Saturday, October 30, 2010

New review for Khepera Rising

What a nice way to start my brief bit of time off: a four-tombstone review for Khepera Rising at Bitten by Books.

The reviewer had this to say: Jamie is the anti-hero: he’s rude, crude, obnoxious and yet the whole time I was reading this story I was cheering for this guy because for every nasty act he committed, he would demonstrate some kindly deed, sometimes for people he knew well but more often for others he either hardly knew or despised.

Read the full review here: http://bittenbybooks.com/?p=23785

Other than that, I'm enjoying my Halloween immensely. Today is a Type O Negative day in memory of Peter Steele, so I'm driving my poor husband a bit nuts going through my playlist but hell, if he constantly makes me listen to Foetus, Steroid Maximus and Manorexia, I can have a bit of my own back sometimes. Tonight I shall lift a glass of red wine in memory to the Green Man.

Last night we were hanging out with the Vesparados at their clubhouse in Culemborg. They're awesome, a Vespa scooter club who make the Hell's Angels look like a pack of sissies. Besides, how many Hell's Angels will ramp their choppers through a ring of fire? Some of the BlackMilk crew were there and we were messing around filming zombie attacks for a short film they're putting together. I donned the corpse paint and joined in the fun. This seems to be the only role I end up taking in the films they make. Says something about me, doesn't it?

Other than that, I'm off to Zambia for a few days to review a game lodge near Livingstone. This is very exciting as it's been about a year since I last travelled out of the country. And, it's one of the few benefits of working in a demanding newspaper publishing environment. Although I won't have access to the internet, I will prepare some blogs to share the adventure.

I've been thinking long and hard about my role as fiction editor. I see that the local editors sometimes get a bit of a raw deal with the publishers not paying on time or just not paying enough. Which makes me think about my position as content editor for a small press in the US. I work for royalties, so if my author does well, so do I. Which kind of puts the pressure on for me to acquire authors who'll sell within the epublishing situation.

I edit fiction because I enjoy seeing authors gain confidence within their chosen genres. Even better is when those four- and five-star reviews start piling up, and this past week has seen a number of my authors gain stellar reviews with well-known review sites. This is the best thank you for me. Even better is when my authors submit their next work for consideration and I can see a visible improvement in their work. Although it's nice seeing that royalty statement at the end of each month, reader feedback is often the most tangible evidence that we're getting something right.

So, what sells? Romance and erotica. Horror and science fiction are taking a bit of a raw deal at the moment but the only advice I have for authors in these genres is to carry on writing and getting published through the platforms that are available. This also means a helluva lot more shameless self-promotion.

My first published novels fall within the horror genre but I'm now looking at rather restructuring my writing to market through the urban fantasy genre, which does sell better. This does mean upping the romantic/erotic content but, since I've started doing this anyway about a year or so ago, it's not really an issue for me.

Another option open to authors who are epublished is to hold onto their printing rights then self-publish through programmes such as Amazon's CreateSpace. The benefit of this is that your books are available in print and electronic versions, and it's a bit better than having self-published a work in its entirety, since you have the credits of releasing first electronically through an established press.

2 comments:

  1. Splendid review!
    What an exciting life you lead.

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  2. It's sometimes a bit too exciting. But that's okay. I'm going AWOL for four days.

    ReplyDelete