Unveiling the official cover…Wolf in Cheap Clothing!
*sigh* I love it.
Spoofed
Yesterday morning I got some newsletter subscribers with fake @charleneteglia.com email addresses. Spammers found a way to spoof my email and spam the planet. Since the newsletter tool seems to have been the piece that got hijacked, it’s been removed. No more newsletter. Which is not a terrible thing, because I only started it because “everybody had one”, not because I had a burning desire to write a newsletter. And I don’t believe it was worth the time and effort I was putting into it.
So. In future I’ll post a newsletter type blog entry when I have a new release, in my happy tabloid writer style, but that’s it as far as anything newsletterish from me goes. And hopefully this move will stop the spammers. The email server the spammers are using isn’t under my control, that would be the web host’s issue. It’s been reported to the web host. Beyond these moves, not much we can do. The husband is checking into it to see if there’s anything else we can do to shut them down.
I come with a warning label!
The Gripping Beast has a warning label. Miss Lonely Hearts will have the same warning. For readers who may be wondering what this means, I figure if these were EC titles they’d get an S rating. The warning is there so that readers who might think these are not erotic romances won’t get a big surprise. They are erotic. And now you’ve been warned!
Samhain features a lot of EC authors in the lineup, but not all of them are writing erotic books so you can’t just go by author. You’ll know by the warning on the blurb page.
So why put them at Samhain as opposed to EC? Well, speaking only for myself, I plan to fill all my allotted EC slots this year without these books. (EC allows one title every 6-8 weeks per author, which means 6-8 titles max, and this includes novellas and Quickies.) I prefer to publish them in 06 rather than hold them to 07, and besides, I expect to fill my 07 slots pretty easily, too. I’m already working on 2 of my 07 slots, in fact. This isn’t just a small publisher/epublisher phenomenon; really prolific authors can out-produce what their publisher will buy and have to have more than one.
Also, this gives me the option of having a range of sensuality in the books. Some may be spicy rather than sensual. With EC I could put some of the titles over on the Cerridwen side if need be, but this would make it harder for readers to find all the series books. I prefer to put them all together.
On the topic of publishers. I visited Nadia’s blog this morning and I wanted to say a word or two about self-publishing, epublishing and small presses. The truth is, for a new fiction author small presses and epublishers may be more willing to take a chance on you than a big NY publisher, because books are a risky business and big publishers can’t afford to take as many risks as publishers who use POD technology and epublishing technology to keep costs down. This is not the same as vanity publishing. A vanity publisher will publish anything and you pay for it (often in more ways than one). But some small presses/epublishers walk a fine line between vanity and “real” publishing, so it pays to ask a lot of questions and read the contract carefully.
A “real” publisher should pay royalties, if not advances. A “real” publisher should provide editing, cover art, and copyright registration. If any of your money is going towards the publisher’s costs or if the cover art, editing, or copyright come out of your pocket, at best this is cooperative publishing and you should decide if that’s something you want to do. I recommend finding another publisher who will pay the costs of producing the book, but then this is my job. I’m trying to pay the bills, not express my artistic vision. Your goals may differ. If for whatever reason you want to self-publish, Lulu makes it very easy and very low cost. Self-publishing is NOT the same as signing over your rights to a vanity press.
I self-pubbed Catalyst in order to raise money for Hurricane Katrina relief. I’m not sorry I did. It helped people who needed help in a hurry. Now the book is coming out with a “real” publisher. Same book, no stigma, and the paperback will be in stores probably in June. (All royalties still go to Katrina relief, but there’ll be more of them to give away going this route.) I didn’t lose the option to place the book with a “real” publisher by self-pubbing first, and it meant I was able to help during the crisis, and not three months later. (They still need help now, don’t doubt it, but I didn’t want to wait 3 months to contribute.)
I also put up a Lulu print edition of Yule Be Mine, since the original publisher didn’t want to go into print and readers were asking for it. When it’s “out of print” at Scheherazade, I can resubmit it with both print and electronic rights returned to me. Doing it myself involved some footwork, but I didn’t lose anything and I’m not going to be barred from reselling the book.
Unlike books, publishers do not come with warning labels. In the world of epublishing, there are some who are very reputable, produce good books, and have excellent distribution and sales, in print as well as electronic format. Others…don’t. Ask around. Do your research. Do not, however tempting it may be, say yes to the first offer that comes along. You may regret it for a very long time. And you know, some books you just have to put down to a learning experience, and go write another one. The first book that sells is rarely the first one written.
Theme songs
I have some new music to listen to. For ALS, Space Cowboy (Steve Miller Band), for Only Human, Human (Human League). Trying to prod the muse back to work between the musical mood-setting and the use of the timer. I have edits to work through today (TGB again) so I’ll probably listen to a mix of Charlotte Church and Christmas music while I work. Charlotte Church has a wonderfully soothing voice, I can feel my shoulders relaxing while I listen.
And after the edits, I need to do some serious Book In A Week effort. I need to get my brain back out of thinking gear and into intuitive gear, because the stories are in the unconcious, not the conscious, analytical part of the mind. Music and writing at high speed help me do this, but if anybody else out there has different tricks to try, I’d love to hear them!
Fun with Lawrence Block
Been re-reading “Telling Lies for Fun and Profit” and “Writing the Novel” by Lawrence Block. Always good stuff to go back over. No matter how many times I read these books, I seem to pick up something different each time. This time I’m noticing the issue of beginnings that end up needing a lot of revision to fit the rest of the book. That’s something that happens all the time to me so it’s nice to know it’s common, and that there are lots of ways to work with it.
Anyway, I’ve read a lot of writing books, but I’ve never come across anybody else who gives such a balanced perspective of writing as art, craft, and business. L.B. is always full of good advice on all three of these aspects of a successful fiction career.
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