crcook

Ok, all, here's the surprise I've been waiting for permission on--

Last year I asked Harper Marketing for permission to ask you all to make book trailers in order to give away books.

This past summer I asked for permission to get ARCs to give away.

I just found out that I'm getting both. There are FOUR ways to get an ARC of RADIANT SHADOWS.

NOTE: For legal reasons, ARCS are restricted to the US & Canada.

The possible routes to get an ARC ARE--

1. Goodreads. I'll be giving some away in the Goodreads program.  Not sure how that works yet, but it'll get figured out & I'll post here (& Twitter & FB) when that goes live (in late Nov/early Dec).

2. Fansite--I'll be posting the first 6 (or maybe 7) chapters in a locked post over there this week.  It's only going to be viewable to those of you who are active in the Rath.  Why? Bc the Rathers keep me sane(ish) when I'm drafting, revising, and out on tour.  So every active Rather will get to see the first few chapters of SHADOWS within the next week.  From that, I'm inviting them all to make book trailers.  Admin will upload them to YouTube. ANY & EVERYone  will vote on the best of the book trailers. The top 12 get ARCs.

3. Casting videos

I've been slogging through a first draft of a book for awhile now.  It's made me ponder which is the best way to write that initial story down.

I wrote my first book chronologically.  Of course, I left a lot out and so I ended up going back through it a million times to add new scenes, new characters and the setting (seriously, my MC mostly lived in a bubble that first draft).  My first draft was more of a glorified outline.  One that was missing half the story.

This time around, though, I'm all over the place.  I wrote the middle of the book first, then wrote the beginning (which I threw out and rewrote), and now I'm trying to write the ending and weave it in with the beginning and middle I have.  Though this time around I'm taking more time to work through the plot, so I don't have to do what I did the first time and go through a million or more drafts to get a real working first draft finished.

First drafts are HARD for me.

I'm curious to know how everyone else works on their first drafts.  Anyone care to share what works for them?  Because I'm not sure I've found the right way to write yet.  In fact, I'm sure of it.  Please share your first draft process with me!

I'm so excited that I can finally share my gorgeous cover for OTHER. Thanks so much to the wonderful art department at Flux!

Originally published at KarenKincy.com.

On Saturday the 14th at 4AM UTC/GMT we will be upgrading the operating system of our network load balancers to a newer version, one that will allow us to use both CPUs! Nifty, because multiprocessing is nice.

Since we have 2 load balancers, the plan is to upgrade 1 at a time, and there really should be very little impact to our website. Hopefully you won't notice a thing and I'll get to go back to the hotel and watch some wonderful late night infomercials.

We've got a lot of exciting projects coming up for 2010 and we're hoping that we'll be able to deliver them all to you, that you will find it useful/cool/lovely and then you will use the site even more. Behind-the-scenes work like this will give us the capacity to handle the anticipated traffic, so expect a few more maintenance windows especially in the beginning of next year as we've got some neat ideas to improve performance around here! We had the recent 30-45 minute outage yesterday due to one of our logging databases filling up disk space -- not so great design coupled with my human error in handling the initial problem -- and it looks like we're going to finally have some resources to eliminate stuff like that. I can't wait!

As usual, I will be updating status.livejournal.org before and after, just in case you are not able to reach our main website during the work.

or how many topics can I cram into one post when I'm taking a break from revision?

I did want to take some time out to thank all of those who have served our nation in the armed forces on this Veterans Day. In honor of our veterans, Mike and Tim Rauch, the immensely talented forces behind Rauch Brothers Animation posted their award-winning short Germans in the Woods, based on a StoryCorps interview of 86-year-old World War II veteran Joseph Robertson, who fought at the Battle of the Bulge. It's timely and moving reminder of the lasting impact that combat has on our soldiers.




Meanwhile I've been somewhat hampered in my Major Freaking Revision Month (MaFrReMo) efforts by this:



Public Service Announcement: If you think you might have tennis elbow, DO NOT KEEP PLAYING TENNIS.
Even if you do ice your elbow afterwards. Because eventually the pain will radiate down from your elbow into your forearm and down to the hand. The hand that you rely on to type with every day for hours. The hand that you need to DO YOUR JOB. The hand that feeds you.

Some of us (ehem) did not follow that advice, and now are paying the price. But we are also learning from our physio therapists that it's not just about the tennis. It's about the fact that because we write on a laptop, we sit in all sorts of weird positions that are not conducive to good posture and good ergonomics. And that the chair we were sitting in was ALL WRONG.



Too low, so my wrist was pronated upwards to type, and no lumbar support. Actually, I quite often sat with my feet on the desk and my laptop in my lap. Well, it's called a LAPtop, right?

My physio ordered me to get a new chair, pronto, since I spent so much time with my butt in it, so I promptly asked THE ORACLE, aka my favorite YA Listserv, for advice on writerly chairs. As usual, I had expert advice within minutes. eluper who is an expert chiropractor, and who I hope will soon be bringing his fantastic hints to a writing magazine near you, provided me with what I should look for when buying a chair, and armed with my tape measure and his e-mail I ended up with this:



Note the box under my desk: that's to put my feet on, because now that my chair is high enough to get my elbows at 90 degrees, my feet barely touch the ground (cue Randy Newman's "Short People"). The box is a little high, so I need to find something lower. But in the meantime, I'm so much more comfortable, and hopefully I'll get rid of all the various contraptions I've got to wear on hand and elbow and will be back on the tennis court soon.

Meanwhile I learned something else today. lisayee are you listening? Once your MacBook battery is fully charged, you should unplug it. I'd just bought a new battery last year, and noticed last week that it was barely holding a charge for an hour anymore (very frustrating when you spend a lot of your life working around your kids appointments and need to be mobile). I went to buy a new one today and asked the MacGeniuses what I was doing wrong, because I figured they should last longer than a year. And that was my answer. I tend to work with the laptop plugged in whenever I'm at my desk. Now I know. And so do you!

So now that I'm recharged and have a comfortable, ergonomic chair, it's time to get back to MaFrReMo!

http://pubrants.blogspot.com/2009/11/sales-thresholds-in-oop-clauses.html

STATUS: Contracts and more contracts.

What’s playing on the iPod right now? VIVA LA VIDA by Coldplay

I know I’ve blogged about this before and the info is available under the tag Publishing Contracts but what the heck, it bears repeating. I can add the link under the Agenting 101 headings now for easy access.

OOP stands for Out of Print. Every publishing contract should have either a term of license for set period of years (7 being common) or the contract should have an out of print clause based on a sales threshold.

Sales threshold being the key term here if it’s not a set license period.

Sales threshold means that in order for a book to be in print, it has to sell a certain amount of copies, standard language is around 150 copies, in any accounting period. Most accounting periods are for 6-month periods in the publishing world.

This applies to ALL formats of the work—that would include eBooks.

In other words (and to repeat), the mere presence or the ability to do an eBook or a POD version will not keep a work in print UNLESS the publisher is selling 150 copies or more of any eBook or short run POD version in the 6-month period.

So even in the world of digital versions, the publisher still has to sell at least 300 copies a year to keep the work in print. If they don’t, rights revert to the author.

Remember the whole big snafu that S&S tried to pull last summer but eliminating those crucial last 4 lines of the S&S OOP clause that detailed the sales threshold? Yep, that’s why agents were in an uproar and refused to have clients sign those contracts.

Without that sales threshold, in this digital world, a work would never go out of print. However, with that sales threshold, publishers still have to sell 300+ copies to retain the rights.

Can you wade through all the nifty titles and find SEA?
(Hint: page 127!)
http://booksellers.penguin.com/static/pdf/pyrg-summer10.pdf

Almost as exciting as catalog?

Thanks to kellyrfineman hot tip I'm going to see him

as

on

The first weekend of December in New York. :)
It's a business trip first and foremost. Meeting with my editor and agent and will also see a bunch of author friends likejonnyskov speak at Books of Wonder that Sunday.

Winter Manhattan plus Shakespeare (Jude Law! Broadway!) plus writerly friends and colleagues and events has all the ingredients for a fantastic pre-holiday weekend.

As long as I can keep the Zombies at bay. ;)

Today I return to these lines from the comical character Don Armado in Love's Labour's Lost: "Devise, wit; write, pen; for I am for whole volumes in folio." I am, of course, quoting them out of context, as one inevitably does when quoting Shakespeare. (Just think of Catherine Morland - from Austen's Northanger Abbey, quoting from Twelfth Night as if it were a good thing for a young woman to sit "like Patience on a monument", for instance.)

Don Armado is, as I said in a post in September, an ass; that does not make his words completely misguided, any more than it lessens the words of Polonius (from Hamlet), many of which are widely quoted (including "Brevity is the soul of wit" and "This above all things: to thine own self be true"). He may be a tedious old man who is misguided, long-winded and has a propensity to speak in platitudes, but Polonius is one highly-quotable (and highly quoted) guy.

Back to my reason for returning to the words of Don Armado:

I am going away for a few days on a writing retreat with my frequent writing partner and good friend, angeladegroot. She will be working on a new short story, assuming that she's finished this pass of revisions on her fantasy novel. And I? I shall be turning back to Jane, I believe. I haven't done any work on the Jane project in the past six weeks (first the gnomes interrupted, and then life became completely topsy-turvy).

From tomorrow morning until Sunday afternoon, I'll be in Brigantine, which is just north of Atlantic City along the Jersey shore. Just in time for what used to be Hurricane and/or Tropical Storm Ida but is now a Nor'Easter to move on in for days. So much for long walks on the beach, but it ought to mean more cozying up for writing (and reading, and a nightly movie).

Theoretically, we'll have WiFi down there and, if so, I shall post a bit. Meanwhile, I have from now until 8 a.m. tomorrow to finish laundry and packing and whatnot.

Hey, all! The Penguin Summer 2010 catalog is out! How many Tenners can you spot??? (Psst: So Many Boys is on page 36!)

booksellers.penguin.com/static/pdf/pyrg-summer10.pdf

-Suz

Wheeeee!!!

We got some great news about BOBBY VS. GIRLS (ACCIDENTALLY). The New York Public Library named it one of the 100 BEST BOOKS FOR CHILDREN and adults and animals!!!!! (I may have added that last part.)


(A tragedy involving Peepy once occurred at the NYPL, but it ended well.)

Here's NYPL's own Betsy Bird's review of BOBBY for School Library Journal!

Speaking of Bobby, earlier this week, Dan Santat and I journeyed a couple miles down the road to Carver Elementary School in San Marino, CA. We were there to talk about BOBBY VS. GIRLS (ACCIDENTALLY) . . .



We spoke to the fourth and fifth grades . . .

(If you take out your magnifying glass, you'll see that I'm in the first photo and Dan's in the second one.)

It was soooooo cool because the fifth graders made posters announcing our event . . .



We didn't have room for all of them, but here are a few selected at random . . .


Everyone was wonderful and we had a greatfabuloustotallycool time!!!

For those of you holding your breath(s) to hear about the Bodacious Book Contest winners, they will be announced in my next blog!!!!! (We had practically sort of a million entries, and we don't want to rush to judgement.)

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I suspect every author has a different approach, tailored just for them, but the Wall Street Journal talked to some well-known novelists about how they write.

On author's trick is this: "Since his novels are written in the first person, the voice is crucial, so he "auditions" narrators by writing a few chapters from different characters' points of view. Before he begins a draft, he compiles folders of notes and flow charts that lay out not just the plot but also more subtle aspects of the narrative, such as a character's emotions or memories."

And then there's this: "When he's in the middle of a novel, Colum McCann sometimes prints out a chapter or two in large font, staples it together like a book, and takes it to Central Park. He finds a quiet bench and pretends he's reading a book by someone else. Other times, when he's re-reading a bit of dialogue or trying to tweak a character's voice, he'll reduce the computer font to eight-point Times New Roman. "It forces me to peer at the words and examine why they're there."

You might find some approaches you could borrow here.

A small refresher for the slang-challenged (I'm lookin' at you, Poindexter. You know who you are.) -

"Is shit or "Like shit" means it's bad.

"The shit" means it's good.

All of the power for the positive spin version rests upon the shoulders of "The."

Otherwise...well...it's just shit.

Got it?

Word.

http://twitter.com/AprilHenryBooks

On another point entirely, one of the folks who survived the Jonestown Massacre looked a lot like our family and had the same unusual last name as one of grandmothers - Satterwhite. Only she was black. There's rumors of black and Cherokee blood in the family - I wonder if there is any way to tell through DNA?

A few of you have found my post over at my Live Journal... a bunch of us are writing together today. Come on over (or stay here)... and get busy!


http://brian-ohio.livejournal.com/190555.html

I'm an information junkie. I don't know how I ever made it without the internet. Nowadays, the second I'm upset or curious about anything, I run to the computer and begin researching. It brings me a sense of calm and accomplishment -- and definitely peace.

brian_ohio mentioned recently that he thinks one of the reasons there are so many more people writing nowadays is because of the internet and how quickly we can research -- that is so true! Even three years ago, I would check out books from the library on the topics of my books. Today, I don't. I just look it up on the internet (of course, this could also be because I'm lazier today, hehe).

This works for my personal life, as well. If there's something on my mind, something bothering me, I'll even get up in the middle of the night and come check the internet for solutions. Seriously, what did I use to do? (I used to worry and get no sleep and worry some more, until I could get to the library.)

Thank goodness for the internet! :)

Lisa and Laura are having a contest to celebrate the sale of their book, THE HAUNTING OF PEMBERLY BROWN, and are giving away a Kindle as a prize! Be sure to go check it out and read all the comments that have already been posted.

Congrats on the sale, ladies!

Now I must get back to my Nano novel and see if I can catch up!

Write on.