Working on It

 I finished that round of edits on Untitled Fantasy on Saturday.  Right now, it's 368 pages long and just a hair under 108K words.  Publication day is getting closer.  Not sure when it will be, but it'll definitely in sight now.  (If you have a good pair of binoculars.  LOL)

So, that means I need to get moving on two things... 1) a cover, and 2) a title.

I started something the other day with regard to the cover.  Spent copious hours on it, then scrapped it.  Yesterday morning, I hit it again with all new images and I've got something.  It's not quite right yet, but I think I'm getting there. 

What I did worked like this... scour Morguefile for free images of lizards, found ones I thought could work as a dragon and saved those.  Open the files, erase all the background around the lizard.  Find wings that were the right size and orientation to fit said lizard.  Find teeth that were the right size and potentially the right orientation.  Take those and erase the backgrounds.  Cobble them together so they look like they actually belong on the same animal.

But wait... in my particular art program, when you save an image as a jpg, it gives the damn thing a white background.  So, I spent some extra time erasing the lizard's background again and then saving it as a mic file (Microsoft Image Composer).  Okay, so now my 'sprites' are happy and I can play with them.  Of course, once I get a beast cobbled together, I'll have to save it as a jpg so the sprites work together as one image, and then I'll have to erase the damn background again.  (Yes, there probably IS an easier way, but I haven't found it yet.  I suspect it lies within software I don't have, don't want to buy, and don't want to learn.)

The super easier, and also more expensive, way is to pay someone else to do this for me.  Umm, yah.  Umm, no.  I love my go-to cover artist, but she is super busy, as in like booking for next year, and I don't think epic fantasy is her bailiwick.  I could look for another artist, but I keep having flashbacks of the first cover for Wish in One Hand.  OMG, that was SOOOOO bad and an incredibly expensive lesson to learn.  Like with getting a haircut, I hate paying for bad service, so I do it myself.  If this cover is going to be bad, at least I didn't pay for it, eh?

Anyway, I think I have the setting image - all tweaked and ready to go - all I need now is a dragon.  I think it's a bearded dragon base with flying fox wings and snake teeth.  Right now, it looks like the weird mating of a gargoyle and that gremlin in Gremlins 2 who grew wings.  But I can work with that.

Oh, yeah, and #2... the title.  I've been playing with stuff in my head, trying to find something that makes me stand up and salute.  I thought up Mageborn... but it's still not right and of course, someone else is using it.  (And yes, I know, finding a title someone else HASN'T used isn't necessary, but I want what I want, so I'll try my damndest.)  Thinking about it now, maybe Mage Against the Shrouds... which could make the next book Mage Within the Shrouds.  That seems interesting...  Has that fantasy ring to it.  And it isn't already used.  Hmm.  Ooo, maybe Twins Against the Shrouds... eh, mage seems better.  

Okay, well, time to toddle off.  Work to do.  Calls to make.  

Anyway, as you can see, I'm working on it.  What are you working on these days?

Title Troubles

I believe one of you asked the other day whether I was any closer to coming up with a title for Untitled Fantasy.  Ummm... no.  

Titles are HARD.  

Okay, so maybe they're not always hard.  Sometimes the title pops right into my head.  Poof.  Most of the time, I at least have a working title.  This time?  Not a ding-dang thing is popping anywhere.

You see, I want a grabby title.  I want one that jumps up and says 'READ ME!'  I want readers to see it and say 'Wow, I have to buy that'.  

I also want one that gives some hint of the story.  Like Dying Embers... people are dying in fire.  Umm, yeah.  Or even an old switcheroo kind of thing, like with Accidental Death?  People are dying and it looks like accidents, but it isn't.  

With Wish in One Hand, it started out as Djinnocide.  That title didn't seem to be sparking any interest with agents and I was really wishing it would, but then I remembered something my dad used to say about wishing and the new title was born.  

Additionally, the title of this book has to say FANTASY without riffing off or ripping off any other fantasy series.  Unfortunately, the damn Dragonlance books have a twin thing going on in there.  Totally different take than I have, but the title Time of the Twins was taken.  (And, I just saw when searching, also stolen used by celebrity-type people for their own ghostwritten fantasy thing. Feh.)

I'm hoping for this to be a series.  That has a title, I think... Shroudlands.  And a just-now search of that shows it's been used.  Derp.  Warhammer.  And D&D.  Sometimes, you can't help but be similarly named.  Ideas abound and they aren't copyright-able, not there's wiggle room there.  

I'm already going to get slapped around for Sanderson, seeing as there's already a popular fantasy author with that last name.  (Might publish as my maiden name.  Still thinking about that.)

Anyway, the quick answer about titles is 'I don't have one'.  I wish I could send this off to a publisher and let them come up with a title.  But you know what Dad said about wishing.  ;o)

I Won't Do It

I hate when authors front load a description of their book in the book's title.  I just stumbled across one that was like "TITLE: A chilling psychological thriller, that will keep you on the edge of your seat."  (Yes, the misplaced comma was theirs.)

Seriously, folks?  This is how you're going to pimp your books? 

Have readers gotten so lazy that if the description isn't in the title, they won't read further to see if the book is right for them? 

:shudder:

Anyway, I won't do it.  It feels sleazy to me.  And I have a really tough time buying books that use that marketing scheme.  Cuz... sleazy.

Imagine if other products started that crap...

Cheerios: A tasty, heart-healthy cereal that will make your family smile.

Umm, yeah.  Maybe it's just me, but I don't want the commercial right there in the title.  If you can't grab readers with your title, your cover, and your blurb, sticking the description in the title probably won't do it.  Although in this 'short attention span theater' world we live in, maybe that's all the time you have.  :shrug:  I still don't like it.

And if I don't like it when someone else does something, I won't do it myself.  I keep hearing Val Kilmer as Doc Holiday in my head talking about hypocrisy. 

What do you think? 

And for a bit of fun, write a NAME: DESCRIPTION thing for a product like the Cheerios example up there.  (Mine was lame.  Can you do better?) 

Public Mistakes

The other day I saw a typo in the title of a book listed for sale on Amazon.  Two letters were transposed in one of the words.  An easy enough mistake to make when your fingers are flying over the keys writing a book.  (One MS Word ought to catch and if not, then your editor, and if not, then you on your many pass throughs.)  Perhaps an easy mistake to make when you're getting everything typed in on the Amazon pages because you're both nervous and excited. 

But it's also an easy mistake to catch and fix.  Not only did this person not catch it when they were checking everything over (and rechecking), but they were sharing the link on FB and not catching it. 

I actually searched Amazon just now to see if any others had made the same mistake (and to see if perhaps the author had caught it, but Amazon was slow to update the link - they didn't).  One book, one MP3 album, and one set of pretend tattoos.  Won't nobody be finding any of that searching off the typographically challenged name.

Now, I know my regular readers and commenters wouldn't be caught dead doing this.  We're all checking and rechecking and double rechecking.  But for the newer self-publishers out there, please take note of this mistake.  And don't do it. 

Oh, I've made some tragic mistakes.  I've made so many mistakes I can't even begin to remember a specific one to use as an example.  Suffice it to say, they're there. 

We're not immune. Cuz, yeah, we're human and humans make mistakes.  It's kind of a thing.  But humans are also pretty good at catching mistakes if we take the time and put forth the effort.  The above?  I wouldn't think it would take much time or effort, but that's me.  Then again, shit happens.

If you catch me making a monumental mistake, please tell me.  (Privately, please*.)  Point your finger and laugh at me.  (Again, in private.)  It'll hurt and I'll learn from it.  Like stepping barefoot on a Lego because you didn't put your toys away, you'll never make that mistake again.  (Of course, if you're rude or snotty about pointing it out, you may find yourself getting the Anderson treatment**, but them's the breaks.)

Mistakes happen.  Be on the lookout for them and catch them when you can.  Constant vigilance will help keep you from making them publicly.  Privately?  Well, that's just life.

What say you? 

*Outing someone's mistakes in public and in such a way that everyone knows exactly who you're talking about is just cruel.  You'll note I try to scrub every identifiable marker from posts like this, so no one gets hurt.  And yeah, I didn't contact said author in private because people don't like when you point out their mistakes and can often get testy about it.  I'm not into confrontation.  If I'd known the person and felt comfortable with them, I would've pulled them aside and said, in the nicest way possible, 'hey, you have a typo there'.

** The Anderson Treatment - years ago, I had a particularly obnoxious neighbor whose last name was Anderson.  She was so bad that eventually I pulled down an invisible wall between us.  I no longer acknowledged her in any fashion unless I absolutely had to - like the day her friend's RV was blowing carbon monoxide into my house.  I had to deal with her face to face then.  Otherwise?  Whoosh.  It's an effective way of maintaining my calm.

Thinking of Series Titles

I am not good with series titles.  I mean, SCIU kind of lent itself a title, as did the Dennis Haggarty Mysteries, but let's face it Once Upon a Djinn is kind of lame.

So, here I am working on the sequel to Sleeping Ugly and it occurred to me that I have no series title.  I had thought 'Pretty Damned Ugly' would be a cool series title, but now I'm all like meh.  Jeni's pretty and she's ugly, but she's not damned.

The 'Pretty Ugly Series'?  Might work, but it's just not blowing my skirt up.

'Ugly Tales'?  You know, since the titles riff off classic fairytale titles?

'Pretty Ugly Tales'...


Ugh, it all sounds lame to me.  But we're our worst critics, aren't we?

'The Magical Mystery Tour' just occurred to me, but it's too Beatle-y.  And, frankly, I hate the Beatles.  (Okay, Ringo was cool.  And George was okay.  Can't stand Paul or John.  Or their music as a group.)  But these are 'magical mysteries' of a sort.

Argh. 

If I can't think of anything better by the time Ugly and the Beast gets close enough to start marketing efforts, I'm going with 'Pretty Ugly Tales'.  :shrug:

Any thoughts?  Suggestions?  How are you with series titles?  Do they make any difference when you're buying books?

And before I totally forget, Unequal is free today.  If you haven't already grabbed a copy, this would be the time to do it.

Titles

I have reached a point in Ugly and the Beast where the title actually makes sense.  Jeni's ugly and now we have a beast.  I didn't plan it this way.  I had the title and I was scrambling to think of a way to make it make sense.  And when I wasn't thinking about it, it sort of fell into my lap. 

Titles are like that sometimes. 

I have no clue what Cinder Ugly's story is going to be.  This series may be the first time I've ever written books to title.  For the genie books, I had title ideas and I just sort of picked the one that fit after I wrote the books. 

Well, that's not strictly true.  The first book was originally called Djinnocide.  But that title seemed confusing to other people and it wasn't really exiting any agents and then I got sick of myself and querying and... Well, Wish in One Hand seemed appropriate.  The other titles followed the formula, but as I said, they were picked from a list I created.

Dying Embers was originally called Manhunter.  But there's a movie by that name and it wasn't really blowing my skirt up.  So, before I even started querying it, I found a better title.  I had a devil of a time coming up with Fertile Ground after it was written.  Early Grave was a bit easier.

Don't even get me started on finding a title for BloodFlow... err, Blood Flow... err, Project Hermes.  If you've been around a while, you'll have heard the story of changing a title AFTER the book is published.  On the bright side, customer feedback indicates Project Hermes is a much better fit.  I wish I'd just called it that to begin with.  Ugh.

My first book went through so many title changes it would make you weep.  Second book, too.  If they ever make it into the publication schedule, I'll probably keep their current titles - Fear Itself and Nature of Fear respectively.

It's definitely easier to come up with a title when you have series parameters.  Having the first Dennis Haggarty novel as Accidental Death made choosing a title for Natural Causes a breeze.  Then again, there aren't too many other terms that fit for future novels.  We'll see what happens with those in the future.

I'm not sure what my title future will bring.  I have an idea for another SCIU book, but no clue what it might be called.  The same with the next DH book.  Oh well, I'll figure it all out when the time comes.  Maybe.  I hope.

How are you at titles?  Ever read a book where you never did figure out what the title meant in relation to the book? 

Sleeping Ugly... The Story Behind the Story

Years ago, when I was a teen, my middle brother was home on leave from the Air Force.  I remember staggering out of my bedroom one morning and hearing the words "Stop plucking your eyebrows like that.  You look like a..."  Wait... that's not the right story...

Another time, when he was home on leave, I stumble out of my bedroom and hear the words "You're not Sleeping Beauty.  You're Sleepin' Ugly."

My brother is funny that way.  And just so you know, he's my favorite brother* - witty comic statements and all.  (Actually, his witty statements are probably part of the reason he's my favorite.)

Flash forward about thirty years and the phrase came to mind one day when I was trying to decide what to write next.  Along with the phrase came the idea of a super model who gets cursed so that when she falls asleep at night, she turns ugly. 

That's clever, but not enough to build a whole story around.  So I sat down and did some thinking.  She can't just turn ugly and be ugly.  It wasn't enough.  So I made the curse not stop there.  She gets better looking throughout the day until she's back to herself by the time she falls asleep (or midnight, whichever comes first) and then BAM!  Ugly again.  Every night. 

But it's not just her.  The one night stand she was with the night the curse hit her got it, too.  Except his curse is slightly different.  He's ugly from sundown to sunup.  Which sucks for him because he works nights as a bouncer at a trendy nightclub. 

And then the fun begins.  Who cursed them?  Was the curse aimed at her or at him? 

And then, of course, I couldn't stop there.  I mean, that's probably enough of a pain in both their asses, but I threw another wrench in the machine and had the cops show up for something totally unrelated.  Or is it? 

Bwa ha ha.

And all of this came about because sometime back in the '80s, my brother was being a wiseass.  So, yeah, I'm dedicating this book to him.  Because he gave me the title, and it's a wiseass kind of book. 

I hope you enjoy it.

*Okay, so maybe he wasn't my favorite at the time.  He was just a jerk older brother then.  And that's okay.  Every teenage girl should have a jerk older brother.  It toughens you up a bit.  In fact, there's a jerk older brother in this book.  WAY worse than mine and still a jerk as an adult.  At least mine stopped being a jerk once we became adults.  (Or I got over myself and stopped perceiving him as a jerk.)

Shaking Things Up A Bit

I'm in the process of making a couple changes.  Yeah, yeah, I don't like change either, but sometimes we have to change things or they die.  In order to keep that from happening, I am doing two things:

1)  I changed the cover for Blink of an I again.  And this time it's more than just a color change.  I redid the whole damn thing, in hopes it will be more 'dystopian novel' than 'non-fiction, possibly textbook'.  It's still indigo.  It's just... well... here, you look at it...

I'm pretty proud of it, so if you don't like it, keep it to yourself, eh?  Still not sure if it's right, per se, but it's closer to right than the last one.  Anyway, that's Mary and in the background, the steps to Russell's shop.  I was gonna do a bridge, but I couldn't make it work right.  :shrug:

2)  I'm renaming Blood Flow.  When everything is said and done, it will be Project Hermes.  Just a new name.  The text inside, the cover (for the most part)... everything else will be the same.  The change should be pretty easy with Amazon.  With Createspace?  Well, I've read that it's a pain in the buns, but I think the re-titling is necessary to shift readers' minds to thinking this is what it is - a political / medical suspense, so there ya are. 

I've been dragging my feet on the renaming thing for like two years now.  Seriously.  I had the name picked out when I shifted the original cover to it's current incarnation, I just didn't have the cajones to make the switch.  I grew a set and got over it.

Fingers crossed both of these changes will lead to better sales.  Can't hurt, eh?

Speaking of sales, Accidental Death and Natural Causes.   Since AD is free and NC is 99c, you could get both.  Jus' sayin'.

Decisions and Changes and Ignoring Advice

Hey all.  I had some epiphanies over the weekend that I said I'd share today.

The first epiphany was the big one.  But I'll get to that in a minute.

First off, even though I have loved the title 'Wrongful Termination' since I thought of it way back when, something about it has been bothering me.  It doesn't quite fit with the story.  That title implies events not in evidence in the story.  So, despite the fact that I have been working with that title forever, have covers with the title, my editor already has the book, and I've talked about that title ad nauseum, I tossed it out.  The book will now be known as Accidental Death. 

Another epiphany came when I was trying to take a nap and the premise for that book's sequel slapped me upside the head.  And it makes more sense for it to be called Wrongful Termination.  Tada!

Then as I was trying yet again to get into this rewrite for Fertile Ground, I realized the problem.  I was trying to fit a oddly-shaped peg into a square hole.  Frank does not belong in this book.  I love Frank.  I think he's an awesome secondary character.  But I never meant for him to be a hero.  So, despite the advice of several dear friends, and maybe the expectation of some readers, Frank will not be getting his own book.  Or at least not this one.  Rick Jensen will remain the hero.  I'll just have to make him less of a douche.  And having decided that, last night's rerere-write went really well.  I was actually excited about working on this book again. 

Now, for the big epiphany...  As much as I love having input from family and friends on my writing, I ultimately have to decide what my books are all about.  This is one of the great things about self-publishing.  I can write my books my way.  I kinda forgot that.  It doesn't mean I don't still need your help and that I won't ask for advice.  I just have to choose to do what's right for me and my stories. 

Speaking of help, maybe all y'all can do a gal a solid.  I'm having trouble coming up with a zippy tagline.  I want something that jumps off the cover like 'Revenge is better hot' (which also looks awesome on a bookmark).  What I've come up with so far is...

Murder is never incidental.
Random acts of homicide.

Something to go on the cover underneath the title.  Here's a quick blurb I threw together that might help you think of something...

Detective Dennis Haggarty doesn’t want to go to Serenity, Colorado and help mourn a brother-in-law he never met.  He sure as hell doesn’t want to face his baby sister after years apart.  Finding a corpse outside the memorial service certainly won’t make matters better.  Even worse considering the local authorities believe the death was accidental. 

Too bad Dennis doesn’t believe them.

Now he has to follow a string of unlikely deaths to find the person behind them.  All the clues point to the city manager’s widow.  If only Dennis didn’t feel like he was falling in love with his main suspect.

(Yeah, it's lame, but I'll make it better.  Right now, it's just to give everyone an idea of what this book is about.)

And I'll pick one commenter - whether I choose the idea or not - to win a signed 'Revenge is better hot' bookmark from Dying Embers. 

Oh, and here's the cover I'm currently tweaking: