An Epiphany

Lately, there has been a lot of worry and wonder about the reception that Indie Authors receive whenever they attempt to join in on the various forums around the web. To say that Indies are met with a less than friendly attitude by fellow posters, would be a gross understatement. I have personally watched some of the forums for these vicious attacks and have witnessed some that were totally IMHO unprovoked on the part of the author. In these instances, the author had made no attempt to promote his/her own work, but had been simply making relevant comments in pertinent threads about topics of interest to both readers and authors and yet, the 'reader' portion of the thread immediately decimated the author and sent them packing. When I first witnessed this, I was appalled and like many of the authors who post on the Kindleboard forums (the only safe place on the web for Indie authors) I wondered why.
After much discussion wherein the probable causes were debated endlessly, several conclusions were reached. Spammers, it was decided, were definitely worthy of scandalous attack and deserving of the ire of the readers. Then there was great gnashing of teeth and many discussions as to what constituted spam. Again, it was decided, that spamming the forums referred to an Indie Author who promoted his work with cookie cutter posts in every thread in every forum, regardless of the topic and without adding anything significant to the thread. Most Indie Authors do not do this.... it was also decided.
But we could not assume that the Indie Authors who were spamming would cause readers to indiscriminately attack any Indie Author who dared pop into a forum. There had to be more to it.
Suddenly, I thought of something while looking over my page on Facebook. I discovered that at least three people had 'liked' my page in order that they could post their own ads on my page's wall. This infuriated me. The ads alongside the Facebook wall infuriates me daily. The ads in the middle of the wall postings infuriate me. They are ugly, big, nasty, yucky, redundant and totally inappropriate at times, not to mention aggravating and downright insulting to anyone with an iota of intelligence. Of course this is the price we pay for having free and frequent access to Facebook. This is where the money comes from. This is a necessary evil of free enterprise and capitalism. I am quite sure that I am not the only person on Facebook who abhors these ads and shudders in disgust every time I see a set of false teeth or a fat belly or I accidentally run my cursor over an ad and have it pop up without having actually clicked on it and NOW THEY HAVE ADDED VOICES!!! Suddenly, a voice just pops up on your computer and you have no idea where it's coming from. Egad!!!!
This anger, this irritation, this frustration I felt must be the same thing that these readers feel when Indie Author Spammers hi-jack their threads and forums and act like used car salesmen. The thing is that unlike that used car salesman on late night television, screaming at you three times as loud as the program you are watching, the reader has direct access to the Indie Authors on these threads and forums. It must be this combined angst and frustration that drives them to attack the nearest thing they can, Indie Authors in general.
I know that there is a great deal of trash generated by persons who want to be authors, but just can't quite make it, but when the material is published for Kindle, the sample option almost guarantees that the reader will not make a mistake and purchase trash and then there is the return option as well, so it cannot be the fact that the market is overrun with junk, it has to be that Indie Authors like myself, who crave nothing more than meaningful dialog with readers and would love nothing more than communicating with the people that read their work, make ourselves sitting ducks for posters with axes to grind. Maybe this ire will eventually die out sometime in the future... maybe...

What is it all about?

Sometimes I get bogged down in existential questions like "why is the sky blue?" and "what is the meaning of life?". Actually, I have already learned the answers to these two questions, but this blog is not about that. This blog is about writing.

Isn't it strange that some people never pick up a book and read while some people read constantly and can never get enough? And isn't it stranger still that some people can barely write their own names, hate writing and won't even write a check while others pick up a pen or turn on a word program and start writing and never stop?

What is it exactly that makes a writer write even though he/she has no idea if anyone will ever read it?

I have been writing for as long as I can remember. I used to love the essay questions on tests. I loved writing letters to friends and family even though I rarely even received a postcard in return. In most cases, they told me that they would rather just call and talk on the phone, but I hate talking on the phone. I really do. Even when I was in high school and utterly 'in love', I rarely enjoyed those long, long telephone conversations with the beloved. Now in the age of cellphones, iPhones, webcams and every manner of electronic communication, I still love the written word best. There is absolutely no way to fold up a phone conversation and put it in a little box on the closet shelf.

That brings up another question. Why do some people keep old letters, newsclippings and other written mementos in boxes on the closet shelf? Do they ever go through and look at them? I do. Sometimes, usually when I'm cleaning out a closet or moving or some such, I'll come across my boxES of mementos and invariably I will take some time to sit down and sift through the memories. I can't say what exactly comes of this, but it always makes me feel good to look at them and sometimes sad and good at the same time.

I have said before that I write because I HAVE to write. I have no choice. I've tried not to and I actually get sick if I do not sit down and write or at least edit my work. I have to work on my stuff every day in some way or another or else I get all grumpy and people notice. My good friends and close family can tell when I haven't had my writing fix for a couple of days. Not good!

But the question remains: What is it all about? Why do I need to write about worlds that exist only in my imagination? Why do I NEED to have others read about my fantasy worlds? What is so gratifying about getting a good review or a favorable comment? I can't answer that question, but if you ask any true author, you will probably get the same non-answer.

The Red Cross of Gold I:. The Knight of Death

What is it Really?

I have one agonizing worry about my books... not all of them, just the Assassin Chronicles series. I have wondered again and again what genre it belongs in. It's fantasy, of course, because as the series progresses, the various fantasy populations arrive gradually. Dragons, faeries, evil queens, story-book castles, mystical horses, necromancy, alchemy, magick. It's all there. There is also much history concerning the Templars and the Crusades. Then throw a little sci-fi in the mix with time travel, alternate universes, space travel and flying saucers. Everything is tied together into one Unified Theory of Fiction, I guess. So what kind of genre is this?

I think books one and two start off with only hints of fantasy with a bit of immortality, swordplay and mysterious powers along with a murder, a kidnapping and a couple of horrible monsters. Yeah, crazy, but I put it in the Action/Adventure genre because it certainly is that, but guess what? It also has a lot of romance, star-crossed lovers, impossible triangles and tragedy strewn throughout. Overlay it all with a good sense of humor and some good laughs and you have the essence of the series. What a mishmash it all is, but I write from the heart as well as the mind and sometimes hearts and minds do not mix well.

Guest Blog at Sarah Hadad's "Lit and Laundry"

I have been featured on Sarah Hadad's blogsite today at "Lit and Laundry". Check it out:
http://litandlaundry.blogspot.com/

Thanks Sarah!

5 Stars for the King of Terror (from a stranger)

It's strange how authors keep hoping that someone, somewhere will read their works, like them and write nice big reviews on Amazon and other places, but it seems that ill-will and procrastination are much stronger than good-will and enthusiasm. I know very well from my sells reports that there are people out there buying and reading (I assume) my Assassin Chronicles. And I know that they must have enjoyed them (or else the world is full of masochists) because I am selling copies of Book 15, Book 16 and so on. But where are the reviews? I see other authors on the Kindleboards, Amazon boards and Goodreads posting their latest and 63874th review on their works and yet, when I hazard a peek at my Amazon author pages and such, I see nothing but the same old reviews I've had for ages. (Some of which, I will admit came from family members. Not that I'm opposed to family members writing reviews... I mean what is a fella to say to a family member who posts a wonderful review after reading my book? Hey! WTF?! Stop trying to help me out! I'm an ungrateful, sorry bastard and you have to keep your nose out of my business!) Well, I'm not that kind of family member. I'm just glad that none of them did me any favors by giving me three stars on a review a few years ago that brought my four and five stars down and knocked me out of a competition completely simply because, as he later explained "I didn't actually get to read the book. I loaned it to a friend, but I wanted to get a review up for you." After which, while my jaw was sagging on the floor in disbelief, he smiled and said "I'm sure I'll like it." Please, please, please... what else can we say?

It's not that family and friends are out to get us (most of the time). It's just that they don't understand what it is we do. They don't understand the damage they can do to our reputations and our outlook on life. They don't understand that they can actually give us hernias, heart attacks and ulcers. To them (generally speaking) writing is just something that I 'fiddle' around with in my spare time. A hobby. They do not know that my writing is actually my life and without it, I am nothing.

Now, trolls of course are another breed altogether and I shall leave them for another blogpost.

Hello Out There! Anyone Home?

I recently got a few of my books up and running in DTB (paperback) and a couple more at Smashwords which allows greater distribution and more e-format downloading options. However, Smashwords has stopped selling for me altogether. I've gotten no sales according to my reports since early May. I wrote to them because I keep seeing numbers of downloads change though I see no sales. The answer was that they were working on it.

Working on what? I wonder. Some of my fellow authors, Mr. Patterson, for example say that they have many sales on Smashwords. I cannot believe that I've not sold a single book there in over two months. Strange.

What is really strange is that my book sales on Amazon in both ebook and paperback have increased and that means people are reading my books and coming back and buying the series. This naturally makes me think: "Hey! Someone out there likes the books!" This is good, but total silence in the review section and few, if any, emails makes me wonder if the books are being bought by robots or maybe from passing ET's who have sent emails and reviews from millions of light years away and I simply haven't received their wonderous comments yet. Or perhaps they are being purchased by Time Travelers who have posted in the future. Hmmmm? Am I onto something? Could it be that we are being studied as a race through the Red Cross of Gold series? How would that change the destiny of the human race I wonder?