Sunday, October 27, 2013

The Kobo kerfuffle: my take.

Things are calming down in the IndieAuthorLand again, so maybe now I can talk about the most recent dust-up between indies and their sales platform providers without anybody lashing out at me.

It all started about three weeks ago, give or take a day, when an online magazine in the UK published a list of pornographic novels available for sale on Amazon. The mag followed up with a couple more articles that indicated other retailers were selling this smut, too. (I won't post a link to the magazine; I'm not interested in promoting this stuff.) Then the BBC ran with the story. In the ensuing backlash, a few retailers went overboard. WH Smith, a stationers' in the UK, shut down its entire website and promised not to reopen until all of its ebook titles were inspected and the offensive material was removed. WH Smith gets its ebook titles from Kobo; while Kobo runs its own self-publishing platform, Kobo Writing Life, it receives a large percentage of the self-published books in its catalog from Smashwords and Draft2Digital.

As a result of WH Smith's action, Kobo blocked access by UK customers to all of its self-published materials and initiated a review of all of its titles.  Those titles are coming back online now.

Amazon, too, pulled down a number of its potentially offensive titles. Apparently, some authors have had quite a fight on their hands while trying to get their work reinstated for sale there.

The whole thing generated a fair amount of heat but not a lot of light. In retrospect, it appears the online magazine made some unfair assumptions about the offensive material; for one thing, IndieReader says, many of the offensive titles weren't indie books at all:
The article portrayed the problem as (mostly self-pubbed) erotica and then featured books published primarily by internet marketers, not authors. Authors can easily spot these 'marketeers' because they study the erotica book listings in the course of their market research.... Internet marketers routinely outsource story production to third world countries and are known to publish hundreds of stories at a time. The quality is low, the covers are in-your-face graphic and the titles are keyword stuffed to the point that even Google gags on all the search terms. It's not an issue of genre, but a business model used by some marketers to extract profit with no concern for quality.
In addition, some of the books targeted by the article that are, in fact, self-pubbed aren't smutty at all.

A bigger issue is the difference in regulation of pornography among the US, Canada, and the UK. The US has an almost-anything-goes attitude toward porn, while UK lacks the kind of First Amendment protection that the US has, and the government there has plans to crack down on material it deems objectionable and keep it from being distributed to computers in the UK at all.

Still another issue, as I understand it, is that Kobo doesn't offer the same kind of tagging system that Amazon does. (Smashwords, for one, allows authors to tag their work to aid customers using the search function -- but Kobo doesn't put those tags in their listings.) And some authors of erotica reportedly misuse the tagging system, to the point where kids looking for books about, say, Daddy or babysitters can come across porn in their search results.

Of course, indies have complained about all being tarred by the same brush -- while books like 50 Shades of Gray never got pulled. Indies also had plenty of complaints about their First Amendment rights being violated, along with the requisite hair-pulling and clothing-rending about how this is the beginning of the end for us and will give (pick an online retailer) the excuse it's been looking for to quit carrying books by any indie author. (Never mind that Amazon, Kobo, and B&N all have their own self-publishing platforms -- so it ought to occur to anyone who takes two seconds to think about it that they aren't going to bail on indie books.)

I neither read nor write erotica, and I have no intent to ever start. However, I support people's right to publish anything they please, no matter how offensive. That said, though, erotica authors have to realize from the outset that they run the risk of their work never being carried by a major retailer. Just because the First Amendment allows you to say anything you want, it doesn't mean you ought to -- nor does it force a company to carry your work. Especially if that company is in a different country that has different anti-porn laws. If you want to make sure Amazon or somebody doesn't purge your work in the next round of oh-my-Gawd-no-porn-allowed!! insanity, tone it down.

And can we please take off the hair shirt already? Amazon, Kobo, and B&N have too much invested in their indie publishing platforms to discontinue them any time soon. No, indie publishing is here to stay.

But it would behoove Kobo, I think, to work on instituting tags for search terms. And it would help everybody if every indie author tagged their work honestly.

***
Thanks to the few, the proud, who picked up copies of Fissured last week during its free days. This week, Tapped will be available for free starting Wednesday.

Also, in case you missed it, my Indies Unlimited pal Melissa Bowersock interviewed me on her blog this week. And I think I forgot to mention (bad author!) that another IU pal, Lois Lewandowski, let me play on her blog a couple of weeks back -- and even let me post a recipe for chocolate mint meringue cookies (gluten free and stupid easy! Even I can make them!). Enjoy!

***

This moment of news-like blogginess has been brought to you, as a public service, by Lynne Cantwell.

The first flaw in Kernel Mag’s anti-porn campaign? The article portrayed the problem as (mostly self-pubbed) erotica and then featured books published primarily by internet marketers, not authors. Authors can easily spot these ‘marketeers’ because they study the erotica book listings in the course of their market research, an expertise that no media outlet has developed.
Internet marketers routinely outsource story production to third world countries and are known to publish hundreds of stories at a time. The quality is low, the covers are in-your-face graphic and the titles are keyword stuffed to the point that even Google gags on all the search terms. It’s not an issue of genre, but a business model used by some marketers to extract profit with no concern for quality.
- See more at: http://indiereader.com/2013/10/banning-books/#sthash.hA8AQkxm.dpuf
The first flaw in Kernel Mag’s anti-porn campaign? The article portrayed the problem as (mostly self-pubbed) erotica and then featured books published primarily by internet marketers, not authors. Authors can easily spot these ‘marketeers’ because they study the erotica book listings in the course of their market research, an expertise that no media outlet has developed.
Internet marketers routinely outsource story production to third world countries and are known to publish hundreds of stories at a time. The quality is low, the covers are in-your-face graphic and the titles are keyword stuffed to the point that even Google gags on all the search terms. It’s not an issue of genre, but a business model used by some marketers to extract profit with no concern for quality.
- See more at: http://indiereader.com/2013/10/banning-books/#sthash.hA8AQkxm.dpuf

Sunday, October 20, 2013

NaNoWriMo again, again, again, again.

As I alluded to in my post last week, yes, I'm doing NaNoWriMo again this year.

What is NaNoWriMo, you ask? Why, you must be new here -- welcome! I'll explain. NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month, a grassroots event in which participants (sometimes referred to as WriMos, although not by me) pledge to write 50,000 words in 30 days. That's 1,667 words a day, more or less.

No, I'm not that good at doing division in my head. It's just that I've done this event so many times that the word count is engraved on my brain. This will, in fact, be my fifth NaNoWriMo -- not counting the Camp NaNoWriMo that I did earlier this year -- and not to brag, but I've won every time I've entered.

So what I can I tell you about NaNo that I didn't say in last year's post, or in the mini-plug for NaNo the year before that? Hmm. How about if we talk about not winning NaNo? Because every year, a whole lot of people start NaNo with a boatload of enthusiasm and the best of intentions -- and every year, a fair number of them quit partway through the month.

Why do people quit? I've heard a number of reasons (and thanks to Kat and Amy for helping me round them up). I'll list them below, and then I'll talk about ways that I've avoided having each reason derail me.

  • I don't have time to write every day. So don't. I usually do try to write every day, but sometimes life demands that you take a day off.  Even if you write only a page or two, instead of the six or so you need to do to stay on track, you're doing more writing than you would have done without NaNo. If it's a consistent problem, do what the gym rats do: schedule writing time into your day, either by getting up earlier or staying up later. Or skip having lunch with your friends and use that time to write. Unlike with a workday gym break, you won't need a shower afterward.
  • I didn't write for several days, and now I'm too far behind to ever catch up. Here is my dirty little NaNo secret: I am often several days behind. There have even been a couple of NaNos that I started at a deficit because I was out of town for the first few days of the month. The way I catch up is by writing a little bit more every day thereafter -- so maybe 2,000 words a day instead of 1,667 -- and/or doing a writing blitz with a 5,000- to 7,000-word day the following weekend.  Also, I've said it before and I'll say it again: for Americans, Thanksgiving weekend can be a NaNo godsend. You can send the family out to the mall on Black Friday and spend your whole day writing.
  • I ran out of story. Pantsers, I believe, come in two varieties: anarchists who are constitutionally unable to write an outline and stick to it, and newbies who don't realize that not every writer is a pantser. Just to be clear, I am a plotter, and my kind is legion. I always write an outline before I start a book. It's not a very detailed outline -- it often includes multiple instances of "I'll figure that out when I get there" -- but I have a pretty good idea of where I need to be at the end of each chapter so that I can be at X when the book is done. If you're stuck for where your story's going next, stop and write yourself a brief outline for the rest of your book, and include your outline in your word count. (You wrote it in November for the book, didn't you?) Alternately, you can introduce a new character, or write in some random event, just to get things going again. But don't dismiss the idea of outlining your book before you start; you might find that it works really well for you.
  • I got bogged down with doing research. Unless I need a quick answer (for instance: what's the name of the street on the western side of the National Museum of the American Indian?), I don't do much research at all while I'm writing a first draft. Not only can I get caught up in cascading web pages, but there's always the temptation to click over to Facebook or Twitter to see what's new. I'm told there are nifty programs out there that will shut down your Internet access for a period of time. But my personal policy is to just avoid opening the browser. Instead, I put in a string of question marks or asterisks -- something that will be easy to find-and-replace later -- and just keep writing. I've also been known to put a word in brackets, if the synonym is eluding me, rather than get caught up in a thesaurus.com search.
  • I just can't stop myself from editing as I go. My dear, NaNo was made for you. The tyranny of the daily word count is designed to be enough to keep you from doing extensive editing, if you will let it. Typically, I will read over my last couple of pages, just so I know where to start from -- but all I do is read. I don't touch much of anything. If you're unable to keep from fiddling, stop your writing session in the middle of a sentence.Then it's easy to pick up and keep going the next day.
  • All my friends are way ahead of me. Ah, peer pressure. Listen, the only number that counts in NaNo is 50,000, and the only date that counts is November 30th. If your writing buddies' word counts discourage you, don't check their progress. Or find a group that writes at your pace and buddy up with them. NaNo is only a group activity if you let it be. During November, I go to the NaNo site to plug in my new word count and watch the videos, and that's pretty much it. If I do check my buddies' word counts, the thing that most upsets me is a number that hasn't budged in several days, because usually I find out later that the person has quit. I'm always sad when that happens. I want everybody to win NaNo.

Last year, I dithered over whether to do NaNo again. I'd just finished writing Tapped on an accelerated schedule a couple of months before, and was feeling some first-draft burnout. In the end, I convinced myself to give it a try, as I was going to have to write Gravid anyway; if I didn't get started on it in November, I would have had to write the book the following month, while also baking holiday cookies and generally gearing up for Yule. This year, I'm in more or less the same place -- I finished drafting Crosswind in September and am editing it while preparing for this next book. But I've been excited about Undertow ever since I conceived of the idea for this series. So this year, I'm looking forward to NaNo. Come on, November!

***
Thanks to those of you who downloaded Seized during its free days last week. This week, Fissured will be free at Amazon from Wednesday through Saturday. And also this week, I'm releasing the final "Land, Sea, Sky" prequel, "Prophecy". It should be out on Wednesday, too. As always, I'll let you know when it's live.

Oh, and if you want to be my NaNo buddy, click here and add me as a buddy. I promise to add you back.

***
These moments of helpful NaNoWriMo blogginess are brought to you, as a public service, by Lynne Cantwell.

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Bits and bites.

It's been a scattered sort of day here, so this post is liable to be a little disjointed. Here's what's going on:

  • 13 Bites launched today, October 13th! And Yrs Trly has two stories in it. Well, one and a smidge. The full story is called "A Man's Gotta Do What a Man's Gotta Do," and it's a Pipe Woman Chronicles prequel featuring Joseph and George; the smidge is a flash fiction piece I wrote for a prompt at Indies Unlimited not long ago. In all, we have 13 stories (hence, 13 "bites") from 10 authors, all of whom are members of the BookGoodies Authors' Group on Facebook. BookGoodies is turning into a pretty rad site for both authors and readers; we recently surpassed 1,000 author interviews on the site, and we have a chat board where we talk about all sorts of book-related stuff. Anyway, this anthology was the brainchild of Alan Seeger, who proposed the project, volunteered to be our editor, and has done a bang-up job. Joseph Picard did the cover art, and he also has a story in the book. We'll have a paperback version eventually, but the Kindle edition is available right now on Amazon for $2.99. We're donating all proceeds to children's literacy programs around the world. It was a neat project to be involved in -- I got to make some new friends, we may all find new readers, and as a bonus, we'll be helping kids learn to read. And, oh yeah, we have a website for the book, too: 13Bites.com
  • I spent all day yesterday with my head down in my computer, tinkering with Crosswind. And I'm happy to say that when I was done playing around with it, I felt it was ready to send off to my editor and beta reader. So the e-mail went out early this morning. Whoo hoo! If all goes well (i.e., if they don't send it back and tell me it stinks), it should be available sometime around November 20th. We'll have a cover reveal here presently....
  • In addition, the final "bridge" short story will be out next week. I expect "Prophecy" will be available around the 23rd or so, but I'll let everybody know in the usual social media places when it's up and running.
  • Leading up to Crosswind's release, I'm going to do another round of free days for the five Pipe Woman Chronicles books. It will start this Wednesday, October 16th, with Seized being free Wednesday through Saturday. Next week it'll be Fissured's turn; then Tapped will be free during Halloween week; then Gravid; and then Annealed. Please let your friends and neighbors know!
  • I guess it's good that I'm getting all this out of the way this week, because NaNoWriMo starts in a couple of weeks. Aieee.... My project this year is the first draft of the second book in the Land, Sea, Sky trilogy, which will be called Undertow.
I think that's it for now... Oh, wait! There is one other thing. My daughter Kat entered this week's flash fiction contest at Indies Unlimited. You can read her entry here. Voting commences Wednesday, but don't worry -- I'll give you a heads-up.

Have a great week, everyone.

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This moment of bloggy disconnect has been brought to you, as a public service, by Lynne Cantwell.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

The button stash.


This is only about half the stash.
The other day, I began thinking about knitting a new jacket for myself. I have the pattern picked out, and I bought the yarn last spring. (It's Jean Frost's Boyfriend Jacket and Glenfiddich Wool worsted weight in a purplish blue, if you care.) But I hadn't yet looked in the button stash to see if I had anything suitable. So I pulled out the drawer and went spelunking.

The vast majority of buttons in my stash came from my mother. She was an inveterate sewer and crocheter, but an indifferent knitter. When I sorted through her things after she died five years ago, I found several storage boxes full of fabric, zippers and bias tape in a range of colors and lengths, a couple of shoeboxes full of thread, and buttons out the wazoo. (I also found half-worked projects, including crocheted doilies using hooks so small that I'd go blind trying to complete them, and a knitted cable cardigan that she'd abandoned in the midst of the boring torso. I sympathized. Then I tossed the whole thing -- for a number of reasons, not least of which was that the pattern was missing. I might have been able to puzzle it out, but it just wasn't worth it.)

The state of Mom's button stash, when I found it, speaks volumes about who she was. For one thing, all of the stuff in this picture was dumped into a drawer in her sewing machine cabinet. She had strung together some of those that matched (sometimes on thread, sometimes on twist-ties), but there are plenty more sets that she didn't match up. Maybe she gave up.

You might notice that some of the buttons in the picture above (particularly the big brown one in the center at the very bottom) look as if they'd been used. That's because they had. Both of my parents grew up during the Great Depression, and when money was scarce, they learned to reuse. Mom was not above pulling the buttons off of a worn-out piece of clothing before throwing it away.  The thing is, she collected them way faster than she reused them -- hence the massive stash.

Sometimes, too, I think Mom had a bit of magpie in her. Even with this collection at home, she would buy cards of new buttons if the price was right, or if she liked them. Also in the stash are five or six cards, three buttons to a card, of 1/2" brown buttons with a sort of candy-striped brown-and-white rim. They're cute -- I used some of them on a baby sweater awhile back -- but what would have possessed her to buy fifteen of them? An adult-sized shirt only takes six or seven.

There's history in here, too, of various kinds. I've found mother-of-pearl buttons still on their cards, Bakelite plastic buttons, cards of buttons from the '60s priced at 29 cents (those days are long gone....). And too, sometimes I'll come across a lone button left over from an outfit Mom made for me (and wish she had scavenged them when I outgrew the outfit because they were cute!).

I should sort through the whole stash at some point and get rid of the stuff I know I'll never use: the basic white dress shirt buttons, the gray ones from my father's work uniforms, and the random other fasteners that got mixed in over the years. I should do that. I should.

But for now, I'll keep spelunking. I did come up with candidates for this jacket in several different styles, but I decided to wait on a final choice until the project is done. Who knows? Maybe none of them will work, and I'll have to go to the fabric store. I suspect I may have a little magpie in me, too.

***
In case you missed my Facebook post, I'm pretty excited that I'll have two pieces in the upcoming BookGoodies fiction anthology. One is a Pipe Woman Chronicles prequel starring Joseph and George. The name of the book is 13 Bites and it should hit Amazon next Sunday, October 13th. I'll have more info (including, with any luck, a buy link) next week.

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Oh! And happy second blogiversary to Indies Unlimited, and many happy returns of the day! To mark the toddlerhood of our li'l nuclear-powered deathstar superblog, I saved the cake from the hearth/myth blogiversary in August. It's only a little stale.

Seriously, I am honored to be a part of such a talented and knowledgeable group of authors and bloggers. That they're also a lot of fun to hang out with is...well, it's icing on the cake. Happy anniversary to Stephen Hise, K.S. Brooks, and the rest of the gang.

 ***
This moment of button-spelunking blogginess has been brought to you, as a public service, by Lynne Cantwell.