Liars, All Of Them

If anyone tells you they know what's going on in publishing right now, they're lying. Sure, they might have a business model that profits on last month's publishing trends, but talk to them six months from now at their job at Starbucks.

I'm considering going with an eBook publisher for book 5. There would be upfront fees, and they would take some of my royalties, but some of these companies are really legitimate and somewhat selective about what projects they take on. The main reason is that they would take some of the work out of my hands when it comes to layout, design, and file conversion and distribution, which can be technical and time-consuming, and publicity, which I can't really do myself. How much publicity they would do, how it would benefit me, and whether it would be worth a portion of my profits is the big question nobody can really answer, even publishing professionals like my bosses (who are agents) and my agent. Everyone's got a good guess, but it's really a guess. The publishing conference on eBook publishers that I went to was just ... exhausting. In the end I will still probably go with one if I can, because if I don't like the model or the business model becomes totally outdated in a year, I have books 6-10 to do something else with.

SALE - On book 1 for the Kindle, now $1.99 for the rest of the month.

In other news I'm going to India in March to volunteer for the Tibetan refugee community, and write about it afterward. This is a big deal for me, so please consider donating to my Kickstarter project. There's a fun video where I explain what I want to do and why, plus you get to see my kitchen wall. I don't know if that does anything for you, but I'm throwing that out there. And there's great prizes! Super great prizes, actually, when it comes to Tibetan stuff. Please give it a look-see. And try not to remember that I just used the term "look-see."

Winter Cycle

When it comes to writing I'm like a bear. I eat and eat and eat (this is the writing part) and then I hibernate for a long time. This bad analogy is made worse by the fact that I don't like porridge. But I do have long periods of intense work (it takes me about a month and a half to write a book) followed by intense periods of headaches, being whacked out on my allergy medication, watching a lot of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and generally looking like a lazy bum while everyone around me is working. Right now I'm readying myself for what will hopefully be a new book in January, a YA novel based on Tibetan myth, and also the editing of book 5 before it goes to the copyeditor at the same time because I'm crazy like that.

In March I should be, G-d willing, in India, doing some volunteer work, and I have Kickstarter project about that that I'll be shamelessly publicizing on this blog as soon as I star in a poorly-edited video about it. When I get back in April book 5 will be out of copyediting and by May it should be published, because things like layout and uploading take time if you do it right, and I have every intention of doing it right.

Reader poll: I'm debating between calling book The Knights of Derbyshire, which is teh original title, or Mr. Darcy and the Knights of Derbyshire, which is more in line with the titles of the published books. The second one is a little kitchsy; I don't know what to do about that. I'm not good at titling things. If you have an opinion, let me know. If you have a better idea, and I end up using it, you will get a free hard copy of the book.

Also I have a Twitter Account now because the internet demands it. I don't think I'm any happier about it than you are.

Obligatory Rambling Post

My body and I don't agree on many things. I'm not even on speaking terms with my stomach or my small intestines for reasons I'm not going to go into, but my biggest beef right now seems to be my brain and its desire to nap. Man, does it love to nap. It's probably the SSRI I'm on, but since I don't like crying all the time, I have to stay on the SSRI. Before I was on it, I never napped, but now my body and I have the same discussion every day:

Body: OK, you've been awake for two hours. It's time to nap. For like, 3 hours.

Me: No. I went to bed early last night.

Body: But you didn't fall asleep until 3:30 am.

Me: Which, I would point out, is your fault. I went to bed at midnight and turned out the lights. And whatever, we woke up at 10, I have plenty of sleep.

Body: But you need a nap. Now.

Me: No! I need to work.

Body: Bullshit. You set your own hours and you know it. Now, go nap or I'm gonna make you unable to focus and miserable. You might even fall asleep standing up in an elevator.

Me: Can we put this off until like, 9 pm? And also that was really embarrassing.

Body: NOW.

I've tried everything. Going for walks, using that blue light sun lamp, showering, caffeine, and generally refusing to lay down. Doesn't work. Nor does it make me amazingly productive on either end. I lose a lot of the day. That's OK when I'm between editing/writing jobs, which I am at the moment, but really bad the rest of the time. Also it makes me write long, rambling posts about minor inconveniences in my life.

In other news...

SALE! My first book will be going on sale on Kindle for $1.99 from December 22nd to January 8th as part of a Sourcebooks promotion. Get it here. And by the way, I would never price my eBook at $9.99 and won't be doing that for book 5. That's way too high for the eBook world. It's where publishers would like it to be but not where people buy it.

SALE! As a Sourcebooks author, I get a 70% discount off books ordered on their website until January 1st, so if you want to order any books from Sourcebooks and the Amazon discount isn't deep enough for you, including other people's books, just send me an email and I'll give you the code. Whatever I can do for fans, you know. Happy Holidays!