Category: Uncategorized

by Kaitlin Nichols, @TheAtheleSeries

I like genre blending. I’ll just come right out and say it. I mean, this isn’t anything against purity – a straight horror or a straight sword and sorcery fantasy is cool, but horror with ghosts and sword and sorcery in space just takes cool and then combines it with awesome to get this Awe-ool Co-some thing.

That metaphor didn’t quite work out like I intended.
Anyway.

Some genres are more easily blendable than others. It’s sort of like how a banana is a much better part of a smoothie than, say, spinach. Don’t get me wrong, you can make a killer spinach smoothie with the right ingredients and spicing, but in general it’s just not the first choice. Any person can toss a banana and ice in a blender and get something pleasant. It takes a deft hand to correctly execute a smoothie with vegetables.

Now, my name is Kailtin, and I am a Steampunk author. I’m here to tell you why Steampunk is much more akin to a Banana than it is to Spinach. In other words, I’m here to tell you a couple reasons why genre blending with Steampunk is something you should try.

#1 Steampunk is flexible.
Wherever you fancy going, Steampunk is all over it. A story by sea? Ship or submarine? A story by air? Dirigible or other flying machine. A story by land? Buggy, horseless wagon, gigantic manors with trap doors. In a way, Steampunk is a lot like fantasy or sci-fi (it’s often considered a sub genre of them, if a very distinct one) in that it is what you make of it. The show Firefly is often named as a Steampunk show, and it takes place in outer space. Steampunk has been found blended with Romance, Adventure, Horror, and Fantasy (Legend of Korra, anyone?).

Now, some might make the argument that Steampunk is merely a sub-genre, and that in many stories if you dropped all steampunk elements, you wouldn’t have anything fundamentally different than what you started out with.

#2 Steampunk is new, exciting, and unbearably cool.
A piece of advice which is given over and over to writers is to ‘Write what you want to write, not what the market demands’. Now, I will never argue that you should write something you dislike. However, I will argue that just because the market demands it doesn’t mean it’s bad. I’m one of those people that’s slow to try new things. We were on book three of Harry Potter before I got into it. Avatar the Last Airbender was on its third season before I finally watched the pilot episode (and proceeded to watch the first and second season in 2 days). Game of Thrones is coming up on its third season and I just now fell completely in love with it. Sometimes, guys, the market is completely right. And the great thing about being a writer is that every word you put down stretches your creative muscles. Sometimes, in fact, a new genre is just what you need.

So go ahead, try it out. If you need some reference or research material, I’ll help you out with

this, this, and this over here! If you’re still curious by November 5th, go ahead and pick up my upcoming Steampunk Romance, Valeria, from Lyrical Press.

Kaitlin is from Omaha, Nebraska. She enjoys things such as running, dancing, singing, writing, and Patrick Stewart pontificating about the letter ‘B’. Her first e-book, Valeria, comes out November 5th, 2012 from Lyrical Press. You can find her (and her husband) at www.kaitlinandmichaelbranch.com on facebook at “The Athele Series” or on twitter, @theatheleseries.

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific is a compilation of all the writing links I shared the previous week.

The links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 18,000 free articles on writing-related topics. Sign up for our free newsletter for monthly writing tips and interviews with top contributors to the WKB or like us on Facebook.

Try “My WKB”–a way for you to list and sort articles, view your read articles, and see your search history. Read more about it here: http://bit.ly/S9thqS . The free My WKB page is here: http://bit.ly/PV8Ueb .

Have a great week!

Do Your Characters Fail Enough? http://bit.ly/P2N9ZN @ava_jae

Island settings in crime fiction: http://bit.ly/QhIxiJ @mkinberg

Different Ways to Take Notes on the Go: http://bit.ly/P2NRpD

Making Amazon Forums Work For You: http://bit.ly/P2OeAM @TexasDruids

Escaping the Darling Hitman: http://bit.ly/PL4m78 @TaliaVance

Ending the self-pub stigma: http://bit.ly/P2OX4T @duolit

5 lessons writers can learn from director Tony Scott: http://bit.ly/PL4AuY @MichelleRafter

An apostrophe review: http://bit.ly/P2PhRe

Why 1 reader no longer trusts Kindle ebook samples: http://bit.ly/P3gDXi @farmlanebooks

Beautifully written book with no plot or character changes? Beware of reader boredom: http://bit.ly/P3iRpu @DonMaass @Porter_Anderson

How to Create a Character: http://bit.ly/QqU9PH @hollylisle

Research Resources for Fantasy Writing: http://bit.ly/POfiAU @HP4Writers

Why we keep getting the same old ideas: http://bit.ly/QqUu57 @MichaelMichalko

The Clash of Characters: http://bit.ly/QqUAcV @susannelakin

Top 10 Middle Grade Novel Agents: http://bit.ly/POfBvC @fictionnotes

A free directory of #ebook pros–for covers, editing, formatting, & more: http://tinyurl.com/3mxg5zt #epub

When to Ask for Evaluations of Your Novel: http://bit.ly/QqUSQR @AdriennedeWolfe

The death of the novel will presage a rebirth of writing: http://bit.ly/POfU9D @guardianbooks

Why wasting time helps you stay sane and productive: http://bit.ly/POfX5j @criticalmargins

10 Myths About Space Travel That Make Science Fiction Better: http://bit.ly/QqVaao @io9

All We Needed To Know About Social Media Success, We Learned in Kindergarten: http://bit.ly/POg8xz @kristenlambtx

How to Write a Sentence: http://bit.ly/POgmVB @Hal_Duncan

The Uncomfortable Pantser: When Your Method Doesn’t Fit Your Personality: http://bit.ly/QqVxSC @roniloren

3 Skills Every Successful Freelance Writer Should Have: http://bit.ly/RKuCSF @writersdigest

How to Write an Omniscient Narrator: http://bit.ly/RKuTEY @io9

Tips for writing scenes: http://bit.ly/OvSDt0

Pacing for Power–Increasing Tension & Suspense: http://bit.ly/OvTxWF @jodierennered

13 ways to write with urgency: http://bit.ly/RKw1bL @chadrallen

8 Ways To Become A Better Writer: http://bit.ly/OvTEkZ @woodwardkaren

The End of the Unprofessional Writer: http://bit.ly/RKw878 @kristinerusch

The First/Last sentence experiment: http://bit.ly/NhM9Rk @juliettewade

Top 10 cozy catastrophes: http://bit.ly/U1UAPe @guardianbooks

How to Decide How to Monetize Your Blog or Blogged Book: http://bit.ly/NhMmny @NinaAmir

Second Time the Charm? (Or How Not to Reinvent the Sequel): http://bit.ly/U1UJSI @4YALit @tommygreenwald

Writing With Passion and Purpose: http://bit.ly/NhMpQk @thecreativepenn @middlereaders

Romance in YA: http://bit.ly/NhMBz1 @tara25fuller

The Practice of Writing: http://bit.ly/UAm14K @TrueFactBarFact

The Business of Screenwriting: Hip pocket representation: http://bit.ly/QuR80S @gits

Rejection vs. failure: http://bit.ly/UAm949 @AimeeLSalter

Criticism as Fantasia and Inquiry: http://bit.ly/QuRlkG @sfsignal

Bookstores vs. Backlist: http://bit.ly/UAmjbL @jamigold

Making Your Book Spreadable: http://bit.ly/QuRq80 @authorems

The Indian Kindle Store Isn’t The Real Deal… Yet: http://bit.ly/UAmq7g @davidgaughran

Obstacles in Stories: 3 Ways to Turn Hills Into Mountains: http://bit.ly/QuRzs4 @jodyhedlund

5 Great Reasons to Build Your Writer’s Platform Yourself: http://bit.ly/UAmBzF @emergentpublish

Why the Best Kids Books Are Written in Blood: http://on.wsj.com/kfh47W @wsjspeakeasy

The story of English spelling: http://bit.ly/UAmELR @guardianbooks

7 Sets of Doublet and Triplet Verbs: http://bit.ly/QuRS67 @writing_tips

9 Wonder Woman Villains (That Explain Why Nobody Talks About Wonder Woman’s Villains): http://bit.ly/Urq8jr

Hey, Author, About My $4 Coffee: http://bit.ly/PFn6Vr @Liz_Mc2

Should Self-Published Authors Use Author Solutions? http://bit.ly/PFmfnU @galleycat

Writing Conventions and How to Survive: http://bit.ly/Pm7cxO @traciewelser

How to create a media list to promote your new book: http://bit.ly/Uropuu @sandrabeckwith

The New World of Publishing: The Myths Are Still Strong: http://bit.ly/OnyaXj @deanwesleysmith

More on cranky authors: http://bit.ly/PeN05u @justinelavaworm

How to lose an audience (more on Weird Tales debacle): http://bit.ly/P1D2Cx @millism

How to Make Unlikeable Characters Likeable: http://bit.ly/PeNkkN @writeangleblog

Instant Transitions: http://bit.ly/P1D6C5

Lessons from Drawing for Writers: http://bit.ly/PeNxo2 @BTMargins

Anthropological Science Fiction as a Sub-Genre: http://bit.ly/PeNLeJ @tordotcom

5 Quick Fixes to Make Readers Love Your Villains: http://bit.ly/P1DzEA @sdwriter

Revising to Raise the Stakes: http://bit.ly/PeOpJb @AimeeLSalter

What to do if you can’t afford professional editing: http://bit.ly/PeOxbL @nicolamorgan

Making readers cry: http://bit.ly/P1EaWH @EmmieDark

Books Need Both Vertical and Horizontal Moments: http://bit.ly/PeOInj

Adding Google Analytics Tracking Code to WordPress: http://bit.ly/P1EiWg @JFBookman

A list of late-blooming, successful writers: http://bit.ly/PeOWLh @randysusanmeyer

Rules involving numbers: http://bit.ly/P1EzZg @livewritethrive

Tips for increasing your book’s Amazon rank: http://bit.ly/OA4RAR @bookbuzzr

Do you really know who your audience is? http://bit.ly/OA4Z3o @danblank

12 Lessons Learned from 12 Years of Writing: http://bit.ly/NkbIBf @copyblogger

Making the Time to Write, Blog, Do Social Media, Finish School and Parent: http://bit.ly/OA53QI @duolit @yeseniavargas32

Strengthen Your Writing by Listening to Pet Peeves: http://bit.ly/OA59aU @KMWeiland @danasitar

How to Write For Any Medium: http://bit.ly/OA5fQ3 @JoeBerkowitz @fastcompany

Fact vs. Fantasy in Memoir and Nonfiction: http://bit.ly/OBKQKu @grubwriters

10 Things to Do to Achieve Freelance Success: http://bit.ly/PjRB6m @bob_brooke

Should You Preschedule Tweets? http://bit.ly/OBL1Wa @meghancward

17 Reasons to Write Something Now: http://bit.ly/PjRPuq @joebunting

Optimizing the Query Process with Fewer Mistakes: http://bit.ly/PjRU0Z @catewoods

Finding Comparables for Your Novel: http://bit.ly/OBLibq @AnnieNeugebauer

6 Reasons For Using An Epilogue: http://bit.ly/Q36O9l @writersdigest

Walk-On and Secondary Characters: http://bit.ly/RJfO82

Vanity publishing–turning the label around: http://bit.ly/Q376wW @victoriastrauss

Romance in books that aren’t romances: http://bit.ly/RJg9aP @sarahlapolla

The Do-It-Yourself Writing Retreat: http://bit.ly/Q37n2W @MuseInks

The importance of external conflict to a story: http://bit.ly/RJgzy3 @storyfix

20 words for ‘cry’: http://bit.ly/RJheiV @writing_tips

Top 10 mistakes in science fiction movies: http://bit.ly/Q38gZf @tordotcom

Layers of Reality: http://bit.ly/Q39bst @fantasyfaction

4 ways to get magazine or newspaper interviews: http://bit.ly/RJiMcC @GLeeBurgett

Fail Faster (So You Can Become a Better Writer): http://bit.ly/RJn2Zz @jeffgoins

‘Social’ Media: Author Ignorance: http://bit.ly/RJngzY @Porter_Anderson

Are You Writing The Right Book? 5 Ways To Find Out: http://bit.ly/Q3cTm4 @woodwardkaren

Fan fiction vs reality: http://bit.ly/RJnt6o @EvaWiseman

Believing in yourself as a writer: http://bit.ly/Q3d6ph @jamesscottbell

Gaining Momentum In Your WIP: http://bit.ly/RJnGXe

Fantasy Influences: Ancient Greek Mythology: http://bit.ly/Q3dhAX @VickyThinks

Editors answer questions about editing: http://bit.ly/RJo73K @RuthHarrisBooks

5 Ways You’re Preventing Readers From Suspending Disbelief: http://bit.ly/RJosDA @KMWeiland

An editor with advice for aspiring writers (and an explanation why writers find it hard to self-edit): http://bit.ly/RJoFXk @theresastevens

Konrath’s defense of sock puppetry: http://bit.ly/TODPvb @Porter_Anderson @JAKonrath @RickGualtieri @DoraMcAlpin @plwinkler @rezendi

10 things to know about speakers bureaus: http://bit.ly/TOUUFm @rachellegardner

An editor on what to read and how to read it for ideas: http://bit.ly/TOVin7 @ruthharrisbooks @annerallen

A first year of Kindle Daily Deal – facts, tips, and commentary: http://bit.ly/Pf3Jnj @ebookfriendly

Novel Structure: James Scott Bell’s LOCK System: http://bit.ly/TOVWB5 @jamesscottbell

Thoughts on making up your own words as a writer: http://bit.ly/Pf4dtA @kcraftwriter

How Self-Publishers Reach Readers: http://bit.ly/TOWmaK

Quick scene exercise: http://bit.ly/Pf4r3W

The future of the book: is it in apps? http://bit.ly/Pf4Inq @criticalmargins

Literary Fiction vs. Genre – what’s the difference? http://bit.ly/Pf4RqW

When Worlds Collide: SciFi and Horror Themes: http://bit.ly/Pf5EIr

Arming Your Villains While Maintaining Your Credibility: An AK Rifle Primer for Authors: http://bit.ly/TOYtex

11 Kinds of WordPress Blog Pages: http://bit.ly/Pf5UXX @JFBookman

Amazon’s new Kindle Serials (and a few serialization concerns): http://bit.ly/NkGKJj @Porter_Anderson @ByRozMorris @jasonashlock

The Lazy Way To Be A Great Writer: http://bit.ly/Pf8X2q @karencv

10 Grammar Mistakes that Can Keep Your Content from Spreading: http://bit.ly/TP1R9o @alexisgrant @copyblogger

Writing Realistic Love Relationships: http://bit.ly/Pf94uO @CMKaufman

Writing Lapses: 5 Tips to Get You Back on Track: http://bit.ly/Q9LYoP @serbaughman

Finding Solid Names for Your Unique Characters: http://bit.ly/RQFiAm @writersdigest

On leaving the world for a novel (and making it back alive): http://bit.ly/Q9Ml2A @internspills

Things to consider as the digital book revolution gains global steam: http://bit.ly/Q9Nhnw @MikeShatzkin

Libraries and Ebooks: http://bit.ly/RQGAvg @ursulaleguin

Conflict begins on page 1: http://bit.ly/Q9NreN @fictionnotes

4 Songwriting Tips For Scoring Film and TV Placements: http://bit.ly/RQGMus @usasong

Can self-publishing buy respect? http://bit.ly/Q9NBmf @salon

The 10 best contemporary African books: http://bit.ly/RQGVhB @guardianbooks

Wrestling with reader expectations and cliché: http://bit.ly/Q9NMOx @juliettewade

Tips for coming up with story ideas: http://bit.ly/RQHaJm @DeeWhiteauthor

13 Top Books on How to Freelance as a Writer: http://bit.ly/Q9NWoY

7 Reasons to Publish a Blog: http://bit.ly/RQHfNk @writing_tips

Tips for building an author platform: http://bit.ly/Q9O4ov @louise_wise

When Your Character Doesn’t Speak English: http://bit.ly/RQIgEY

A King Named Sue: Picking Perfect (Character) Names: http://bit.ly/RQIlIZ @susanjmorris

The surprises that pull our stories together: http://bit.ly/OFO2o9 @ManMartin1

Why 1 reader no longer trusts Kindle ebook samples: http://bit.ly/P3gDXi @farmlanebooks

Post DoJ maneuvers begin (and some trad. published ebooks’ prices fall): http://bit.ly/Sg63sT @Porter_Anderson @sarahw @juliebosman

Villains Need Love Too—12 Tips: http://bit.ly/Q8AV2V @DonnaGalanti @JordanDane

3 myths that are keeping you from writing short stories: http://bit.ly/Q3dKmO @Yaminatoday @womenwriters

Make it easy for readers to suspend disbelief–here’s how: http://bit.ly/QWUrAm @DonnaGalanti

by Donna Galanti @DonnaGalanti

In becoming an author and reader across genres, I’ve discovered a compelling novel is an emotional experience. If we fall in love with the characters in a book we can forgive some plot errors–but not all–and we can just believe. And if we believe, we stay in the fiction dream. James Scott Bell, in his workshop Structure of a Novel, emphasized this. We need to keep the reader entranced in the fiction dream. But how do we do that? Create a world to support them.

My developmental editor, Kathryn Craft, reinforced Bell’s advice. She advised me that to keep the fiction dream alive we need to have our readers suspend disbelief–and never, ever show our underpants. What does this mean? It means that we must create a world in which a plot point can happen. Don’t create an event just to “show” something.

For example, a scene reveals a daughter’s healing powers. The mother falls from a barn window onto a pitchfork and the daughter heals her.

But, we have no creepy sensation that all was not well:

· There is no violent wind

· No portent of doom

· No anxious horses stampeding

· No prior warning of the pitchfork danger

The world was not created to support the plot point. The author just needed this accident to happen so the daughter’s powers could be revealed. The author showed her underpants. She didn’t cover herself. Literally. That’s just not cool. And it does not create heart-pumping tension and suspense.

In fiction, accidents and coincidence don’t help a plot unless they are carefully contrived and built up. As readers we don’t want to read about a world in where stuff happens just like in real life. We want an ordered world where even if the character didn’t see it coming–we did.

Can outlandish plot points be bought by the reader? Yes, but to accept big jumps in plausibility the reader must believe it was the only one possible way it could go down–and the way the author chose it to.

Authors need to use all the goodies in their writer’s toolbox to create believable scenes that keep the reader invested in the story and the characters’ dilemmas, no matter how outlandish. It’s all about keeping the fiction dream alive.

I want the fiction dream. To read it and write it. I don’t want to see plain old underpants. And as an author, I will keep my own undies tucked away from now on. Thank you very much.

Donna Galanti is the author of the paranormal suspense novel, A Human Element, called “a riveting debut that had me reading till the wee hours of the night” by international bestselling author M.J. Rose. She’s lived from England as a child, to Hawaii as a U.S. Navy photographer. Donna lives with her family in an old farmhouse in PA with lots of nooks, fireplaces, and stinkbugs but sadly no ghosts. Visit her at www.donnagalanti.com

Connect with Donna here:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/DonnaGalanti
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DonnaGalantiAuthor
Blog: http://blog.donnagalanti.com/wp/

Purchase A HUMAN ELEMENT here:

Ebook/Paperback:

Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/dg-the-Kindle

Barnes & Noble: http://tinyurl.com/dg-he-Nook

by Man Martin, @ManMartin1

Farrish Carter, an old college friend – and by old, I mean old; we hadn’t seen each other in thirty years – stayed at our house for a couple of nights. The first night he was here, we sat in the living room talking and drinking red wine, and he showed us shots from his current series of photographs.

For these shots he’s abandoned his fancy-shmancy Nikon with its detachable lens that looks like a cannon’s mouth. Instead, he works with his cell phone, snagging candid pictures from the passing scene. Although perfectly within his rights to do so – anything that occurs in public is, after all, public – he admits to slight trepidation about taking pictures of complete strangers without permission, often as he pretends to be making a call on his cell phone. I think if the subjects saw the pictures, however, they would not be affronted. Farrish never mocks people; he doesn’t take the sort of pictures you might have seen on the web featuring, say, a morbidly obese woman at the WalMart wearing tiger-print hot pants. His shots are taken with respect, and even if the camera sees them as they do not see themselves, I don’t believe they would feel ashamed of their portrayal.

The way Farrish describes his process is that he’ll be walking down the street and see a likely-looking subject – at which point he’ll break into a trot, “framing it up” in his mind, getting into position. More often than not, his subject moves on before he gets his picture. Out of hundreds of shots, only a few may be worth keeping. But the ones he keeps!

So what does this have to do with writing? My favorite shots here are the young soldier with the doll-like complexion and the little girl waving what appears to be a magic wand or a sparkler (it’s a sunflower). The big concrete pylon in the soldier picture shouldn’t be there – it throws the composition slightly off balance; surely if Farrish had more time to “frame up his picture,” he would have eliminated it. And yet. For a reason I can’t explain, that pylon is essential to the picture. It guarantees its authenticity, perhaps; it makes the scene look more raw and unplanned. Ditto for the little girl with the sunflower. The texture of the stone steps, her expression, her pink flip-flops: all of this, Farrish had seen and rushed down the street to capture. The part he could not have anticipated was the waving sunflower. Oh, he saw the sunflower, too, but there’s no way to know it would be waving, or waving exactly that way, or how the cell phone’s lens would interpret that smear of green and yellow light.

The weakest of the shots – and weak is a relative term, because each of these is a marvel – is the young man standing behind his motorcycle. Farrish told me that when he shared these, a fellow photographer said, “Was this a studio shot?” And it really is a beautiful shot; it’s perfectly balanced with beige buildings lit by amber lights rising in the center and on either side, and a sky that looks like a back-lit blue canvas. The handsome man standing like a model, one hand on his helmet. It’s perfect, actually. And that’s its flaw. It lacks the element of surprise for both the artist and the viewer – the concrete pylon that’s out of place but inexplicably apt, the waving yellow sunflower that turns into a firework.

That’s what Farrish Carter taught me about writing; you bring every ounce of skill, raw talent, training, and craft to the table; you rush up to it, as you recognize a story line or character “framing up.” Most of your draft goes in the little trashcan on your computer desktop, as you whittle down pages and pages to the essential words. But in the final analysis, it’s that little glimmer of accident, the thing you couldn’t plan for, that moment of unexpected grace – a lopsided concrete pylon or a waving sunflower – that brings the whole thing together.

Man Martin is two-time winner of Georgia Author of the Year. His novels are Paradise Dogs and Days of the Endless Corvette. He blogs at http://manmartin.blogspot.com

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I wanted to touch on a topic today that not everyone is going to relate to, but one which I think is important—self publishing backlists or restarting discontinued series.

I have one traditionally-published book that was contracted before I got an agent. I negotiated that contract myself. And negotiated it poorly, no doubt, because I ended up with a one book deal….as opposed to my two series with Penguin, where I had three book deals at the get-go.

At any rate, that was Pretty is as Pretty Dies. When the publisher decided not to sign me for more books (early 2010), we parted on good terms. I still had readers for the series, who were emailing me quite a bit to ask about the next book. I wasn’t sure what to do.

My agent for my other series suggested that I shop the series out with either Penguin, who’d previously been interested in it, or St. Martin’s…meaning, of course, that she’d represent me and get a cut if we went in that direction. But to me, I was already working on other series and didn’t want the hassle of shopping it out and the delay of another contract and the back-and-forth, drawn-out nature of negotiations. On top of that, there would also be production time—it would just take forever.

So I did nothing. :)

Toward the end of 2010, the self-pub buzz was really growing and I started considering taking the series directly to e-reader. It took a while for me to make that decision….probably six months.

One of the reasons I was nervous about it was that I wasn’t sure how to get my rights to the characters back. Or when those rights reverted to me. My agent hadn’t worked with me on that book, so I couldn’t consult with her, and I’m not great with legalities or contracts. I read my contract a few times and made some sense out of it….but not a whole lot.

So I finally, in March 2011, wrote a very simple email to Midnight Ink….along these lines:

I’m writing to confirm that my rights to the character of Myrtle Clover have reverted back to me, as the author. Midnight Ink published Pretty is as Pretty Dies, a Myrtle Clover novel, in 2009. A sequel was offered to the editorial staff in early 2010 and was rejected, about a year ago. I’m now interested in taking the previously unpublished sequel directly to Kindle instead of shopping it to another publisher, and wanted to confirm that’s not a problem for Midnight Ink.

Actually, that’s the exact email I sent to them. This is what I heard back:

Your question regarding the follow-up to PRETTY IS AS PRETTY DIES and the status of rights was forwarded to me.

You are correct regarding your right to take the sequel title directly to Kindle yourself. You have that right based on our decision not to publish it under the Midnight Ink imprint.

We wish you good success with the book on Kindle or even with another publisher.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

That was directly from the publisher, Mr. Krause, himself (one nice thing about working with a mid-sized publisher.) :)

This process was resolved in the same day. There was no need for me to have put it off the way I did.

Then it was just a matter of hiring an editor, finding a cover designer, and getting someone to format the book for the different ereaders. I also bought ISBNs from Bowker, simply because I’m old-fashioned. Who knows if that will end up being the right thing to have done?

The two books that I’ve put up on Kindle have sold well for me and resulted in thousands of dollars of income that I wouldn’t have otherwise had. Yes, y’all, it’s worth the trouble and handwringing and inconvenience to get a backlist up there or to get an unpublished title from a suddenly-canceled series up there.

Last week I got another email from Midnight Ink that the print rights for Pretty are reverting back to me, since the book will go out of print. They made sure to let me know they’re holding onto the ebook rights for that title, though. So make sure you know what you’re receiving when you get a letter or email from your publisher.

This is the notification I got on that reversion (and the exclusions for the rights reversion are pretty clear):

Midnight Ink hereby returns all international and domestic rights to you to the above named title with the following exceptions:

Ebook

English large print rights (domestic and international)

Note that this rights return does NOT include rights to the covers, interior or exterior artwork. Nor does it include typography or electronic files.

When I procrastinate, as I’ve mentioned before on the blog, it’s usually a clear sign that I’m not sure how to proceed.

But that’s okay. If we think through the steps we need to take, making progress a little at a time, then we just check off the items on our list as we work through them.

The main point of this post is….if you aren’t sure about your rights, just ask. Don’t let this hold you back from taking the next step of self-publishing. Either contact the publisher directly, as I did, or an intellectual property lawyer. It’s not that much trouble and you can continue your series, self-publish your backlist, and increase your income.

And make your readers happy. I’ve heard from quite a few that have been delighted that the series is continuing.

Have you considered self-publishing old titles? Or self-publishing in general? Is there a pattern to your procrastinating? How do you work through handling a big project (like self-publishing a backlist or continuing a discontinued series)?