4-LAN, Thank you for the welcome and checking out The Cartel. That's super fast action-I only joined yesterday. I guess that's your super droid efficiency in action!
Indeed, I do have a few freebies. Just to help setup the universe. Kitana and Demons That Do Not Rest are background items which were cut from the main books, mostly for space.
Hi 4-LAN,
Thank you for writing. You reasoned the languages and their places very well! Anguilla is surprisingly English, and Guadeloupe is French.
All the best,
Ken
Thanks a ton! Any traffic at all will be a big help :) I'm just speechless still from that amazing review you gave me lol.
I'll be putting up a new story on Monday as usual, let me know what you think of the changes I've made to the site. I'm trying to make it as user friendly as possible. Also I learned that all black might be hard to see on some readers and i-phones.
I have hired a very talented artist and book cover illustrator to do the cover artwork and design for Blood and Fire: The Vampire/Dragon Wars.
Her name is Aidana WillowRaven and she is a member of our very own Book Marketing Network.
Please stop by Ms. WillowRaven's page and follow the link to her website. I am sure you will agree with my decision to utilize her very talented services.
I just know that the cover of Blood and Fire is sure to be brilliant with Aidana's capable hands at the helm!
Tell WillowRaven how much you are looking forward to seeing her vision for my book! But do not pressure her-she is a very busy artist/business woman/entrepreneur/single mom :-D
I am very lucky to have her on board my project and am very excited!
Thanks so much for the high praise 4-Lan! I only hope I can continue to live up to it. :D
My website is still a work in progress, and I welcome any feedback on it. I'm always striving to improve it and make it easier for people to navigate. :)
I read the peek inside of Joleene Naylor's Shades of Gray. Very well written! I also happened to see the trailer for it, awesome work if I do say so myself both in her book and in her video trailer!
Thanks so much for the great review! It made my day :D
I'm in Central time, but we stay up all night (hubby works night shift and I like it better, anyway). It's 2 am here and I'll have to go cook supper pretty soon. ;)
I have to say if you do look into publishers to be careful if you go with a small press/indie press. There are good ones out there, but so many are either scams or else they are well meaning people who end up in over their heads. I have read a lot of horror stories about royalties not getting paid, publishers copyrighting your work in their name, etc. to make me scared of small presses, though as I said there ARE good ones, just takes lots and lots of research to find which is which. the main advantage to the publishing with a big house is you get an editor, cover, the formatting, and all of that done for you. the small presses some do different things. I know some of them make you provide your own cover and only do the formatting. one thing is if they want you to pay THEM to publish it's a scam. you should never have to pay anyone to publish.
Let me find that email address and I will shoot you the rest of the series, LOL!
I find that even editing can be a chore if you're not "inspired" to do it, so to speak. I know I do a better job if I am "in the mood" for it than if I am just doing it it as a chore that *must* be done. But I think all art is that way; whether visual or literary or whatever. Once it becomes something that is churned out like clockwork with no feeling attached it fails to be art anymore and becomes a factory produced product.
I did send some query letters to a hand full of agents, but the more I looked into everything the more I didn't like the way it is set up. They choose your covers, they choose what you can and can;t have in your book and then they do very little to no marketing for you unless you're atop seller. Marketing was the main thing I needed a publisher for, and if they weren't even going to do that then why not skip the middle man and get the cover I want and the content I want? Most readers don't know a book is self published unless someone tells them - Before I started looking into it all I had no idea which ones were which. i think authors are the worst at pressuring one another because it's like so many are desperate to find some way to make being a writer exclusive so they can be "one of the special chosen few". I say the more the merrier :)
No reason to push yourself, though. Let it come when it does. i know the whole first chapter of mine is not what I had planned, but then I wasn't inspired to write for a few months - and some stuff came up etc - so when I got back it I ended up with a way better one than I would have had I plunged ahead. It will get done when it is ready to ;)
Yes! writing is the easy part - it's editing and promotions that are the hardest, I think :) though they say not to worry too much about promotion until you have three books under your belt, then you start blitzing. On the other hand some people say start right off... it just depends who you talk to. I know I didn't sell hardly anything until i started networking on Facebook. not that I sell massive numbers now, but it was an improvement ;)
Sent to the email address. Let me know if it doesn't show up :)
Ha ha! I wish! Sadly I only manage about 1 book a year. I am hoping to be able to get to work on #7 sooner than usual and get it out faster, but we'll see. I still have to do final edits on this one, put together promo material, finish organizing the blog tour, do the blog tour, and make a paperback cover - oh and do all the formatting. Ha! Now I feel tired just looking at that!
That is so awesome that you found an illustrator! Yay! Looking forward to seeing what she comes up with and I'll have to go check out her work - I am always looking for people to recommend to others and good illustrators are hard to find. Especially for fantasy or sci-fi!
I finally freed up some time, so I started reading your book. I know you are looking for some feedback.
First Thoughts: one thing a beta reader pointed out to me that I still have trouble with is long paragraphs...I have no problem with them but apparently some readers do.
Chapter One: Intro to characters...good.
Chapter Two: The thing here is I would prefer to see the encounter from the perspective of the female blood drinker. I think it would be a good idea to sharpen the point of view in this scene to that of only one of the characters. I like the blood drinking scene.
Chapter Three: I would take the word instantaneous out of the first paragraph. You explain her teleporting well enough without it.
Chapter Four: My thoughts so far: You're introducing a lot of characters early, which is okay...I assume you are planning something epic. I do think you might have a few too many adverbs in your prose, at least in this chapter.
Chapter Five: I am warming up to the story. I like the vamp in the catacombs.
Chapter Six: It looks like your dragon rider, Nick, is not an all conquering hero type. I like that. If you can pull it off, it will make the book a nice change of pace.
Chapter Seven: Pretty cool scene. Dragons mating while their riders experience the same...
Chapter Eight: Back to Nakira...so far, I am most interested in her. You named the head vamp, Vlad...that takes courage...very cool!
Okay, this is the kind of thing I have been doing for some of the people on authonomy, so let me know if you like this kind of review. I will read more of it over the next three days since I get some time off work for Chinese New Year. Overall, I can tell you have a lot of ideas. I have not read far enough yet to know more about the city above the catacombs, so I am interested in that. It's pretty good, 4-Lan. The story seems to be picking up speed as I read it. I have adjusted to the three points of view from which you present the story. Chat with you later. Danny
sorry for being slow - been offline finishing book 6 up, LOL! At least it's off to the beta's now.
I can email you the .mobi file to the email address, and you can copy it to your kindle. hubby says there is a way to email it to yourself and it will load automatically, but I have to admit I don;t know how to do that :p I always just plug mine in via the usb/charge port and copy paste files to it like a thumb drive.
if that would work let me know :)
Now I need to take some time and tour this site, LOL!
I'm fine, but not worked much on the novella recently as I've been trying to set up an author blog/website, and those sorts of things take me a long time. Thankfully, I hope to get some help from my brother with it next week - and can then get back to the novella.
I see where you are going with the James Patterson thing and I think it works well in your book. I used to love his Alex Cross series but have not read much of his stuff for a while.
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Indeed, I do have a few freebies. Just to help setup the universe. Kitana and Demons That Do Not Rest are background items which were cut from the main books, mostly for space.
I hope you enjoy it.
Thanks a ton! Any traffic at all will be a big help :) I'm just speechless still from that amazing review you gave me lol.
I'll be putting up a new story on Monday as usual, let me know what you think of the changes I've made to the site. I'm trying to make it as user friendly as possible. Also I learned that all black might be hard to see on some readers and i-phones.
Hey Everbody!
I have hired a very talented artist and book cover illustrator to do the cover artwork and design for Blood and Fire: The Vampire/Dragon Wars.
Her name is Aidana WillowRaven and she is a member of our very own Book Marketing Network.
Please stop by Ms. WillowRaven's page and follow the link to her website. I am sure you will agree with my decision to utilize her very talented services.
I just know that the cover of Blood and Fire is sure to be brilliant with Aidana's capable hands at the helm!
Tell WillowRaven how much you are looking forward to seeing her vision for my book! But do not pressure her-she is a very busy artist/business woman/entrepreneur/single mom :-D
I am very lucky to have her on board my project and am very excited!
Thanks so much for the high praise 4-Lan! I only hope I can continue to live up to it. :D
My website is still a work in progress, and I welcome any feedback on it. I'm always striving to improve it and make it easier for people to navigate. :)
Hey everybody!
I have a new edition of What I Am Reading-fresh off my keyboard and out there in the blog section of this great site!
Enjoy!
Hello!
oooo ok thanks :) I will check it out!
I read the peek inside of Joleene Naylor's Shades of Gray. Very well written! I also happened to see the trailer for it, awesome work if I do say so myself both in her book and in her video trailer!
Starting Blood and Fire tonight :)
Thanks so much for the great review! It made my day :D
I'm in Central time, but we stay up all night (hubby works night shift and I like it better, anyway). It's 2 am here and I'll have to go cook supper pretty soon. ;)
I have to say if you do look into publishers to be careful if you go with a small press/indie press. There are good ones out there, but so many are either scams or else they are well meaning people who end up in over their heads. I have read a lot of horror stories about royalties not getting paid, publishers copyrighting your work in their name, etc. to make me scared of small presses, though as I said there ARE good ones, just takes lots and lots of research to find which is which. the main advantage to the publishing with a big house is you get an editor, cover, the formatting, and all of that done for you. the small presses some do different things. I know some of them make you provide your own cover and only do the formatting. one thing is if they want you to pay THEM to publish it's a scam. you should never have to pay anyone to publish.
Let me find that email address and I will shoot you the rest of the series, LOL!
I find that even editing can be a chore if you're not "inspired" to do it, so to speak. I know I do a better job if I am "in the mood" for it than if I am just doing it it as a chore that *must* be done. But I think all art is that way; whether visual or literary or whatever. Once it becomes something that is churned out like clockwork with no feeling attached it fails to be art anymore and becomes a factory produced product.
I did send some query letters to a hand full of agents, but the more I looked into everything the more I didn't like the way it is set up. They choose your covers, they choose what you can and can;t have in your book and then they do very little to no marketing for you unless you're atop seller. Marketing was the main thing I needed a publisher for, and if they weren't even going to do that then why not skip the middle man and get the cover I want and the content I want? Most readers don't know a book is self published unless someone tells them - Before I started looking into it all I had no idea which ones were which. i think authors are the worst at pressuring one another because it's like so many are desperate to find some way to make being a writer exclusive so they can be "one of the special chosen few". I say the more the merrier :)
Hope you've had a great weekend!
No reason to push yourself, though. Let it come when it does. i know the whole first chapter of mine is not what I had planned, but then I wasn't inspired to write for a few months - and some stuff came up etc - so when I got back it I ended up with a way better one than I would have had I plunged ahead. It will get done when it is ready to ;)
Yes! writing is the easy part - it's editing and promotions that are the hardest, I think :) though they say not to worry too much about promotion until you have three books under your belt, then you start blitzing. On the other hand some people say start right off... it just depends who you talk to. I know I didn't sell hardly anything until i started networking on Facebook. not that I sell massive numbers now, but it was an improvement ;)
Sent to the email address. Let me know if it doesn't show up :)
Ha ha! I wish! Sadly I only manage about 1 book a year. I am hoping to be able to get to work on #7 sooner than usual and get it out faster, but we'll see. I still have to do final edits on this one, put together promo material, finish organizing the blog tour, do the blog tour, and make a paperback cover - oh and do all the formatting. Ha! Now I feel tired just looking at that!
That is so awesome that you found an illustrator! Yay! Looking forward to seeing what she comes up with and I'll have to go check out her work - I am always looking for people to recommend to others and good illustrators are hard to find. Especially for fantasy or sci-fi!
Hi 4-Lan,
I finally freed up some time, so I started reading your book. I know you are looking for some feedback.
First Thoughts: one thing a beta reader pointed out to me that I still have trouble with is long paragraphs...I have no problem with them but apparently some readers do.
Chapter One: Intro to characters...good.
Chapter Two: The thing here is I would prefer to see the encounter from the perspective of the female blood drinker. I think it would be a good idea to sharpen the point of view in this scene to that of only one of the characters. I like the blood drinking scene.
Chapter Three: I would take the word instantaneous out of the first paragraph. You explain her teleporting well enough without it.
Chapter Four: My thoughts so far: You're introducing a lot of characters early, which is okay...I assume you are planning something epic. I do think you might have a few too many adverbs in your prose, at least in this chapter.
Chapter Five: I am warming up to the story. I like the vamp in the catacombs.
Chapter Six: It looks like your dragon rider, Nick, is not an all conquering hero type. I like that. If you can pull it off, it will make the book a nice change of pace.
Chapter Seven: Pretty cool scene. Dragons mating while their riders experience the same...
Chapter Eight: Back to Nakira...so far, I am most interested in her. You named the head vamp, Vlad...that takes courage...very cool!
Okay, this is the kind of thing I have been doing for some of the people on authonomy, so let me know if you like this kind of review. I will read more of it over the next three days since I get some time off work for Chinese New Year. Overall, I can tell you have a lot of ideas. I have not read far enough yet to know more about the city above the catacombs, so I am interested in that. It's pretty good, 4-Lan. The story seems to be picking up speed as I read it. I have adjusted to the three points of view from which you present the story. Chat with you later. Danny
sorry for being slow - been offline finishing book 6 up, LOL! At least it's off to the beta's now.
I can email you the .mobi file to the email address, and you can copy it to your kindle. hubby says there is a way to email it to yourself and it will load automatically, but I have to admit I don;t know how to do that :p I always just plug mine in via the usb/charge port and copy paste files to it like a thumb drive.
if that would work let me know :)
Now I need to take some time and tour this site, LOL!
Hi Lance,
I'm fine, but not worked much on the novella recently as I've been trying to set up an author blog/website, and those sorts of things take me a long time. Thankfully, I hope to get some help from my brother with it next week - and can then get back to the novella.
I see where you are going with the James Patterson thing and I think it works well in your book. I used to love his Alex Cross series but have not read much of his stuff for a while.
Hope you are both well.
Best wishes,
Martin.
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