I keep trying to blog and Life, that sneaky wench, keeps throwing monkey wrenches, spanners, and assorted roadblocks in the works.

Be that as it may, I have a couple of announcements that need to be made. The first is that Kai Wilson-Viola’s book, “Glass Block,” will be released next week. I am very excited about this book and have been for a long time. I’ve read bits and pieces and earlier drafts of this futuristic, sci-fi, noir thriller-detective novel, and I know if you pick it up when it’s available, you’ll love it – assuming, of course, that you like that kind of genre. When it’s released, I’ll post links.

Now, for an announcement I can post a link with! Alexandria Publishing Group has a new category of books for your reading pleasure. Breaktime Bites. These are shorter works, ranging from short stories to novellas, just right for the train or subway ride to work, or lunch break, or maybe for the few minutes that your three-year-old takes a nap. The first of these is out today. Take a look. They’re inexpensive, quick reads. You might want to bookmark this link because there will be more releases.

Breaktime Bites

Tags: Alexandria Publishing Group, ebooks, Mary Ann Peden-Coviello, novellas, publishing, short stories

There’s a new face in the publishing neighbourhood, Alexandria Publishing Group. It’s a collective or collaboration among several independent (or indie) writers, editors, cover artists, and formatters — all dedicated to publishing the very best books possible. We work in several genres, too, ranging from fantasy (historical fantasy to dark to epic), romance, literary, suspense, action, horror, satire. It’s probably easier to state what we don’t include — and that would be badly-written, unedited, sloppy, or wince-worthy.

In short, if you see the all-seeing eye of the Alexandria Publishing Group logo on a book, you are assured of a quality book. Now does this mean you are going to love every book with that logo? Possibly . . . but maybe not. After all, look at the genres covered. A romance reader might or might not be interested in a horror novel and vice-versa.  At least, this will give you the same sort of starting point, I think, that other sorts of brand names can give you.

As part of the APG launch, we have giveaways! Prizes! Yay! Free eBooks. Free formatting– which, if you’re a writer, is a huge prize. A free 30-page edit of your work. Amazon gift cards. Free webhosting. And more. Go here and enter.

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tags: Alexandria Publishing Group, giveaway, indie writers, Mary Ann Peden-Coviello, promotion, publishing, writing

All right. Let’s say, just for argument, that Polly Prolific has written a novel. She thinks it’s a marvelous piece of literature, for sure. Now Polly could send out a query letter—or seventy-three queries—and contact agents and publishers, or she could go indie and self-publish.

This being today and not, say, 2006, Polly decides to go the indie route. She works up a cover, maybe hires a freelance editor, formats her book, and publishes on Kindle. So far so good.

Then she starts the marketing and promotions. She arm-twists her mother and sister-in-law into downloading a copy. She persuades her preacher’s wife and her next-door neighbour.

Finally she picks up a few reviews on Amazon. Five stars (and she’s thrilled!), four stars (and she’s happy), three stars (and, instead of being pleased, she’s annoyed but can’t quite figure out why). And then, of course, it happens. The blasting, flaming, scorching, “I hated this book and everything about it right down to the punctuation!” review.

Now, how is Polly going to react?

Every writer gets those reviews, even the greatest.

Lately, I’ve seen a few writers, mostly indies, administering a smackdown to those whom they feel have “wronged” them in their reviews. Right there in the comments.  Telling the reviewers that their opinions weren’t valid, that the points they made were wrong, that – in the words of one I’m thinking of now, “giving this book a two-star rating is just wrong!” Well . . . I have a bit of a problem with that. The review is that person’s opinion. See that word: OPINION. It’s not gospel. It’s not going to ruin your book if someone doesn’t like it.

I know, you put hours—weeks—even years into writing this book. But calling out reviewers who don’t happen to care for it isn’t mature, isn’t wise, and in the long run isn’t going to win you any fans.

Grit your teeth. Take a deep breath. Ignore the living daylights out of a bad review.

Unless, of course, the reviewer has bothered to mention something you might need to take note of. When I write a less-than-happy review, I always give my reasons: bad grammar, shifting point-of-view, errors in punctuation. These things need to be fixed, not fumed over.

Sometimes a bad review can actually intrigue a reader anyway. I have picked up a couple of non-fiction books precisely because a reviewer went off on such a clearly biased rant that I wanted to see what the fuss was about.

Tags: e-books, fiction, Mary Ann Peden-Coviello, publishing, reviewers, writers, writing

I was reading comments on a forum the other day. Someone asked about hiring an editor to edit his book and was that really necessary. And if it was necessary, where could he find a good, inexpensive editor? The comments rapidly shifted from making the contents of the book as highly polished and professional as possible to “hire a good cover artist,” “a great cover will sell your book,” and “you need an eye-popping cover!”

Okay, an excellent cover is a plus. A lousy cover will turn off most potential buyers. I know that. No argument.  But guess what will turn off all your buyers? Lousy content. Sloppy writing. Cardboard characters who don’t act like any human beings who ever lived. Stilted dialogue. Bad spelling. Typographical errors. Wack-a-doodle punctuation.

Go to Amazon. Read a few book reviews. Any reviews. Any genre. Any writer. How many will say, “This book was full of bad grammar and spelling mistakes. 1 star!” Short answer: Lots. How many will say, “What a great cover! I didn’t even mind that the writer couldn’t tell a semi-colon from a hole in the ground!” Go ahead. Find one.

It’s true that I’m a freelance copy-editor. I don’t make much money at it. I’m not looking to make much money at it. I’m more interested, honestly, in helping indie writers improve their writing than in being able to light fires with hundred dollar bills. Or even one dollar bills.

But, seriously, sometimes I wonder if some indies are ever going to “get” it. It’s not the flash. It’s not the paint job. It’s the content. It’s the actual work that matters. The words. The sentences.

You can paint up a jalopy. You can re-chrome everything. You can tart that sucker up till it shines like a second sun even on a cloudy day.  But if it doesn’t have an engine, it won’t run.

A book is exactly the same. You can slap a brilliant cover on sloppy work and it’s still sloppy work. And your readers will recognize that it’s sloppy work and will “reward” you accordingly.

Tags: covers, e-books, editing, grammar, Mary Ann Peden-Coviello, publishing, punctuation, rants, writing

I wrote, a month or so ago, a review of an excellent horror novel, “From Within.” The review was published on The View From My Kindle.  It can be found here. I gave the book a good review. I’ve promoted the book on my Twitter, my Facebook, and now here. I have told everybody in Internet-world how much I loved “From Within.”

Someone, however, commented that he thought I spent too much time carping about grammar and punctuation errors. I did mention some errors, true. I also gave the book four-and-a-half of a possible five stars. I praised the book’s many strengths. Should I have ignored the few weaknesses? I think not.

I believe a reviewer should note any grammatical, spelling, misused words, and punctuation errors because a reader will. Most readers will not be too bothered by a few goofs. A book that is full of them, though, will annoy even the most grammar unaware reader eventually. It will annoy some of us rather quickly.

Indie or self-published books must be as polished, as perfect, as well-written, as thoroughly edited as we can possibly make them. Why? Because otherwise they are apt to be swallowed up by what Joe Konrath calls the tsunami of crap. Speaking of Joe, his blog should be a must-read for any indie writer. Find it right here.

Traditional publishers seek any excuse to look down on the indie writer and indie publishing. Why give them a gold-plated reason by putting out a book that’s filled with bad grammar, random tense changes, punctuation errors, etc.?

Tags: blogs, Mary Ann Peden-Coviello, publishing, reviews, writing

I love books. I love paperback books. I love hardcover books. And I love e-books. I adore my Kindle. Each one has advantages. Each one has disadvantages.

Physical, dead-tree books use, well, dead trees and that’s a resource that can be expensive. Publishers are also using considerably less rag in their paper these days and that’s why even those $29.95 hardcover books look ratty and yellow after only a few years. Some of those hardcover books are (hello, Stephen King’s “Under the Dome,” I am talking to you) so physically enormous, so heavy, so unwieldy that a disabled person such as, say, myself has quite a bit of difficulty dealing with it. I finally gave up on “Under the Dome,” in fact, and gave it to a stronger-armed friend. Thankfully, she gave me the book in a Kindle version. Win/win.

Likewise, I love George R.R. Martin’s books about Westeros, the ones HBO has made into an excellent series, “The Game of Thrones.” Also giant books, even in paperback format. I bought them for the Kindle. I doubt I could have handled them in any other format.

Another pro-e-book argument: If you are sick and it’s 4 AM and you want something new to read, well, if you are a devotee of the physical-book-only, you’re stuck. If you’ve got a Kindle and an internet connection, however, you’re good to go. You can find, buy, and download something new in minutes. Heck, if you’re lucky, you might even land on a free book. Win/win/win.

Do I really need to mention that I can walk around with 3,500 or so (theoretically at least) books in this one little device? My Kindle makes packing for a trip enormously simpler. And lighter. I used to have to pack an entire small (okay, medium) suitcase with books. Now I take the Kindle. I can carry thousands (again, theoretically) in my shoulder bag. Wow. What a concept!

From the perspective of the author, too, there are advantages. Upload your e-book and then discover (ack!) a glaring, horrible spelling error. Go in, find the file, fix it. If, on the other hand, your book is a print book, well, you’re up That Infamous Creek till the next printing (if there is one) when changes can be made.

Ah, but making notes in the margins is ever so much easier with actual, physical, paper books. There is a note-making function on the Kindle, but it’s awkward for me. I don’t use it. Maybe other people find it usable, but I don’t. And this is my blog and my opinion.

Also if you’re trying to refresh your memory on, say, page 450 about something that happened somewhere around page 100, it’s so much easier with paper pages. You can fan through them and look for something familiar, a word, an event. Something. It’s much more difficult with an e-reader. Not impossible, but more difficult. Yes, there’s a search function on the Kindle (the only e-reader with which I’m familiar, honestly), but if the only words of the passage you’re trying to find are common ones, you’ll come up with 700 locations and that’s just not terribly useful.

Is the e-reader going to be the Death of the “Real” Book? Yes. No. Maybe. I don’t know. I do know that over the weekend I bought three hardcover books from a bargain shelf at a bookstore, two new hardcover books from Amazon, and four e-books. Am I a typical reader? Probably not. There are people who don’t buy that many books in a year. And that, my friends, is a rant for another day.

Tags: e-books, Kindle, life, Mary Ann Peden-Coviello, publishing, writing. reading

I have a new toy, Windows Live Writer and this is me, trying it out.

So this won’t be a completely useless post, if you haven’t discovered Bob Mayer’s blog, you really ought to read it. He’s got great information and he tells the truth as he sees it every time.

Write It Forward

Tags: links, Mary Ann Peden-Coviello, publishing, writing

I like the Alexandra Cooper books written by Linda Fairstein. They have the unmistakable air of “yes, the writer knows her stuff.” And for good reason. Ms. Fairstein was the Chief of the Sex Crimes Unit of the District Attorney’s Office of Manhattan for more than twenty years. The plots all involve a fictional version of this unit.

Linda Fairstein is a good writer, too. She writes compelling stories filled with vivid characters and interesting themes. The books are all first-person point-of-view narration, told by Alexandra Cooper.

Ms. Fairstein can also write a paragraph like this one which appears on page 195 in the paperback edition of Hell Gate:

“Or it’s cash stashed away in shoe boxes in someone’s closet,” Mercer said. He was thinking of the find at Salma Zunega’s apartment today.

The first sentence is fine. The second sentence is all kinds of wrong. First, it’s telling us something. Just telling. One of the Big Rules of Writing is Show Don’t Tell. Second, it’s not in Alexandra’s point-of-view. It’s inside Mercer’s head. Alex can’t know what Mercer is thinking. Big Rule of Writing First-Person Narration: The narrator can know only what’s in his/her own mind. Unless, of course, she’s Sookie Stackhouse and is psychic. Finally, the sentence is that worst of all possible things, unnecessary. The discovery of the shoe boxes filled with money had been made only a few pages before and had taken up quite a lot of attention. Your readers are not stupid. They can remember things for a few pages.

Am I going to fling the book across the room and refuse to read any more because of one clunky paragraph? Of course not. In fact, I recommend that if you like mysteries and haven’t tried the Alexandra Cooper books,  you give them a try.

However, it’s a reminder that even the best writers with the best editors can write some clunkers. If you are thinking of self-publishing a book, be sure you find the best editors you can to help get the clunkers out of your work.

Tags: grammar, Mary Ann Peden-Coviello, publishing, writing

I have sold a story to Panic Press. It’s an older tale, one that took a while to find a home. See? Persistence pays.

It will be available in the “Bleed and They Will Come” anthology which ought to be published at the end of May 2011.

Gotta say, I’m completely happy.

So I suppose tomorrow I’ll have to write something exceptionally snarky to make up for my good mood tonight.

Tags: Mary Ann Peden-Coviello, publishing, writing