Would you sign the deal and why?

Amanda Hocking and E.L. James did it: they signed a deal with one of the big six publishing houses after they became successful. There are more authors who signed contracts and I keep wondering why. Hocking had submitted her work for many years and kept getting rejections, and I'm sure it wasn't any different for James. Both made millions; both decided to hand their books, and with them control, rights, and money, over to a publisher. Hocking said she wanted to have more time to write instead of being tied up with marketing, and she also wanted her books to receive better editing. But surely she could have employed someone to do that for her? If you have millions why not take matters in your own hands? Of course, it's easier to sign a deal and let a publisher handle the paperbacks, hardcovers, audio books, and marketing, but if you sold so many copies, you have enough fans to carry your future projects; an announcement of an upcoming new book would be enough to have thousands of people downloading it.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not judging what they've done, I'm just wondering about the reasoning behind it. I've only sent out about 40 submissions, so I don't know how it must feel to collect rejections for years. But to be honest, even after my 'few' rejections (many of them deserved, I hasten to add) if an agent or publisher would approach me when I've already done the hard work, and I'm selling thousands and thousands of my books, I'd tell them to sod off. If they didn't believe in me back then, I don't need them to drool over my books now.
Certainly, I could keep my rights for the e-books and sign over the paperbacks, hardcovers and audio books, but I'm far too curious on how the whole process works and rather learn the tricks of the trade.
Many say they self-published in the hope to be discovered, and I wonder where their Indie pride is. Nobody would approach you if your book doesn't sell, but if it sells well enough, why would you need the help of publishing house? Someone said he'd sign the contract to satisfy his mates; it's more to be able to say a household name was interested in their work, or that they've been through the quality control process of the gate keepers. Something that doesn't bother me at all. People can think whatever they want. In fact, I believe those, who think my books are worth less just because I've self-published, would be rather surprised if they read them. I won't sign anything to please skeptics. I think it's safe to say that I'm content being a self-published author, and will continue this route.
The only contract I would sign would be a film deal, because I don't know anything about the film industry.

I'm curious how you think about this topic. Would you sign or rather stay Indie? 

And you call yourself a reviewer?

Did I get your attention? Good. Now you might want to make yourself a cuppa and take a seat. It won't be a minute.
First I'd like to say that I don't include all reviewers; it's merely about a trend I observed and don't approve of.

Ready? Okay, then my rant starts now. With self-publishing, a new trend has evolved: self-acclaimed reviewers who will read and 'review' self-published authors' books. Now I'm certainly all for it, it helps to get the word out there and it's also often balm for the author's soul. If done right, that is. Since I'm self-published myself, I went on the hunt for a few so-called reviewers. What I found shocked me. Many state in their policies they won't post reviews for books with less than three stars. wooden spoons, tanks, monkeys -- whatever they use for their ratings. I find that rather peculiar, if I'm honest. Many say they will e-mail the author the exact reasons as to why they won't post a review. My bet is that many of those authors rub their little hands, happy they got away, ignore the reasons and carry on with promotion. What I don't understand is why people still believe a review is for the author. It's not. It's for the potential new reader to see if it's for her or for him. Surely the author benefits from a review; if it's positive they'll stick it on their blog (I do), if it's negative and packed with constructive comments, they hopefully learn and crack on with the correction.
Surely, opinions differ and sometimes people just don't like the book. Happens.

But why the fear of posting something negative? I mean as authors we should edit and polish our books to the point that the story flows with no holes or inconsistencies, the grammar and punctuation is up to a certain standard and the formatting is correct. If a book doesn't reach that standard, I find, readers should be made aware. With pressing the publish-button, an author hands over the book to the public and with it puts it into the limelight which may or may not result in negative feedback. Of course we are delicate souls, but we also ask people to pay money for our humble scribblings and not to forget, ask them for their time. Especially reviewers' time. It's lovely from reviewers not wanting to hurt anyone, but it's also a bit dishonest. As a reader I don't click on a review blog to have recommendations only, I click on a review blog to make up my mind. And I want to know the truth. If I only find positive reviews and recommendations, I don't know if I can take this blog seriously. To me that's not a review blog, it's a blog of a reader who recommends some books. That's an entirely different animal.

If a reviewer doesn't like the character or storyline or maybe the writing as much, fine. I didn't like the bestseller One Day, not one bit of it. Tried twice, then threw it across the room. As long as one can give valuable reasons, there's no point of not telling the world. I'm not asking to tear a book apart, but to post the negative as well. Or change your blog name to reader's picks or something like that. A reviewer is someone who gives an objective opinion of the book he or she's been given. Selecting only the positive, I find, won't earn you credits in the long run.
Authors don't need protection, they know full well what they're doing. Well, mostly.
It's the readers who need protection. Protection of those books that 'reviewers' find too crappy to even post.

Take Big Al, for instance, a great reviewer who knows he does and is not afraid to post negative feedback. As a result he has a queue from here to the moon and back, having to recruit more people who know what they're doing.

And since we're at it, I need to get somthing else off my chest: if you don't know how to review, don't do it at all. I had so-called reviewers spoiling the plot of my book, I had reviewers who anticipated hot and raunchy sex-scenes in my paranormal romantic comedy and I had a few who didn't even have a clue what conflict means in a novel. If you want to call yourself a reviewer, learn how to do it first.
Know the genre, don't spoil the plot and most of all: be honest and constructive.

Now if that's not food for thoughts, I don't know. What I certainly know is that I'll go on quite a few of black lists after this. Time to open the Champagne, right? Just kidding.

Have a nice Sunday.

To review or not to review?

When I started out with self-publishing, I promised myself to review every book I buy and read, simply because I knew every authors yearns for reviews. Now, I came to the conclusion that it's better to not do it anymore. The point is, and I know I'll be making enemies by saying this, I've tried a few self-published books and soon switched on my editin- programme in my head, which is a bad sign, really. Of course, being an editor has somewhat destroyed the ability to just read and take in the story, I will admit that. A book must be really well-written, with well-developed characters, a complex story with no holes in them and logical.
If a book fails to fulfil that, I will stop reading and move on to the next. Others might not see those mistakes, but I do. Not saying I've written the perfect book, but moving away from me being an author, to me being a reader, I have high expectations and rightly so. I did have those beforehand and I have stopped reading traditionally published books in the past, but not that many.

My first impulse is to e-mail the author and tell him or her about my concerns, but then you have cases like the infamous author, who couldn't take criticism and hell broke loose. Further on, it's not my responsibility to give constructive criticism; I'm a reader, by buying the book and spending time with it, I've fulfilled what can be expected from me.

Back to me being an author again I feel a little bit in a pickle; if I give a negative review, I might be in danger of getting one in return, just for revenge, or when I give a positive review - despite my dislike of the book - I'd lie and I don't like lying.

In addition to that, pure readers check out the reviewers of a book and indie authors reviewing other indie authors is widely understood as cheating. People automatically assume it's a review exchange. I will also not tell an author anymore that I've bought his or her book, in case I don't like it, I can just walk away, silently, but if I really love a book, I'll be there to support it. And that's a promise.

Disclaimer: I'm an editor for plot and character development, also for dialogue attributes, not for grammar. Although I might correct the odd errors there, too. :-)

Oi, indie author, can I have a word, please?

Okay, now that you're here I have a bone to pick with you. Take a seat and listen.

You see, I do love you and I do want to support you and I certainly don't mind to connect with you, or have fun on the forum, twitter or facebook with you, but, and you knew there's going to be a but, didn't you? Yes, there's a big but and I will soon shed some light over the but to make it look a bit more like a but. Well, what I want to say is that although I understand your need to promote your book, to shout it from the roof tops, through a megaphone, even amplified if needed, and I know that you're proud of it, and so glad it's available for others to order and read, to scribble notes, to dog-ear, to bend, to keep it for themselves or rave about it to others, yes, I'm sure you've considered all those options already, what I finally want to say is that I cannot and will not understand why you would come onto my threads where I plug my book, shout from roof tops, in hope it's going to be heard by readers, so that their interest is piqued and they feel like they want to click the link I've provided in order to read more, download a sample, perhaps the whole book, to read it, to enjoy it, to dog-ear it, to laugh, to cry, to recommend; I wonder why you would come onto my thread to tell me, proud like a child who did its first drawing, showing it to its mother, that you have 'liked' my book on amazon, which leaves me with the feeling I have to return a favour, which, quite frankly, I don't want to return, not out of cruelness, but out of principle, because, if I'm honest, to me, it sounds a little desperate, especially, and I mean this in all honesty, when you whack a hint as heavy as a concrete pole over my head, and by that I mean you (un)subtly let me know that you're going to check out my humble writings, which, as you will understand, I certainly very much appreciate, even be thankful for, if it wasn't for the fact that, whilst letting me know, you're leaving a big fat link to your own work, which, of course, you expect me to look at, on my thread to plug my book, to plug your own book, uninvited. You see, I find this rather off-putting and, by doing what you're doing, please see, I feel I need to make you aware of it, you will most likely achieve quite the contrary. I, for once, am against swap buying, as well as review exchange, plus, and that's the most important reason, I am, and I'm sure so are you, able to click on names on threads and when you, being just yourself, having a good conversation with me, on the forum, twitter or facebook and you write in a genre I like, you will most likely be surprised that suddenly, there will be a new review for your book, that is, if I like what I read.


That's all I had to say, you're now free to leave and write a thousand times: I will not plug my book on Stella's threads again.

:-)

And no, it's not about angels

Just kidding!

If you're an indie author, exposure is everything. There are pretty brilliant and dedicated bloggers out there, who don't get tired promoting others. One of them is the wonderful, also published author, Catherine Chisnall, who has thrown some interview questions into my direction. About me, about my writing, about No Wings Attached, the charity and she even tickled some surprising facts out of me.
Please stop by her blog, take a look around and if you have time, you might want to read the interview with me :-)
I'm quite over the moon, No Wings Attached is doing all right. It's certainly a far cry from the success of Excuse me, where is the exit?, but it's getting there. I was a bit worried to throw the first book of the series out when the second isn't even finished yet, but I plan to publish the next one by October this year, readers have asked when it will come out, which makes me feeling all fussy again. My baby's loved :-)

How to make an author cry

As authors we are like delicate flowers, if you nurture us, we flourish, if we feel neglected we... well, we probably write. We write to entertain, us and mostly the readers. There is almost nothing better for us than for our books to be read and get positive feedback. Our biggest fear is to receive feedback saying "I hated this book, what a waste of time!" Especially when the person belonged to the target audience, that really hurts.

 Up to now I was extremely lucky to have gotten only positive feedback on both of my books, which makes me all warm and fuzzy as well as aware that somewhere out there will be the slap in face, lurking, just waiting to jump at me. 

But for tonight, I shed a tear -- of joy. Although I knew she liked the book, I didn't know how much. Before I began with my last edit, I searched for Beta-readers. I knew I had to fix some things and I sort of had lost my passion for No Wings Attached; she searched for chick lit, I offered her mine. She accepted and read it, then came back with a few minor suggestions and that gave me a real kick into the backside, because she is my target audience. Slightly younger even and I think if she liked it, there might be a good chance others might as well.

I can't hold it back for longer, here is the beautiful review:


No Wings Attached
I was given the chance to read this prior to its release after responding to a post in the kindle forum. At the time I had flu and I'd said to the author that it'd be a while before I had chance to let her know what I'd thought because I wasn't up to reading. Well, as it happens I loved this book so much that I zipped through it, with all thoughts of ill health banished to the background which says it all really. I just couldn't stop reading it! The chapters were short and snappy, making you want to read 'just one more' chapter each time and the characters really drew you in. As it is essentially a chick lit novel with only slight paranormal overtones, it reminded me a lot of Cecelia Ahern's books, so I recommend it to all of her fans. A great summer read! 


Thank you, Alice. Comparing it with Cecilia Ahern is a great great honour as I adore her stories.

And Gayle, who helped me proofing the book, has done an equally great job of making me cry!