Month: August 2024

Celebrating ten years of Paper Beats World

I can’t believe we’re here, but here we are. Paper Beats World is turning ten next week.

Ten! We have been here for an entire freaking decade. Ten years of blogging, writing, showing up for myself and all of you.

It’s astounding. I used to not stick to anything. Do you know how many blogs I started before this? Two. I thought for sure this would be number three.

But we are here. And we are here because you are here. Because as astounding as it feels to me every day, you are here reading this.

Because of this, I wanted to do something extra special this year. After some thought, I decided actually to do three things. All three are for you because I cannot get over how thankful I am.

Bonus posts

I will be posting a blog post every day from now to August 30th. So stop by every day for some new writing advice and community.

Brand new microfiction

If you’re following me on Instagram or Threads, you’ll be able to check out a new microfiction every day, starting tomorrow. I meant to write some sci-fi and fantasy microfiction, but they all turned out pretty creepy. I hope you like them. I’m pretty proud of them.

Daily giveaways

Finally, I wanted to give you all a gift for sticking with me through the years. So every day, starting tomorrow, I’ll be doing a giveaway for either a book or my Preptober planner. All you have to do to enter is to like the post of the day and leave a comment.

Again, I just cannot thank all of you enough. And I hope you’re ready for ten days of celebrating.

See you tomorrow.

If you liked what you saw here today, please consider liking and sharing this post. Or you can support the site financially on Ko-fi.

Broken Patterns is available now for preorder! You can order it now on Amazon.

0

Waiting for the end of a series might kill the series

Who hasn’t felt this heartbreak? You get introduced to a series, and it’s love at first sight. The characters, the plot, the execution. Everything is just hitting that spot.

And then, you finish the first book or first season. So what is there to do but wait for the next one?

So you wait. And you wait. And you wait. Finally, one day, the dark truth is revealed.

Your series was canceled.

So many, many good series have been canceled before their time. Or, there’s so much time between one book or season and the next that it feels like it might as well have been canceled. And it sucks! I could just start listing off series that have ended without an ending for the rest of this post, and I’d run out of room before I ran out of titles. Just a few that still tear me up are Limetown, The Numair Chronicles, and of course the infamous Firefly.

No, Serenity doesn’t count as an ending.

And don’t even get me started on the extensive times between books or seasons. The last season of Stranger Things came out in 2022, and the next season isn’t expected until next year!

With all that being said, I understand why some people choose to wait until a series has ended before getting invested in it. Doing so would have certainly saved me from the heartache of the Santa Clarita Diet ending. And I didn’t like it, but I know Song of Ice and Fire fans probably wish they’d skipped the whole damn thing after waiting thirteen years and counting for the next book.

Here’s the thing though. Waiting to read a series or watch a show until it’s done, is just increasing the chances that it’s never going to get done at all.

The publisher is going to nope out

The publishing world is a business, like any other. And it’s going to produce what makes it money. Not what’s good, or what the editors like, but what sells. The same can be said for streaming platforms and TV networks. If enough people aren’t watching a series, there’s little chance it’ll get picked up for season two, if it even gets a chance to finish season one.

This is one of the things I hate most about the field. Storytelling is cutthroat, and I hate that creative endeavors have to be so. It’s like knowing fennec foxes will fight to the death with each other. It shouldn’t be in their nature, but it is.

The money is going to dry up

Unfortunately, we live in a capitalist society. And because of that, sometimes we have to make shitty decisions. So even an indie writer, like myself, might have to cut a project if it’s not making enough money to be worth the time.

Again, most people don’t want to do this. I love writing my stories. I want to see how my series ends as much as everyone else. Probably more. But when creative work is what’s putting food on your table and keeping the lights on, you have to make sure what you’re producing is what’s selling. Writers and creatives have to have some income from book one while they’re working on book two.

No one likes playing to an empty house

Okay, so what’s my excuse, you might ask. I don’t write for TV and I’m not traditionally published. I have a day job, so I don’t depend on my writing money to eat. So what’s stopping me from writing anything I want?

Nothing. I can, and do, publish whatever I want whenever I want. But what I want is to write stories that people read. Or listen to, in the case of AA.

If I didn’t care if other people read my work, I’d just publish it for fun and move on to another project. I certainly wouldn’t waste time promoting my books. I wouldn’t invest in cover art. I wouldn’t waste time with beta readers. I would just write whatever the hell made me happy.

But I want to put out work that other people enjoy. I want to put out work that people value. And the only way I can tell that people are valuing my stories is if they’re buying them. And if people aren’t valuing my stories, I’ll move on and write a different one.

To end today, please understand that I get the challenge. It is awful to have a story without an ending. And yes, if you jump on a new series right away, there’s a chance it might not have an ending. But if you never start, there’s even more of a chance that the story will never be able to end.

If you liked what you saw here today, please consider liking and sharing this post. Or you can support the site financially on Ko-fi.

Broken Patterns is available now for preorder! You can order it now on Amazon.

0

Broken Patterns is now available for preorder

This post was almost just me typing look at this cover! in all caps. Because this cover is, let me tell you, astounding.

Isn’t that freaking gorgeous? Thank you so much, Getcovers, who did a fantastic job.

All of that to say, Broken Patterns is now available for presale. You can get it right here now, and be among the first to read it on September sixth.

Or, maybe re-read it. It is a relaunch, after all.

In Devon and Lenore’s world, magic is as common as turning a pot or fletching an arrow. What isn’t common is a man with thread magic. When Devon starts weaving prophetic tapestries, his royal family tries to keep it a secret. 

But the family can’t stay in the shadows when Devon’s uncle is assassinated and he becomes second in line for the throne. Especially when he weaves a vision of destruction for the dragon lands. 

Who is Broken Patterns for? It’s for people who love magic, dragons, and stories about people who don’t quite fit in. It’s a story about a boy who is clearly not his dad’s favorite, but holds within him the power to save a country. It’s the story of a young woman with the ability to bring light to the world, who has to fight against its darkest forces first. And, it has science wielding dragons. I cannot stress this enough, there are dragons doing science. I am so proud of that.

The journey from the start of this series to this point has been a wild one. It’s been ten years. Ten long years of learning, growing and watching the world catch fire around me. And I’ve never stopped being thankful for this story. I hope that you all love this new, updated version as much as I do.

0

Why should you consider relaunching your book?

Books go through several versions in the course of their lives. My books often look wildly different from rough drafts to finished products.

But once the book is out there in the world, the revisions might not be finished. Often different versions come out of the same story. For book collectors like me, this can be infuriating. I think we all have a few books that we consider to have ‘definitive’ versions. And sometimes those versions are just impossible to replace if something (cat) happens to them.

Or you get a copy of a book, and then you find out there’s another version that is so much cooler. But you already have one copy, and do you really need multiple copies of the same book? Then you decide it doesn’t hurt to have a few copies, and this is how you end up with five copies of Christmas Carol and not enough shelf space for this kind of foolish behavior.

There are several reasons a book might relaunch or come out with alternative copies. Some make a lot of sense, and some are regrettable. And if you are a self-published author, it’s something you might want to consider. Let’s talk about why.

Commemorative copies

Everyone loves anniversaries and milestone moments. Ten, fifteen and twenty-year anniversaries are a great time to relaunch a beloved book with a new forward, new cover, or extra content. Fans of books eat this sort of thing up, myself included.

While I wouldn’t necessarily do this for every book every ten years (that would be a lot) it can be a rewarding project for you to republish a book that’s meaningful to you on a big anniversary.

Movie and TV show tie-ins

I’ll be honest, this is my least favorite reason to relaunch a book. When content gets made into a show or movie, some wiseass in the promotional department usually suggests they relaunch the book with a new cover inspired by the new iteration. If I ever stumble upon a version of the Giver with the movie poster for its cover, I might set the damn thing on fire.

But, if you like the book and the movie, this might be fun for you. And if your story gets picked up for a movie or show, this could be fun.

New covers

Of course, sometimes covers just need to be redone. There are lots of reasons for this. While I love my covers for Seeming and You Can’t Trust The AI, they don’t match the rest of the series. Unfortunately, the fantastic artist who designed them wasn’t able to finish the series. And so I will, eventually, be relaunching that whole series with new covers that all match.

The other issue could be that the original covers are just bad. This isn’t usually anyone’s fault. I think we all want to give our books the best covers we can. But as we learn more, we can and should do better. I loved the cover for Station Central when I made it. But I think we can all agree that the one for Nova is a lot better.

Then, of course, there’s a situation like the one I’m in right now. I’m relaunching the Woven series, and one of the best things about that is giving them the new covers they’ve deserved for years.

And yes, a cover announcement is coming soon.

Expanded versions

Sometimes when books are traditionally published, they get cut by the editors because they’re just too damn long. Or maybe some scenes are perfectly fine, but offended someone’s sensibilities. Whatever the reason, sometimes good scenes get cut from books.

And sometimes, the writers this happens to get enough clout and respect to go back and correct those mistakes. This has happened with at least two books I enjoyed, The Stand and American Gods. I’ve read the original, and I’ve read the expanded versions. And I can honestly say I like the expanded versions better. But of course, when a book is good enough, it’s always too short.

New publisher

And of course, books will sometimes change publishers during their lives. Or international versions will come out under different publishers. Sometimes that means that someone else owns the artwork on the original cover. Sometimes it just needs updating for any of the above reasons and it’s just a convenient time to get it done. And sometimes the new publisher just wants to put their mark on the book, which is understandable. Marketing is important, after all, and building a brand is boring but crucial work if you want your company to continue to, you know, survive.

I’m sure I missed some reasons why a book might be relaunched. I’d love to hear about them in the comments. Or, if you know of a book that has one definitive version, let us know that as well.

If you liked what you saw here today, please consider liking and sharing this post. Or you can support the site financially on Ko-fi.

0

Preptober planner, 2024

August is now upon us. This is a liminal month here in Western PA, probably in other places. Signs of fall have started to pop up. Some leaves are beginning to turn, but most are still a vibrant green. The Steelers preseason is starting soon. Kids are going back to school. And while the days are still stifling hot, the nights are getting cooler. The days grow short, the nights grow long and my soul is coming alive.

Pumpkin spice is coming, my friends. Pumpkin spice is coming.

And while we’re all either soaking up the last weeks of summer or counting the days until chunky sweater weather, one thing remains the same. Nanowrimo will be with us before you realize it. And it’s time to get ready for Preptober. As such, I have updated my preptober planner for 2024.

This year’s version sports a new, darker color and updated coffee cups throughout the whole thing. More substantially, it includes two new planning pages.

Our first new page is a character injury page. I think we’ve all read or seen something in which a character is injured in one scene, only to be perfectly fine far too soon after. Was this done for convenience? Or did the author just forget about the injury?

The new planner page will help you avoid this. This includes a male and female presenting outline so that you can keep track of the bumps, bruises and breaks that your character suffers along the way.

Our second new page is a map page. I am a visual person. And it might surprise you to know that I often draw maps of my story locations so that I can keep track of things. Especially stories like Station 86, which included several levels of the space station that I needed to keep track of. I also had a map of the apartment building in Quiet Apocalypse so that I could remember who lived where and across from who.

These two pages bring us up to eleven total pages of planning goodness. You can print the planner out or just download it and write directly on the document. And while you could follow along with everyone planning on October, there is no reason you can’t get the planner now and begin your novel writing adventure.

I love this planner so much. Every year it gets better, in my humble opinion. You can get it right here now on Ko-fi for only $1.50.

Happy planning and happy writing everyone!

0

A WordPress.com Website.

Up ↑