What I’m looking for from SFWA

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SFWA has asked M.C.A. Hogarth to head up the new self-publishing committee. Hogarth posted about this and asks:

So here’s my question for those of you who self-publish, either entirely or as a hybrid author: what services would you look for in a professional organization? What would make you say, “Wow, that’s worth $90 a year, sign me up?”

I applaud SFWA’s move. And the many good things SFWA has done in the past. However, as an indie and SFWA member, here’s what would interest me: Business.

That’s with a big B.

That means . . .

Distribution into brick and mortar venues. So indie authors can get on the Ingram’s catalog. Big whoop. The retailer still has to order. If SFWA was able to facilitate the sales function in some way, that alone would be worth it.

One idea is a SFWA catalog of vetted work. I don’t know how you’d vet. Maybe some certain sales and revenue level. And revenue would have to be part of it. Brick and Mortar isn’t going to be interested in stocking the person who “sold” 50,000 units but only made $300 because 99% of them were free downloads.

You might also consider the back lists of authors with work that was once published that has been brought back indie style. So a catalog of that includes new stuff and a section for the back list. Quality and popular indie work.

BTW, this catalog would ALSO go to libraries.

Education in cover design AND art direction. Maybe adding this to an awards category chosen NOT by the general membership but art pros.

The Nebulas recognize author’s who sell. But what about recognizing those who are author-publishers, what about recognizing and celebrating quality and achievement in the key elements of publishing?

Education in Marketing that has actually been tested and shows positive ROI. Not a bunch of articles about bookmarks and conventions. Real ROI.

Interior formatting. Principles. Awards.

News. What’s new on the indie front. New markets etc.

Selling foreign rights as an indie with and without an agent.

What about an award like RWA’s Golden Heart, but for indie books? Or make indies more inclusive in the Nebulas.

A vendor forum where folks who provide services to indie authors (editors, artists, etc) can be listed and rated, GoodReads style, but only by SFWA members.

And two things I have submitted to SFWA before as a trad pub author.

Education and discussion of contracts and contract terms. What’s current. What’s alarming. I get more off of Kris Rusch’s blog than the professional organization I belong to. I should be giving my $90 bucks to Kris. What the heck?

Education and discussion of current contract rates. Same as above. For a professional organization to not have data on current rates for novels is a real head-scratcher.

How is it that Tobias Buckell can run a survey, but it never occurs to SFWA to survey and publish annual numbers?

How is it that Brenda Hiatt, the romance writer who does an annual “Show Me The Money” and “Indie Earnings” report, provides more info on Tor advances than SFWA? Romance writers are better organized than any writing group on the planet, but do they need to spank us in our own house?

These last two are no-brainers.

This is a trade organization. These types of things would be a HUGE help.

The line edit of Servant is finished!

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116 hours.

677 pages.

184,000 words.

I re-sequenced the beginning and three other spots that had me scratching my head on how the first edition had gotten it wrong. I added a chapter to the ending to make it flow as it should. And tightened small things on almost every other page.

Now it’s off to my copy editors.

The cover is progressing.

Very soon, Precious. Very soon.

I now turn to the editing of CURSE. 

 

New book description for SERVANT

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Here’s the latest version of the book description that will accompany the book on the various sites and on the back cover of the trade paperback. It’s purpose is to advertise: to let folks know the feel of the book and pique their interest.

A young man.

The girl he is hunting for using the dark and terrifying magic of Slethery.

And the monster who only wants to be free.

So begins the towering fantasy series that introduces an elaborate new world, a multifaceted system of magic, and a cast of compelling characters and creatures.

Trapped in a web of lies and ancient secrets, of right becoming wrong, the three must struggle not only against each other, but also a being of irresistible powers. A creature who is gathering her servants to oversee the impending human harvest.

If the three win, they will save those they love the most. If they fail, the clans of the land fall with them.

What people are saying:

~ Best Novel of the Year Whitney Awards, speculative fiction
~ Engrossing Publishers Weekly
~ Provocative Booklist
~ Starred Review! Library Journal
~ A great setting, a smart story Brandon Sanderson

Do you think you can do better? See anything to cut? Have some book descriptions you think work really well? If so, comment. I’d love to see what you come up with.

Update and Fage

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I passed the 90% mark today on SERVANT. It’s been wonderful going back through this story, remembering why I loved these characters so much. The cover too is coming along. I’m looking forward to revealing it in the near future. Right now everything looks like it will release on target, although that may change.

While you’re here, you know I have been on a quest for delicious low-sugar yogurt for some time. I have found it at last. Behold.

Fage 2 percent yogurt

No Greek yogurt has a better taste or texture. And there’s no added sugar. Add some fruit and it’s heaven.

It’s pronounced “fa-yeh.” Except, how do you pronounce that? Who comes up with product names nobody can pronounce? 

But it doesn’t matter how you pronounce it. We luvs it, Precious.

 

 

Shadow and Bone

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Last year someone recommended Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo to me. I noted the recommendation and then promptly forgot it because my reading queue is two years long. But this last week my wife brought some books home from the library, and there, sitting on top, was Bardugo’s book.

I opened it. Page one listed the orders of magic. I was immediately drawn to the names. They were Grisha, “soldiers of the second army, masters of the small science.” They had divisions of corporalki, etheralki, and materialki, who are the order of fabrikators.

I don’t know what it is, but I love, not steampunk (well, I don’t know if I don’t love steampunk because I really haven’t read any, but I do think dirigibles are vastly overrated), but the mixture of machinists and engineers and magic set in the late 1800’s, the time period when Sherlock Holmes was running about. It’s something I can’t resist.

And “fabrikators”? Russian? Oh, baby.

Most epic fantasies are set in some kind of old German or English medieval setting. Nothing wrong with that. We luvs them, Precious. But something different is nice as well. Recently, Peter V. Brett and Saladin Ahmed have given us fantasies with a Middle Eastern flavor. But I haven’t read an epic fantasy with a Russian flair since C. J. Cherryh’s Rusalka series. And here on page one I’ve got magic and machinists and all these Russian sounding terms.

Awesome.

I turned the page. The opening paragraph of the prologue pulled me right in, and I was off and running, soaking up this little snippet about an orphaned boy and girl who, fast-forward in the next chapter, are now in the army. Not the second army that’s made up of Grisha, but the first army that’s made up of soldiers with rifles who have to slog through mud and march while a handful of Grisha of the second army roll by in a carriage.

Alina, the girl who is now working with the army’s cartographers, and Mal, who is a tracker, are heading with the troops toward the Unsea, the Shadow Fold, this darkness that cuts the country in two and is full of these horrors called volcra. They enter the Shadow Fold, are attacked, and Alina unconsciously calls forth a powerful magic.

Of course, she can’t reproduce it, but it’s a magic that might be used to banish the Fold forever. The rest of the book is about Alina avoiding assassination, trying to learn how to summon her magic, and being pulled into a surprising and terrible plot. It’s also about her and Mal. Yes, there’s a love story here, but this is NOT a romance where everything focuses on her feelings and his feelings and touches and sighs and unbounded quivering.

This is an epic fantasy, remember? Those books that delight readers with dark lords and magic? Well, there’s plenty of that here, plus secrets and a number of delicious plot twists. There are escapes and chases and battles. And, yes, that love story that isn’t overblown but feels very real indeed.

Epic fantasies come in lots of different sizes. This isn’t one of those huge doorstop epics with twenty sprawling plotlines. This focuses on one point of view and one storyline, which means you are able to enter the story very quickly, much like the epics by Hambly and McKinley and so many others.

It’s a terrific read. Give it a go. If you enjoyed Vin in Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn and Cinna and Katniss in Hunger Games, then I think you’re going to love Shadow and Bone. I’m certainly looking forward to the next volume.