Book review – the Hunger Games

Title: The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins
Genre: Scifi/Fantasy
Rating: 

I had heard a lot about The Hunger Games. There are books, there is a film. After a while I became intrigued and purchased the e-book. At first it was difficult to get ‘into’ the story, as I could not entirely place it in its temporal context, but as soon as that was over (took me a while, I admit), the book became good, and more interesting as I progressed.

I find the background of the Hunger Games shocking. Think of a society that looks nice, advanced, refined, and then there are the Hunger Games. The background of the games is laid out very well in the story, and it’s done in a way that is not boring. The story moves along at a good pace and has a nice balance between introspection of the main character, Katniss, and what happens around her. The story also shows what can go around inside the heads of people when they are thrown into an arena where literally they battle for life and death.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Hunger Games. I am not certain if I shall continue with the other two books in the series. Perhaps in time.


Publishing industry faces paradoxes, challenges

By Chris Meadows - Via Teleread

IPA-Cape-TownPublishing Perspectives is carrying a keynote speech delivered in absentia to the International Publishers Association Congress in South Africa in which Chad Post, publisher of small nonprofit translation press Open Letter Booksdiscusses the paradoxes that shape the current publishing market, the opportunities for a small press, and what various people in publishing should do in the longer term.

The paradoxes Post cites are remarkably apt. Speaking from the viewpoint of publishers (the “we” he refers to), Post points out:

  • We rely on readers, but we want to keep them at arm’s length.
  • We champion small independent stores, although our business model favors Amazon.
  • We hate Amazon because it’s so successful it broke our power structure.
  • We also hate Amazon because they’re good at the thing we turned our back on: relating to readers.

The publishing industry has essentially handed Amazon its market on a silver platter, then complained about Amazon gobbling that platter clean. Publishers have always left market research and getting to know readers to the bookstores that made up their interface to those readers—because, after all, there wasn’t any efficient way for a bookstore to reach beyond its local community, or for publishers to reach all communities at once. But then came the Internet, and Amazon to leverage it.

Unlike many publishers, Post’s Open Letter Books was founded from the start as a nonprofit—Post recognized he was never going to get rich publishing books, and preferred to treat the publisher as a sort of service organization to make the world a little better place by getting books into the hands of people who would benefit by reading them. But because of its small size, the press finds it is a challenge even getting noticed.

And that’s a problem common to all small publishers (not to mention self-publishers and even full-sized publishers) in the 21st century:

We have entered a confusing age in the evolution of books and publishing. After ages of conglomerations conglomerating and other inward mingling trends (e.g., B&N making the same books available everywhere in the country, like McDonalds hamburgers), the world has suddenly fragmented. Certain books are only available on Amazon, there are 10,000 for every sub-genre of a sub-genre, and readers live everywhere, accessing it all in a plethora of ways.

This is daunting to some, exciting to others. For a small press looking to do books that fit a particular niche (a la Open Letter), this is a fantastic situation. Unlike years past when we fought for space in the same five review outlets and tried to convince the same booksellers to handsell our books, we can now go directly to our customers, and can cultivate an audience in ways that never existed before.

Post has advice for all branches of publishing, as well. Agents, he says, need to stop “screwing around with e-book rights”—withholding the e-book license from print publishers so they can’t use the print and e-book formats to promote each other. Translators should try to cultivate a community of readers interested in their books, to promote greater sales. Publishers should “grow a personality” to build better word of mouth.

Authors should try to find a niche who will buy their books instead of crossing their fingers and hoping for mass appeal in an era of decreased reading and increased market fragmentation. And everyone should keep in mind that the increasingly fragmented nature of the book market means that fads are going to be less and less effective as people go find what they want to read instead of buying into whatever the publishing industry want to push next.


The Demon Eyes

Waiting, in the open field, surrounded by others. Many others, before and behind me, all focussing on the demon bars that prevent us from going anywhere. The demon bars with their flashing red eyes that keep everyone transfixed…

I want to go. Leave. I can’t be here, shouldn’t be here, I have to be somewhere else – but I can’t. I can’t go, not forward, not backward, because there are so many others. They too want to be somewhere else, but the demon bars, the barriers that keep us where we are, while their red eyes stare at us, blinking, unrelenting, hypnotising…

And then the worst thing of all happens – the master demon, long, rumbling, is approaching us. A few people at the front, closest to the demon bars, don’t seem to notice him. They are certainly under the spell of the eyes. Oh, these terrible flashing eyes! I want to cry out a warning, to tell them he’s coming, but they are too far away. My voice won’t carry over the increasing thunder that precedes the master demon, the huge snake.

But wait! The demon does not halt! The demon must be insane, as it rushes past us all! Is it also hypnotised by the demon bars, with their haunting eyes? Question after question flows into my mind, as my heart sings. There were no victims, no people were taken by the demon snake.

As by magic, the demon bars rise into the air, closing their eyes. Slowly the terror recedes, and carefully the whole group follows the first brave ones to cross the path that the demon snake has travelled. The snake left deep marks, I feel them as my cart crosses the path. Faster, faster, everyone! Make way, make haste! We do not want to be here when the demon bars come back, to tell of another roaring snake!

I urge my cart to greater speed, to leave this place of doom. I dare not glance back, as no one can be certain of the influence of the demon eyes – even when they seem blind now. I dare not stop until I am home…

(This can happen when a writer has to wait for the bloody train too long…)


Author interview – Malika Ghandi

Dear reader,

I shall be engaging in a number of interviews with independent authors. May you find these informative, entertaining, and perhaps even inspiring to go out and locate their books!

This interview is with author Malika Ghandi.

Dear Malika, can you offer us a little insight into who you are?

I love everything that shouts ‘creative view’ and that’s who I am. I am a creative person and love to write and paint illustrations and have a go at sketches.

What is the reason that you started writing? When did you start writing?

I began to write when I was eighteen and the reason was because I wanted to write a novel. I wanted to see my work in print some day.

 Are you writing under a pen-name, do you use your own, or is your work out in both ways?

My work is under my real name. I don’t personally believe in pen names. If you don’t really want your work recognised by the real you, then pen names are good.

If you have published one book so far, what aspect of it do you like best?

I like seeing my book finished and in its book form, complete with my own illustration.

How do you think your writing has changed over time? Did it change at all?

I have really just begun to write. So in regards to change, I don’t think I can say much. I suppose I am more aware of the correct way to write and have taken aboard suggestions from other writers and bloggers.

And can you say that writing has changed you?

No, writing hasn’t changed me at all. I’m still as crazy as I was! LOL – don’t take that literally. :0)

And, if your feel up to it, what is the most daring thing you ever did in your life? Feel free to skip this one, not everybody is up to revealing much about themselves…

I think the most daring thing I did was publish my book Freedom of the Monsoon. It is always scary going into the world full of people who may have seen your work – editors, publishers and fellow writers, and also people who just like reading. You naturally want to be liked and so, what they think, matters.

Is there something you still want to have a go at, in your writing life? Is there a challenge you envision that’s worth pursuing?

I would like to try script-writing at one point in my life. I want to write it based on my novel, which I believe has a scope for Bollywood movies.

Do you have one or two favourite books (written by someone else)? If so, what are they, and why do they appeal to you so much?

I have many favourite books but I will pick out two, one from the “classic” library and one from the current times.

My favourite book from the classic times, is Little Women by Louise Alcott. This book is heart felt and every women can relate to it. Four sisters who love each dearly and who face difficult choices in their lives. The writing is beautiful and you can get lost in that world.

The other book is Twilight by Stephanie Meyer, not because of vampires or werewolves (but that is a great hook!) but for the intense love between an unlikely couple. The energy from the writing is just brilliant.

Which book you ever read would you label as least readable book, so far? Feel free to comment as liberally as you want to the why.

There have been many but I can’t think of a specific one. If I am not able to get into the first three pages, my interest wanes and so I put the book down.

Is there a writer that you would love to co-write a book with? And what genre would you like to write in then? Something you’re familiar with?

Probably V.S.Naipaul who has written many diverse novels. Miguel Street is one of my favourites. I would love to write about history which is something I enjoy and am familiar with. I like the research aspect and bringing that knowledge to the forefront.

And as a last question, what is cooking with you? What’s your work in progress? Is there a tip of a veil that you can lift for us?

Currently I am working on two things – my next novel which is a half sequel to the first book. I will have two main characters, one from 1947 and one from 2012.
I am also working on articles for my blog site and planning speaking events locally.

If there is anything else you would like to share, for example a thought, some promotion for your book(s), then here’s your chance!

Yes! My blog site is www.malikagandhi.wordpress.com. I would love to see fellow writers and readers join me in a fascinating world of kaleidoscopic subjects.

Thank you, Malika, for your time, and for sharing your words with us!


Publishers – Writer Beware

“Publishers are just middlemen. That’s all. If artists could remember that more often, they’d save themselves a lot of aggravation. ”
– Hugh Macleod, How To Be Creative

Ah, the lure of the publisher, the allure of the printed book sitting there in your hands, beckoning to you. Isn’t that the stuff of every author’s dreams? An e-book is great but don’t we all long to hold a book in our hands with our name below the title? I know I did. There’s also the sense of security and the idea that maybe we won’t have to work quite as hard, that they’ll pick up some of the load of marketing.

It also seems as if there are so many new choices these days – not just the Big Six, independent, e-presses and small presses, but all kinds of hybrids, include publishing groups and co-ops (where the responsibility for creating a book is shared). And not all of them are truly looking out for your best interests. A number of writers have found themselves contracted to a publisher with no easy way out. I did.

So how do you avoid the pitfalls?

(For our purposes, we’ll leave out the Big Six, the pros and cons there are known – advances (now much smaller), a huge pool of talent in which your book can get lost, gatekeepers with a narrow eye, six months to respond, a year to two years to reach print.)

First, do your homework. Google the company name. If you find that they’re listed on Preditors and Editors or Writers Write, run away. Are there complaints against/about them? Do they sound valid, consistent? Go to their website, find a book that looks and sounds interesting to you. Does the cover look professional? Are there spelling and grammar errors in the blurb (the back cover information)? Where can you buy it? Only from their website? Those are huge red flags. You want your book to look as good as possible and to be available to a wide audience through established booksellers like Amazon.com, B&N and iTunes. If there’s a feature like Amazon’s “Look Inside the Book”, use it. Are there a bunch of basic grammar errors? Is that the kind of book with which you want to be associated?
So, it all sounds good and looks good. Too good to be true? Then it probably is. How’s your gut? Getting some trippy vibes? It’s time to start asking questions…

  1.  There’s a standard rule in publishing that money flows from the publisher to the writer, NOT the other way around. Anyone who tells you different is blowing smoke. I don’t care what name they call it. If you’re paying them a percentage of your book that percentage is supposed to cover what they’re supposed to do for you – editing, cover art and marketing at the very least. By its very definition in a co-operative environment each writer donates their time and skills to the group as a whole, each contributing to the success of all. But the first rule still applies. If you’re paying any percentage to the publisher, those ‘fees’ should come out of their pocket, not yours. Otherwise, what are you paying them for? Their name? Make up your own.
  2.  NEVER, NEVER, NEVER pay for your galley or proof copies. No reputable publisher will ask you to do this. That’s the cost of doing business. You’re providing them with their commodity, books. Without you, they wouldn’t exist. To ask you to pay for your own proof copies, even at a discount, is wrong. If they don’t believe enough in your book to invest in it, they shouldn’t have bought it. No reputable publisher will insist that you buy your books in bulk, either, even for a book signing. On those occasions they should provide them – unsold books should then be returned to the publisher or used for subsequent book signings.
  3.  NEVER, NEVER, NEVER pay for services you can do yourself. See below.
  4. Editing. Read the excerpts. Is that your style? Is it overly simplistic, too Dick and Jane? Or too dark? (I submitted one book to a publisher like that but I had a pretty good idea it would be rejected. And it was.) Are the stories remarkably similar, too generic? Is the quality good? Are you seeing those grammar errors? In a recent post I commented on a reader who was surprised to find an erotica book so literate. (I don’t just write erotica, I’m actually more of a fantasy writer, but that is where I’m published traditionally.) Is most of their work adult, but you write YA? Make sure that publisher is a good fit for you.
  5. Are they making a huge fuss about numbers, rankings and so on? Is the fuss legitimate? If you’re #4 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Kitchen Appliances, is that a valid ranking for your contemporary romance, Cooking Class? Not really. Outside of the kitchen appliances listing, notice that it says Nonfiction. Yes, you want to market where people share the same interests as your book but if your book is the only fiction book in ten listings… being #4 isn’t all that great.
  6. If they’re offering to put your book in print, who is doing the printing? I honestly never considered asking that question. I didn’t think I had to, after all, they were a publisher, right? So therefore they had a printer. To my surprise, one company was using CreateSpace to do their printing. (See Rule 3) I already had two books in print through CreateSpace on my own but that publisher made it sound as if he had a local printing company. Never assume. You know what happens when you do.
  7. Ask what their pay schedule is and what your percentage is for e-books or print. Is it different if you do book signings? WHEN do you get paid? Smashwords pays quarterly, most regular publishers pay monthly, but both will provide you with a regular accounting of how much money you can expect to receive. The same should be true of any publisher. You have a right to know when your first paycheck will arrive. After all, you have bills just like they do. If they can’t give you that information, if they waffle about how they can’t give you accurate figures, that they have to account for returns, etc., RUN. At absolute worse they could simply deduct a return from your next check but a reputable publisher wouldn’t – returns should be few and they accept that as a loss, as the cost of doing business. (If returns are excessive, someone needs to look at the book.)
  8. What is their marketing plan? How do they market their authors? (Again, see Rule 3) Is it largely through Facebook, Twitter and blogs? What else do they do? You want a concrete marketing plan that will take you beyond what you can do yourself. Does it mainly consist of book signings which you have to arrange, not them? Then you’re in the wrong place.
    And if you hear pie in the sky promises – I can get you on Leno, for example – ask yourself how many authors Jay Leno has on his program? None. It’s all smoke. Run, don’t walk, to the nearest exit.
  9. Check out their Facebook pages. Is there chaos and drama around them? Do you want chaos and drama in your life? If not, then walk away.

 

Indie publishing is hard enough without people making it more difficult, or outright ripping you off. I have yet to see the money from my book and I have a pretty good guess I never will. Despite it being a legitimate Amazon best seller. It regularly floats in the Amazon Top 100. I haven’t given up entirely but that’s the price you pay for not doing your ‘due diligence’ – your research.

There are people out there more than willing to prey on our hopes and dreams and many authors will pay almost anything to realize those dreams. I know one writer who put thousands of dollars of his own money into a print version of his books. I don’t know how many are still in boxes. Print books are much more difficult to sell. Getting bookstores to take a chance on giving precious shelf space to an unknown, independent writer is difficult. So many authors do that and their garages are filled with broken dreams. Many walk away, their hopes dashed.
For a while I struggled, trying to fit myself into a round hole when I was a square peg. I put my hopes of seeing my books in print under a publisher’s name…until I learned all the lessons above. Now I’m experiencing the delicious freedom of being able to write my books the way I want to write them. If I’m going to do print, I’ll do them myself. And I won’t have to share a penny. No one will make money from them besides me…in tandem with Amazon and CreateSpace, or B&N, Smashwords, etc., of course.

That’s not to say that the traditional way is wrong, but unless what a publisher offers you makes your life easier, what do you need a middleman for?

This post originally appeared on the weblog of Valerie Douglas, member of the Alexandria Publishing Group.


Indie promotion

Dear reader,

Another Monday. Why do weekends flit by so fast? Anyway, Monday brings you: today’s Indie Promotion:

Secret Confessions of a Backpacker:
My Adventure Down Under.


by L.K. Watts

Ebook Short Description: Laura is about to embark on a once in a life time opportunity. Granted a twelve month working holiday visa to travel Australia, Laura wants to make the most of every experience that comes her way. Based on a real life account, these stories highlight what can happen on a remarkable year away. Laura invites you to read these candid stories, tales of adventure and excitement, and she also shares with you everything she didn’t mention in her weekly telephone conversations back home.
With more twists than a corkscrew, this book won’t be what you expect.

From the author: This is my debut book about my year backpacking around Australia. I kept a detailed diary during that time and that inspired me to rewrite my old notes to transform them into a book.

Where to find.
You can find this e-book on Amazon.com where it is available for Kindle and all other devices and software that can read Amazon’s “mobi” format.


Read, don’t show

Found on DialyMail.co.uk:

One-third of e-book readers admit to using gadgets to hide that they’re reading erotic novels

  • One-third of users have read erotic novels
  • 58% use their device to hide what they are reading
  • Other ‘shameful’ books include children’s titles such as Harry Potter

E-book readers ‘free’ fans from having to show off what they’re reading – and it seems many users like to go for rather racy fare.
In a poll of 1,863 people conducted in Britain this week, 34% admitted to having read erotic novels on the devices.Around a third of e-book users read erotic novels on their devices, confident that others can’t see them.

Another 57% said that they used their e-reader to hide the fact that they were reading children’s books, such as Harry Potter, whilst 26% said they used theirs to disguise their sci-fi books habit.

Overall, 58% of people admit to using their device to ‘hide’ what they are reading, according to the poll by MyVoucherCodes.co.uk.

Mark Pearson, Chairman of MyVoucherCodes.co.uk, said ‘Having an e-reader does make it a lot easier to disguise what you’re reading, but it was quite an eye-opener to find out how many people use the fact that they have an e-reader to read an adult novel or two!’

An earlier poll of British readers found that a third of ebook readers are too embarrassed to reveal the truth about what they are reading.

One in five said they would be so ashamed of their collection that if they were to lose their ebook reader they would not claim it back.

But the results also showed that 71 per cent of books on the shelves of those who responded were autobiographies, political memoirs, and other non-fiction titles – but those categories accounted for just 14 per cent of e-books read by those surveyed. 

The most popular e-books were thrillers and mysteries followed by romance, humour and fantasy.

Fifty-five per cent said they had read fewer than a third of the books on their shelves while one in 10 admitted they had never read any of them.’

Original article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2149344/One-e-book-readers-admit-using-gadgets-hide-theyre-reading-erotic-novels.html


A self-publishing success

Amanda Hocking, the writer who made millions by self-publishing online

A couple of years ago, Amanda Hocking needed to raise a few hundred dollars so, in desperation, made her unpublished novel available on the Kindle. She has since sold over 1.5m books and, in the process, changed publishing forever.

Woman makes millions from self published books
Amanda Hocking: ‘I didn’t have a lot of hope invested in ebooks’. (Photograph: Carlos Gonzalez/Polaris)

Read the entire article at The Guardian.


Raw numbers

Dear reader,

If you do not like numbers, please stop reading now. Otherwise, carry on. I shall give some insight in numbers concerning my books.

I started publishing in July 2010, so that is not even 2 years ago.

The first 7 Hilda books were and will be free. The total in downloads of these 7 books as I write this is 163,773 copies. The other free books (Aeroparts, Lily Marin) total 10,528 copies.

The first book I started to actually sell was Bactine. This has been sold 73 times since June 2011. After that, Hilda 8 hit the virtual shelves in January 2012, and that’s been sold 564 times so far (can we say that the witch is popular?). Next up came the Devil’s Diary, which shows 10 sales since March 2012. And last but not least, there is Hilda 9, which shows 9 sales after barely 2 days.

The story that’s been most downloaded is Hilda 1, showing a proud 65,608 downloads. (And there I was, in the beginning, wondering who on earth would want to read what I write.)

If you are still here, perhaps with calculator in hand, you probably have reached a total of 174,957 downloads for both free and paid books. Yes, I am 43 copies away from 175,000 downloads. In less than 2 years.


The hard part

Dear reader, and perhaps fellow-writer,

Everyone seems to know that writing, be it a short story or a book, is easy.Until you sit down and start writing it.

I’ve seen examples of this. Yes, writing can be difficult, when your characters stand on the page and look at you, waiting for a clue what to do next. When you get lost in your own intrigues and desperately try to find a way out of the web you’ve woven.

Is that the hard part of writing? No. The hard part comes when you dive into the finished story which has been staring at you as the famous ‘first draft’. You pick up the thing, a few days, weeks or even months after writing it, to get a bit of distance from it. And you read it. You try to follow the line you originally laid out. And then you face the dread: things don’t match, don’t work. People pop up in the wrong place and days are too long.

That is where the hard part of writing comes in: you have to rework your story. You have to cut into what you thought was so carefully wrought. Things need to be moved, remove, altered.

You will have to stab at your story. Butcher it – or so it may feel. But with every flick of the writer’s knife, each sentence that gets examined, changed, removed or replaced, the work will become better. It is difficult. You may have to sacrifice the parts you were most proud of. If you find parts and paragraphs like that, save them somewhere. You never know when you may need something brilliant like that, later.

You’ll see that, after your massacre, the work comes out better. Smoother. The people are where they’re supposed to be, and the strange day you came up with, where the morning was too long and the afternoon was rushed through, now is a balanced, normal day.

It’s painful, but it is worth the agony.

Paul


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