The Way To Dawn
  • The Series
  • eBooks
  • Paperback Books
  • Gallery
  • Character Bios
    • Greyshio
    • Demeseus
    • Derexen
    • Afearia (Book3)
    • The Righteous Kiras
  • The World's Government (Book 3)
  • Blog
  • Other Series
  • Reviews
  • About Me
    • Series Moments
    • Fun Facts

The Rise and Fall of Bookbaby's Allure

2/19/2017

0 Comments

 
Well, this blog was a long time coming. As some of you know, I’ve been apart of Bookbaby for a long time. Bookbaby, an indie publisher site for people who wish to take an independent route or just can’t break into traditional publishing.
My first three books was placed with them after careful, but not careful enough, consideration. Throughout my career, I have published more than three ebooks, but the rest have been partnered with Smashwords.

Why is that? Because Bookbaby is a greedy, hungry cooperation that will nickel and dime you for the simplest things.


In the beginning, there were three choices when  you decided to publish your work with them. Basic, Standard, and Deluxe. This was a way to make it affordable if needed while making it fair for those who are willing to spend more in order to get the perks. Basic was less than $100, and Standard was less than $200; Deluxe being the much higher choice. For an ISBN with them, you paid $19 ($29 now).
Not bad if I do say so myself. The first book, The Way To Dawn was put up with Basic or Standard, I don’t recall. My second was Deluxe, mainly because I wanted 100% of the profits. Bookbaby sounds great, right?
It got even better. Sort of.


They later removed the Basic package and raised the price a bit of the other ones by fifty bucks or so. However, they gave users their Free option if they can successfully convert their own files to their standards. Now most indie authors know how much of a pain it can be to make an .EPUB or .Mobi if you don’t know how. Even if you do, there can be hiccups from time to time that still makes your file not upload friendly. At the time, money was tight for me, so I chose the free option and it was all good. I figured I would keep publishing this way.

Wrong I was.

Bookbaby had more ideas. More is better after all. They removed the free option and the basic option and gave only one, EXPENSIVE option. Now that was the first line that turned me off. But I wasn’t willing to leave. I’ve made profit here and wanted to stay. Bookbaby’s reasoning for this is that the added features make buying the only option available worthwhile. I disagree, but hey, it ain’t my company, so comply or die.

I can’t speak for how it is done and priced today, but I can bet my life it is over $130. But at that point, I decided to just find another solution around my issue, hence Smashwords. But I still didn’t’ want to leave my abusive girlfriend, Bookbaby, so I just went and found new ways to get more of my work out there.

Now there comes a time in many indie author’s writing career that your older books may need some tweaking because of spelling or clarification. SO! Enter the process of editing on Bookbaby. Since you are not allowed to make your own Ebooks, you can only submit to them the corrected document… for a price. Yeah, they charged you back then and now for corrections, claiming it’s because it’s a lot of work on them to upload a file.

*cough* Smashwords, free edits. *cough*


Back then you were charged every ten words. This can range from $25 to $50. Fifty words was $100, I think. Sooooooo beautiful!

In hindsight, this was their way for punishing you for being imperfect. But hey, I reasoned with it by saying it’s because they have to deal with so many people’s need for corrections, so they charge you.


Wrong.

Later that was changed to a flat $25 per book for as many times as you wish to make changes and resubmit. Still ridiculous, but far more reasonable. So, I did that. Then they came with an even better (no sarcasm intended) solution. You can edit your book for free every sixty days. Cool, right? It was.

Theennn…


Bookbaby, as of February 2017, decided that you can make changes whenever you wish. Just cough up a $100 flat fee each time you wish to do so. I literally opened my reply with, “You’re kidding, right?” Because that’s how ludicrous it sounded to me. That’s a lot of money to charge someone to fix their own work.
In a nutshell, speaking for authors who do not make much through self-publishing, Bookbaby has created a way to take more than they will make within five to ten years of selling through them. It’s an investment with no reward on your return.


The company holds your works as hostage by not giving any real control of what happens to it. It’s yours, but we’ll decide if it will have edits or get a cover change and so forth.

So I left.

But that decision as well came with a price, but not a financial one. See, in the fine print, they admit they don’t own your books, and the ISBNs you buy from them is yours. But if you leave and try to use those ISBNs, they are treated as the property of Bookbaby. They are yours as long as you are with them. It is treated as copyright infringement by retailers and they will reject you by blocking YOUR content. They won’t believe it is you, no matter what proof you present (Amazon). As of today of when this post is published, my three ebooks cannot be added to retailers, even with new ISBNs.

I asked Bookbaby to help out and give me a written “statement” that the ISBNs and books are mine because I wanted to reupload them. Their response in few words was, we don’t have a contract or anything of the sort and your books are down,  so you should be able to upload it just fine…

I didn’t ask for a contract, and I just told them I can’t upload. Admittedly, I didn’t fight that hard to get that statement, but I was just fed up. And sadly, I’m sure this glaring issue is also something I will face with Smashwords if I left because of the same means of getting an ISBN from them and not your own. I read the pages many times on both sites and I understand it better. And in a quick sentence to explain it outside of these companies’ words, the ISBNs are yours, as long as you stay with the company that supplied them.

If I learned anything from this, ALL, I repeat, ALL self-published authors should buy their own ISBNs. Don’t stay with any publishing chain that is going to hold YOUR work hostage and nickel and dime you for every choice you make involving that content. And last but not least, don’t fall for expensive bells and whistles if you know that you can supply much of it yourself.

If I can give anyone who’s an indie author advice, I would say Smashwords is much kinder and helpful in emails. They provide real freedom of publishing and control over YOUR own work.

I still say buy your own ISBNs, something I didn’t do with almost all my ebooks, but I will from here on. Also, if you are one of those people who wish to have your work on Amazon, but know Smashwords won’t do it for you unless you hit a level of popularity, there is a way around all of that, and they tell you how on their website. Now that’s kindness without concern of self profit since they won’t make any by telling you this.

Smashwords is and has been a great move for me and I wish on everything I started with them when I had the chance. Back then, I debated between them and I made the wrong choice. I’m paying for it and I hope I will be able to get around this ongoing mess.
Until then, all I can do is bob and weave through the neck high piles of feces raining down upon me.

0 Comments

Getting Reviews is Hard

12/4/2016

0 Comments

 
You will hear it time and time again that the best way to build interest in your book is to get reviews. That’s true. However when you are new on the block there are methods you can use to help you get those reviews. But through my experience, it has been bad. Every. Single. Time.
 
Authors who’ve already flown high into superstardom say it’s good to have reviewers read your book and post it in their platform. Now that’s a good idea… Helps when they’re your friends too. See if they’re not your friends, they sometimes make excuses why they won’t read your book. This didn’t happen often, but you can see how off-putting that can be.
 
No, the more common thing that would happen to me is that they would agree to read my book and except a copy and then….. Nothing. That’s the end of the story. You give them a free copy for them not to uphold their end of the bargain.
 
Now mind you. I’m no dolt. I know you have to read their terms and I do every time. And I always check if it says they can refuse and stop at any point and some do. And what they also say is that if they quit partway, they will inform the author. They also say sometimes they just lose track of it in the piles they have so just follow up. And when I did…. Nothing. The story ends again.
 
So what does this mean? Nothing. At the end of the day one reviewer stated was that we are not entitled to their reviews. We are not at their beck and call. WE as the authors are not to boss them. They’re right. But where they fail to be is when they get on their high horse because you call them on their own stipulations and they refuse to fulfill something they created. After a countless number of attempts I only managed to get own review while the rest rejected me, ignored me, or accepted the copy and never wrote to me again.
 
Now I think, how else can I get reviews? Pay for one? Hahaha, well now this is how you get phony reviews on your dollar and people who throw out random words that sound like they read it but they only read the back cover, the first five pages and the last five at the end. It becomes clear when they make a statement about who’s your main character and get it wrong. And if by chance one of those pay methods have a free option on an “official” channel. Guess whaaat? You’re not getting a review—PERIOD! It says you have to wait longer like 10 to 12 weeks. It’s been three years for me. It’ll come through soon. Watch.
 
How do I get reviews? Give it away for free? Sure. Sure. Sure! That’s a SURE fire way to have hundreds of people come by, take a copy and run off. Your fault for expecting one without stating you’d like one. And even if and when you did—it’ll all be on good faith. It’s like hoping after you build someone’s house you hope they’ll pay you even though you two sign no contract that they do.
How do I get reviews? Try giving it to “official” channels that will show it to interested people. Sure… Oh, wait. They still won’t because they don’t have to because they can quit partway. Or the more likely ending is since you can’t promote it beyond what you’ve been doing, and the channel you gave it to won’t promote, just paste it in chronological order before other request come through, you fall into the abyss again and no one reads it.
How do I get reviews? Wait and see. People will come… Sounds stupid right? It is. No one knows you exist. So all you’re doing is hoping a miracle comes along and you are a hit through word of mouth. A thing that isn’t a common occurrence.
 
How do I get reviews? Ask friends and family………………………………………………..
 
Then HOW do I get reviews? Guys… I have no God damn idea. I really don’t. All those things sound good on paper, but in my experience, none of those things have done anything for me. The reviews I have now are a result of all that. Most of which are obvious. Only five are genuine.
 
So. Since I didn’t help, I suggest you guys find those who can.

0 Comments

Is it Best to Write as You See fit?

11/27/2016

2 Comments

 
This is a question I ask myself a lot and I have come to believe it isn’t. This is speaking purely in the sense if you are aiming to make it an honest career.
When you are catering to a certain audience you have to play by a certain rule and style. Some styles yield less appreciation. Others bring in HUGE appreciation. But when you are writing how you wish because that’s your style, you need to understand what that means.
Your style may actually be one that such a small number of people would like that you might as well say you’re writing for yourself. The rule of thumb is there is an audience for every kind of writing style. You just have to find it. It’s true. But if you want to move in a career path of writing and wish to live off of your work, you’ve got to cater to the large masses. Even something that’s not considered in audience searches like country matters. Different countries have different taste. For example…
 
In to YA? Make it center around  children and teenagers with a touch of romance and a conflict with adult authority. Make sure it is important the kids/teenagers struggle with feeling different and not belonging to what is considered the norm. Make being different a gift and possibly the key to why the protagonist gets so far.
 
You’re into fantasy? Don’t try and stray too far from the clichés and stick to what is grounded and has worked. Wizards, dragons, trolls, vampires, magic etc. Make clan rivalries and have an expanding world built and layered in magical and lost lands almost parallel to our own. Have a conflict that brings multiple species together for one big baddie. Maybe many baddies.
 
Is sci-fi your game? Don’t try and be like those before you in an openly obvious way. Don’t be another George Lucas Gene Roddenberry. You can’t. Be a Gene Lucas. Grab ideas from those you succeed and pinch it into something that seems different enough. Express the advancements of the world you built. Expand on unexplored science and push the possible outcome of undergoing scientific experiments in our time. Move technology alongside this like it should and dip into the darkest parts of it and shadow the conflict around it until your readers reach its core.
 
Nonetheless, do you see the problem here? Being original isn’t a good and safe bet when you want to pursue a career of writing. The Way To Dawn is a shining example of that. Though it’s fantasy, it isn’t in the realms of how traditional fantasy in America is told. That alone will lose over half your potential reader base.
 
The cast is large. Another no no. The elements of clichés is low or just not there at all. You always need to hook your readers in with something familiar first before hitting them with a roundhouse of chaos. In other words, rope them in with what they know. Keep them with what new things you can offer. The Way To Dawn doesn’t do that. It begins in such an unorthodox way that it’s not worth a second glance and can easily lose its readers. To them I’m spinning gold around a block of lead while telling them I have a diamond. It comes off as amateurish and lowbrow.
 
What makes the series different is what’s also destroying it. You go and make something unique and it will stand alone, but not in the way you would like. These are the dangers of trying to step too far from what works in order to make a name for yourself.
 
So why haven’t I changed my format for the better? Because I can’t. Or more like I won’t. My stubbornness is exactly why I am where I am today. Below what I could be. I can’t proudly say something is my doing, knowing I don’t like or respect what I made. I love this series. I can say it every time and mean it. But it’s hard to respect myself knowing I conformed into what works instead of what I set out to do. I wanted to bring something new. Something less than common. Something that can maybe open the doors for others wanting to find their own voice in writing.
 
Why do something you “love” just to turn it into something that you “have” to do? Sounds kind of like your fast food job when you where 16. It pays the bills. Never compromise if you feel it loses what made it special. If it doesn’t work, tweak it. If it breaks, you went too far.
 
But if you want to make a living doing what you love while not respecting your work like you did before you “made it”, then you’ve lost the point of pursuing your dreams. And that my friend, is even sadder than when nobody knew your name during the times you would smile and laugh at the pleasure of squeezing those words from your pen during those dark, cold winter nights.
2 Comments

The Problem with Book Five

10/28/2016

0 Comments

 
I’d have to say this is by far the most challenging book I wrote. Not just the writing portion, but the battle with me. 2016 was not a good year.

My demons come to my door every night banging and ringing my bell just to ask the same questions. They play with my forward way of thinking by appealing to my logical side. It’s effective. They don’t leave until I distract myself of their presence. Well, they don’t really leave. They just camp outside the mind that is my sense of self—staring at me until it gets cold and dark before they begin again.

They’ll win one day. It’s that knowledge that keeps the “gift” I was given a closely held present from me to me.

But beyond that, there’s also my poor choice to let them in briefly over a year ago. When they convinced me to let go of my anchor—The Way To Dawn. It made sense at the time and the way things were moving, it was just what I needed to do in order to fulfill the wish. By doing that, it placed me at a disconnect with the characters and the series as a whole. I… I couldn’t get into any of their mindsets. Not for the life of me. It was plan dialogue that seemed manufactured in a machine that collected data on what they “should” sound like, but not what they’re really like.
The story’s mapped portions played like a soulless read made for heartless on lookers. The characters that some have come to love, relate too, and even take pleasure to despise had all lost their voice. I had lost their voice. It took nearly all year to get it back. I can hear them again. I can step into their shoes and become what they are.

And yet, I struggle to maintain that connection. Before all of this, I could hold onto it day and night, even in my sleep and place it in the farthest reaches of my mind until I need it again. But now, it’s like trying to pull a cart of lead uphill with a greasy rope. And when you fail you have to run down hill and start again just to get back where you were; writing a few more words, sentences, or paragraphs before you lose it again and are forced back to start.

All of this has caused the long delay of the book and it may even be evident to a VERY small few what I have mentioned when they read it themselves.

What are these demons? I can’t really admit them out loud. Their names and their purpose is not one I can admit on a serious level. As for my professional demons, it always stems back to self-doubt and the clear to see fact my style of writing and the story itself does not appeal to anyone beyond a room full of people.

Writing about this again makes me sound like a broken record. But it is a fact. Since this isn’t something I can do for a living (not that I don’t want to), I have to make due doing things that I can’t stand while being too tired to actually put time to this series. I’ve lost faith in what this all could be and I am now in a realistic place as to where it will be when all is said and done.
And all is said and done.

This is as far as the series will go. No, I don’t mean this is the end of me writing The Way To Dawn. It’s my anchor, though it no longer holds me solid like it once did before I broke the chain. But I can’t promise anything after book five. Seriously. Whatever the worst outcome may be when it comes to this, believe it to be a possibility, including a potential cease and desist. Darkness is not just a reality that moves around us. It also moves inside of us.

All I can say is the long time that it took to finish this book is unlike me and an obvious indicator for what’s to possibly come. I do hope to finish. It is one of the most exciting things I’ve read in a long time. Up there with some of my favorite stories too. I still have love for what I destroyed, moronic as that sounds.

Well, that was a winded return to the blogs.

As always, thanks for reading the first few sentences and the last. The Way To Dawn: Kingdom of Glass coming soon.

0 Comments

Rereading The Books

4/13/2013

1 Comment

 

Read More
1 Comment

It's What You Don't See

4/6/2013

1 Comment

 

Read More
1 Comment

The Importance Of Development

3/30/2013

1 Comment

 

Read More
1 Comment

What Music Does For Me

3/23/2013

1 Comment

 

Read More
1 Comment

Relating To The Characters

3/16/2013

1 Comment

 

Read More
1 Comment

    Charles Lee

    A good book's only a page away. (The blogging of Charles Lee)

    Archives

    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    April 2013
    March 2013

    Categories

    All
    Consistence
    Development
    Feelings
    Hidden
    Ideas
    Inspiration
    Motivation
    Music
    Questions
    Reactions
    Understanding

    View my profile on LinkedIn

    RSS Feed

    Special Blogs

    Personal Favorites

Picture



If you wish, please become a Patreon supporter. There are things you can experience that no one else can.