to find. Secondly, I can easily scan down the list and make sure I haven’t started too many sentences with the same word.

The next report is Cliches and Redundancies. On my Chapter One, it gave me these results:

The Wizard found the following cliches:

• to the point
• astral plane
• after all
• melted away
• set in motion
• heart and soul
• out of the way
• make up for
• come and go
• as he pleased
• raised his voice
• right and proper

After looking through this, I decided to change: after all (I’d used it twice), heart and soul (uber-schmaltz), come and go, as he pleased. The others I kept, because they were either used in dialogue or they didn’t bother me. I did like having them pointed out, even if I ultimately decided not to change them.

The next report is the Repeated Words report. I have been scanning this one closely as I edit. Here’s an example of one paragraph with the repetition highlighted:

As I look at this, I can see these aren’t the only problems with the language in this paragraph. In fact, this section is pretty dreadful, but I chose it because it is a good example of what you’d see on the Repeated Words report. The other issues (fortunately) are dealt with in the other reports.

The remaining reports (there are eleven in total) are less useful for me and the way I write, but I do give them a scan with every chapter anyway. But these four make it totally worth the money. The cleaner my manuscript when beta readers and ultimately my editor get it, the more they can focus on important issues, rather than getting mired in awkward language.

As a little bonus, I found a code on another blog. (code: twitter) When entered into the shopping basket on autocrit.com, it gives 10% off. I wasn’t sure it would work (the blog post was 6 months old), but it did! So I ended up getting roughly $12 off on the Pro Package, which I wanted because I wanted to be able to print/email reports, add my own words to the ‘overused’ list and I wanted the option of entering the entire book into the form (Every level has a word limit.. with the Pro version it’s 100,000 words. The next one down is 8,000 words.)

My plan is to write two books a year, but I also write blog posts, articles for other websites, short stories, novellas, and who knows what else. I don’t have an editor for my short stories or articles (I don’t get paid for those, so it’s difficult to justify the expense), so this is a fantastic solution that will help me have some polish on them.

Cost: $47/year – $117/year, depending on the subscription package. (But do try to use the ‘twitter’ code for 10% off)

Rating: 4.5 stars. I’d give it five, because I’m in love with it, but it’s not a perfect system. Close enough to perfect that I voted with my wallet, but there are tiny places where the system could be improved, like allowing me to enter phrases and not just single words into the Overused Word selection.

If you’ve ever tried these or others, I’d love to know what your experience was too!

At one time or another, every person has difficulty getting motivated. I read an article recently about laziness. The gist of it was: sometimes you can’t be bothered to get off the couch to get yourself a cup of coffee, so maybe you ask someone else to get one for you while they’re up, but on the other hand, you could be bothered to get up if, for example, your house was on fire.

The whole analogy cracked me up. It made me realise how often I don’t do something because “I’m too tired,” but looking back, I would have done it…if my house was on fire. If, in other words, I had the proper motivation.

I started applying this idea to a lot of areas. Say, my editing. When I’m tired, don’t want to get out of bed, don’t want to bother getting something to eat, don’t want to dig into my manuscript, don’t want to do anything but curl up and get another hour’s sleep…could I do those things if my house was on fire? (I do realise if one’s house was burning to the ground, one wouldn’t sit down and spend a few hours looking for awkward phrasing….so please bear with the shaky metaphor. I might say “with a gun to my head,” but that strikes me as violent and my mind goes other weird and unhelpful places when I go down those roads.) And all my asides aside, yes, I could do those things if my house was on fire…if I had a hot, crackling motivation.

So lately when I’ve been flagging, I use the “house on fire” test to determine if I could push myself a little bit more. I’ve been quite surprised at how much more I’m getting done!

It’s important to remember one can’t go around with their house ablaze all day long, seven days a week. It’s important to take breaks, enjoy one or two days off occasionally where you let it burn, so to speak. But these times should be chosen rest times, not chosen work times.

One simple (and a little silly) question has recharged my motivation, made me be more honest with myself when I say I can’t be bothered, I’m too tired, I’ve not got any gas left in the tank.

How do you get motivated when you can’t seem to get moving?

When I was a kid, Friday the 13th was sort of an exciting day. Anything could happen. It was like anti-Christmas, where I half-expected to be kidnapped and held for ransom or hit my a meteor. Of course, none of that came to pass, much to my disappointment.

Probably the most exciting thing that did happen was in the uber-religious school I went to, my teachers would warn that we’d better not be superstitious about Friday the 13th, or the demons would get us. Of course this brings to mind one of my all-time favourite movie lines from Muppet Treasure Island.

Honestly, I wish something bad would happen on Friday the 13th. I wish black cats were witches’ familiars and left-handed people were raging lunatics. But even more so, that stepping on cracks would break our mothers’ backs and breaking a mirror would bring seven years of bad luck.

See, it’s not at all that I wish my mother ill or want nearly a decade of headaches, but at least, if these things were true, it would mean there was some control to be had, that we could avoid the badness by just throwing salt over our shoulders or touching wood.

I suppose that’s one of the reasons I write fantasy. I want to live in a world where magical things, even bad ones, are possible, where life is a little more unpredictable. It’s a shame, really, this growing up thing we all do, where we realise that luck is really hard work in disguise and good things, like bad things, do happen, but they’re random. Homosexuality doesn’t cause hurricanes and saying a prayer before bed doesn’t mean your loved one won’t get hit by a truck on the way to work. Crossing your fingers won’t make your number come up on the lottery nor protect you from the consequences of telling a lie.

But wouldn’t that be cool if it did?

Two days ago was the first anniversary of one of the most momentous days of my life, my first publication date. (I missed making a fuss on the actual day because I was neck-deep in working on Enemy of the Fae, and honestly, I forgot. Heh.) Yep, a year ago, on April 4th, Ordinary Angels was released by a small press. This was before things went (sadly) south with that publisher and before I discovered the joys of indie publishing.

As I’ve said many times on this blog, when I decided to go indie, I made a ten year plan. I’m still very much at the beginning of that road, but it feels somewhat significant that I’ve passed the one year mark.

Here’s what I’ve learned in that time:

1. Dreams are fluid. I thought “publication” was my dream and that finding a publisher and seeing my name on a book would be the pinnacle of satisfaction. It did feel like an achievement, but on the other hand, it didn’t bring what I’d expected. Only by leaving my original publisher and going on my own did I find the success I wanted.

2. Success is fluid. I’m never really satisfied. As soon as I reach a goal, I move the bar. I wanted publication, got it, but then I wanted success. I had to define success, so I picked a number of book sales per month I thought was achievable. I blew the doors off that goal in the first few months, so I raised my expectations. I met my two-year goal within six months of going indie, so I raised my expectations even higher. Ambition is great, but I have to remind myself that by continuing to raise the bar, I’m depriving myself of any feeling of satisfaction. I have a new mantra that I repeat to myself when I’m feeling angsty about my ambitions: “Shut up. You’re doing well.” (It usually works.)

3. There are many paths to success. A year ago, I would have paled at the thought of going indie. My small publisher was, in my mind, a first step down a difficult but ultimately rewarding path to success. A year ago I would have been thrilled to accept an advance anywhere north of a few thousand bucks. Now I would feel insulted at an offer like that, since as an indie, I make more money than I did at my last “real” job. I’m not a millionaire, but I’m paying the bills. I don’t usually talk about how much money I make because I was raised to think it’s tacky to discuss such things. So this is not “look at me, I’m making lots of dosh”, but “I found a path to success, and I know you can too.” You might find your path with the Big 6, with a small press or by going it on your own as I did, but keep your options (and your mind) open. It’s a fabulous time to be an author, simply because we have so many choices that simply weren’t there a couple of years ago.

4. Take all publishing advice with a grain of salt. For example, there are a lot of people out there telling you you should always self-publish or you should never self-publish. The thing that strikes me is that a great deal of that advice is coming from people who haven’t done the thing they’re arguing against. I’ve done both traditional and indie publishing, and I found what works for me. Would I go back to traditional model? For enough money and the right contract, sure. For me the decision isn’t idealogical, but about meeting business goals. So yeah, read the industry blogs, listen to what people have to say, and use a critical eye to sift through. Do the numbers and experiment. But don’t make choices just because anyone else told you it was a good idea. Remember there’s no limit to the number of people who can be wrong at the same time, so just because something is popular doesn’t make it right for you.

5. Hard work, sweat and tears, toil and heartache… they’re all worth it. As my books have gotten more popular, I’ve started getting regular feedback from readers. There is nothing in this world quite like having someone write to me about my characters. It’s like having mutual friends, and I can’t tell you how satisfying it is to have other people care about them as much as I do. I work hard… maybe too hard sometimes. I fall into bed exhausted. I forget to eat. I wake up in the middle of the night, worrying I’ll somehow disappoint those people who have come to love my characters. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Honestly, I’d do this job for free. Some things are more important than money.

So happy anniversary, readers!

Much love,

India

I had a happy, silly, giggle-snort, fun moment the other day I just had to share. For those who aren’t familiar with the term, “popular highlights” is a feature of the Kindle. (Although I imagine other ereaders may have a similar feature, I don’t know what it’s called or if it actually exists.) The way it works is that while you’re reading, you can select a word, sentence, paragraph, etc, and “highlight” it. While you’re reading, you can also choose to see “popular highlights” from other folks who’ve read the same book. It can be a little distracting, I suppose, but I admit, I enjoy reading a line and seeing that other people highlighted it, because they’ve found it funny, moving, or otherwise remarkable. If I agree, I often will add my “vote” by highlighting the same passage.

If a book isn’t already highlighted, however, I rarely remember to highlight a passage, but after what happened, I think I’ll make a point of it.

See, I went to the Amazon US page for Ordinary Angels, and I saw this:

If you read the highlighted lines, you’ll see why I laughed. I can’t help but wonder if the same people who highlighted the “God gave us Google” line as did the deeper, thoughtful moments where Alexander (the angel) was explaining humanity’s conflicts to Zoe.

And just so you understand how it works, it takes a minimum of three people independently highlighting the same line before it shows up. So who knows how many lines from the book might have one or two highlights. I have no idea. I’m just tickled that anyone decided to highlight any of the lines. (as well as enjoying the well-rounded nature of my readers!)

It’s honestly made me want to highlight more as I read, to leave behind a little trail, even if I plan to never read the book again, so that maybe someday the author will see it, or readers who came after me. It suddenly makes reading more social. I’ve heard of plans to make book reading even more social, where in future, Kindle Fire owners will be able to chat with others who are reading the same book from within the book. Authors will even be able to set up times they will be “in their book” and meet up with readers. I’m not sure how that will all work or if that’s a bit too far for me. After all, reading is usually such a solitary event. On the other hand, how many times have I read a book I was enjoying so much, and I had to resist picking up the phone to call a friend to say “you must read this right now”?

I’ve got a few (read: a hundred) books on my to-be-read list, and I think I will defnitely make a point of making at least one highlight. You never know who might see it, and if it might make them smile.

I guess the old saying is true, April snowshowers kill March flowers. Yes, welcome to Scotland. The country where any kind of weather can (and does) happen. We’ve got big fat goosefeather snow out there today, and I’m seriously tempted to take the day off (mostly because the cat was outside screaming in protest at 5am.) But because I’m a grown-up, and grown-ups don’t get days off for snow, after I finish this post and a cup of coffee, I’ll be back to working on the ending of Enemy of the Fae.

This book, as you might expect, has been occupying a great deal of my brain space lately, which is one of the reasons I’ve not been blogging quite as much and my tweets are no doubt seeming redundant. My life of late is wake up, muck about for an hour online, then write till I’m exhausted. (I’m sure some other stuff happens too, but those are the important things.) But the good news is that I’ve somehow managed to get inspired and am feeling energetic about that final few chapters. So it looks like I’m still on track with my (entirely self-imposed) schedule.

One thing I did take time for this month was to write an article for the Writer’s Guide to ePublishing called Cover Art: Tips for the Do-It-Yourselfer. Since this is a follow-up to my earlier articles on hiring a cover artist, I thought it was worth announcing here.

Another interesting follow-up has been to my post on promospam last week. The replies, emails and comments on posts and twitter were largely positive, although I did also hear from a couple of unapologetic promospammers who insist that the only reason they make friends on with strangers facebook is to sell them books, so what would be the point of not making constant book announcements. (Erm, okay. I suppose the honesty is refreshing, but I wonder if they would have so many “friends” if the recipients of their invites knew they were sales targets, not people. Facebook shouldn’t be like being invited to a Tupperware/basket/spices/whatever-product “party”, where one buys, guiltily, the cheapest thing one can get away with, careful not to insult the “friend” who invited you before slinking away and silently crossing that person off the Christmas card list.)

Anyway, I will say that after unfollowing about 150 promospammers I’m enjoying Twitter immensely again! I’d tuned out of the feed, thinking most of it wouldn’t be anything I was interested in. Now the big question is, do I have the courage to do that on Facebook too, where friendships have to be mutual? I’ve already started removing people who post those “eye-candy” pictures I so dislike. Now I’m trying to imagine a Facebook without constant adverts… wouldn’t that be great?

So, this is just a hello post and a warning that I might be quiet while writing the end of Enemy of the Fae. If I seem distant lately, it’s because I am; I’m in the Otherworld quelling a rebellion, mourning a tragedy, and catching a killer.