Why I ♥ Pantsing

I like to read.  I am a compulsive reader and usually can't put a book down until it's finished because I just NEED to know what happens next.  I have never read the end of a book before starting it ever.  This is why I love pantsing.

Everyone has their own opinion this is a great post by my good friend Everett Powers on plotting (or outlining as I call it).  Obviously not every one falls into the two categories neatly, some do both to varying degrees, even I do but not until I've completed my first draft.

I only ever start a book with an idea a premise and a loose plot, sometimes even just a good line like one of my neglected WIPs started with this:

I was just finishing up a case I was working on, the case was scotch and I'd nearly gotten to the bottom of it.

When I started writing that I had no clue where it was going, still don't really and I'm about 75% of my way through.

To me pantsing is kind of like the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books I loved when I was younger.  You control what everyone is doing and where they will go but only when you get to a certain point and then everything works itself out from there (hopefully).  The fastest way for me to lose interest in a project is to figure out how it is going to end long before I get there.  If I do I quickly change direction and steer it away to some other unknown conclusion.  Things pop up as I write, interesting thoughts or situations that hadn't occurred to me until that moment and if I had outlined I may have skipped over them or tried to include them in some awkward way.  I'm excited to write this way, I can't wait until I find out what happens next.

In my current WIP my MC was planning to commit a murder to steer the cops away from him as a suspect for another one.  Until I wrote the words 

"He was surprised to return to his apartment and see four uniformed policemen and Tim standing at the door."

I had no idea they were going to be there.  It wasn't outside of the realm of possibilities but it certainly threw a monkey wrench into his (my) plans for what was going to happen next.  I can't wait to find out what it is and I hope that someday when you're reading it neither can you.

Just a side note.  I had already finished a first draft of this WIP and outlined it then lost most of the end of the draft.  I am re-writing it and guess what, I may as well throw that outline out the window because suddenly my characters aren't doing what they did last time, which is good because I already knew the old ending, now I get a new one!

How do you write and why?  I'd love to know!

Thanks for Reading

My Obligatory "Thoughts on Twitter" Post

I tweet.  Actually I probably tweet too much and of course I see a kazillion tweets about how to effectively tweet to get followers, and how to sell your products and yourself and yadda yadda yadda.  I DON'T CARE!!!!!

There.

What do I tweet about?

1. Writing.  It's why I joined in the first place.  I like to interact with other writers both about writing and day to day things.  I have learned so much about writing, publishing drinking wine from these great folks.
• #WritingTip when you are writing turn off spell/grammar check, they only slow you down. Editing and writing are two separate tasks.
• Just had a brain buster of a thought… mobi is to epub what apple is to android take that as you wish
2. Family.  I have two adorable kids and an awesome wife.  I love to share anecdotes, comical annoyances that I have.
• Given up on getting our daughter to sleep in her crib so we delegated the task to our 4y/o. Seems to be working! #ParentingTip
• She grasps the bars screaming hysterically unable to utter a word. She wonders what she did to deserve this. #NotPrison#TellThatToBabyGirl
3. One-liners.  I think I'm funny (I'm not offended if you disagree, lots do :D).  I toss these out when I feel like it.
• I hope there's no airports named after Bush "We are now landing in the bush…" (screaming passengers)
• Did you hear about the #Zombie outbreak in the Cannibal village? It was self contained.
4. Smart ass remarks.  Come on people, sometimes you just ask for them…
• Tweet: The fiance had all four wisdom teeth taken out this afternoon. Fun!
• Reply: @rainyofthedark fun? Oh you're sharing his pain meds ;-)
• Tweet: If you smoke a four leaf clover... a leprechaun will magically appear and eat a delicious bowl of Lucky Charms with you.
• Reply: @Jack_Wagon1 isn't that with a five leaf clover?
5. I also "run" two dailys, The Flash Fiction Daily and The Daily Mongerer

I talk to everyone of the people that I follow as if they are old friends, whether it's George Takei or @JSHyena.  I don't expect responses, retweets/etc.

What I don't tweet about

1. I don't do #FFs/#WWs/#MMs etc, I have nothing against them and I do occasionally read them and even follow people if you have a good reason why.  I don't like them because they take a hell of a long time to do and I like to bring attention to someone you should follow whenever I think of it.
2. I don't do a lot of marketing.  Sometimes I toss out links to:
•  my book: Why am I giving away my book?Exposure.How do I get that?You reading.What do I want in return?An honest review #FreeBookhttp://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Counting-Down-the-Storm/book-M_5sB8b0uEq_R7Ac23KFuw/page1.html …
• my blogs, (This one, Alphabet Wine)
• my music Noteflight - Dennis Leask's Home
3. My sex life, sorry
4. Everything I do/eat/drink or send a tweet from every site I visit on-line
5. I also very rarely ever curse, get too political or controversial

What I retweet

1. Funny stuff, if it makes me laugh I'm sharing, even if it is a bit off colour
2. Good tips, great sites, interesting articles

If you follow me I will follow you back unless you

• Are part of #TeamFollowBack
• Have not tweeted anything what-so-ever
• All of your posts are about 
• marketing
• Self help
• Inspirational Quotes
• Random Links
• Jesus or other religious dieties
• And if your posts start being or turn out to be like the above I unfollow

So, I'm not going to tell you how to Twitter and I don't want you to tell me either 'cause guess what, twitter is a Social Network and I am there to:

1. Be Social
2. To Network

Thanks for Reading

I'm no longer supporting or selling on Amazon

I should just warn you that this is one of those "Opinion Piece" blogs from someone (me) who did about ten minutes of research and fired pretty much off the cuff.  There are likely ten million arguments out there against what I am saying and likely even more denouncing the Huffington Post piece I have used as the basis of this.  I don't care, nor do I want to get in an argument from someone with a different opinion.  If you don't like what I have to say keep it to yourself and just ignore me and at least give me some credit for being honest about my ignorance!

The saying "don't bite the hand that feeds you" doesn't really apply here as I have eaten nothing from Amazon and before I make a single dime from them I have decided to remove my books.  Why would I sell my wares at a site that I have decided to oppose?  I am taking a stand damn it!

I recently read an article on The Huffington Post (be informed read the article!) about how Kindle/Amazon is being bombarded with junk eBooks.  This isn't the first time I have read about this.  There have been a number of articles about this phenomena recently.  According to the article Nook, Smashwords and others aren't having the same issues.  Two reasons according to the article is that either there isn't enough users of these services to warrant bothering with it or they are taking actions to prevent it.

Here is a (possibly cynical) look at Amazons Policy, red notes are mine:

Publishing rights are the rights you need to publish a book. To publish a book for Kindle through KDP, you must have obtained all rights necessary to publish the digital book from the book's author and any other content creators, or, if you are the book's author, you must have retained all of the necessary digital book publishing rights. -this is good


If you are publishing a public domain book, keep in mind that the duration of copyright varies between countries, so ensure that you indicate your territory rights accurately. (If your book is in the public domain in one country but not another, you must identify you territory rights accordingly.) Books that consist entirely or primarily of public domain content are not eligible for the 70% royalty option -because it doesn't belong to you and you are likely selling loads of crap for cheap so Amazon needs to make as much money from you as possible.  If they thought your work may have some value added potential they'd likely have a category for such stuff so you could receive a higher royalty, but they don't encourage that. For full details, terms and conditions see the Pricing page and Terms and Conditions.

If your book is under copyright and you hold the necessary rights for this content, select "This is not a public domain work and I hold the necessary publishing rights."

So big surprise that Amazon won't pay the higher royalty rate to junk (provided that the person submitting it checks "This is public domain work".  Another part of the article talks about how these junk books sell for $0.99 which is also a low royalty area on Amazon, coincidence?  If you want to sell your original book at $0.99 you have to compete with Private Label Rights content (fancy name for junk/spam books).  I don't think Amazon has any desire to stop this practice.  The believe they have the corner on eBooks, and they likely do, most people are buying "Best Sellers" which is likely a very high percentage of Amazon's eBook revenue stream and the $0.65 they make from every $0.99 book that is sold is just a nice bonus.  Why would they bother changing it? To help independent authors?  I bet the majority of the money they make from $0.99 books are from these junk books so why would they limit this revenue stream if the majority of people aren't even buying them?  I would say that if it becomes a problem or this revenue begins to dry up they will just stop allowing self publishing through their site.  Of course this is all just conjecture, speculation and a hint of doom.

Here is the last line from the Huffington article:

"This is why email spam has become such a problem -- it costs nothing," she said. "If people can put out 12 versions of a single book under different titles and authors, and at different prices, even if they sell just one or two books, they can make money. They win and the loser is Amazon."

Really?  I can't see where Amazon is losing, they made $1.30 from those two books, more than the "author" made.
Here is an interesting blog from "Writer Beware™ Blogs!" with Mark Coker, the founder of Smashwords.

Amazon has rubbed me the wrong way for quite a while and this is the final straw.  Support your favourite Independent authors through Smashwords, they format books for Kindle.  Go ahead and get your Nora Roberts and Suzanne Collins from Amazon, or better yet, if you haven't bought a Kindle yet, don't.  I ♥ my Kobo and many swear by their Nooks!

Thanks For Reading
D. Ryan Leask

Amazon is the Devil: How to publish to Kindle Books and why you shouldn't (but likely will anyway)

Now before all of you indie authors out there call me a heretic and burn me at the stake I will explain.  First however I am going to talk about the final steps in my e-book publishing saga.
In my last e-book blog I discussed getting your book ready.  The kindle (mobi) version turned out very well and the smashwords version was quickly accepted into the regular catalogue and after a week (and a quick e-mail), was uploaded to the premium catalogue.

UPDATE: I have pulled my book from the Amazon Library in response to (in my opinion) their inability to stop spam books.  I am still selling through Smashwords and all of their outlets.  Read about it here

Uploading to Amazon

• First off it's a little bit difficult to find the place to publish for Amazon.  Here is the link. 
• The first page is pretty straight forward.  If you don't have an ISBN number I would suggest getting one now.  (You will need one for Smashwords!)
• Book Content File - This is where your *.mobi file goes.

This is where things get hairy

• Territories - Obviously you want everyone to read your story Worldwide!
• Choose Your Royalty This is where Amazon shows it's true corporate greed!
• 35% if you sell your book for $5.00 you make $1.75 (they take 65%)
• 70% if you sell your book for $5.00 you make $3.50 (they take 30%)
• Obvious Choice? Not so much
• Read this Confused? Yeah, me too
• In a nutshell if you choose 70% it's only applicable in some areas, otherwise it's 35%
• Now Read This Yikes!
• On top of geographical limitations on the 35% option there is also a price limitation
• only books priced bewteen $2.99 - $10.98 are eligable for the 70% royalty payments
• Here is how it works (USD only):
• PRICE___70%___35%
• $0.99____N/A ___ $0.35
• $1.99____N/A ___ $0.70
• $2.99____$2.10__$1.05
• $10.99___N/A____$3.85
• I know it's not all about money but it just really felt like a slap in the face that unless I wanted to sell my book for $2.99, which in today's ebook world is high, especially for a novella, I would only get 35% royalty.  Fine, it's better than a standard publishers royalty however at least with them you get something out of it.
• Another point, unless you are a US citizen (which I am not) you don't get anything until you have made $100.00, in other words you would have to sell 286 books just to get a royalty check.  They don't do paypal (even Amazon credit would be good!)
• So if you happen to see this message on my book selling links ○ Additional $1.00 Royalty Premium ○ it's because I refuse to sell my hard fought for story for $0.35! What it should say is, "Save a dollar and buy from Smashwords instead!"

So Amazon is THE DEVIL but not just for that reason, here are some others:

1. Anyone can't print whatever they want.  Plagiarism runs rampant and they don't bother checking content and don't seem to care.  They also promote crap formatting and crap writing as nothing gets looked at.  I would rather wait for several days/weeks for someone to have a look at something to ensure it will at least be readable (Smashwords does this btw)
2. They are attempting to corner the whole eBook market (and hopefully failing).  They only allow one format, and sharing is becoming limited and I don't know of any affiliation with Libraries (my Library supports E-Pubs only)
3. Their royalty rates, as I mentioned, is not on par with other sites such as Smashwords (not sure on B&N).  They are not doing anything to encourage good indie writers to publish there other than being the top seller of eBooks.

In conclusion.  I ♥ Smashwords and that will be my next Blog Topic.  As well as how to upload there!

Thanks For Reading

D. Ryan Leask

Kindles and Other Such Electronic Reading Devices (ERD)

The Reader’s PerspectiveI haven’t personally used an ERD and have only tried to read a novel on-line once, it was terribly hard on the eyes, I know that the new technology has fixed all that and the devices do seem pretty slick but I can’t see myself getting one.

Call me a little bit old fashioned but I like the look, feel and smell of a book. I like the feeling of turning over a page or rustling through the pages trying to find a passage that didn’t make sense until now.

Searching for my bookmark or folding over a page to mark a spot seems like a burden to some but to me it’s all part of the experience. I also like to pick up a book at a store or in the library and look it over, flip through a few pages, read the back, read the flaps it’s kind of like shopping for a car, after all you are going to be spending a few intimate hours with it.

The Conscientious Citizen’s Perspective
If ERDs replace books completely it would increase illiteracy rates world wide as most of the World’s population does not have access to necessary technology let alone something as luxurious as an ERD. Books are hard enough to come by. Things like libraries would have to completely change how they do business and would likely not be able to keep up. On one hand it would reduce waste tremendously as well as reduce paper usage if we stopped having hard copies of our daily newspapers and everything else but in reality the loss would far outweigh the gain.

The Writer’s Perspective
Fuckin’ Eh! I think that these things are the last great hope for the written word. I wondered ever since the beginning of the personal computer how long it would be until getting books electronically would be the norm. Books are getting increasingly expensive and less people are buying them and reading them, if ERDs become reasonably priced and getting books because incredibly easy I think more and more people will start reading again. I think much of the younger generation embrace anything technological and view books as archaic. I personally am going to try to give my little novella to Amazon to have for free for their Kindles, just as an experiment. I will likely fail in trying to do that but what the hell.

I think all writers (except Nora Roberts, James Patterson, Stephen King, Stephanie Meyer, J.K. Rowling…) need to embrace this technology and try to get in while the technology is still new if it isn’t too late already.
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I would be really interested in the opinions of any other writers on this, weigh in please!