Angeline Trevena

Dystopian Urban Fantasy Author

Business of Writing

What’s a Beta Reader Worth?

by

The MatchingThe last couple of months have all been about edits, and preparing The Matching to be sent out to beta readers. It went out at the beginning of March, and I’ve been doing some big edits based on some of that feedback. Big changes. Changes that I knew needed to be made, but just wanted to have confirmed by outside eyes.

But that’s what’s so wonderful about beta readers, and a good one really is worth their weight in gold. Or platinum. Or plutonium.

Beta readers can offer you something you can never give yourself: a distanced opinion. An outside eye. A level of detachment you can’t achieve. But there’s something even more important than that, something that only a good beta reader can offer: honesty. That, that’s harder to find.

The most obvious beta readers available to you are friends and family. And while some of them can be good beta readers (I use family members), many will try to spare your feelings, try not to upset you or cause a falling out. This is no use to you, your writing, or your future readers. You need people that understand how important that honesty is, and people who aren’t afraid to give it to you.

So what is a beta reader worth? A good one? Everything. They’re worth your book, your readers’ enjoyment, your reviews, your sales, your confidence in your work, your future career. Everything.

So once you find a good beta reader, never let them go. (Please note: I mean this metaphorically. I do not advocate the kidnapping, imprisonment, or enforced servitude of beta readers. Even a good one.)

Five Year Project: It’s All Official Now

by

Five Year Project: Do You Have Goals?Last month I was deep in edits, preparing The Matching to go out to beta readers. It went out to them early this month, and I’m now working on some very big changes based on some of that feedback.

But it’s all becoming very real now. When you’re head down at your computer, tapping away, all absorbed within your own little world, it’s yours. It’s a personal endeavour, a private space, a secret relationship between you and your characters. But there comes a moment when it’s all suddenly open, revealed to the world. And suddenly, you’re accountable. You can’t keep tweaking and editing and rewriting forever.

And The Matching has become very official. It has a cover. And there’s little that makes a book feel more real than that. I officially revealed the cover this week, so now, well, there’s no going back.

The Matching Coming Soon

There are other ways I make myself accountable, urge myself onwards. I’ve put the book up on Goodreads, along with an expected publication date. Of course, the next step will be the pre-order, and there’s serious consequences if you back out of that one.

So, that’s that. It’s all official now. I really do actually have to do this.

I can’t wait!

If you want to visit the other blogs in this blog hop, or fancy signing up yourself, check out the linky list here: sylmion.blogspot.co.uk/p/do-you-have-goal.html

Five Year Project: The Big Red Pen

by

Five Year Project: Do You Have Goals?After the ups and downs of last month, February saw the completion of the first draft of The Paper Duchess Book 2, now called The Matching. One of the characters decided to do something against our agreed storyline and, in doing so, changed the ending and the title of the book. I don’t mind, she made it much better.

So now I’m knee-deep in edits, and hoping to get copies out to beta readers in the first few days of March.

With this being my first series, my first sequel, it all feels very monumental. And terrifying. And exciting. And daunting. Yep, all those ups and downs us writers are used to.

But I’m getting there, and I cannot wait to release The Paper Duchess Book 2.

If you want to visit the other blogs in this blog hop, or fancy signing up yourself, check out the linky list here: sylmion.blogspot.co.uk/p/do-you-have-goal.html

Five Year Project: Some Ups, Some Downs

by

Five Year Project: Do You Have Goals?January really has offered up a bit of a mixed bag. It’s an odd month in itself anyway: settling back into everyday routines after Christmas, and settling into new routines in an attempt to start the new year with some good habits. All done with depressingly cold and wet weather, and living on a tight budget while our bank accounts recover.

I’m not a big fan of January. And it hasn’t been a big fan of me either. So, at least we’re even, I guess.

I started this month with a view to finish the first draft of The Substitute (The Paper Duchess Book 2) by the end of it. That’s not going to happen. In fact, progress was so slow to start off with, that I had to adjust my target line, bringing my daily wordcount target down by half. Here’s what’s happened:

Word count

So, it took a while for me to find my writing mojo. I’d had a lovely long break over Christmas, surrounded by the clamorous insanity of my family, so it was difficult to settle back into the habit of daily writing. But then, I discovered my mojo! The words were just pouring out of me, and I knew that, although I was still way behind my target, I could easily catch up. Things were finally going well.

And then I fell ill, with a terrible cold. Add in being heavily pregnant, and a mum to another, and I barely had the energy to drag myself out of bed each morning, let alone sit at a computer. The cold also came with a whole new set of screen-induced headaches (just like the pregnancy), and writing stalled big time.

I’m starting to get better now, and I’m able to look at the computer screen for a little longer, which is great. But, as of yesterday, my writing mojo seems to have disappeared again. And I’m so frustrated by that, because, for a whole week, I had the ideas, desire, motivation, and flow to write, but I was too ill to.

Muses are like that; fickle, unfaithful, and with a terrible sense of timing.

But I know I’ll get back on track again. I might just need to slog through this section of the book to find my muse is waiting on the other side. Hopefully, February will be a little kinder.

Did you manage to rein in your muse in January?

If you want to visit the other blogs in this blog hop, or fancy signing up yourself, check out the linky list here: sylmion.blogspot.co.uk/p/do-you-have-goal.html

Amazon’s Next Move on Quality Control

by

AmazonNews is starting to spread across the indie writing world about Amazon’s upcoming plans for quality control on the ebooks sold through their platform.

A number of writers have reported receiving an email stating this:

Starting February 3, 2016 we will begin showing customers a warning message on the Amazon.com Kindle store detail pages of books that contain several validated quality issues. We will remove this message for a book as soon as we receive the fixed file from you and verify the corrections – typically within 2 business days.

We understand that even with the best quality controls, defects sometimes make it through. That’s why we’ve limited this messaging to books with several issues. Books with more serious quality issues will continue to be suppressed from sale.

Before the warning message appears, we would like to work with you to ensure these issues are fixed. After you’ve made the corrections, please upload your revised content through the ‘Book Content’ section in your KDP Bookshelf and republish it by clicking “Save and Publish” so that we can verify the corrections and prevent the warning message from being displayed on your book’s detail page.

But it leaves a lot of questions unanswered. All those unknowns, all those grey areas, are what’s spreading a mild panic through the indie publishing world.

  • How will the quality checks be done? Via a robot, via reader feedback, or both?
  • Will the errors be double-checked and validated as genuine errors before the warning message is posted onto the sale page?
  • How will regional spelling differences be handled? (eg: the differences between British, American, Australian, and Canadian English?)
  • How will Amazon handle things like made up character and place names, made up words or languages in fantasy or sci-fi books, characters speaking in dialects and local slang, characters typing in text speak, technical jargon, or online slang?

But I think the most important question is one of just how automated this system is going to be: in other words, will the onus be on Amazon to prove that the errors are genuine errors before the warning message appears, or will the onus be on the writer to prove that they aren’t in a fight to get the message removed?

A warning message on your sales page, and Amazon keeping your books “suppressed from sale” is going to affect sales, there’s no question about that. Will authors be suffering days, or weeks, of hits to their income while they argue with Amazon over the spelling of a character name?

Meanwhile, I wonder how book formatters will react to this. Clever ones will be jumping on this to cash in with new clients, but will they find authors demanding contracts that include free revisions should their book’s formatting be flagged with a warning? Could there even be claims for compensation on lost sales?

Once again, and as is the way when you’re dealing with a third party distributor, Amazon is implementing a system with little forewarning, a system that us writers will simply have to wait and see how it’s going to work.

Here’s an interesting blog post from Elizabeth Spann Craig, a writer with first hand experience of this system: elizabethspanncraig.com/3877/amazon-pushing-quality-control

What are your thoughts? Will this be good or bad for the industry, or is it simply too early to know for sure?

Here’s some more resources for you:
goodereader.com/blog/e-book-news/kindle-e-books-will-have-a-warning-message-if-they-have-spelling-mistakes-or-bad-formatting
kdp.amazon.com/community/message.jspa?messageID=979849
kboards.com/index.php?topic=229823.0
eroticromancepublishers.com/2016/01/will-amazon-start-publically-flagging.html

Five Year Project: Looking Back, Looking Forward

by

Five Year Project: Do You Have Goals?Although I can’t quite believe we’re here at the start of a brand new year again, we are. So here’s to a great 2016 for you all.

And as this time of year calls for, it’s time to look back over the ups and downs of 2015, and to set out my goals for 2016.

This time last year, I was still a short story writer, with ambitions of releasing a book of my own. That ambition was realised in May with the release of my debut novella, Cutting the Bloodline. This release also saw me learn how to code an ebook from scratch. That was certainly a steep learning curve, but totally worth it.

In July, I made a big personal and financial commitment to my writing career by signing up to a book marketing course. It’s already taught me a lot, most importantly, how to focus on the long game, to keep moving forward while keeping my eye on my future goals.

October saw my next book release with The Bottle Stopper, the first book in The Paper Duchess series. Again, another big commitment to my writing career. And December saw the release of the paperback version. And, voila, I’ve also learnt to format a hard copy book.

The Bottle Stopper Proof
Besides releases, 2015 has been a great year for networking, both locally and internationally, with some important relationships forged and strengthened. And with some true friendships made.

2015 was largely quiet in my personal life, just a few new routines to settle into. Not so 2016. Spring will see a big upheaval with the arrival of my second child, and I can’t even begin to predict what that will do to my writing routine. So, goal one for the new year, is to get the next Paper Duchess book, The Substitute, published before then. It will be a lot of work, but at least I have the formatting knowledge down, so that part of it will be a lot quicker this time round.

Beyond that, it’s a little hard to plan. I’ll just have to take it a day at a time with an overall goal of continuing my book series while taking time out to write and submit more short stories. They’re a good break from the books, and stretch my writing muscles with their tight word count limits, deadlines, and set themes.

And that’s pretty much it. What are your goals for the coming year?

If you want to visit the other blogs in this blog hop, or fancy signing up yourself, check out the linky list here: sylmion.blogspot.co.uk/p/do-you-have-goal.html