8 Books in 8 Weeks: Week Three

Red Hood’s Revenge [B&N | Mysterious Galaxy | Amazon] comes out in six weeks.  SciFiChick has posted an early review, and says:

“More dramatic than previous installments, this latest story revolves mainly around Talia and Roudette, bringing to light more of their dark and horrible pasts … There’s plenty of the suspense and action that make this fantasy series great. Hines’ princess heroines from fairy tale lore are truly unique and completely enjoyable from start to finish.”

Congratulations to mskiara, who won the second giveaway!  For the rest of you, don’t worry — I’ve got six more chances for people to win.

For the past two weeks, I’ve had a blast reading your creative and entertaining entries, so let’s keep going with the fun.  To enter this week’s contest, imagine a princess video game.  Danielle, Snow, and Talia vs. all manner of nastiness.

Who would be the ultimate boss at the end of the game, and how do the princesses defeat said boss?[1. You can’t say Batman, ’cause we’ve already covered that one at http://www.sff.net/people/jchines/Pics/Talia-Batman.jpg]

Leave your answer in the comments, and I’ll select one person to win an autographed copy of one of the following books (your choice):

As in previous weeks, the winner will be chosen at random, so there’s no pressure.  Just have fun.

—

Libraries vs. File Sharing Sites

Yesterday: 8 miles on the exercise bike, 3-hour Sanchin-Ryu workshop, and then came home to mow the lawn.

Today: Ouch.

#

One of the arguments that comes up from time to time in discussions of file-sharing is that it’s the same thing libraries are doing.

Today was my day to post at SF Novelists, so I’ve started picking apart the rather poor argument that file-sharing sites are just like libraries: http://www.sfnovelists.com/2010/05/24/libraries-vs-file-sharing-sites/

Go forth and read, and please feel free to chime in with your own thoughts.

Saying No to a Publisher

At the start of the month, I posted about a possible secret writing project.  Wizards of the Coast asked me and a few other authors to write sample pages for a book they’re planning.  I was excited about the idea, and as a long-time gaming geek, I thought it would be a lot of fun to be a WotC author.

On May 11, I got an e-mail from the editor at Wizards.  She loved the sample and invited me to write the book.  On May 18, my agent received the official offer.

Yesterday, I turned them down.

Back in 2002, I sent sample pages to Wizards, hoping to write for them.  I’ve been playing D&D for most of my life (one of the reasons I said I’d be perfect for this project).  I have a number of friends who write for WotC and seem happy.  I was excited about being able to join them.

So why did I say no?  Ultimately, it’s because we couldn’t agree on what my time, energy, and writing were worth.  I was hoping to be able to negotiate a deal that would work for both sides.  Without going into detail, this didn’t happen.

It’s a strange feeling, saying no to a major publisher.  A strange feeling, and a scary one.  Did I make a mistake?  Have I burned a bridge?  Oh-God-what-the-hell-did-I-just-do???

At the same time, it’s empowering.  I don’t believe my ego has gotten out of control (yet), but I have developed more confidence in both my writing and my worth.  I don’t have to say yes to a deal I’m not comfortable with.

It’s important to be able to say no.  If you can’t, people can and will take advantage.  Sometimes your willingness to say no can result in a better deal.  Sometimes it helps you avoid a bad one.  Sometimes it helps you prioritize, because time is finite and there’s a limit to the number of stories anyone can write in their lifetime.  (With the possible exception of Jay Lake.)

A tie-in for Wizards would have been a lot of fun, and would have added something new to my body of work.  (Not to mention that I would have written one seriously Kick Ass book!)  On the other hand, this lessens my stress for the next few months, and frees up time to finish putting together the pitch for my next series.

I have no hard feelings or ill will toward Wizards.  I’m disappointed things didn’t work out, but it’s not the end of the world, or even the end of my career.

Questions and comments are welcome, as always, but be aware that I signed a nondisclosure agreement about the project, so I can’t get any more specific about the actual book.

Quick Story Sale

I love you people.  We’re already at 70 or so warnings about Red Hood’s Revenge.  A few of my favorites:

From Christine: Surgeon General’s Warning: Red Hood’s Revenge may cause heroine addiction.

From bodlon: Warning: Red Hood’s Revenge contains princesses under pressure. Do not shake. Talia may explode and cause serious injury.

From several commenters: Do not taunt Red Hood’s Revenge.

If you’re looking for a laugh this morning, read through some of the entries.  (And if you want to win a free book, there’s still plenty of time to contribute your own!)

#

Yesterday I stumbled across the German cover art for The Mermaid’s Madness.  Or if Google Translator is to be trusted, The Nasty Mermaid.  (I’m told the actual translation is closer to “The Mean Mermaid.”)  Click the thumbnail for the full version.  I like this one — good color, lots of action, and we get to see the mermaid!

#

Publishing can be a slow business, especially when you’re a writer waiting to hear back from an agent or editor.  My personal record is two and a half years from submitting a manuscript to receiving an offer.  But it’s not always this way.  In fact, there are weeks that make you wish things would slow down a little…

  • May 10-11: Started drafting short story.
  • May 12-13: Decided short story sucked, and started over.  Finished 4000-word draft.
  • May 14-15: Rewrote and submitted story to editor.
  • May 18: Received e-mail accepting my zombie cop story “In the Line of Duty” for the DAW anthology Zombiesque.

Less than a week to write and submit the story, and three days to hear back on the sale.  Not bad, eh?  It’s a twisted little story.  Working titles were Z-men and ZSI, but both of those were a bit too silly.

There’s also been some further activity re: the secret project, but nothing I can talk about yet.  Soon, I suspect … one way or another.

8 Books in 8 Weeks: Week Two

Red Hood’s Revenge [B&N | Mysterious Galaxy | Amazon] comes out in eight seven more weeks.  (I’ve even seen my first early review, over at Green Man Review!)  I’m giving away a book each week to hopefully build a little buzz and excitement.

Congratulations to Jessica Tudor, who won the first giveaway.  And my thanks to everyone who entered.  I asked you to post something that made you smile, and it made for a great contest.  I really enjoyed reading everyone’s comments.

For this week, let’s keep with the fun.  Give me a hypothetical product warning about Red Hood.  Something like:

Warning: Red Hood’s Revenge is meant for external use only.

Keep it PG-13 or better.  I’ll be drawing a winner at random next Monday, so no pressure to be the funniest.  Winner receives an autographed copy of one of my books.

Have fun.

Piracy Thought

Thank you to everyone who commented and e-mailed about my ASD post on Friday.  I tried to keep up and respond to everything, but there was just no way.  I read and appreciated them all.

#

So on Saturday, Google Alerts brought up an individual who had reposted my entire First Novel Survey on his blog.  Then on Sunday, someone posted a heads up link to an e-book “lending” site.

I’m not a rabid pirate-hunter, nor am I terribly fond of or impressed by DRM.  That said, I spent a month working on that survey, doing the research, writing it all up, putting the graphs and graphics together.

I’ve also sold reprint rights for that article.  I.e., as a professional writer, this is one of my sources of income.  Not a major one, but that reprint sale will pay for a week’s worth of groceries for my family.

If you want to link back to it, great.  Quote a snippet, no problem.  But to copy and post the whole thing without permission?  Illegality aside, that’s a dick move.  An unintentional one, perhaps.  Sometimes this sort of thing happens from ignorance or cluelessness.  But still highly annoying to the writer who did the actual work.

I’m willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the blogger.  Not so with the e-book “library.”  Our so-called librarian even begs for donations on the site, because you see, he has bills to pay.  He goes on to explain that since he (allegedly) bought these e-books, “[the] authors and thieving publishers have received their due.”

This makes me cranky, in part because I’ve been busting my ass even more than usual this month.  I’ve written, revised, and submitted a 4000-word short story, a 2000-word sample chapter for a possible novel deal, and continued to work on Snow Queen.

My “thieving” publisher will read my work, write up editing notes, pay for the book to be copy-edited, typeset, and sent to me for final proofing.  This is before their sales force heads out to do their thing, before the hire a professional cover artist, and before the publicist starts working to build word of mouth.

You can argue that obscurity is a greater threat than piracy, and you might be right.  You can argue that piracy doesn’t actually cost writers sales, that people who download these files probably wouldn’t have paid for the book anyway.  That this could be good for writers, because it can be a way to get new readers.

All of that might be true.  But when that “help” comes from someone who calls authors/publishers thieves for the crime of wanting to be paid for our work?  Someone who at the same time begs for donations to pay his own bills?  I’m perfectly happy to build my career without that kind of help, thank you.

Autism Spectrum Disorder

So a little while back, I was pondering how much to publicly share about family, particularly my children.  There was a reason for this.

Today we received confirmation from my son’s school that he meets their criteria for ASD — Autism Spectrum Disorder.

It’s not completely unexpected.  My wife is a practicing counselor.  I’ve got a degree in psych.  Both of us had noticed certain behavioral issues.

Jackson[1. That’s the name he chose for himself for Daddy’s blog] is a brilliant little kid, and he’s very high functioning.  He is who he is.  A note from the school doesn’t change that.  What it does is gives us a way to make sure he gets the help he needs in school.

Next steps are to meet with the school this afternoon, and to talk to someone about a medical diagnosis.  (If he meets the school’s criteria, the odds are very good that he’ll meet the medical criteria as well, since the schools … well, since it costs them money to provide special ed. services, they’re motivated to minimize the false positives.)

I’m still processing this, and probably will be for a very long time.

I’m not asking for advice, and I’m not currently in a space where I’m interested in hearing it.  If you decide to comment and tell me what I should do, there’s a very good chance your comment will be deleted.

He’s a good kid.  I know he’s going to be okay.  I know the rest of us will, too.  But it’s hard right now.

I don’t know where I’m going with this, so I’m going to just share a picture.

(This was from two years back.  Jackson was sick.  It’s one of my favorite pictures.)

—

Responding to Various Outrages

Outrage the First: Supermodel Tyra Banks has signed a multi-book deal to write a YA series, the first of which will be called Modelland.

The outrage: It’s not fair that these celebrities wander along and decide to “write” a book, usually with huge advances, when real writers work for years to try to break in, and those that do are lucky to get a $5000 advance.

My response: She’s a celebrity.  People will buy her book, whether it’s good or not.  Of course she’s going to get an obscene advance.  If you believe it’s easier to first become a celebrity and then score a book deal, I suggest you try that career path.  But don’t blame publishers for acquiring things that will sell.  If you must be outraged, blame the readers who keep buying celebrity books.

Outrage the Second: Author Neil Gaiman was paid $45,000 for a four-hour speaking engagement at a Stillwater library.

The outrage: What a waste of money!  No author is worth $11,250 an hour, especially a science-fiction/fantasy author!  Think of all the things that money could have been used for!

My response: Have you heard Gaiman speak?  Also, the money was earmarked for speaking fees, and so couldn’t have been used for anything else anyway.  Also, I need to up my speaking rates.  (Gaiman’s response is here, and like most of what he writes, is very worth reading.)

Outrage the Third: Diana Gabaldon and George R.R. Martin hate fanfiction!

The outrage: They’re attacking/shutting out/insulting their fans.  They don’t understand fanfiction.  They’re wrong on the Internet!

My response: Some authors say they don’t “get” fanfic.  Me, I don’t get our need to rehash this squabble every six months.  Look, the MZB incident has multiple, sometimes contradictory details, Lori Jareo was an idiot, and I’ve got books to write. Moving on…

Outrage the Fourth: Facebook has changed their policies again, eroding yet another chunk from your online privacy.

The outrage: Everyone’s information is shared/marketed by default, and they’re forcing you to actively opt out.  They’ve gone from caring about users to caring about advertisers and business partners.

My response: Fool us once, shame on you.  Fool us at least six times over the past five years, and–  Right!  Shame on you anyway.  Why are we still shocked and outraged when big companies turn out to be primarily interested in making money?

Outrage the Fifth: Michigan author Jim C. Hines has the most dandelion-filled lawn on his block!

My response: Bite me.

8 Books in 8 Weeks

Red Hood’s Revenge [B&N | Mysterious Galaxy | Amazon] comes out in exactly eight weeks.  As the excitement builds and we all eagerly count down the days — you are eagerly counting down the days, aren’t you? — I wanted to try something a little different.

So every week from now until Red Hood comes out, I’ll be giving away an autographed copy of one of my books.  The rules will change from week to week, depending on what I’m in the mood for.  One week I might give a book to a random Twitter follower.  The next I might ask you to complete the following poem:

Roses are red,
Goblins are blue,
Authors are ________
__________________.

One way or another, I’m hoping it will be fun, and I get to give away free books.  For this first week, I figured we’d start off simple: all you have to do to enter is comment about something that makes you smile.  (Anonymous commenters, please make sure I have a way to reach you.)

I’ll pick a winner next week to receive his/her choice of one of my published fantasy novels.  Anyone can enter, though if I get a few overseas winners early on, I may have to start limiting it to U.S. entries due to shipping costs.

    

Have fun!  (And if you felt inclined to spread the word, I certainly wouldn’t object.)

Writerly Ambition and a Secret Project

Last Wednesday, I received an e-mail about a potential writing project. I haven’t had a Secret Project in quite some time, but if I were to do this one, it would certainly qualify. I’ve already signed a nondisclosure agreement and everything.  (So don’t ask me about the details.)

To say I’m torn would be an understatement.  I’m already working on The Snow Queen’s Shadow, which is due October 1.  I’ve also got a short story for an anthology due in a week.  The deadline for this new book would be the end of this summer.

Before I go any further, I should clarify that I don’t have an offer or a contract yet.  I was asked to write up sample pages to see if I’d be right for the project.

The invite brought to the forefront something I’ve been struggling with lately.  I want to be writing more.  I’ve turned down several short fiction projects over the past month or two.  I was talking with Tobias Buckell back in January about how cool it would be to try doing a YA novel, but I just didn’t know if I could pull it off.  It’s frustrating, to say the least.

Then this invitation shows up, offering me a shot I would have killed for ten years ago.  For a book that, with all due modesty, I’m pretty much perfect for.

So I spent Saturday writing and revising a 2000-word sample chapter.  I’ve sent it in, and we’ll see what happens.  Maybe they won’t like my style, in which case, problem solved.  Maybe the offer won’t be something I’m comfortable with.  Maybe they’ll discover my blog post from last week and decide I’m too fat for their book.

In some ways, life would be simpler if this fell through.  My life is pretty full already.  Two young kids, a full time job, a house to maintain, a wife finishing grad school, a book a year with DAW…  This is where I’ve been for several years now, and it’s worked pretty well.

At the same time … this new book could be an awful lot of fun.  And there’s a part of me that wants to prove I can do it.  There’s a hunger to being a writer.  As great as my career has been so far, I want more.  I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about my schedule for the next four months.  Based on the time it took to write and revise the first chapter, I believe I can make this work.

We’ll see what happens.  Like I said, there’s a chance I won’t even get the offer.  But even if I don’t, this has certainly gotten me thinking about my career and where I want to be, and that’s a good thing.

Wish me luck!

«< 190 191 192 193 194 >»